A
decade ago, most marketers could
not imagine reaching out to
anyone but a bona fide celebrity
to promote their brand. In recent years,
though, influencers - individuals who
distinguish themselves through their
personal style and their ability to attract
a large audience - have become a top
priority for companies that want effective
and far-reaching brand endorsements.
According to Forbes, influencer marketing
can be defined as a form of marketing
in which focus is placed on specific key
individuals rather than the target market
as a whole. Traditionally, when people
think of influencer marketing, they
think of a celebrity appearance in a TV
commercial or a famous person posed on
a billboard along a highway. Companies
hope that by showcasing people of interest
to their target markets, consumers will be
more inclined to try the product or service
that the company offers.
A rationale for influencer
marketing
As media and technology have become
more advanced, companies can choose
from a range of options in outlets to
market their products. These options have
also led to the evolution of social media
influencer marketing. Now you can find
people representing companies through
branded content on personal social media
accounts, such as: Instagram, Snapchat,
Twitter, and YouTube.
More than ever, consumers are looking
to fellow consumers to inform their
purchasing decisions. The rise of social
media has opened up a new channel for
brands to connect with consumers more
directly and more organically. If a brand
is not using social media influencer
marketing as a strategy to better attract
its target audience, it may be time for
the company to start evaluating their
advertising strategy.
Social media brand influencers are on
the rise, becoming one of the biggest
marketing trends of 2019, especially
those who promote lifestyle brands.
Lifestyle influencers focus on working
with companies whose products non-
celebrity individuals use in their everyday
lives. By working alongside social media
influencers, marketers can capture the
attention of brand consumers and promote
relevant and relatable content to clients.
20 MAL30/19 ISSUE
While influencer marketing based on
traditional media has been used in
marketing for many years, the rise of social
media has created the boom of social
media influencer marketing. Social media
influencer marketing has successfully
changed the way brands interact with
consumers, especially in regard to lifestyle
branding.
Working with influencers can be an
effective way to get your products in front
of targeted and highly engaged audiences.
Endorsements of products and services
can also help customers make decisions
about what to buy. Of course, influencer
marketing only works when you take the
time to build a strong, transparent and
mutually beneficial relationship with
someone whose audience naturally aligns
with yours.
It is important to acknowledge that
consumers are increasingly becoming
reluctant to trust online brand messaging.
Instead, they turn to social media
influencers. What influencers wear,
where they travel to, and who they listen
to intrigues and inspires their followers.
Increasingly, therefore, marketers are
looking for opportunities to connect
with their customers by positioning their
products and brands into influencers’
dialogues with followers.
Marketers often treat social media as a
low-cost advertising channel. From this
perspective, an influencer simply executes
the upstream part of a company’s brand
strategy, driving sales by creating visibility
through product placement on social
networks.
Brands select influencers on the basis of
their audience size and negotiate each
contract on a “per campaign” basis. Owing
to this, they are then able to track the
influencers’ performance at the campaign
level with objectively assessed metrics.
If an influencer does not meet assigned
short-term goals, he or she is easily
replaced for the next campaign.
The management of the relationship
with influencers is often delegated
to specialized agencies, which use
standardized approaches to select
influencers, negotiate their contracts, and
monitor their performance.
Lessons from ASOS and
L’Oréal
Over the last few years, however,
many influencers have become highly
professionalized, and they increasingly
aspire to collaborate with brands as real
partners. Smart companies recognize that
social media influencers should be treated
as brand ambassadors rather than as an
advertising outlet.
Consider the example of fashion retailer
ASOS, which puts influencer marketing
at the core of its brand strategy. A pool of
carefully selected influencers; referred to
as “insiders” - with various fashion styles,
have been carefully selected by marketers
in order to feed ASOS’s dedicated social
network accounts. On these “insider”
name accounts, influencers post outfits,
including clothes, accessories, and beauty
products in order to enrich the retailer
image. As such, insiders are real ASOS
brand ambassadors, embodying ASOS
products day after day, over the long-run.
In the cosmetics industry, L’Oréal Paris
has taken a similar approach, striking
long-term contractual relationships with
a few top-ranked influencers. The brand
considers its so-called “beauty squad” as
a group of experts and ambassadors who
It’s not always pretty, and like any re-
lationship, can mean some “give and
take” for everyone involved, but at the
end, those strong voices projecting your
company messages for you, without so-
licitation, will have an ROI that far ex-
ceeds many of the other programs in
your marketing mix.