Efficacy of Influence Marketing

The rapid technological advancements we have today has introduced us to new kinds of
inventions from machineries, medicine and many more. One of the most prominent
advancement we have today is the Internet. This tool has introduced a new way to
procure information and communicate with a numerous individual from all over the world
using only applications. Social media is seen as the main tool for communication and
has been a place for digital media consumption and with this we see a shift in social and
societal trends. Furthermore, the higher access to information and to people that social
media enables, has had an effect on consumers specifically on how they consume
media and how they respond to brands. This now faces a challenge to brands for they
need to keep up with the evolving taste of consumers. (Zak and Hasprova,2020).
Because of this wide array of information, consumers are now looking for specific
niches that they gravitate towards which goes in line with their beliefs and what they
want to consume which gave rise to Influencers. Influencers are opinion leaders
because they amass a large following that stems from their content, this content affects
their followers and creates a bias towards them and their content. Their growing
popularity has made brands go to them to communicate their brand to consumers.
Rosenberg even states that "Gone are the days where you’d put an ad in a magazine or
use a legitimate celebrity. Now are the days where you’ll pay any plant, animal or
mineral with an online following to endorse your product". This relationship between
influencer and brands has given birth to a new kind of marketing called Influence
Marketing. Influence Marketing is defined as a form of marketing products and services
to those who have impact on consumer purchase behavior. (Kadekova and
holiencinova,2018) The growth of this kind of marketing has been proven to have
efficacy for it is the fastest way to reach consumers and sway them into a purchase.
(Manero and Navarro,2020). The growing use of social media has given numerous
individuals platform in which they influence their following through their content which
makes them a viable marketing tool for companies to use. With this, Influence Marketing
is used in the digital age by companies as an effective and efficient way to reach
consumers, build customer relationships and increase profitability.
The effect of Influence marketing has had a massive impact on marketing as a whole for
the rapid change in trends and taste of consumers makes it more difficult to navigate
target demographics and effective ways to persuade the consumers unlike Traditional
marketing which has come to a halt and the old fashion ways to market a product is now
becoming irrelevant. Companies now need to cater to the niche interests and follow the
language that consumers use on the internet in order to have effective marketing. (Zak
amd Hasprova,2020) This reigns true for the shift of focus in marketing has gone to
consumers rather than the company. It is now important to look at the varying interest of
consumer and how they perceive a brand for they will dictate what the brand is rather
than the brand telling consumers who they are because they have more access to
information. This now leads companies to employ influencer in their marketing tactics
because consumers have trust and a bias towards what the influencers says and what
they would put out in their respective platform (Sonja, Volckner, Thompkins, weirtz,
2013). Such famous people use social media to sway people into obtaining their
attention and favor to vouch for the product or services they are using, thus, influence
marketing becoming a vital part in lives of individuals. In a study done by
Mediakix(2019), the efficacy of influence marketing is rated by participants from very
ineffective, ineffective, neutral, effective and very effective. The table shows that 45% of
participants deemed influence marketing as effective and 35% deemed it very effective
which furthers the notion that influence marketing is seen as effective by consumers.

The ways in which influencers can sway consumers into following them and promoting
brands is vital in understanding the effect of this marketing strategy to consumers. K.
Zdenka and H. Mária (2018) says that with excellent effort and visibility, social media
influencers are conquering the Internet. Their views have a significant influence on
individuals, particularly the younger generation. This is a recent phenomenon that has
experienced a significant growth in collaboration with marketing firms in recent years.
Influencers are able to do this due to their ideas, personality and preferences that
resonates with consumers which results in remarkably impacting on trends and desire
for certain products, in the modern globalized marketing. (S. Zak and M. Hasprova,
2019) The connection of the consumer to an influencer and the relationship built by
these two is now the main proponent that makes influencers effective. That relationship
between them creates trust and confidence for the consumer to listen and purchase
what the influence says. (V. Nandagiri and L. Philip, 2018) Consumers look up to the
influencers that they follow and use them to influence not only purchase but also their
behavior, aesthetic and many more. Examples are what people use to learn. In the case
of audiences, Influencers are what they see as an example. By seeing the social media
of these influencers, they mimic what they see in terms of behavior. This can explain the
reason why influencers have power and are able to persuade their audience into a
purchase which inevitably leads marketer to choose this kind of marketing strategy.
(Q.MoShi, 2020)

Now that the efficacy and power that influencer shave has been established, it is
important to look at what consumers look for in an influencer in order for companies to
employ the proper influencers that could fit their respective brands. The consumer looks
at numerous factors before supporting an influencer. A big part of how an influencer or
the “influencer economy" works is the appearance of authenticity. This is not easily
achieved because the standards for what is deemed authentic changes in accordance
with the people's experiences taste any many more factors. Audiences can sense
fakeness and with the large number of fake sources and news online, today's
generation yearns for trust above all else. (Hund,2019) This access to information has
given consumers a consciousness on varying issues and problems that affect them
directly or the world at large. The changing values of the current generation and the
numerous conversation and education about political issues has made them look into
the actions and beliefs of influencers which makes brand susceptible to being cancelled
which was defined as the rejection and boycott of brands that do not align with
consumer value. The research tells us that consumers are willing to not support a brand
that does not reflect the values that they hold. Among these reasons is having
problematic people associated to the brand. This leads to companies to thoroughly
check their actions and the People they hire and work with to appease their consumers.
This is especially vital in selecting influencers that do not reflect negativity or actions
that a brand does not want to reflect to themselves. In using influencers, the personality,
and actions of said influencers is now attached to the brand which makes it crucial for
brand to carefully curate their influencers. (Porter Norvelli, 2021) With the criteria of
political correctness and authenticity, the consumer also looks for credibility. Credibility
is seen as the main factor for consumers to listen to an influencer. Different factors
affect credibility which includes pleasantness and emotions. These combined creates
an influencer and audience relationship which a company can utilize. (C. Manero and
M. Navarro, 2020) This can be seen in survey of Zak and Hasprova(2020) which
categorizes the desired influencer characteristics into expertise, product experience,
intelligence, attractiveness, and popularity. Among these characteristics, skills and
expertise ranked highest with about 63.50% of participants voting for this characteristic
which makes credibility a huge factor in what consumers look for in an influencer.

In the digitized world that we are in today, a focus on social media and digital
communication has been set in place. The prominence of the internet in our lives has
change the ways in which we communicate and navigate our world. This is apparent in
marketing where the digital space is now the main area in which its principles are being
executed. Influence marketing is a facet of marketing that has seen a rise in recent
years and has been effective in communicating products with consumers. This has
taken over traditional marketing and has paved a new way in which the consumers and
their interests are the focus of brands. Influencers are opinion leaders that consumers
look to shape their interest. The personality, image, and content that these influencers
possess are what drives consumers to support them. They use influencers as an
example to base their interest in which makes them trust in what influencers say and
what products they communicate to them. It is important for a brand to look at these
influencers for marketing and choose influencers that align with their values. Influencers
are from varying niches and interest and it is vital that companies can see the
influencers that respond well to consumers. They must investigate the influencer’s
authenticity, political correctness, and credibility. These combined can make the brand
successful in marketing and if done right can make a positive brand image. Associating
your brand with an influencer can yield incredible results where the consumers are able
to enjoy your products through the influence of these opinion leaders. Influence
Marketing can create success for a brand and enables them to reach consumers in a
way that appeals to their varying interest and preferences.
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