Study influencer marketing Vs. celebrity endorsement

Abstract

In recent years, advertisers have increasingly been using social media influencers in their promotional communications. However, little is known about how consumers might react to the endorsement by an influencer for beauty products. In this report, we examine the effect of using influencer celebrity in advertisements on consumers' purchase intentions. We examined using an online study the moderating influence of product type (utilitarian vs. hedonic) on the celebrity type -> purchase intentions link, finding that both type of celebrities are equally effective in promoting utilitarian beauty products. In such a scenario, to have same impact of marketing and incur lower cost, companies may choose to select influencer celebrity for marketing of utilitarian products. Next, we found that traditional celebrities are more effective in promoting hedonic beauty products. The findings of our work offer theoretical and managerial implications with respect to why and when influencer celebrities are likely to make advertisements more effective. We also performed empirical investigation to understand if the presence of influencer celebrity leads consumers to experience higher credibility, which in turn, leads to higher purchase intentions. We have found that credibility does not play a mediating role in this link between the celebrity type and purchase intention.