Let´s be EVERYWHERE: : Exploring consumer attitudes towards marketing overexposure through Influencer Marketing

Sammanfattning: Abstract   Background: In present time, social media usage has come to be an essential part of peoples’ everyday life, resulting in a movement from traditional marketing towards a more digitised marketing strategy. Since the effectiveness of traditional marketing is decreasing, marketers are using influencer marketing to create awareness of their brand. However, brands increased presence on social media platforms can easily lead to consumers being overloaded by marketing messages. In response to this overexposure, the effectiveness of using influencers is decreasing due to consumers ignoring the sponsored posts. Meaning, brands put more effort into their social media marketing than ever, yet their marketing attempts is getting less and less attention.    Purpose: The purpose of this study is to clarify whether overexposure of sponsored posts by Swedish influencers affect consumers’ attitudes, and if the general impression of the brand and the influencer will be perceived as negative.     Method: This research applied an abductive philosophy, with an interpretive, qualitative methodological approach. The empirical data was retrieved through semi-structured interviews with males and females from Generation Y as the target group. The participants were chosen through judgemental sampling within the region of Jönköping.   Conclusion: The empirical study showed that influencer marketing in general represents an efficient strategy for marketers to use since it easily opens up possibilities for companies to reach a broader audience. Three equally important relationships were identified in order for influencer marketing to work successfully. These relationships were; between a brand and a consumer, between a brand and an influencer, and between an influencer and a consumer. It was found that despite how strong these relationships are, if a consumer is exposed to too many marketing messages the strategy will be inefficient. It is therefore vital for marketers to find a balance when using influencer marketing to avoid overusing this strategy.