Consumers’ perception on companies who have a social purpose

: the role of influencers

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze consumer’s responses – mainly purchase intention (PI), willingness to pay (WTP) and perceived quality (PQ) – on companies with social purposes, when confronted with an influencer’s opinion or with an influencer’s advertisement, accounting for the mediating role of brand personality (BP). For that, a quantitative experiment was performed, using an online survey, to test the hypotheses formulated in the study. Data was analyzed using independent samples t-tests and the SPSS PROCESS macro to test brand personality’s mediating role. Findings suggest that consumers form different perceptions when confronted with an opinion and when confronted with an advertisement. Mediated by brand personality, purchase intentions, willingness to pay and perceived quality are higher for the influencer’s opinion. This study contributes for research in the consumer behavior, influencer marketing and companies with social purpose field, showing the mediating role of brand personality on consumer’s responses, providing guidance for influencer marketing users.

Date of Award	24 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Marta Bicho (Supervisor)