CAPSTONE PROJECT REPORT Winter

Semester 2023-2024

TITLE

Identification and Analysis of the key challenges businesses face when

trying to leverage social media influencers for marketing in the fitness &
nutrition industry

Prof. Pritha Roy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to everyone who
helped us to successfully finish this project. Their advice and assistance have
been invaluable to our efforts.

We are appreciative to Ahmedabad University for giving us the space and

tools we needed to carry out this study. We would like to express our sincere
appreciation to Professor Pritha Roy, our mentor, whose knowledge and
constant assistance have greatly influenced the research and project report.

Furthermore, we express our gratitude to all of the survey respondents for

consenting to participate in our study and providing us with invaluable data.
Their participation in the survey enabled us to get trustworthy data, and the
study of that data allowed us to comprehend today's social media dynamics
in the fitness industry.

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2. ABSTRACT
3. INTRODUCTION
4. FLOW OF THE PROJECT
5. BACKGROUND
6. LITERATURE REVIEW
7. PROBLEM STATEMENT
6.1 DEFINE MAIN PROBLEM STATEMENT
6.1.1 CHALLENGES UTILIZING SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS
8. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
9. OBJECTIVES
10.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
9.1 Survey Methodology
9.1.1 Target Demographics
9.1.2 Sample Size Determination
9.1.3 Data Collection Techniques
9.2 Interview Methodology
9.2.1 Selection Criteria for Interviewees
9.2.2 Interview Question Design
9.2.3 Data Analysis Procedures
9.3 RESEARCH QUESTION
9.4 SUB RESEARCH QUESTION
11.DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS
10.1 Survey Findings
10.2 Interview Insights
10.3 Comparative Analysis
12.KEY CHALLENGES IDENTIFICATION
13.KEY FINDINGS
14.PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
15.CONCLUSION
16.FUTURE SCOPE
17.REFERENCE

ABSTRACT
This report focuses on how influencers impact consumer behavior in the fitness
and nutrition industry and how brands use influencers which are easy mediums for
their branding. In this digital era social media has become part of everybody's lives
one way or another. Landscape of social media is ever evolving and impacts
greatly on the health and wellbeing aspect of people's lives. From this a very
distinct type of branding tool has surfaced in this digital environment called the
social media influencer. Influencers as the name suggests influences people by
using internet presence and affects their perceptions, advertise goods and services,
and create communities centered on common interests.
 INTRODUCTION

In today's digital age fitspiration content is at the tip of our fingerprints. Anyone
and everyone with a phone can access this information anytime and anywhere. In
this digital era influencer marketing plays a vital role as social media has
established itself as the most convenient and hassle free platform to promote any
fitness or nutrition related content. But the question that arises is whatever we see
influencers promoting reliability and if yes how would one know which influencer
to trust. Influencers play a significant role in creation of brand identity and
credibility through instagram. Influencer marketing is a technique that identifies
people who have influence on potential consumers and guides marketing
activities around these influential people (Woods, 2016; Glucksman, 2017).

As influencers, engagement has grown exponentially due to pandemic. Influencers

have become a new way of connecting with consumers for a brand. Fitness and
healthy lifestyle has always been considered as necessary but due to pandemic
interest in wellness and health has been growing at an even faster rate. To make
content out of it influencers have created huge hype around fitness and health
content. Influencers motivate, encourage and even educate people about various
exercises, diet plans and methods to achieve the desired results in the body as well
as lifestyle.

Although social media is a really handy and easy to use tool for people to gain
knowledge and get influenced, fitness and nutrition is a very sensitive topic. Any
misleading information can cause alarming health issues in a person's body. This
report aims to address the research question and understand if consumers see
influencer marketing in the fitness industry as authentic and whether they ought to
blindly believe any social media celebrity they come across. Let's understand how
different businesses utilize influencers as convenient platforms for their branding
and how influencers impact customer behavior in the fitness and nutrition sectors.
FLOW OF THE PROJECT

BACKGROUND
Before the digital revolution, businesses depended on strategies like television
commercials, radio broadcasts, and hoardings to reach a wide range of audience.
Although these approaches were successful in reaching a large audience, they were
lacking direct interaction and the two-way communication with the consumer
which is the successful marketing method in today's time. In the last couple of
years, the marketing environment has changed dramatically, moving from this
traditional one-way strategy of marketing to influencer marketing that is more
targeted, interactive, and data-driven.

Social media platforms such as youtube , Instagram provide an easy medium for
brands to connect with the audience. This platform creates an online community
from which the concept of influencers rises. This is a two way communication
strategy in which users can comment on content, can like or dislike content , can
interact in live with influencers,users have leverage to give their feedback, review
or choose what type of content and ads they would like to see. This way of
branding through social media helps influencers to establish credibility and loyalty
with their online following and they in turn leverage their social media presence to
promote brands, products, and services to their audience. This is how influencers
have become the bridge between brands and consumers.
This shift happened because of the rise of influencer marketing and this shift in
marketing strategies suggested all the businesses to use influencer marketing.
Looking at how huge impact social media was creating on consumers' choice to
build brand awareness and enhance the image of the brand, business leaders
focused on “How to use influencer marketing” rather than “Why use influencer
marketing. To make the influencer marketing more effective driving engagement
businesses must use key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the effectiveness of
influencer campaigns. These measurable metrics include engagement, reach, brand
mentions, website traffic, and sales conversions, providing insights into the impact
of influencer content. Thus, Businesses can traverse the changing digital world by
knowing the background, the history of influencer marketing, and the main metrics
that are used to assess its efficacy.

Lets look at some major factors of influencer marketing:

Usage :
https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-
strategy/new-global-social-media-research/#:~:text=According%20to%20the
%20Datareportal%20January,online%20within%20the%20last%20year.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The potential connections between the influencer's interactions and their followers'
actions, which can occur over a longer time period, might be misleading. The
brands are tracking factors such as brand reach, brand awareness, direct and
indirect sales, and generated site traffic to measure the success of influencer
marketing strategies.

One of the risks mentioned is that some influencers may buy followers or "fake accounts," which
can be misleading for brands. Additionally, the legal framework for influencer marketing is still
evolving, and some influencers may work with multiple brands at the same time, creating
competitive situations. The use of social media in influencer marketing also gives consumers
more power than ever to harm a brand by criticizing it publicly. It emphasizes that brands have
less control over this, which can lead to image damage.

AUTHENTICITY OF CLAIMS BY BRANDS

Authenticity starts with a brand's actual commitment to its fundamental beliefs and
principles. These are the values that guide the brand's operations and decisions. When
a brand's activities frequently resemble its proclaimed ideals, it builds credibility and
trust among consumers. In the fitness and nutrition industry, authenticity entails
promoting health, wellbeing, and general well-being while balancing brand values.
Brands in this market should focus products and services that promote consumers'
physical health, emotional well-being, and nutritional requirements.

Millennial consumers, particularly those interested in fitness and nutrition, are

increasingly conscious of the ingredients in the products they consume. Brands
collaborating with influencers can emphasize transparent sourcing and manufacturing
processes to resonate with this demographic. Influencers can showcase the brand's
commitment to using high-quality, responsibly sourced ingredients, thereby aligning
with millennial consumers' values of health and sustainability.

Collaboration with qualified nutritionists, certified personal trainers, or recognized

medical experts may greatly boost a brand's reputation. These people provide
knowledge and can assist with the development of science-based goods and marketing
materials.