MGBBT0UCT: Customer Understanding & the Impact of Influencer Marketing

This essay explores the use of influencer marketing as a tool for understanding customers and its impact on brand image and sales. It highlights the importance of selecting the right influencer and analyzes examples of successful partnerships, such as Cristiano Ronaldo with Nike and Dwayne Johnson with Under Armour. The essay also discusses the future of influencer marketing, noting its increasing popularity and potential for business growth, particularly through micro-influencers. It concludes that influencer marketing is a crucial strategy for engaging with customers, enhancing brand presence, and driving profitability in today's digital landscape, emphasizing the shift from traditional marketing methods to digital strategies.

MGBBT0UCT
Understanding
Customers

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Knowing customers better facilitates in getting more leads and in expanding business
operations. Understanding customers is the key to providing better products and services which
in turn result in a stronger customer base (Micu, and et.al., 2017). In today's dynamic business
world, various business is struggling to survive due to cut-throat competition. So to overcome
this issue and to make people aware of their product and offering, they are opting for various
marketing tools. One of the widely used social media marketing is influencer marketing which
uses endorsements from high-rated influencers who have a huge fan following. This essay is
based on influencer marketing and will cover an area of influencer marketing and two
influencers along with product analysis on product selection and brand. In addition to that, it will
cover the future of influencers.
TASK
Influencer marketing is opted by many companies to influence customers to opt for their product
or avail services. It is a highly effective marketing tool by which a company can reach out to
targeted customers easily (Jahnke, 2018). Companies are opting for bloggers and sending
accessories and clothing to review on their social media. After getting products from companies,
bloggers post photos and write about a product. It will help the company in making aware people
in a short period and makes it easier to convey a message through influencer marketing. It is
imperative to opt right influencer that can elevate the brand image of a company. For example, a
food and beverage company has to tie up with a food blogger, not a sports influencer. The areas
that influencer marketing covers are sports, education, food, clothing, and in almost every
industry. It plays an important role in making a product into a brand. For a company, it is a one-
time investment and can enjoy high traffic of customers by rendering quality products and
services. This is highly effective as people have trust in influencers that they have built up with
following. Due to COVID-19, many companies are struggling for their survival and it becomes
difficult to market their product but with the emergence of influencer marketing, it becomes
easier to target an audience in a short period. There are various social media platforms such as
Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter on which influencers can post images of products to make the
company more successful (Deges, 2018). Influencers are considered as the company's content
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production and generate native commercials which tend to resonate with customers and facilitate
in boosting the sales volume of the company (Domingues Aguiar and van Reijmersdal, 2018).
Cristiano Ronaldo has officially signed a lifetime deal with Nike. It is only the third
lifetime deal for $31 billion. This Ronaldo and Nike partnership launched in 2003 when Ronaldo
joined Manchester United. By signing Ronaldo in Nike, there can be seen a drastic change in
sales as it was uplifted by 47% by 2005. This has positively impacted on company's
performance. The main reason for Ronaldo to choose Nike is to have a premium brand that sells
premium quality products and along with it engages in CSR activities. Nike always donates a
fraction of its profits to needy people and charitable trusts. This makes Ronaldo to opt for Nike
rather than other brands. In addition to that, Nile was a well-known brand and on track for
growth. As it will be beneficial for Ronaldo too as Nike does have a great fan following which
makes him popular too. The products of Nike are segmented under the premium category and
thus target high-class people. It keeps its shelves updated as per fashion trends. One of the other
reasons to opt for Nike is that the company opts for sustainability in its supply chain and its
operations. This means that the company is not only focusing on profit generation but on aspects
of the environment too. Products of Nike are comfortable and give a feeling of premium wear,
this makes the company one of the largest and fastest growing sports clothing and accessory
companies. It offers customized boots to customers and due to this, Nike was able to attract its
customers. This product was selected by Ronaldo as it offers quality products along with a
decent pricing strategy.
Dwayne john also known as The Rock announces its partnership with Under Armour. If
announces its partnership officially via social media in October. This company was chosen by
Dwayne Johnson as it has a wider range of clothing products and footwear, Apparel and
accessories. In addition to that, it consists a major role in fitness platforms and recently debuted
in under Armour Health box applications. He relates to the fitness industry and wants to endorse
a brand that provides comfort to every athlete while doing physical activity. It is Along with this,
an athletic company in Baltimore also enrolled Rock to support and drive awareness of UA's
freedom initiative. This is done to inspire the military of the US and responders along with
public safety officials. Johnson uses social media to promote health and fitness and has a huge
fan following across the world. He motivates and inspires people to keep fit and many people
make him his idol (Bu, Parkinson and Thaichon, 2022). This creates trust among people and
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influences them to opt for the product of Under Armour. This makes Johnson opt for this
company as it serves and contributes a major part of its profit to the US military. He has 278
million followers on Instagram which makes him a great influencer. He was known for his great
physique and the company has reached to make it a big brand. This will help the company in
elevating brand awareness and in spreading the message of a company through influencer
marketing (Vangelov, 2019). He wears the clothing of Under Armour and this reflects trust in the
company and positively influences the company. It offers a wide range of clothes and offers dry
fit and cotton-based clothes to an athlete. Its target market is sports person who is fond of sports
clothes at a reasonable price.
Influencer marketing has garnered a lot of interest in a few years and in the last five
years, the number of Google searches has increased by 1500% (Vrontis et.al., 2021). This
reflects that the future of influencer marketing is ripe with fruitful opportunities. Many
companies are now aware of influencer marketing and are willing to invest more money into it.
A survey of influencer marketing hubs revealed that 64% of marketers intend to enhance their
marketing budget. The future of influencer marketing is all concerned with businesses whom
they are associated with as it’s all about associating with the right people. It helps the company
in elevating its brand image along with the generation of higher profit. As compared to
traditional marketing and emergence of technology leads to new marketing tools which can be
used to target audiences toward the company's products and offerings. In the upcoming few
years, there will be a huge rise in demand for micro-influencers. There are various opportunities
that a business can grab by opting for influencer marketing. Earlier social media is used to
connect with people, friends, and relatives across the world but now a day, it is highly used by
companies to promote their brand by posting advertisements and commercials (Fries, 2019).
Influencer marketing is highly active on social media as it makes aware customers of the
company’s offerings and in turn, they charged fees from the company. In upcoming years, there
can be seen a drastic change in the concept of marketing as marketers are opting for digital
marketing strategies and influencer marketing to promote their brand.
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CONCLUSION
From the above project essay, it was concluded that influencer marketing plays an
important role in elevating the brand image of the company. Many companies are opting for this
tactic to make the audience influence their offerings. Companies opt for an influencer who is
associated with the same business and has a high fan following. This will benefit the company in
various aspects such as generation of profit along with a high social media presence. It is
imperative to opt for this marketing strategy to engage with more customers in a short period.
There will be high demand for influencer marketing in upcoming years and have seen a drastic
change in the company's promotional strategies. They have opted for this to influence people.
High-rated influencers can manipulate the decision of customers through influencer marketing. It
is important to have a good influencer who has a high social media presence and can easily drive
people to opt for their product. It will help the company in generating more profit and creates
traffic to the company's website along with increased social media presence.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Backaler, J., 2018. What’s Coming: The Future of Influencer Marketing. In Digital
Influence (pp. 187-201). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Deges, F., 2018. Quick guide influencer marketing. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Fries, P.J., 2019. Influencer-marketing. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Jahnke, M., 2018. Influencer marketing. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Micu, and et.al., 2017. Analyzing user sentiment in social media: Implications for online
marketing strategy. Psychology & Marketing, 34(12), pp.1094-1100.
Vrontis 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.
Bu, Y., Parkinson, J. and Thaichon, P., 2022. Influencer marketing: Homophily, customer value
co-creation behaviour and purchase intention. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 66,
p.102904.
Domingues Aguiar, T. and van Reijmersdal, E., 2018. Influencer marketing.
AmsterdamStichting and et al.,
., 2021. A note on influencer marketing in social media. International Journal Internet
Marketing and Advertising, 15(2), pp.124-128.
Vangelov, N., 2019. Efficient Communication through Influencer Marketing. Styles of
Communication, 11(1).
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