What Characterizes an Influential Instagram Fashion Influencer? : A Descriptive Research

Abstract: Influencer marketing has become a central aspect within brand’s marketing activities (Kapitan & Silvera, 2016). The former marketing way of including celebrities within marketing purposes (Pringle & Binet, 2005) has in recent years been discussed as digital media influencers (Kapitan & Silvera, 2016). Digital media influencers resulted in social media influencers, where Instagram is one out of the social media which is worldwide used (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2018). Social media influencers are shown to have a significant role for brands in the process of reaching out to consumers (Lin, Bruning & Swarna, 2018) and within the fashion industry, the opinions of fashion influencers tend to weigh heavy within consumers decision making (Loureiro, Costa & Panchapakesan, 2017). However, besides the known influential characteristics of celebrity endorsement (Page Winterich, Gangwar & Grewal, 2018; Tzoumaka, Tsiotsou & Siomkos, 2014), the level of influence of Instagram influencers has mainly been discussed in terms of number of followers (De Veirman, Cauberghe & Hudders, 2017). The purpose of this study is to describe the influential characteristics of an Instagram fashion influencer and its influence on consumers purchase intention for fashion in Sweden. The research method applied for this research was primary data in the form of a survey research and was chosen as it allows to generate data which makes it possible to define correlations between the variables (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The study is based on the theory of consumer purchase intention, celebrity endorsement as well as influencer marketing, and through that, three hypotheses were created: 1) the trustworthiness of an Instagram fashion influencer has positive impact on consumers purchase intention, 2) the expertise of an Instagram fashion influencer has positive impact on consumers purchase intention, 3) the physical attraction of an Instagram fashion influencer has positive impact on consumers purchase intention. The conclusion drawn indicates that the trustworthiness of an Instagram fashion influencer is the only influential characteristic amongst the identified characteristics in this research which impacts consumer purchase intention for fashion in Sweden.