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Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Harvey Leibenstein, an American economist, has identified and analyzed the phenomenon, which is now known as „imitation effect”. It occurs when customers want to buy some goods, even at higher prices, only for the fact that others are buying. This stems from a desire to imitate the people who they want to be identified with.[1]
The imitation effect is visible especially in the world of fashion. Whenever designers, celebrities and famous people dictate wearing new cuts or colors, people who want to belong to the fashionably dressed group will purchase such things. It happens because for people the most important are security, acceptance and the need of affiliation. People are imitating others because they are afraid of social exclusion but also because they need role models and they are looking for new sources of inspiration.[2] Once, this role was performed (especially for women) by models who were presenting new trends on the catwalk, or movie stars who encouraged us from the tv screen to purchase the right products. Nowadays, the technological development and a success of social media has contributed to the emergence of a new opinion forming group, with the potential to be reckoned with- influencers. They are individuals that affect people by expressing their views, opinions and preferences using social networking sites such as Facebook, Tweeter, Linkedin, Snapchat, Instagram, You Tube etc. We can see what important opinion role they play in the lives of the mass by analyzing statistics of the number of subscriptions they have and the crowd of their faithful fans – followers. For the last several years, we can observe the growing importance of influencers. They are starting to play the same important role as the resilient and well – known fashion magazines. An example which can confirm the above ascertainment is a collation of the amount of followers. The Vouge Magazine, being a powerful institution with decades of tradition, has 12.6 million followers on Instagram. Having a considerably smaller base, fashion influencers do not lag behind. Fashion Influencers, such as Chiara Ferragini - has 7.5 million of followers, Amie Song - 3,9 million, or Kristina Bazan - 2.4 million of followers.[3] No wonder that influencers are seen as children of a marketing strategy. Influencers are the new celebrities, entailing the crowds who want to imitate them. „The effect of imitation” is one of the key points in the marketing stategies of companies, and the changing, dynamic media reality has forced deeper reflection and modification of strategic assumptions among the producers. Many brands have recognized large potential in influencers and it may be used to achieve their own marketing purposes. Nobody else but influencers are able to reach the millennium generation which like no other before grew up and is still growing up in the digital age, being more susceptible to the impact and assessment of social leaders.[4] Changes in media preferences in the age structure of consumers have been noticed by such well known companies as Ester Lauder, Lancome and Clinique. They have also realized that building solely on high budgetary fashion shows and traditional advertising on TV or in Magazines, they are able to reach only the older age group 45+. The brands ( especially fashion ones) do not want to lose the young generation of consumers. That's why they have decided to discontinue using the traditional models of marketing, making significant reformulations. Currently they are spending 70 per cent of their budget on promotion in social media and are hiring the fashion influencers as their creative employees. Only 30 per cent is spent on traditional advertising.[5] The importance of influencers and their role in global phenomenom of imitation and creating demand has become an indisputable fact. It is worth considering what makes their opinion vital to other people and why many fashion houses are beginning to take into account the opinions of fashion influencers, counting that they will show up in the first row at fashion shows. Also, many other companies offer them free samples hoping they will share their product - experience with their followers.[6] There are a lot of reasons. First of all, the influencers are the people with specific knowledge of a given subject, in a way, they are profiled. The large competition on the market cause that many influencers are investing in themselves and learning how to use the new social media tools. They are also looking for ways how to stand out from the others. Currently, displaying a photo on Instagram is not enough, it is simply passe. Therefore, besides the basic tools, such as Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, Printrest, Snapchat or Tweeter for example, the fashion influencers are using additional applications and tools such as POLYVORE (fashion collage), Google analytics, Bloglovin, google Plus, Latergammie, Shopsense, IFB (Independent Fashion bloggers – advice and tips), an Onlooker, Comb or Iconsquare, etc.[7] Such impact on collective consciousness can be atributed to their reliability and authenticity. Most influencers started their activity under the influence of their own passion and curiosity. Blogies and vlogies were just an additional job - that's why they could criticize what they liked and openly praise the advantages of the products. By the way, they posted anecdotes from their life and scrupulously responded to the comments in various social media channels. This normality, naturalness, devoid of advertising trends, has created a great contact with customers. This has caused the situation that despite signing the lucrative contracts with well- known brands, the influencers don't lose their credibility – quite the opposite - they confirm the quality of products with the brand they reached on their own. The influencers are careful with signing contracts. They know that their popularity and credibility might be at stake, that's why it's optimal for them to promote the products in line with their preferences, consistent with their network image. Their actions reveal what customers want and their leadership generates an increase in demand in the mass of the followers. They may have a large influence on the purchasing decisions of customers, especially women. It is the women who have declared that they have a tendency to buy something what they have previously seen at other people. Therefore, they are often inspired by what they saw on the community forums. They suggest that fashion blogs are used not only as sources of information, but these imitations may be the expression of social acceptance. With the development of social media and resilient activity of influencers, we can clearly see an increase in online sales. This type of shopping is preferred especially by young women aged 18-34. They themselves admit they have made the purchasing decisions on the basis of tracking their favourite fashion influencers. One third of women included in the millennium generations is visiting Instagram (33%), You Tube (34%) every two days and up to 71% keep track of Facebook every day.[8] It is safe to say that the trend, which began in 2008, is developing with great momentum, choosing social media and influencers as main tools which generate increased demand thanks to function of imitation. 1) http://wikipedia.org/efekt_owczego_pędu 2) http://wyborcza.pl/wszyscy-się-naśladujemy 3) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people-meet-fashions-super-influencer 4) http://mediakix.com/2016/06/brand-influencer-better-then-celebrites 5) http://www.thefashionlaw/home/influencer-marketing-get-up-to-speed-or-get-left-down 6) http://www.businessfashion.com/articles/influencers-are-the-new-brand 7) http://theluxeedition.com/2015/04/fashiontechnology-12-top-tools-for-fashion-bloggers.htm 8) http://www.mintel.com./press-centre/fashion
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