Influencers' Impact on Cosmetic Purchases

Introduction:

“In a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face.” (Licklider and Taylor 1968, p.21).

It is impossible for brands to deny the importance of social media marketing in this modern era as four out of five people use a social media network site on a regular basis (Radwanick, 2010 cited by Booth and Matic, 2011). Social Media sites are defined as web based applications that allow users to create their unique profiles to share and view user generated content with fellow users (Obar and Wildman, 2015 and Boyd and Ellison, 2007). Social media marketing is a newer practice that support businesses in using these apps as an extension of traditional marketing tools to create digital and interactive promotional activities that users are motivated to share and discuss increasing a brand’s awareness (Dahnil et al., 2014). There is also a misconception that social media marketing allow brands to reduce marketing costs (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017) when in fact many brands are now spending more than ever on digital marketing, with a predicted spend of $100 Billion globally as of 2017 (Busvine, 2018). This increased interest by brands can be attributed to the growing ownership of smartphones and larger data allowances which allow the consumer to access their social media apps on the go (Reynolds, 2018) constantly raising the awareness of these promotional materials.

Research Topic:

How the use of influencers on instagram persuade millennial female consumer decisions throughout the UK cosmetic industry.

Research Aim:

Understand how influencers shape and encourage millennial female consumer purchasing decisions utilising Instagram.

Research Objectives:

To identify the impact instagram marketing and influencers has on motivating consumer purchasing decisions in the ‘search for information’ stage.

To identify the role of trust in influencers when influencing cosmetic purchasing.

To understand if the informational assistance from influencers ease consumer when buying before trying (Online Shopping).

Influencers are defined as individuals who have a reach or influence over a certain target market (Sudha and Sheena, 2017). Consumers are turning to these individuals to provide insights into products and brands, pushing them to become the modern opinion leaders (Booth and Matic, 2011., De Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders, 2017., Tuten and Solomon, 2018) . The UK cosmetic industry has been chosen as there seems to be a gap in existing research on how Instagram influencers aid this particular industry despite there being research on social media influencers generally (Hyder, 2016) and beauty influencers in the States (Forbes, 2016). It is hard to ignore the UK Cosmetic Industry which as of 2017 was valued at £1.98 Billion, an increase of 6% from 2016 (Khanom, 2018b). Many cosmetic brands are turning to social media platforms such as Instagram to create accounts to help them better communicate with their consumers and give their brand name more personality (Squier, 2016). With the most popular brands posting on Instagram on average nearly 6 times a week, the platform’s engagement is over 10 times more effective than Facebook (Forrester research, 2017 cited by Rebelo, 2017). Beauty brands such as Benefit have found that they generate more footfall into their stores and website after posting on Instagram (Squier, 2016) encouraging Instagram to release new features that allows customers to shop directly via the app (Khanom, 2018a). The research will be focusing on female consumers 18-25 as this demographic is the largest purchasing group of cosmetic products along with the highest usage of social media apps (Khanom, 2017)

The Gap

Whilst there is already some research into how social media marketing can be used to maintain or impact brand reputation (Aula, 2010., Pfeffer, Zorbach and Carley, 2013), grow customer relations (Trainor, Andzulis, Rapp, & Agnihotri, 2014 cited by Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017), ensure brands keep up with trends to these individuals to provide insights into products and brands, becoming opinion leaders (Booth and Matic, 2011 and De Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders, 2017) . Few researchers have focused specifically on the social media marketing on the platform, Instagram. The social media site, created in 2010 is marketed as a photo sharing app (Bergström and Bäckman, 2013., Instagram, 2019) and now pulls in over 1 billion active users every month making it imperative brands are able to use the app effectively. It is obvious from the statements above that Influencers are particularly important in promoting products in today’s day and age but the research will hope to evaluate and Identify the impact that Influencers on Instagram have on motivation to purchase cosmetic products for millenium females particularly those between the ages of 18 - 25.

Literature Review:

Search for Information and Social Media

It has been found that traditionally before a consumer carries out a purchase, there are five stages they experience: Need Recognition, the Search for Information, Evaluation of Product Options, Purchase Decision, and the Post-Purchase Evaluation (Blythe, 2014 and Kotler and Lane Keller, 2015). Belch and Belch (2012) found that throughout the process, the consumer may be influenced by internal and external forces such as: Personal and psychological factors for the internal and cultural and social factors for the external (Al-Salamin and Al-Hassan, 2016).

The above model (Figure 1) emphasises all the steps a consumer may go through before making a purchase but, it may not be accurate as depending on the size and price of the purchase consumers’ may not need all those steps e.g. a repeat purchase (Whitten, 2018).

Companies should focus on advertising their products to ensure that target customers get to know about them. Hassan, Nadzim and Shiratuddin (2015) posit that advertising is normally aimed encouraging customers to buy and use the products and services a company offers. In line with the AIDA model, potential customers go through for phases when making decisions on whether to buy products and these correlate to the AIDA model`s four phases; Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. Wijaya (2015) argues that for the message of an advertisement to be displayed to potential customers, it is crucial that the advertiser first attracts the attention of the group targeted. For content to be able to attract attention, it needs to contain, new, provocative or contradictory information. Attractive layouts would ensure that the effect of an advertisement on potential customers is positive and that could probably be achieved through the use of graphic design elements.

According to Fortenberry and McGoldrick (2019), after an awareness has been established, it is then necessary to get them interested and further sustain their interest. In this stage, presentation of brands and products is done, followed by emphasis on their benefits and various ways through which the product could be purchased are introduced. This phases goals usually are achieved when customers begin to engage with the ads and develop an interest in the services and products on offer. The third phase would involve developing the interest of the consumer into a purchasing intent that is concrete. At this phase, it would be prudent that the advertisement offers information with emphasis on the benefits of the product on offer against the products offered by competitors. That is aimed at making the group targeted to view the company in positive light.

Eriksson and Forh (2018), posit that when demand for a specific service or product has been created successfully, the final phase, the action phase, follows where the targeted group is expected to ultimately use the service offered or buy the product advertised.

This research aims to contribute on how Instagram marketing aids the consumer purchasing decisions as whilst there is so much research on the decision making process there is limited research on how Instagram marketing aids consumers in their search for information (Casaló, Flavián, and Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2018).

Motivations for Using Social Media

The Uses and Gratification theory is often mentioned in relevant literature when discussing motivation for usage of social media (Al-Menayes, 2015; Cheung, Chiu and Lee, 2011; LaRose and Eastin, 2004; Whiting and Williams, 2013). As a communication theory it focuses on the goal-orientation that motivates individuals to choose a specific platform over alternate platforms (Cheung, Chiu and Lee, 2011).

Traditionally the Uses and Gratification theory focuses on four aspects for the media: personal relationships, personal identity, diversion and surveillance (Katz, Blumer and Gurevitch, 1973). Song et al. (2004) argued that there was no detrimental change in the uses and gratifications that users sought out in the traditional media choices as compared to the internet. However, more recent research carried out by Slot and Frissen (2008) disputed this, stating that with the internet users no longer just consume media but rather the internet has opened a more interactive media platform with users creating, sharing and participating in online content.

Study carried out by Quan-Haase and Young (2010) found that the reasons for people using Facebook include: Pastime, Affection, Fashion, Share Problems, Sociability and Social Information which expands on Leung’s (2001) research into the reasons why students use messaging apps. This research will use both the traditional (Katz, Blumer and Gurevitch, 1973) and more recent interpretations (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010) of the uses and gratifications theory, this is because both are still applicable to the objectives.

Additionally, Shao (2009) found that depending on the reason for using social media effects the gratification outcome, elaborating that previous literature have focused heavily on the gratifications obtained rather than the use when they are interlinked. So, the three uses are: consuming, participating and producing. If the user just consumes, they are information searching and seeking entertainment, participate to gain sociability and finally, produce their own content to better express themselves. The research will consider these points when conducting the research to weigh in on the motivational factors for the uses and gratification for Instagram and influencers.

In summary majority of the research previously carried out on the motivation for social media focuses on the uses and gratification for using Facebook and Twitter (Cheung, Chiu and Lee, 2011; Whiting and Williams, 2013). Rather, this research will focus on why individuals chose to use Instagram over other platforms but also why they choose to follow certain influencers over others. This is because this is a topic that has been under-researched with the closest study having been carried out by Shao (2009) who focused on bloggers. Therefore, there is a need to understand why certain influencers are more effective for influencer marketing.

Instagram Marketing

Influencer marketing is based on the influence theory which advocates that a small percentage of key individuals would be more effective in influencing other people. According to Krush, Sohi and Saini (2015), influencer marketing, rather than marketing to large consumer groups, makes use of individuals who are influential to drive the message of a brand to large markets in an aim to influence their buying decisions. In the past, the focus of influencer marketing was on offline opinion leaders, like industry analysts and journalists for purposes of gaining positive courage. Then, companies would target journalist influencers and offer them special access to information, company events and their spokespeople with the intention of building relationships that were long-lasting and further facilitate coverage that was positive. The focus of influencer marketing shifted to online opinion leaders from the offline ones with the digitisation of business, the success of the SNS and the web 2.0.

Examples of digital influencers are individuals with large social media followings, celebrities and bloggers. Usually, influencer marketing happens on commercial websites like Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and personal blogs.

Instagram is one important platform where influencer marketing happens. The site that has over 1billion users with millions of photographs and videos being posted on the site daily. The media site facilitates consumer quick content consumption on-the-go and what makes it specifically suitable for influencers is its visually engaging nature. Anderson (2016) found that Instagram have aided this by making the app more business friendly introducing; analytics, 60 second advertisement videos along with sponsored posts and stories meaning that more marketers are using the platform to increase brand awareness.

Despite the research on how impactful Instagram marketing is as outlined above there is limited research on how vital it is within the cosmetics industry where images allow potential customers to see how the product looks on the skin and performs in pictures. Especially as it has been found that photos with faces attract more attention (Bakhshi, Shamma and Gilbert, 2014). Traditionally these products were advertised through images in magazines and promotional pictures in store (Yu, Park and Sung, 2015) making the switch to Instagram logical as it allows the brand to communicate and foster relationships with customers in a way that the previous marketing tools did not (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang, 2012).

Instagram Influencers

Detch Singh the co-CEO and co-founder of Hypetap criticises influencer marketing as a murky marketing category. The lack of best practices from influencers and brands is what makes the category murky. It is observed that vanity metrics like the follower numbers of an influencer are still used as a selection basis. Whenever best practices are ignored, just like in any other marketing categories, problems are always bound to happen. The selection of influencers based on their follower numbers is one of the largest slip ups in influencer best practices. It would be prudent to conduct a deep analysis to analyse both quantitative and qualitative data to properly understand the audience quality of an influencer. That would involve doing an analysis of engaged an influencers audience is and not just analysing their followers to establish the number of fake followers.

According to De Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders (2017), it would be prudent to put in consideration whether the influencer has conducted campaigns for competing brands, and also whether in their posts are profane. However, these are never followed when choosing influencers and that often gives influencer marketing a poor reputation.

Elaboration Likelihood model

The Elaboration Likelihood model of Persuasion was developed in the 1980s (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981) to elaborate the lasting effect of persuasion on the consumer’s attitude through two routes of information processing. Petty and Cacioppo (1986) describe attitude as an accustomed opinion, individuals have towards themselves, others and even material goods. Whilst persuasion is described as “any change in attitudes that results from exposure to a communication” (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).

The model consists of two routes for the consumer, the first being the central route and the second being the peripheral route. The central route applies to situations that require high involvement so periods in which the consumer must invest effort and involvement into forming their attitudes. The attitude changes gained through the central route is considered to be long lasting (Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann, 1983). The peripheral route, on the other hand, is used when low involvement is required meaning that the consumer is not motivated to process exhaustive information (Tam & Ho, 2005).Chaiken and Trope (1999) found that the peripheral route does not change consumer’s attitude over a lengthy period as the factors taken into consideration may be simple cues such as the source of information being an expert (Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann, 1983). In the case of this research, the expert being an Instagram influencer. Previous research carried out by Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann (1983) found that when conditions required high involvement, consumers cared more about the information being presented rather than the celebrity endorser. Whereas those that were purchasing under low involvement disregarded the information focusing rather on the celebrity endorser (their likability and status) to find the product desirable.

Preceding research has been conducted on how the ELM can be applied to personalised web pages and images as method of persuading consumers to purchase (Tam & Ho, 2005). Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann (1983) have also applied the model to research the effectiveness of celebrity endorsed advertisements. There are also many other examples of marketing research in which the ELM has been used but the model has also been heavily criticised. The first being how a marketer can know if the cue will be processed centrally or through the peripheral route (Bitner & Obermiller, 1985). Another criticism would be, as found by Petty et al (1993) is that the peripheral route is only applicable to the forming of attitude rather than a change in attitude. However the continued use of the ELM prove the credibility of the model which is why it will be used in this research to best understand how the role of trust in Instagram influencers persuade consumers into purchasing cosmetic products. Considering a consumer who follows an influencer on Instagram that exercises influencer marketing through posting reviews and sharing pictures to promote certain products, consumers need to evaluate the motivation of

Methodology:

The aim of the research is to understand how influencers impact females aged 18-25 cosmetic purchasing decisions throughout the UK industry, therefore there are certain types of methods that would be most appropriate. The aim of this chapter is to discuss these methods.

Research Design

Walliman (2011) describes the Interpretivism approach as knowledge being individually cultivated through life experiences, varying from one person to another so the researcher views the world from the participant’s outlook. Research carried out using the interpretivist paradigm usually adopt qualitative methods which includes focus groups and interviews (Goldkuhl, 2012). This is because many researchers find that the interpretivist approach is best suitable to research that regards social phenomena, which require a more ambiguous approach (Hovorka and Lee, 2010). The interpretivist approach is often used to test out new research theories rather than to add to existing research. The drawbacks of the approach are that it can be more subjective due to the researcher’s participation and presence when conducting the research. This may cause the researcher to interpret the information in a certain way (O'Donoghue, 2006) which can lead to the findings being unreliable (Scotland, 2012).

The positivist paradigm approach on the other hand is a more scientific method focusing on actualities and the representation of the population (Walliman, 2011). The research demands reliability leading to empirical findings not influenced by emotions. Positivist approach usually adopt the deductive application, which involves using quantitative methods of data collection, such as questionnaires and polls (Scotland, 2012). It is often used to test existing hypothesis from past theories, but the drawbacks of the method is that it is not accurate, as the human behaviour cannot be justified with scientific rationale (Berliner, 2002 cited by Scotland, 2012).

Methodological Approach:

Using the interpretivist approach allows for qualitative data collection. McGivern (2009) states that qualitative research offers a detailed descriptive insight from the respondent rather than measuring and testing theories. Trochim (2002) found that the qualitative method allows for a more in depth understanding of delicate issues as the lack of rigidity enables the researcher to further probe the respondent. McGivern (2009) also mentions that as it is less structured, it can help to understand ‘why’ the respondent may feel a certain way towards a product or a brand making it useful for industry insights (Scotland, 2012). Making it the most suitable for this research as the aim is to understand the motivation when purchasing in the UK cosmetic industry. The lack of structure can also be a criticism towards the use of qualitative data collection as the researcher may go off topic and findings may be deemed unreliable (O’Donoghue, 2006). This will be combated by following a question guide in which the researcher will stick to, please refer to Appendix… for these questions. Another criticism would be that as the qualitative method relies heavily on the researcher to carry out the interview or focus group, there is a chance that they may impose their opinions by asking leading questions (Aluwihare-Samaranayake, 2012). The method of collecting the data will be semi-structured interviews in which the researcher will go in depth with the respondents without using leading questions. The interviews will be recorded with their consent so as to later transcribe and analyse the findings to discover reoccurring themes (Ghauri & Grønhaug, 2010). The interview will start off with introductory questions to help gauge the respondents use of cosmetic products and Instagram. Followed by discussing the role of the consumers’ trust in influencers and the motivation to purchase within the cosmetic industry. Previous literature that have discussed consumer purchasing decision in the cosmetic industry (Kawa, Rahmadiani and Kumar, 2013 and Khuong and Duyen, 2016) have used qualitative as the method enabled the researcher to measure the personal factors. Using qualitative as previously mentioned will allow the existing research to be elaborated on, understanding ‘why’ Instagram influencers are effective, contributing to the current gap in research using consumers aged 18-25.

Data Collection

As stated previously, the chosen method will be interviews which offer many benefits for data collection. A significant advantage would be as it is face to face, the researcher is able to gauge the mood and tone of the respondent detecting if they begin to feel uncomfortable or lose interest (Knox and Burkard, 2009). It is therefore up to the researcher to ensure that the participant feels comfortable and their identity remains anonymous (Hutchinson, Wilson and Wilson, 1994). There are also some downsides to carrying out one-to-one interviews, which can include the respondent giving blunt answers due to lack of comfort. Another would be that the respondent may give answers that they feel the researcher wants to hear due to being face-to-face (Knox and Burkard, 2009). However, compared to other methods of qualitative data collection such as focus groups, which can be taken over by the dominant respondent, interviews are the best.

Sampling

For this research, non-probability sampling will be used as it offers more flexibility as those chosen are due to the researcher’s subjective judgement (Saunders, 2009). Examples of the different types of non-probability samples include judgement, snowball, convenience and quota (Solomon, 2016). From all of those mentioned, this research will use convenience sampling because due to time constraints and the particularity of the respondents being between female and 18-25 (Solomon, 2016). Saunders (2009) outlines the disadvantages of as leading it may lead to bias and influences beyond the researcher’s control may be introduced. It may also be time consuming as the researcher must keep using their judgement to find respondents, until their sample size has been reached but convenience sampling remains the most appropriate sampling technique. The researcher will use their judgement to approach females that are believed to be between 18-25 and are cosmetic users, therefore some judgement sampling will also be used. The researcher can also hope that the females that take part will later recommend friends that will be interesting in partaking. Guest, Bunce and Johnson (2006) found the ideal sample size to be 8-12 differing individuals so for this research 10 respondents will be chosen, in hopes of producing valid data.

Sampling Criteria:

The criteria for the respondent will be females between the ages of 18-24, as mentioned before they are the primary purchasers of make-up (Khanom, 2017) along with being the biggest users of smartphones and social media apps. To ensure that the respondents qualify there will be questions asked prior to the interview helping to filter them ensuring they are able to assist with the research. The respondents will also be given an information sheet and consent form to fill out to ensure that they are aware of what the interview is about and if they are capable to take part before agreeing. Please refer to Appendix…for the information sheet and Appendix…for the consent form.

Research Ethics

It is important for the researcher to carry out their primary research out morally, therefore considering ethical apprehensions. This includes how they treat the respondent;

· The respondents are to be treated respectfully and avoid harm

· Their participation must be voluntary

· Their identity is to be kept anonymous and their information should be confidential

· Respondents are to be fully up-to-date with the aspect of the research

When ensuring all the above points are carried out the researcher will include a consent page that the respondent is to fill out confirming that they understand what the research is about, what their information will be used for and that it will be destroyed when completed (Solomon, 2016). Ensuring their confidentiality is guaranteed will hopefully encourage participants to allow themselves to be interviewed. The researcher will not take participants under the age of 18 as that is unethical (MRS, 2017) and it also aligns with the research aims. To ensure this, respondents will confirm that they are over 18 on their consent form. Finally, the researcher is accountable for the data gathered (Solomon, 2016) and must refrain from asking confidential information that may allow the respondent to be identified. The researcher must also ensure that all data is stored on a confidential hard drive and will be destroyed when the research has been completed. All of these are outlined on an ethics form (Appendix…) that has been completed before the primary research has begun.

Research Limitations

There are limitations to the research that can come with using qualitative research, the main being it can lead to ambiguity (Atieno, 2009). This means that the researcher may later interpret a sentence differently to how the respondent meant it. Another limitation is that qualitative research can’t be as effectively extended to the remaining population in the way that quantitative data can due to the small sample size (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). Solomon (2016) also states that the limitations of face-to-face interviews are that the respondent may feel obligated to give prejudiced answers based on what they feel the researcher wants to hear. This can cause the findings to be unreliable and not truthful, but this can be combated by funnelling the questions to ensure that by the time the harder questions come, the respondent is comfortable.

Another disadvantage is that based on the sampling being convenience is that most of the respondents may be students due to the researcher choosing them around the campus. Once again this limits the ability to apply the findings to the general population. This can be combated as the research is based on females 18-25 which a large demographic of students are within.

Summary

To summarise the methodology section, the research will be applying the interpretivist paradigm using face-to-face interviews. This will help the research aim of understanding the attitudes of female millennials when it comes to Instagram marketing and influencers. Interviewing 10 respondents and analysing the recordings to find themes that can be applied to the reasoning behind purchasing cosmetic products advertised on Instagram using influencers.

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