"Who influences?" in the consumer world

" When a known Indian celebrity mentioned our product on their Youtube blog about their hair fall journey, suddenly we started getting DMs about "the hair oil that the celebrity used". This showed us the power of Influence. Here are our thoughts on Influencing consumers in the consumer world. "

Who are 'The Influencers' in the consumer world though?

Influencers are people who can and have wielded influence over others so as to pitch an idea, a product, a service or a brand, making others around them consumers of the idea, product, service or brand. There are various types of Influencers – some are larger-than-life celebrities either from the reel world or the real world. A brand Endorser report by Hansa Research that ranked 550 celebrities according to their recognition score, ranked Mr. Amitabh Bacchhan as the most recognisable Influencer in India where he was ahead than the rest on multiple metrics such as likability, social media influence, perception, marketing potential, and recognition among others. His position of influence has made multiple brands rope him as an endorser such as Cadbury's, Navratna Oil, Gujarat Tourism, Flipkart, Tata Sky etc lending his credibility to these brands.

Then there are some who have risen to fame through in-demand content on social media over the last decade and have grown to become strong influencers. Since the influx of bloggers and YouTubers in 2009 and the popularity of Instagram early 2010s, “Influencer Marketing” has become a trend that must be part of every brand strategy. Celebrity Influencers such as Caroline Hirons have made products go ‘Sold-out’ within a day of mentioning the product on her social media page.

In a survey where we asked people to rank what influenced them the most in order to make a purchase decision, Social Media Influencer was close third, just right behind family recommendation and Reviews. It overtook other traditional modes of influencing such as Advertisements and Celebrity Endorsers.

So, what makes this influence work on people?

Humans have a tendency to end up imitating the behaviour of people around them or the people who have an influence over them in order to fit in. “Social Conformity” as we better know this phenomenon has aided the advertising world for ages. Any form of Social influence that involves a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in works very well because of this need to “Conform”. And this very concept has propelled the growth of Influencers in the consumer world.?

As a growing brand, we too had to use this influence to pitch our products. We have worked with multiple social media Influencers over our journey and our goal was simple - to make them actually try out our products, and share their experience with their network of influence. This would act like word-of-mouth marketing on digital and help us get more believers.

" We must give Special Thanks and a shoutout to thousands of such influencers who have spoken about us to their circle. It has had an impact on making our brand known, and we are eternally grateful "

This age-old technique of Influencing will continue to be so to exist. What will change perhaps is “Who will influence”.

Here’s what will be interesting to watch:

• With an increase in the supply of social media influencers in the system, and limited brands in the market, would there be a time where Influencers do not have brands to collaborate with or pitches to make?
• Would Social media influencers replace celebrities completely in Big-budget Brand Endorsements?

?Till then, let's continue liking subscribing and following our favorite celebrities and Social Media influencers!