Scrolling, Shopping, and Shaping Opinions: From boosting sales to breaking trust : A quantitative investigation on how marketing through lifestyle influencers affect consumer trust, scepticism and action towards brands

Modern marketing strategies have been shaped by the popularity of social media, and brands are now able to interact with consumers across the globe and forecast consumer trends and demands. Influencers have together with social media, expanded only in the last decade to become a recognized billion-dollar industry with different areas of expertise. One of them is lifestyle influencers (LI’s). Without a specified area of expertise, they stay relevant on social media by sharing content of their, often glamorous and eventful, lives mainly on Instagram or TikTok. Consumer trends on social media are showing a demand for transparency from brands and relatability from influencers, and they are now using social media to collectively call out or cancel criticized people or brands. The idea of influencer marketing is to increase consumer trust and engagement by using a likeable person to speak for the brand. But what happens to the brand when consumers start to question the influencer’s incentives or expertise? This led to the purpose of the study which was to investigate the success of LI-marketing on Instagram and TikTok. By doing a quantitative study using a survey, we delved deeper into the emotions and attitudes experienced by consumers after exposure to LI-marketed content. The aim was then to see if scepticism towards LI-marketing had led consumers into an intention to take an action, or having already taken an action against a brand. The survey was targeted towards the largest age groups on Instagram and TikTok, which is 18-35 year olds, and resulted in 107 answers. The findings showed evidence of lack of trust in LI’s and their recommendations. Further, consumers expect responsibility and consideration from brands when using an LI’s as they think that the influencer should reflect the brand’s values. The results also show that consumers are aware when an LI is sponsored and feel irritation towards too much sponsored content and question the LI’s incentives, which further leads to scepticism. The scepticism towards LI-marketing is making consumers want to spread criticism further, and to stop or decrease their consumption at the brand. Experiencing a negative self-image from LI-marketing is especially important in the consumer’s decisions to take an action against a brand. The results point at an attitude-behaviour gap where the intention to take an action due to scepticism did not lead to a realized one. The findings did however show that the intention to take an action is leading to a realized one. The results showed a shift among consumers where the success of influencer-marketing in general does not seem to be accurate when it comes to LI-marketing. This calls for a development of influencer-marketing strategies taken on by brands where more consideration of who to work with and how much content is being sponsored should be reevaluated. In order to ensure long-term loyalty, trust and success, the brands should acknowledge the power consumers have gained on social media where words are spreading in seconds.