The Impact of Influencers on Consumer Behaviour between Mexico Thesis , Ireland

Question. 1 WHAT is your research area? What are you doing and why is it of interest?

The advantage of social media has led to a dramatic evolution in international marketing in the last years. Today, social media is one of the most effective advertising strategies that companies use to promote their products. It helps to influence the consumer’s demand more than any other mass media (e. g TV, radio, magazines). My interest in this subject arose due to the increased reliance on digital media worldwide since the start of the pandemic.

My research willfocus primarily on the impact of social media influencers on consumer behaviour. It will also explore what influences on-line purchasing.My aim is to investigate the exponential growth of influencers on social media and their Impact on consumer behaviour.

Question. 2 HOW are you going to do it?

My plan is to talk with some friends and find out what their favourite social media is. The most famous appsthat influencers are using like Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.

I’m planning on designinga survey to know what kind of interest’s people are more involved and make a contrast between Mexico and Ireland.

My primary research would be qualitative, so the people can describe their own opinion and quantitative because it can help me numerically the branch of product or service where people spend their money. The questionnaire will be place online specifically people from Mexico and Ireland.

Question. 3 WHO are you going to talk to?

I want to talk with two different segments of young people like millennials, the reason is that the newest generation is more familiar with the digital world as they are growing with this type of technology.

They can bring me more relevant information about different interests between 2 generations, culture, behaviour, customer aspirations and more information about famous influencers in both countries. I want to find out the increase of time spending on social media during the pandemic, it provides an idea about the impact of influencers on customer during this time and how did they react in each country.

Question. 4 Explain how you are going to access this sample

Taking advantage of technology, I’ll send a survey in both countries between Mexico and Ireland.

Using a link and send to different university students, friends and co-workers, as the majority of those people use social media and their range of age are between 18- 40 years old.

Research at least 1 of the most famous influencers in each country and give and brief of their lifestyle and why people follow them.

Question 5. WHY are you doing this particular topic? What are the aims?

I’m doing this particular topic because E – Commerce and social media are connected and influencers are becoming more usual to connect between the brands and consumer.I was working in sales over the last 6 years and I’ll like to know the future of Marketing inspiring by virtual communicates. This is a key to know how consumers motivates to make a purchase online and why.

Due the Covid – 19 Pandemic many people around the world are changing the way to work, travel, shop and communicate. If we talk about consumers, we can see the majority are migrating into a digital world and the opportunities to be influenced by others is big.

The result will be know the importance of an influencer in social media and encourage brands as amid to promote their service or products according to the segment market.

The results of this investigation help to companies to use different strategies of marketing with the new era of influencers and develop new products, new ways to advertising and consumers demanding, improve the process of purchasing by online.

Question. 6 WHAT is the Research question (This is Key since everything hinges on this research question. It should want to do something, as in making something better, explain, explore, etc. for a reason

Exploring the impact of an influencer has today in social and marketing areas, consumer behavior, and reasons that motivate purchasing online. Based on experience and comparison between Mexico and Ireland, I want to explain and explore the habits change in Consumers from both countries during the Pandemic started until now.

Question. 7 Literature Review

• The importance of social media for marketers and businesses.

What is Social Media?

Social media is defined by a way to communicate with people online, by sharing information, ideas, messages, or other contents as photos or videos. In 1948 communication theorist Harold Lasswell described communication as 5 parts: Who ( says) What ( to) Whom ( in) What Channel ( with )What effect.

The objective of this is to influence others in mass opinion or behaviour. Through this, marketers’ goals should be to capture the attention from their audience until they have some interest and desire from their service or products.

Social media has been growing in the last 20 years with more people spending around 135 minutes every day on Facebook, twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Tik Tok.

“Social media platforms are an indispensable cornerstone of every marketer’s strategy”, said Pam Forbus, CMO of Pernod Ricard USA. Since the pandemic COVID 19 started, more people are moving into a world with online identities and networks.

One example that makes social media more important is between E-commerce and social recommendations. As people start reading more advertising online, they want to buy immediately rather than going to the shop, where they probably can’t find it or need to spend time on the queue.

“The authors have spoken that today the word- of mouth is getting more important and e- commerce in technology is growing exponential, leading a long – term growth in online sales. “

I’ll ask questions to my target people what kind of platform in social media they use to research information about products or services and why.  It is going to help me to compare both countries in Ireland and Mexico and how long they spend on it.

I’m planning to make an interview with micro- influencers in both markets in Mexico and Ireland to know their opinion between social media and e- commerce as to what platform they prefer to engage with customers.  How long do they dedicate to their audience per day?

• What is an Influencer, categories and their role in social media?

“Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and power” (Henry George (1839 -1897). Every day people are influenced by others, such as the way to dress up, using a specific make up, or admiration for others through their experience or success. It can be according to different personalities or desires from people because they can feel identified.

Nowadays, companies need to develop a strong relationship with customers if they want to keep in the business and “social media will help to build a loyalty of the current customers to the point that they can tell others” (Bonnie Sainsbury). One of the ways that marketers are reaching potential customers in social media is through influencers.

According to Gachoucha Kretz, (forbes, 2020) Influencers are intermediaries between companies and brands and they are trustworthy. Influencers arepeople who build their own business by followers on social media and they do not promote products or services that they wouldn’t use themselves, which in turn encouragefollowers with the buying decision.

Deutsch and Gerard (1955) introduced 2 types of social influence: normative, when people conform to the expectation of others and informational influence accepts information from others, as a reality.

Actually there are millions of people publishing content in different areas such as travel, fitness, food, fashion, entertainment, motivation, etc. it’s very important that marketers select the right influencers with the correct niche, who fits with their needs and desire outcomes. According to Alex Kowtun (Forbes, 2019) there are 3 categories of followers influencers:

Question. 8 What are the main issues/themes arising from your search of the literature as it relates to the key areas of interest posed by the research question/aims/objectives?

• The importanceof social media for marketers and business.
• What is an Influencer, categories and their role in social media?
• Impact of influencers on consumer behaviour and changes due the COVID 19.
• Overview Mexico and Ireland
• Future of influencers

The literature review was very useful to understand better each theme and linked with the main points and facts. The main information is to relate the impact of influencers in social media and how they motivate others the way to behave and make decisions.  The power of technology and social media by new applications, and the importance of communicating the right information to customers and gaining trust to be successful.

Through this project, I’ll be able to explore more information by this base of knowledge on the topic and more clarity how it will affect in the future.

Question 9 What have you learned from the search of the literature that is relevant to your research question? These findings lead to the questions or interview schedule.

I learned from this research that is very important for companies to keep active in social media in order to survive in the new digital world. Knowing the importance of influencers to communicate with others and the strong relationship between their followers, it can lead a company to gain loyal customers for long – term.

Some of my questions that I believe are relevant for my project are:

• What kind of applications in social media do they use to research information about products or services before making a purchase? Why?
• What type of content or interests make you follow an influencer?
• What type of influencers do you prefer? Macro- influencers as celebrities, you tubers, bloggers, sport figures.
• Do you prefer an influencer from your country? Could you give a reason?
• What is the first thing you considered before making a purchase online? If, is recommendation from who? Why?
• Do you think it is more attractive to buy online rather than in the shop?
• Due to the pandemic started, do you think you spent more time in social media?Could you give one reason?
• Have you bought a product or service by recommendation from an influencer in the recent months? What did you buy?
• Did you get satisfied with your product or service? Would you recommend it?
• After the pandemic Covid 19, do you believe the way to make purchases online will be increased by influencers? Why?
• Would you like to try a new application in the following 5 years? What type of innovation would you like?

This is a general question that I would like to compare between 2 countries and the point of view of an Influencer.

Question. 10 Your Methodology

The methodology used for my research would be qualitative and quantitative data to collect more valuable data. Also the interview applying from the point of view of an Influencer can help me to understand both sides of the market. Translating the opinions, recommendations and numbers into this project helps me with to understand better the impact of influencers on the consumer behaviour between Ireland and Mexico.

Question. 11 What are the key tasks in completing your dissertation?

My goal is to try not to make mistake in my data, however it will depend on my formulated questions and ensure that people from both countries answer my survey. Arranged interviews with the influencer would be another factor, as they need take time from her activities.

My plan is to work with a test of questions on time to collect the data and analyse, then I will be able to make corrections before the big survey.

Question. 12 Comment on the progress in relation to the goals, work plans and any other achievements

The main objective is to make a comparison by the Impact of influencers on customer behaviour between both countries, Ireland and Mexico. The principles themes will help me to understand the potential market and what type of industry people are better engaged with the influencers, e- commerce and social media.

Question. 13 Comment on any problems or issues which affected your progress and the strategies identified to overcome them.

Firstly, I choose this subject because in my opinion this is a new way for marketers and companies to be engaged with customers and develop new strategies to keep them satisfied. By influencers, they can build a good relationship, but also the companies can listen to their opinions to make the service or products better.

I have a friend that is an influencer in Mexico, it can give me the probability to make my project easier. On the other hand, I have Irish friends that can support me to share my survey and collect as much data as possible.

Question. 14. Complete and Upload Ethical Form A on moodle submission.