Impact of social media influencers on consumer buying behaviors

BY
ARYA KUMAR VERMA
Exam Roll No: 21032563
P.U. Registration:

A Project Work Report submitted to Pokhara University in Partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)

At the

South Asian Institute of Management (SAIM) College

Pokhara University

Kathmandu

July, 2023

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project work report entitled “Greenwashing Understanding
among Consumers in Kathmandu Valley and Its Impact on Their Green
Consumption” submitted for the BBA is my original work and the Project Report has
not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, or other similar titles.

………………………..
Signature
Arya kumar Verma
BBA
SAIM College
Date:

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 Certificate
This is to certify that the Project Work titled “Impact of social media influencer on
consumer behavior” submitted by Arya Kumar Verma with Roll Number 21032563
for the partial fulfillment of the requirement of BBA embodies the bona fide work
done by him under my supervision.

…………………….
Signature of supervisor
Name:
Date:

……………………..
Research coordinator
SAIM Research Management Cell
Name:
Date:

…………………………
External Supervisor
Name:
Date:

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This report has been prepared for the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) at the faculty of Management,
Pokhara University, Nepal. The report consists of an Introduction, Descriptive and
Inferential analysis and discussion, and conclusion.
I would never have been able to accomplish this research report without the
guidance of my research supervisor and support from all the participants of the
research survey.
First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for my research supervisor
Mr. Laxman Pokhrel for his patience, motivation and knowledge for this dissertation.
Without his persistence guidance and help, this study would not have been possible.
He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work but steered me in the right
direction whenever he thought I needed it. His advice on both research as well as on
my career have been invaluable.
Second, I am extremely grateful to all the facilitators of SAIM College,
Pokhara University for providing direct and indirect support for the completion of the
study.
Final, I must express my sincere gratitude to the participants of the
questionnaire survey for their time and effort and my parents for providing me with
consistent support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and
through the process of writing this research report. This accomplishment would not
have been possible without them.

Thank You.
Arya Verma
BBA
SAIM College

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 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS USED

ATT Attitude Towards Fashion

ATTR Attractiveness
CRED Credibility
INTER Interactivity
S-O-R Stimulus Organism Response

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Background and Introduction

The rapid development of information technology and the shift in lifestyles following governments
and organizations' lockdown measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 both contribute to the
success of e-commerce. Instead of cinemas, Netflix becomes the primary platform for filmmakers to
showcase their work. Instead of television stations, social media becomes the primary source of
entertainment for the public. Instead of celebrities, social media influencers become the icons and
stars capable of altering their followers' behavior and influencing their consumer behavior.

Contemporary social media and social networking sites (SNSs) have had a substantial impact on how
people receive information and news. The number of U.S. people who rely heavily on social media
for news has steadily climbed over the past five years, according to a recent Pew Research Center
survey (Gottfried and Shearer 2016). People are now exposed to thousands of advertising per day,
with the great majority originating from social networking sites (Ganguly 2015). Some age groups,
especially millennials and younger generations, have developed a habitual reliance on social
media (Gottfried and Shearer 2016). Consequently, their desire to collect data from social media
and other clients is greater than ever. Recent Twitter and Annalect data indicates that roughly 40%
of surveyed Twitter users have made a purchase as a result of an influencer's post (Karp 2016).

According to Ki and Kim (2019), a social media influencer (SMI) is an individual who possesses the
ability to influence others through social media platforms. Due to the SMI's potential influence,
many more brands are approaching SMIs to create branded content such as product placements or
brand recommendations. Audrezet et al. (2020) refer to this practice as influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing is a hybrid of traditional and new marketing techniques. It reinvents the
concept of celebrity endorsement as a modern content-driven marketing campaign. The primary
distinction between influencer marketing and other forms of marketing is that the campaigns'
outcomes are the result of collaborations between brands and influencers. According to Feeley
(2020), influencer marketing reached a global value of USD 4.6 billion in 2018. Between 2019 and
2025, it is expected to grow at a rate of more than 25% per year. The alignment of SMIs with their
audiences enables the former to be more effective at product placement and recommendation than
traditional celebrities. One of the most common errors made by traditional media is their failure to
distinguish between celebrities and online influencers.

To begin, while SMIs are extremely popular on social media, they may not be as well-known as
celebrities in the offline world. Second, the majority of influencers have developed a strong bond

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with their audiences, who are ardent and enthusiastic supporters of the SMIs. As a result, if
influencers do not endorse a particular brand, their followers will abandon the brand.

As the number of ad blockers increases, there is a shift away from traditional media toward social
networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Retailers must tailor their social media
strategies to their customers' online and offline behaviors. With the increasing importance of
influencer marketing, this paper is going to investigate the mechanism by which social media
influencers influence their followers' loyalty and, consequently, their purchasing behaviors.

Research/ Problem Statement

Social media is a type of computer-aided technology that enables people to interact. It has
evolved into a platform that anyone with an internet connection can access. Given the internet's
rapid growth and the enormous amount of time spent on social media, marketers have been urged
to investigate advertising tactics that capitalize on these new mass media communication channels.
According to the most recent statistics, more than half of the world's population, or 3.6 billion
people, use social media (Freberg et al., 2011). Marketers may choose to target a specific
demographic on social media due to the audience's precision. Businesses can leverage social media
to launch low- cost marketing campaigns.

Due to increased competition, social media influencers are highly sought after. However, as
competition intensifies, businesses and organizations are having a harder time identifying genuine
influencers with a sizable following. By delivering up-to-date information and influencing
consumers' attitudes and behaviors, an influencer promoted a product that the consumer admired
and encouraged them to purchase it.

Influencer-generated branded content is viewed as having more organic, genuine, and direct touch
with potential consumers than brand-generated advertisements (Talavera 2015). The rise in
influencer marketing's popularity has been exponential. In 2018, according to a recent report, 39
percent of marketers planned to boost their influencer marketing budgets, and 19 percent planned
to spend more than $100,000 per campaign (Bevilacqua and Del Giudice 2018). Despite the
presence of several studies that have explored the effects of celebrity endorsers on advertising (e.g.
Amos, Holmes, and Strutton, 2008), this body of literature does not take into account the peculiarity
of social media influencers, or "celebrity" content creators. In addition, although there has been
recent research on influencer advertising (e.g. De Veirman, Cauberghe, and Hudders 2017;
Djafarova and Rushworth 2017; Evans et al. 2017; Johansen and Guldvik 2017), none of this
research has centered on the fundamental mechanisms that make influencer marketing effective. In
academia and industry alike, influencer marketing is gaining traction. The mechanism by which

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social media influencers influence customer behavior, on the other hand, has not been extensively
studied. As a result, the study is being conducted in order to fill a research gap.

The major issues of this topic are;

What are the potential features of social media influencers in practice?

What is the mechanism of social media influencers changing customer attitude?

How does customer loyalty affect customer behavior?

How do the demographic factors, like family income level, gender and education level
moderate the effect of social media influencers on customer buying behavior?

1.3 Objectives

1. To examine the relationship between attractiveness and attitude towards fashion.

2. To examine the relationship between credibility and attitude towards fashion.

3. To examine the relationship between interactivity and attitude towards fashion .

Need and Scope of the Study

The researcher has a two-fold need and scope in the study. The study's contribution is
described by its methodological significance, while its practical relevance is described by
its managerial implications.
The study's findings have methodological significance in that they aid in the
development of a better understanding of influence of social media influencer concerning
buying behavior and, as a result, inform researchers of the variables that have influenced
buing behaviors. The study aids in the investigation of more recent issues of buying
behavior and its relevance in the future.
Similarly, regarding the managerial significance of the study, this study will
primarily benefit three important stakeholders: firms, managers, and consumers. This study
provides pertinent data on consumer awareness, social media influencer understanding
and the factors influencing their buying behavior. Where companies that support the idea of
sustainability can use this knowledge to their advantage to take the required safeguards that
harm the consumer as little as possible.

1.5 Limitations of the Study

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The study was limited in different ways. First, the study's sample size of 60 individuals
may not be representative of the population as a whole, its quantitative methods may not
have adequately captured relevant factors and its data analysis may have had errors.
Second, the researcher collected data via purposive non-probability sampling method.
Considering this, it is problematic to generalize the study. And, third, the study focused
more on personal care products specifically.

Structure of the Study

This research study has been organized into following three chapters:

Chapter- I Introduction

This Chapter deals with background of the study, problem statement, research objectives,
need and scope of the study, limitations of the study, structure of the report, review of
literature which incorporates the review of previous related studies, theoretical framework,
and research gap and research hypotheses. Similarly, this chapter includes research design,
sampling design, measurements, and data collection procedures.
Chapter-II Descriptive and Inferential Analysis

This chapter includes demographic profile of the respondents, reliability scale, mean,
standard deviation and inter-item correlation, regression analysis, test for normality, multi-
collinearity, homoscedasticity, and hypotheses testing.
Chapter- III Discussion and Conclusions

This chapter comprises introduction, findings of the tested hypothesis, discussion,

conclusion, managerial implications, and direction for future research.

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