A

DESSERTATION REPORT

ON

ROLE OF INFLUENCERS IN MARKETING

DESSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE

OF

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

PREPARED BY

GOURAV SINGH

V.U ROLL- PG/VUOAPO1/MBA-IS NO-017

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

MRS. ALOLIKA SRIMANI

FACULTY OF HR

BIBS, KOLKATA

SUBMITTED TO:

VIDYASAGAR UNIVERSITY

2021
DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the study entitled “Role of Influencers in Marketing” is being
submitted by me as my final year dissertation project in the partial fulfilment of the
requirement for the award of masters of Business Administration. The study is based on
secondary source of data as well as on primary data/information source.

The material borrowed from similar titles other sources and incorporated in the dissertation
has been duly acknowledged.

The matter embodied in this project report has not been submitted to any other university or
institution for the award of degree. This project is my original work and it has not been
presented earlier in this manner.
This information is purely of academic interest.

Signature Date:
CERTIFICATES

To whomever it may concern

This is to certify that Gourav Singh Reg. No. of 2020-2022;

Roll No: PG/VUOAPO1/MBA-IS NO-017 a bona fide student of this college has completed
his dissertation as per guidelines. He has done this completely on his own and it is an original
work and not copied from any resource.

Thanking you.

Yours truly,

Assistant Professor

Bengal Institute of Business Studies

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The completion of this dissertation has been a great experience and has given me an
opportunity to express my profound gratitude to all those who have been made it possible
for me to carry on the dissertation.

I would like to thank the following people, with whom I would have been able to complete
this research, and without whom I would not have been made it through my master’s
degree. I am thankful to my institutional guide, BIBS, Kolkata for his kind cooperation,
guidance and mentoring throughout the dissertation process. Further I would like to express
my sincere gratitude to (Director, BIBS, Kolkata) for giving the opportunity to carry out the
dissertation project.

I express my Gratitude and thanks to Mrs. Alolika Srimani for her direction, suggestion and
information provided by her which has helped me to complete my project.

I am also thankful to Mrs Sulakshana Sinha for her proper guidance.

ABSTRACT
Move over Sportsperson or Bollywood stars, social media celebrities are taking the brand
endorsement world by storm. On the social media sphere, content has become the key
factor for brands to acquire the new customers and these social media celebrities are expert
in this field. Hence, it has become a new way for brands to advertise their product through
content i.e., story-telling. In technical words, this is called as an Influencer Marketing ‘,
wherein the prime focus is placed on a specific individual who has influencer over potential
buyers on the social sphere, rather than a target market as a whole. The purpose of this
research is to know how this buzzword is being perceived by the citizens of tier two city like
Kolkata. Based on the responses, researcher identifies that traditional market still has a
strong hold in the city. However, citizens are aware about the term, but are yet to adopt it.
Their buying decisions are still influenced by the traditional form of marketing, rather than
the booming tool, which is being touted as one of the keys in this competitive era. The
limitation of this study is that it is done in only one tier-two city, with limited responses.
CONTENT
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Influencer Marketing

1.2 Where to find the Influencers 1.3
Celebrity and Influencer Endorsement
1.4 Why do any brand need Influencer?
1.5 What are brands supposed to do with Influencer
1.6 Types of Influencer

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Chapter 3: Research Objective Chapter

4: Research Methodology
4.1 What is Research?

4.2 Purpose of Research

4.3 Research Design

4.4 Methods of Collection

Chapter 5: Data Analysis

5.1 Analysis of Questionnaire

Chapter 6: Research Findings

6.1 Research Hypothesis

Chapter 7: Summary of Findings

Chapter 8: Limitations of Study

8.1 Recommendations

Chapter 9: Conclusion

Chapter 10: References

Chapter 11: Appendix (QUESTIONNAIRE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
In the age of social media, it has become more important for brands to cement their place in
both the traditional and digital marketplace. Social Media which was then only used for
socializing purpose has now become more of a new know-how ‘model among the users. It is
all about sharing and consuming the experience. Experiences such as of traveling, eating,
donning some new types of clothes etc. In other terms we call it Word-of-mouth ‘and it
spread like wildfire. This leads one of the biggest questions that how are brands/businesses
keeping up and staying relevant in this new know-how-world? Its answer is Digital
Marketing ‘, which is altogether a different ball-game than what we call as Traditional
Marketing ‘. The only difference between Digital ‘and Traditional ‘marketing is the channels
that are used to market the products/brands. In digital marketing channels are based solely
on the Internet while traditional marketing channels have digital devices that are not
necessarily connected to the Internet, the channels are--Television, Radio, Print and Our of
Home.

Digital Marketing Channels

Marketing is just not only to make offered a product to customer rather, it has become the
art of delivering the experience today (Ranga & Sharma, 2014). Since Digital Marketing is
possible in multiple channels, brand ‘s core objective becomes finding an accurate channel
which would result in maximum engagement and yielding a better ROI from the desired
campaign. Let ‘s discuss each of the following Digital Marketing channels in brief

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) a revenue model adopted by search engines whereby the
advertiser pays only when a customer clicks on a particular advertisement. It is a form that
involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility or search ranks in Search
Engine Results Pages (SERPs) through paid advertising. It is primarily done through Search
Engine Optimization (SEO). Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is form of marketing wherein social media multiple platforms such
as—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat among others are used to market brands
webpage or any product.
Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is like hosting someone's brand on your blog or social media platform.
Those who host it, is called as an affiliate. Affiliates are those who promote other
companies' product. If someone buys through affiliate's link, then that person gets a
commission. Affiliates are in a way a virtual unofficial salesperson of the company.

Display Advertising

Display Advertising is one of the key tools or channels in Digital Marketing as it has many
different formats such as text, image, video, audio or any form of interactive media. Display
ads can broadly be divided into three categories, Image ads, Rich media ads and Video ads

Email Marketing:

Email Marketing is the way of communicating with potential or current customers through
emails. It is the simplest and cheapest form of Digital Marketing.

Mobile Marketing Mobile Marketing is done via cookies, wherein brands can advertise
specific TG through personalized content or ads based on their search history. Advertisers
generally do.

Video Advertising

Video Advertising are different from TV commercials because of different objectives and TG.
These are short video online ads played on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and
Instagram.
Content Marketing

Content Marketing is a very broad term as whole of the digital sphere works on the
content. This content can be in any form, be it text, image, video or maybe games. It can be
briefly described as delivering the content that your audience is seeking in the places that
they are searching for it (M & K, 2017). Content Marketing is one of key tools in Digital
Marketing and advertisers are nowadays investing huge amount of money in it because
internet users only demand content.
1.1 Influencer Marketing

- An Overview Let ‘s begin the most hyped word in this digital sphere influencer ‘. Who is an
influencer? Is he/she a famous personality? Well, not in real sense, but, ―it’s any
person/individual who persuades you on your preferences & choices in your daily life can
surely be called an influencer. Influencers are generally a category of people who are also
known as opinion leaders. These are people who generally are considered to be those who
have certain expertise about a domain or a category of products and people sought to
consume information provided by them. Influencer marketing can be defined as a process of
identifying and activating individuals who have an influence over a specific target audience
or medium, in order to be part of a brand's campaign towards increased reach, sales, or
engagement. Influencer marketing doesn’t ‘t drive sales directly, but its prime focus is
branding, so building a brand awareness is something which brands yield out from this tool.
In today ‘s competitive era, human capital can be considered as one of the most important
moves. Ideas, innovation, talent, creativity, originality or the personality of an individual
itself are an irreplaceable part of this type of marketing. It’s like a snowball effect. An
influencer can get the ball rolling and reach a large, engaged audience, who then shares the
post with their followers and then with their followers and on this scalable reach is how
something goes viral. What remains constant in this is the communication, which is done
through only content in the form of text, videos or photos. In simple words, Influencer
marketing is a modern-day word-of-mouth or can be called as a professional word-of-
mouth. It is done to create a buzz around brands on social media either in the paid or earn.
1.2 Where to find Influencers?

Once the brand decides the type of influencer, they start recognizing about who will suit
them with their campaign. There are a few ways to find the influencers. Majorly, they are
tracked on the basis of their followers and popularity on the social media sphere. However,
there are a few websites or search engines that help brands to find influencers. After that
brands signs an influencer and then then by using various tools one can track the campaign
and can monitor the results through it.
1.3 Celebrity and Influencer Endorsement

Social media influencers are biting off a big chunk of celebrities ‘endorsements pie. Experts
believe that unlike celebrities, these influencers are giving brands a better deal at affordable
rates and are enjoying huge popularity in return. There’s a debate going on, whether
Celebrity and Influencer Endorsement are chalk & cheese or are two peas in a pod. There
are a lot of questions around it such as, whether influencers are celebrities? Is influencer
endorsement being the new celebrity endorsement? And a lot more. The difference
between traditional celebrities and social media influencers is that traditional celebrity

has got fame by their professional work or talent, while influencers are recognized by their
content, they have branded themselves as experts on social media platforms, for example,
Bhuvan Bam or Technical Guruji, who are touted as experts in their field and they give brand
a lot of chance to interact with their TG directly. For influencers their personal content is
their trump card, while celebrities are already established and have their own fan following.
Although, they do have their social media presence and are also treated as influencers due
to their fan-following. However, there are few elements which plays the crucial role in this
form of marketing.

Those elements are reach, engagement and credibility. We know, celebrity endorsement is a
one-way communication, while influencer endorsement is a two-way communication, which
helps in creating the trust between the brand and audience.
1.4 Why do any brand/advertiser need influencers?

As humans, no doubt we get attracted by advertisements featuring let say our favourite
celebrity, but back of the mind we still doubt whether the product is worth buying, based
only on what is shown in the advertisement. We trust recommendations from a third party
more often than our favourite celebrity or a brand itself, so that's where influencers come
into picture. That influencer can also be your mutual friend, who has used the product and
suggesting you whether to consume it or not. Thus, brands need influencers to give their
target audience a trust about their product or service. Consumers in the digital era have
become self-sufficient, they want to get details about a brand on their own and want to take
insights about it from someone who they trust. A human touch is must, so influencer
marketing can be the effective way to do it. Humans tend to follow experts and hence
brands are taking the influencer marketing route to connect to their target consumers. In
this era of social media, brands don't market their products directly, instead they create life-
like stories to connect to the emotional chords of consumers.
2019 - Influencer Marketing Trends:

2019 onwards, brands focusing in Indian market have started considering that
influencers (preferably micro) help in expanding the exposure of the product/service
and can substantially impact brand recall & recognition. Today consumers can
differentiate between a paid brand integration and a personal recommendation. In
2018 & onwards brands will become more sophisticated with the data around
influencer marketing strategies.
1.5 What are brands supposed to do with influencers?

Well, the influencer marketing campaign works on the same strategy as any kind of
traditional marketing campaign. However, the intentions of doing influencer marketing are
different. As soon as a brand identifies that why they need influencers for their marketing
campaign, their next step becomes setting goals or intentions. Following are the types of
goals that brand may need for their next influencer marketing campaign:

• Brand Awareness: Getting your TG to know more about your product or get notified
with your upcoming product.

• Brand Image: Getting your potential customers to see your brand's personality or
values

• Engagement: Getting people talk about your brand by making them share, comment
and like your content on the social sphere

• Lead Generation: Getting your TG to share their contact details for lead magnets and
various offers you may offer.
1.6 Types of Influencers

Social Media Influencers are of different types which are broadly identified on the basis of
following categories:

By Followers Brands identify influencers based on their followers and their reach. This type
of influencers gets paid on the basis of their followers. They are of four types:

a) Mega influencer- Name says it all, they are mega in terms of their name and their
followers. They are described as celebrities who have a greater fan-following and wide reach
on the social media sphere. Anushka Sharma, Virat Kohli can be called as mega influencers.
Their reach is very high and engagement rate is less

b) Macro Influencer: With followers in between 100,000 to one million, they mostly
gain fame through the internet, either as vloggers or content creators that produce content
that resonates with their audience. YouTubers such as Bhuvan Bam, Prajakta Koli are Macro-
Influencers. They are being touted as the industry experts and brands rely heavily on this
type of influencers, when it comes to Digital Marketing.

c) Micro Influencer: those with followers between 1,000 to 100,000. They often boast
authentic, relatable, value-packed and higher quality content. They have very specific niche
and are usually regarded as industry experts by their followers.

d) Nano-influencer: With followers around 1,000 or less, the idea behind nano
influencers is ―regular, everyday people‖ that can influence a brand ‘s product or service to
their friends and family. These are the ones who have influence on local audience and have
credibility among their friends and family. They have a greater engagement but they lag
behind when it comes to reach as they are limited to a particular demographic.

By Content Type

Apart from followers, it also becomes necessary for brands to identify what kind of content
do they want to deliver to their audience through influencers on which social media
platform. Each of the social media platforms has different kind of users and thus it becomes
necessary for brands to provide them with the relevant content. Here are the types:

a) Bloggers: Initially this whole influencer marketing game begun with the blogging.
Bloggers used to share their experience of using any kind of product on their blogs,
which was seen as a credible word-of-mouth by the audience and then they started
getting paid by the brands to use and review their products. Hence bloggers can be
paid or earned. However, what makes them credible is their content, despite getting
paid by the brands.

b) YouTubers: This platform has brought a revolution in terms of content. Ordinary

citizens have made the most of YouTube and have gain massive popularity by
publishing their content on this platform. From sports, comedies, tutorials, DIYs, you
can find practically any type of influencers here. Collaboration of brands with the
YouTubers has changed the definition of advertisement. Product placement or
embedded marketing in YouTuber ‘s content has become must-add strategy for the
brands. YouTubers are the new celebrities in town and are more impactful than the
traditional celebrities. It is cost-effective and time saving for the brands as majority
of the things are dependent on the content creator.

c) Podcasters: After YouTubers, Podcasters are making their mark in the industry with
their interesting narratives and creative content. Content is the key here.

By Industry
Almost every sector is trying to have a strong presence on the digital platform. Not
only B2C, but also B2B companies are also trying hard to make their mark in the
social media sphere. Following are the industries that invests and earns high from
this.

d) Fashion or Beauty: Whenever it comes to listing down industries for Influencer

Marketing or any form of Digital Marketing, brands from the fashion industry does
not hold back. The reason for this is, people often tend to flaunt their beauty or
clothes on social media, so it becomes important for fashion or beauty brands to be
in the limelight on social media. These are the most common industry for
influencers. They earned fame by popularizing tag such as #ootd (outfit of the day)
and tagging the brands on their posts. From this industry influencers earn high and
they get a lot of expensive and exclusive products from the brands.

e) Food: After fashion, posts related to food is the most shared thing on the social
media. People love to talk about what kind of food they like, what they have cooked
or what sort of new dish they have invented or tried on social media. Thus, food
brands have great opportunities to hog the limelight on digital sphere through
influencers.

f) Travel: A lot of travel companies or tourism departments has started investing on

influencers. Social media walls of people are often filled with their travel photos and
it becomes a great scope for travel companies to acquire customers online.
Influencers get a chance to travel around the globe sponsored by the brands and in
return all they have to write a blog or do a review of resorts, activities and
adventures. Other various industries such as fitness, sports and electronics also have
a great opportunity to strengthen their social media image through influencers.

The above split of industries & channels is globally applicable but if we look
extensively at the Indian context, fashion & beauty brands lead the highest amount of
engagement and remaining all falls in the other category.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review is one of the key components of a research investigation which
gives necessary information for the researcher to frame the research study on the
selected topic. It is intended to analyze the previous findings so that it will assist to
know the gap in previous studies and to justify the research problem opted by the
researcher for the study purpose. Keeping in mind the objectives of the research, the
review of literature follows a chronological order.

• A study The State of Influencer Marketing in India 2019 by Social Samosa

enlighten us with the fact that 75% of the Indian firms look Influencer
marketing as a pivotal or top strategic priority. Between Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 10
lakhs have been allocated as the influencer marketing budget by the various
brands in India and they are planning to increase their spends in this segment
by 2020. It was a survey conducted among the 800 respondents who belong
from advertising or digital marketing world. For brands, increasing brand
visibility is the main draw to collaborate with the influencers. Not only beauty
or fashion brands spend huge on the influencers, but fintech or gaming
companies also put in large amounts. When it comes to choosing the ideal
platform for this type
of marketing, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are the favourites. Meanwhile,
Facebook and Twitter are losing their essence as these both platforms are of
very niche categories. The biggest challenge for the firms is tracking the
return on investment as they haven't been able to crack the tool for
measuring it. 'Sponsored' tag is no doubt assures of transparency or
authenticity, but it reduces the association with the influencers.

• Mahayan, D. (2019). in her article Changing Landscape of Celebrity

Endorsements in the Digital World states that influencers are the new brand
endorsers and have become an indispensable part of a brand's marketing
metrics. Influencer marketing is a new phenomenon and has built up a lot of
scopes for the brands to connect with the audience in a super local way.
Since marketers find this way of marketing an impactful and the cost-
effective one, celebrity endorsement will go down drastically a few years
down the line. The main reason behind it is as the consumers have become
intelligent these days and they don't see which sort of face is endorsing
them, they go behind the 'content'. And that's where influencers have an
edge as they create their content and leave a great impact on the audience.
• Bisen, G. S. (2019). in his article Influencer Marketing: A Closer Look into
Indian Market enlighten us with the fact that here are around 200 million+
active internet users in India and among those around 201million+ are on
Facebook, while 43million+ are on Instagram, most of them are from the age
group of 18-24. The article also states that 70% of teenage YouTube
subscribers trust influencer options.71% consumers make a purchase based
on social media reference. Moreover, 86% of most-viewed videos on
YouTube were made by influencers. The study also reveals that the Fashion
and Beauty industry use influencer marketing as one of their core marketing
channels for branding. Instagram is the most effective platform for engaging
with the target audience through influencer marketing.

• Bhattacharya, A. (2019). in her article Social Media Influencers Are Becoming

a ‘critical Marketing Tool’ for Indian Brands states that reported that the
biggest reason for brands investing in influencer marketing is 'better reach
and engagement'. Influencer marketing is seen as a cost-effective and time-
saving option than organic paid marketing or traditional advertising.
Instagram as a platform for influencer marketing is the top choice among the
Indian brands. Quality of the content is what the brand sees among the
influencers, not their reach. Besides, brands are not only restricted to the
movie’s stars or cricketers or models, they feel ordinary citizens who have
built up their career on social media are the ones who can be the
gamechangers. However, monitoring the return on investment is what
remains the biggest challenge for the brands, despite having an ample of
opportunities. The reason behind it is fake followers across platforms, which
makes hard for the brands or agencies to assess the real impact of the
influencers.
• Minarova, M., Smutny, F., & Gundova, P. (2019). in their thesis the
importance of influencers in online marketing states that the largest share of
respondents follows influencers for fun, to draw inspiration, but not to get
information about any particular product, which they endorse. The research
also states that people are keen on buying the products recommended by
social media influencers. Maximum of them are women. However, people
feel recommendation of any product or its endorsement is fine but should be
honest, objective and used by the influencer himself/herself. Moreover,
labelling
'advertisement' or 'sponsored' on the social media post becomes vital in
influencer marketing as far as authenticity is concerned. Howbeit, there's a
downfall of it as some of the respondents stopped following that particular
influencer as they feel it is in a way a form of advertisement. Meanwhile, the
researchers also put on the advertiser's perspective in their research as they
state that influencers play a pivotal tool for reaching out to the mass

• Nandagiri, V. & Philip, L. (2018). in their thesis the impact of influencers from
Instagram and YouTube On Their Followers states that the content provided
by the influencers is more impactful than the advertisements on the viewers.
The main reason behind it is not only the influencers provide detailed and
unbiased content but also it is found more relevant to the followers. Thus,
this makes the viewers prone to buy the product endorsed by the influencers.
The research also states that the authenticity of influencer's content is also
critical which keeps the audience engaged despite having differences with
the brands. Moreover, the products which have a more impact of influencers
on the viewers are fashion, beauty and fitness.

• Amey, D. (2017). in her article Influencers Vs Celebrities - Who Comes Out on

Top? Enlighten us with the fact that followers these days are looking for the
content rather than trying to find out any gossip about any celebrity who is
constantly being bombarded by ads. The influencers are the experts who are
far more trusted than any kind of celebrity. This isn't the end of the celebrity
endorsement, but the gap is closing in and as far as digital marketing is
concerned, influencers will be the brand's first choice. The only reason
behind it is celebrities are expensive, but influencers have the power of
content, which drives the internet users these days.

• Sudha, M., & Sheena, K. (2017). in their thesis

Impact of influencers In Consumer Decision Process: The Fashion Industry
states that fashion blogs are the most effective platform for influencer
marketing. However, in terms of the consumer decision process, the paper
analyses the impact of influencers in various stages. The initial stage is about
realising the need for the product after following various celebrities or
influencers on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Then comes the blogs as it is
used for finding out information about the product and validating it once
they read the reviews and ask for opinions from the ones who had already
used the product. This process makes a huge impact in terms of decision
making on the user
• Woods, S. (2016). in his thesis #Sponsored: The Emergence of Influencer
Marketing shares insight about how this form of marketing is changing the
dynamics of the advertising world. The study explored the influencer
marketing from the advertising agency perspective and revealed that the
current dynamics in the agency world has become as such that a special team
is hired, which looks Influencers as a 'Talent'. Just like talent managers, there
are influencer managers in this digital age. Moreover, the study also states
that Instagram is the key platform for the influencer marketing and it is the
one which first came to mind when the topic was mentioned among the
respondents, who belong from the agency world. Meanwhile, during
research there were key insights emerged such as origin and proliferation of
Influencers, Impressions/Engagement,
Trust/Authenticity, Compensation/Budget, Risk/Creative Control and
Disclosure.

• Ranga, M., & Sharma, D. (2014). in their thesis Influencer Marketing- A

Marketing Tool in The Age of Social Media states that this emerging social
media world has become a new tool for the marketer to influence the target
audience through the right kind of personalities who can influence anyone.
Generally, the consumer has belief in their friends, family or advocates,
hence they trust more than they trust banner or T.V ads. Thus, this is how
influencers come into the picture. At present everybody has the potential to
turn into an influencer in his or her career. However, this method of
marketing is not something which will give the advertiser an instant result, it
is something which is built over time. The research also reveals that
Facebook, Twitter and Google+ were the most important social media outlets
that were being used for the business purpose when the social media users
were just increasing.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• To understand how citizens of Kolkata interpret Influencer Marketing and achieve

new insights towards it

• To analyze the impact of influencer marketing on the buying decisions of the citizens
of Kolkata.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1 What is Research?

Research is defined as careful consideration of study regarding a particular concern

or problem using scientific methods. According to the American sociologist Earl
Robert Babbie, “research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict, and
control the observed phenomenon. It involves inductive and deductive methods.”
4.2 Purpose of Research

There are three main purposes Of Research:

1. Exploratory: As the name suggests, researchers conduct exploratory

studies to explore a group of questions. The answers and analytics may not
offer a conclusion to the perceived problem. It is undertaken to handle new
problem areas that haven’t been explored before. This exploratory process
lays the foundation for more conclusive data collection and analysis.

2. Descriptive: It focuses on expanding knowledge on current issues through

a process of data collection. Descriptive studies describe the behaviour of a
sample population. Only one variable is required to conduct the study. The
three primary purposes of descriptive studies are describing, explaining,
and validating the findings. For example, a study conducted to know if top
level management leaders in the 21st century possess the moral right to
receive a considerable sum of money from the company profit.
3. Explanatory: Causal or explanatory research is conducted to understand
the impact of specific changes in existing standard procedures. Running
experiments is the most popular form. For example, a study that is
conducted to understand the effect of rebranding on customer loyalty.

4.3 Research Design

The study follows quantitative approach. The research is based on knowing how citizens of
Kolkata interpret Influencer Marketing.

4.4 Methods of Data Collection

Primary Data Collection

Random sampling technique was used by the researcher to know the opinions of the
viewers. The research tool was spread amongst people of different age groups to know
more
specific about what are their interpretations on the Influencer Marketing. The process of
data collection was undertaken by collecting responses through google Google forms spread
distributed through WhatsApp. The researcher prepared questionnaire for those who are a
social media user from different age groups.

Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data was collected from various research papers, journals, articles and websites

Qualitative methods

Qualitative research is a method that collects data using conversational methods,

usually open-ended questions.
The responses collected are essentially non-numerical. This method helps a
researcher understand what participants think and why they think in a particular way.

Types of qualitative methods include:

1. One-to-one Interview
2. Focus Groups
3. Ethnographic studies
4. Text Analysis
5. Case Study
Quantitative methods

Quantitative methods deal with numbers and measurable forms. It uses a systematic
way of investigating events or data. It answers questions to justify relationships with
measurable variables to either explain, predict, or control a phenomenon.

Types of quantitative methods include:

1. Survey research
2. Descriptive research
3. Correlational research
Remember, research is only valuable and useful when it is valid, accurate, and
reliable. Incorrect results can lead to customer churn and a decrease in sales.

It is essential to ensure that your data is:

• Valid – founded, logical, rigorous, and impartial.

• Accurate – free of errors and including required details.
• Reliable – other people who investigate in the same way can produce similar
results.
• Timely – current and collected within an appropriate time frame.
• Complete – includes all the data you need to support your business decisions.

For the research, the company surveyed over 500 brand custodians – including top ad
agencies as well as start-ups – and content creators like bloggers, YouTubers, Twitter
influencers and Instagram influencers
Secondary Survey

Over half the respondents said the biggest draw to invest in influencer marketing is “better
reach and engagement”.

In fact, now spreading word-of-mouth through influencers is considered a more lucrative

option than organic search and even paid marketing.
In 2018, most companies spent between 5% and 7% of their overall marketing budgets on
online influencers. This year, 73% of firms plan to increase the share of spending on
influencer marketing.

An upside of using influencers to market a brand is that it is not time-consuming like most
other modes of advertising.
Most respondents spend less than 10 hours on a campaign.

Instagram’s the word

Instagram was the top choice in influencer marketing among Indian companies in 2018.
The photo-sharing site will continue to reign in 2019 with
69% of respondents listing it as the top platform they will bet on this year. LinkedIn (8%) and Tik-Tok
(8%) are the second most preferred options.
Finding influencers

For Indian companies, quality is more important than the reach of an influencer. Content
quality is the top criteria that companies consider before bringing an influencer on board.

In addition, models and movie stars aren’t the only one’s brands are courting. Over eight in 10
survey respondents said the role of commoners is “important” or “extremely important”.
These are ordinary citizens who’ve built up an online fan-following of thousands and in some
cases millions of people.

Slow and steady

Players in the ecosystem are still conservative because this mode of advertising is still
nascent. On average, over two thirds of branding companies spend $50,000 on influencer
campaigns per year per brand.
The biggest roadblock is that brands are still struggling with figuring out the return on
investment from influencer marketing – the top concern listed by 46% of brand experts.
The Flooding of Fake Followers across these platforms make it hard to assess the real impact
of influencers.

Nano-influencers, whose follower counts are in the low thousands, are another breed of
online celebrity that is sought-after because when they market a product to their small
audience, the recommendation almost seems like it came from a friend. And these people
also don’t encash huge cheques. Often, they’ll advertise in exchange for free products or
experiences – the most preferred method of payment among Indian firm.
CHAPTER FIVE

DATA ANALYSIS

The titled data analysis will look at all the primary data collected in the pursuit of
researching the topic Role of Influencer Marketing. It seeks to analyze the data gathered by
20 respondents across Kolkata in relation to the research objectives. The data was gathered
by the means of a questionnaire administered to the respondents.

5.1 Analysis of Questionnaire

1.Gender

Out of 24 Respondent 58.3% individuals are identified as Male and 41.7% are identified as
female.
2 Age

Out of total 24 responses 79.2% of the citizen are of the age group between 20-30 and 8.3%
of the citizen are of the age group between 30-40 and 40-50 while 4.2% of the citizen are of
the age between 50-above.
3 Which of the following social media platform you use the most?

Chart shows that citizens of Kolkata use Instagram the most, 54.2% respondents rated it as
their most used platform, while 29.2% citizen use Facebook and 16.7% of the citizen use
YouTube while Tik-Tok is not used at all.
4. What sort of content you like to follow/consume on social media platforms
apart from your social?

Chart shows that 20.8% of the respondents rated entertainment as their most
consumed content on social media followed by Beauty and Fitness which is 16.7%.
While Food, Fashion and Sports are consumed moderately which is only 12.5%. While
Tech and Automobiles were the least consumed content that is only 4.2%.
5. Do you notice Ads on social Media?
Chart shows that 79.2% of respondents notice ads on their social media feed. While
16.7% of the respondents were not sure whether they notice ads or not on social
media and 4.2% of the respondent does not notice ads on Social media.

6. Have you ever come across this kind of post on your timeline? or any post from
various personalities you follow with written paid partnership or sponsored on
it?
Chart shows that 14 out of 24 which is 58.3% respondents do notice such kind of posts on
their feed. Whereas, 29.2% of them are not sure whether they have ever came across or
notice such post s and 12.5% of them don’t notice such type of post.
7. Whom have you seen posting such kind of content?

Chart shows that 13 out of 24 respondents which is 54.2% of the citizens have seen
Youtubers posting sponsored content. Among 24, 8 which is 33.3% of them have also seen
Celebrities (Sportsperson or Actors) posting such content. Whereas, 8.3% of the citizen have
seen other personality and the remaining 4.2% have seen Fitness Trainers posting such
content.
8. Are you aware about the term 'Infuencers' or 'Influencer Marketing'?

19 i.e., 79.2% of the respondents were aware about these terms, while 16.7% didn't know
what these terms are. And the other 4.1% were not sure about it.
9. Where do you count the below people shown in the photograph?

Out of the total 24 respondent 11 of them count the above person as Influencers
while 10 of them which is 41.7% of them count them both as an Influencers as well as
Youtubers and only 12.5% count them as Celebrities.
10.Any sort of content consisting of various brands or what we call as celebrity
endorsement?
products posted by the above people are same as

58.3% respondents agree to the statement given above, while 29.2% of the
respondent choose to stay neutral that content posted by the above people is
called as to the above statement. And 4.2% of the respondent celebrity
endorsement. 8.3% respondent Strongly agree disagree.
11.Have you ever purchased a product you saw being their respective handles,
vlogs or blogs?
endorsed by these social media personalities on

The following chart illustrates that 50% don't buy the product which is endorsed by such
kind of Influencers, while 25% buy the product endorsed by such Influencers and the rest
25% are not sure whether they buy it or not.
12. Would you like to buy the product which is...?

The following chart suggests that 75% i.e., 18 respondents like to buy the product which
are owned by their friends or family members. Whereas, 12.5% respondents like to buy it
after the product has been owned, used and reviewed by such famous social media
Personalities and the other 8.3% of them likes to buy the product for some other reason
and the remaining 4.2% of the respondent buy the product which is endorsed by their
favourite celebrity.
CHAPTER SIX
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Based on the detailed analysis of both the primary and secondary data the researcher
has been successful in achieving the following objectives:

• To understand how citizens of Kolkata interpret Influencer Marketing ‘and achieve

new insights about this form for of marketing.

• To analyze the impact of influencer marketing on the buying decisions of the citizen
of Kolkata
Hypothesis

The research hypothesis was:

• Audience interpret influencers as celebrities, hence they don ‘t finds any difference
between Celebrity Endorsement ‘and Influencer Marketing ‘

• Influencer’s marketing is more impactful than that of traditional

advertising/marketing.

Based on the data analysis, both the hypothesis have been proved wrong as people have
their own perceptions about both the terms Celebrity Endorsement ‘and Influencer
Marketing ‘. Moreover, based on the responses researcher concludes that Influencer
Marketing is yet to make its mark in the tier-two city like Kolkata as traditional marketing
has still a strong hold among the citizens.
CHAPTER SEVEN

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Instagram has been the most used social media platform among 24 respondents from
Kolkata. It was surprising to see that one of the most hyped platforms, 'TIk-tok', was the
least used platform among the respondents. 19 respondents were aware about the terms
such as 'Influencers' or 'Influencer Marketing'. However, on being asked about the famous
personalities, 45.8% responded that the mentioned personalities can be touted as
Influencers. The analysis also suggests that a large share (41.7%) of respondents, counted
those two personalities both influencers as well as celebrities.

• 58.3% respondents agreed to the statement that content posted by the social media
personalities is called as celebrity endorsement. While, a large share i.e., 29.2% chose to
stay neutral.
• The study also suggests 50% respondents haven't ever bought any product which
they have seen being endorsed by the various social media personalities on their respective
platforms.

• Moreover, majority also feels that word-of mouth, i.e., endorsement of the product
by their friends or family interest them more in comparison to celebrity or influencer
endorsement. Hence, this makes 75% respondent buy the product which are owned by their
friends or family, instead being owned by their favourite personalities. However, there are
12.5% respondents who likes to but the product which is used and reviewed by someone
who has a credibility, i.e., influencers.
CHAPTER EIGHT

LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

The study was restricted to Kolkata city only and a smaller number of respondents among
the age group of 25 or above.

8.1 Recommendations

For the further studies researcher has identified specific areas. Those areas are as follows:

• Study can be done in the other tier-two cities as well.

• One can do a research whether it varies from city to city of not.

• Whether this study varies from platform-to-platform or not.

• What ‘s the scope of Influencer Marketing in tier-two cities from an agency ‘s

perspective?

• Other aspects of both the types of endorsement i.e.,

Celebrity and Influencer marketing can also be explored.
CHAPTER NINE

CONCLUSION

Various previous studies suggest that Influencer Marketing is more impactful than that of
traditional celebrity endorsement, but if we narrow down to tier-two cities, the scenario is
quite different. Kolkata is still into the traditional form of marketing, their buying decisions
are still based on TV/Print Advertising, they are more into word-of-mouth, but haven ‘t
tested the professional or virtual word-of-mouth, which is called as Influencer Marketing ‘.
No doubt, there’s a presence of Influencer Marketing ‘in the city, but is yet to make its mark.
There’s a thin line of difference between Celebrity endorsement ‘and Influencer Marketing ‘.
The line belongs to the people which we saw in the present study that how respondents
chose to stay neutral to the statement regarding the type of content posted by the various
famous social media personalities. They neither agreed nor denied that the type of
endorsement done by them is same as Celebrity endorsement ‘. However, based on the
secondary data, we can say that there’s a difference between among these two phenomena,
but eventually it all comes down to the users. What users need and what they perceive is
what only matters to the brands/advertisers. Though, citizens of Kolkata know about
Influencer Marketing, but haven ‘t adopted it yet. However, it’s a growing industry and we
would definitely see a drastic change in the coming few years down the line
CHAPTER TEN
REFERENCES
Amey, D. (2017, December 6). Influencers Vs Celebrities - Who Comes Out on Top? HuffPost
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/influencers-vscelebritie_b_10703856

Barlaskar, A. H. (2019, December 12). Smartphone Brands Get Tech Gurus to Influence
Purchase Decisions. Afaqs! https://www.afaqs.com/news/advertising/smartphone brands-
get-tech-gurus-to-influence-purchase-decisions

Bhattacharya, A. (2019, January 12). Social Media Influencers Are Becoming a ‘critical Marketing
Tool’ for Indian Brands. Scroll.in https://scroll.in/article/908811/social-mediainfluencers-are-
becoming-a-critical-marketing-tool-forindian-brands

Bisen, G. S. (2019, July 4). Influencer Marketing: A Closer Look into Indian Market. Medium.

https://medium.com/@gauravsinghbisen/influencermarketing-a-closer-look-into-indian-market-
924063140ea3

Mahayan, D. (2019, July 2). Changing Landscape of Celebrity Endorsements in the Digital
World - Exchange4media. Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – Exchange4media.

https://www.exchange4media.com/advertisingnews/changing-landscape-of-celebrity-
endorsements-in-thedigital-world-97795.html

Minarova, M., Smutny, F., & Gundova, P. (2019). The importance of influencers in online
marketing https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339068514_The_
importance_of_influencers_in_online_marketing

Nandagiri, V., & Philip, L. (2018). The impact of influencers from Instagram and YouTube on
their followers. International
Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Modern Education,
4(1),

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323996049_The_
impact_of_influencers_from_Instagram_and_YouTube_on_t heir_followers

Ranga, M., & Sharma, D. (2014). INFLUENCER MARKETING- A

MARKETING TOOL IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA. Abhinav
International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research in Management & Technology, 3(8), 16-21
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/INFLUENCER MARKETING-A-MARKETING-TOOL-IN-THE-
AGE-OF-RangaSharma/13e735aa017d15e76a658821acb5baf71cf93deb
https://m.economictimes.com/internet/influencers-mayhave-to-verify-before-
pushing/articleshow/78050204.cms

Sudha, M., & Sheena, K. (2017). Impact of influencers in consumer decision process: the
fashion industry. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 14(3), 14-30.

https://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?q=Impact+of+Influencer s+in+Consumer+Decision+Process:
+the+Fashion+Industry&hl
=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

Verma, S. (2019, August 12). Why Brands Prefer Social Media Influencers over Celebrities? -
Exchange4media. Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – Exchange4media. brands
prefer r-social-media-influencers-over-celebritieshttps://www.exchange4media.com/digital-
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98748.html

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8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/624/VRAJ K R17165025.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
CHAPTER ELEVEN

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Age

14-17

18-22

23-25

25- above

2. Gender

Male

Female

3. Which of the following social media platform you use the most?

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

YouTube
4. What sort of content you like to follow/consume on social media platforms apart from
your social life?

Sports

Food

Tech

Fitness

Automobiles

Fashion

Beauty

Entertainment

5. Do you notice ads on social media?

Yes

No

Maybe

6. Have you ever come across this kind of post on your timeline? or any post from various
personalities you follow with written paid partnership or sponsored on it?
Yes

No

Maybe

7. Whom have you seen posting such kind of content? *

Celebs (Sportsperson & Actors)

Youtubers

Tech Gurus Fitness trainers

Other:
8. Are you aware about the term 'Influencers' or 'Influencer Marketing'? *

Yes

No

Maybe
9. Where do you count the below people shown in the photograph? *

Celebrities

Influencers

Both

10. Any sort of content consisting of various brands or products posted by the above
people are same as what we call as celebrity endorsement?

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree
11. Have you ever purchased a product you saw being endorsed by these social media
personalities on their respective handles, vlogs or blogs?

Yes

No

Maybe

12. Would you like to buy the product which is...?

Endorsed by your favourite celebrity

Has been owned, used and reviewed by such famous social media personalities

Owned by your friend or any family member Other: