Samenvatting

This dissertation addresses the central question, ‘How does the impact of influencers and brand
ambassadors in the fashion industry affect the buying intentions of teenagers (ages 13-16) and
Millennials?’ Many brands that use influencer marketing have been more concerned with the scope of
an influencer’s followers than with his or her connections, relevance and knowledge. As a result, these
brands do not benefit enough from applying influencer marketing (Net Imperative Digital Intelligence
for Business, 2018). In view of this problem, the objective of this thesis is to investigate the most
effective elements of influencer marketing on which brands should focus when considering
collaboration with influencers. To clarify the research question, the following sub-questions are posed:
‘who are fashion influencers?’, ‘who are brand ambassadors?’, ‘what are buying intentions?’, ‘who is
the target group’ (Generation Z and Generation X) and ‘how do influencer marketing elements relate
to the impact that fashion video bloggers and brand ambassadors can have on the buying intentions of
teenagers?’. The last of these questions is answered through the analysis. The first four sub-questions
are addressed through desk research based on the theoretical framework. Besides desk research, field
research was performed in the form of two focus groups, which are a qualitative research method. The
first focus group contained five female respondents from Generation Z who were between the ages of
13 and 16. The second group also consisted of five female respondents, but they were between 20 and
24 years of age and thus considered Millennials. In addition, an interview was conducted with
Emanuel Ankrah, the YouTube Channel Manager of Social1nfluencers, in order to answer the fifth
sub-question. Results from the focus groups indicate that teenagers preferred top-tier influencers over
mid-tier and micro-influencers. In contrast, Millennials preferred micro-influencers, and one-third of
them perceived more distance between top-tier influencers. Other unexpected results were that no
respondents had ever engaged by commenting on an influencer’s post on social media, and Millennials
preferred relevant content from influencers for their reliability. In the results, the engagement from
external and internal stakeholders did not affect respondents from either focus group. In the interview,
Ankrah provided information on buying intentions and referred to study cases that he had experienced
in his work as a YouTube Manager. To demonstrate how influencer marketing affects intentions, he
cited an example from McDonalds wherein promotional collaboration with Nabil and Rutger on
Snapchat resulted in all Big Macs selling out. The analysis indicates that influencer marketing affects
attitudes towards behaviour and the subjective norm, which in turn influence the intentions that lead to
a behaviour. The elements with a substantial effect on the attitude towards behaviour were the scope
and relevance of an influencer. These two factors should be favourable in order to create a positive
attitude towards behaviour, which subsequently influences intentions either directly or through the
subjective norm. This conclusion of the two elements answers the research question.’ In view of the
findings, companies that apply influencer marketing are recommended to consider the proper scope
and relevant content to attract their desired target group, which in this case can be either teenagers or
Millennials.