Abstract
Prominent studies revealed that building the right relationship with the right social media influencer is one of the biggest challenges in influencer marketing. This study mainly aimed at exploring how Sri Lankan beauty and personal care brands opt social media influencers for their influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram. To fulfill the purpose of the study, the study adopted qualitative research approach based on semi-structured interviews to collect responses. The respondents were the personnel responsible for supervising influencer marketing campaigns of beauty and personal care brands in Sri Lanka. The study adopted thematic analysis to perform the analysis of the study and revealed that Sri Lankan beauty and personal care brands opt social media (Instagram) influencers based on top four “REAL” qualities, namely: Relatedness, Engagement, Authenticity and Loyalty. Moreover, researchers discovered the main reasons for choosing social media influencers by Sri Lankan beauty and personal care brands. In addition, study found that the same brands were not much interested in checking the demographic details when selecting social media influencers.
Highlights
Influencer marketing has become a novel approach for marketing
Reasons for Using social media influencers (SMIs) Respondents pointed out different reasons regarding why beauty and personal care brands use SMIs
Influencer marketing has evolved rapidly and become the fastest-growing online marketing channel as many brands started investing on influencer marketing
Summary
Influencer marketing has become a novel approach for marketing. It is rapidly growing as it attempts to promote products/services and increase brand awareness through content spread by social media influencers (SMIs) (Carter, 2016). According to Amarasinghe (2019), considerable amount of SMIs on Instagram became influencers by merely buying fake followers and fake engagements through third party online tools. It is questionable whether these kind of SMIs have the ability to generate a true influence for a brand (Amarasinghe, 2019). Sometimes it could be observed that SMIs are promoting products and services on Instagram that are not matching with their profile
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call