Är det skadligt att marknadsföra sig hos influencers med falska följare? En experimentell studie på attityd, köpintention och word-of-mouth

Sammanfattning: Social media have in the recent years become an integrated part of people's everyday lives. Today brands allow famous people, such as social media influencers, to become ambassadors by marketing their products through their channels. Since the number of followers in many cases determines the market value of an influencer, false followers have shown to be frequently existing. According to a survey of the Swedish magazine Resumé in 2018, two different machine learning tools could find clear signs that several Swedish influencers have up to 40% false followers. This has led Instagram to clear these followers from big influencers. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether this can have an effect on the consumer behavior towards the brands in which the influencer promoted. Could it be a form of setback against brands that collaborated with such influencers? To answer these questions, an experimental study was conducted online. The participants in the study were randomized into two groups where one group was exposed to a news clip where it appeared that the chosen influencer have false followers. The experiment was followed up with a questionnaire and the responses were then compared to see whether this information had an effect on the consumer's willingness to recommend this brand, purchase intention and attitude. The results show support for the hypothesis that the knowledge among consumers that an influencer have had false followers, has a negative effect on the attitude towards the brand that is being promoted.