Brave new world of marketing!

What I read

According to Rory Cellan-Jones in “Tech Tent: The power of influencers” (2019), using influencers, who are social media stars having huge followers, to promote a product is another form of marketing having been brought to many discussions. Regarding the ethics, some influencers have promised to tell people they actually get paid to promote the products, and also, they worry about the product’s quality, while some are not. Apart from that, Mr. Werner Geyser argues with the idea of Dr. Mariann Hardey, who does not believe that influencers have a great impact on customers, that, apparently, influencers have a strong relationship to their followers since they are sharing the same interests, and although it is obscure how generating brand awareness is related, this marketing technique indeed generates the extra sales.

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My response 

After I read this news, I was thinking about one of my friend who is addicted to the social media. One day, we had dinner together including other four people and she sat opposite to me. While we were eating and talking together in the group, that girl was playing Instagram. Then, she suddenly found that an influencer she followed promote a lipstick, and she would like to buy it. After that, she told "Let's go to the cosmetic shop after we finish this." And then, We, excepted her, looked at each other's face and laughed about it because we all knew who she was. The influencer seems to affect her a lot, which she always try something that influencer says it is good. If it is good, she will continue using it, however, if it is bad, she just stop using it and start looking for a new one, which she has never unfollowed this influencer since she is still interested in that influencer's lifestyle. This would make me believe to the power of the influencer. They have a strong relationship because they have some similar lifestyles or interests. For example, A person who like making up will tend to follow the beauty bloggers.

In addition, the influencer honesty is a main point that people inclined to looking for. I would say, the social media I use a lot nowadays is Youtube. When I decide to see a clip, the first thing I always look for is a channel's name, because I want to see a good content, yet do not want to see an influencer who promotes a product with dishonesty. In my opinion, honesty means that influencer tell the truth to people. They can promote any products, however, they have to tell us the truth what they feel for that product. Besides, it is not enough to only be an honest influencer, who always tell the truth, they should also have an interesting content. If not, they will not be able to increase their followers, and even more severely, current follower will prone to unfollow them. I think people are able to capture while an influencer is not telling what they feel, but just tell what they should tell, which would lead followers to a bad feeling, and people might unfollow them. 

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My question

Do you have any other marketing techniques in your mind that are more powerful than the influencers? Could you please explain?

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Reference

• Cellan-Jones, R. (2019, January 25). Tech Tent: The power of influencers. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47001461