The impact of Instagram influencer posts on purchase intent

Comparison verification with postings of official corporate accounts for cosmetics

Abstract

Consumers trust influencers on social networking sites and use their advice to decide their consumption behavior. Against this background, the scale of influencer marketing has been increasing. Conversely, companies are focusing on product promotion by setting up official accounts, but it has been found that these accounts are often ineffective. However, the differences in the effects of the two types of accounts on purchase behavior have not been sufficiently clarified under similar conditions, such as product appeal, text and photos in posts, and number of followers. We hypothesized that influencer posts would increase purchase intentions compared to official company accounts and examined this hypothesis, and the resulting advantages and disadvantages, in a randomized controlled trial in the Japanese cosmetics market.