The influencer fever

: the psychological role of social media in luxury fashion consumption

Abstract

Nowadays, brands are forwarding their online efforts to social media and areinvesting in several advertising campgains such as influencer marketing. Marketers arerecognising the value of these campgains and reporting an 11 times higher revenue fromworking with influencers. Understanding how brands communicate and whichpsychological processes underlay the reported effectiveness of these online efforts willhelp brands direct their budget to the right campgains. This research analyses the rolethat brand communication and source (influencer vs. brand) of posts play onengagement and purchase intention. Furthermore, it explores how social-adjustivefunctions moderate the relationship between the source, type of brand (luxury vs. nonluxury)and the engagement with a post. An online survey that exposed participants todifferent types of content and types of brands was carried out. Results from this thesishelp undertand how people online interact with influencers and brands on social mediaplatfomrs. Overall, it was concluded influencers have more engagement on their endorsed posts than brands.

Date of Award	9 Feb 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Cláudia Simão (Supervisor)