Influencer marketing national guidelines : enhancing consumer rights through responsible marketing

Abstract

The widespread use of social media has turned this medium into a powerful marketing platform (Gupta and Singh, 2020). A popular marketing strategy increasingly employed by brands and marketers is that of influencer marketing, which uses the relationship between influencers and their followers, to shape audience attitudes (Freberg et al., 2011). Since influencers’ endorsements often get mixed with everyday content, consumers are not always aware that the influencers’ content can be commercial (De Veirman et al., 2017). This can result in deception and in breach of consumers’ rights. The theoretical part of this study provides an analysis of influencer marketing and how it impacts consumers purchase behaviour. The study further discusses how the disclosure of commercial practices can help consumers make informed buying decisions. A review of best practices employed by different competent authorities to regulate influencer marketing was carried out. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, the study analyses the potential development of national guidelines as a tool to regulate the local influencer marketing industry. The study’s results show that influencer marketing is effective in shaping consumers’ purchase choices and that there are several factors that contribute to this efficacy. Concerning disclosures of commercial content, the findings confirm that appropriate disclosures can help consumers recognise adverts. The research results also indicate a general agreement among the stakeholders interviewed that the publication of national guidelines would facilitate disclosure of commercial practices and provide appropriate legal guidance to the local industry. Furthermore, national guidelines can be used as a self-regulatory tool for voluntary compliance with consumer legislation.