Instagram live-streamings: how does influencer–follower congruence affect Gen Z trust, attitudes and intentions?

Abstract

Purpose Influencer marketing is nowadays an essential practice for companies wishing to establish a rapprochement with its customers and gain their trust. Building close relationships can be fulfilled through Instagram live-streamings. Drawing upon equilibrium theory and brand extension theory, this paper aims to determine the effect of influencer–follower congruence on trust, attitudes and intentions in Instagram live-streamings. Design/methodology/approach A survey was carried out on a sample of 330 Generation Z Instagram users exposed to a live-streaming of an influencer promoting a clothing brand on Instagram. A PLS analysis was performed to validate the proposed model. Findings Results revealed that influencer–follower congruence in a live-streaming promotes followers’ trust toward the brand. In addition, influencer reputation is found to reinforce this relationship. Moreover, results showed that brand trust mediates the effect of influencer–follower congruence on brand attitude. Besides, the latter turns out be a mediator of the relationship between brand trust and followers’ intentional reactions. Research limitations/implications The study has focused on one particular live-streaming as well as a particular influencer which reduces the generalizability of the results. Future research should therefore replicate the study with different stimuli. Furthermore, it would be interesting to manipulate influencer–follower congruence in an experiment to explore the effect of varying congruence levels on trust. Practical implications This paper highlights the importance of using live-streamings for brands, especially when Gen Z is targeted. This tool can be considered as very useful to establish a trust relationship with young consumers. Moreover, the study emphasizes on the importance of choosing influencers whose image is in line with that of their followers to establish close relationships with them and gain their trust. The findings also suggest that to further strengthen trust toward the influencer, the latter should benefit from a prior good reputation. Originality/value Despite abundance of research on communication strategies on Instagram, little has focused on live-streamings. Particularly, research on influencer–follower congruence is relatively rare. Thus, this study contributes to the understanding of the effects of influencer–follower congruence on followers of Instagram live-streamings and offers valuable theoretical and practical implications in this field.