Influencers and followers - partners in crime? : A study of influencers’ usage of a marketing communication strategy to build a relationship with their followers

Abstract: Influencer marketing is today a well-known marketing strategy used by many companies and the phenomenon is growing day by day. This is mostly a strategy with the spotlight on how the company can reach their consumers through famous people on social medias, not with focus on what relationship is created between all the parties. This study has the purpose to create a better understanding of how influencers use a marketing communication strategy to build a relationship with their target groups. To delimitate the research the focus will be on Instagram as a platform for influencers to work on. To get an answer on the purpose, a qualitative case study consisting of three interviews with influencers, together with three complementary content studies have been executed. The theories used in the study are influencer marketing along with a marketing communication strategy and relationship marketing model. These are the foundation and the theoretical framework for the study and used to investigate the influencer - follower relationship from the perspective of the influencer. The collected data presents a result that shows that influencers are concerned about their relationship to the followers and are dedicated to improve this. They all see a meaningful gain in creating a long-term relationship with respect and trust shown from both parties. The influencers are in some ways conscious about their usage of marketing communication strategies and in some ways not. We can see similarities and differences between all the influencers regarding all theories. The differences can depend on various nationalities among the respondents and inequality in the number of followers. As a conclusion and theoretical contribution from this study we claim that several parts of the marketing communication strategy used can have a direct impact on specific parts of the relationship marketing model used in this research. Influencers and companies who are aware of these factors may have a bigger chance of success.