MGBBT0UCT - Influencer Marketing: Impact on Consumer Behavior Today

This essay examines the impact of influencer marketing on consumer behavior in the 21st century. It discusses how brands collaborate with social media influencers to promote products and services, highlighting the trust and credibility these influencers hold with their followers. The essay analyzes the role of online influencers, particularly in the tourism sector, using examples of Mark Smith ('The Man in Seat 61') and Paul Steele ('Baldhiker'). It explores their methods of engagement, brand connections, and authenticity, emphasizing the importance of selecting suitable influencers and target markets. The essay concludes that influencer marketing is a valuable method for brands to connect with consumers, driven by technological advancements and the influence of social media on modern generations, while also noting the importance of monitoring content for quality and accuracy. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Influencer marketing...................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
References:.......................................................................................................................................6
INTRODUCTION
The concept of Influencer marketing helps the brands to promote their products and services
where they collaborate with the social media influencers. This type of marketing is done by
endorsing the products or services by taking the assistance of various individuals or group of
persons. In other words, these people are also known as bloggers. They holds a large fan base on
their respective social media handles(Zhang and Huang, 2022). These people join hands with the
brands and then promote their products on their official online platforms. The process of
promotion by such influencers is also known as campaigning. They are the stars of social media
and people give them all their love and trust them. That is why they posses a high convincing
ability. The following essay will explain about the role played by these online influencers in the
present time to make a strong impact on the customers.

MAIN BODY
Influencer marketing
The biggest brands of the country that are ruling the world makes every possible effort to
maintain their brand image at national as well as international level. For this they adopt various
techniques or methods of promotion through which they can make their product or services a
well known choice of the customers. Now, they have opted a new way that is making
collaboration with the social media influencers who endorse these brands by doing campaigning
on their respective social media platforms as well as on the social media accounts of the brands.
This helps the brands to attract the customers in an effective manner. These online influencers
are the celebrities of the social media world(Belanche, et.al, 2021). They got huge amount of
followers on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Their fans trust them and this credibility helps
the brands to convince and pull their interests in the particular brand. There are numerous
influencers that are present on social media. And according to the nature of the brands,
companies search for the right person who can support in promoting the products and services.
They follow a simple procedure, in which they enter into a partnership with such influencers and
target a particular type of market where the requirement of their offering is high. After that they
pass the message to these influencers and then they convey it further to the consumers. The
online influencers post appealing videos and pictures on their social media handle. This helps in
engaging the customers into it. This helps in the improvisation of the brand image and the
performance of the company. Hence, it is very important to select the suitable influencer and
target market in order to promote the brands. There are certain essential aspects which are
required to be taken care of, such as that this is a time taking process, it involves high cost, it is
not important that every time a company receives the desired results out of this technique. It all
depends upon the choice and preferences of the consumers regarding the online
influencers(Asquith and Fraser, 2020).
Mark Smith is a tourism influencer and and founder of a travel website that is 'The Man in Seat
61'. He is born and brought up in United Kingdom. Earlier he use to work in a rail industry as a
worker. Subsequently, he started travelling and created several travel videos in which he
reviewed the places visited by him and also share the experiences he had of that particular place.
He visited different countries like, Spain, Europe, Greece, Switzerland, Russia, etc. Now, at
present over one million people visits the website in a month. There are several awards grabbed

by his site. One of them is the 'Guardian and Observer Travel Awards' which is received by the
website in the category of 'Best Travel Website' in the year 2008. People use to follow his
reviews because he is a famous travel guide on social media. There are several brands that are
promoted by him. Basically, the companies make their promotions directly by reaching the
website. Mostly, he provides information about various types of travel mediocres and
accommodation that are affordable for the customers, like air bnbs. As there are lot of things
which is essential to know about the different foreign places, for example- where to visit, where
to find a good hotel, how to reach to the several places, where and what to eat, etc. All these
things are being sorted out by such tourism influencers. Whatever posts he shares on his social
media is viewed by millions of his followers which helps the brand to promote their product or
services(Femenia-Serra and Gretzel, 2022). The very first instance he use that product or try a
particular service, the same would be done by his fans. Not everyone does that but a major
portion of the followers choose the same product or service for themselves.
The second influencer of tourism industry is Paul Steele. He runs a website known as 'Baldhiker'.
He was an army person and served as a soldier for British army. He also started a series which is
based on how hiking is useful for losing weight. On this website, he use to share his experiences
and reviews of different countries in which he marked his presence. He made several videos of
travel and tourism and posted on his social media. His followers has chosen him by voting as
world's most influential traveller. Most of the time, he use to promote the brands that are
associated with the tourism industry. He provides information through promotion of various
brands that are related to clothing, gadgets, footwear, etc. to the consumers. As all these things
comes under essential needs for a person while travelling. The companies of famous brands
make a direct contact with this influencer and offer the endorsement of their product or services.
He is known for his behaviour and way of talking through which he convinces the customers to
use the specific product or service. Brands that are being supported by him are Amazfit,
Chilliwinter Armotherapy, Magware kitchen appliances, T Smartwatch. Paul use to make live
testing of the products endorsed by him and sometimes he use to organize live events for the
popularizing a particular brand(Masuda, Han and Lee, 2022). This helps in increasing the sales
and profit margin of the companies because when the customers use to watch anything in front of
their eyes, it creates another level of credibility of that brand in their minds. This would

ultimately increase the demand of the consumers for that particular product or service which
helps in revenue generation of the company.
Technological advancements encouraged all types of online platforms which can be used for
promoting the brand of numerous companies. With this they not only can increase the sales but
could also maintain the new consumer base from different parts of the country as well as the
world. Influencer marketing is one of the method that arise from the gram generation of 21st
century, which means generation that is very much influenced by social media. So, this trait of
today's youth and people of all age groups gave a golden opportunity to the companies in order
to grab their attention towards their products and services(Martínez-López, et.al, 2020). People
use to follow various influencers in every field like, food, fashion, travelling, educational, etc.
Basically, they follow their favourite bloggers and vloggers who use to make a research for their
fans regarding any place, food, clothing, travel destinations and many more. These online
influencers shares their experiences and guide others to make a correct choice. Companies use to
contact the famous influencers of social media for making endorsements with them to promote
their respective brands. Then, these influencers make content by posting pictures, videos and
coming live to connect with the followers. And this approach make the influencers responsible to
make quality content and provide appropriate information regarding any product or service to the
customers. But the companies must follow some criteria while accepting the promotional videos
or other related content of the influencers by monitoring their work very closely. This will help
in avoiding misinformation among the brands as well as the consumers.
CONCLUSION
The conclusion drawn from the above essay is that influencer marketing is a method through
which the companies promote their brands by making endorsement with social media
influencers. It has a broader aspect where the customers are connected with their favourite social
media stars and also with the brands that are promoted by them. This made the companies realize
the value of online influencers in order to make their brand famous among the consumers. It also
discussed the procedure that how influencer marketing work by providing examples of two
tourism influencers. This could be said as a market trend which is proving a useful method for
the different brands to promote their product and services. Technological changes that took place
in recent years has provided number of ways through which the companies can attract customers
and create a new consumer base.

References:
Zhang, T. and Huang, X., 2022. Viral marketing: Influencer marketing pivots in tourism–a case
study of meme influencer instigated travel interest surge. Current Issues in
Tourism, 25(4), pp.508-515.
Belanche, D.,et.al, 2021. Understanding influencer marketing: The role of congruence between
influencers, products and consumers. Journal of Business Research, 132, pp.186-195.
Femenia-Serra, F. and Gretzel, U., 2022. Destination Influencer Marketing. In Encyclopedia of
Tourism Management and Marketing. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Martínez-López, F.J.,et.al, 2020. Influencer marketing: brand control, commercial orientation
and post credibility. Journal of Marketing Management, 36(17-18), pp.1805-1831.
Masuda, H., Han, S.H. and Lee, J., 2022. Impacts of influencer attributes on purchase intentions
in social media influencer marketing: Mediating roles of
characterizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 174, p.121246.
Asquith, K. and Fraser, E.M., 2020. A critical analysis of attempts to regulate native advertising
and influencer marketing. International Journal of Communication, 14, p.21.