The Impact of Influencer Marketing on Consumers' Attitudes

Background Influencer marketing has evolved from traditional marketing strategies such as print ads, celebrity endorsement, and digital marketing. Influencer marketing is in comparison to the previously used strategies a new phenomenon that had its major increase during 2016. An influencer is regarded as a person who has built up a lot of followers on a social media platform such as Instagram, and companies are today widely using these people as a marketing tool to reach out to their target audience in an effective way. Because of this increase in popularity and usage, the authors have investigated how millennial attitudes are affected by these promotional messages, as they are an influential group present online. This to get a better understanding of what is needed to be taken into consideration before starting a collaboration between a business and an influencer. After its rise in 2016, a new marketing regulation was introduced to make consumers aware of the content on social media that is regarded as paid partnership, which has changed how people perceive influencer marketing. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to investigate; what reasons affect Swedish millennials’ attitudes by influencer marketing on Instagram and blogs. Method To meet the purpose of the thesis, focus groups were conducted with participants from Jönköping University, belonging to the millennial generation. The data collected was analyzed using categorical indexing, to identify patterns and repeating topics that became apparent during transcription. This research used a deductive approach as it explores and adds on existing literature and an abductive approach during analysis. Conclusion The overall findings of this research indicate that millennials attitudes are affected by influencer marketing due to several reasons such as the alignment of promotions presented by an influencer, the degree of credibility and trustworthiness of the messages, as well as, an influencer’s change in style.