Report on the impact of Instagram influencers on consumers’ buying intentions

Literature Review of the impact of Instagram influencers on consumers’ buying intentions

The use of information technology has brought fundamental changes to day-to-day life and there is hardly any person who is unaware of it. It has turned the world into a global village particularly with the help of social media (Shehu, 2017). Till the end of 2017, the total number of social media users in the U.K. had reached the above than 39 million users, which is according to a statistical estimate, reaching by 42 million users (Johnson, 2020). In the UK, 69% of adults have reached Facebook accounts, Instagram has become second and twitter has become the third-largest social network and so the YouTube users are rising in Britain (Johnson, 2020). According to the U.S study, the time teenagers spend online is increasing at a really noticeable rate (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Everyone is using these online platforms for various purposes in which, fashion, advertisement, marketing, freelancing, education are on the top of the list (Shehu, 2017). This research aims to explore the effects of Instagram influencers on consumer’s buying intentions. This is to explore how different strategies and plans are used and implemented in making and molding consumer’s choices. People are greatly affected by social media platform and believe what they see or what is on-trend, according to consumer.

It is vital to talk about the advertisement, marketing, and consumer psychology which is continuously being changed and modified according to the trends on social media. It is true that social media has changed the perceptions of people about different objects and items of markets to a greater level. Social media trends have widely been used by the consumers and a revolution in business strategies has come because of people’s so much attraction towards social media. Researches proved that development in social media and technology and its massive use in marketing, advertisement, promotion, and business have changed the perceptions of companies about their consumers (Putter, et al., 2017). Also, advertisement marketing focuses on consumer’s psychology, behavior, and intentions of buying products. During this era, many companies have started using a variety of technologies and social media platforms to mold consumer’s buying intention and expand the overall marketing and production (Putter, et al., 2017). A research was conducted by (Putter, et al., 2017) to study the significant role of social media on buying intentions of consumers. This study showed that days are gone when television and print media were the fundamental source of advertisement and marketing. Now, social media and other online platforms have given the marketing and development strategies a new shape and as a result, the use of social media has become an integral part of maintaining a profit. The study explored that existing literature needs to be studied thoroughly which will help emerging strategies which will help in improving engagement of consumer on social media.

It is hereby to mention that all the literature is grounded in social impact theory which states that a person is influenced by his society and group (Social Psychology Theories).  According to this theory, the amount of person’s influence by society depends on three factors; strength of the followed group, the immediacy of the group, and the number of the people in one group (Social Psychology Theories).  So in case of social media platforms; in which Instagram is uppermost, this theory works wonderfully when the research is aimed at finding the influences of Instagram influencers on costumer’s buying intentions.

Online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are used to keep in touch with the latest trends of fashion and other items. People comment on the posts regarding the quality or demand of the items. This has made the companies generate items with excellent qualities to avoid negative experiences and comments on the posts of Instagram and other online platforms, which can easily be shared on social media to other users of the same products (Sudha & Sheena, 2017). Instagram, in terms of fashion and trends, is a really powerful source that motivates and influences a number of people to take interest in fashion interest. Instagram influencers keep informing people about the latest trends in fashion and through this platform people keep on taking interest in different fashion brands and this influences a lot the way people buy any product from any brand (Sudha & Sheena, 2017).

According to research, Instagram influencers are really significant in playing this vital role in changing people’s buying intentions, which is really business tactics and best marketing strategy. Marketing influencers or, more specifically, Instagram influencers are responsible for activating individuals who have an influence on the target population (consumers in this case) to be a part of brand expansion programs to increase sales. These influencers are a fundamental part of word-of-mouth marketing and turn the consumers of specific brand products into a permanent customer of the brand. In this way, they affect the consumer’s buying intention by attaching them strongly with the respective brand (Sudha & Sheena, 2017).

Fig: This model is showing how Instagram influencers effect the consumer’s buying intention

A study was conducted to explore how Blogging influencers work more efficiently than Instagram influencers. Blogging is a communication channel that has really strong impacts on consumer’s buying plans and intentions. Bloggers use it to express the positive and negative qualities of the products and thus people read the blogs and believe what is written if the Blogger is a famous person. The graph below is showing that Instagram is the third most influencing platform for effecting consumer’s buying intentions. Also, the social impact theory argues the same, according to which the more power the influencer has the more it will attract and influence its consumer’s buying intentions.

According to a study conducted by (Choi & Rifon, 2012), the most common and prominent strategy for advertisement used for the products are the celebrity influence. The influence of celebrity depends on the choice of celebrity by the advertisers which require a large amount of financial participation and an influential relationship with the viewers. The researches have explored that the influential cause and effect relationship is based on the celebrity characteristics, including effectiveness and product-celebrity match. The endorsing celebrities for the influence of viewers have certain dimensions to increase the social impact of the product with reference to the celebrity’s personality. The congruent relationship between the personality characteristics of a famous celebrity and the perspective of viewers about the celebrity is used as a tool in the selection of the endorser or influencer to increase product promotions. The promotion, advertisement, and purchase of the product are based on the conceptual understanding of the viewer on social websites. The social impact theory is adopted in this process because the value of the product is manipulated by the social influencers who are the role models for the society on the basis of what they perform in their surroundings. The concepts are used for advertisement purposes and the human perception towards the outside world accordingly is judged with product promotion (Sirgy, 1982). The literature on the product purchase and advertisement relationship has explored that the celebrity endorsement is analyzed on the level of conceptual and celebrity relationship of the consumer. The product characteristics, as well as celebrity personality, are also linked to the advertisement of the product to increase the social impact of the product. The research shows that these relationships are based on the ideal and unique image of these influencers in consumer’s perception. The ideal congruency helps in the explanatory impact which establishes the strong relationship and the advertisement gains the strength of viewership and social impact (Choi & Rifon, 2012).

A study conducted by (Dhanesh & Duthler, 2019) focused on how Instagram influencers cooperate in relationship management. The literature provides the correlation between the perception of Instagram influencer and the knowledge about the paid endorsement of the consumers. The effect of the relationship influences the advertisement effectiveness. The knowledge about paid participation of the celebrity affects the psychological persuasive relationship of advertisement with the viewer’s mind, attitude, and response towards the purchase cognition and social impact. The tactics and the underlying concept of using paid endorsers and influencers to impact the follower’s mind, the recognition of advertisement, an attitude of follower towards influencer, and the responsive or behavioral consequences in purchase intentions of the product promotion. The purchase intentions and knowledge of persuasion are correlated with the knowledge about the paid endorsement. The awareness of paid participation is also correlated with the interrelationship between viewer and influencer and then the behavior towards purchase intentions. The social impact theory engrosses in this concept as the cognition of an individual is controlled by the knowledge provided and self-understanding of the product with the intention of purchase. The studies show that ad recognition is not affected by the viewer-influencer relationship (Dhanesh & Duthler, 2019).

Another study was conducted by Veirman in 2017 about the power of marketing through the most significant Instagram influencers. The study showed that Instagram influencers with high numbers of people following them have a high rate of influence on their buyers than the influencers with a low rate of followers. The study showed that the perception of Instagram influencers with more followers increased the influencer’s perceived quality about opinion leadership. So, it is clear that social psychology theory, social impact theory is again proving its existing in the background of this research results (Veirman, 2017).

A really interesting quantitative research was conducted by Rebelo & Figueriredo in 2017 to study the role of Instagram influencers (which are regularly followed by consumers) on consumers. Already developed scales of different authors were used to survey the consumers and 285 regular users and of Instagram were selected for this study. The survey reflected that according to consumers, the credibility and reliability of Instagram sources play the most influential role in affecting their buying intentions. Gender was also explored to verify the behavioral differences in males and females regarding their buying intentions. The study revealed that if the Instagram influencers are credible and trustworthy. Females are more attracted to it than males. This was the most interesting exploration of this study. So, finally, the results showed that perceived “credibility” and “trustworthiness” are two factors which better explain the buying intentions of consumers (Rebelo & Figueriredo, 2017).

A study was conducted by (Lim, et al., 2017) to explore the impacts of social media influencers on the buying intentions of consumers. The research investigated that the advertisement medium which was best used as social media. The business industry has flourished with these media advertisements and all the hypes and tactics of business are implemented successfully on these websites. The study investigated the effective relationship among the social media influencing following, the reliability and credibility of these sites, the attractive characteristics, and products matching in the manipulative cognitive social impacts on the followers. The attitude of followers and consumers towards the product and influence was used as a mediator in this relationship. The relationships were found to be existent except for the credibility of the source (Lim, et al., 2017).

Another research was conducted by (Casalo, et al., 2018) which was about the consequences of opinion leadership of Instagram influencers and the buying intentions of buyers. Instagram is used in the advertisement of maximum products as it is social influencing website that is impacting much of the users and followers with its promising advertisements. The research showed that this website includes leaders who repeatedly influence followers by propositions and opinions to manipulate the choices of viewers by using the social impact model. Instagram is the most widely used platform on social media for many industries which will propagate in the future with full zest. The manipulation of opinion influencers and leaders in this relationship is studied in this research. The results of the study are based on the Instagram followers and the fashion industry based following their accounts which showed that the characteristics of the advertisement pages and their uniqueness suggest the influence of their product as an opinion leader for the followers. These influencers manipulate the behaviors and intentions of the followers towards the fashion and other industries. They also influence the perception towards the advertisements and the intentions to follow the fashion opinions by these opinion leaders on Instagram. The research showed that it also depends on the personality of the follower about the perception and purchase of the product and that this personality factor strengthens the influencing relationship and the following of respective fashion advice by opinion leaders.

A study recently published in 2020, conducted by Sokolova and Kefi focused great attention on how Instagram and para-social interactions increase affect buying intentions. The research on the relationship of online audience and the celebrity influencers in the promotion of the product is performed. The social media influencers are important factors in the manipulative industry and marketing techniques to influence the viewers by their pro-social interactions and purchasing intentions. The tactics used by YouTube bloggers and Instagram personalities in the influencing of the followers through their pro-social interaction is an important factor in this context. The persuasive relationship between these two mediators is studied in this research. The influencers used beauty and attraction based skillful sources in an influential way to persuade the audience on YouTube and Instagram following. It is studied that the pro-social interaction and perceived reliability of the source have any relation or not. Both of these factors are investigated to be related to the purchasing intentions of the followers and their social impact, as well as the physical beauty of the products and the biased attitude of the audience to their influencers, was used to find the relationships. The attitude homophily was positively related while physical beauty was negatively related to the purchase interaction. On the other hand, reliability and pro-social interaction are positively related to the audience’s purchase intention (Sokolova & Kefi, 2020).

 Another research has been conducted by Lou and Youn, published in 2019, which has focused great attention on how the message credibility of Influencers posts affect the buying intentions of buyers and their belief about brand’s content shared on social media. According to this research, business and online markets have started putting great efforts on online marketing and their expenditures on online influencers are grown to an extent. This study aimed at finding the mechanism through which various influencers affect the buying intentions of consumers through social media. In the study, the Social Media Influencer Value Model is proposed and to account for the source credibility. An online survey was conducted among the social media users, who follow at least one Instagram influencer, to test this model. The results showed that influencer’s trustworthiness and the similarity of content to followers positively affected the follower’s belief in the brand which further increased the consumer’s awareness about brand quality and then the buying intentions of the consumers (Lou & Youn, 2019). So, it is clear that influencers from multiple social media platforms, with Instagram influencers on the top, affect the consumer’s buying intentions in various ways.

References of the impact of Instagram influencers on consumers’ buying intentions

Casaló, L.V., Flavián, C. and Ibáñez-Sánchez, S., 2018. Influencers on Instagram: Antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership. Journal of Business Research.

Choi, S.M. and Rifon, N.J., 2012. It is a match: The impact of congruence between celebrity image and consumer ideal self on endorsement effectiveness. Psychology & marketing, 29(9), pp.639-650

De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V. and Hudders, L., 2017. Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising, 36(5), pp.798-828.

Dhanesh, G.S. and Duthler, G., 2019. Relationship management through social media influencers: Effects of followers’ awareness of paid endorsement. Public Relations Review, 45(3), p.101765.

Evans, N.J., Phua, J., Lim, J. and Jun, H., 2017. Disclosing Instagram influencer advertising: The effects of disclosure language on advertising recognition, attitudes, and behavioral intent. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 17(2), pp.138-149

Rebelo, M.F., 2017. How Influencers’ Credibility on Instagram is perceived by consumers and its impact on purchase intention (Doctoral dissertation).

Lou, C. and Yuan, S., 2019. Influencer marketing: how message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), pp.58-73.

Lim, X.J., Radzol, A.M., Cheah, J.H. and Wong, M.W., 2017. The impact of social media influencers on purchase intention and the mediation effect of customer attitude. Asian Journal of Business Research, 7(2), pp.19-36

Pütter, M., 2017. The impact of social media on consumer buying intention. Marketing, 3(1), pp.7-13.

Shehu, M.I. and Osman, N.B., 2017. The Social Media and Islam. Sahel Analyst: Journal of Management Sciences, 15(4), pp.67-80.

Sudha, M. and Sheena, K., 2017. Impact of influencers in consumer decision process: the fashion industry. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 14(3), pp.14-30.

Sokolova, K. and Kefi, H., 2020. Instagram and YouTube bloggers promote it, why should I buy? How credibility and parasocial interaction influence purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53.

Shehu, M.I. and Osman, N.B., 2017. The Social Media and Islam. Sahel Analyst: Journal of Management Sciences, 15(4), pp.67-80.