Social media marketing and Influencer endorsement: a fad or new mean of sales boosting?

Every day, when I scroll my screen in Facebook or Instagram, I have been caught by at least 10 video clips introducing products from famous people. I believe that I am not the only one who is exposed passively with that information.

Many people follow actresses because of the aspiration or loving to their talents. You know that, the higher number of followers the stronger influencing level. It means the greater opportunity that that actors/ actresses/ singers are invited by brand names. It is not amazing when Son Tung MTP – the singer influencer with 3.6 million followers in Instagram (@sontungmtp) or 5.78 million subscribers in YouTube (@ Son Tung M-TP Official) is the esteem partner of OPPO, Go-Viet, etc. after his successful impact on the huge achievement of Biti’s Hunter. Or at the global scale, it is easily to find the endorsement from famous people from models, IT-girls, actress, etc. such as Gigi Hadid or the Kylie Jenner promoting several products.

Due to the huge influences on fans and ability of wide spreading information with certain initial trusts from famous people/ influencers, marketers are exploiting this technique: using them as brand representatives or referral givers across social media channels. Those media figures could attract certain ponds of audiences

Source: Patel (2018)

around them, i.e. marketers decide the use of which influencers based on the target segments that they want to achieve (Chiosa, 2014). The mindset behind is that our brain acknowledges and recognized famous people as the ones they already know and thus, trust is easier built. Through credibility, influencers could produce a representative voice to brands (Abidin, 2016). I

However, the overload of number of influencers advertising for products. Whether the belief from audiences is intact? What do you do if you perceive the underlying business upon each promotion? How about the legality and real effectiveness of products? And big part, influencer marketing is just a fad or one of the effective marketing tools to apply? I do not want to mention about the celebrities in influencer marketing since they have their own names and rather selective in cooperating with brands although they could push up 4% of sales, according to Forbes.

The booming of influencer endorsement in Social networking sites (SNSs) in Vietnam

In the recent couples of years, there is the hot trend of young artists becoming the brand ambassadors for brands in Vietnam across product categories including healthcare, hair-care, smartphones, shoes, clothes, etc. According to the local blog Saturday of Vietnam, famous artists such as Ho Ngoc Ha, Tran Thanh, … or famous singers for instance Toc Tien, Noo Phuoc Thinh, Son Tung MTP, … or actresses such as Chi Pu, Dieu Nhi, Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc, … or recently, soccer players as Luong Xuan Truong, Quang Hai, and so on appear overwhelmingly across marketing channels including social media, i.e. their own social networking sites including Instagram and Facebook with recommendations or referrals to certain products. Besides official contracts by brands with artists such as Son Tung MTP with OPPO, Noo Phuoc Thinh with Vivo, Chi Pu with Huawei, Ho Ngoc Ha with Sunsilk, etc. many famous people introduce products via formats of livestreams, short video sharing, etc. in social media either of their own pages or pages of shops/ stores.

Positive side: many cases being successful with influencer endorsement

Biti’s Hunter recovers their life in the market with the endorsement of Son Tung MTP. This was the big victory that becomes the lesson learned or reference for many brand names. Son Tung MTP wore the Biti’s Hunter in his MV called Lac Troi;

and the consequence of this act was the increase of Biti’s Hunter’s sales by three times in just 7 days. This result is 10-times more effective than campaigns by Coca-Cola or Pepsi at the same time. It is noted that Lac Troi was in the top 1 of most-listening MV in YouTube in 2017.

Biti’s Hunter wore by Son Tung MTP in his Lac Troi MV

Continuing that success, the cooperation between Son Tung MTP and Biti’s Hunter with the new model called NAMELESS EDITION (Biti’s x Son Tung MTP) in the latest MV ‘Hay Trao Cho Anh’ promises for another victory of Biti’s.

Using the same formula with Biti’s Hunter, Nameless Edition is promoted by Son Tung MTP through his MV

And, many of his fans buying and sharing in their Facebook/Instagram although the price of this product is a bit higher than the normal rate of Biti’s in market

This lesson learned has been used and duplicated by many other brands including OPPO with Toc Tien and Huawei with Chi Pu. Toc Tien is recognized as the talented singer with modern and elegant image which matches with the image that OPPO expects to build among the eyes of mass population. The modern style of Toc Tien confirms the market position of OPPO as one of the tech-leading in the hi-tech smartphones sector. Compared to Chi Pu, Toc Tien has the lower followers in Instagram; yet, the choice of OPPO with Toc Tien is with the clear message in co-reinforcing the brand image of OPPO. Meanwhile, the choice of Chi Pu is to explore the new segments of Huawei.

Instagram of Toc Tien

Toc Tien and OPPO F3 Plus

However, Chi Pu with Huawei is not the great achievement till now. It is not denied that Chi Pu is one of the most influencers in Vietnam with up to 3.5 million followers in Instagram (Nov 2019). Huawei expects on the influencing circle and level of Chi Pu could bring up the attention toward their brand name and Nova 3i; however, the competition is rather tough when Samsung or OPPO or Vivo have the similar marketing tactic. The partner with Chi Pu is to exploit the gap of ‘normal’ customers who have general knowledge on tech. Previously, with model Nova 2i and Nova 3e, the main target customer groups of Huawei is comprised by whom having certain

knowledge about tech to confirm the attractive of Huawei products out of the brand name (not aiming to compete with Samsung, OPPO, iPhone by the brand).

Instagram of Chi Pu

Chi Pu and Huawei Nova 3i

The other side: a good way for all cases?

It should not be thought that using influencer marketing with famous people will boost up the sales after one night. Either marketing means, the understanding of consumer behaviors and expectations are much more important, even in the decision of who is the suitable famous people to cooperate with. According to VietnamBiz, a toy company in Hanoi, Vietnam cooperated with a famous people as

the role of influencer to promote their wooden toys for kids. This famous mother used her personal Facebook to introduce the products while emphasizing on negative and harmful impacts of cheap plastic toys from China. However, the sale volume was slowly increased. After two months, the company changed the mean and used the experiment method through a competition with just some million VND for Facebook Ads. The campaign attracted many parents with children to join and sales started increasing by the real touches.

Depending on which types of products, the use of marketing tactics and means are decided accordingly.

Influencers becoming selling persons as the case of Detox Blanc – the carbon mask for face skin being recently shared broadly in Facebook. In the page, we could find many video and livestreams from famous people or influencers including actress Kha Ly, actress Thanh Huong, singer Phuong Trinh Jolie, actress & singer Bang Di, blogger Thanh Tran, etc. All of them show the huge advocacy for the products with charming words emphasizing on the magic effect of Detox Blanc. Indeed, the ‘mass’ promotion by famous people has enhanced the position of Detox Blanc perceived by customers as having powerful effect for a beautiful face skin. However, I do a small study with some people that I know who already watched the video/ livestream,

bought the products and stopped using without tiny effects. They declare on the ‘naïve trust’ by words from influencers while seeing influencers’ beautiful skin that persuade their purchases without queries much on product quality. Furthermore, as the ease in using Facebook for selling, many fake pages of Detox Blanc copy the sourced clips of famous people promoted for the products to resell and/or sell fake products. When I use the search in Facebook, and type ‘Detox Blanc’, the results show many similar pages.

Is product being promoted by influencers good or qualified enough?

It was the case of TS Vietnam Natural Co. with their 14,000 cosmetic products being promoted by several famous people in social media channels and pages that was not qualified in terms of product origins. Although the products were marked as ‘made in Korea’ or ‘made in New Zealand’, all of them were figured out to be manufactured and packed in Hanoi, Vietnam (as PhapLuatNet, Vietnam). It raises the big concern among consumers on the credibility of information or comments being shared by famous people. Normally, it is the money-based deals between the brands and famous people, i.e. in the nutshell of reality, it is the business stuff. Without official contracts and/or certain obligations, it is not obliged that famous people must have real experiments on the products before introducing them. People make money by their fame through the dissemination of information to mass people through the fandom mechanism.

Further prospects of influencer marketing

Although, truly it is the effective tool for marketing communication based on the nature of fandom, the over-commercialization reduces the quality and dilutes the trust from audiences. However, due to the huge potential influences of influencer marketing on the sales performance, this mean has no signal of being brought down. Influencer marketing is not a fad which is confirmed through several campaigns from traditional to modern marketing era with the use of famous people as brand representatives. In figure, with each $1 spent on influencer marketing, businesses could earn about $5.2 (Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2019). Hence, new tactics and derivations in use of influencer marketing are supposed to be created and blossomed in market, such as the appearance and increase in use of

micro-influencers with video content and livestream on personal social networking sites (Patel, 2018).

Reference

Abidin, C 2016, ‘Visibility labour: Engaging with Influencers’ fashion brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram’, Media International Australia, vol. 161, no. 1, pp. 86-100.

‘Biti’s x Son Tung MTP = mau giay “vo danh” voi muc gia cao nhat trong lich su hang: lieu linh hay thuc su tu tin?’, Kenh14, 19 July 2019, viewed 13 November 2019, <http://kenh14.vn/khi-chinh-son-tung-m-tp-nhao-nan-mot-doi-sneaker-co-khen-co-che-muc-gia-gay-tranh-cai-nhung-van-duoc-long-gioi-tre-viet-20190716232649085.chn>

Chiosa, A R 2014, ‘Word of mouth on social media’, Practical Application of Science, vol 2, no. 4, pp. 37-42.

Olenski, S 2016, ‘How brands should use celebrities for endorsements’, Forbes, viewed 13 November 2019, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2016/07/20/how-brands-should-use-celebrities-for-endorsements/#2cd3d5d55593>

‘Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2019’, Influencer Marketing Hub, 28 May, viewed 13 November 2019, <https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-2019-benchmark-report/>

Keller, D 2017, ‘Celebrities, brand endorsement, product placement, … the power of influencer marketing’, Medium, viewed 12 November 2019, <https://medium.com/brixenlabs/celebrities-brand-endorsement-product-placement-the-power-of-influencer-marketing-f436a83446ec>

Patel, D 2018, ’10 Influencer marketing trends to keep your eye on’, Entrepreneur Asia Pacific, viewed 12 November 2019, <https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324177>

‘Nhung vi pham cua Cong Ty TNHH Thien Nhien TS Viet Nam’, PhapLuatNet Vietnam, 1 November 2017, viewed 13 November 2019, <

https://phapluatnet.vn/tin-trong-nuoc/nhung-vi-pham-cua-cong-ty-tnhh-thien-nhien-ts-viet-nam-14271.html>

‘Dung nghi thue nguoi noi tieng tiep thi san pham thi doanh thu se tang vot sau mot dem’, VietnamBiz, 2 September 2018, viewed 13 November 2019, < https://vietnambiz.vn/dung-nghi-thue-nguoi-noi-tieng-tiep-thi-san-pham-thi-doanh-thu-se-tang-vot-sau-mot-dem-73560.htm>