Photo: Getty Images/Kar-Tr
Should brands and retailers be concerned about the ‘de-influencing’ trend?
“De-influencing,” trending on TikTok since January, amounts to a backlash against overconsumption caused by social media influencers. Whether it’s bad for the influencer community is up for debate.
The hashtag has amassed nearly 221 million TikTok views.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the “de-influencing” term “is being popularized in videos by people whose experience runs the gamut: disappointed consumers, savvy beauty bloggers, doctors dispelling skin-care myths and former retail employees dishing on which products they saw returned most often.”
In the videos, creators urge viewers not to buy popular products, buy cheaper alternatives, or avoid specific categories altogether. Some criticize the flood of sponsored videos, hyper-enthusiastic TikTok reviews and influencers’ deceptive practices while advocating for thoughtful shopping habits.
Charlotte Palermino, the 35-year-old CEO of skincare brand Dieux, told Wired, “Constantly being sold to is tiring. Being told everything is a miracle product is tiring.”
@alyssastephanie I love deinfluencing ❤️ #deinfluencing #deinfluencergang #cultproduct
The sudden push against overspending is potentially tied to inflationary pressures and economic uncertainty, but it also aligns with younger generations’ interest in conscious consumerism and sustainability.
“I feel like a lot of people, especially Gen Z, they’re a generation that wants to rebel against this like perfectly curated world that has been social media for the past decade,” content creator Josie Bullard tells TODAY.com.
The TikTok platform is becoming more commercialized as influencers become more loyal to their brands than followers. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing industry reached over $16 billion last year, up from $1.6 billion in 2016.
The de-influencing trend may lead to a realignment around authenticity, with influencers focusing more on promoting brands they use personally.
However, the act of de-influencing builds creditability for the poster. Many generating viral posts have seen their follower count mushroom and free products and paid brand requests arrive.
Some are skeptical that influencers are just following the new trend. Mandy Lee, a fashion critic who posted a TikTok video championing the anti-consumption movement, told The Associated Press, “It’s hard for me to trust someone who’s never done a nuanced take about products before, and suddenly they’re doing it now.”
- de-influencing – TikTok
- ‘De-Influencers’ Want You to Think Twice Before Buying That Mascara – The Wall Street Journal
- TikTok’s De-Influencers Tell You What Not to Buy – Wired
- Gen Z and millennials are rejecting consumer culture on TikTok and ‘de-influencing’ to protect their money – Fortune
- 16 Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Shape 2023 – Influencer Marketing Hub
- TikTok ‘de-influencers’ want Gen Z to buy less – and more – AP News
- ‘De-influencing’ is going viral. What does this mean for the future of influencers? – Today.com
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you see the de-influencing trend on TikTok as an authentic backlash that may force influencers to reassess how they promote products and brands? Why has the trend suddenly developed?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
With so many people on social media trying to “stand out” this is a trend that had to happen at some point. It may lead to a winnowing of influencers, however I do not see this being a wave that forces different behavior.
If you pay attention, the deinfluencing is really re-influencing whereby content creators recommend NOT buying something but then do go on to recommend DIFFERENT products. These recommendations might also have a financial arrangement behind them.
If some of us dads started to post how we looked in “influenced” outfits, we too would become de-influencers pretty quick!
I know that influencers are a big thing, but frankly most of them drive me crazy. My social media feeds are filled with perfect homes, perfect hair, perfect skin, and perfect blah blah blah. All the scrolling to get past them to see something of value is exhausting.
The term “de-influencer” hadn’t been on my radar until today but I like the concept. Former Real Housewife Bethany Frankel, for example, takes on cosmetic companies, sharing why some expensive department store brand products are not worth it, and why it makes sense to shop at drug stores. It’s refreshing.
Saturation happens. It seemed like for a while anyone with a phone, a tripod, and an opinion was trying to be an Influencer. The “pro” angle became saturated so naturally the “con” angle emerged. Both certainly have a role in the market but I have to believe that authenticity, from both perspectives, will win the day.
I believe the key word here is authenticity. The wave of User Generated Content (UGC) is the authenticity wave. Regular people who genuinely like a product and are willing to share their experiences. The challenge is terminology. The term “influencer” has come to mean “pseudo-celebrity who charges sponsors to push products.” We need a new term for the original “influencers” who had a natural passion for something, showed and described the products and services they loved to use, and built their subscriber base around that. When YouTube pulled the plug on channels earning a living from this model, the paid “influencer” was born.
I do think brands should be concerned. Shoppers are looking for honest opinions on products instead of influencers’ pitches. What retailers should be looking at is ways to repurpose their customers’ authentic UGC to improve their conversion rates, brand loyalty, and the ability for shoppers to truly identify with others who love that brand.
I actually see the deinfluencing trend as being the same as influencing. Most of the time, content creators are simultaneously promoting a different product in the other product’s place. There has been a “dupe culture” in beauty for a long time, where the cheaper option is promoted anyway, so this doesn’t feel as disruptive as I think brands fear it to be. The economy has definitely caused this type of content to now have a catchy buzzword attached to it, but I don’t see it as a movement brands should be worried about. Brands should always be determined to deliver the highest quality products anyway.
I don’t believe de-influencing has suddenly developed. Instead, I think it was inevitable and was preceded by a trend toward or preference for micro-influencers driven by the fact that influencers with large followings have become too commercialized. For many, a review of a product or service is about obtaining decision information from an actual user not watching a Super Bowl commercial with their favorite, online personality. I expect some influencers will adapt and others will just continue to leverage their celebrity status.
What took so long?
Mandy Lee nails it. “It’s hard for me to trust someone who’s never done a nuanced take about products before, and suddenly they’re doing it now.”
I say with a high degree of confidence that the last thing influencers are interested in is their followers. Not only are they more loyal to their brands than followers, they’re more loyal to themselves then than their followers. They will do and say anything to hype their numbers. Sadly, most followers think the influencers care about them.
Any extreme is never a good thing. With the sudden omnipresence of TikTok, the level of “influencing” has extended well beyond what Instagram evolved over the past few years. Influencers provide their followers with insights and knowledge about products in an authentic and storytelling-type way, which a brand or retailer is challenged to do within the traditional industrial advertising complex.
However the idealized and perfect lives these influencers seemingly live are a false narrative, and there is no question that a level of influencer fatigue is setting in. Just as consumers quickly unsubscribe and mark certain emails as spam, if an influencer’s content borders on cringe, their followers will absolutely hit the unfollow button and move on.
De-influencing is influencing, just with a different spin. It’s still all about the poster and an option of a brand or product. Negative content is the latest way to stand out from the crowd.