2 Literature Review
2.6 The Rise of Social Media Influencers
2.6.1 The Influence and Contents of Social Media Influencers
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services provided by the brand fall under the product category that they are interested in.
In general, the perception of quality in the eyes of the consumers are significantly tied to the image of the celebrity; therefore, celebrity scandals, controversies as well as failures may not only lead to distrust develop towards the endorsed products, but may also further destruct brand image.
2.6 The Rise of Social Influencers
One of the major theory behind the success of social media influencers is because the audience, at the first sight, do not perceive social media marketing content as an aggressive marketing method. As a result, they do not react negatively or dodge straight away from it; therefore, giving the content itself window of opportunity to promote the brand or product and convey the message. On the contrary, if the product is promoted directly, consumer might keep ignoring the message which is typical in the internet advertising nowadays.
2.6.1 The Influence and Contents of Social Media Influencers
Unlike traditional media, the key difference in the contents of social influencers is that they can customize and tackle their contents accordingly as each social influencer have different readers and followers online. These user generated contents generally provide one-of-a-kind recommendation, information and guarantee as it is often considered to be more positive and trustworthy. On the other hand, the existence of social influencers may also shorten the time of decision making process as the advertorial contents of these social influencers reduce the effort of consumers of searching for additional information about a specific product or service. Through the existing ‘fan base’ of the social influencers, it gives the brand a higher chance in promoting a product or service as one skip the process of searching for additional information, it decreases the likelihood in coming across negative or unappealing information of the product or service.
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2.6.2 The Change in Evaluation of Products
The consumers’ perception of the social influencers’ expertise has a substantial effect on the evaluation of products or services. If a social influencer is perceived and believed to be an expert in the user generated content of a certain product or service, the higher the probability that the provided content will be convey and adopt by the consumers.
2.7 Related Theories and Methodology
2.7.1 Associative Learning Theory
This theory proposes that there can be a transfer of meaning from the celebrity to the brand that the celebrity endorses whereas through a variety of repeated exposures on media and advertisements, consumers can learn to connect the attributes of the celebrity with the commercial brand. Under many circumstances, celebrity endorsements may not be as effective because their consumer capital is not solely dependent on their fame, but also depends on the celebrity’s personal brand attributes being relevant to the type of image that a commercial brand seeks to create or in most cases already has among consumers’ perceptions (Gunter, 2014).
2.7.2 The Meaning Transfer Model
Tracing back to the primary purpose of any type of brand endorsements, one of the main goal is to utilizes the process where the attributes associated with the celebrity are further connected and transferred to the brand they are hired to represent. Brands and sponsors seek to increase consumers’ awareness as well as liking their brands. To achieve this end goal, the specific attributes have to not only be successfully transfer from the celebrity to the commercial brand, but also that these attributes must be those that are relevant to the advertised product or service.
According to Grand McCracken, famous people are not usually defined by a single attribute (McCracken, 1989). There are definitely a variety of features, including their gender, age, social status, talents, occupations, and any special abilities that they
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are well-known for. For most renowned brands, their brand images are firmly conditioned in the minds of consumers; therefore, brand endorsers will be judged on all aspects whether they are a good fit for the products or services they are representing.
2.7.3 Balance Theory
This theory examines the relations and connections between individuals.
Philosopher Heider (1946) proposed that individuals seek balance throughout all their relationships. He also stated that a person’s attitudes towards another person or entity may further influence another person’s attitudes. In his words, he explained the balanced state as: “In the case of two entities, a balance state exists if the relation between the entities is positive (or negative) in all respects. In the case of three entities, a balance state exists if all three relations are positive in all respects or if two are negative and one positive”. The state of balance may be shown as diagram as below.
Figure 2.4: Balance Theory Scenarios Person B
Person A Person C
+ +
+
Scenario 1
Consumer
Brand Advertisements
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+
Scenario 2
Celebrity
Consumer Advertisements
- +
-Scenario 3
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In Scenario 1, a triad relationship is seen between two individuals. If person A has positive relationship with person B, and person B has a positive relationship with person C, then we can expect person A to develop a positive relationship person C.
Following similar explanation while replacing the individuals into consumer, brand, and advertisement; if a consumer has a positive relationship with a brand, then we can expect the consumer to have a positive reaction to the advertisement as well as the product of this particular brand (Scenario 2). On the contrary, if the consumer has a negative relationship with the brand, then we can expect he/she to have a negative impression to the advertisement and the product.
Furthermore, when a consumer has a positive relationship with the selected celebrity or KOL, then we can expect the consumer to have a positive relationship with the advertisement and endorsed product. Under some circumstance, despite the fact that endorser has a positive relationship with the advertisement, but the consumer has undesirable impression of the selected endorser, it will most likely cause the consumer to develop a negative relationship to the advertisement as shown in Scenario 3 as two negative and one positive relationships in the triad.
3
Empirical Research
3.1 Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Using a combination of both research methods to collect qualitative and quantitative data can further improve the evaluation of a topic by ensuring that the limitations of one type of data are balanced by another. This can also ensure that the understanding of the topic is improved by integrating various ways of knowing. In this study, survey and in-depth interviews will be conducted to gather data.
3.2 The Survey
In order to gain an empirical insight into the effects of consumer perception in leveraging celebrity and social media influencers, survey questionnaires were distributed via several social media channels including Facebook, Line and WeChat for data collection. There will also be an outline as to the true nature of the study stated clearly before the respondents start filling out responses for the survey.
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The questionnaire will be divided into three main sections: namely part one, two and three. The first part of the survey will be a series of questions focuses mainly on the respondents’ background as well as their familiarities to celebrity and social media influencers particularly in cosmetics aspects. The second part of the questionnaire, respondents will have to respond to a series of advertisements whereas they will choose the best fit attributes. All the advertisements in part two will be those endorsed by renowned celebrities. Lastly, the third part of the questionnaire is under the same format as the previous part whereas the advertisements are featuring social media influencers instead.
Among the advertisements showed for staring celebrities or social media influencers, for the first half of both sections, respondents will have to select a best fit price estimation. On the second half, respondents will have to select best fit product features. The attributes selected for this study are mainly separated into four categories:
price range, color pigmentation, product packaging delicacy, and the channels where the products may be purchased from. All the brand logos and taglines will be photoshopped, leaving the advertisements starring only the endorser and the endorsed products. The celebrities featuring these advertisements are selected based on their popularities among Taiwanese including: (1) Jennifer Lawrence, an actress from Hollywood, (2) Julia Roberts, an actress from Hollywood, (3) Cara Delevingne, a fashion supermodel from Storm, (4) Fan Bing Bing, an actress from Mainland China, (5) Rainie Yang, a singer from Taiwan, (6) Dee Hsu, a show host from Taiwan. On the other hand, the social media influencers selected are those that are well known for their presences and expertise in the fashion and cosmetics industries including: (1) Angelina, (2) Molly Chiang, (3) Cleo Chien, (4) Alice Chang.
The survey is limited to female students from university and graduate school students. The survey was distributed over 5 days via online. An short but detailed explanation was written before the actual survey questionnaires for respondents understanding the purpose of the survey and that their participation was entirely voluntary.
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3.3 The Interviews
In addition to distributing surveys, in-depth interviews will also be conducted in the hope to provide supplementary insights for this study regarding the differences in consumer perception regarding celebrity and KOL endorsers. Three interviews will be conducted among professionals from various fields in the public relations and event planning industries. Furthermore, the author aims to provide not only first-hand insights from respondents, but also to share the essence of their experiences and knowledges these experts have acquired over the course of their careers.
Interview Personnel #1 John (Alias), 48 years old:
A senior event planner with over 20 years of event planning experience. For his work, he does everything involve in making sure events would go smoothly including choosing locations, hiring caterers, arrange entertainment shows, and other vendors.
Interview Personnel #2 Amelia (Alias), 52 years old:
A senior public relation manager with over 30 years of public relation experience. For her work, she is responsible for handling all aspects of planned publicity campaigns and public relation activities including writing and producing press releases to organizing promotional events such as press conferences, open days, product launches, exhibitions, etc.
Interview Personnel #3 Beatrice (Alias), 42, years old:
A senior marketing specialist with over 15 years of marketing experience specifically in cosmetic and commodities industries. For her work, she conducts market research to find answers about consumer requirements, habits and trends. Furthermore, she also assists in outbound or inbound marketing activities.
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4
Results Analysis
1. Population Age Group Distribution
Table 4.1
The population age group consisted of approximately two-thirds (65.8%) Generation-Z female and approximately one-third (33.5%) Generation-Y so called
“millennials” female population, of which six percent comprises of twenty-five to thirty year old. Ages thirty and above comprises less than one percent population of this survey. Survey population size is 150 with four invalid responses.
0.70%
6.80%
26.70%
65.80%
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00%
30+
25-30 22-25 18-22
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2. Population Occupation Distribution
Table 4.2
Two-thirds of the survey population were aged eighteen to twenty-two, which resulted in near all college level student occupations. Graduate school students accounted for thirty percent of total population, slightly higher than subsequent age group twenty-two to twenty-five; most likely been caused by wider span of graduate school age enrollment. 3.4 percent of survey population were graduate school students withholding full-time employment status simultaneously.
3. Population Income Distribution
Table 4.3 3.40%
30.10%
66.40%
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00%
Student/Full-Time Employee Grad School College
0.70%
0.70%
0.70%
2.70%
95.20%
0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%
30-40K 40-50K Above 50K 20-30K Under 20K
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95.2 percent survey population had income lower than 20K New Taiwan Dollars, with 2.7 percent population receiving income between 20K to 30K. Income of and greater than 30K comprises of 2.1 percent of total population. This large income imbalance is mainly due to survey population age distribution, with 92.6 percent population being students with no full-time income, hence receiving less than the minimum wage of Taiwan. The remaining 2 percent of income at 40K of higher is closer to the average national wage. Income distribution levels is directly related to one’s purchasing power and will influence the results of this review. In-depth analysis of income-purchase decision-making relations will be discussed further in this review.
4. Population Distribution Following Social Media Influencers and/or KOL (Key Opinion Leaders)
Table 4.4
More than three quarters of population uses social media tools to follow social media influencers and KOLs which includes, but is not limited to, celebrities, fashion-gurus, and bloggers. Approximately one fifth population does not follow social media influencers or KOLs. This percentage is quite high as research shows 93 per cent of eighteen to twenty-nine-year-old Taiwanese uses social media tools Facebook and Instagram on a regular daily basis. However, respondents of “no” is also highly doubtable, as it is increasingly impossible for any social media user to completely not see posts from Social Media Influencers and/or KOLs regardless if the user is an active follower of the two.
21.20%
78.80%
0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%
No Yes
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5. Frequency of Which Respondents Check for Updates on Social Influencers and/or KOL;
In Response to “Yes” Respondents of Question 4
Table 4.5
More than one-third of respondents check their followed Social Media Influencers and/or KOL more than once per day. Approximately one-fourth of respondents checked for updates once per day. These two groups totaling approximately 60 percent may be regarded as “high-frequency update checking” since Social Media Influencers and/or KOL have lengthier update frequencies. The average time spent on Social Media platforms in Taiwan per person, per day is 122 minutes, which may help explain the high percentage mentioned above.
6.10%
15.70%
19.10%
24.30%
34.80%
0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00%
Once/4-5Days Once/5+ Days Once/2-3 Days Once/Day Several Times/Day
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6. Main Reasons for Following Social Media Influencers and/or KOLs (Multiple selections are accepted)
Table 4.6
100 of 115 respondents whom follow Social Media Influencers and/or KOLs, accounting for 87 percent, do so as a casual hobby. As an increasing number of Social Media Influencers shape their topics to wider scopes and not only focusing on their original focused topic, “life-styles” have become a major trend in portraying these Influencer’s attitudes to appeal to broader audiences. Hence may explain how this increases the time spent on Influencer social material by common audiences. 69 of 115 respondents, accounting for 60 percent, uses this as a means to search for new product unboxing experiences. The same product may be reviewed multiple times by different Influencers, however, various styles and attitudes of unboxing experiences appeal to different audiences as well, which may explain why this is the top second reason. 54 of 115 respondents, accounting for 47 percent, uses this to learn about the most up-to-date events and products of the season. The combination of leisure (social media browsing) and learning about the newest trends is perhaps the reason this accounts for such high percentage. An increasing number of businesses utilizes this channel to optimize awareness on updates and therefore cooperates with Social Media Influencers to do so.
1 Friends with the social media
influencer
Find it a way to relax To gain more knowledge To understand the most up-to-date
trend and hot topics To search for unboxing article or video of products I’m interested in As hobby and to kill time
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7. Main Reasons for Not Following Social Media Influencers and/or KOLs (Multiple selections accepted)
Table 4.7
28 of 31 respondents, 90.3 percent, whom do not follow Social Media Influencers and/or KOL, have no interest in this area and therefore uses social media platforms for other purposes. 18 of 31 respondents, 58.1 percent, considers this activity as time consuming. This however may be biased due to the fact that a user may have been uninterested in this topic or influencer, causing the user to view this activity as time-consuming. 11 of 31 respondents, 35.5 percent, and 10 of 31 respondents, 32.3 percent, responded either being unfamiliar with influencers or does not support sponsored social material or paid ads.
10 11
18
28
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
I’m not a fan of sponsored post I’m not familiar with social media
influences
I feel like it is very time consuming I do not have this habit/hobby
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8. Positive Influences of Social Media Influencers and/or KOLs (Multiple selections accepted)
Table 4.8
105 of 146 respondents, 72 percent, viewed Social Media Influencers as a new hobby and overall positive effect on daily life. This itself is an arguable topic to some however, is not the focus of this study and therefore will be viewed as valid. 103 of 146 respondents, 70.6 percent, perceived Influencers as positive channels of new information. This may be due to the highly-saturated advertisements market in the modern world, and consumers will be more inclined to Influencers, and a sense of
“belonging” compared to traditional means of business branding or product communication. 92 of 146 respondents, 63 percent, believes it generates new topics and set future trends as a positive effect. It is important to note that trend-setting is deeply intertwined in each domestic culture and by embedding business’ marketing campaigns with influencers and/or KOL, trend-setting can be a major positive means for a whole market to shift in any direction. A similar view can also be seen, as 82 of 146 correspondents responded positively for receiving product messages from brands.
1
I do not think there is any positive influence
It helps brand deliver their messages to consumers
It creates new trend and generate new topics
It allows consumers and audiences to acquire knowledge and…
As a new hobby to kill time
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9. Negative Influences of Social Media Influencers and/or KOLs (Multiple selections accepted)
Table 4.9
125 of 146 respondents, 85.6 percent, viewed influencer marketing as negative impact, especially on the grounds of false or misleading information regarding a product. One of the setbacks of influencers is indeed low information transparency as influencers tend to trigger emotional product reviews and less on actual effects, data, or research. There is also a fine line between what is viewed as paid promotion and authentic reviews as often times nowadays it can be hard to tell, and also no existing law regulates such activity. On the other hand, 103 of 146, 70.5 percent respondents believe rather than doubting the authenticity of influencer reviews, a majority of consumers may blindly follower influencers. However, one can argue this has been the case as far as the word “celebrity” has been invented, and practically everything endorsed by famous individuals may be categorized as “influencer-marketing”. It goes without saying that celebrity branding is a multibillion-dollar market, such as the historically high advertising contract between singer Beyoncé and Pepsi for 50 million USD in 2012, and Pepsi’s stock having doubled since the campaign started. The remaining 60.3 percent respondents reported confusion amongst different influencers as the influencer market saturates rapidly.
1
88 103
125
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 I do not think there is any negative
influence.
It may cause confusions as each influencer/KOL may be promoting
several products from various…
It may cause audiences to blindly follow these influencers and KOL.
It may cause these influencers and
It may cause these influencers and