Sponsorship phenomenon on Instagram : A qualitative study that examines how companies in the health supplement industry communicate with their target group with the help of private individuals

In this essay we have chosen to research how health supplement companies market themselves and in different ways reach out to a vast majority of people with the help of one of the biggest social media channels, Instagram. It’s common nowadays that companies use social media as a fast, cheap and easy way to market their products to users. Either by promoting it on their own channel or by sponsorship, where they have popular people with a high amount of followers to encourage their viewers to buy their products. Instagram is rapidly growing and today have about 400 million active users every month and 40 % of all Swedish people that uses the Internet are a member of this application. Our research question is: “in which way do health supplement companies work with private individuals to communicate with their target group on Instagram and what is in the medium Instagram that makes it possible to use it for marketing and communication purposes?” By interviewing four individuals who are sponsored by different companies, two experts on the domain and by doing a netnographic observation that examines eight different Instagram accounts we were able to analyse and find the answer to our question. For health supplement companies to successfully communicate with their target group on Instagram it is important that they use the right person as an influencer. This is important to create high credibility towards the consumer. It’s also important that the influencer describes the product in an interesting way and that the person has a lot of knowledge about the product. We also conclude that the most important function that Instagram can offer is the ability to distribute images and influence other users