The impact of social media influencer attributes on brand awareness and on the strength of brand associations and the effects on consumers, using the AIDA model

Abstract

The power of social media has been experienced in various ways and in the last few years, social media has seen a sharp increase in the use of social media influencers, who are regarded as experts in their respective fields. Some consumer brands have realised the powerful impact of social media influencers to their brands, which has seen well-known social media influencers endorsing certain brands. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact that social media influencer attributes have on brand awareness and the strength of brand associations. The study further investigated the relationship between social media influencer attributes and the impact on consumers, using the AIDA hierarchy of effects model. The dimensions of the hierarchy of effects model (HOE model) that are based on the AIDA model are attention, interest, desire, and action. The study investigated which social media influencer attributes impacted brand awareness and strength of brand associations, and how these brand elements have an effect on consumers in terms of consumer attention, interest, desire and action. The methodology used in the study was a self-administered electronic questionnaire that focussed on the following constructs: social media attributes; strength of brand associations; brand awareness; attention, intention, desire, and action. The requirement was that respondents had to be users of at least one of the three social networking sites, namely, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. The questionnaire was posted online on all three of the social media platforms. The number of respondents who completed the online survey is 217 social media users who completed the survey on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Hypotheses were formulated to test the relationship between the constructs. By using a quantitative data analysis method, the results of the study showed that there is a positive correlation between attributes of social media influencers and brand awareness and brand association strength. The results also revealed that consumers are impacted by social media influencer attributes through consumers’ awareness, interest, desire and purchase of promoted brands. It was recommended that future studies, which will have managerial impact, should include a bigger sample and should iii make a comparison of various brands that are promoted by social media influencers who have contrasting attributes.