Perception of social media influencers : A study on evaluation of Social Media Influencer types for different beauty categories

Abstract: Background: For years companies have been using SMIs to communicate their brands and influencer marketing has become a thriving concept in this social-media era. Beauty retailing industry, as a global business with the third biggest follower base on social media, makes itself qualified and valuable for the study of influencer marketing. Purpose: The aim of the thesis is to investigate which type of influencers would be more influential in promotion of beauty product categories. Furthermore, the study intends to research on consumers’ review habits, preferred traits of influencers and reasons behind the actions. Method: To accomplish the purpose of this study, we conducted an abductive approach by the aid of both qualitative and quantitative data. The data was gathered through a questionnaire and a focus group, primarily among students in international universities. This in order to reach out to young people with different nationalities since it is an international study. Conclusion: Top influentials and narrative experts are shown to be more efficient for influencer marketing in the beauty industry especially when they are perceived trustworthy. Additionally, we found that the influencers have an impact on the consumers most when it comes to information search and the evaluation of alternatives.