Degree

Master of Business Administration Executive

Faculty / School

School of Business Studies (SBS)

Year of Award

2023

Advisor/Supervisor

Dr. Nida Aslam Khan, Assistant Professor and Chairperson - Marketing Department, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi

Project Type

MBA Executive Research Project

Access Type

Restricted Access

Executive Summary

In this dynamic business environment brands often seek novel ways to engage with their target customers. Influencer marketing is one of those, it’s a growing industry with promising prospects in the current marketing landscape. Influencer marketing leverages influencer’s reach and credibility for effective promotion of brands and services. Influencer marketing has developed into a multibillion-dollar industry owing to its usage across the world. However, till date there is no consensus over its effectiveness measures, still as much as 75% of the firms engage in Influencer marketing, while the believability in idea is only 36%. This is suggestive of the fact that the reason for adoption could be due to its lower cost or the fear of missing out notion, even in the absence of standardization and consistency measures. In this research project with the help of literature review, probing was done into the attributes that make influencers standout, thus in turn leading to positive purchase intent among their followers. Some of the influencers’ attributes that were put to test in this research included Attitude homophily, Expertise, Para-social relationship, Physical and Social attractiveness, Honesty, Truthfulness and Sincerity. With the help of self-reported measures, data from 300 respondents was collected for each of the constructs. At an overall level, the study results implicated that Honesty was found positively correlated with the purchase intent, followed by Para-social relationship and the Attitude homophily. Other attributes were not reported to have a significant positive correlation which may be researched further in future. Based on these research findings, firms may exploit the importance of honesty and reach out to genuine influencers suitable for endorsing their products. Another take away for businesses is that the para-social relationship with influencer may instill positive purchase intent, however the balance between the functional and emotional levers of media content cannot be compromised in any media. The resonance of the influencer with their followers also has a significant role to play. Therefore, firms should research and adopt a vigilant strategy to hire the right influencer for the right product.

Pages

vii, 33

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