Feasibility of Social Media Marketing for Marketers and Artists and Their Impact on Consumers

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify a relationship between social media marketing through artists and consumer buying behavior if any. The focus was on the feasibility to marketers and the medium i.e. social media artists, its impact on consumers. Data were collected through questionnaires and quantitative as well as the descriptive analysis was applied. It was found that a significant relationship exists between a social media personality endorsing a product and the consumers buying the same. There is potential for marketers to explore this medium as currently, it is beneficial to all parties involved, as seen in this and previous research.

Introduction

In the recent trends seen in marketing, with respect to India, we observe a twin development; growth of entrepreneurs and start-ups on one hand, and growth of local art forms, small artists and various social media platforms that help talent reach millions. This has led to the development of social media marketing, not just through direct advertisements and the use of big data, but also through indirect marketing wherein companies collaborate with small celebrities and reach millions, to considerable effect. The viability and whether these methods prove strategically effective are, however, questionable.

The popularity of such marketing, currently, is commendable. In recent times, the need for mobile phones by each and every person has led to access to social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and so on; through which brands are advertised and/or endorsed in the most creative ways. Studying this will be helpful for businesses to assess their gain and exploit the consumers and customers. For instance, consumers can be the children who use the products bought by their parents, who will be customers who purchase the products.

A marketer will want to know the feasibility of social media marketing to increase their productivity and market value through lowered costs. A social media artist will want to attract more consumers through their high following in their channels and endorse the marketers’ brands. These social media artists impact consumers directly or indirectly, in their purchasing decisions, frequency of product usage, and brand loyalty aspects.

Hence the very foundation of this research was established from all these perspectives.

Literature Review

A whirlwind of digitalization, networking and internet use in the last decade has affected all spheres of life. The buzzword in the midst of all this, social media, is also an ideal ground to reach millions at once. Product placement, aggressive advertising and even non-profit marketing is done through social media, in fields such as medicine (G Radu, 2017). This new platform has certain key factors, such as emotional connection, time management, extreme caution, and constant change. It is a fast game, with low cost, surprisingly high results and clearly high (reputational) risk (ARCA, 2012).

Compared to online marketing and digital marketing, using a social media artist places a person to connect with a consumer and a marketer. Consumers tend to trust them more than celebrity endorsers as social media is more personal, authentic and relatable. It acts more like word-of-mouth marketing, in fact (Maoyan, 2014). Social media use by an average person is almost addictive, and can easily drive behavior. With the right mix of loyalty and incentive, almost any product can be sold to a consumer off social media (Shenbagamurthy, 2016).

From a social media person’s point of view, this type of endorsement can go both ways, similar to the marketer. On one hand, their skills can be combined with the marketer's financing to achieve a win-win situation for both. In fact, it might help them with more followers and the marketer with brand loyalty (Lisette De Vries, 2012). So far, this developing marketing idea seems to be most beneficial to most parties involved. The key is the right management and control of the vast reach social media marketing provides.

Dangers are also part of this approach such as exploitation of artists through unpaid deals, magnified impacts of minor issues, and even loss of investment in technology if an idea fails to take off (Hajli, 2014). The exact feasibility of a marketer, how marketers see this medium, benefits to the social media artists, and overall impact on an average consumer are yet to be discussed. The occurrence of this phenomenon in the Indian context and its implications are also unknown, so far. However, the fact remains that social media is being heavily used and will be a game-changer in the near future. (Glucksman, 2017)

Statement of the Problem

The existing literature shows studies across the world, spread over multiple social media platforms. There is a research gap when it comes to India and newer, emerging social media platforms such as Instagram and Youtube. Also, research considering multiple perspectives on the same concept has not been made. This research addressed the feasibility of social media marketing to marketers and artists, and its impact on consumers.

Objectives

1. To document the motivational factors that drive social media artists to involve in indirect marketing of products through their social media space
2. To assess the perceived effectiveness and efficiency of indirect social media marketing through social media influencers for the marketer
3. To analyze the relationship of such indirect marketing with the consumer purchase behavior

Research Methodology

Data was collected through three questionnaires. One questionnaire was circulated among social media artists. Another questionnaire was distributed to analyze consumer responses. A third questionnaire was sent across to marketers. This was done to identify the flow of information and management of such marketing. All data sources were primary. Also, convenient sampling was followed.

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The analysis of data was done through quantitative analysis for consumer data namely Chi-square through CrossTabs using IBM-SPSS software. Descriptive analysis was adopted for marketer and social media artist responses.

Scope of the study

The consumer and social media artist respondents for this study are mainly between the age group of 15-30 years, across income levels. The three companies contacted have a global, national, and local reach respectively, and an age span of 25 to 100 +years. The responses were predominantly from Bangalore. The results of this study are applicable to all parties in the consumer product industry considering the growing use of social media as a viable platform for marketing.

Analysis and Findings

I) Feasibility to social media Artists

The questionnaire was sent to artists who have popularity at both regional and national levels. The total responses retrieved were six, out of which the responses were received to the extent of 50% from male and 50% from female social media artists. It was found that most of them (nearly 33.33%) are in the age of 21 years and the rest of them are evenly spread across the age bracket of 19-29 years. The other findings were:-

• 83.35 of them were found to use Instagram as their medium of communication to endorse the products to the consumers and the rest were using Youtube. It is interesting to note that none of the artists used mediums like Facebook or Twitter which were considered to be one of the most important tools of social media marketing in the studies or research conducted during the time 2010-2015.
• The study revealed that the field of education is not related to their current job of being social media artists. It revealed their interest of being an entrepreneur rather than working a monotonous job.
• The motivational factors that have driven the artists into the social media handle were predominantly their personal interests and the other accompanying factors were the increasing number of technology users and the purpose of knowledge sharing.
• Though all the media artists from whom the responses were recorded were artists who were involved in the promotion of products, it was surprisingly shown that almost 66.7% of them were not paid for such endorsements.
• It further shows that 66% of such artists have signed a contract with the company for such endorsement, specifically those who were paid.
• The most popular form of promotional techniques that are used by these artists are Instagram videos, giving free gifts, conducting contests, and conveying positive comments about the product. This creates curiosity amongst the consumers to use the product.
• It was found that these artists further act as a point of contact to communicate with the marketers for future purchase decisions.
• Before endorsing such products, almost 83% of the population sample agreed that they were given complete information about the product.
• The study revealed that consumers do not unsubscribe from social media artists’ channels even if they are dissatisfied with the products that were endorsed by them.
• It can be concluded that such product promotions, which are taken up by artists do not super cede or divert them from the original content ideas in social media space, rather the promotion becomes a part of their usual media content.

II) Feasibility to marketers

The marketers contacted to provide a range of products, mainly consumer goods such as accessories and lifestyle products. All three marketers, namely Swatch, Titan and Al-Sham used social media marketing. Previously, they followed traditional means such as hoardings, TV commercials, magazines, newspapers, and radio advertisements. The source of identifying social media marketing as a medium was equally spread across competitors, internal research, external reports, and consumer feedback.

The findings were:

• The marketers mostly target high-income youngsters between the age group of 15-28 years.
• The unanimous factor for selecting a social media artist is followers
• Incentives are mostly discount codes and subscriber giveaways
• All contracts with such artists were for a year or less
• Cost of marketing is comparatively lower
• Surprisingly, marketers see this as a long-term strategy and not a temporary plan
• Objectives of these marketers for using social media marketing are split up between market expansion, product launches, cost cutting, and customer relationship management.

III) Impact on the consumers

Table 1.0 gives a perspective on the division of people following/not following social media artists and purchase/nonpurchase of products influenced by them. Invalid responses were due to respondents not having ever used a product endorsed by a social media artist.

There were a total of 155 respondents for this part of the analysis. A quantitative analysis using IBM-SPSS software was conducted. Keeping ‘following a social media artist’ as an independent variable, the following findings were arrived at.

Since the P value is 000 for Pearson Chi-Square, there is a significant relationship between social media following and influenced purchase as well as social media following and use of products promoted by social media artists.

An open-ended question was provided to get a deeper understanding of the such influence on social media marketing and has been summarised as follows - People follow them for the reason that they are likable for their skills, talents, and acting. One of the respondents feels that some celebrities as well as industrialists are genuine and will not indulge in unethical promotions. They also feel that these artists have higher credibility in terms of their following which are in large numbers. Another respondent, from a tech-savvy perspective, feels that unboxing videos provide a better reference when purchasing an electronic gadget; which social media artists often put up as posts. They also believe that the products advertised by them are the products that they prefer, so they perceive it to be of good quality.

Conclusion:

As far as social media artists are concerned, it is found to be feasible for them to endorse such products offered by the company, especially paid artists. But as far as India is concerned, the process is still found to be in its nascent stage of development. This could probably be a profitable avenue for budding entrepreneurs to try and explore social media marketing. Both global and domestic marketers consider this type of product endorsement through social media artists as an effective long-term strategy and find it to be a cost-effective measure of promotion.

From the consumer front, it is evident from the findings that there is a substantial relationship between the social media following and the influence that the artists have on consumers’ buying decisions. There is a relationship between social media following and the usage of products that are endorsed by social media artists.

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