Photo: Canva
Have Influencers Become Integral to Product Launches?
Tapping social media’s capacity to drive discovery, Macy’s is launching its new On 34th women’s private label by hiring 56 influencers, a tenfold increase from the department store operator’s previous influencer programming.
Creators include Ali Manno, a former “Bachelorette” reality star with 928,000 Instagram followers; Sazan Hendrix, a beauty blogger with 520,000 YouTube subscribers; and Kristine Thompson, aka @TrendyCurvy, a plus-size influencer with over 1.8 million TikTok followers, according to Ad Age.
A Macy’s spokeswoman told the publication that the influencers “represent our target demo and life stage.”
Among other retailers, Target launched its Fashion Collective women’s apparel and accessories brand last fall in partnership with a rotating roster of style and cultural influencers. A new collection is being launched every four months with new influencers.
Fig.1, the direct-to-consumer skin-care brand, launched at CVS earlier this year by partnering with 10 to 15 micro-influencers across New York, California, and Florida. Fig.1’s co-founder Kimmy Scotti told Glossy, “The hope is that if you see one of these [social] posts or you follow one of these creators, you’ll consider us at CVS when you need a [product] refill.”
A YouGov study from last fall found that 34% of all global consumers learned about a new brand in the previous six months via social media, followed by search engines (28%), friends and family recommendations (26%), e-commerce websites such as Shopify or Amazon (26%), and watching TV ads (22%).
Capgemini’s 2023 “What Matters To Today’s Consumer” study found that 32% of U.S. consumers have discovered a new product on social media, 22% learned of the product through an influencer, and 16% went on to purchase the product.
Influencer advertising still faces scrutiny as fake influencers can deceive companies by purchasing followers to make their accounts look bigger, but growth is expected to continue given Instagram’s entrenchment and TikTok’s ascent.
A McKinsey article noted that using influencers carries risks, including appearing inauthentic if an influencer recommendation is “clearly paid for.” McKinsey also noted that as influencer marketing’s growth “overwhelms the online market, it may be harder to stand out amid the noise.”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Have influencers transformed the path to discovery for new brands and products, at least in certain categories? What should brands have learned at this point about balancing the benefits and risks of using influencers?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Jeff Sward
Founding Partner, Merchandising Metrics
Lisa Goller
B2B Content Strategist
Influencers help make a noise and expand knowledge of products, which is important when new things launch. Especially so in an age when we are swamped with choice. Essentially, it’s a fast way of building interest and creating a halo around the endorsement of someone who is well-known. Obviously, this needs to be accompanied by other activities such as advertising, point of sale material in store, reviews in the media, and so forth.
Know your audience. If you want to reach the younger fashionistas, you have to use social media. And, like every communication channel, authenticity matters.
The role that social media now plays in product promotion is undeniable. The question is how to use social media for all its advantages while also avoiding the many pitfalls and disadvantages. How does a brand stay honest and authentic while using influences? How does a brand avoid turning over its DNA and brand promise to influencers? Influencers must be chosen wisely. And they don’t need to be celebrities. They need to have both reach and authenticity, but not necessarily fame.
Beauty influencers on TikTok and Instagram in particular earn trust and drive sales among large, loyal audiences. Influencers with shoppable content make it easy to like, see and buy goods within minutes.
Look for influencers with consistency and integrity, as well as charisma, for successful collaborations.
An influencer is simply another channel a brand uses to be “seen,” just as a brand would advertise on TV, radio, or some digital or print publication. If an influencer has 500,000 followers and gets a large number of impressions when they post on a social channel, that is what the brand is paying for. Success can be measured in awareness or the success of a “Call to Action” in the influencer’s message. The risk is being affiliated with a personality that could go against the brand’s values or taint its image.
I’m not sure I would agree that they have “transformed” the path to market for new products and brands, but they have certainly had an impact. Consumers are increasingly more open to the influence of someone they see as an unbiased expert, rather than more traditional messaging from the brands themselves.
This has certainly been demonstrated by the increasing impact of User Generated Content as an authentic voice of the consumer on the Product Detail Page, as well as social commerce as a path to purchase that leverages the authentic voice of the consumer.
I’m suprised the poll shows 50% strongly disagree. I any cases the answer is yes, in many cases the answer is no. To dismiss the importance of influencers out of hand is to be out of touch with the path to high growth and lower CAC at launch time.
Integral?? I’d start with “useful”: while I’m likely….well, influenced…by my utter loathing of the concept, there seems to be a remarkable lack of evidence presented here as to efficacity. Saying X% of people “learned about something on social media” tells us very little (even without considering the pitfalls of self-reported behavior). That it is something macy*s seems to be putting great faith in, I’m afraid doesn’t inspire me much.
Influencers do a job of building interest at scale, and many do it well. Retailers and product brands should be telling this story better themselves, but often the economics don’t work out to have a staff on payroll and a budget doing this, day in, day out.
The reason a product brand or retailer might want to own this in house, is if there are no interesting or qualified influencers. Ultimately, they need to own the message, make sure the story is told correctly.
Every kid I know watches more YouTube than TV. Most adults watch Reels these days. My niece quit her job as a nurse because she’s making 3x more as a social media influencer. My opinion is that absolutely this is a necessity in product launches and ongoing marketing.
But remember Marketing 101. Know your customer. You need to look no further than the debacle that came from the wrong influencer decision made by Bud Light’s marketing team. Pushing an agenda before marketing to your customer base can be catastrophic. Marketing 101… “Know your customer.”
Although I am not a big fan of celebrity or influencer-led marketing, I acknowledge that they are a great way to showcase a brand to a wide range of audience. Influencers from different industries such as fashion, entertainment, sports, and others have gained significant traction as customers have become more tech-savvy and absorbed by the world of social media. Influencers are highly impressionable individuals who have the ability to persuade customers, particularly the younger generation, to do or buy anything.
Celebrity/influencer advertisements are extremely effective at enticing customers and generating buzz for the brand. However, customers may react negatively to an influencer’s public comments, personal opinions, or political affiliation, resulting in a potential backlash and eventually hurting the brand image. This is why brands are becoming cautious in collaborating with an influencer or celebrity, and maintain strict contracts that lays down clear guidelines to avoid any sort of controversy.
There’s no question that social media has changed the ways products are marketed and launched. Younger generations are heavily reliant on digital channels for product information and recommendations. I’m interested in how much this whole system relies on trust – brands need to be careful about who they partner with, lest they inadvertently tarnish their reputation.