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TO STUDY THE IMPACT OF INSTAFAMOUS CELEBRITIES ON CONSUMER

BUYING BEHAVIOR

Article  in  Academy of Marketing Studies Journal · March 2020

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Academy of Marketing Studies Journal Volume 24, Issue 1, 2020

TO STUDY THE IMPACT OF INSTAFAMOUS

CELEBRITIES ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR
Yuvika Gupta, IMS Unison University, Dehradun
Sonal Agarwal, Datalink Institute Tema, Ghana
P.B Singh, MJP Rohilkhand University, Bareilly
ABSTRACT

With 1 billion monthly active users as of June, 2018, Instagram is undoubtedly one of the
most popular social networking apps in the world (TechCrunch, 2018). In today’s scenario it has
become the most popular gaining and giving popularity to people through app. Hashtags have
become the jargon of the Generation Y. Every life story finds its way through likes and comments
with the aid of #Hashtags. Instagram is that social media networking app which is much more
than just uploading and liking pictures and maybe, that is one of the crucial reasons why it has
surged up in comparison to other social media like snapchat, facebook etc.
The social media platforms, such as Instagram, continue to grow rapidly in popularity,
brands are using this platform effectively with new strategies, in order to gain visibility in the
audience. A new popular tactic utilized is an online “celebrity” known as a social media
influencer (SMI). Brands are using SMI the same way as celebrity endorser to distribute
information and influence consumers’ perceptions. Using SMIs in communication and marketing
campaigns has grown in popularity in almost all the industries whether it is beauty/fashion,
home/family, health/fitness, travel/lifestyle, food/beverage, business/tech or entertainment. The
purpose of this paper is to study and understand the factors that affect the consumers’ buying
behavior with reference to Instagram. The study also investigates the source credibility of
Instafamous Celebrities on consumers’ buying intention. The goal is to show that celebrities on
instagram are influential and effects consumers’ purchase behavior.

Keywords: Consumer Buying Behavior, Digital Marketing, Instagram, Instafamous Celebrities,

Micro-Blogging, Social Media Influencers.

INTRODUCTION

In this era of digital world, social media has emerged as the fastest way of sharing
information with the consumers. The social networking sites (SNS) Facebook, Twitter, Snap chat
and many more are growing day by day in terms of number of users. Among all of these
Instagram has originated as the social networking site with the maximum number of increase in
users. As per the survey by TechCrunch, 2018 the total number of users has reached about
1billion and the figures are rapidly increasing day by day. Since the academic research on this
media is low so the researcher studied the effect of instragram celebrities known as Instafamous
celebrities towards buying behavior. The other upcoming SNS, WeChat marketing has also
helped the companies in enhancing their brand value and profitability in this mobile internet era
(Wang, 2017). It states that social media has drastically transformed the means of information
sharing. The upsurge of internet has enabled the customers to new interactive world where
customers can share and upload their views, thoughts, ideas, experiences and suggestions about
different product. The rapid growth of the Web has made it possible to access an increasingly

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large amount of information on the Web, while on the other side it has also created a difficulty
for customers to select the appropriate information available on different sites (Huang, 2006).
Undoubtedly instagram has turned out to be the most preferred and leading social networking
site for those who choose instagram as their workplace and a means to earn. It is not only
popular for connecting with friends but it has also become an extremely dominant platform for
businesses. According to Liao & Wang (2009), consumers purchase the products not only for
material possessions but for social needs also.
Nowadays, instagram is capable of turning housewives into successful fashion designer,
or a banker into a photographer. This concludes that now people prefer to become an instagram
influencer rather than traditional profile jobs, and increase the followers with their own personal
brands. Apparently, the word “famous” represents something significant which most of the
people are looking for in the future.
As influencer marketing grows, big influencers such as well-known celebrities are
becoming more expensive for business. So, companies take the help of insta-famous celebrities
as the micro influencers for influencer marketing of their product in the right budget. These
Micro influencers do not have any celebrity outreach but they are very influencing and popular
among their followers. At very first the small brands select their target customers and then they
look for a nontraditional celebrity i.e. an instagram influencer having the maximum number of
target audience as followers. The simple mantra for the brand to increase its number of followers
and achieving the objective of the company is to work with the right influencer for targeted
audience. For example, a cosmetic brand achieve better results in sales by working with a rising
beauty blogger with 50k followers rather than a famous celebrity makeup artist or beautician
who may ask for 10 times of their budget.
McCracken (1989) defined celebrity endorser as

“Any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good
by appearing with it in an advertisement.”

Since ages celebrity endorsement in advertising is prevalent and researches have shown a
significant relationship between the endorser and buying behavior. Online platforms are
currently very prevalent for celebrity endorsement. In the last few years, it is observed that in
digital marketing micro influencers such as bloggers and ‘Instafamous’ personalities has
increased massively. These instafamous celebrities have an ability to transform an unidentified
or new brand into a well-known brand through their pages and profiles by creating an optimistic
association among their social media followers. The reason of usage of instafamous celebrity
endorsement on social media is to add value to the products or services offered. An individual is
likely to copy the style of their favorite instafamous celebrity so as to obtain a similar degree of
feedbacks which the celebrity receives on his/her instagram account.
Instagram has coined as the most prevalent SNS, which has benefited the influencers in
rising to fame through their budding followers. Consumers perceive individuals with a large
number of followers as more attractive and trustworthy (Source Credibility Theory), which
effects consumers purchase behavior. Instagram has gradually developed as the most influential
and credible source of information due to the increase in social media users and easy availability
of internet via smart phones.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

With the increase of the mobile users worldwide (Statista, 2016) marketers interest for
advertising on social media through instagram has drastically increased. The online information
sharing on public domain has not only benefitted the consumers in purchase decision, but also
the marketers in generating electronic word of mouth (EWOM) (Cheung & Lee, 2012). The
online customer reviews, play a twofold role; they provide information about the product to the
customer as well as make recommendations for other users (Lee et al., 2008; Bingjia et al.,
2010).
According to the different researchers the use of celebrity endorsements helps in
building the brands recognizable and creates positive attitude (Petty et al., 1983), enhance the
likelihood of purchase (Friedman & Friedman, 1979), foster brand loyalty, and positively impact
word of mouth (Bush et al., 2004). The customer’s positive attitude has a reasonable area of
scientific inquiry in marketing (Huang, 2001). As per Ohanian (1990), the consumer’s interest in
celebrity life has significant impact on the attraction level, which helps in influencing the
customer by celebrity endorsements. Similarly, the positive perception that an individual
generates about instafamous celebrity is likely to have significant impact on the buying
behaviour (Kutthakaphan & Chokesamritpol, 2013). In addition to it, there are number of
researches arguing that information shared by the reviewer or blogger about the product is more
reliable than what is shared by a well-known celebrity (Camahort, 2016). Companies believe on
‘Instafamous’ phenomenon has enhanced and they assert that instafame leads to the path of
achievement, they consider that success of the product completely relies on the influencer fan
following. Influencer outreach has become an increasing focus for the companies as it is
important that the influencer should be in line with the brand (Chahal, 2016).

S. No. Title of Paper Author/s Journal Year Findings

Tthe research model concluded
that the interaction between
trust in a SNS platform,
familiarity with the platform,
social commerce information
Journal of
seeking and social presence
Theoretical and
The Driving Forces Ahmad Samed Al- affect and shape customers’
Applied
1 of Facebook Social Adwan and Husam 2019 intentions to purchase from e-
Electronic
Commerce Kokash sellers through Facebook social
Commerce
commerce. Based on the
Research
empirical results, familiarity,
social presence, trust and social
commerce information seeking
have direct positive influences
on social purchase intentions.
Impact of Social The researchers concluded that
Media Marketing on Vision: The the content sharing and
Brand Experience: A Journal of interaction have a positive
2 Beig & Khan 2018
Study of Select Business significant impact on sensory,
Apparel Brands on Perspective affective, behavioural and
Facebook intellectual experiences.
Negotiating The 11th IEEE Most of the influencers are
consumerism and International aware of their position as role
3 Mathilde & Hansen 2018
feminism on Conference on model but are not necessarily
instagram Social in agreement.

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Computing and
Networking
Engagement with
The different functionalities
Social Media and Hilde Voorveld, Guda
and characteristics of social
Social Media van Noort, Daniël
4 Journal of 2018 media platforms translate into
Advertising: The Muntinga & Fred
Advertising different consumer
Differentiating Role Bronner
experiences.
of Platform Type
The results conclude that
New media and
Route Instagram moms and new
commoditized
Rengim Sine, Damla Educational and media marketing process has a
5 motherhood: A focus 2017
Parlak Yorganci Social Science strong relationship as they
group study on
Journal prefer to purchase the products
Instagram mother
recommended by bloggers.
Social media usage, Asia-Pacific The research finds that social
electronic word of Shantanu Prasad, Ishwar Journal of media usage and EWOM have
6 2017
mouth and purchase- Gupta, Navindra Totala Business positive impact on consumers’
decision involvement Administration purchase-decision.
The rise of ‘Insta-fame’ and
Self Branding, pursuit of Instafamous
‘Micro Celebrity’ Susie Khamis, Lawrence Celebrities has effictively
7 Celebrity Studied 2017
and the rise of social Ang, Raymond Welling transform the social interactive
media influencer. and conversational media in
this Information Age.
The results confirm that
The influence of quality, credibility, usefulness
eWOM in social and adoption of information,
media on consumers’ needs of information and
Computers in
8 purchase intentions: Erkan & Evans 2016 attitude towards information
Human Behavior
An extended are the key factors of eWOM
approach to in social media that influence
information adoption consumers’ purchase
intentions.
This study confirms that males
are more likely than female to
post their personal pictures on
Journal of Instagram, more likely to
The influence of Al-Kandari, Ahmed A.
Advances in disclose their personal
10 culture on instagram Al-Hunaiyyan, Rana Al- 2016
Information information and more likely to
use. Hajri
Technologies have public accounts unlike
females who are more likely to
have private accounts than
males.
Instagram helps the marketers
How Instagram can
Procedia-Social to get the feedback from the
be used as a tool in Huey Sook Lim, Dr.
11 an behavioral 2014 customers, which help them in
social networking Rashad Yazdanifard
sciences formulating their marketing
Marketing
strategies.
The Use of Celebrity Thesis. Society
Endorsement with and Engineering; The result shows that this
the Help of Kutthakaphan & Malardalen advertising technique easily
12 2013
Electronic Chokesamritpol University, reach to consumers and help
Communication School of them to know the product.
Channel Business

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The listed studies in Table 1 have studied the impact of celebrity endorsement towards
online buying decision of the consumers. In the influencing process, information credibility of a
follower from the celebrity endorsing the product is examined. There are number of studies in
support that states that the most viable factor in eWOM acceptance is eWOM credibility
(Anandarajan & Sivagami, 2016; Hajli, 2014; Bhatt & Bhatt, 2012; Trusov et al., 2009).
As the importance of influencer marketing in purchase decision making is acquainted,
online markets, put into action a review feature, that allow users to vote for reviews. In
academia, researchers are interested to study the impact of reviews on consumers’ buying
behavior, keeping the focus on influencing factors (Wang, 2017; Bannister et al., 2013; Dennis et
al., 2010; Trusov et al., 2009). Although, the researches done previously also concluded that the
reviews has significant effect on consumer purchase decision (Laroche et al., 2013; Lee, 2013;
Pate & Adams, 2013). Thus in this study, researcher try to study the influence of instafamous
celebrities on consumers’ buying behaviour.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Objectives
1. To identify the factors that affect the consumer buying behavior with reference to Instagram.
2. The study also investigates the source credibility of Instafamous Celebrities on consumers buying intention.
3. To analyze the influence of Instagram celebrities on the consumers’ buying behavior.

Data Collection

The data for the study was collected using a questionnaire. The study was carried out
among college students in Uttarakhand public universities, as 71% of the present users on
instagram are below the age of 35 years (Statista, 2019). Hence, 400 young consumers were
selected from different cities. The sample size calculation was based on Yamane (1967) formula.
The sampling techniques used in selecting the respondents were convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. The variables are measured at the ordinal level.
The respondents were asked to rate the study variables on a 7 point Likert scale (7 being
Strongly Agree) and their behaviour on social media advertising was captured. A pilot survey of
25 respondents testing has been done in Dehradun. An iterative process of exploratory factor
analysis (EFA) was performed to assess and diagnose the reliability of the constructs. Thereafter,
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to check the reliability and validity of the full
measurement model. Finally, structural equation modelling was used to examine the
hypothesized relationships between the variables.

Research Hypotheses

Based on the observations of the respondents, the study also wanted to confirm whether
these responses are true for consumers’ purchasing online. The following hypotheses have been
formulated to evaluate the applicability of these observations:

H1: The instafamous celebrity physical attractiveness influence consumers’ purchase behavior.

H2: The income level of consumers following instafamous celebrity influence consumers’ online buying
behaviour.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Primarily, to check the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha,
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett test were performed. The value of 0.91 for Cronbach’s
alpha indicates good internal consistency of the items in the scale. Similarly, the value of KMO
was 0.909 and statistically significant values for Bartlett’s test for sphericity (p<0.05) indicated
that factor analysis is appropriate Table1.

Table1
RELIABILITY STATISTICS
Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
0.95 9
KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. 0.909
Approx. Chi-Square 1559.446
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Df 036
Sig. 0.000

Sample Profile

The age-wise composition of the sample respondents indicates that 262 (65.5 per cent)
respondents belong to the age group of 20-29 and 138 (34.5 per cent) are between 30-35 years of
age. Likewise, 120 were married, 280 are bachelor. The economic parameters of the respondents
are provided in figures below. The data reveals that a significant proportion of the respondents
are highly qualified. In total, 300 of them are having a post-graduate degree and 26 are doctorate
Figure 1. Also, 80 per cent of the respondents are working in private job. A small proportion is
also in teaching proportion Figure 2.

Figure 1: Qualification

1.0% 3.0%
6.5%

14.5% Class XII

Graduate

Post
Graduate
75.0%

FIGURE 1
QUALIFICATION

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Figure 2: Profession

6.5%
3.5%
10.0%

Business
Govt. Service
Private Job
Teaching
80.0%

FIGURE 2
PROFESSION

Figure 3: Monthly Income

38.0%
40.0%

30.0% 23.5%
21.5%
20.0%
8.0% 6.0%
10.0% 3.0%
0.0%
Less than 20K to 40K 40K to 60K 60K to 80K 80K to 100K More than
20K 100K

FIGURE 3
MONTHLY INCOME

From Figure 3, it can be inferred that majority of the respondents (38 per cent) are having
a monthly income between INR 20,000 to INR 40,000. Only 21.5 per cent of the entire sample is
having an income of less than INR 20,000 monthly. It shows that the sample respondents are
fairly from well off educated families and most likely to have the capacity to purchase online.

Findings of Objective 1

To examine the relationships between the likelihood of physical attractiveness of

instafamous celebrity and purchasing behaviour, the correlation between the two variables are
calculated and the result is presented in Table 2. It can be clearly stated that the instafamous
celebrity physical attractiveness affect much to consumer buying behavior as the correlation
coefficient is 0.876. Consumers are appealed by the physical attractiveness and will purchase the
product endorsed by them. Further Table 3 represents the correlation between the variables, the
correlation between knowledge and reliability is least i.e. 0.382 which represents that the
consumers consider knowledge but are not much influenced by it while purchasing the product.

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Table 2
CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE VARIABLES
Beautiful Sexy Good Expert Experience Trust Reliable Confident Knowledge
looking
Beautiful 1 0.785** 0.706** 0.698** 0.507** 0.575** 0.497** 0.431** 0.586**
Sexy 1 0.758** 0.684** 0.413** 0.571** 0.498** 0.463** 0.496**
Good looking 1 0.807** 0.493** 0.579** 0.552** 0.521** 0.583**
Expert 1 0.525** 0.570** 0.531** 0.518** 0.582**
Experience 1 0.425** 0.393** 0.401** 0.594**
Trust 1 0.598** 0.476** 0.429**
Reliable 1 0.404** 0.382**
Confident 1 0.450**
Knowledge 1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Findings of Objective 2

According to Jain (2016), the increase in income of any individual has a positive spin-off
effect on the disposable income. This will indulge in impulse buying behavior of the person. This
proposition is measured in this objective by calculating the correlation between the income level
and purchasing behaviour of consumers in India. The study result reveals that the income of the
consumer affect their buying behaviour and the first hypothesis is accepted Table 2. However, it
is found from the survey that the purchasing behaviour of the different income group women is
different which is quite obvious. It can be infer that as the consumers have developed as an
important segment for the marketers in India, therefore, the marketers should consider them with
utmost importance in buying decision process (Le Roux & Maree, 2016).

Table 3
CORRELATIONS
Income Purchase
Income 1 0.876**
Purchase 0.876** 1

Findings of Objective 3

One of the primary objectives of this study is to find out the factors that influence Indian
consumers to purchase online. The study considered various parameters including beautiful,
sexy, good looking, expert, knowledgeable, trust, confidence, etc. as the plausible aspects to
explore the various dimensions of impact of celebrity endorsement on social media advertising.
The respondents were asked to rate their agreement level on a 7 point scale (7 being Strongly
Agree) with respect to online purchase. Table 4 shows that they are inclined to have positive
opinions on all the parameters as all the ratings of average responses are more than 4 with very
moderate standard deviation. Hence, the survey definitely observes lots of satisfactory effects of
online purchase by Indian consumers.

Table 4
Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Beautiful 400 4.3179 0.90708

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Sexy 400 4.3857 0.85335

Good looking 400 4.3393 0.84601
Expert 400 4.2821 0.75641
Experience 400 4.4036 0.78945
Trust 400 4.7321 0.70904
Reliable 400 4.6929 0.73679
Confident 400 4.7643 0.62247
Knowledge 400 4.5857 0.62192
Valid N (list wise) 400

However, the study further tried to identify which are the major factors from the above
observations (see Table 5) that influence significantly in online purchase. The study adopted
Principal Component Method to extract the components. The components which exhibit more
than one Eigen Value are taken as principal components. As highlighted in Table 5, the first
three components whose Eigen value is greater than one (5.381, 1.802 & 1.695 respectively)
together explain 76.42 per cent variations in the model, the number of principal components have
been taken as three.

Table 5
TOTAL VARIANCE EXPLAINED
Component Initial Eigenvalues Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative %
1 5.381 59.790 59.790 2.956 32.840 32.840
2 1.802 8.912 68.702 2.026 22.514 55.355
3 1.695 7.718 76.420 1.896 21.065 76.420
4 0.605 6.721 83.141
5 0.413 4.591 87.732
6 0.383 4.260 91.992
7 0.339 3.767 95.759
8 0.221 2.458 98.217
9 0.160 1.783 100.000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Finally, after estimating the loading of variables on each factor, a Varimax with Kaiser
Normalization rotation has been performed to ensure the orthogonality between the factors. The
Rotated Component Matrix, presented in Table 6, exhibit the final loading of individual variables
on each identified component. Further, as per guidelines of Hair et al. (2013), the study
considered 0.40 as cut off factor loading for a sample size of 400.

Table 6
ROTATED COMPONENT MATRIX
Component
1 2 3
Beautiful 0.811
Sexy 0.853
Good looking 0.757
Expert 0.883
Experience 0.826
Trust 0.732
Reliable 0.788
Confident 0.625
Knowledge 0.763

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Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

The variables are distinctly loaded on any of the three identified components. Therefore,
the three factors may be acknowledged with their respective variables and the result is
summarized in Table 7.

Table 7
SUMMARY RESULT
Factor 1(Attraction) Factor 2(Trustworthy) Factor 3(Expertise)
Beautiful Trust Experience
Sexy Reliable Knowledge
Good looking Confident Expert

The CFA was conducted for this measurement model in AMOS 18 (Figure 4). An
analysis of regression weights and covariance residuals was done. Table 8 gives the details of fit
indices of the measurement model. The CFA shows a reasonable fit of the measurement model
(X²/DF = 4.610, GFI = 0.960, RMSEA = 0.06, CFI = 0.944). After assessing the fitness of the
measurement model, where latent variables showed their distinctiveness, the structural
relationships between the constructs was tested (purchase intention did not show discriminant
validity with other variables, but looking at the CFA results, and composite reliability results for
the variable, it was retained in the model).

Table 8
REGRESSION WEIGHTS: (GROUP NUMBER 1 - DEFAULT MODEL)
Estimate S.E. C.R. P Label
Good looking <--- F1 1.000
Sexy <--- F1 0.960 0.050 19.285 *** par_1
Beautiful <--- F1 0.983 0.051 19.139 *** par_2
Experience <--- F2 1.000
Expert <--- F2 1.407 0.126 11.201 *** par_3
Reliable <--- F3 1.000
knowledge <--- F2 1.018 0.107 9.480 *** par_6
Confident <--- F3 0.821 0.087 9.451 *** par_7
Trust <--- F3 1.082 0.094 11.503 *** par_8
Purchase Intention <--- F2 1.447 0.276 5.245 *** par_9
Purchase Intention <--- F3 0.067 0.228 0.293 *** par_10
Purchase Intention <--- F1 1.000

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FIGURE 4
MEASUREMENT MODEL IN AMOS 18

In the present era of digitization, the celebrity endorsement on social media and its
influence on consumer buying behaviour deserve a closer attention from the researchers and
marketers. Online consumers apart from shopping also generate online support for their peers
which help in establishing trust on social media and affect their buying behaviour. In this
research the prime focus is on Indian consumers, to analyze and evaluate their perception and
behaviour towards social media advertising. Thus the research shows how celebrity endorsement
trust and influence impact consumers’ intention to buy through social networking sites. A
demographic variable such as income does play a significant role in influencing the online
purchase behaviour.
In a nutshell, Insta-famous celebrities power a trustworthy relationship with the
consumers, develop high engagement with the followers and guide them in their buying
decisions. These buying decisions are mostly based on an influencer’s direct recommendations
and tagged suggestion. The research shows that more and more, consumers are looking to
bloggers and reviews before they buy the product. It is found that the instafamous celebrities are
considered to be more honest and transparent than the celebrity, which drives their credibility
over the celebrity. 83% of Instagrammers say they discover new products and services on
Instagram (Facebook, 2019). This reveals that consumers are using Instagram as a channel to
take inspiration for their purchase.

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CONCLUSION

Instagram is not just introducing the brand to customers’, however it is also bridging the
gap between buyers and sellers, by further introducing options like Instagram shopping
and Instagram checkout. The impact of using Instagram is observable by marketers as it plays an
important role at every step of customer’s purchase process. Buyers are looking for inspiration
through Instafamous celebrities and researching the products on instagram before they finally
purchase the product.
According the research by Mention (2018), 50% of Instagram users follow at least one
business which means that businesses on instagram have a great opportunity to increase their
customer base. It assists in increasing the sales of both local brand and businesses around the
world. As per Facebook (2019), Instagram assists 80% of its users in buying decision. The report
on Instagram users reflects that most of the users purchase decision is usually based on what they
saw on instagram. Thus, it can be concluded that the instafamous celebrities play an important
role in influencing the online buyers, so if company is not promoting on Instagram they are
missing out huge opportunity.

Future Scope

Hence, in the future study can be conducted on other geographical area by increasing the
number of respondents, cities or states. The scope of the study can be extended by making it
product specific such as apparels, electronic products, etc. This study has studied about micro-
influencers only on Instagram which can be extended to other social media networking sites like
Facebook, Twitter etc. This study considered only income as one of the factors while other
factors such as education can also be considered for the further research.

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