Influencer Marketing : Balans mellan inflytande och förtroende

Sammanfattning: Social media has grown to an integral part of our everyday lives and companies are focusing heavily on finding new, efficient ways to reach their target market. One strategy that has received much attention is influencer marketing – where focus has shifted from an entire audience of potential customers to influential people that have a strong impact on their followers. After reviewing previous research we identified a gap in consumers trust in influencer marketing from a corporate perspective. Our study aims to examine follower’s attitudes to influencer marketing and propose how companies can find a balance of trust and influence when working with social media marketing, while the attitude to influencer marketing is becoming increasingly sceptical. To get a wide and fair perspective, a triangular model has been used. In addition to secondary data from previous research, we have completed an online survey on consumer’s opinions and experiences with influencer marketing, two interviews with key people at Swedish fashion companies and one interview with a researcher on consumer reactions. The recurring term throughout the study is trust, proved to be crucial for consumer attitudes to influencer marketing. For companies not to risk the trust of their potential customers, the influencer’s following must match the audience the company wishes to reach, the brands must be compatible for the message to reach out and value-building relationships must be created.This thesis is written in Swedish.