Understanding Customers: Essay on Influencers and Consumer Impact

This essay investigates the profound impact of influencers on consumer behavior in the 21st century, particularly within the context of the tourism sector. It begins by defining influencer marketing and its significance, followed by an in-depth analysis of two prominent influencers, Paul Steele (BaldHiker) and Estee Lalonde, examining their product selection, brand collaborations, and content strategies. The essay critically evaluates the advantages, disadvantages, and ethical considerations associated with influencer marketing, including issues of authenticity and fraudulent activities. Furthermore, it explores the future trends in influencer marketing, such as long-term partnerships, regionalized content, and the increasing importance of micro-influencers and live-eCommerce. The essay concludes by summarizing the role of influencers in connecting brands with consumers and driving business success, while also providing a detailed overview of the referenced literature.

Produce an essay that
identifies the impact of
influencers on the consumers
in the 21st century Choose a
couple of influencers that you
follow Make

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Introduce the area of influencer marketing..................................................................................3
Influencer one and their analysis on product selection and brands.............................................4
Influencer two and their analysis on product selection and brands.............................................4
The future of influencers.............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Influencer marketing means marketing on social media in which the influencers on social
media utilizes endorsements and mention of products & services. Such influencers are
considered to be experts in their niche. The following essay thus, will explain the area of
influencer marketing and its impact on the consumers in the 21st century. Then two influencers
namely – Paul Steele and Estee Lalonde who are considered to be the most famous influencers in
the travel, tourism and fashion industry in the UK will be introduced and how they use such a
profession for earning income is explained. Also, how they analyse and select the products and
services which they be collaborating and be in partnership with will be explained. The good, the
bad and the ugly of this influencer marketing will also be explained. Finally, the future of
influencers will be discussed and analysed in the influencer marketing in the coming years.
MAIN BODY
Introduce the area of influencer marketing
Influencer marketing simply means marketing of a brand, product, service or even a place
by the individual influencers especially on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and
YouTube. People have now started paying attention to what these influencers has to say and
recommend (Vrontis and et.al., 2021). Therefore, many big and small brands are collaborating
with these influencers to be able to have access to the attention they can get through social media
and thus, gains the much required fame. The influencers are benefitted by the increased
followers, increased fame and also earning of income through such marketing.
For the companies, brands and marketers it is easy to market its products and services
through influencers as compared to other ways and more importantly, it is cost – effective to be
able to reap the benefits of influencer marketing (Martínez-López and et.al., 2020). So all this
ease to access and cost – effectiveness has led to development of this industry to be very
profitable for both the brands and the influencers like through selling of accounts on Instagram
which are well developed and have significant reach is in trend. There are the niche influencers
in this industry who are core to this billion-dollar industry and therefore, numerous companies
and brands look forward to appoint them as their company’s or brand’s advocate and face.
One industry that has been heavily influenced by the influencer marketing is tourism
industry. Such influencing is majorly done through platforms like Instagram, Twitter and
YouTube which brings various trends from time to time that motivates the people to follow such

trends and thus, tourism industry is growing immensely through this influencer marketing
(Haenlein and et.al., 2020). Most highly required aspect of any influencer is high-resolution
appearance which has been duly complied by the features of Instagram like posts, live, stories
and reels.
Influencer one and their analysis on product selection and brands
One of the most famous influencers in the industry of travel and tourism is Paul Steele
professionally known as ‘bald hiker’ on all the social media platforms. BaldHiker was founded
by Paul Steele in 2010 as blog of personal travel in which he used to share his walks and hikes
that he did around the world. This personal blog quickly grew and is now a very vibrant and
active community of travellers from around the world who also share their photos, stories and
experiences (Taylor, 2020). His websites and his social media accounts showcases his hikes and
travels including information about various food and drink delicacies from around the world. He
also shares various useful tips for specifically those who want to take their pets outdoor, useful
tips on clothing for such travelling and reviews on the hiking kits. The travellers can also book
hikes with Paul himself along with his 2 dogs namely – Malc and Pete, can work with him and
this community.
He and his team of authors & other professionals earn through this business by the way of
commissions which they receive based on their reviews and sponsorships. They also earn
through the selling of their merchandise from their shop and any recommendations of the
equipment and kits which they recommend (Ye and et.al., 2021). He reviews various places to
stay, places to eat, clothing, technology, drinks, accessories based on his personal experience
from various places around the world like Britain, Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South
America, Oceania, etc. who pay him for such promotion on his website and social media
accounts. He recommends places to stay from a house in a country side to a 5-star hotel, places
to eat from a grill in a forest to a luxurious restaurant.
Influencer two and their analysis on product selection and brands
Estee Lalonde is another influencer and a blogger who is well – established in the beauty
industry and shares her insights and tips based on her very unique perspective on topics like
travel, fashion, beauty, etc. through her personal blog and her YouTube channel which has more
than 1 million subscribers. Through her blogs and her channel, she features, reviews and

recommends various shops from around the world which is also a source of income for her i.e.,
she gets paid for these reviews and features.
She also collaborates with various brands like Daisy London and has created her own
jewellery brand. She has been a brand ambassador to the brands like Garnier and Adidas and has
been featured in publications like Vogue, The Telegraph, etc. Like any other influencers, she has
the ability to make a brand appealing to the customers through their content strategies via regular
posts, videos, reviews, stories, etc.
Now, there are various good, bad and ugly of this influencer marketing. The good
involves customers becoming better marketing savvy as they are influenced by the social media
promotions of the brands. Also, influencer marketing has solved the problem of awareness and
engagement through direct connection with the audience and their alignment with the influencers
resulting into healthy influencer – customer relationship. The bad of the influencer marketing
involves boosting of the followers illegitimately through social media bots. These bots imitate
the behaviour of natural followers to make the user of the account appear to be legitimate. The
ugly of the influencer marketing is the fraudulent activities prevalent in the market like showing
fake engagements and partnerships to appear influential. Such fake engagements show the failure
of social media campaigns.
The future of influencers
The global pandemic has resulted into influencer marketing to grow immensely and the
content creators to acquire the trust of consumers through cementing their position in the
industry. Digital marketing is the centre of attraction for the brands (Xiao, Wang and Chan-
Olmsted, 2018). Such digital marketing in which the leading medium of influencing is social
media that effectively influenced the discovery of brand and the decisions of purchasing. One of
the reasons it got mainstream is due to its affordability and a niche option to target GenZies and
Millennials.
Therefore, it can be said that the future years to come are bringing with them
opportunities for the influencers and content creators both existing as well as aspiring. These
opportunities include the long – term partnerships and collaborations with the brands as these
brand owners have understood the ability of this marketing to earn the level of ROI which no
other marketing measure can earn i.e., it is unparalleled (Influencer Marketing: Trends to watch
out for in 2022, 2022). Long – term partnerships help the brands to build trust among its

audience by incorporating sense of advocacy towards them. Another aspect of influencer
marketing involves regionalization of the content which involve incorporation of various
regional languages in the countries of their operations like in case of India, supporting multiple
regional languages like Punjabi, Marathi, Telugu, etc.
Influencer marketing in the future will be seeing a substantial increase in demand for the
micro influencers owing to their rate of engagement which is higher and their affordability which
led to drastic increase in the share of micro influencers in the industry (Zhou and et.al., 2021).
The industry will be following a more data – driven approach which will lead to such increase in
demand of micro influencers. Live – eCommerce is also going to be widely used to reach the
target audience and convert them into the customers.
CONCLUSION
Concluding the above essay, it can be said that the influencer marketing effectively and
efficiently helps the big brands in attracting more customers and enabling the small businesses in
scaling up by being more visible to its target audience which it needs to convert into the
consumers and it also provides these businesses with higher ROI than any other marketing
channels. Therefore, the above essay introduces the area of influencer marketing and the industry
and how it actually operates. Then two influencers of the UK – Paul Steele and Estee Lalonde
are discussed along with their activities and ways of how they earn their income through such
influencer marketing, collaborations and partnerships. Also, their process of selection of products
and brands is analysed and then finally, the future of these influencers of the influencer
marketing is discussed as to what the future of this type of marketing has to offer.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Haenlein, M. and et.al., 2020. Navigating the New Era of Influencer Marketing: How to be
Successful on Instagram, TikTok, & Co. California management review. 63(1). pp.5-25.
Martínez-López, F.J. and et.al., 2020. Behind influencer marketing: key marketing decisions and
their effects on followers’ responses. Journal of Marketing Management. 36(7-8).
pp.579-607.
Taylor, C. R., 2020. The urgent need for more research on influencer marketing. International
Journal of Advertising. 39(7). pp.889-891.
Vrontis, D. and et.al., 2021. Social media influencer marketing: A systematic review, integrative
framework and future research agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies. 45(4).
pp.617-644.
Xiao, M., Wang, R. and Chan-Olmsted, S., 2018. Factors affecting YouTube influencer
marketing credibility: a heuristic-systematic model. Journal of media business
studies. 15(3). pp.188-213.
Ye, G. and et.al., 2021. The value of influencer marketing for business: A bibliometric analysis
and managerial implications. Journal of Advertising. 50(2). pp.160-178.
Zhou, S. and et.al., 2021. How social media influencers’ narrative strategies benefit cultivating
influencer marketing: Tackling issues of cultural barriers, commercialised content, and
sponsorship disclosure. Journal of Business Research. 134. pp.122-142.
Online
Influencer Marketing: Trends to watch out for in 2022. 2022. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/brands/article/influencer-marketing-trends-
to-watch-out-for-in-2022/articleshow/88071937.cms#:~:text=The%20influencer
%20marketing%20industry%20in,their%20higher%20engagement%20rates
%20%26%20affordability.>
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