Exploring Visual Brand-Related Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Instagram

The aim of this study was to explore the possible drivers of visual brandrelated electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on Instagram. While eWOM has been the subject of growing interest in the literature, there has been limited research that has focused solely on the visual aspect of eWOM messages. A qualitative approach was adopted whereby data collection methods involved eight in-depth interviews (including photo elicitation techniques) with regular users of Instagram – a photo-sharing social media platform that has risen in popularity during recent years. This study found that there were both content-focused antecedents (presentation of focal point, authenticity, source attractiveness and colour) and source-focused antecedents (status, online homophily and character narrative) to visual eWOM which could potentially be linked to consumer engagement mediated by normative influence. Implications for brand owners are discussed and recommendations are made as to how brands could better influence consumer engagement on such visually dominant social media platforms

Acquiring Experiences: An Investigation of the Materialist in Liquid Consumption

Knowledge-based economies and digital disruption in Western societies have triggered significant changes in the way consumers purchase, communicate and maintain relationships. The shift in consumption patterns reflects a move from solid (physical, ownership-based) consumption to more liquid (ephemeral, access-based) consumption. Increased liquidity can affect need fulfillment and consumption goal achievement across individual values, such as materialism. Materialistic consumers obtain possessions to communicate a successful image, achieve happiness or find enjoyment. The dissertation asks, how are materialistic consumers meeting their needs in the digital realm as liquid consumption increases? A mixed methods approach addresses the proposition that social media may allow consumers, including high materialists, to achieve certain consumption goals they once achieved with solid consumption. Qualitative depth interviews and quantitative cross sectional data examine the degree to which Instagram followers experience parasocial relationships with influencers, connect with an influencer’s human brand or feel a psychological sense of community among other followers. The studies also provide insight on whether followers who perceive the relationships and connections will likely purchase brands that influencers post. A final multi-group analysis addresses whether the rise of consumer self-definition through experiences prompts materialistic consumers to participate in the activities and places they see influencers feature. Results reveal that engaging in parasocial relationships with influencers, connecting with an influencer’s human brand and feeling a psychological sense of brand community among other followers all occur to some extent across individuals. The studies also suggest the occurrence of influencer-inspired purchases of both material and experiential nature. While the strength of a parasocial relationship fails to positively affect a follower’s purchase intentions, self-human brand connection strongly influences both types of purchase intentions. Psychological sense of brand community positively influences a follower’s material purchase intentions but not experiential purchase intentions. The extent to which a follower embraces materialism as a personal value makes little difference regarding whether relationships and connections with influencers increase the likelihood of a follower’s material or experiential purchases. The dissertation extends the application of liquid consumption and lends insight to managers engaged in tactics such as influencer and experiential marketing

Big five personality and influencer marketing related behaviors and attitudes : an exploration

With social media deeply rooted into individual’s lives, influencer marketing has become one of the most used marketing tools by brands. However, it is still necessary to conduct more empiric research to understand the factors involved in consumer’s answers to influencer market. This study aims to explore relations between consumers’ personality, supported by the Big Five personality theory, and influencer marketing related attitudes and behaviors. To do so, data was collected through an online survey targeted at Millennials and Generation Z. Results were tested for covariance and significante mean differences. Findings indicate correlation between extraversion and active engagement with influencers, and between conscientiousness and previous purchases made by influencer recommendation. When it comes to platform utilization, there was evidence of higher conscientiousness in users of LinkedIn, while Twitter users showed a lower score in this personality trait. Meanwhile, TikTok users demonstrated higher neuroticism and Twitch users demonstrated lower extraversion. Higher conscientiousness and openness to experience were found in followers of influencers on LinkedIn, lower openness to experience was found in followers of influencers on YouTube, and lower extraversion when it comes to followers of influencers on Twitch. Additionally, higher agreeableness was found in followers of celebrities, higher conscientiousness in fashion and beauty followers, lower conscientiousness was found in gamming followers and lower extraversion in humor followers. Lastly neuroticism was lower in users preferring travel content, conscientiousness was higher in users preferring fashion and beauty content and extraversion was lower in users preferring lifestyle content. This research intends to complement and extend the literature in influencer marketing and consumer behavior, and to provide relevant guidelines to the definition of brands’ influencer marketing strategy.Com as redes sociais enraizadas na rotina das pessoas, o influencer marketing tornouse uma das ferramentas de marketing mais utilizadas pelas marcas. No entanto, é ainda necessário desenvolver estudos empíricos para compreender melhor os fatores que afetam a resposta dos consumidores ao influencer marketing. Este estudo pretende contribuir para esta lacuna na investigação, ao explorar as relações entre a personalidade dos consumidores, suportada pela teoria de personalidade dos Cinco Fatores, e as suas atitudes e comportamentos face ao influencer marketing. Nesse sentido foram recolhidos dados através de um questionário junto de uma amostra de consumidores das gerações Millennial e Z. Os resultados foram testados para a covariância e diferenças significativas de médias. As evidências indicam que existe uma correlação entre a extroversão e o envolvimento ativo com influenciadores e entre a conscienciosidade e as compras passadas, feitas devido a recomendações de influencers. No que diz respeito às plataformas, os utilizadores do LinkedIn, revelaram uma conscienciosidade mais alta, enquanto os do Twitter registaram um valor mais baixo nesta dimensão da personalidade. Por outro lado, os utilizadores do TikTok demonstraram um neuroticismo mais elevado e os do Twitch uma menor extroversão. Indivíduos que seguem influencers no LinkedIn denotam uma maior conscienciosidade e abertura a novas experiências, aqueles que os seguem no YouTube caracterizam-se por uma mais baixa abertura a novas experiências e os que o fazem no Twitch apresentam valores mais baixos de extroversão. Relativamente às categorias de conteúdo, os seguidores de conteúdos de celebridades revelaram valores mais altos de amabilidade, os de moda e beleza uma maior conscienciosidade, os de gamming uma menor conscienciosidade e os de humor uma menor extroversão do que não seguidores destes temas. Por último, o neuroticismo registou valores mais baixos em indivíduos que preferem conteúdo de viagens, a conscienciosidade foi mais elevada em quem prefere conteúdo de moda e beleza e a extroversão foi mais baixa em quem prefere conteúdo de estilo de vida. Os resultados deste estudo contribuem para completar e alargar a literatura sobre influencer marketing e comportamento do consumidor, e trazem contributos relevantes para a definição da estratégia das marcas que recorrem a esta ferramenta

Beauty and the Brand: A Digital Ethnography of Social Capital and Authenticity of Digital Beauty Influencers through Monetization Activities on YouTube

This dissertation explored the maintenance of social capital, projection of authenticity, alignment of beauty brands with the brand-as-person, and communicative practices of beauty influencers through a digital ethnography of YouTube beauty community. This research addressed how monetization practices by popular beauty influencers could affect the social constructs required in maintaining their position in the digital community. As beauty influencers continue to gain notoriety and engage in monetization activities through their standing on YouTube, it was important to address how the social practices utilized to build this notoriety were impacted by commoditization of content, toward understanding the sustainability of these practices for influencers and the beauty brands with whom they partner. A digital ethnography, utilizing an inductive content analysis and framework analysis, served as the method by which assessment of influencer projections and viewer reaction, within the cultural confines of the digital community, could be assessed. This research found that influencer projections were all impacted by the type of content. When influencers engaged in sponsored posts, viewers noted disparities in each of the constructs explored in this study, suggesting certain monetization activities can lower reputation engagement in the community. If influencers wish to engage in these monetization practices, they should be upfront with viewers about their intentions, choosing partnerships that are built through time and consistency. In doing so, influencers then are able to situate themselves as being genuine and honest with viewers, cementing their status in the community, while still benefitting personally and financially from monetization activities

The impact of influencer marketing on consumer purchase intentions and brand attitude: the instagrammers

A presente dissertação tem como principal objetivo perceber se as publicações dos influencers no Instagram influenciam efetivamente a decisão de compra do público feminino jovem-adulto. Adicionalmente, este estudo visa também averiguar se estas mesmas publicações têm influência na opinião do consumidor sobre um certo produto/serviço – Brand attitude - de uma determinada marca. Para a obtenção dos resultados desta tese foram utilizados dois métodos de pesquisa qualitativa: entrevistas e netnografia. No primeiro método, entrevistámos 30 consumidores do sexo feminino com idades compreendidas entre os 19 e os 30 anos. As entrevistas permitiram não só compreender o impacto dos posts das influencers na decisão de compra das consumidoras e atitude perante a marca, como também outros aspetos importantes acerca dos influenciadores digitais e a sua ligação com a audiência, como por exemplo os fatores que mais influenciam a compra de um determinado produto/serviço, a personalidade, o rácio de seguidores e pessoas seguidas no Instagram, a preferência entre seguir celebridades tradicionais ou blogguers, entre outras. O segundo método utilizado foi netnografia. Nesta análise foram extraídos cerca de 200 comentários do Instagram de cada uma de 5 influencers portuguesas escolhidas: Alice Trewinnard, Helena Coelho, Inês Rochinha, Jessica Athayde e Vanessa Martins. De seguida, no sentido de retirar as conclusões necessárias e utilizando a ferramenta Meaning Cloud como suporte, foram desenvolvidas as duas análises, Global Sentiment Analysis e Topic Sentiment Analysis, o que nos permitiu classificar os sentimentos presentes nos comentários e averiguar os tópicos mais abordados nas interações. Com a realização desta tese pode-se concluir que as publicações dos influencers no Instagram sobre certos produtos/serviços influenciam significativamente tanto a decisão de compra dos consumidores como a sua opinião sobre uma determinada marca.The present dissertation aims to conclude if the influencer’s posts on Instagram have an impact on consumer’s purchase decisions, regarding the young-adult female audience. Additionally, this study also aims to understand if these posts have an influence on consumer’s brand attitude, that is, on the consumer’s opinion about a product or service of a certain brand. In order to take conclusions, two qualitative research methods were used: in-depth interviews and netnography. In the first method, 30 participants female consumers were interviewed with ages between 19 and 30 years old. These interviews not only provided information about the impact of influencer’s posts on consumer’s purchase decisions and their brand attitude, but also other relevant aspects about the digital influencers and their connection with the audience, such as the factors that influence purchase decisions on Instagram the most, the personality, the followers and followees ratio, the preference between following traditional celebrities or bloggers, among others. The second chosen method was netnography. In this analysis, approximately 200 comments were extracted from the Instagram account of each one of the 5 portuguese digital influencers chosen: Alice Trewinnard, Helena Coelho, Inês Rochinha, Jessica Athayde and Vanessa Martins. Afterwards, using the Meaning Cloud tool as support, the two analysis were developed, Global Sentiment Analysis and Topic Sentiment Analysis, which made us able to classify the sentiments attached to the comments and observe the most approached topics on the interactions. The results of the present dissertation confirm that the influencer’s posts on Instagram about a certain product/service have a significant impact both on consumer’s purchase intentions and on their opinion towards a brand

Who are we and how do we fit in? – Fostering international students’ positive identity and sense of belonging in British society.

This is an extended conference abstract for the Netnocon 2024 Conference.N/

The use of influencer marketing agency in company’s internationalization

Influencer marketing has become a trendy marketing method in recent years, Influencer marketing is relatively new phenomenon, and its potential hasn’t been measured yet. Thus, marketers have started to identify people with great influence over others and have realized their market worth. In the 21st century, social media platforms have reached hundreds of millions new users, and at the same time word of mouth marketing have reached a new potential. Nowadays, consumers are able to read hundreds of online reviews, recommendations, and comments before making any consuming choices. Virtual communities are formed on multiple online platforms, and in these communities, there are always opinion leaders influencing others behavior. As the popularity of influencer marketing has risen, its use as part of internationalization haven’t yet been examined enough. Therefore, this paper studies usage of influencer marketing as part of internationalization. The study is conducted by examining the current literature on influencer marketing, consumer behavior, and internationalization. In addition, this paper provides a case study of an influencer marketing agency called Matchmade. The collected data was then analyzed by comparing it to the literature review. Findings of this study shows that usage of an influencer marketing agency can get a significant global coverage for advertisers’ campaign. As the case company’s customers are mainly gaming or other web placed application companies, the results show that for the most effective advertising campaign, companies should use a significant number of small content creators in their influencer marketing campaigns

#I ENVY, THEREFORE, I BUY! #: THE ROLE OF CELEBGRAM TRUSTWORTHINESS AND PARA-SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN CONSUMER PURCHASE INTENTION

Businessmen’s marketing strategies that take advantage of the fame of celebgrams as influencers are incredibly appropriate in the social media era. The present study deals with the dynamics of celebgram trustworthiness and social interaction with their followers in relation to possession envy and consumer purchase intention. To test the proposed model, the researchers collected data from 181 respondents in Indonesia through an online survey and analyzed it using the Smart PLS. The results of the present study showed that celebgram trustworthiness had no positive effect on possession envy but it had a positive effect on consumer purchase intention. Furthermore, parasocial interactions had a positive effect on possession envy and consumer purchase intention and possession envy had a positive effect on consumer purchase intention. The present study provides a theoretical contribution to the literature on retail and consumer services and offers managerial implications for instafamous-based marketing

How Social Media Influencer Collaborations are Percieved by Consumers

Within the social media community, influencers engage in a variety of collaborative practices such as tagging, reposting content from, or forming partnerships with other influencers and brands. While such collaborative efforts are a known practice, less is understood about how influencer collaborations affect consumers\u27 perceptions of the partnering influencers, specifically when a status differential exists within the collaboration. We suggest that such collaborative practices, specifically those where the focal influencer has a higher status than the collaborating partner, may help to weaken consumers\u27 perceptions that the influencer\u27s actions are purely self‐focused. A pilot study, analyzing both influencer–influencer collaborations and influencer–brand collaborations, provides evidence that influencers engage in collaborations with other influencers and brands of different status levels. Two studies then support our theorizing that influencers who collaborate with lower‐status influencers are perceived as less self‐serving and more altruistic, while influencers who collaborate with lower‐status brands are only perceived as less self‐serving. This suggests that, for influencers who desire to enhance how consumers perceive them, an effective strategy is to engage in collaborations with either a lower‐status influencer or brand

Influencer Marketing and Behavioral Outcomes in Social Media: Systematic Literature Review

Influencer Marketing (also called Influence Marketing) is a communication method responding to major issues that brands and communication agencies encounter when communicating with their targets on social networks. Given the continual change in communication methods, brands must be creative in developing effective processes capable of reaching consumers who are averse to intrusive advertisements. Going through an influencer gives the campaign credibility with a more authentic and closer message, relayed by an opinion leader. The purpose of this paper is to review the academic literature on influencer marketing and its behavioral outcomes on social media to highlight the current state of the art, the key research themes and the implications for management research and practice. A systematic literature review of academic research on social media influencer marketing has been conducted to gather, examine and synthesize studies related to behavioral outcomes that result from thesis communication methods. By following a review protocol based on both automatic and manual search for the Scopus and Web of science database, all relevant studies on influencer marketing were identified and analyzed.  Following the results identified by a critical conceptualization of the concept of influence marketing. The main key research topics covered were categorized and divided into four main areas which were further analyzed: The influence of SMIs communication strategy on user/consumer behavior; Influencer-Follower interpersonal relationship; Social media endorsements and the perception of SMIs as human brands; Celebrity level of SMIs and their congruence with brand endorsements are the main themes that have been mostly identified and discussed in our study.   JEL classification: M31 Paper type: Theoretical ResearchInfluencer Marketing (also called Influence Marketing) is a communication method responding to major issues that brands and communication agencies encounter when communicating with their targets on social networks. Given the continual change in communication methods, brands must be creative in developing effective processes capable of reaching consumers who are averse to intrusive advertisements. Going through an influencer gives the campaign credibility with a more authentic and closer message, relayed by an opinion leader. The purpose of this paper is to review the academic literature on influencer marketing and its behavioral outcomes on social media to highlight the current state of the art, the key research themes and the implications for management research and practice. A systematic literature review of academic research on social media influencer marketing has been conducted to gather, examine and synthesize studies related to behavioral outcomes that result from thesis communication methods. By following a review protocol based on both automatic and manual search for the Scopus and Web of science database, all relevant studies on influencer marketing were identified and analyzed.  Following the results identified by a critical conceptualization of the concept of influence marketing. The main key research topics covered were categorized and divided into four main areas which were further analyzed: The influence of SMIs communication strategy on user/consumer behavior; Influencer-Follower interpersonal relationship; Social media endorsements and the perception of SMIs as human brands; Celebrity level of SMIs and their congruence with brand endorsements are the main themes that have been mostly identified and discussed in our study.   JEL classification: M31 Paper type: Theoretical Researc