CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
Social media is here and it is not going away anytime soon. Social media has accomplished significant importance not only in our everyday life but as well in the marketing world, and it has continued to develop and offers abundance of new opportunities to brands, marketers and consumers to interact and engage with one another. The degree of customer engagement and content consumption is extremely high and the focus has been placed in the act of influencing (Kaul & Chaudhri, 2017). With the dawn advent of social media, a lot of brands have recognized the potential of these platforms for reaching and influencing large crowds of individuals (Ananda, Hernández-García & Lamberti, 2016; Nisar & Whitehead, 2016). As a result, social media has turned out to be an essential tool for their marketing strategies.
Influencer marketing is considered to be a strong advertising tool, because it makes it possible for brands and marketers to distribute the right brand message to the right target segment (Lim, Radzol, Cheah & Wong, 2017; Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch, 2016) and hence, contemporary brands and marketers are using influencers to promote their products or services online (De Veirman, Cauberghe & Hudders, 2017; Araujo, Neijens & Vliegenthart, 2017; Lim, et al., 2017). Therefore, social media influencers use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube to share product endorsements and to publicize information and promotions with their followers (Lim, et al., 2017). Their product endorsements play a crucial role in the marketing strategies of the brands that collaborate with them, as they can contribute to shaping a good reputation and image for the brand and can as well help to achieve the company’s business purposes, as well as raising brand awareness. Given the above, that is why influencers are regarded to be one of the most cost efficient and effective marketing trends in this contemporary epoch (Talaverna, 2015). In addition, the recommendations and referral made by influencers are perceived to be more reliable and appealing to the consumers and consumers are more likely to buy a product or a service recommended by their favorite social media influencer (Lim, et al., 2017). Individuals be inclined to trust the influencers they follow, as they consider them to be authentic, realistic, genuine and credible in specific fields they are interested in and, thus, they perceive them as expert personalities in these matters (Kinski, 2017).
The skincare/beauty industry is one of the top industries that are using social media marketing especially with the Instagram platform (Johansson, 2016) and it is very well known for using influencers to gain brand awareness and increase sales, to drive traffic to their pages or websites, to promote product launches and to develop brand’s communities (Weinswig, 2017; Kinski, 2017). The term skincare encompasses makeup, beauty products that are a mixture of chemicals and are generally used to improve the appearance of the human body (Rajput, 2016). The cosmetic and beauty business is always evolving and so are their marketing strategies. Consumers are tired of the traditional advertising methods, and thus, beauty brands now use influencers to build credibility and trust by posting their personal experiences and recommendations on their social media (Kinski, 2017).
This study focused on Instagram, which is one of the social media platforms that has gained over 600 million active users today, with the majority of this audience being women, according to Statista (2019). A lot of brands have recognized the potential of Instagram to create content and campaigns and as well as to interact with their audience daily (Ghidotti, 2017). Furthermore, Instagram is the ideal and most suitable platform for beauty product endorsements and promotions, as well as for luxury goods, based on the fact that it is based on filtered and aesthetically beautiful pictures (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017; Jin, Muqaddam & Ryu, 2019). Consumers are remarkably interested in following influencers and keep in touch with the content they share. Also, people tend to ignore ads, but they do notice posts about product endorsements or even sponsored content by influencers they have chosen to follow and engage with (Ghidotti, 2017). In addition, the beauty industry has turned out to be popular on Instagram for the past years, with beauty gurus or influencers being one of the most widespread niches on Instagram (Hudson, 2017). It is considered to be the most popular social media for sharing beauty related content (Kinski, 2017) and for this reason cosmetic and skincare/beauty brands use such influencers to promote their products (Sharma, 2017).
Thus, it is based on the above background that this present study seek to examine the role of Instagram influencers on the purchase pattern of Nigerian skincare products among females in Babcock University, Ogun State.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
In contemporary days, social media has turned out to be one of the important channels for maximizing profit because of its accessibility to consumers and across many users, with the aid of platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The universal accessibility of the Internet has ushered in the use of social media as a marketing tool, and as well offered opportunity to brands, organizations, business owners and individuals to change the perception of consumer through social media marketing. Thus, there is a necessity for brands and companies to understand how influencer marketing operates and how to take advantage of this digital revolution for their own benefit. It is crucial for contemporary brands to engage with social media influencers, in order to obtain a genuine and reliable presence in the digital communities (Ghidotti, 2017; Uzunoğlu & Misci Kip, 2014) and as well to better understand how the consumers perceive the activities of these influencers. Additionally, the biggest platform for this sort of marketing at the moment is Instagram (Fastenau, 2018), with the majority of the users being females with a percentage of 68% (Statista, 2019; Chen, 2018).
However, despite the significant role of influencers in digital marketing communication, there is lack of empirical evidence on the role of Instagram influencers on the purchase intention of skincare products by female. For instance, Jin, Muqaddam and Ryu (2019) examined luxury branding by social media influencers; Jin, Muqaddam and Ryu (2019) examined how Instagram celebrities advertise luxury brands on their profile and which is the effect on consumers that follow them. Moreover, according to Chen (2017), the topic of marketing on Instagram has not yet been researched in detail either. Furthermore, there have also been studies that examine the influencers’ perspective as content creators and as tools to advertise and promote certain brands (Gannon & Prothero, 2018). While there is already existing literature on influencer marketing and product endorsement, there is a gap in examining the role of Instagram influencers on the purchase pattern of Nigerian skincare products among females mainly from a quantitative approach (Sokolova & Kefi, 2019). Thus, this present study will provide an in-depth interpretation of how Instagram influencers work and how the audience perceives this kind of practices.
Therefore, it is important to carry out a study of this nature to examine the role of Instagram influencers on the purchase pattern of Nigerian skincare products among females in Babcock University, Ogun State, with specific focus on the influencers’ attributes such as attractiveness and credibility that influence consumers’ attitude and purchase intention.
1.3. Objective of the Study
The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the role of Instagram influencers on the purchase pattern of Nigerian skincare products among females in Babcock University, Ogun State. In order to achieve the above objective, the following specific objectives are:
- To assess the impact of Instagram influencers on the purchase pattern of a skincare product by female undergraduates in Babcock University.
- To examine the role of Instagram influencers credibility on purchase intention of female undergraduates in Babcock University
- To find out the influence of Instagram influencers attractiveness on purchase intention of female undergraduates in Babcock University
- To evaluate the other characteristics of the Instagram influencers that has an influence on female purchase intention of skincare product
1.4. Research Questions
The following research questions are posed for this study.
- What is the impact of Instagram influencers on the purchase pattern of skincare product among female undergraduates in Babcock University?
- How does the credibility of Instagram influencers influence the purchase intention of skincare product among female undergraduates in Babcock University?
- How does the attractiveness of Instagram influencers influence the purchase intention of skincare product among female undergraduates in Babcock University?
- What are the other characteristics of the Instagram influencers that have an influence on female purchase intention of skincare product?
1.5. Research Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses are formulated in their null form
Ho1: Instagram influencers have no significant influence on the purchase pattern of skincare product among female undergraduates in Babcock University.
Ho2: Instagram influencers’ credibility has no significance influence on the purchase intention of skincare product among female undergraduates in Babcock University
Ho3: Instagram influencers’ attractiveness has no significance influence on the purchase intention of skincare product among female undergraduates in Babcock University
Ho4: There is no other characteristic of the Instagram influencers that has an influence on female purchase intention of skincare product.
1.6. Significance of the Study
The findings of this study will add to the wealth of information presently available on the impact of Instagram influencers on purchase pattern of female undergraduates.
The results of this study would be significant in the sense that, it would enable brands, corporate organizations and individuals to identify the suitable influencers that will have a positive influence on their products and services and as well as to enhance brand image and sales performance.
Furthermore, the results of the study are expected to contribute to closing the gap in literature with respect to understanding the negative influence an influencer could have which might affect the purchase intention of female undergraduates.
Lastly, the study will highlight the importance of influencers marketing as a vehicle for promoting brands, products and services, and as well as influencing public opinions about a particular brand.
1.7. Scope of the Study
The study focused on the role of Instagram influencers on the purchase pattern of Nigerian skincare products among females in Babcock University, Ogun State. The study is confined to female undergraduates in Babcock University. Female undergraduates are selected because the topic understudy is a gender based which focused mainly on female, so they are considered suitable to provide the right and accurate data needed for the study. The data for this study will be gathered using a self-structured questionnaire, and data gathered will be analysed using the mean and standard deviation techniques.
1.8. Operational Definition of Terms
Instagram: is a social networking application that allows users to upload and edit photos, along with hashtags and text.
Influencers: are online celebrities who exhibit their personal lives to many followers via social media.
Social Media: refers to a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content”.
Skincare: refers to a mixture of chemicals and are generally used to improve the appearance of the human body
Purchase Pattern: refers to the extent at which female undergraduates purchase skincare product
Consumer Behaviour: refers to the study of the mechanism involved in the choosing, purchasing, utilizing or disposing goods, resources, proposals or interactions for satisfying desires and demands by individuals or groups.”
Influencer Marketing: is the art and science of engaging people who are influential online to share brand messaging with their audiences in the form of sponsored content.
Undergraduate: Undergraduates are student who are yet to receive their Bachelor’s Degree
