The role of influencer marketing in building rural brand equity among generation Y customers

In the current fast paced competitive digital marketing era, businesses explore every possibility to differentiate their brand, retain customers and remain resilient. Contrary to the popular usage of conventional celebrity endorsements, modern businesses are often turning to social media influencers for their brand marketing initiatives, using popular social media platforms. Currently, it is unknown how successful local non-celebrity influencer endorsements are in building brand equity among generation Y. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perceptions of generation Y customers on building local beauty brand equity through influencer marketing. A questionnaire using Google form was given to generation Y customers, recruited using a convenience sampling technique. A total of sixty-two (62) generation Y customers were recruited in the study. The results indicated that only few of the generation Y customers (n = 16; 25.81%) had positive perception about building local beauty brand equity through influencer marketing, while (n = 28; 45.16%) said that influencer marketing is sustainable. Furthermore, 45.55% (n=27) felt that influencer marketing is important for beauty brand industries. The study concludes that authenticity is a crucial factor in determining the impact of influencer marketing on building brand equity. Moreover, authentic influencers who genuinely interact with their audience and conform to local preferences greatly contribute to fostering strong brand connections.