Uppfattar ungdomar kommersiella avsikter inom marknadsföring? : En studie om ungdomars medvetenhet på sociala medier.

Title: Do young people perceive commercial intentions in marketing? - A study on youth awareness on social media. Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Fredrik Petersson and Henrik Ylipukki Supervisor: Jonas Kågström Date: 2019 – January Aim: The study aims to analyze young people’s awareness of the commercial purpose of influencer marketing on the social media platform Instagram. Method: The study is based on a quantitative research method with a positivistic research view and deductive approach. Data from 121 individuals within the target group have been collected through a survey conducted at Nacka Gymnasium and Bessemerskolan. The collected data has subsequently been processed and analyzed in the IBM SPSS statistics program in the form of descriptive, correlation, factor and cluster analysis Result & Conclusions: Results of the study has shown that young people are not fully aware of the commercial intention that exists when an influencer publishes sponsored posts on their social media profile, even if a cautionary instruction has been given. The study, also, shows that young people note products that are highlighted in posts regardless of whether there is a commercial intention or not. Contribution of the thesis: The completed study contributes with knowledge about awareness and perception of intentions in published posts. The study contributes to whether cautionary instructions should be given to raise awareness. Suggestions for future research: To perform a similar study to with a target group of younger children would be of interest to strengthen this research area with additional knowledge. It would also be interesting to study the awareness of consumers who are within the concept of vulnerable consumers for other reasons than age. Key words: Vulnerable consumers, commercial message, admiration, social media marketing, influencer marketing, awarenes