Influence of Social Media Influencers on Consumer Behavior: A Study

This study explores the influence of social media influencers on consumer behavior and their impact on the buying decision-making process. It also discusses the factors that affect the credibility and attractiveness of influencers and the concept of impulsive buying.

On the basis of beliefs of the influencer marketing, organizations communicate their offerings
through the social media influencers like bloggers and vloggers. The social media influencer are
offered the position of a brand ambassador due to their association with huge follower base
(Tapinfluence 2017). The broadcasted messages through the profile and video content of the
social media influencer are accepted as trustworthy content and persuasive for the audience,
which is being substantiated by the followers, amounting to 82 percent of the polls of the
followers. In the 82 percent of the polls, the consumers are inclined towards the
recommendations communicated by the influencers (Talaverna 2015). The factor of comparing
the promotional strategy including the celebrity endorsements to that of the strategy of including
social media influencers can be the connection with the influencers and the process of building
rapport with the audience on internet specifically for the targeting strategy of businesses
involving young generation (Berger et al. 2016).
Moreover, the application of the traditional promotional strategy of the businesses reflects a
major significance on the buying decisions of the consumers (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh,
Gremler, 2004). The traditional form of promotion majorly includes word of mouth, which
implies great significance in shaping the behavior and attitude of the consumers. The concept of
Word of Mouth communication (WOM) is widely used and accepted in the field of consumer
behavior. The increasing rate of witnessing brand communication by the online influencers
through the ‘brand review’ and ‘product experience’ content is considered to be as electronic
word of mouth. The new age concept of the electronic word of mouth is attracting attention from
businesses and researchers (Zhang,Craciun and Shin, 2008).
The control and influence of information is not limited to the large businesses and news media in
the huge application of Internet. Information or point of views can easily be shared with people

at a wider scale and the thoughts can influence or persuade others in shaping the buying decision
of audience. The process of persuading or influencing millions of consumers has become easier
through the application of electronic-word of mouth (Duan, Gu and Whinston, 2008). Although,
the studies regarding the influence of Electronic-Word of Mouth have taken a faster pace in the
recent period but few questions are still unanswered. In research studies, it has been found that
consumers are more likely to approach the Electronic-Word of mouth for the purpose of
acquiring social benefits and for shaping decisions in regards with buying criteria (Hennig-
Thurau and Walsh, 2003).
Step I: Problem Recognition
Problem recognition is considered to be the initial step for understanding buying cycle. Initiating
step reflects the phases of understanding and recognizing the concerns and problems that needs
solution for the satisfaction of the specific person. The need for solution addresses the form of
discomfort. The reason behind discomfort can be the competitor’s ability of including advantage,
discomfort from a specific process or technology and the inability of finishing work on time.
Step II: Information Search
Searching information is the second phase for concluding a decision-making procedure. This
step focusses on collecting all the possible information for an identified concern. The time and
effort required for this process depends on the scale of a project and purchasing decision.
Consumers or audiences tends to be thoughtful in this step for the motive of gathering as much
suitable information as per their ability for approaching towards their goal of satisfaction by
considering pricing, features, ease of usage of the selected products. The step of gathering
information in today’s world differs from the past as in the past the potential consumers used to

directly contact the organizations for the purpose of carrying the research. However, in today’s
new age, the consumers are collecting required information by the help of self education with the
data easily existent in the Internet. In this step, the role of the marketers is to design the flow of
information in a way that satisfies or aligns with the searching process of the consumers.
Step III: Alternative Assessment
After the second step of search information, the gathered information will be used for outlining
existent alternative of the researched product or service. The purpose of implementing this step is
to find the best option or deal. The base for effectively executing this step is to understand the
dependency of the buying decisions on the aspects like quality, price and availability. The price
and quality of a specific product is compared with the quality and price of another set of products
for selecting the option, which can majorly satisfy all the parameters of comfort.
Step IV: Purchase
After conducting the prior stages, consumers will align the extracted information with the factors
leading to comfort, which will deduce the decision of what will be purchased and from where.
The acceptance of risks is included in this step. The decision of buying may also be accelerated
through the application of prior experience or experience of the advertised content.
Step V: Post-Purchase
The question of satisfaction or dissatisfaction will be included in this step. The assessment of the
product values in alignment with the expectation will be answered in this stage. Marketer aims at
stimulating repetitive customers for product and service offerings rather than focusing on one-
time customer. A single bad experience can completely transform the perception of a consumer

about the brand. In a contrasting view, a pleasant experience can construct brand loyalty among
target customers.
In the exhaustive study regarding Word of Mouth, Dichter (1966) reflected various categories of
motivational theories in the year depicting the reason behind the positive and effective tradition
of WOM including, self-involvement, message involvement, product involvement and other
involvement. In the concept reflected by the theorist Sundaram et al. (1998), an exhaustive study
regarding the motives of WOM was presented where 390 people were interviewed for the
identification of eight-motive behind the reason of consumers for engaging in Word of Mouth. In
the eight motives, four of them reflected the positive side of the WOM, altruism, product
involvement; self-enhancement and helping company members and other four are the reason
reflecting negative WOM like anxiety, vengeance and advice seeking. The different forms of
motive represents the reliance on the concept of online reviews. According to Hennig -Thurau et
al., (2004), typology of motives for the consumers on the online platform can be depicted on the
basis of the findings through the research study on traditional literature on WOM and on the
virtual community. With the help of a set of 2000 consumers online sample, data regarding the
relevance and structure of motives in terms of the online articulation of the consumers was
generated. The outcome from the assessment implies to the advice for the extraction of primary
aspects responsible for causing the behavior regarding eWOM are their economic incentives,
social interaction and self-growth.
The quality of data in the Internet varies in terms of accuracy and inaccuracy of content, reliable
and unreliable, which can decide to the factors of intentional misleading content. The reliability
of the online content cannot be trusted completely due to the infrequency in the process of up
gradation of information (Pack, 1999). However, the consumers are dependent on the

information from online vendors and influencers, which leads to the reliance of the purchase
decision on the quality of the data. The expectation regarding quality of data depends on the
positivity of the influence on which the consumer is dependent upon. The trust factor in offline
and online concept is different due to object of trust as in online platform; the consumers are
trusting on the technology whereas in case of the offline context, the trust is centered on an entity
or a person. The challenge in the online aspect can be the development of trust beyond the
technology extended up to the entity/organization behind the website (Boyd, 2003). The
uncertain form of Internet can lead to the uncertainties of the environment (Pavlou, 2003). The
insecurity stimulates the complication for trusting online exchange environment. The
predictability regarding the ‘first team’ in the online situations generates trusting strenuous
(Boyd, 2003). The experiences differ from person with knowledge of online transaction and with
people without the experience of online transaction. Therefore, the high level of the factor of
trustworthiness affects consumer attitudes.
Moreover, the consumer review on the online platform contributes in two different forms, as a
recommender and an informant (Deutch, Gerard, 1995). The informant characteristics reflect
online reviews of the consumer in addition to the information regarding user interface. The
recommenders generate negative or positive signals of the popularity of the products (Park, Lee,
Han, 2007).
Source credibility:
The concept of source credibility is applied for the purpose of assessing effectiveness of the
endorsement (Hovland and Weiss 1951). The nature of credible endorser reflects positive
influence towards the perception of the consumers (Goldsmith et al. 2000). In the concept of
source credibility, expertise and trustworthiness are considered important elements. The data

extracted through credible sources can stimulate affective opinions, beliefs, behavior and attitude
(Wang et al. 2017). Moreover, social media influencers are considered to be better at persuading
people (Aaker and Myers 1987) and in shaping buying intention of consumers (Ohanian 1991).
The exterpise reflects a positive impact on the buying intention and attitude (Till and Busler
2000). The reflection of trustworthiness denoted believability, honesty and dignity (Erdogan
1999). As per Metzger et al. (2003), higher acceptance and indifference regarding consumers’
action is achieved by the trustworthiness of the endorser, resulting in the higher recognition of
the communicated advertising message. The influencers with high level of trustworthiness and
expertise lead to the influential behavior towards the followers.
Source attractiveness:
Another factor of consideration is considered significant is the physical attractiveness, which
stimulates high tendency of accepting advertising content. The physical characteristics and
attributes are considered in the nature of source attractiveness (Erdogan 1999). Numerous
researchers have depicted the positive correlation between the consumer purchase intention and
consumer attitude with the attractiveness of the source (Petty et al. 1983; Erdogan 1999). As per
McGuire (1985), effectiveness and efficiency of endorsement is directly linked with the source
attractiveness. Attractiveness of the influencers in social media platform tends to attract
consumers and generate positive outcome (Till and Busler 2000).
Consumer attitude:
A successful marketing operational plan marks the significance of the attitude of the consumers,
which can be identified by the interests of the marketing researchers (Solomon et al. 2010). A
parallel connection regarding consumer studies is represented in the buying decision and attitude

(Ting and de Run 2015; Tarkiainen and Sundqvist 2005). In the contrast, as per Chen (2007), the
favorability in attitude for a particular product leads to the stimulation of buyer purchasing
decision. Relatedly, social media influencers stimulates favorable attitude for the product
offerings resulting in greater possibility of purchase intention.
Meaning transfer:
As per the recommendations of McCracken (1989), the effect of endorsement is stimulated
through the transferring process in which the effectiveness of the endorser depends on the ability
of conveying the meanings of product with process of endorsement (McCracken 1989). The
process builds the endorsement system like a concept of the meaning that is shifted through the
professional and personal world of endorser for a specific offering and therefore becomes
influential in the process of building the self-image of the consumers by consumption
(McCracken 1989). As per the belief of the marketers, Idol plays a major role influence over
consumers (Fowles 1996). The study represents the integration of the social media influencers
with the products, resulting in the effects, which leads to product perception. A positive link can
be experienced amongst the purchase intention of consumers for the endorsed brands by meaning
transfer (McCracken 1986).
2.7 Impulsive Buying
The tendency of purchasing services or products without a plan is known as Impulse buying.
Feelings and emotions influences the buying decision in case of Impulse buying. It cannot be for
a specific category. The products that can reflect the application of Impulse buying are clothes,
chocolates and movie tickets. The unplanned form of purchase depicts the concept of Impulse
buying, which is focused on irrational thinking. Marketers attempt at addressing this specific

behavior of consumers for enhancing sales figure. The possibility of consumers buying products
from hypermarket in absence of the intention of buying is very high.
Customers reflects positive attitude for the Weibo influencers. As per Tapinfluece (2017), the
process of spreading brand awareness through social influencers is very instrumental, as they
majorly contribute towards building brand loyalty and product engagement. The most important
factors for consumers in acting towards the content of social media influencer are credibility and
professionalism. Credible influencers exerts positive influence towards the perception of the
consumers (Goldsmith et al., 2000). Expertise and trustworthiness are the two constituents,
which is included within credibility. Data communicated by the social media influencers
(credible source) can influence behavior, attitude, opinions and beliefs of consumers (Wang et
al., 2017). The factors important for influencing consumers are credibility, style and
professionalism of the influencers but other researches reflects the significance of appearance
and unusual selling points. As per McGuire (1985), effectiveness of endorsement depends upon
source attractiveness like attractiveness of social media influencers reflects positive effects on
consumers by stimulating positive intention (Till and Busler, 2000). The summary of this content
is presented in Table 4-3.
Generally, the impulse consumption is concentrated towards Weibo influencers but the concept
is more applicable for the E-WOM. However, the reason behind its implication can be the lack of
authenticity or absence of objectivity due to differentiation. Pavlou (2003) depicted the aspect of
uncertainty in Internet content that can stimulate risks. Major reason behind the detachment of
impulsive buying and E-WOM can be the lack of number of stimuli. Another factor identified
from studies for the action of impulse purchase is the love for influencers. The name for this
phenomenon is ‘meaning transfer’ where marketers build the strategy on the belief that

consumers will be influenced for a buying decision by an idol (Fowles, 1996). As per
McCracken (1989), the process of meaning transfer is stimulated through the effectiveness of the
influencers’ ability in communicating meaning with endorsement process. Thus, it can be
deduced from this concept that impulsive consumption is influenced by the process of meaning
transfer by the influencers. The summary of theme 3 is depicted in the Table- 4-4.
In the age of shopping from Internet sources, customers will have a sense of risk associated with
the process. Gambetta (1988) argued that the relevance of trust can be implicated in the
conditions of uncertainty or ignorance in regards with unknown actions of the influencers. As per
Kim et al. (2008), trust plays a major role in online influences in comparison to offline. The trust
in the online application influences the behavior of web users (eg Jarvenpaa & Tractinsky, 1999;
Gefen, Rao & Tractinsky, 2003). There are studies considers online trust as critical factor for the
stimulus of purchase.
Moreover, the respondents are dependent on the influencers in phase of information search,
which reflects the factors of authenticity and professionalism. Respondents indicated the link
between professionalism with the credibility and objectiveness of the offerings in the presence of
persuasiveness (Aaker and Myers 1987). Professionalism also builds purchase intention of the
consumers (Ohanian 1991). As per Till and Busler (2000), professionalism reflects positive
influence over the consumer attitude.
However, in purchase stage, the respondents did not reflected concerns regarding influencer and
E-WOM. Studies reflects that the influencers and E-WOM represents major influence on
consumers but willingness of purchasing a product can lead to the direct buying decision. Theme
5 is summarized in Table 4-6.