THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS AS MARKETERS TO THE

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR OF MIDDLE-TEENS IN DOMINICAN COLLEGE OF

STA.ROSA S.Y 2021-2022

A Thesis Proposal
Presented to the
Faculty of the Senior High School Department
DOMINICAN COLLEGE OF STA. ROSA
Sta. Rosa, Laguna

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Course Requirements for Research II
Accounting, Business and Management
(ABM)

by

ANA BEATRIZ C. VERGA

CAELP GIAN D. PAREDES
SAMANTHA JOY B. SANCHEZ

August 2022
 Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Social Media Influencers are faces of social media that are supposed to be the pivot of

spreading beneficial awareness of different very important matters. With the influencers’ huge

public exposure especially when having a solid fanbase. They have been granted a job by many

business organizations as marketers or promoters of their products or services. In life there will

always be the good and the opposite and the researchers believe that these entitled ‘’Influencers’’

aren’t doing any better with their power to influence the public most of the time, especially the

middle-teens with ages ranging from 15-17. The researchers argue that the youths specifically at

these ages still don’t have the enough knowledge and intelligence needed in order for them to be

more capable of making the smallest to biggest decisions as consumers in the market industry,

resulting in being easily and heavily influenced by what they see and hear in the mass media.

Not everyone is privileged enough to make even the smallest mistakes when buying

because of their differences in economic status, because of this, the researchers seek to find

credible data that will help the middle-teens, the people living in this generation, and the future

generation have awareness of the biases that is happening within influencer marketing, so that

they’ll be aware of the variety of products that are fake, hazardous,and toxic or irrelevant. Since

teenagers make up most of the active social media users in the world. They are also the easiest

and closest targets for social media influence. The young are the catalyst of change in the future,
and the researchers don’t want to make it harder for them to perdure, as this world, especially in

a pandemic couldn’t get easier , it is the researchers’ goal to at least lessen the burden many

could be having later on in life through proving how much a social media influencer may control

our decisions in life positively or negatively.

Most of the influencers are either good or bad influences on their mass audiences. In order

to know more of which is which, awareness is always the first step. The final results of this

research could be small or big and still continue to be a huge contribution along with its other

present related or future studies as it may conclude how many factors are there to distort our

consumer behaviors making big differences with most people’s attitude towards spending today.

Background of the Study

The difference in the age of the middle teens may have a major impact in their cognitive

development. Since teenagers aren’t at the peak of their emotional and cognitive intelligence, and

are usually controlled by their emotions, there is a great probability that they can be biased with

their choices especially when they are exposed to influencers, as they tend to have self-centered

behaviors that are caused by lack of experiences and awareness of looking at other point of views

in life.

In the Philippines, technological marketing is getting recognition and is highly liked by

many, even adults, especially because of the pandemic. Lazada and Shopee are the quintessential

examples of famous online shopping industries in the country since it is very accessible to many

without any strict policies on who can buy a specific item. In the experience of the researchers,
they have bought different stuff online so many times without their real identity or demographic

profile being checked. All they have to do is to register an account, scan through the app for

desired products, add it to cart, place the order and wait in your house for the package and

payment.

Since it’s a given that this modern era is highly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic on

changing its citizens’ normal ways. It’s evident that rational decisions of the middle teenagers

may slowly become reckless through time because buying and selling is never too far from their

homes anymore making it easily accessible because all they must do is to sit, click and wait for

the delivery. Social Media Influencers are also becoming the trend and role model of the public

as human generations continue to evolve into being dependent on technology towards their basic

needs. In effect, customer service became closer in reach to everybody and so did possible harm.

Known Social Media Influencers have already caused many damages to their viewers like

introducing products that aren’t FDA approved and this issue must be addressed, resolved and

solutioned.

Social media with the support of the marketing industry may hold civilization’s economic

progress for better or for worse. The best the researchers can do is to spread awareness to

everybody, hopefully not just about how much online personalities affect the consumer behavior

of the young but also their psychological-being. This study intends to become a reminder to the

present and future generation that they have complete control of their decisions in life. This study
will not only reveal the questionable ways of the marketing industry, but it will also reveal the

good and bad effects of social media and its influencers to the mass public. The Internet paved

the way for anybody to gain great influential power, and as early as possible we have to be ready

for what it can bring, especially to the young’s psychological, cognitive, and financial

development.

Theoretical Framework

For better understanding of the study the following theories shall be applied

The Bandwagon Effect, which people began to use in 1848 during the presidential

campaign of Zachary Taylor, the theory tells us that the more a belief or idea has been adopted

by more people within a group, the more the individual adoption of that idea might increase

within the same group. This is the psychological effect that leads to a herd mentality. Since the

Social Media Influencers have a platform that has huge exposure to the public and will also

probably have a huge population of fan base, we may conclude that these large numbers of

people can be the bandwagon itself or the cause of unaware people to be influenced by the

marketed products that are a trend. This also contributes more to the image of the media

personalities and their reach to further audiences since in social media, people can easily spread

information rapidly.

The Anchoring Effect or cognitive bias by Tversky and Kahneman (1974) is the

tendency to rely too heavily on the very first piece of information you learn. For example, if you

learn the average price for a car is a certain value, you will think any amount slightly lower than
that is a good deal, perhaps not searching for better deals. You can use this kind of bias to set the

expectations of others by putting the first information on the table for consideration.

Middle-Teens and children aged below are more likely to have a behavior like this since they are

still beknownst of important common knowledge that should be generalized like how

opinionated Social Media Influencers can be. Because when we are at the stake of making a

certain decision, the easiest and fastest way to decide is to observe others and copy their

behavior. This happens because we are one species and we tend to believe at first that we all

should be thinking and moving alike, until we mature enough to have control of our free-will

without being affected by internal and external forces like how we tend to act according to what

other people say and how it makes us feel.

Attentional Bias which was proposed by Mathews, Macleod, et al (1986) is the

tendency to pay attention to some things while simultaneously ignoring others. For example,

when making a decision on which car to buy, you may pay attention to the look and feel of the

exterior and interior, but ignore the safety record and gas mileage. This may be related to why

being a fan of a Social Media Influencer or even other personalities can be crucial to our daily

life. Whenever we start to build up our belief in something or someone and then attach ourselves

to this mindset so much, the result is we’ll never consider any possibilities or facts given aside

from what we truly believe in. This is because when this behavior is present in a person, they are

more likely to get rid of anything contradicting him or her and fight for his beliefs in a

meticulous manner.. This allows biases within the fans of a social media influencer to happen
especially in terms of marketing a product, to the eyes of their audience what they say will

always be credible and valid even if it’s the opposite.

Operational Framework

The researcher used the following operational framework to understand the diagram below:

Input Process Output

Figure 1: Schematic Diagram

 The framework shows the process undergone by the study. First, in the input, the

researchers considered the Demographic profile of the respondents in terms of Age, Gender, and

Social Class. Then, the researchers studied and listed down the effects of Social Media

influencers as marketers to the consumer behavior of the respondents in terms of the following

characteristics of an influencer which are, Social Image, Popularity, Fanbase and their

Credibility. Then, the researchers took the next step which is the construction of questionnaires,

distribution of questionnaires, data gathering, data tabulation, and data interpretation.

Furthermore, in the output frame, the researchers identified if there is a significant relationship

between the factors relating to Social Media Influencers in terms of Social Image, Popularity,

and Fan Base on the effects of Social Media Influencers’ as marketers to the respondents’

consumer behavior.

Statement of the Problem

The study seeks to know the effects of social media influencers as marketers to the

consumer behavior of mid-teens in Dominican College of Sta. Rosa. To fully provide the needed

data and information, the researchers will seek to answer the following problems:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Age

1.2 Gender

1.3 Social Class

 2. What are the effects of social media influencers’ as marketers to the consumer behavior

of the respondents in terms of the following characteristics of an influencer:

2.1 Social Image

2.2 Popularity

2.3 Fanbase

2.4 Credibility

3. Based on the findings, what recommendations can be proposed?

Hypotheses

HO1: There is no significant effect between the characteristics of social media

influencers in terms of social image, popularity, and fan base to the respondents’

consumer behavior.

HO2: There is a significant effect between the characteristics of social media influencers

in terms of social image, popularity, and fan base to the respondents’ consumer behavior.
Significance of the Study

This study would be beneficial to the following:

The researchers. This study will serve as a great catalyst in the improvement of

the researchers’ critical thinking and problem solving skills and will give further

understanding about the Middle-Teens’ behavior as a consumer that will also help them

with their psychological and financial development.

Youth. The middle teens and the youth in general will benefit through this study

because their high exposure to the media may have a massive impact with their different

processes in psychological and cognitive development resulting in an accustomed

behavior of reckless products and life choices that are very crucial to not be wary about

and improve. The researchers envision fruitful years for the youth, as they focus on

treating everybody, especially the unfortunate, with compassion by spreading factual

information for their awareness. This study will highly be valuable to them to lessen their

regrets with their attitude towards the market in the future.

Educators. This study will benefit any educator in any specific profession since

social media issues are a universal concept. It will always be relevant to teach their

students about certain effects of social media and its influencers, especially to the still

growing ones, knowing that educators are in authority of the right knowledge to educate

the students and that it’s also their responsibility to nurture their students’ healthy
well-being, as teachers mostly take part in an environment where a child grows making

this study more effective in spreading awareness.

Parents. This study will help the parents to have enough understanding about how

their children navigate through social media and how influencers affect their children’s

needs, wants and certain consumer behaviors, so that they could help regulate what

information and content shall be given or exposed to their children that will result to a

better financial management and future of their family.

Future Researchers. This study may serve as a basis for future research that will

be conducted. It could serve as a reference for those who are interested in the similar

study about the effects of social media influencers as marketers to the consumer behavior

of middle teens, since the researchers are all about compassion, this can make future

researchers continue their work with credibility and convenience.

Scope and Delimitation

This study will be focused on the middle-teens of Dominican College of Sta.Rosa

since teenagers are more likely to be an active user of social media and the students of the
said school are what’s only within the reach of the researchers to be researched upon.

There will be no further involvement of students or schools outside Dominican College

of Sta.Rosa Laguna. The researchers will only be observing the needed variables within

the facilities only which are the characteristics of social media influencer marketers that

affect their consumer behavior.

The research instrument that the researcher used is a survey questionnaire that

will be given to the respondents to answer in order to get the needed data results for the

researchers to tabulate, evaluate, and interpret. Since the researchers will be using a

random sampling method, they will be randomly choosing atleast 100 middle-teens

students that reside within Dominican College of Santa Rosa Laguna no matter the grade

or section further quantifying the study’s scope and delimitation.

Modernization will continue to evolve through time, and the technological era

will always be part of human lives therefore, Social and other forms of media will always

be surrounding us in the future generation. This concludes that this study will be timely

for up to five years or more because this research tackles the effects of social media

influencers as marketers to mid-teens’ consumer behavior that is essential to people that

are willing to be educated and to educate others especially the children, the harm social

media causes to our smallest to biggest life choices.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are conceptually and operationally defined for the understanding of the

study.

Cognitive Development. The growth of a child's ability to think and reason.

Cognitive Intelligence. This is One's abilities to learn, remember, reason, solve

problems, and make sound judgments.

Demographic Profile. It consists of information of the respondents in terms of their age,

gender, and social class.

Emotional Intelligence. This is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own
emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with
others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

Fanbase. The fans of a sports team, pop music group, etc., considered as a distinct social
grouping.

Financial Development. Someone’s improvement over time in managing their financial

problems.

Herd Mentality. The tendency of the people in a group to think and behave in ways that
conform with others in the group rather than as individuals

Influential Power. The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or

behavior of someone or something

Marketer. Is the promoter or the spreader of awareness of a product about its

effectiveness, beneficiaries, quality and such that creates its image of credibility to be
trusted and bought.

Marketing Strategies. It refers to a business's overall game plan for reaching prospective
consumers and turning them into customers of their products or services

Middle Teens. A person aged 15–17 years old.

Online Shopping. The buying and selling of products that happen online in a process
wherein no physical appearance of both consumer and seller are needed for an economic
agreement.

Popularity. The state or condition of being liked, admired, or supported by many people

Personalities. This pertains to the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and

emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors.

Psychological Development. The development of human beings' cognitive, emotional,

intellectual, and social capabilities and functioning over the course of a normal life span,
from infancy through old age.

Questionnaires. This is the main instrument for collecting data from the respondents.

Social Class. This is the economic status that determines the consumer’s capability of
buying along different values.

Social Image. It pertains to how we are known or perceived by other people especially in
mass media.

Technological Marketing. The promotion of products and services with the use of
technologies as a medium of communication like radio, television, internet and more.
 Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents a review of local and foreign literature and studies that have

bearing on the present research. It focuses on many details that will help in the progress

of this study. The said literature and studies of this research come from books, journals,

articles, electronic materials such as PDF or E-Book, and other existing theses and

dissertations, consisting of both foreign and local that served as source of information

on the area of influencer marketing and consumer behavior which has guided the

researchers in interpreting the finding of the study.

FOREIGN LITERATURE

In the work of a neuroscientist—Dr. John Hogan (2018) Titled “How does

anchoring affect consumer behavior?” He defined anchoring as a type of cognitive bias

wherein an initial number can have an unreasonable influence on decision making. The

outrageous price of a product serves as an anchor that urges customers to spend more

than what they want. In other words the price subconsciously influences your decision

of what you are willing to pay. Seeing the original price influences a person’s

expectations, so whenever a person sees an item on sale, or a discount they feel like

they made a good purchase.

FOREIGN STUDIES

According to Di CHEN (2020) the differences between people’s social status

have an effect with their consumption preferences. Since it is part of human behavior to

act in relation to their needs and wants, as a social species we tend to buy to

emphasize the gap of our socio-economic status with others. With these natural

behaviors, comes along how attentional biases are used in marketing. When a product

is expensive, very well-known, considered as high-end or luxurious, the first thought of

the human mind is that it will make them look richer and acceptable to the society or

their peers especially when a lot of people also believe the same. With that kind of

mindset, other options of brands may be unconsidered since the focus of the brain is

within only that scope of what he or she believes in. As long as one is caught with that

emotional need of social validation and belongingness, nothing else may change what

he or she believes in and his or her decision-making. This is a natural coping

mechanism of the human mind to make living simpler and easier, a life without

overthinking and overanalyzing a variety of information or options in the market, making

decisions faster, and the experience of anxiety or fear when choosing a product that

signifies social status will be lesser. By being concerned with the usually irrelevant

information in the market, our focus from the main purpose of buying or consuming are

shifted away just like with the choosing of popular expensive brands.
 According to a study conducted by Shaikh, Malik, et al (2017) titled “Do luxury

brands successfully entice consumers? The role of the bandwagon effect” where they

asked participants from a sample of students from two private universities to respond to

a survey, students at private universities are more likely to have the financial capability

to buy luxury brands, and so they are more likely to purchase luxury brands. The rapid

increase of technology usage has exposed students to personalities and trends which

affects their consumption behavior of luxury brands. This makes them a potential

market of luxury brands in the future. A lot of luxury brands are piercing into the mass

market which has allowed them to have more clients and serve as a stimulator of

expansion of brand value along with market share. This is beneficial to collectivist

societies where emphasizing the needs of a group is more prevalent than emphasizing

the needs of each individual. The results of the study highlight that young adults deem

luxury brands as valuable possessions that they purchase to connect with others. They

seek to fit in and purchase products that are acceptable by society. Conformity is seen

to have a significance considering that the sample belongs to a collective society. These

consumers take the word of and opinion of others as a part of information unlike in

individualistic societies who depend on objective information and personal choices.

Status consumption seems to have the strongest effect on bandwagon luxury

consumption. This performs well in collective societies for the reason that consumers

purchase luxury brands for their symbolic value rather than their functional value.
 According to Tapinfluence (2017), Influencer Marketing focuses on using key leaders

to inform the public about the brand's product. Rather than marketing directly to a larger

group of consumers, companies instead hire an influencer to get out the word for them.

Influencers present their content to the audience, to advocate and increase brand

awareness so that their followers will be the company's customers. This marketing

works effectively and is more popular because it uses tactics like word-of-mouth

marketing (Baker, 2021). According to Wainwright (2019), with a word-of-mouth

strategy, a brand leverages their customers by encouraging them to tell friends, family,

or colleagues about their experience with a product or service. Customers have more

trust with their close peers and influencer's recommendations than the companies

selling the products regarding purchase decisions.

Nguyen, Hoan My (2018) pointed out that Influencer marketing is one of the trendiest

marketing tools on social media today. That’s why it is very important to study the point

of views of the consumers who are daily exposed to influencer marketing content. In his

study, the results showed positive effects to the consumers’ perception of brands

because of influencer marketing. Even with the positive effects, there are still some trust

issues discovered in the consumers. Still, Influencer marketing creates more positive

social media experience for users. The only main problems found are the way brands

and influencers approach their target audience.

 Based on the conclusions of the study of Jason Weismuller et al. (2020) It is

discovered that the number of followers of an influencer has an effect with their source

attractiveness and trustworthiness which shows that the social image of an influencer

are more likely to be perceived as credibility to their viewers or audiences that also

causes more potential buyers of the influencers’ advertised services or products.

According to X. J. Lim et al. (2017), Social media influencers are first explored in the

advertising field, particularly to create buzz in the younger markets and further expand

social media coverage in businesses. Companies use social media platforms to create

online videos or posts, these videos are usually centered around something

controversial or humorous. It hopes to get people to talk about it, sharing it via social

media, and cause a sensation to the public. By this, it allows the consumers to decide

whether or not they should buy a product or pay for the services that the company

offers. The buzz that the companies create makes consumers more interested in the

business and by that, it helps the company to gain a fan base, which can build a

positive reputation among consumers (Belyh, 2015). Company's usual target market is

the youth because this buzz is well-suited to the Internet, where the young people use

different kinds of social media platforms to spread word about products.

 According to Atienza M.M. (2019) in her descriptive research entitled "Social Media

Marketing (SMM): Measuring Its Effects to Resorts in Batangas Province, Philippines"

concluded that majority of the resort businesses in Batangas are using Social Media

Marketing from 2006 to 2010. This is a sign that it’s already been evident in the

businesses that social media is a great tool for marketing concluding that the marketers

of today are knowledgeably skilled enough from their or their mentors years of

experience.

According to Wang et al. (2017) in their research output entitled "Consumers' attitude of

endorser credibility, brand and intention with respect to celebrity endorsement of the

airline sector", it is reported that when consumers are presented informations by a

credible source (e.g. social media influencers or celebrities) it can affect the consumer's

beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and behaviours.

LOCAL LITERATURE

According to an article of Jeremy Shtern et al. (2019) their respondents

emphasized that Filipinos are very heavy users of social media and are highly engaged

fans. The earlier cheaper smartphones and mobile Internet plans made available

caused more Filipino audiences to have access to it and increased the popularity of

video platforms, especially YouTube. This has caused the emergence of a larger

audience for different contents in social media. One respondent even said that ‘More

and more people are uploading onto YouTube in the Philippines’’. Other respondents

highly noted that Filipinos are a very engaged audience that are driven by celebrities,

they even added that Filipinos are crazy fans. Another respondent named Arnel.

suggested that ‘’every fan page becomes a kind of shrine to an online personality’’. The

effect that this kind of engagement with social media audiences has on the marketability

of Filipino audiences to content that are sponsored was stated by a few influencers as

very important to understanding how influence happens in the locality. It was also

concluded in the study that the more the content creator speaks in the primary language

of Filipinos, the more the audiences become engaging and devoted to the celebrity or

personality. An often utilized variable in social influence research are peers that have

been found to play a role in the asset allotment of an individual’s decisions, which

consist of savings, retirements, stocks, and other investments. The members of a family,

workmates, people with the same or similar culture and even neighbors living in the

same community are included along these specified peers.

 In an article by Christine Cudis (2021) it was stated that there are researches going on

about the blowing up of online shopping during the pandemic. One study indicated that

87% of their respondents are willing to spend more in exchange for buying

convenience. This percentage of respondents also said that social media allowed their

relationships with brands to be more in depth. An 80% of the respondents showed that

Filipinos are adventorous buyers as trying new products and new ways of shopping

piqued their interests like live-selling. The respondents expect the abundance of online

shoppers to increase more than this year as the marketplace continues to evolve

digitally reliable and efficient. Because of high records of online businesses being

registered because of the pandemic, the researchers concluded that this online

economical platform will continue to be the new normal as it functions well in times like

this.

As stated by Ferdinand D. Anabo and Dave De Guzman Centeno, reference

groups are generally known to be convincing, this is because social power and social

conformity together are very influential to the action of others. If a reference group is

admired, or knows more than the others, information power exists which makes what

they say look credible to those beknownst of certain knowledge. Reference groups may

exert pressure through their power of influencing, which makes the individual want to

meet their expectations causing their peers to consider the reference group’s action as

correct, therefore it should also be followed. In short, conformity happens because of

cultural pressure, fear of social deviance, group disagreement and their commitment to

the reference group. The reference groups’ strength of connection to their peers may

affect how much they will be influencing the others depending on a variety of factors like

their frequency of contact, importance of relationship, and type of relationship.

A study by Castillo Jr (2018) entitled "Consumer buying behavior: The multicultural

influence in the Philippines" concluded that the behavior of Filipinos in terms of

purchasing products relies on their monthly budget or income. Every society across the

world has a form of social class and it is determined by the income of an individual.

When a consumer has higher income, it gives a higher purchasing power. It gives more

opportunity for the consumer to spend their money on their wants like luxurious brands

or products. Whereas, someone who has a low income or middle income, focuses and

spends their money on basic needs like food and clothes, in order to survive in this

society.

According to Baustista et al. (2019), in their quantitative descriptive research

output entitled "Ford Cars: The Impact of Social Media Marketing to Customers''

concluded that car buyers and owners are influenced by social media as they become

aware of the brand through the acquisition of information from social media platforms.

Therefore, the social media marketing strategies of Ford greatly influences and impacts

the customer to brand awareness and are updated with the information of this brand.

The result clearly states that using various social media platforms like Facebook can

depict opportunities for data distribution and public engagement. It is also stated in their

findings that car buyers tend to use social media platforms for convenience or ease of
access to look for car information. Nowadays, people are all throughout social media

and connected online whenever and wherever they are. Communication is very easy

now with the use of smartphones, just by simply engaging in any messaging apps.

According to Cabelleza & Gonzales (2017) in their research output entitled

"Impact of Celebrity Endorsement in Social Media on Senior High Students Buying

behavior in Tagaytay City Science National High School", it is stated that majority of the

respondents are often captivated by the product's brand name, quality, and

advertisement concept. Consumers tend to believe that if the brand name is well-known

and a popular celebrity or influencer is endorsing the product, it reflects as a good

advertisement concept and the quality of the product is guaranteed. This factor can

affect the buying behavior of the consumers, it can lead to them buying the product that

their idol endorsed. Also, given the age range of the respondents in their research and

this research, it states that the youth are incapable of making wise decisions as

consumers. Every age has its own state of mind and has a different way of thinking. For

example, a child has a changeable mind than an adult and an adult can think more

comprehensively than a child. Teenagers usually prefer to buy online because online

shop's voucher discounts attract them. An adult age is when the buyer considers the

value of money and decides on a product very thoughtfully.

 According to Dy, L. (2019), in her framework output entitled "Beauty Vloggers'

Influence and the Hype in Purchasing Aztec Indian Healing Clay" from the Polytechnic

University of the Philippines, she cited that during the first quarter of the year 2018, the

product Aztec Indian Healing Clay has become a trend to the public. This product is

known for its good results in skin problems and it is affordable. It is reported that this

product is one of the most reviewed items sold in Amazon in 2017, but this has been in

the market since 2005. Due to the sudden hype made by the beauty influencers, a lot of

people urgently purchased this product and were amazed by the effectiveness of this to

the skin problems. Product popularity has a big role in consumer's decision making.

They are likely to believe that a greater number of purchasers would indicate a higher

quality product, as the manufacturer would be forced to listen to the feedback of the

public in order to improve their product if there is.

LOCAL STUDIES

According to Espina, P. L. C., & Dorado, D. A. D. (2017) Information has always

been an important part of our everyday life, starting from the process of gaining and

sharing it through speaking and writing on online platforms. Combining the importance

of information with the on-going development of technology and popularity of the

internet, information nowadays has become more prone to misinformation. Along with

this exposure are many online information seeking behaviors of users wherein they tend

to search or be exposed to many correct or incorrect information. This equates that

there are two sides when it comes to users' exposure to online misinformation, one side

is from the creators that create independable information while the other is the

onlookers who get manipulated or misinformed by the creators or perceive the

information given to them incorrectly caused by the influencers’ lack of skill when it

comes to giving of information clearly

A study of Domanais et al. (2019) says that digital marketing has a big role in

connecting companies or businesses to people. To connect with the current and future

customers, businesses made different digital channels available such as social media,

email and other websites. All marketing actions that use an electronic device or the

internet are a part of digital marketing. The amount of subscribers, likes, dislikes,

comments and shares of a Youtube channel has a great effect on its audience. YouTube

is one of the greatest digital mediums that gives marketers and businesses more

chances to reach and attract their target consumers. There are also PR packages or

Public Relation packages that are commonly given to social media influencers that have

some of their newest product or product line. For this, a list of social media influencers
will be picked to do referral marketing, wherein they will showcase the given products to

them. The social media influencers that are usually picked for this job are the

influencers with the content of entertainment because a lot of people are more inclined

to watch videos that are related with the current trend.

Based on the findings demonstrated during the process of the study ‘’Influence of

social media as a marketing platform for food-related products in the new normal’’ by

Nathaniel B. Bermoy et al. (2021). The researchers concluded first that many agree that

social media is also used for marketing, though a developing concept, is as effective as

traditional marketing in a face-to-face environment. Second, many also agree that they

are satisfied with the analysed effect of online customer’s shopping values on consumer

satisfaction and loyalty. Third, the influence of social media as a marketing platform for

food-related products do not have significant effects on the product. Fourth, notable

conclusions were drawn from the study which are stated as follows.First, social media

can negate costs in marketing and still reach a broader audience. Second,

advertisements in social media should be informative and direct to the point. Third,
online food businesses should be more active on social media. Because of the covid-19

pandemic, many were put to lockdown or quarantined, minimizing physical contact

which resulted in a lot of businesses shutting down or residing into different platforms

like social media. This concludes that as the quarantine goes by, the marketers and

consumers on social media are also continuously rising in population.

According to Domanais et al. (2019), in their research output entitled "Youtube

Statistics: A Look at Its Effect on Youtube's Digital Marketing", concluded that brand

deals with influencers or Youtubers depends on their contents. They promote the brand

in a way or the style on how they put up a content. Cheeni Dy is a Medical Student and

a vlogger, she often creates studying vlogs and lets her subscribers see her day as a

Medical Student. Her videos are often sponsored by websites that are free for students

to learn. With this, her usual content is not affected by these marketing strategies when

creating a video. This explains the social image of social media influencers, it is what

they want the society to think of them in a certain way.

 A study was made to determine the preferred table bananas of consumers in low,

middle, and high income groups.To obtain the data needed, the researcher handed out

surveys to 400 banana consumers for them to fill up. Basan (2017) revealed that

high-income consumers were more demanding than low and middle income consumers

when it comes to portion size and fruit length. This shows that high income consumers

are willing to pay a great price for banana quality. His study also revealed that the

income of each income group affects their preferences when making purchase

decisions.

A study conducted by Jinang et al. (2019) examined how social media marketing

communications influence teenage consumers’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral

attitudinal components. The researchers distributed questionnaires to 337 students from

PUP College of Business Administration, their findings showed that social media

marketing communications can certainly affect the cognitive, affective, and behavioral

responses of the respondents. The study showed that the more teenagers utilize social

media, there is a greater probability that they will interact with marketing

communications on these platforms. Usage, log on frequency, and log on duration

showed great impact on the purchasing intention of the consumers. The longer the

length of the usage, log on frequency and log on duration the greater the probability that

they come across or will come across social media marketing communications.
 According to a study conducted by Del Carmen, Esguerra, Gerance (2020) where

they made urban consumers and consumers who live in the outskirts answer a survey

to determine the consumer’s purchasing intention for french soursop considering their

demographic characteristics and preferences. The result of the study showed that the

increase in family income caused the consumers to search for more desirable attributes

which can be classified into search which includes the size, color, peel, and thickness of

the soursop, and experience which includes (taste, juiciness, and pulp texture).

According to Sinpeng et al. (2020) analyzed twenty million activities and 39, 942

comments that were randomly sampled from official Facebook pages of presidential

candidates. This supports the model used by the researchers—grassroots model as

Duterte’ profile was the most occupied, even though Duterte wasn’t occupied himself.

Data from a survey of 621 respondents suggested that Duterte supporters were not only

assertive in their support for Duterte online, but they were also devoted to him offline. A

figure created by the researchers demonstrates that Duterte was the most central page

within his own fans and other candidates’ fans as well. The other candidates’ fans

talked about Duterte the most which resulted in making his page popular as the

engagement caused traffic to the page. The more engagement Duterte received, the

more traffic, the more Duterte achieved Facebook virality. The study concluded that

Facebook played an important role in the 2016 presidential elections, and that Rodrigo

Duterte dominated the Facebook platform.

 A study conducted by Peralta (2019) made a thorough analysis of the travel

vlogs about the Philippines made by popular foreign vloggers—Nas Daily, Lost LeBlanc,

Becoming Filipino, and Drew Binsky. Peralta supported the argument that travel

vloggers and their vlogs clearly create a destination image that is relevant and essential

for destination marketing. Nas Daily’s 1 minute and 45 seconds vlog titled “How Cheap

is the Philippines? (Day 298)” had an impressive number of views (28 million),

comments (113,000), reactions (395,000), and shares (276,000). From this study, it was

revealed that the perceived destination image of the Philippines is affordable, fun, and

beautiful. It was concluded that travel vlogs posted on social media can potentially

create and promote a destination image. Furthermore, the travel vlogs made by the

four foreign vloggers prove that vlogs help build a strong destination image, and at the

same time, travel vlogs can possibly show to a broader global audience the destination

image of a place.

A study conducted by Asana and Co (2020) identified the impact of Youtube

beauty vloggers as social media influencers on the brand awareness of consumers

when it comes to cosmetic products. The researchers handed out online surveys to 100

respondents who follow at least one beauty vlogger on Youtube. An investigation

conducted by Schouten, Jannsen, and Verspaget (2019) showed that the respondents

connect more with influencers rather than celebrities. The results of the study of Asana

and Co showed that Youtube beauty vloggers’ content value and credibility have an

effective influence on the brand awareness of consumers towards their endorsed

products. The study revealed that informative and entertaining content of Youtube

beauty vloggers have a compelling influence on brand awareness. When it comes to

informative content, the consumers can easily remember a brand when vloggers give

complete details of the product such as the price, distribution channels, and talk about

the attributes and benefits of the cosmetic product that they are endorsing.

Correspondingly, entertaining content helps in the effective establishment of an

emotional link between the message of the brand and the memory of the consumer. It

was also revealed that an influencer who is regarded as more credible can influence the

brand preference and awareness of their audience, since they are seen as trustworthy

and have relevant knowledge and experience.

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