A study on the perceived homophily and influencer being inspiring impacting purchase intention and the brand attitude.

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School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
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Date

2020

Department

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Mcode

Degree programme

(Mikkeli) Bachelor’s Program in International Business

Language

en

Pages

43 + 10

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Abstract

Objectives The main objective of this study was to find out whether the perceived similarity between an influencer and subject, as well as influencer being inspiring has a direct effect on the attractiveness of the influencer and willingness to follow the influencer on social media. The objectives also included exploring the relationship between attractiveness of the influencer and willingness to follow influencer on social media to both purchase intention and brand attitude. Summary This research was conducted through a quantitative study using 2 by 2 design, where respondents were exposed to one of the four different experimental settings. These different settings were measuring if the perceived similarity between an influencer and the subject, as well as influencer being inspiring have an effect on both attractiveness of the influencer and to the willingness to follow the influencer on social media. The correlation between attractiveness of an influencer and purchase intention was examined. Additionally, the correlation between attractiveness of an influencer and brand attitude were examined. Lastly, the correlation between willingness to follow influencer on social media and purchase intention, and willingness to follow influencer on social media and brand attitude were observed. Conclusions Perceived similarity between an influencer and the subject was not found to have a direct effect on the attractiveness of the influencer and to the intention to follow the influencer on social media. However, influencer being inspiring was found to have a positive effect on both attractiveness of the influencer and the intention to follow the influencer on social media. The higher level of willingness to follow a social media influencer led to higher level of purchase intention and had a positive effect on brand attitude. Also, higher level of attractiveness of an influencer was found to have a positive effect on both purchase intention and brand attitude.

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Thesis advisor

Zdravkovic, Srdan

Keywords

influencer marketing, similarity, inspiration, social media, marketing, purchase intention, brand attitude, homophily

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