Impact of Social Media Influencer Marketing on Consumer Engagement: A Study on Cosmetic Consumers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Social media influencer marketing has long been regarded as one of the most common and efficient ways for businesses to communicate marketing messages to their customers. Marketers are obsessed with striking the appropriate balance between their brand and the social media influencer marketing used to promote their products. This study discussed the impact of social media influencer marketing on consumer engagement in the context of the cosmetic industry focusing on social media influencer marketing toward consumer engagement in the cosmetics industry in Sri Lanka. The main findings include descriptive statistics based on the experience and opinions of the brand experts. Accordingly, semi-structured interviews with 12 cosmetics brand managers in Sri Lanka chosen through the purposive sampling technique, were used for data collection adopting a qualitative approach and using thematic analysis for data analysis. This study focused on consumer behavior toward cosmetics, consumer engagement, cosmetics categories, availability of foreign and local brands in Sri Lanka, usage of social media influencers, importance, and the ideas that surround them. NVivo software is used to analyze qualitative data. When analyzing the factors obtained via the interview and the literature, researchers were able to gather a few key findings and these key findings directly address the objective of the study. Findings showed that the brands are always being updated on what these cosmetic consumers are looking for and satisfying their needs and these brands were always concerned about what type of social media influencers they are using to promote their brands. All the brands under this study use social media and social media influencer marketing to promote their brand among cosmetic consumers which clearly shows that despite being local or foreign brands these cosmetics brands have identified that social media influencer marketing is the key factor to impact consumer engagement.