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A Review on Evolution of Social Media Influencer Marketing: Reflection on

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 A Review on Evolution of Social Media Influencer Marketing: Reflection on Consumer Behavior and
Consumer’s Decision-Making Process

Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry (TOJQI)

Volume 12, Issue 9, August 2021: 314-327

A Review on Evolution of Social Media Influencer Marketing: Reflection on

Consumer Behaviour and Consumer’s Decision-Making Process
Prof. Jignesh Vidania, Dr. Siddharth G. Dasb

a
Research Scholar, Gujarat Technological University & Assistant Professor, L.J.Institute of Management
Studies, LJ University, Ahmedabad
b
Ph.D. Guide, Gujarat Technological University & Associate Professor, L.J. Institute of Computer
Application, LJ University, Ahmedabad

Abstract

Since the past five years, the size of social networks as well as social media users have been doubled
and this growth is creating a new marketing hurdle i.e. noise. Suddenly, the paid advertisements on
social media have become less effective because of the noise that has been developed by these online
users. This is the reason that 615 million social media users are using ad-blocking software and
applications which is growing by 30% every year. On one hand, users want to have an organic and
genuine connection with the brand, but this noise is not allowing them to do so. While on the other
hand marketers are reconsidering their advertising strategies and finding new and more effective
techniques of marketing. It is the reason that marketers are striving hard to find the best way that
would influence consumers as well as bring sales conversion. The best way to do this is to focus on
consumer-oriented marketing strategies such as Product placement, native advertising, content
marketing, and influencer marketing to avoid the noise that is created on social media. Social media
influencer marketing is a term that refers to leveraging the ability of key people to support a brand
and spread the word to their followers. It has been established as a new as well as a highly effective
method for brands to build and engage with audiences on social media. This paper focuses on the
evolution of influencer marketing from traditional marketing i.e. e-WOM from WOM derived from
various kinds of literature available on the internet.

KeyWords: WOM, e-WOM, Influencer Marketing, Consumer-oriented, content Marketing, product

placement, native advertising.

1. Introduction

As per International Telecommunication Union (Union, 2016), in the developed countries there are
almost 80% of the total population is using the internet. This is the reason that companies have
increased their share of the total marketing budget by adding more funds to social media as well as
digital marketing and reducing the expenses made on the conventional form of advertising like
television and print media (Mediestatistik, 2016). The increased number of internet users backed by
the companies investing more in social and digital marketing created a combined effect on garbing
consumer's attention online. Therefore to achieve the adequate effect of advertising companies now
cannot rely only on advertising reach (Hanna, 2011), but also to design the advertising campaign that

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involves the participation of consumers also (Rosengren, 2015). In some of the product categories,
up to 40% – 50% of consumers check out their reviews on social media handles. This is the reason
that during the last decade more marketers used social media marketing to engage consumers
(Bughin, 2015). This has given birth to a concept called Influencer Marketing. The term Influencer
Marketing is explained as marketing activities that are aimed to identify and build a relationship with
those individuals that can influence potential buyers (Wong, K., 2014).

In the views of various industrialists, influencers incorporate the brand's message using their unique
content creation on social media (Wong, K., 2014). According to research (Cortland, M., 2017)
conducted in 11 European countries 2 out of 5 users on the internet use adblocking software, and this
is where influencer marketing plays a vital role to reach these customers. In addition to that, it
provides customers with the opportunity to voluntarily take part it which is more interesting for the
customers (Hanna, 2011). According to a report (Nielsen, 2013), influencer marketing has power
20% more customer trust when it is compared to online advertising. Influencer's public endorsement
brings about increased confidence in the brand, although it is paid by the brand it comes under the
category of earned media (Dahlen, Lange & Rosengren, 2017). Influencer's endorsement increases
the public association with the brand as it is considered as high-quality marketing (Djafarova, E. &
Rushworth, C., 2017). For following influencers on social media, Instagram has been identified as
the most prominent platform (Djafarova, E. & Rushworth, C., 2017).

Other than the immediate effect of influencer marketing on sales and customer loyalty is that the
customer spread a positive word of mouth using electronic mode. This information when it is
forwarded through social media by the customer acts as an extension of the marketing program
investment. The total investment of the marketing investment is multiplied when these customers get
encouraged and forward the advertising brand message on social media platforms (Dahlen, Lange &
Rosengren, 2017). Influencer marketing communication has a positive effect on generating WOM
and Buzz around the product and brand image which is related to similar behavior of fun or learning,
other than that there are two important key intrinsic factors which are also considered (a.) Social
Image (b.) Self Image (Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L., 2016). The success of making brand promotion
information flow to more than one user of the product ahead of the initial recipient is dependent on
the customer's willingness to talk about the brand and product to other customers (Kotler, P. &
Keller, K. L., 2016). In today's era of social media brand advertising messages has the power to
rebroadcast and multiply eWOM among customers as there are more than 2.5 billion users of social
media (Statista, 2016)who participate in the creation of the content on various platforms of social
media (Obar, J. A. & Wildman, S., 2015).

2. Research Objectives
• To study the evolution of Influencer marketing from e-WOM
• To study the various views and aspects of influencer marketing
• To study the types of Social media influencers and their characteristics.
• To study the role of influencer marketing in consumer decision making
3. Research Methodology

The research is done by using the descriptive research method. This research is done by gathering
information from various e-resources, e-journals, e-reports, e-surveys, and e-library. The research is

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Consumer’s Decision-Making Process

undertaken within 6 months. The main objective of the research is to throw light on the evolution of
influencer marketing as a new technique of marketing.

4. Literature Review
4.1 Word-of-Mouth & Electronic Word-of-Mouth

When consumers are satisfied or dissatisfied with the performance of the product they tend to share
casually among other consumers their experiences and information about the product is called Word-
of-mouth (WOM) ( (Anderson, E. W., 1998) (Glynn Mangold, W., Miller, F., and Brockway, G.,
1999). The consumer tends to exchange their opinions, feelings, and experiences about the product in
and outside their social network. This WOM marketing technique helps consumers' networks
consequently increase brand awareness through self-replication and message diffusion (Kiss, C. and
Bichler, M., 2008), but also decreases the risk involved in customers' buying decision-making
process (Godes, D., & Mayzlin, D., 2004). The power of interpersonal influence increases through
word of mouth communication is identified by many researchers.

Hence, both business and academic communities consider Word-of-mouth as the most valuable,
influential, and persuasive form of marketing. According to a survey, 83% of consumers trust more
recommendations given by their friends, relatives, and family rather than other forms of
advertisement, making the word-of-mouth marketing model most effective compared to other
marketing models (Nielsen Catalina Solutions, 2016).

For decades we know that word-of-mouth communication has played a very influential role, but in
the recent era there is an immediate need of creating a difference in organizational efforts to
encourage "buzz", i.e. catching word-of-mouth commentary about all the four things i.e. products,
services, brands and ideas (Walker, R., 2004). Word-of-mouth can be divided into two broad
categories. They are 1.) Everyday Word-of-mouth 2.) Institutional Word-of-mouth or well-known as
buzz. Buzz Marketing organizations are those which either seek volunteers or pay people so that they
try a new brand and after that promote them into their social networks that form the part of an
organized Word-of-mouth campaign (Carl, W., 2006). Buzz marketing is a very old or earlier form
of influencer marketing where a company cultivates an opinion leader and gets them to spread the
information about the brand, product, or service to others in their community (Kotler, P., Armstrong,
G., 2012).

Customers and companies both can easily share information and opinions in both markets i.e.
business to consumer and consumer to consumer with the appearance of the Web 2.0 well-known as
Social Web. This has begun a new drastic shift from traditional to modern (Web/Social Media)
marketing communication models. Traditional marketing communication followed a one-to-many
model whereas modern (Web/Social media) marketing communications go along more interactive
way by following the many-to-many model. This means it is moving from more monologue to a
dialogue form (Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P., 1996)

Modern marketing communication media has given more open ground for electronic-based word-of-
mouth communication to proliferate. It is more advantageous for the companies as online user
reviews will help to influence other users' perception about the product through social networking
and social media sites and this could be considered as the part of eWOM (Duan, W., Gu, B., &

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Whinston, A. B., 2008). When potential, actual, or former customers spread any positive or negative
statement about a company or its product which can be seen or read to a multitude of people and
institutions using the internet is called eWOM (Hennig-Thurau, T., Qwinner, K.P., Walsh, G.,
Gremler, D.D., 2004). eWOM is more powerful as it is immediate, has a major reach, and is open to
others though it is less personal due to lack of face-to-face communication.

4.2 Web 2.0 & Social Media

Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty were the first to use the word Web 2.0 in an O'Reilly Media Web
2.0 Conferences organized in 2004 (Graham, Paul, 2005). Web 2.0 is not an updated technical
version of Web 1.0 or well-known as a first-generation world wide web, but rather it is the ways
companies have started developing websites and increased their use in this era. Many authors
consider the terms social media, Web 2.0, and creative consumer as identical, hence they use them
interchangeably in their research work ( (Kaplan, A., & Haenlein, M., 2010); (Berthon, P., Pitt, L.,
Plangger, K., & Shapiro, D., 2012)). Web 2.0 is a combination of two vital concepts out of which are
social media which concentrates on content and the other is creators of the content which
concentrates on consumer-generated content. Hence it has enabled a social trend of collective media
which smoothes the progress of consumer-generated content. In simple terms, Web 2.0 facilitates the
creation and sharing of consumer-generated content using social media (Berthon, P., Pitt, L.,
Plangger, K., & Shapiro, D., 2012).

Web 2.0 has grown in two dimensions in the context of marketers; during its initial phase it gave rise
to 'social media, and in a later phase, it allowed 'creative consumer' to grow (Tapscott, D., &
Williams, A. D., 2007). The main concept of Web 2.0 is many-to-many content. The content created
by the customer is carried through social media and social media networking sites. The customer
creates the value-added content on social media and their connections form the part of the audience
to that content. That value-added content is exposed to their connections which comprises of friends,
family, and associates. This is identified as either user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-
generated media (CGM). It can in any form words, text, images, and videos which is generated by
millions and billions of either users or consumers worldwide, and from a marketing point of view, it
can help in creating value either for the company, brand, product, or service. It begins as a process of
creating value which sparks as casual discussion about the product or services, moves ahead to users
creating reviews, suggestions, and evaluations in a structured format in form of texts or videos, and
indulging consumers into either promotion or demotion of brands (Berthon, P., Pitt, L., McCarthy, I.,
& Kates, S., 2007). In addition to that consumers get involved in the up-gradation of proprietary
products and services as well as in sharing these innovations (Berthon, P., Pitt, L., & Campbell, C.,
2008).

According to a report ( (Pagefair and Adobe, 2015), (PageFair, 2017)), the ad-blocking usage is
increasing with 30% of the annual growth, hence it has become a mandate for the marketer to
discover new modes to reach as well as influence customers without depending on the traditional
mode of marketing. This is the reason social media marketing and user-generated content are
speedily becoming the most extensively preferred and effective online marketing strategies.

4.3 Influencer Marketing

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4.3.1Influencers 2.0

The engagement of the audience in business to business (B2B) and Business to consumer (B2C) has
changed due to the growth in Social Web. Social media has changed the marketing scenario which
has developed many innovative and creative ways of paid advertising techniques that control online
communication to influence the brand's target audience, increase engagement resulting in the
purchase of the product by consumers.

As stated by many research studies that customers trust word-of-mouth more than the advertisement
of the brand. Influencer marketing is the process while word-of-mouth is a medium, but influencer
marketing is always mixed up with word-of-mouth (Markethub, 2016). As influencer marketing is a
recent concept introduced in marketing literature there is no exact definition of it.

Social media influencer marketing is a term that refers to leveraging the ability of key people to
support a brand and spread the word to their followers. It has been established as a highly effective
method for brands to build and engage with audiences on social media. This marketing technique
requires collaboration between the brand and an influencer.

Influencer marketing is not a completely new concept as, for many years, celebrities, athletes, and
other leaders were the sole influencers in their fields and brands would collaborate to promote their
products or services. The strategic marketing technique of the traditional influencer campaign of the
past regarded recruitment of a celebrity spokesperson. Nowadays, the challenge is to exploit an
influencer who can motivate his followers to acquire user-generated images, which include a brand's
product or service. Real-life influencers, everyday people, who are passionate about the products that
they suggest, have a noteworthy following and an enormous number of buying conversations and
conversions. A McKinsey study proves that consumers are more likely to trust and follow this kind
of product endorsement. Influencer marketing is a unique concept as it has allowed consumers to
share their voice, opinion, and content about the product, services, and brand using social media
communication as it has changed the scene of marketing. This is the reason a lot of marketing blogs
and reports are referring to it as "Influencer 2.0" or "Word-of-Mouth 2.0", to emphasize that it is the
future influence of marketing and its connection with Web 2.0 ('Influence 2.0', Report by (Traackr,
2017)).

An overview of the term Influencer is necessary to clarify the exact meaning of Influencer
Marketing. Some several definitions and views exist about influencers as the term is relatively new.
A Scope of influence over the organization and potential customers by 3rd party is called Influencer
(Christopher, 2004). Influencer marketers are the people who shape the customer’s buying decisions,
but they may never be accountable for it (Brown, 2015)

Influencers are activists, well-connected with consumers, have an impact on the active minds of
consumers, as well as are trendsetters, though this set of attributes of influencers are aligned
specifically to consumer markets only (Keller, E., & Berry, J., 2003). Major definitions refer to
influencers as friends who recommend something to consumers using online review forums. Word of
Mouth Marketing Association defines an influencer as, "a person who has greater than average reach
or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace (WOMMA, 2017).

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This research paper will be using definition as the 3rd party endorser that shapes the attitudes of
consumers using blogs, tweets, and other tools of social media are called Social Media Influencer -
SMI (Freberg, 2011).

4.3.2 Types of influencers

Recent research study has made more attempts to more clarify the role and effectiveness of the new
trend in marketing i.e social media influencer marketing on consumer's purchase decisions. Social
Media influencer marketing is functioning as a Digital Opinion Leader depicting as a member of an
online social community who has the power to influence others based on expertise on the related
topic (Cho, Y., Hwang, J., & Lee, D., 2012). Few other authors hold up depicting that Social Media
Influencer is a highly visible person, attention seeker, has the power of admirability with high social
status( (Kapitan, S., & Silvera, D., 2016); (Khamis, S., Ang, L., & Welling, R., 2016); (Pedroni, M.,
2016)). Additionally few other research studies found that Social Media Influencers are Social
leaders; Individuals that use their large social capital forming an online community to set the
standards in regards to the values and behavior of members of the community( (Forsyth, D. R.,
2015); (Langner, S., Hennigs, N., & Wiedmann, K., 2013)). Since there is no exact definition of
either influencer or Social Media Influencers (SMI) every article or report has narrated them in their
way. For this research study, we would use major types of influencers depicted below:

A.) Mega-Influencer or Celebrities

As we have described in this research, influencer marketing is not at all a new concept. For years
now Bollywood celebrities have been influencing a large group of consumers. All those influencers
who are there before the appearance of social media are known as Mega-influencer, which include
actors, artists, celebrities, and athletes. These celebrities would either be the endorser, the advocate,
or the face of a brand through television, paper ads, and hoardings.

Despite a famous influencer marketing firm, where the mega-influencers had massive reach i.e. up to
1 million followers, they used to drive 2% to 5% consumer engagement only (Marwick, A. E., 2013).
As a result, they provide a highly relevant audience but low brand significance. Despite best in
impression and awareness, they do not drive the audience towards the desired action of purchasing
the product, service, or brand.

B.) Macro-Influencer or Opinion-Leader

Influencer marketing is often explained by the term opinion leaders or Market mavens ( (Feick, L., &
Price, L., 1987); (Kozinets, R., de Valck, K., Wojnicki, A., & Wilner, S., 2010)), although they differ
from rest of the influencers in terms of regular communication with both ordinary consumers and a
large group of strangers (McQuarrie, E. F., Miller, J., & Phillips, B. J., 2012). Looking through a
psychological point of view, opinion leaders are strategically placed individuals in social networks at
all the levels of the society and they can influence on one or more several topics (Buttle, F., 1998).
The reliability of consumers comes from the combination of two things out of which is knowledge
and the other is expertise about the product, service, or brand with whom they are involved (Feick,
L., & Price, L., 1987). They are often also known as innovators. They include people like executives,
bloggers, and Journalists. They can get desired results in terms of purchase from the audience as they
have a great resource and high level of engagement with their followers (Marwick, A. E., 2013).

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Consumer’s Decision-Making Process

Moreover, they have a huge power to influence the purchase behavior though they have low topic
significance but high product knowledge. The risk of buying something new and unfamiliar product,
service, or brand becomes low when it is backed by the recommendation of an opinion leader (Hsu,
C., Chuan-Chuan Lin, J., & Chiang, H., 2013)

C.) Micro-Influencer

When a product, service, or brand uses a new style to boost its awareness over social media by
posting related videos, blogs, consumer feedback, this strategy is called marketing through
Microcelebrity (Senft, T. M., 2008). Microcelebrities are not famous unlike celebrities from the
entertainment industry with an image of public idol and millions of followers but are famous among
a small segment of consumers i.e. niche market (Marwick, A. E., 2013) and they create content that
gives the feeling of authenticity, originality, and trustworthiness to followers or consumers in that
segment group. In contrast to traditional celebrities, these micro-influencers have a niche segment of
consumers and they maintain them finely through constant communicating with them (Pedroni, M.,
2016). Micro-influencers are "next door" personalities with qualities such as success, talent, and
attractiveness full of administration, association, and aspiration (Djafarova, E. & Rushworth, C.,
2017).

They have the capability of triggering consumers' desire to purchase the product, service, or brand
and can also boost the positive attitude of the brand and loyalty to their large group of followers
through recommendations (Lv, H., Yu, G., & Wu, G., 2015). With the quality of being an everyday
consumer, they can boost high engagement i.e about 26% to 60% with conversions (Marwick, A. E.,
2013).

4.3.3 Influencer Characteristics

Every influencer has certain special attributes, besides some of the basic and vital characteristics of
influencers (Keller, E., & Berry, J., 2003). In the views of Keller and Berry (2003) as mentioned in
their book "the influential", the influencer should have an ACTIVE profile:

A head in adoption

C onnected (socially and electronically)

T ravelers

I nformation Hungry

V ocal

E xposed to media

We call social media influencers "ACTIVE" because they are people shining energy. Though they
don't possess the highest level of education they have an activist mindset, highly educated, and real
volunteers. They don't waste their time in irregular activities like watching television, but they get
involved in various activities.

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They are too active and broad-minded and love to travel, explore new things about various cultures,
and grab more information. Social media influencers are people who progress constantly, responsible
for innovation and leaders by nature. They have a very strong list of followers, this is the reason they
are more ahead in adopting and exposing to media as well as exposing their voice through media
(Keller, E., & Berry, J., 2003).

Consumers rely on reviews and purchase e-commerce if the influencers are successful in building
trust among them. That is the reason, recognition of trusted influencers as well as effective influencer
campaigns have become a trendy topic in marketing. According to source credibility theory, there are
3 R's or 3 other factors that an active social media influencer must possess:

R each - The ability to deliver content to a target audience.

R elevance - Strength of connection to a brand or topic.

R esonance - Ability to drive the desired behavior from an audience.

4.3.4 Influencer Marketing Benefits

To fulfill the organization's objectives and goals marketing strategies should be made more specific
and efficient with correct actions (Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., 2012). Through successful
collaborations with influencer's campaigns, adequate marketing objectives of the firm can be
achieved. For instance, increasing traffic through sales promotion, brand awareness, and recognition,
acquiring new customers and reaching niche audiences, satisfactory relationship maintenance,
superior corporate image and status, competitive advantage, maintaining a relationship with existing
customers, communicate information to the public.

According to a recent research study, influencer marketing gives 11 (eleven) times higher return on
investment (ROI) compared to that of a traditional form of online Marketing (Nielsen Catalina
Solutions, 2016). The same study also confirms the customer tends to purchase more products on
each purchase event when they are exposed through influencer marketing compared to that of
traditional online marketing. Furthermore, when the influencer marketing campaign is used by the
company it not only gives more returns than usual social media marketing campaigns and general
digital marketing campaigns. There is already a relationship between the influencer and their
followers due to trust and credibility; hence the product, service or brand gets a bigger advantage as
well as better reach. The influencers create content for the product, service, or brand which creates a
halo effect. This is impossible to happen with display advertisement, as users are already aware of
such advertisements and even if it appears on an influencer's website, it neither gets endorsed by nor
gets associated with the influencer (Nielsen Catalina Solutions, 2016). Influencers play a role of a
funnel by creating content for those social users who are already interested by creating a niche
market. As an influencer has already encouraged a niche audience on social media, the company can
save funds that would be used for testing and finding the exact audience for its product, service, or
brand. As already noted the company could highly increase its brand awareness through online reach
and positioning.

Whereas the people on social media are keen to know more about the brand's story and the solutions
offered by it. Bands are connecting the power of Influencer marketing in many ways; it is generally

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done by matching the brand's target market with the influencer's audience. According to an
Influencer Marketing Report brands that are using influencer marketing, found that 69% of them
"affirm that either their influencer actions have been effective or have provided the desired results"
(Status Of Influencer Marketing In 2014, 2017). Companies partner with social media influencers in
events such as the launch of a product, content distribution, and promotion of an event. An additional
benefit of influencer marketing is it reduces the negative feedback from those customers who
undergo inundated by unwelcoming marketing messages. Zhang states that "by sending a message
only to a carefully selected group of consumers who are likely to be interested in the product/service,
a company can reduce the number of negative feelings generated" (Zhang, Y., et, al, 2013).
Consumers trust less on mass media advertisement compared to that message coming from more
trustworthy like an influencer.

4.4 Consumer behavior & Decision Making Process

Potential buyers are impressed mostly by Influencer Marketing. It has led to a drastic change in the
marketing techniques i.e marketing for customers to marketing with people well-known as
consumer-oriented marketing. Consumer-oriented marketing is the philosophy of progressive
marketing that seizes the company should view and organize its marketing activities from the point
of view of consumers" (Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., 2012). Based on consumers of the product
company should pick the best suitable marketing messages along with the best-fitted channel for the
promotion of that message. The company needs to recognize and understand its target group for
which the company should understand of consumer-oriented marketing approach.

People can be classified into adopter types based on their eagerness to try new products, services,
and brands. There are five adopter types which are having different values. Innovators are those who
are more adventurous and they try a new product at some amount of risk, early adopters are those
who are guided by respect; the main characteristic of them is they are opinion leaders in their circle
and adapt to new products very carefully. Next comes early majority are conscious, they are the ones
who adopt the new products before a common man does but they are not leaders in their circle. Then
comes the late majority who are doubtful, they adopt new product only and only after a large group
of people have purchased and tried the product. Finally comes laggards who are custom bound and
they have a characteristic of rigidity to change and they purchase new product only when it has
become a practice in itself (Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., 2012). Influencers mostly fall into the type of
either innovators or early adopters and generally, they influence the purchase intentions of the other
categories too.

Consumer attitudes and purchase intentions are cognitively affected by the post on social media
which contains visual and verbal content both (Kim, M., & Lennon, S., 2008). The main
characteristics of both visual and verbal content can be a vital component in designing influencing
marketing messages (Shaouf, A., Lü, K., & Li, X., 2016). Hence the customers who follow social
media influencers and make their future purchase decisions based on their post are called social
shoppers (Chahal, M., 2016). These types of consumers are those who regularly search for new
products by surfing on social media.

Either need or problem is faced by the consumer in the 1st stage. When it is raised to a high level
because of hunger or thirst it is termed as internal stimuli. An advertisement or small talk with a

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 Prof. Jignesh Vidani, Dr. Siddharth G. Das

friend can also create a need and can drive for purchase it is termed as external stimuli. Now the
consumer sets out to search for more and more information related to his need or solution to his
problem. There are many sources from where the consumer can get information like family, friends,
advertisements, websites, salesperson, social media, internet search, consumer reviews, rating
agencies, using the product, etc. They can be majorly divided into personal, commercials, public and
experimental sources (Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., 2012). The most influential source is the personal
one which consists of family and friends. Personal sources evaluate the product whereas commercial
sources just inform the product the buyer. The customer awareness about the brand, knowledge about
the brand and features of the brand are increased as consumer tends to get more information about
the brand. Now the consumer shifts to the next stage where the consumer will evaluate the brands
based on the information received by him. Consumers either take purchase decisions on their own or
take the help of friends and online reviews for buying opinions. When a consumer tends to buy a
certain set of a product under certain conditions is termed as purchase intention (J.N. Vidani, 2019).
It is followed by the purchase decision when the consumer selects the most chosen brand. Between
purchase intention and purchase decision there are two factors; one the attitude of others and two the
unexpected situational factors. For instance, when Mr. Tarun identifies that he is need of a car, the
chances of the latter purchase of the car by Tarun is reduced, now the purchase decision of Tarun
may be affected by uncertain situation factors such as unexpected reduction in income, increase in
the price of the car, a friend who gives a poor review of the car (Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., 2012).
Further, on the user experience consumers, it forms a post-purchase behavior which can be either
satisfied or dissatisfied.

4.5 Source Credibility Theory

Source credibility theory consists of attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness (Ohanian, R.,
1990). This describes to what level the target audience observe the source to gain expertise and
knowledge about their understanding of the brand, product or service ( (Ohanian, R., 1990); (Teng,
S., Wei Khong, K., Wei Goh, W., & Yee Loong Chong, A., 2014)). For the credibility of the source,
two important things are needed Quality of argument and influencing strength (Kutthakaphan, R., &
Chokesamritpol, W., 2013).

The power to influential arguments within the context of information is termed as "argument quality"
(Teng, S., Wei Khong, K., Wei Goh, W., & Yee Loong Chong, A., 2014). That is the reason when
either reviews or statements given by influencers related to product, service, or brand are credible,
that develops a positive attitude towards the product, service, or brand among consumers (Spry, A.,
Pappu, R., & Bettina Cornwell, T., 2011). When the reviews about the product, service, or brand are
not true or misleading it develops a negative attitude towards the product, service, and brand as well
as the endorser or the influencer (Cheung, M., Luo, C., Sia, C., & Chen, H.).

The credibility of the influencer is validated by the potency of public perception about the influencer
and the relevance as well as timeliness (Djafarova, E. & Rushworth, C., 2017). Reviews should be
relevant and applicable which indicates the 'relevance' (Teng, S., Wei Khong, K., Wei Goh, W., &
Yee Loong Chong, A., 2014).

5. Managerial Implications

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Consumer’s Decision-Making Process

Influencer marketing can result into a failure if marketers and brands could take the following
precautions:

1.) The company should know its target market and its qualities. When a brand works with
influencer it takes the advantage of influencer’s audience. Hence if the influencer’s audience is
unrelated to the company’s target market all the attempts will go in vain. The company often
faces issues in finding the right influencer for its company’s or Brand’s face. The decision of
selecting a perfect influencer depends on three things i.e. marketing objectives of the brand, goals
of the brand and the type of industry segment the brand is serving.

2.) It is important for the companies to permit the influencers to create the content of the brand in the
company’s guidance. The most vital part is that influencers should be allowed to present his
original content because the followers are more expected to connect with the product or brand.
Further more if the company’s allow influencers to create their own content, companies should
always check and cross verify whether it is significant with the company’s goals and culture.

3.) Some other aspects of the influencer marketing campaign can be like gender bias post, racist
concepts, things that are not real. All this things may have a negative implication of followers not
only towards the influencers but also to the brands that the influencer is endorsing.

6. Conclusion

The technique of influencer marketing of connecting a highly related audience and create authentic
content is the most trendy marketing technique. In one of the research it has been found that
influencer marketing has a power to generate 11 times more return compared to that of digital
marketing technique. But as it is a new concept the sources of information available is limited. Hence
there is more scope of research in the area likes exploring consumer’s perception about the
influencer marketing, identify if influencer marketing could help or damage consumer’s perception
about a brand.

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