EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS ON PURCHASE DECISION OF

CONSUMERS REGARDING FASHION PRODUCTS

Abdur Rehman, 21514

MARCH 28, 2021

INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
[Company address]

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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................ 4
Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 7
Personal Interest in the topic: .................................................................................................. 7
Research Design: ....................................................................................................................... 7
Focus Group:.......................................................................................................................... 7
In-depth Interview:................................................................................................................ 8
Coding: ................................................................................................................................... 8
My Claim about my research:.................................................................................................. 8
Limitations: ................................................................................................................................ 8
Methodological Lessons: ........................................................................................................... 9
Discussion & Findings .................................................................................................................. 10
Network Analysis: ........................................................................................................................ 11
Project Map: .................................................................................................................................. 12
Appendices:................................................................................................................................... 15
Focus Group Summary: ................................................................................................................ 18
Summary: ...................................................................................................................................... 19
Interview Guide: ........................................................................................................................... 21
Interview Transcriptions: .............................................................................................................. 24
Literature Map: ............................................................................................................................. 34

1
Abstract
Influencer marketing has been very popular in the recent ages of 21st century. Influencer marketing
became an important sensation in the first decade of 21st century with a lot of companies starting
using influencer marketing as an important strategy of their marketing campaign and making
impact on the lives of their customers and hence earning a huge amount of revenue in return to
their strategy of adopting the influencer marketing. Social media influencers have been an
important aspect in influencing the lives of the consumers. These days the social media influencers
have been an important part of the consumer’s life. As we know that Fashion products have been
an important aspect youth that is adding value to their personality and youth has been following
the different fashion bloggers and constantly act upon what their favorite social media influencers
ask them and give positive reviews about the fashion products and are impacting their purchase
decision for the fashion products. Our research purpose was to make a qualitative study on the
impact of social media influencers on the purchase decision of the consumers regarding the fashion
products and the attributes of the social media influencers on the purchase decision of the
consumers. For this, we used various methods. The Methods that we used were making
observations, Literature review of different articles related to the social media influencer marketing
and the effect of social media influencers on the purchase decision of the consumers and arranged
a focus group of people belonging to different ages and made summary and then arranged an in
depth interview of an individual that has interest in buying the fashion product and then did
analysis of my discussion by coding of transcription using Nvivo and hence making the project
Map, Mind Map and the Conceptual map. The research is based on the Pakistani origin people and
the participants of Focus Group and In depth Interview were Pakistani. After the analysis of the
brief discussion I concluded that Social media influencers have a huge impact on the purchase
decision of the consumers and Fashion bloggers add value to the fashion sense of their followers.
I found that youth is inclined mostly towards Instagram when it comes to making decision and
then buying fashion products. Credibility, Popularity, Relatability, Knowledge were the important
attributes that have impacted the purchase decision of the followers or consumers.

2
Introduction

Social Media like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have been very popular among the youth of
Pakistan. There are millions of Pakistani that are using different social media channels and
thousands of social media influencers on these platforms and are adding value to the lives of their
millions of followers. The marketing through social media channels have becoming popular these
days and have become very important part of the marketing campaigns of companies. Different
companies that deals in fashion products, Cars, Consumer products make use of social media
influencers for the promotion of their Products. There are different types of influencers, the one
who do the promotion of the product and give the reviews based on their knowledge and others
which the companies use them and pay them for promoting their Products. There are different
types of influencers that are influencing their followers in terms of purchase decisions and adding
value to their personality. Influencers are divided into different types based on the following these
are celebrity influencers, Mega Influencers, Macro Influencers, Micro Influencers and Nano
influencers and they are having huge impact on their followers. As we know that influencer is the
one whom the people follow and are influenced due to their credibility, Knowledge and popularity
so we can say that influencers can affect the purchase decision of the consumers as well. The
objective of my qualitative research was to study How social media influencers are affecting and
impacting the purchase decision of the followers and the different characteristics of social media
influencers that can led to making decisions of consumers regarding fashion Products. The
methodology I used were doing observations, Literature Review and focus group and In Depth
Interview.
This research will guide readers to know about the different queries and questions that came into
my mind during the research. A central question was
“What is the impact of Social Media influencers on the Purchase Decisions of consumers
regarding the Fashion Products”

1: What are the important attributes of social media influencer that has led to the purchase decision
of consumers regarding fashion products?
2: Why the credibility of influencer affects the Purchase decision of Consumer?
3: Which social media channel has become an important channel when it comes to fashion
products purchasing?
4: How COVID’19 has changed the shopping trends of the youth?
5: What consumers usually infer from analysis of the comments on the posts of Influencers.

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Literature Review

I searched around 20 articles that could help me finding the important content that could help me
finding information on my research topic and what other authors think about that topic. Firstly I
searched through wide range of my topic but then as things started going on, I became more
specific to my research topic by using the ‘Funnel Metaphor’ Approach and at the end I came to
my Niche that was to find the impact of social media influencers on the purchase decision of the
consumers.
Almost all aspects of our life are highly influenced by Digital Marketing. As opposed to offline
world, Virtual world has been covering every part of life of a consumer. As an extension of
campaigns, the rise of influencers have been indicated by the latest Marketing Trends (Chopra,
Avhad & Jaju, 2020).We can define influencer as a latest independent media type that use social
media and influence audience attitudes by using their articles (Freberg, Graham, McCaughey,
& Freberg, 2011).There are many influencers like Fashion Influencers who are usually called the
fashion bloggers, Sports Influencers, Digital Influencers, Food Influencers. Fashion influencers
influence their followers through recommending products of different brands (Quashes-Brito,
Brandão, Gadekar & Castelo‐Branco, 2020).Food influencers are those who give their reviews
on food taste, quality. Food influencers usually recommend the food making products and
ingredients that can make food delicious and they recommend the best places to go for lunch or
dinner or picnic(Chopra, Avhad & Jaju, 2020).
Influencers can significantly change the shopping decision of their followers
(Stankova&Kucha,2020).
Interactive Advertising bureau (2018) defines Social media Influencer as the one with potential to
engage and sell goods/services to the target market. Social media influencers are those who use
social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and twitter to frequently spread their content
and hence, leaving an image of product in the minds of follower. Through their strong
communication skills, they can easily transfer their audience from one social media site to other.
For Example, if an influencer has millions of followers on Facebook, he/she could easily make an
account on Instagram and request his/her followers to like, comment on their Instagram posts and
follow their Instagram posts (Zietek,2016). Three functional components of influencers are : the
audience, the endorser, and the social media manager(Campbell & Farrell, 2020).
Campbell and Farrell divide the influencers into five types. Celebrity Influencers are those who
have a lot of fan base outside social media as well and they have millions of followers on social
media sites too. Selena Gomez and Jennifer Lopez are examples of celebrity influencer. Mega
Influencers are those who have huge amount of following just like the celebrities and they also
have more than 1 million followers and that is due to their expertise level. Macro Influencers are
those who have the following from 100,000 to 1 million. Micro Influencers are usually in the
growing stages of their careers with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Nano Influencers are usually
the newcomers who have just started their careers with 0 to 10,000 Followers

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(Campbell&Farrell,2020).
As we all know that there is a very close relationship between the social media influencers and
their followers so Influencers have a lot of positive or negative impact on their followers. So human
branding is very important for influencers to manage their presence to be consistent with their
reputation in marketplace.so Likeability and closeness are very important attributes that have
impact on followers. The more the influencer is attractive, the more the impact can be on followers.
(Taillon, Mueller, Kowalczyk & Jones, 2020).
Companies are increasingly adopting a new strategy that is Influencer Marketing. The use of Social
media popular personality having huge number of followers to bring up positive responses that
supports brand’s interest by sharing posts on social media platforms is called the Influencer
Marketing (Martínez-López, Anaya-Sánchez, Fernández Giordano & Lopez-Lopez,
2020).As stated by Brown and Hayes, the influence on the buying choices of consumers as a result
of an act of an external person(Influencer) is called Influencer Marketing(Smart
Insights,2017).Influencers use native advertising to conduct different marketing activities. In
Native advertising, the influencer is paid advertising in publications of influencers. A $10 billion
dollars influencer market industry in 2020 has been growing day by day and has becoming
important for those firms which are operating in B2C environment. There are still some managers
who still stick to the traditional marketing environment and are less exposed or are not good at
Online marketing and they want to get into influencer marketing they should keep following thing
in mind. Firstly, Social media Platforms that companies are looking to engage should be carefully
selected as every platform has its own culture, language and style so firm’s content must be aligned
according to that. Secondly, firms must use multiple social media channels for their marketing
Although Tik Tok and Instagram are the perfect channels for marketing but firms must give
importance to Twitter and Facebook as well. Thirdly, firms must choose wisely in between the
types of Influencers (Haenlein et al., 2020).Today reaching to the costumers through the
conventional ways is not much fruitful and it is not easy to compare it with the online influencer
marketing (Bogner at el,2019).So, marketers have used different ways of communicating to their
customers through the celebrity endorsements and influencers.
There are three trust factors that affect the purchasing intention of the consumer that are similarity,
Credibility and familiarity and as a result of research, it has been found that only similarity and
credibility are important in influencing the purchase decision of the consumer while familiarity
has nothing to do with customer’s purchase intention(Zainab, Zahra & shilan,2020).Celebrity
endorsements are also very important in influencing the customers intentions to purchase a
product(Torres, Augusto & Matos, 2019).In Purchase of electronic consumer product, it had been
found that people prefer expert influencers on celebrity influencers so expert influencers are very
important in terms of endorsement of the products.(Trivedi & Sama, 2019).Blogger
recommendations play an important role in the purchase decision of customers , the
trustworthiness is very important factors(Phang Ing & Ming, 2018).
In our research we are going to emphasis on the Impact of social media influencer on the purchase
decisions on buying Fashion products. Fashion products are very important part of this generation

5
and youth has special interest in fashion. So, our main focus will be on the impact of social media
influencers on the buying decision of Fashion Products. Credibility is an important in the decision
making of purchase of consumer. So the consumers who personally know the celebrities,
influencers. Instagram has been the most trusted site for the people who wanted the apparel
information (Jin, Muqaddam & Ryu, 2019). while YouTube has been exceptional for consumers
who want to buy the cosmetic products(Cooley & Parks-Yancy, 2019).So in terms of making the
purchasing decisions regarding the fashion brands or cosmetic products, credibility of influencer
is highly judged(Wu & Lee, 2012).
Demographic can be another attribute that helps in purchasing decision of the fashion products.
As we know that youth is more inclined towards the fashion so they usually follow young
influencers who are attractive as well so age of influencer matters a lot in making purchase
intention of their followers.
When we talk about fashion, attractiveness is an important attribute that influence the purchasing
decision of the fashion products. So, in case of marketing of fashion products, the more attractive
the influencer is, the more the people will follow him/her().
Followers are an important asset of an influencer. As we all know that in fashion products
decisions customers usually give importance to the popular influencers. In a research made on the
macro influencers and the micro influencers it was found that customers follow macro Influencers
more than the micro Influencers (Britt, Hayes, Britt & Park, 2020).So an influencer with huge
number of followers can highly affects the purchase decision of the consumers.
Influencers usually give honest advice to their followers and fruitful opinion and are very helpful
in making purchase decision regarding the buying of consumer products (Chen & Kanai, 2021).

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Methodology
When you conduct a Qualitative research, you really have to define the framework and
methodology that you will be using while doing the research. As we know that there are different
methods for finding the answers to questions of Research. So, in this research, I did Literature
review, Focus Group, In depth interview for collecting the data as it is Constructivism and then I
used analysis of my data by doing coding on Nvivo.
Personal Interest in the topic:
Influencer marketing has been very important topic that has been an integral part of the marketing
campaigns of different companies. This topic has been very important for youth and this topic
attracts me very much as I, myself is in the youth age. I have been a supporter of lot of social media
influencers and they have influenced me a lot and I usually do a lot of shopping online due to
which I usually see the reviews of many influencers. I usually do shopping of fashion products
like apparels, shoes, hair care products. I have been the frequent user of social media apps like
Facebook, Instagram, snapchat and YouTube. I usually follow fashion bloggers and do my
purchase decision on the basis of their recommendations. So I decided to find the impacts that a
social media influencer can have on the purchase decision of consumers.
Research Design:
I started my qualitative research by using different methodologies. Firstly, I made Observations
by doing the Literature review by going through lot of articles regarding the impact of influencers
on the consumer Life. At first I inquired about the broader topic where I had gone through a huge
number of articles where I found out the important points about the broader topic of my research
and I used the “Funnel Metaphor approach”. According to that approach my broader research topic
then advanced and I then started to narrow my findings in the form of funnel and my research got
to the main topic and as a result of that all Literature review I got to know that I should work on
the most widely approached topic that was regarding the fashion products that is the impact of
social media influencer on purchase decision of consumers regarding the Fashion Products. When
I along with my group members did some further research on this topic and had gone through a lot
of articles on Fashion products to find variables on the basis of which we had to done our research
and after selecting our niche we decided to conduct a focus group to further probe our research
Question. As a group we started to collect data about our research topic using qualitative
approaches and conducted a focus group and took key points of what the consumer think and then
did in depth interview to further Probe my research question and then did coding on Nvivo to do
analysis of the data collected.
Focus Group:
After we had selected our research topic we started making arrangements to do focus group that
was supposed to help us finding the opinion of people like what people think about our topic and
for this we randomly picked participants that we didn’t know before so that we get the proper

7
feedback and honest data from the views of Participants. A very diverse group of participants was
taken and they were free to share their views about the topic and we tried our best to be unbiased
and give full importance to the opinion of the participant keeping in mind that values are not
compromised. We were able to get the point from the brief and constructive discussion with the
participants. Starting with the general discussion, the discussion slowly converged to the main
topic and a brief view of every participant on that topic was taken. The focus group guide was
made and arranged by a moderator and the notes were taken by other group members and a brief
1 hour focus group was arranged smoothly.
In-depth Interview:
To get deep into research topic and to further probe into the research question I decided to arrange
an In depth interview and tried to get insights from the consumers and what consumer thinks about
the research questions. I arranged a 35 minutes In depth interview on Zoom with a random
participant from the youth and tried to probe what the participant thinks about the fashion
influencers and what impacts his/her purchase decision of the consumers. A deep discussion
started with the general Questions and then as time passed using the “Funnel Metaphor” approach
the discussion became narrower and closer to the topic and all the rules were conveyed to the
participant. I made a guide for the In depth interview in which I made the question framework and
how my discussion will go through. So, for diversification, I took that interview to get the broader
view of participant about my research. Then, I made the transcription and collected a lot of data
and then started to analyze the data.
Coding:
After the brief In depth interviews and arranging the focus group on my research topic, I was able
to collect the data about my research question. To analyze that data I used Nvivo and did the coding
and made important code like parent codes and making their child codes. Then using the software
made the categories from the parent codes and then arranged those categories and choose them to
make a theme of my research and them noting down the important points to make word cloud of
my keywords and then Making the Project map and the network analysis of my research.
My Claim about my research:
I think that my research throws light on the impact of social media influencer marketing and this
topic has been of great importance to youth like me and the behavior of youth towards the
increasing trend of the social media marketing is increasing day by day. I arranged a focus group
of participants from a diverse background and having their views on what impacts their purchase
decision and then arranged an in-depth interview for my research purpose and my research relates
to my personality as I myself is youth and very interested in the following of social media
influencers.
Limitations:
Due to the prevailing conditions of COVID’19 we arranged an online interview instead of the
physical interview and hence faced some issues regarding the communication and faced some

8
difficulty in communicating properly as participants from different cities and background and so,
it was difficult to make them comfortable so that they can easily express their views on the topic
so a lot of time spent in making them to spoke freely what they want to speak about the topic. Also
found difficulty in finding the personality of the participants. Also the number of Participants were
less. So could found more data once got the more participants. Also the research has made specific
to limited content as we had less time to do research. Found some gap in communication with
Participants.
Methodological Lessons:
As far as my research is concerned, I think that Funnel Metaphor approach is the most useful
approach in doing the research in an effective manner. For constructivism, we usually do research
using the qualitative methods of research and funnel metaphor in which I worked on the broad
aspects of my research and as progress made on my research my topic got narrower as I got to
know the niche of the project and it was very important in terms of the information and hence
concluding the results.

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Discussion & Findings
Analysis:

Word Cloud:

The word cloud usually gives the important keyword that usually reflect the important words that
you took from the In depth interview and reflect your important discussion points taken from the
discussion while probing.

10
Network Analysis:

Network analysis is the important part of the research that shows the conceptual understanding of
my research topic and is briefly explaining the findings from the research of my topic and hence
making the theme.

11
Project Map:

After collecting the data from my brief observations, Focus Group and In-depth Interview I made
a number of findings after the analysis of data and based on that I have made some points which
are as follows.
Impact:
The first finding of my research is that in the present ages the social media influencers have huge
impact of consumers purchase decision and influencers are influencing the lives of the consumers
to such an extent that they have become the important aspect of their daily life of consumers and
affecting their purchase decision frequently.

Instagram: The most useful Platform for fashion Products:

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Secondly I came to know from the discussions in the Focus Group and the In depth Interview that
for the purchase of the fashion products youth make use of Instagram frequently and a lot of users
are using the Instagram for making online shopping and Instagram has become the important
platform for the social media influencers to give reviews on the fashion products and promote
them.
Attributes:
As a result of my findings, I came to Know about the important attributes of social media
Influencers that can affect the purchase decisions of followers regarding the fashion products as
discussed below.
Credibility:
Credibility is very important aspect that can build trust in the minds of consumers. So I came to
know that credibility has been found the important aspect that can affect the purchase decision of
the consumers. Participants of Focus Group and in-depth interview were of the view that credibility
is the most influential attributes that can help build them trust on the recommendations of social
media influencers.
Relatability:
Another attribute that I was able to find as a result of my discussions and research was the
relatability of the Influencer from their followers. Participants were of the view that they usually
follow influencers when they see the commonality between themselves and the influencers and
relatability can affect their purchase decision as well.
Knowledge:
Knowledge of the Fashion bloggers about the Fashion product has been very important in making
the purchase decision of the consumers. Participants ranked highly to the knowledge an important
attribute of the influencers.
Attractiveness:
As my research topic was based on fashion products, so attractiveness couldn’t be ignored as an
important attribute of social media influencer that has huge effect on the purchase decision of the
consumers.
Knowledge versus Attractiveness:
When asked about the preference of the participants I found that surprisingly Knowledge has great
impact on the social media influencers as compared to attractiveness keeping the fact in the mind
that we were talking about the fashion bloggers where the attractiveness should be the important
attribute but knowledge was given the importance.

13
Conclusions:
After a lot of research and discussions, I concluded that social media influencers have been very
important in the value addition of the personality, life of consumers and lot of purchase decisions
of the consumer and credibility, Relatability, Knowledge and attractiveness are the important
attributes that can affect the Purchase decision of the consumers regarding the fashion Products.

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Appendices:
Focus Group Guide:

Group members:
Nudrat Fatima – 05891
Abdur Rehman - 21514
M. Masood Uddin - 21533

Focus Group Preparation:

Interview will be conducted with different people who are influenced by influencers, to get an
insight of what they feel and think regarding their purchasing decisions especially with respect to
fashion products.
Size:
Our focus group will be based on 9 members, including one moderator (Nudrat Fatima), two
facilitators (Abdur Rehman and Mohammad Masood) and 6 participants who will be interviewed.
Composition:
Our group is made randomly on educational grounds during the class of MBA course to persuade
the group activity. Participants are from different educational backgrounds having professional
work experience as well.
Duration:
The duration for the focus group will be around 45 minutes. The session will be engaging and
informative so that participants on zoom will not get bored or get distracted.
Location:
The location for the interview with the participant is at zoom.
The facilitator will take the responsibility to do the following:

1. Provide Zoom Link to all participants.

2. Gesture of Appreciation in terms of Message.

Conducting Focus Group:

Role of Facilitator:

1) Facilitator will be listening thoroughly and observing key points

2) Ensuring that all participants contribute and speak.
3) Importance given to each participant.
4) Make sure all questions are covered.
5) Manage any conflict if occurred.
6) Ensure that the discussion is related to topic.

15
Participant Guidelines and General Rules:

The moderator will outline the following guidelines:

1) Ask the participants to switch their mobile to silent mode and be present in a quite
environment to avoid distraction.
2) Inform the participants that there are no right and wrong answers and every view shared
will be appreciated and respected.
3) Instruct the participants to not to interrupt when one person is already speaking, instead
wait for their turn to speak or reply.
4) Inform the participant that the discussion is group based and not an individual interview.
5) Should be managed in a way that it finishes on time.

Confidentiality:
1) Moderator is responsible for the security of the answered by the participants.
2) Participants will be told that session will be recorded an notes will be written.
3) Inform the participants that the thoughts they used and conveyed will be used in our focus
group research.

Questioning:
To start up, the participants will be asked some basic questions and then move on to questions
related to our research and also ask them to provide their brief introduction.
Questions:

1) Were you guys ever part of FG?

2) What was your experience?
3) What didn’t work well and why?
4) How often do you buy fashion products?
5) Do you prefer buying them online or after a physical visit to the store?
6) Do you buy fashion products when needed or can buy them on a influencer’s suggestion
even when not necessary?
7) What channel do you prefer when deciding of shopping a fashion product?
8) Name fashion products you buy frequently?
9) Name one fashion product you bought and the influencer who inspired you to buy that?
10) Which Pakistani fashion influencer do you like the most?
11) Give one or two reason why you like him/her?
12) Does gender of the fashion blogger matter?
13) Does the influencer attractiveness influence your purchase decision?
14) If a product has bad reviews but is recommended by your favorite influencer, will you still
try it?

16
15) What factors about the fashion influencer lead you to the purchase of fashion product?
16) How often you watch the videos of the fashion influencer?
17) Do you prefer a video of the influencer or a brief write up/ review of the product?
18) In your opinion, how much a fashion influencer can influence the appearance/grooming
of individuals? If yes, How?
19) To what extent, do you think the fashion influencer you follow is credible? Do you give
importance to credibility while making the purchase decision of the product endorsed by
the influencer?
20) How helpful do you think a fashion blogger can be in your purchase decision of Fashion
proof?
21) Which social media channel does your favorite fashion influencer uses the most?
22) Which social media channel do you trust the most for reviews on a product?
23) What comes to your mind when you hear the word Fashion Influencer"
24) Has the pandemic change your view about spending on fashion products?
25) Do you follow influencers outside Pakistan and how often have they helped you decide
about a product?
26) Do you notice any difference between Pakistani and foreign fashion influencer?

THANKYOU for your time and help. If there are any comments or questions, please feel
free to share!

17
Focus Group Summary:

Participan
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6
t
Gender Male Male Male Female Female Female
Age 28 30 25 22 24 28
Status Single Married Single Single Married Single
Masters- B.S (Hons)
Bachelor’s in
Education Graduate Electrical Human MBBS MBA
design
Engineer Nutrition
Location Lahore Karachi Faisalabad Faisalabad Karachi Karachi
Student-
Occupatio Market
Engineer Freelance Part time- Housewife Freelancer
n Analysis
tutor
Ethnicity Mohajir Mohajir Punjabi Sheikh Mohajir Yousufzai
Watching
Tech Painting, Makeup,
Movies, Reading Modeling,
Hobbies Gadgets, Book TV shows,
Visiting text blogs Hobbies
Creative arts Reading Cooking
Friends
Degree of
Moderatel
Social Active Active Active Active Active
y Active
media use
Social
Media
Facebook Instagram Facebook Instagram Instagram Facebook
Channel
used
Phone 03363635 0347207920 031570143 Did not Did not Did not
Numbers 001 4 43 provide provide provide

muneebkh
Arsal.hasan imasadnust Did not Did not Did not
Email ipk@gma
@gmail.com @gmail.co provide provide provide
il.com
m

Table 1.Participants Detail.

Participant Details:
We had a total of 6 participants for our focus group and details of each individual can be found in
table 1 below. Except for P2, none of the participants had been part of any focus group All

18
participants were based in Pakistan with 50% female and 50% male participants. The age bracket
of the participants was from 22 till 30 because this is the age where people usually get involved in
fashion and trends. Some of the participants were married and some were single having at least
one degree in hand. They belonged to different ethnicities, representing people of different
provinces. It was an important question to ask in a country like Pakistan where values and
traditions are held with high regards to analyze how ethnicity influence our fashion choice.

All the participants were highly active on social media platforms except for P1 who did not use
social media as such. The interview was conducted in both English and Urdu and we tried our best
to engage and take opinions from every participant however, some of them had to be pushed again
and again to speak.

Summary:
During the focus group we found out that most of the participants consider fashion products as
luxury items that are highly priced and therefore try to buy them when there is a sale or a special
occasion or season. They all preferred going for physical shopping but due to the pandemic some
of them had shopped online but only from brands that had a goodwill and from where they had
already bought items before.

All participants believed that Instagram is the most trusted social media platform which they refer
to while checking out fashion trends or for reviews on any product. It was very interesting to note
that to every individual fashion product meant something else, some people were inclined towards
expensive skin care and makeup products while to some fashion was all about clothing.

All participants said that though they do consider what influencers have to say about a product,
but they do not trust even their favorite influencers blindly and always research on their own, read
comments and reviews of other customers before making a purchase. Since all the participants
were students or at the start of their career, they were all very careful about their expenses, hence
no one wanted to make a purchase until and unless needed. 16% of the participant said that they
did save the review or product that they liked for future reference, just in case the need arises.
Also, since there are quite a lot of paid reviews, they prefer to do research on their own. Participants
believed that it is easy to deduce if the review is paid or not.

There are other factors that the participants take into consideration while making a purchase
example the brand image of the product and credibility of the influencer. They believed that they
find influencers who they can relate to more credible and are likely to follow their
recommendations. All participants contributed and gave personal examples of their experiences
and named their favorite influencers as well both here and abroad. They also highlighted the
difference between Pakistani influencers and foreign influencers.

19
The overall session was very engaging, and we got to know how people behave and what their
thought processes are while making a purchase decision about a fashion product and how an
influencer can influence their decisions. We also got some interesting insights on the difference
between a celebrity and an influencer.

20
Interview Guide:
Discussion Topic: Impact of Social Media Influencer in the life of Consumers.
Research Topic: Impact of Social Media Influencer in the Purchase Decision of Consumers
Regarding Fashion products.
Date and Time: 3rd March, 7:30Pm

Duration: 30 Minutes

Mode of Interview: Online Interview On Zoom.

Name of Interviewer: Abdur Rehman

Name of Interviewee:

Name Age Education Degree of Favorite Email Address

Social Social
Media Media
Usage Platform
Shirmeen 24 MBA Active Instagram Shirmeen8@gmail.com
Anwar

Objectives of the interview:

The interview was conducted in order to get detailed insights and information related to the impact
of influencers on purchase decisions of consumers regarding Fashion Products. The one-on-one
interview would be sufficient in providing enough data for forming and extracting the main theme
of research and ultimately do the coding for the respective research. Through the interview,
analysis would become even simpler and more precise since now I have detailed answers and
insights from the interviewee.

Format:

• The interviewee will introduce himself and describe his understanding about an influencer.
• Ground rules of interview will be communicated to him initially.
• Questions related to topic will be asked. The interview will be recorded and later on
transcribed

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Introductory Questions:

Q: Tell me something about yourself?

Q: How you spent your whole day, if you are so busy in week days?

Q: How you manage your busy day, what strategy, do you use?

Q: What are your hobbies?

Q: Why do you like those/that hobbies?

Continuing Questions:

Q: For how long have you been using social media websites?

Q: Which site do you visit frequently and why?

Influencer’s Questions:

Q: So tell me which social media you like the most when it comes to fashion and what's the reason
behind that liking?

Q: How did you come to know about that influencer?

Q: What qualities of your favorite influencer led you to follow him/her?

Q: Do you see comments on their post and have you ever felt that this comment is unjustified??

Q: If yes then can you share example with us?

Q: Suppose that your favorite influencer is wearing an outfit that suits him/her very much, would
you try to have it?

Q: Would you buy the product for yourself, if your favorite influencer recommends it?

Q: What makes you to trust on the recommendations of influencer about the product?

Q: If your favorite influencer recommends the sponsored product would feel bad about this?

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Purchase Decision Question:

Q: Which type of fashion products would you love to buy on recommendations of your favorite
influencer, if have to keep money, time or conformity aside?

Q: what’s special in that product that you think you would love?

Q: Have you brought any product recently on recommendations of your favorite fashion
influencer?

Q: If what the quality of that and does it has the same quality as your influencer said in his reviews?

Q: Does the change in price of that product effects your decision of buying that product even if
your favorite influencer recommends it?

Q: What attributes of your favorites fashion influencers do you think that have impact on your
purchase decision?

Q:When making a purchase decision do gender , attractiveness , knowledge, expertise of

influencer impacts you?

Q: You make decision of buying a fashion product on the basis influencer's attractiveness or
Knowledge?

Q: , So if you have to rate the attributes from one to 10,what would, you give to credibility and
what rating would you give to knowledge? What rating would you give to, uh, attractiveness and
gender?

Q: Suppose Mahira khan is endorsing a sponsored fashion product But on the other hand your
favorite influencer doesn’t recommends it whom recommendation would you follow Mahira khan
or Your favorite influencer?

Q: Okay. So as you know, that, uh, COVID situation is prevailing, uh, everywhere. So does, uh,
that situation have any impact on your, uh, shopping trends or, uh, on your shopping behavior?

Ending:

Thank you so much for giving your time for the interview, if you want to add any comment or you
want to ask any question, you can ask?

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Interview Transcriptions:

Note: Speaker 1 is interviewer (Abdur Rehman) and Speaker 2 is Interviewee (Shirmeen Anwar)
Speaker 1:
Assalamualaikum, This is Abdur Rehman and today I am going to conduct an in-depth interview
for my course. That is the business and research qualitative portion. So thank you so much Speaker
2 for giving some time for that interview. So I think we should begin. Should we begin? Am I
audible?
Speaker 2:
Yes, you're Audible, you may begin the interview please.
Speaker 1:
So Speaker 1, tell me something about yourself?
Speaker 2:
Uh, my name is SA and I'm a full-time MBA morning student. Currently. I am pursuing my MBA
and it’s a regular program. So I have classes six days of Week they are On-campus, and sometimes
we have hybrid due to COVID situation, but most of the days I go to campus and then I have
classes from nine to five. So after I come back from home, I just have a schedule of just doing
some assignments working on my projects, and sometimes may be a little self, self-importance,
and self-care time is also important. Other than that, I don't have as such hobbies, but I do like to
surf on social media and, uh, twitters and everything. That's pretty much about it

Speaker 1:
For how long have you been using social media websites?

Speaker 2:
Uh, I've been using social media for as long as I can remember. Like, I can’t get back to the date,
but it's been about like, uh, I guess I would be in grade eight or nine when I started using Facebook.
And then after, when I joined my school, like A-Levels, I joined Instagram and then recently in
my first year of undergrad degree, I joined Snapchat. But, uh, my focus in inclination is more
towards Instagram rather than Facebook and Snapchat.

Speaker 1:
So you use Instagram frequently? Yes?

Speaker 2:
Yes. Very frequently. Like I would say that I do spend about an hour or so on daily basis on
Instagram. So it's one of the most used mobile applications on my phone.

Speaker 1:
So why do you use Instagram so frequently than other social media platforms?

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Speaker 2:
Because I think Instagram gives me with a lot of opportunities to explore and search. Whereas
Facebook and Snapchat is more restricted where I can only share my Updates with the, for
example, my friends or my family was currently added within that media. But whereas Instagram,
it's, it's more diverse, it's more open and there is a lot of bigger audience to interact with. I can, I
can see celebrities and whether it'd be an industry Hollywood, Bollywood, or fashion. So, you
know, there is kind of more topics, more diversity and there’s kind of more creativity on Instagram.
So I prefer Instagram. It's also easier to navigate on Instagram and easier to, you know, search and
explore on Instagram. So I find it comparatively smooth and very easy to use Instagram.

Speaker 1:
Okay, great. So tell me which social media influencer you like the most and what's the reason
behind that liking?

Speaker 2:
So, uh, there isn't like a, any one particular that I can name about a social media influencer, but
yeah, there are a couple of social media influencers that I follow. So the first one is Mahwish
Ahmad, by the name of Safarnamay, then there is Hira Bleeh, and then there is Hemayal, there is
rebellious brownie. So there are like a four to five, a call me on the four to five social media
influencers that I do follow them on a regular basis. Like you're on my newsfeed every time. And
I do see their stories and the content that they are sharing with, on daily basis.

Speaker 1:
So how did you come to know about those influencers?

Speaker 2:
Uh, I came to know about this, uh, these influencers in particular through Instagram newsfeed. So
the kind of content that I see, on my insta feed and that I see, and I search up on Instagram is
mostly related to fashion, fashion dressing, and up to date trend style. So maybe these kinds of
keywords, Instagram picked up audience and then celebrities were using these kinds of hashtags.
So it was easier to find and come across these, um, social media influencers. Also a few of my
very close friends and my good friends. They also kind of follow these social media, Twitter, so
the recommended and suggested me go and visit their profiles. And once I was into their profiles,
I kind of got hooked onto it. And so I have now become a frequent follower of these influencers.

Speaker 1:
So do you see comments on their posts? And have you ever felt that the comment got just
unjustified? So can you give examples regarding that?

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Speaker 2:
Yeah. I do see their comment section as well and like section as well, but, uh, I can’t exactly
remember of any particular comment that was unjustified, but yes, there are a lot of comments that
are either not right or wrong or maybe they are not appropriate. For example, if you ask me about
an example, um, so it's like that. For example, if I see a social media program that posted
something, for example, they, they are doing a collaboration with a particular brand and then they
post about it. They are styling in their own dresses and then they are advertising their kind of new
luxury collection. For example, in the summer, as summers are approaching. So usually these
female influencers, they are posting with some brand collaborations and they're posting it on social
media, on their own public accounts. So for example, people do comment that, for example, you
know, you can do two brands at the same times.

Speaker 2:
For example, if a person is doing ABC brand and she is also advertising at the same time, a different
brand too, there is a point of brand driving in between that a one blogger cannot advertise two
different, do same, run, two different brands at the same time. So people do come into with this
stuff. Sometimes people don't really like when they say that, you know, the social media in herself
though, the person herself is bigger than the brand in that picture. So people do comment, stuff
like that. And I think they are equally justified because once you are on Instagram and once you
have become an influencer and your account is public, you can't stop anyone from commenting.
So yeah, you need to accept the criticism and appreciation.

Speaker 1:
Okay, great. So, uh, let's suppose that your favorite influencer is wearing an outfit that suits him
very much. And you liked that. So what do you try to have it?

Speaker 2:
Yes. I would try to have it and I do often follow them. So to see that, you know, what's in latest
fashion these days and what people are preferring these days. So I do follow them and yeah, I
would not say I'm a very religious follower, but yeah, if I do like somethings and then I do place
an order, or I do at least consult with my friends and family that if I should buy it or not. So I do
give it a second thought at least.

Speaker 1:
So will you buy that product for yourself if your favorite influencer recommends it?

Speaker 2:
It depends from product to product. So for example, if product involves a major decision, for
example, it is something that's very high,on investment, for example, they also sometimes kind of
five, uh, for example, a camera. So we all know that the camera is a very high tech product that

26
involves a lot of investments. Why would not buy that, that product, which in requires a lot of
investment and buying decision, but yes, something smaller insights, for example, an accessory, a
piece of jewelry, uh, any dress I would buy that, or sometimes for example, I've been a girl we
like, like to use makeup. So yeah, if, uh, any blogger recommends makeup. So I would definitely
buy makeup. And also, one thing about these social media tools is that for example, we don't really
know about these products. We are not aware of these products, but these influencers, they create
awareness. For example, the product exists in the market or is newly launched. I wouldn't know
about it, but if a social media influencer post about it on her account, I would know about it. I will
try to, you know, I would give it a try. I would at least give it a second thought.

Speaker 1:
That's it?

Speaker 2:
yeah, if you have any more questions, go ahead, please.

Speaker 1:
So what makes you Trust on recommendations of influencer about the product?

Speaker 2:
So I don't blindly follow the influencers. For example, if an influencer posts about a certain
product, I would check up its reviews on, for example, websites like e-commerce websites in
particular, for example, Daraz.pK or Shandaar buy or any e-commerce website in particular, for
example, the most recently used website is Alibaba these days. So I would do look up on reviews
and you know, for example, and also in the comment section. So for example, if one blogger posts
certain products on her newsfeed, then there would be people. And if she has 50,000 followers. So
obviously that's so obvious that in 50,000 followers, at least one person has already used that
product. So he, or she would also comment on that post that, you know, I tried this and it was
really good. And sometimes people also say that, no, no, no, it's not good. I tried, it's not, it's not
worth the cost and it's not what it's being portrayed here. So I do see the comment section search
on e-commerce websites and on Facebook also we have certain social media groups where we can
post about a certain product. And then the people who have already used that product and already
have an experience, they can share their opinions and they can review that products so It makes us
taking a decision easier.

Speaker 1:
Okay. So if your favorite influencer recommends a sponsored product i.e. he gives the paid
reviews. So what would you feel about this?

Speaker 2:

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I'm a little unclear in what you asked. So you mean that, uh, the person who has advertised their
product as a paid review and you, you are saying it. I already know that it's a paid review.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. If you come to know that it's a paid review.

Speaker 2:
Oh, well, okay. Yeah, I got it. Um, yeah, obviously I w I wouldn't like it at all. And I think I have
experienced this, for example, on, let's just not talk about Instagram or in Facebook. There's a
group called SWOT where people do post about food, where people post about restaurants. Mostly
people complain that, you know, it's a paid review, it's a paid review. And I have experienced this
myself because when I went to a restaurant on someone's recommendation, based on the SWOT
group, but, uh, upon going there, I realized that it was a paid review because the food, the ambiance
was absolutely not worth it as it was mentioned in the post. So I really disliked this. And, um, I
have never come across this on Instagram, but if I ever do, I would simply unfollow that follower.

Speaker 1:
So, which type of fashion products would you love to buy on recommendations of your favorite
influencer? If you have to keep money, time or conformity aside?

Speaker 2:
I think it would be accessories, women accessories, and by woman accessories. I mean, jewelry,
because I love to wear jewelry and jewelry as something that's not too weddy. Like I want to find
gold shops. So in Pakistan, in Karachi where you're living. So based on these recommendations
and Instagram influencers, you can even order online. So they are shipped across Pakistan as well.
So, and as I'm very picky in these jewelry and in these trendy accessories, uh, I would, uh, I would
just go upon the recommendation of these influencers. So for example, influencers, sometimes
also have this feature available to their posts, and that is that they are collaborating with an XYZ
brand. And so if I order that particular thing from the XYZ brand, and I use a promo code by the
name of that blogger, I will also get a 10% off. So, you know, it comes over the added advantages
and more variety as well. So jewelry is one thing that I would go for it.

Speaker 1:
Have you, have you bought any product recently on recommendations of your favorite fashion
influencer?

Speaker 2:
I ordered one of the, uh, makeup makeup from Huda beauty on the recommendation of one of the
four bloggers.

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Speaker 1:
So what about the quality of that does it has the same quality as your influencer said in his reviews?

Speaker 2:
Okay. So the good scene was that Huda beauty is already a very well-known and a very renowned
brand. So it was not something that I did not know about it beforehand. So when that blogger
posted about it, and when that influencer mention that product in her description in newsfeed, so I
was more inclined and I was more motivated to invest in that product, but yes, once again, it was
not something that I did not know about it. Like it was not something completely new to me, so it
was good. Yeah. The quality was also good and it was worth the cost. So I would totally
recommend it to my friends as well.

Speaker 1:
So does the change in price of product affects Decision of buying that product, even if your favorite
influencer recommends it?

Speaker 2:
Yes, a lot, a lot. I think let's just keep aside influencers and bloggers on one side, but obviously
money is something that drives a basic human buying behavior. And it's the major motive that,
and it's the major driving factor of whether you would, uh, you know, you, whatever you want to
buy money is the driving factor. So either be it something as big as a car or a house or bead either
be or something as more as a piece of a jewelry or a dress. So I think money is the driving factor
and yes, even if the price says double or even if they increased by 10%, I would definitely give
that product a second thought if it, if you need it or not. So it's not just based on their
recommendations, but also on search economic variables was for example, Money

Speaker 1:
So, uh, what are attributes of your favorite fashion influencers, do you think that have impact on
your purchase decision?

Speaker 2:
I'm sorry, but can you please repeat your question? I did not understand.

Speaker 1:
I'm saying that what attributes of your favorite fashion influencers, uh, do you think have impact
on your purchase decision? Like, what is, uh, what do you see, uh, specific to specific about your
influencer? Does it's, uh, their credibility, their attractiveness, or anything you want to add?

Speaker 2:
Okay. Uh, so I, I see their creativity and I see that how their product is being used. So for example,

29
I would like to see that how the product is being used, what are the benefits of their product, and
if they are offering any functional benefits of what are the, if the product is offering any emotional
benefits to what are they? And also, as you also mentioned, credibility is also, again, one of the
most important factors. So if the product is not authentic, if the product is not reliable, I will not
use it or recommend it to someone else. So obviously credibility, authenticity, reliability, and
things like durability, that how long the product is going to be used. And again, the cost of the
product, these factors do matter.

Speaker 3:
So when making a purchase decision, do gender, attractiveness, knowledge or expertise of
influencer impacts you?

Speaker 2:
Yes. Yes. So, whatever I know beforehand about the blogger, the product, the page, the, um, any
services they do affect my future decision that I'm going to take in future. And I think that is
something very common in something where you obvious, or if I know something already prior to
buying that product, uh, it might affect my decision either positively or negatively.

Speaker 3:
So you make the decision of buying a fashion product on the basis of influencers, a attractiveness
or his knowledge, his, or her knowledge?

Speaker 2:
I won't say this or that, but I would rather see both. So I would also see that how the, um, blogger
is using that product. How fashionable is the blogger, how stylish is the blogger, and also, uh, in
case of accessories, jewelry. So there are more than one ways you can sell that product, but will
also see that in, you know, how many, how many times that product has been styled differently.
How does it look different every time she uses or wears that product and how is she carrying that
product? Does that product even look good on her and things like these, or is product being used
by other people as well as it's something very common? Or is it something very trendy or is it
something that is very in fashion? So, yeah, things like these, I would say that they matter.

Speaker 1:
Uh, so if you have, uh, uh, to rate the attributes from one to 10, uh, what would, uh, you give, uh,
to credibility and what rating would you give to knowledge? What rating would you give to, uh,
attractiveness and gender?

Speaker 2:
For making any decision you were asking?

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Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah. For making a decision.

Speaker 2:
For making any decision. I would think that, um, the credibility does matter and, um, I would say
credibility would be the key, most important factor. Then the availability also matters of the
product, for example, sometimes influencers post, uh, you know, they, they are advertise such kind
of, for example, are not very readily available and it becomes hard to find that product and to
access that product. So I think, uh, credibility availability and, um, and the cost of the product
matters.

Speaker 1:
Uh, so suppose Mahira khan is endorsing a sponsored fashion product, but on the other hand, your
favorite influencer doesn't recommends it. Whom recommendation would you follow microphone
or your favorite influencer?

Speaker 2:
Well, that's, uh, that's a very tough question to be asked, honestly. And I think that I wouldn't prefer
either Mahira or that social media influencer. I will trust my own gut instinct. For example, I would
do my homework. I would see that the product being advertised and the product that's being talked
about and the product that is being shown, I would search up on my own. So I would see a, I would
see first day reviews B-I would concern with my friends and family and see, then I would decide
that how to go about this product. So I have really no idea because they are there. I mean, the both
the side is equal in terms of cost benefit analysis. So I would have to look upon that situation that
whom I would prefer, but maybe I think I would prefer the blogger maybe because I think Mahira
khan is a celebrity and so she had a different target audience to cater with. Whereas in terms of
bloggers and social media influencers, they generally target commoners like us. And there is
something more of a direct relationship between the blogger and their audience, because exactly
know that what their audience is. So for example, if Mahira khan advertises to Instagram, she has
a following of 7 million, whereas an Instagram influencer, they have a following of a hundred K
50 K 60 K, you see that it's less than a million, right. So obviously it's, they have that small audience
who is not even just an audience, it's just like a family. So they are more, I mean, I can relate more
to that influencer rather than with Mahira Khan.

Speaker 1:
Okay. So as you know, that, uh, COVID situation is prevailing, uh, everywhere. So does, uh, that
situation have any impact on your, uh, shopping trends or, uh, on your shopping behavior?

Speaker 2:
Yes. So I think this COVID situation has entirely changed the process of shopping and it has

31
completely reversed. So for example, even the online shopping and e-commerce was in fashion
even before this COVID situation. But I think in this COVID times, the industry has gone through
a major disruptive innovation and that is people have moved from brick and mortar relationships
to, you know, more towards online shopping or e-commerce. So even if I would go to a shop before
the pandemic situation, I would just look up a website and I'll just order. And also due to this mode
of the retail outlets that were previously not offering any e-commerce or online facilities, they have
also shifted their, um, their, you know, dynamic and their whole buying process completely online
because people have become now more cautious of their health people are avoiding stepping out
of the home. So it's very important that it's being delivered at home. So even if you just forget
about influencers, everything, like, for example, the food deliveries, medicine, grocery shopping,
fashion products, everything that a person wants, can be delivered, uh, at your home right now,
right away. So my inclination has also become more towards online and e-commerce shopping.
And I also just find it very easier because you just search for the internet, you just press a click and
it's ordered, and the order will be you're in two to three days. So I think it's easy and, um, both
easier to, you know, search as well. And then it also saves the hassle of your efforts and time.

Speaker 1:
So while making purchase decision from fashion product, uh, if you have to choose one between
these two, number one is knowledge or number two is attractiveness. So which one would you
prefer?

Speaker 2:
Knowledge of the product matters more than the attractiveness of the product, this is my own
personal preference.

Speaker 1:
Even in fashion products?

Speaker 2:
Yeah, exactly. And I think in fashion, but is knowledge is more important than attractiveness
because even if the fashion influencer is looking at very attractive and it's looking very trendy and
check, but you don't have any idea about that at how would you use it or how would you carry
then there's no use. Right.

Speaker 1:
Okay. I think that's all, uh, from me. And, uh, I'm very thankful to you for sparing some time for
that interview. If you have anything to ask, you are free to ask.

Speaker 2:
No, thank you so much. Well, that was a very inquisitive topic. I never thought about it in detail,

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um, before that, but this also gives me a different insight that We kind of follow social media
influencers factor to do. I realize that it's just more than social media. So thank you for asking me
questions that were very thought provoking. So thank you. Have a great day.

Speaker 1:
Okay. Thank you. Allah Hafiz

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Literature Map:

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Excel Sheet of Literature Matrix:
Already Provided on LMS.

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