The Effect of Social Media Influencers Featured in Beauty Care Products Advertisements on Purchase Intention among UCSI University Students

Abstract

This research studies the influence of social media influencers featured in beauty care products advertisements on the purchase intention among UCSI University’s students. By applying Ohanian’s (1990) Source Credibility Theory, it studies the credibility of social media influencers on their expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness, and how these factors can influence students’ perception towards social media influencers’ credibility and their purchase intention for beauty care products. Besides, the study also aims to find out whether there is a significant difference between different ethnicities and their perception of the credibility of social media influencers. Questionnaires for the quantitative survey was distributed to 234 students from the Faculty of Social Science and Liberal Arts. Findings show that there is a significant relationship between the credibility of social media influencers, including expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness, and the purchase intention for beauty care products among UCSI University students. However, it proves that there is no significant difference between different ethnicities and their perception of the credibility of social media influencers. This research could contribute significantly to the beauty care brand fields where marketers can leverage on the right social media influencers with the traits of expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness to help them to promote the brand to their audience, and improve the sales.