Running head: DISSERTATION

THE INFLUENCE OF INFLUENCER MARKETING ON

BUILDING BRAND LOYALTY

Student Name: Manjinder Kaur

Student Number: 5537090
MSc. International Management
Intake- September(2022)

Unit Leader: Dr. Gbadamosi Gbola

Supervisor: Nasiru Taura
Word Count: 14240
DISSERTATION 1
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Dissertation Declaration

I agree that, should the University wish to retain it for reference purposes, a copy of my
dissertation may be held by Bournemouth University normally for a period of three academic
years. I understand that once the retention period has expired my dissertation will be destroyed.

Confidentiality

I confirm that this dissertation does not contain information of a commercial or confidential
nature or include personal information other than that which would normally be in the public
domain unless the relevant permissions have been obtained. In particular, any information
which identifies a particular individual’s religious or political beliefs, information relating to
their health, ethnicity, criminal history or gender, has been made anonymous, unless permission
has been granted for its publication from the person to whom it relates.

Ethical and Health & Safety issues

I confirm that the on-line ethics checklist was completed and that any ethical considerations
associated with the proposed research were discussed with my supervisor and an appropriate
research strategy was developed which would take them into account. I also confirm that any
potential health & safety risks associated with the proposed research were discussed with my
supervisor and where necessary, appropriate precautions were documented, including an
appropriate risk assessment.

Copyright

The copyright for this dissertation remains with me.

Requests for Information

I agree that this dissertation may be made available as the result of a request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act.

Signed: Manjinder Kaur

Name: MANJINDER KAUR

Date: 30-8-2023

Programme: Msc .International Management

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Abstract

The research aims to determine the way influencer marketing is capable of promoting products.

Influence marketing is widely accepted by businesses for the purpose of enhancing their

presence. It has been observed that customers are loyal to their influencers. Thus, the approach

helps in the growth of business. The approach is considered to be significant in terms of

developing brand loyalty. The research identifies the importance of influencer marketing on

customers. The problem statement associated with the study is analysing the way the improper

implementation of influencer marketing influences business growth. The research focused on

selecting a deductive approach and descriptive research design. In order to obtain information

associated with a research topic, primary quantitative data are collected. This provides the

ability to understand the way influencer marketing is contributing to brand loyalty

improvement. The research conducted selects survey method for obtaining results from the

customers and employees who recently utilized an influencer marketing strategy. The data

collected are further analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). Lastly,

the data collected provides a conclusion that the majority of consumers are loyal to influencers

which contributes significantly towards positive brand building. From the research findings, it

can be stated that the tested hypothesis in the paper states that the second hypothesis was true

and the alternate was accepted. Influencers play a very important role in building a brand. The

research presents all data associated with the survey along with statistics. The research also

provides future scope for brand management.

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Table of Contents
1 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 10

1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 10

1.2 Research Background ................................................................................................ 10

1.3 Research Rationale .................................................................................................... 11

1.4 Problem Statement .................................................................................................... 12

1.5 Research Aim and Objectives ................................................................................... 14

1.6 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 14

1.7 Research Significance ............................................................................................... 14

1.8 Dissertation Structure ................................................................................................ 15

2 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................... 16

2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 16

2.2 Concept of Influencer Marketing .............................................................................. 16

2.3 Factors Affecting influencer marketing .................................................................... 17

2.4 Theory Related to influencer marketing.................................................................... 20

2.5 Challenges Faced in managing influencer marketing ............................................... 20

2.6 Concept of brand loyalty ........................................................................................... 21

2.7 Theories Related to brand loyalty ............................................................................. 23

2.8 Impact of influencer marketing on building brand loyalty ....................................... 24

2.9 Conceptual framework .............................................................................................. 26

2.10 Literature gap ......................................................................................................... 26

2.11 Summary ................................................................................................................ 27

3 Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................... 28

3.1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 28

3.2 Research Outline ....................................................................................................... 28

3.3 Response Rate ........................................................................................................... 28

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3.4 Research Philosophy ................................................................................................. 28

3.4.1 Justification of Positivism Philosophy ...................................................................... 29

3.5 Research Approach ................................................................................................... 29

3.5.1 Justification of Deductive Approach ................................................................. 29

3.6 Research Hypothesis ................................................................................................. 30

3.7 Research Design ........................................................................................................ 30

3.7.1 Justification of Descriptive Design .................................................................... 30

3.8 Research Strategy ...................................................................................................... 31

3.8.1 Justification of Survey Strategy ......................................................................... 31

3.9 Sampling Techniques ................................................................................................ 31

3.10 Data Collection Techniques................................................................................... 32

3.11 Data Analysis Techniques ..................................................................................... 32

3.12 Ethical Consideration ............................................................................................ 33

3.13 Research Limitation ............................................................................................... 34

3.14 Summary ................................................................................................................ 35

4 Chapter 4: Data analysis and Findings............................................................................. 36

4.1 Overview ........................................................................................................................ 36

4.2 Descriptive analysis ....................................................................................................... 36

4.2.1 Demographic information ..................................................................................... 36

4.2.2 General perspectives .......................................................................................... 42

4.2.3 Influencer marketing .......................................................................................... 47

4.2.4 Brand loyalty ...................................................................................................... 47

4.2.5 Descriptive analysis ........................................................................................... 48

4.3 Reliability and validity analysis ................................................................................ 48

4.4 Inferential analysis .................................................................................................... 50

4.4.1 Regression and correlation ................................................................................. 50

4.5 Cross Tab analysis ..................................................................................................... 52

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4.6 Hypothesis testing ..................................................................................................... 56

4.7 Findings ..................................................................................................................... 60

4.8 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 60

4.9 Summary ................................................................................................................... 62

5 Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations ................................................................. 63

5.1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 63

5.2 Alignment with objectives ........................................................................................ 63

5.3 Limitations of the study............................................................................................. 64

5.4 Future research scope ................................................................................................ 64

5.5 Implications of the research ...................................................................................... 64

5.6 Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 65

5.7 References…………………………………………………………………………..67
6 Appendix 1……………………………………………………………………………...75
6.1 Questionnaire………………………………………………………………………..75
6.2 Participants Sheet………………………………………………………………........96
6.3 Consent Form……………………………………………………………………......99
7 Appendix 2…………………………………………………………………………….100
7.1 Ethical Check List…………………………………………………………………...100
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Figure 1: Advertisement spending for influencer marketing in the UK .................................. 10

Figure 2: Top concerns of customers ....................................................................................... 11
Figure 3: Dissertation structure ................................................................................................ 15
Figure 4: 4 Ms of influencer marketing ................................................................................... 17
Figure 5: Different Factors of Influencer Marketing ............................................................... 18
Figure 6: Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)........................................................................ 20
Figure 7: Factors of Brand Loyalty .......................................................................................... 22
Figure 8: Dynamic Model of Customer Loyalty...................................................................... 23
Figure 9: Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................ 26
Figure 10 .................................................................................................................................. 37
Figure 11 .................................................................................................................................. 38
Figure 12 .................................................................................................................................. 39
Figure 13 .................................................................................................................................. 40
Figure 14 .................................................................................................................................. 41
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Figure 16 .................................................................................................................................. 43
Figure 17 .................................................................................................................................. 44
Figure 18 .................................................................................................................................. 45
Figure 19 .................................................................................................................................. 46
Figure 20 .................................................................................................................................. 47
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Table 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 36
Table 2 ..................................................................................................................................... 37
Table 3 ..................................................................................................................................... 38
Table 4 ..................................................................................................................................... 39
Table 5 ..................................................................................................................................... 40
Table 6 ..................................................................................................................................... 41
Table 7 ..................................................................................................................................... 42
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Table 9 ..................................................................................................................................... 44
Table 10 ................................................................................................................................... 45
Table 11 ................................................................................................................................... 46
Table 27 ................................................................................................................................... 48
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Table 49 ................................................................................................................................... 60
Table 12 ................................................................................................................................... 86
Table 13 ................................................................................................................................... 86
Table 14 ................................................................................................................................... 86
Table 15 ................................................................................................................................... 87
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Table 24 ................................................................................................................................... 90
Table 25 ................................................................................................................................... 91
Table 26 ................................................................................................................................... 91
Table 28 ................................................................................................................................... 94
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1 Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Influencer marketing can be determined as the collaborative strategy between popular social
media users and the brand regarding the promotion of products. Influencer marketing can
enhance brand exposure and raise brand awareness. The study will provide details about the
role of influencer marketing in building brand loyalty. The section will provide details about
the significance of selecting the specific research topic. The structure of the dissertation will
be determined in the study.

1.2 Research Background

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing process that uses endorsement and
products mentioned by the influencers. Influencer marketing strategy is supportive enough to
enhance brand recognition in any challenging market (Jin, Muqaddam and Ryu 2019).
Influencer marketing helps to identify the target audience in a business and maintain a proper
marketing strategy. Some of the important benefits of influencer marketing are customer
engagement, the ability to attract new audiences, the management of higher-quality content
and manage effective responses across different marketing channels (Tanwar, Chaudhry and
Srivastava 2022). Influencer marketing strategy campaign helps to enhance brand awareness
by reaching a completely new target (Lou and Yuan 2019). Therefore, influencer marketing
is important for the growth of business especially in any challenging market.

Figure 1: Advertisement spending for influencer marketing in the UK

(Source: Statista 2022)

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Brand loyalty indicates the pattern of consumer behaviour through which consumers tends to
get positively committed to any specific brand. Brand loyalty can be improved by engaging
customers in brand-related virtual communities (Kaur et al. 2020). Influencer marketing
strategy creates a positive brand image for an organisation. Authentic information sharing and
the regular updating the information on various social media sites strongly influence the brand
image of an organisation (Hudders and Lou 2023). Therefore, honesty in information sharing
during promotion can influence the brand image along with enhancing brand loyalty. Brand
trust can be measured using the brand’s ability to deliver its promises to its customers
(Kootenaie and Kootenaie 2021). Bands manage trust with employees by maintaining seamless
communication. Effective communication with customers, personalised information sharing,
effective customer feedback analysis and ethics management in business can strongly influence
brand loyalty (Barta et al. 2023).
1.3 Research Rationale
Improper service strongly influences customer satisfaction along with the influencer marketing
process of an organisation. This is an issue as the negative influence of any brand can strongly
impact sales along with revenue growth. Poor service quality strongly influences the
purchasing intention of customers along with influences the satisfaction rate (Al Idrus et al.
2021). Therefore, issue with the service quality hampers the influencer marketing strategy
along with influences the decision-making behaviour of the customers.

Figure 2: Top concerns of customers

(Source: Statista 2023)

This is an issue as improper influencer marketing strategy and service issues strongly impact
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sales along with competitive position in the business. Competition stimulates business firms to
lower the cost of production and run the business accurately as possible (Rietveld and Schilling
2021). Therefore, an improper influencer marketing strategy can reduce the popularity of the
brand in a challenging market along with the impact on competitive position management.
This is an issue now as issues with influencer marketing hamper sustainable business practices.
As stated by Moslehpour et al. (2022) lack of sustainable performance negatively influences
the brand image of an organisation. Organisations implement different proactive approaches to
meet the objectives that help to develop sustainable business performance (Hanaysha et al.
2022). Therefore, brand loyalty is important to maintain a positive brand image of an
organisation. Further, business suitability strongly influences the purchase decisions of
customers. Improper partnership management with influences can strongly influence the values
of the organisation.
1.4 Problem Statement
The problem statement associated with the study is that the improper influencer marketing
strategy of an organisation strongly influences business growth.
Influencer marketing enables strategy for organisations to reach potential customers at every
stage of decision-making (Vrontis et al. 2021). The lack of strategies for maintaining influencer
marketing strongly influences the customer engagement process. As per the views of Saraswati
(2022), influencer marketing has become one of the most significant ways to reach potential
customers. However, the overall management process is that influencer marketing is complex.
In order to be successful with the influencer marketing strategy the organisation needs to be
aware of different tactics and algorithms of social media marketing. In the majority of cases,
the organisation faces issues in identifying the appropriate influencers who could bring
potential customers to the company. Apart from that, in the case of influencer marketing, there
is a chance of involving the wrong influencers in the business process, which could create a
negative influence on the customers (Jadil, Rana and Dwivedi 2022). Similarly, it has been
observed that with the advancement of technology, many social media users have started to
include fake followers in their accounts. In order to be profitable in these changing scenario
organisations need to adopt different technologies and strategies to identify the appropriate
influencers. In order to check the authenticity of the influencer profile, along with the number
of followers reach by every post of the influencer is necessary. Developing partnerships with
influencers having a greater reach indicates that the organisation also could reach a higher
number of customers in the market (Alwan and Alshurideh 2022). Thus, from this discussion,
it can be depicted that the strategic management process plays a significant role in identifying
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appropriate influencers for business promotion, which also guides in achieving success by
following influencer marketing.
Apart from the above-mentioned issue, the lack of strategic planning in the case of influencer
marketing could hamper the overall brand image among the customers. According to Dasan
(2022), lack of strategies hampers the brand image management process of a business in a
challenging market. Due to a lack of strategic planning, the organisation often becomes unable
to identify the appropriate influencers for business promotions. For example, if a coffee shop
company develops a partnership with a fashion influencer, the organisation would become
unable to reach its target audience (Saputra, Setyoko and Kurniasih 2022). The followers of
the fashion influencer would be more interested in knowing about different fashion or cosmetic
companies than the coffee shop company. Thus, the organisation would become an uncle to
reach the target audience for business promotion. However, if the organisation could have
employed the strategic planning process, the organisation would become able to identify the
influencers who mainly worked as food experts. Through targeting these influencers the
organisation would become able to reach the target audience for business promotion (Suharto
et al. 2022). Apart from that, another main issue involved in the influencer marketing process
is that strategic planning in influencer marketing often becomes more time-consuming. In
addition to that, influencer marketing strategy generally consumes time for promoting the brand
and services. Higher time in brand image management can consume more budgets (Sands et
al. 2022). Due to the higher pricing for the influencer marketing management process, the
overall operational cost for the company increases rapidly, which also carries a negative
influence on the financial management of the company? Thus, the issue negatively influences
the financial aspect of an organisation. In order to manage the budget deficiency the
organisation often takes different initiatives that create a direct negative influence on the
employees. According to Purwanto (2022), to reduce the operational cost the companies mainly
got involved with the employee termination process, which creates a negative influence on
overall employee satisfaction. This decreasing rate of employee satisfaction also affects the
brand value in the market negatively.
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1.5 Research Aim and Objectives

Aim
The research aims to significantly assess the influence of influencer marketing on brand
loyalty.

Objectives
Research objectives associated with the study are:
• To identify the impact of influencer marketing on the building of brand loyalty
• To establish a relationship between influencer marketing and the brand loyalty-building
process
• To provide recommendations based on which brand loyalty can be built well.
1.6 Research Questions
Research questions that are derived from the research objectives are:
• What is the impact of influencer marketing on the building of brand loyalty?
• What is the relationship between influencer marketing and the brand loyalty-building
process?
• What recommendations can be made based on which brand loyalty can be built well?
1.7 Research Significance
The study is significant enough as it helps to determine the role of influencer marketing in
maintaining brand loyalty. Influencer marketing is beneficial to enhance the popularity of the
business, enhance sales and increase the ROI value (Martínez-López et al. 2020). Influencer
marketing drives sales value enhances the engagement of people and increases the revenue of
any brand. The study has provided details about the strategies of influencer marketing that help
to attract potential customers in business. Influencer marketing strategy allows an organisation
to reach potential customers at every stage of the decision-making process. The study is
significant as it helps to determine the role and the strategy of the decision-making process of
customers regarding purchasing new things.
The study has provided enough details about brand image and brand loyalty along with their
importance on business growth. Brand loyalty is important for succeeding and accomplishing
different marketing strategies of an organisation (Li, Teng and Chen 2020). Importance of
effective communication with consumers, personalisation of services and effective feedback
analysis are the key aspects of maintaining brand trust. The study provides details about the
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impact of brand trust on the purchasing behaviour of customers.

Customer satisfaction is an important aspect of a business as it helps to enhance sales along
with boosting the brand's reputation. Effective service quality can help to retain customers
within the organisation (Dam and Dam 2021). The study is significant as it has provided details
about organisational strategies for maintaining customer satisfaction. Organisations generally
made innovations in business functionalities to attract customers and remain competitive over
their key rivals. Important strategies of organisations in maintaining innovation in business are
analysed in the study.
1.8 Dissertation Structure

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion

Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations

Figure 3: Dissertation structure

The study includes a total of five chapters the introduction, literature review, methodology
section, findings and analysis section and the conclusion with recommendations. The
introduction section contains the aim, and objectives along with the respective research
questions of the study. The literature review includes an analysis of various articles that
contains information about the influencer marketing strategy and its impacts on maintaining
brand image. The methodology section has helped to determine the respective research tools
that are used in the study. Details about the data collection process along with the data analysis
process are analysed in the section. The findings and discussion section includes the data
analysis that is collected from different sources. The conclusion and recommendation section
includes the summary and the recommendations for the organisation to enhance the influencer
marketing process in business.
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2 Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction
The section will provide details about the key concept associated with influencer marketing.
The section will include several articles for gathering information about influencer marketing
and its impact on maintaining brand loyalty. Details about the dependent and independent
variables associated with the study will be discussed in the section. The study will include the
theoretical aspects associated with the influencer marketing strategy of a business. Further,
details about the role of brand image and brand loyalty on customer purchase decisions will be
described in the section. The section will include the conceptual framework to determine the
key aspects associated with the study.
2.2 Concept of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a strategy of marketing that enables a business to collaborate with
individuals for enhancing brand image. According to Lou, Tan and Chen (2019), influencer
marketing refers to the types of marketing in which different brands mainly rely on social media
for promoting their business. Effective influencer marketing is important to enhance brand
awareness, build credibility, trust and boost ROI. Influencer strategy of business mainly relies
on influential leaders to recommend products and services in any challenging market. In
contrast, Campbell and Farrell (2020) have opined that the most interesting and dynamic
element of influencer marketing is understanding the influencer phenomenon. Therefore, it is
obvious from the fact that organisations need to maintain an effective social media marketing
process to enhance the promotional process of the business and attract potential customers.
Social media marketing strategy generally operates due to the presence of trust. The strong
trust of customers in a brand improves the influencer marketing strategy.
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Make Manage

Measure Monitor

Figure 4: 4 Ms of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing strategy generally depends on the 4Ms such as make, manage, monitor
and measure. Make it the first M of influencer marketing that indicates the strategy of
connecting a business with potential customers. According to Cartwright, Liu and Raddats
(2021), connection with customers is necessary for business as it helps to promote the business
accurately. The strong influence of the customers in the promotional process can help to
improve brand popularity and brand image. The second M state indicates management of state
in which management of influencers is necessary to enhance the business popularity.
Monitoring and measuring are the other two M factors that include monitoring the performance
of influencers and measuring the possible recovery stages for improving influencer marketing
strategy. In contrast, Zhang and Li (2019) have argued that the improper influence of the
customers can reduce the business's popularity. Therefore, it is obvious from the fact that
organisations need to select effective influencers for enhancing marketing and gain popularity
in business.
2.3 Factors Affecting influencer marketing
With the advancement of digital technologies and strategies, the growth of digital marketing
online businesses has also increased. One of the most used digital marketing strategies is the
social media marketing strategy. Different social media marketing strategies could include
content marketing, video marketing and influencer marketing. In the case of influencer
marketing, the business organisation mainly chooses a person who has a higher number of
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influencers than others. According to Vrontis et al. (2021), the followers of social media
influencers often follow the lifestyle of the influencers. Thus, by promoting brand products
through the influencers the organisation becomes able to create direct influence on the
customers to buy their product. Also, the product promoted by the influencers got higher
audience engagement than the other posts posted by the organisation. Thus, as stated by Ki et
al. (2020), through a higher level of audience engagement the influencer's post becomes able
to reach more audience for improving brand loyalty among the customers. Some of the major
factors that influence the influencer marketing process include target audience, content
attractiveness, marketing campaign, influencer online presence, audience engagement, brand
recognition and online brand image.

Target
audience

Influencer's
Content
online
attractivness
presence

Influencer
Marketing

Marketing Brnad
campaign recognition

Audience
engagement

Figure 5: Different Factors of Influencer Marketing

Influencer’s online presence

The online presence of the influencers is the main important factor which affects the influencer
marketing success adopted by the organisation. In the majority of cases, the online presence of
the influencer mainly depends on the number of followers they have along with the rate of
audience engagement they have in their post. With the rising opportunities and chances of
financial growth in using social media platforms, many individuals have started to build their
profession as an influencer (Lou and Yuan 2019). Thus, while selecting the influencer to adopt
an influencer marketing strategy, the organisation needs to consider the number of authentic
influences they have along with their actual engagement rate with their post.
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Marketing Campaign
Another important factor that affects the influencer marketing strategy adopted by a firm
includes marketing campaigns. Marketing campaigns arranged by the organisation create a
direct influence on attracting customers and also boost customer engagement with the
organisation. In the case of online marketing campaigns, the organisation needs to conduct
marketing campaigns frequently to continuously engage with new influencers. According to
Abbasi et al. (2021), social media marketing including influencer marketing is one of the most
volatile markets. Thus, to achieve success in influencer marketing the organisation needs to
conduct continuous marketing campaigns.
Audience Engagement
As stated by Chopra, Avhad and Jaju (2021), in influencer marketing the main factor which
affects the organisational success is the audience engagement with the influencer's post. A
higher rate of audience engagement indicates the resonance of the content posted by the
influencers with the audience. This higher rate of content also indicates a higher level of
audience engagement, which positively influences brand awareness and increases the sales rate
of the company (Childers, Lemon and Hoy 2019).
Brand Recognition
Brand recognition can also be considered one of the main important factors of influencer
marketing. The influencers mostly feel interested to become associated with an organisation
which has a positive brand reputation in the market. A company that already has a positive
brand reputation in the market becomes able to create more audience engagement with the post
made by the influencer (Haenlein et al. 2020). Along with that, in the case of a positive brand
reputation in the market, it also creates a positive influence on customer loyalty.
Content Attractiveness
In the case of online marketing, the influencers also need to focus on managing the content's
attractiveness to attract more customers. As discussed earlier with the increased growth of
social media marketing the number of social media users also increased in the last few years
(Trivedi and Sama 2020). Therefore, by managing content attractiveness, the influencers
become able to attract more audiences than others which enhances the success of the marketing
campaign of the firm.
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2.4 Theory Related to influencer marketing

Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)

Figure 6: Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)

The theory of planned behaviour is one of the most used psychological theories that help to
develop a linkage between individual beliefs with behaviour. The theory of planned behaviour
mainly consists of three components such as attitude, subjective norms and perceived
behavioural control. The main concept of this theory was first proposed by Icek Ajzen (Akoglu
and Özbek 2022). With the help of these three components, the planned behaviour theory
mainly focuses on analysing the influence of human perceived behaviour and knowledge
concerning advertising, public relations, advertising campaigns and sustainability management
respectively. According to Atulkar (2020), this theory suggests that individuals mainly make
decisions about buying a product by analysing their experience along with their perceived
behaviour. Therefore, by applying the concept of this theory the researcher would become able
to critically analyse the impact of influencer marketing on the behavioural intention and attitude
of the customers regarding the product or services offered by the company.
2.5 Challenges Faced in managing influencer marketing
One of the most used social media marketing strategies followed by the majority of
organisations nowadays is the influencer marketing strategy. In the case of influencer
marketing, the organisation contacts a social media person who has more followers than others.
Along with the rising number of followers, the influencers also received a positive increasing
post engagement rate and positive reach, which indicates a positive rate of audience
engagement with the content posted by the social media influencer (Mostafa and Kasamani
2021). However, with the development of digital media, many people have started to use social
 DISSERTATION 21

media platforms and also aim at becoming social media influencers and also get assassinated
with different illegal activities to increase the number of followers. Thus, the organisation often
faces issues in identifying the right influencers through whom the organisation would become
able to enhance its business profitability (Jacobson and Harrison 2022). Other than that, some
of the major challenges faced by organisations in developing influencer marketing strategies
are listed below.
• One of the main challenges faced by organisations in improving their influencer
marketing strategy is identifying the right influence for business growth. With the
development of social media marketing, the number of influencers has also increased.
Different influencers mainly share different types of content with their audiences
(Sulistiani, Muludi and Syarif 2019). Thus, the organisation often faces struggles in
identifying the appropriate influencers for business promotion.
• Another challenge faced by the organisation in managing influencer marketing is the
rising number of false followers. In order to achieve success as well as fame on social
media platforms, many individuals often adopt different inauthentic ways to increase
the number of followers (Garepasha et al. 2020). Thus, often the brand chose the wrong
influencers for improving their marketing operations, which resulted in poor customer
engagement and created restrictions for the company to achieve marketing success.
• Along with that, measuring the ROI of influencer marketing often becomes difficult.
For every marketing campaign, it is needed to check the success of the marketing
campaign to predict the growth of the organisation. Following the traditional ROT
measurement strategies often fails to provide the expected outcome for the business
(Hwang et al. 2021). Therefore, the organisation often fails to measure the actual
influence of influencer marketing in analysing business success.
• Lastly, another important challenge faced by the organisation in conducting influencer
marketing is in deciding the proper pricing for the influencers. According to Budiman
(2021), almost 85% of business organisations are not aware of the pricing strategy for
influencers. Along with that, the organisation also often struggles to evaluate the
performance quality of the influencers in improving business success.
2.6 Concept of brand loyalty
Brand loyalty mainly refers to the tendency of customers to buy the same product from a
particular organisation over and over again despite the presence of other alternatives and
competitors in the market. Brand loyalty to a customer can be achieved through the following
six stages of brand loyalty. Those six stages may involve attraction, conversion; follow-up,
 DISSERTATION 22

rewarding the repeating customers, enhancing the level of loyalty of the customers and
stimulating user-generated promotion. Through following these consecutive stages the
organisation becomes able to enhance its brand loyalty in the market. As stated by Trivedi and
Sama (2020), by improving the brand loyalty of the company, the organisation becomes able
to develop a stronger brand reputation in the market. This positive rate of customer retention
also helps the organisation to reach the target audience for business promotion. However,
Jarrar, Awobamise and Aderibigbe (2020) have stated that to achieve positive growth in the
market the organisation needs to focus on improving the brand image and brand values among
the customers rather than focusing on improving the brand loyalty.

Product or Brand image

service quality

Customer Customer
psychology managemnet

Brand value

Figure 7: Factors of Brand Loyalty

In the case of customer loyalty, brand recognition and the quality of the product play the main
role. While developing sustaining brand loyalty the customers at first focus on analysing the
quality of the service or product offered by the organisation. If the organisation becomes able
to show equal respect and value to the customers, the customer's intention to develop long-term
bonds with the organisation becomes higher. According to Leung, Gu and Palmatier (2022),
brand loyalty plays a significant role in developing long-term relationships with customers,
which also helps to enhance the market profitability. Brand loyalty of the organisation similarly
depends on several factors which also impact customer perception and organisational
profitability in the market. Some of the major factors of brand loyalty are customer
management, product or service quality, brand image to the customers, brand value and
 DISSERTATION 23

customer psychology about the brand (Kim and Kim 2021). Through focusing on these factors
of brand loyalty the organisation would become able to engage brand loyalty among the
customers.
2.7 Theories Related to brand loyalty
Dynamic Model of Customer Loyalty

Customer Acquisition Customer Development

Dynamic Model of
Customer Loyalty

Customer Commitment Customer Retention

Figure 8: Dynamic Model of Customer Loyalty

The customer loyalty model mainly aims at assisting the organisation to adopt a strategic
approach to improve the business management process of the firm by providing a primary focus
on enhancing customer retention. Different components involved in this model include
systems, processes, software, and internal resources. As stated by Jun and Yi (2021), the
dynamic customer model mainly focuses on improving customer loyalty by enhancing the
different four approaches related to customer management such as customer acquisition,
customer commitment, customer retention and customer development. In order to gain
customer loyalty, this dynamic model mainly directs to follow several stages such as expected
values and perceived organisational value, customer satisfaction, trust, repurchase, customer
behaviour analysis, monadic value analysis and lastly, mental loyalty and dyadic value analysis
respectively (Karagür et al. 2022). Therefore, applying the concept of the dynamic model of
customer loyalty has helped the researcher in identifying ways to enhance brand loyalty among
customers. Apart from that, the application of this brand loyalty model has assisted the
researcher in identifying the underlying factors of brand loyalty that also affect the
 DISSERTATION 24

organisational growth in the market.

The brand image of the company mainly reflects the brand reputation of the company in the
market. Through managing a constant brand image in the market, the organisation becomes
able to create a continuous positive influence on overall brand loyalty among the customers. In
addition, customer management is another crucial factor in brand loyalty. Through the
improvement in the customer management process, the organisation becomes able to create a
direct influence on customer satisfaction. Through positive brand loyalty, the organisation
becomes Apple to provide quick responses to customer queries and also become able to
maintain direct connections with the customers, which helps in developing a positive impact
on customer satisfaction. As stated by Bu, Parkinson and Thaichon (2022), a positive customer
satisfaction level similarly helps in developing starting brand loyalty among customers.
Similarly, while performing customer management, the organisation needs to focus on
analysing customer psychology to address the different needs of the customers. Fulfilling
customer demands similarly helps the company in creating a positive influence on brand value
as well as on brand loyalty among the customers. Lastly, another critical factor identified in
this paper is the product or service quality offered by the company. Through managing the
product’s quality the organisation becomes able to develop trust among the customers, which
similarly helps in developing brand loyalty among the customers. Thus, the factors included in
this paper are relevant for discussing the relevance of influencer marketing on brand loyalty.
2.8 Impact of influencer marketing on building brand loyalty
Influencer marketing is one of the most used strategies that help the business organisation in
reaching more customers by including different social media platforms. In the case of
influencer marketing, the organisation develops a contract with an individual who has more
followers than others. Apart from that, after the pandemic, the majority of customers have
shifted towards online marketing, which has increased the rate of influencer marketing (Bu,
Parkinson and Thaichon 2022). On the other hand, brand loyalty mainly signifies the repetitive
purchasing tendency among customers. As stated by Hudders and De Jans (2022), brand loyalty
mainly depends on several attributes like brand image, customer perspectives and the quality
of the product and services offered by the organisation. Thus, the advertising or marketing done
by the influencers does not create any direct influence on the customer’s loyalty. Influencer
marketing mainly influences the perspectives of the customers and influences them in buying
the product from the particular organisation. However, brand loyalty indicates the tendency of
the customers to shop again for the same products from the organisations, which depends on
the quality of the product and services offered by the customers. On the other hand, Sweeney,
 DISSERTATION 25

Lawlor and Brady (2022) have stated that often customers make buying decisions based on
emotions and beliefs. Thus, the customer often feels safe buying products from the organisation
promoted by the influencers. According to Kapitan et al. (2022), 84% of customers feel safe in
online shopping for the organisation or business person prompted by the social media
influencer. Thus, in the case of online marketing strategy, the customers feel safe in choosing
the organisation advertised by social media influencers due to having a more stable online
presence of the company than other organisations.
Apart from the above-mentioned factor, many other past researchers have supported the role
of influencer marketing in developing brand loyalty for an organisation. According to Zhang
and Huang (2022), influencer marketing mainly aims at developing deep-rooted bonds with
customers and tries to psychologically motivate the customers to buy products from the
partnered organisations. Due to the horse of social media marketing, individuals often saw
several advertisements from the company side. However, due to the availability of
advertisements from different organisations, the customers often do not feel interested or often
do not become able to develop trust for a particular organisation (Mallipeddi et al. 2022). On
the other hand, as stated by when the organisation uses influencers to promote their products,
it directly influences the customer's trust and the customers feel more interested in developing
long-term bonding with the organisation. Similarly, Femenia-Serra, Gretzel and Alzua-
Sorzabal (2022) have stated that the influencers do not create a direct influence on brand
loyalty, but play a direct influence on improving brand awareness, brand value, brand
recognition and brand association among customers. All of these factors play a significant role
in influencing brand loyalty among the customers. Thus, from the above discussion, it can be
mentioned that influencer marketing creates a significant impact on managing brand loyalty
among customers.
 DISSERTATION 26

2.9 Conceptual framework

Influencer’s online
presence Theory of Planned
Marketing Campaign Behaviour (TPB)

Audience Influencer marketing Brand loyalty

Engagement
Brand Recognition
Dynamic Model of
Customer Loyalty
Content
Figure Attractiveness
9: Conceptual Framework

The researcher has further constructed a conceptual framework to provide an overall

understanding of the main aim and concepts discussed in this paper. Based on the conceptual
framework, it can be stated that the main aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between
influencer marketing and brand loyalty. In order to critically discuss the role of influencer
marketing the researcher has chosen five main factors of influencer marketing such as the
online presence of the influencers, the marketing campaign arranged by the company, audience
engagement with the influencer's posts, brand recognition and content attractiveness. Through
analysing the influence of these factors on brand loyalty the researcher has also become able
to prove the influence of influencer marketing on brand loyalty. In order to present the
discussion, the researcher has involved discussion from different already published research
papers. Lastly, the conceptual framework also shows that the researcher has involved two
theoretical concepts such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Dynamic Model
of Customer Loyalty. The inclusion of these two theoretical frameworks has helped the
researcher in critically discussing the influence of influencer marketing on brand loyalty. Along
with that, this has similarly helped in gaining detailed knowledge regarding different
algorithms and factors involved with influencer marketing.
2.10 Literature gap
From the above discussion, it can be mentioned that the existing literature has played a vital
role in providing pre-knowledge about the influence of influencer marketing in improving
business success. However, the researcher has identified different literature gaps that can be
found in the existing literature. One of the main reasons for the developing literature gap is that
the concept of influencer marketing is rapidly changing as well as new to business research.
Thus, there is a lack of secondary resources available which emphasise the importance of
 DISSERTATION 27

influencer marketing. Similarly, the majority of the literature has used secondary quantitative
methods and does not have included any quantitative information to support the findings
(Masuda, Han and Lee 2022). Also, another gap that can be observed in the existing literature
is that the majority of the past researchers have ignored the influence of influencer marketing;
they have emphasized discussing the influence of traditional marketing than online marketing
strategies.
2.11 Summary
Thus, from the overall discussion, it can be highlighted that past researchers have played a
significant role in describing the impact of influencer marketing on brand loyalty among
customers. However, the researcher has also identified several gaps that are present in the
existing literature and has planned to conduct this study in a way that would be significant to
reduce the literature gaps. Apart from that, from the discussion of this chapter, it can be
revealed that the main factors of influencer marketing included in this research are the
influencer’s online presence, marketing campaign, audience engagement, brand recognition
and content attractiveness respectively. Apart from that, the researcher has aligned the theory
of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the concept of the Dynamic Model of Customer Loyalty to
analyse the role of influencers in influencing the buyer's purchasing decision, which also
creates a direct influence on managing the brand loyalty of the customers.
 DISSERTATION 28

3 Chapter 3: Research Methodology

3.1 Overview
Research methodology is one of the main important aspects of research development. Research
methodology mainly assists the researcher in choosing appropriate methods of data collection
and also helps to present an effective data analysis to improve research significance. In this
chapter, the researcher has discussed the selected research approaches, strategies, data
collection techniques and data analysis techniques. Along with that, this chapter also discussed
the ethical standards followed by the researcher to develop this paper.
3.2 Research Outline
For developing this research paper the researcher has carried out the positivist research
philosophy along with a deductive research approach and descriptive research design. Based
on that, the researcher has further chosen the primary quantitative approach to conduct the data
collection and data analysis in this chapter. The researcher has planned to select 150 employees
and customers who have recently used the influencer marketing strategy. Moreover, with the
help of collected primary quantitative data, the researcher has further planned to conduct
statistical analysis to analyse the relationship between influencer marketing and brand loyalty.
Using these research methods in this research paper has helped the researcher in identifying
the different trends and strategies related to influencer marketing and has similarly helped to
understand the role of influencer marketing in improving brand loyalty.
3.3 Response Rate
The response rate mainly indicates the actual percentage of people taking part in the data
collection process. The response rate of a survey can be calculated as a ratio between the
expected number of participants and the actual participants who have taken part in the survey
(Önder and Ayhan 2022). The response rate for the survey conducted by the researcher to
collect the data is 100 (150/150*100). The researcher has distributed the survey form among
150 customers and all the selected samples have respectively taken part in the survey. This
higher response rate of the survey indicates that the data used in this paper is authentic as well
as relevant for further analysis.
3.4 Research Philosophy
Research philosophy mainly indicates the knowledge and ideas applied by the researcher to
analyze the paper. According to Ramos-Carranza, Añón-Abajas and Rivero-Lamela (2021),
research philosophy mainly deals with the source and nature of information and knowledge.
Researcher philosophy mainly directs the researcher in making appropriate ratio decisions
while analysing the data used by the researcher. The main importance of research philosophy
 DISSERTATION 29

is that it allows the researcher Research philosophy mainly to be grouped into three parts
positivism, realism and interpretivism (Ndenje-Sichalwe and Elia 2021).
3.4.1 Justification of Positivism Philosophy
In this research paper, the researcher has mainly adopted the positivist research philosophy.
Among the different research philosophies, positivism mainly allows the researcher to use
factual information and data to conduct the data analysis process (Nickerson 2022). Through
including factual information in the paper, the researcher has become able to improve the
significance of the analysis developed in the paper. As stated by Nayak and Singh (2021), one
of the main benefits of positivist research philosophy is that it allows the researcher to follow
both quantitative as well as qualitative analysis techniques. As the positivist research
philosophy mainly emphasises the role of factual information, thus, using this research
philosophy has helped the researcher in conducting primary-level analysis by including the
primary survey results (HR and Aithal 2022).
3.5 Research Approach
The research approach mainly indicates the methods adopted by the researcher to conduct
further analysis. According to Wilcox et al. (2022), the main component of the research
approach is the data collection techniques and data analysis techniques. Thus, one of the main
benefits of following an appropriate research approach is that it directs the researcher in
developing an effective analysis to reach the research objectives. As stated by Pandey and
Pandey (2021), the research approach mainly includes the choice of a conceptual framework,
research questions, research objectives and research methods to further develop the research.
The research approach mainly can be grouped into three parts such as inductive research
approach, deductive research approach and abductive research approach.
3.5.1 Justification of Deductive Approach
The deductive research approach has been selected by the researcher. The main reason behind
the choice of research approach is that the deductive research approach has helped the
researcher in following the primary research method (Hall, Savas-Hall and Shaw 2022).
Another importance of choosing the deductive research approach is that it allows the researcher
to develop hypotheses between the selected variables and allows statistical analysis to prove
the relationship between the selected variables (Proudfoot 2023). For example, with the help
of this research approach, the researcher has become able to prove the correlation between
influencer marketing and brand loyalty with the help of statistical and hypothesis analysis
(Mustafa and Alvi 2022). Similarly, another benefit of adopting a deductive research approach
 DISSERTATION 30

is that it helps the researcher avoid the risks associated with primary quantitative analysis.
3.6 Research Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1: Factors of influencer marketing and brand loyalty
Hypothesis 1A: Influencer’s online presence
H0: Influencer’s online presence does not depend on the brand loyalty
H1: The influencer's online presence depends on the brand loyalty
Hypothesis 1B: Marketing Campaign
H0: Effective marketing campaign cannot enhance the brand loyalty
H1: Effective marketing campaign can enhance the brand loyalty
Hypothesis 1C: Audience Engagement
H0: Audience engagement with business does not depend on the brand loyalty of a business
H1: Audience engagement with business depends on the brand loyalty of a business
Hypothesis 1D: Brand Recognition
H0: Effective brand recognition cannot enhance the brand loyalty of a business
H1: Effective brand recognition can enhance the brand loyalty of a business
Hypothesis 1E: Content Attractiveness
H0: Attractive content cannot improve the brand loyalty of a business
H1: Attractive content can improve the brand loyalty of a business
Hypothesis 2: Influencer marketing and brand loyalty
H0: Influencer marketing has no impact on the improvement of brand loyalty
H1: Influencer marketing has a positive impact on the improvement of brand loyalty
3.7 Research Design
Research design can be described as the plan of action or framework developed by the
researcher for answering the research questions developed by the researcher. As mentioned by
Moore et al. (2022), research design mainly guides the researcher in making decisions about
different researcher components including data collection method, sampling method and data
analysis method. An appropriate research design mainly guides the researcher in making
effective decisions about data collection and analysis methods to reach the research objectives
(Mishra and Alok 2022). On a broader aspect researcher reigns can be of five types such as
experimental, correlation, descriptive, exploratory and diagnostic research design.
3.7.1 Justification of Descriptive Design
In this research paper, the researcher has used the descriptive research design. The main
importance of descriptive research is that it allows the researcher to implement different
 DISSERTATION 31

primary data collection techniques to collect the data (Sanchez et al. 2022). The data collection
technique included in descriptive research design mainly includes survey, observation and
interview (Spanhel et al. 2022). Thus, by applying the concept of descriptive research design,
the research has become able to conduct surveys among selected sampled sample sizes to
analyse the importance of influencer marketing in improving brand loyalty. In addition to that,
another advantage of the descriptive research design is that it is one of the most cost-effective
and time-saving methods (Leavy 2022). Thus, the data collection techniques involved in these
research designs are also cost-effective.
3.8 Research Strategy
Research strategy mainly indicates the data collection technique implemented by the researcher
to collect the data (Lavarda and Bellucci 2022). Research strategy can be defined as the step-
to-step process to collect the data to further process the data analysis. The primary research
strategy could include a data collection strategy like a survey, interview, observation and focus
group (Campos et al. 2022).
3.8.1 Justification of Survey Strategy
Among the different strategies of data collection, the researcher has applied the survey strategy
to collect the primary quantitative data in this paper. Through applying the survey strategy the
researcher has become able to conduct surveys among the selected samples to gather practical
information about the impact of influencer marketing on brand loyalty among customers.
3.9 Sampling Techniques
In the primary research method, sampling mainly refers to the number of participants taking
part in the data collection process. As in this research paper, the researcher has chosen to follow
the primary data collection technique thus; the researcher has chosen the sample to collect the
data. In order to select the samples, the researcher followed the random sampling technique.
One of the main advantages of the random sampling technique is that it allows the researcher
to select the sample for data collection randomly from a larger population size (Hay et al.
2022). Through this random sample selection process, the samples are mainly chosen randomly
thus, it helps the researcher to avoid unusual biases in sample selection. Similarly, it reduced
the time for selecting the samples for data collection. Based on this sample selection process,
the researcher has chosen a sample size of 150. The samples have been selected from wider
population growth. The target population group for this study are the customers who have
recently used influencer marketing strategies. Thus, 150 samples selected for data collection
all have experience in using influencer marketing. After selecting the sample, the researcher
 DISSERTATION 32

distributed the online survey questionnaire among the samples to collect the adequate data
required for further analysing the influence of influencer marketing among those customers
(Pratt, Sonenshein and Feldman 2022). Selecting the samples from people who have experience
in using influencer marketing has helped the researcher in collecting the most relevant and
effective information for the data analysis paper.
3.10 Data Collection Techniques
As discussed in the above portion, the researcher has followed the primary quantitative research
methodology in this paper. Thus, the researcher has planned to collect quantitative data by
conducting primary data collection techniques. In order to collect primary quantitative data the
researcher has surveyed 150 selected samples. Through these samples, the researcher has
mainly aimed at analysing the role of influencer marketing on brand loyalty among customers.
For better analysing the researcher has selected the samples that have recently purchased
products by following influencer marketing. The survey conducted by the researcher mainly
has taken place on the online platform. Thus, to survey, the researcher has shared a soft copy
of the questionnaire among the samples and has asked the participants to respond to the
questionnaire within 1 week.
In order to collect quantitative information, the researcher has included the Likert scale method
to collect the data. The Likert scale mainly provides five options to collect the required
information such as strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly disagree (Allen,
Rivkin and Trimble 2022). The questionnaire developed by the researcher mainly consists of a
total of 25 questions divided into two parts section A and section B. Section A of the
questionnaire aims at collecting demographic information from the participants having 5
questions. On the other hand, section B of this questionnaire consists of a total of 20 questions
related to the variable. Through collecting the quantitative data from this survey the researcher
has become able to statistically analyse the relationship between influencer marketing and
brand loyalty. Similarly, through following this data collection technique the researcher has
become able to avoid biases among the participants and have only included justified responses
for further analysis.
3.11 Data Analysis Techniques
As discussed in the above section, the researcher has planned to follow the primary quantitative
research methodology and has collected the data by conducting an online survey among 150
selected samples. In order to analyse the data the researcher has mainly followed the statistical
analysis technique. With the help of statistical analysis techniques, the researcher has become
able to present statistical proof to support the correlation between influencer marketing and
 DISSERTATION 33

brand loyalty among customers (Dhun and Dangi 2023). In order to conduct the statistical
analysis, the researcher used SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). With the help
of the SPSS tool, the researcher has conducted a verbal statistical examination to examine the
role of influencer marketing in developing brand loyalty among customers. The researcher has
used correlation tests along with coefficient tests to justify the correlation between influence
marketing and brand loyalty.
Along with that, to analyse the demographic data shared by the customers the researcher has
conducted frequency analysis. The researcher has included reliability and validity analysis as
well. Through including these tests the researcher has become able to analyse the relevance
and importance of the data set used in this paper in describing the importance of influencer
marketing in improving brand loyalty among the customer. Incorporating these tests in the
paper has also helped the researcher in improving the reliability of this paper among the readers
to understand the significance of the data in analysing the actual importance of influencer
marketing in improving brand loyalty, which also influences the organisation's profitability of
the firm positively in the market (Borusyak, Hull and Jaravel 2022). Along with these analysis
techniques the researcher has planned to include different inferential techniques. For example,
regression analysis, factor analysis and correlation analysis have also been included for
analysing the correlation between the selected variables of the research paper. Lastly, the
coefficient analysis has also included for further hypotheses testing, which has helped the
researcher for justifying the impact of influencer marketing on brand loyalty.
3.12 Ethical Consideration
Maintaining ethical considerations plays a major role in improving the reliability and relevance
of the research paper. In the case of primary research methods, the main factor which helps the
researcher in managing ethical standards is by protecting the personal information of the
participants. Thus, to maintain the ethical approach the researcher has taken several steps to
protect the information. At first, the researcher distributed participants' consent forms to make
the participants aware of the whole research program (Pramodini 2022). Then, the researcher
allowed the participants to leave the association with the project within one month from the
submission of the participants' consent form. Similarly, the researcher has assured the
researcher to destroy the personal information of the participants after six months of research
completion.
Apart from that, to protect the data used in the research paper, the researcher has
prevented third-party access to the raw data used by the researcher and has also followed the
data protection act of the UK, 2018 (Lê and Schmid 2022). Through following these strategies
 DISSERTATION 34

the researcher has successfully become able to protect the data used in this paper. Another
ethical consideration followed by the researcher shows that this research is free from any
plagiarism or copyright issues. The discussion made in this paper has resulted from analysing
the data collected by the primary survey and solely generated by the researcher. Lastly, the
researcher has followed the appropriate citation and referencing technique in this paper for
expressing acknowledgement towards the past researchers.
3.13 Research Limitation
In this research paper, the researcher has used a primary quantitative research method. Thus,
the researcher has faced several limitations in gathering quantitative data and analysing them
for identifying the role of influencer marketing on brand loyalty. Those limitations faced by
the researcher mainly include:
• Conducting primary research methodology mainly takes more time than conducting
secondary analysis. In the case of primary quantitative, the researcher needs to collect
data by conducting surveys or interviews among the participants. Thus, gathering data
by conducting surveys or interviews often takes a much longer time. Apple said that
the researcher has received a limited time for completing the whole research by the
University grant commission which has raised the challenges in completing the whole
research within the allocated time.
• Along with the above-mentioned factors, the financial resources granted by the
University grant commission is similarly much lower. Due to a limited budget, the
researcher has faced challenges in accessing several paid versions of the existing
literature. Along with that the researcher also faced issues in accessing different paid
tools to improve the primary quantitative analysis developed in this paper.
• Similarly, by focusing on primary quantitative research methods, the researcher has
ignored the importance of including secondary qualitative research. Also, due to the
absence of a secondary research method, the theoretical application of this paper has
decreased.
• Lastly, another challenge faced by the researcher indicates the challenges in protecting
data collected by primary research. In the case of the primary research method, the main
concern of the researcher is to protect the information of the participants participating
in the research. Thus, the researcher has faced several challenges in protecting the
participants' information.
 DISSERTATION 35

3.14 Summary
Thus, from the overall discussion of this chapter, it can be concluded that the researcher has
applied the primary quantitative research method to analyse the role of influencer marketing in
improving brand loyalty among customers. Along with that, the researcher has applied the
positivist research philosophy, descriptive research design and deductive research approach in
this paper to provide a relevant analysis. Apart from that, the discussion of this paper also
reveals that the researcher has maintained ethical considerations. For example, the researcher
has followed the UK data protection act to protect the data used in this paper. In addition to
that, this chapter also highlights that the researcher would follow a primary quantitative method
and will also conduct a survey among 150 customers to statistically prove the correlation
between influencer marketing and brand loyalty for multinational companies.
 DISSERTATION 36

4 Chapter 4: Data analysis and Findings

4.1 Overview
The aim of the research is to critically analyse and obtain an understanding of the way in which
the influencer marketing has a strong influence on the brand marketing. For this reason, the
opinion of 150 consumers were taken with the help of a survey questionnaire and their opinions
have been incorporated into the research study. This is then followed by the descriptive analysis
of the information collected and following this, the inferential analysis has been engaged in
whereby the opinions of the participants have been applied using a regression and correlation
analysis to gain an idea about the best way in which the relationship between the different
variables can be built well. Furthermore, it is engaging to assess the fact that, through the
findings the way in which the brand loyalty is largely influenced with the help of influencer
marketing would be critically examined and backed by evidence.

4.2 Descriptive analysis

4.2.1 Demographic information
In this section the background information on the different participants has been critically
assessed and examined.
Table 1

Age
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid 18-24 years 29 19.3 19.3
25-32 years 31 20.7 40.0
33-40 years 37 24.7 64.7
41-52 years 34 22.7 87.3
Above 52 19 12.7 100.0
years
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 37

Figure 10

It can be well examined that, 12% of the participants were aged above 52 years of age whereas
22.67 % of the participants were aged between 41-52 years of age. In this regard, 19% of them
were identified to be between 18-24 years and the rest were between 25-32 years.

Table 2

Gender
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Female 69 46.0 46.0
Male 60 40.0 86.0
Others 21 14.0 100.0
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 38

Figure 11

It can be assessed that 46% of the participants are female whereas 40% of them are male. The
rest 14% of the participants did not belong to either gender.

Table 3

Income
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Above $50000 annually 57 38.0 38.0
Between $30000 to 66 44.0 82.0
$50000 annually
Less than $30000 27 18.0 100.0
annually
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 39

Figure 12

It can be analysed from the graph above that 38% of the participants earned above $50000
annually whereas 44% of the participants earned between $30000 to $50000 annually. The
remaining participants earned less than $30000 annually.

Table 4

Education
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Diploma 39 26.0 26.0
Graduation 30 20.0 46.0
Others 30 20.0 66.0
Post 51 34.0 100.0
Graduation
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 40

Figure 13

The graph provides information on the education background of the participants. It could be
identified that 34% of them were Post Graduates whereas 20% of them were graduates. 26%
of them had a Diploma degree and the rest 20% had other qualifications.

Table 5

Frequency of shopping
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Once a month 16 10.7 10.7
Once a week 5 3.3 14.0
Regularly 93 62.0 76.0
Very rarely 36 24.0 100.0
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 41

Figure 14

The participants were asked about the frequency of the shopping. 62% of the participants were
found to shop regularly whereas 20% of them rarely shopped. Considering this, 10.67% of the
shoppers shopped once a month and the rest shopped weekly.

Table 6

Use of social media platform

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Facebook 25 16.7 16.7
Instagram 42 28.0 44.7
Others 16 10.7 55.3
Snapchat 30 20.0 75.3
Twitter 37 24.7 100.0
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 42

Figure 15

The participants were asked about their use of the social media platforms. In this regard, it was
largely established that, 24% of the participants used Twitter whereas 28% of the participants
used Instagram. Furthermore, 16% of them made use of Facebook and 20% of them used
Snapchat. In this regard, it is significant to highlight that all platforms were made use of
systematically by the participants.

4.2.2 General perspectives

Table 7

Does influencer marketing make a difference to

you?
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid No 42 28.0 28.0
Yes 108 72.0 100.0
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 43

Figure 16

When asked about the difference which the influencer marketing makes, more than 60% of the
participants outlined that it did make a strong difference to them.

Table 8

Are you regularly switching brands?

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid No 59 39.3 39.3
Yes 91 60.7 100.0
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 44

Figure 17

The participants were asked if they were regularly switching brands. Considering this, 60% of
the participants stated that they did switch brands regularly.

Table 9

What makes you loyal to a single brand?

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Branding 28 18.7 18.7
Price 41 27.3 46.0
Quality 32 21.3 67.3
Service 49 32.7 100.0
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 45

Figure 18

The graph depicts the way in which a participant is loyal to a single brand. In this regard, the
service quality appealed to more than 30% of the participants. On the other hand, the price is
another factor which influences a majority of the participants. It becomes significant to
understand and notify that these aspects are important for the success of a brand.
Table 10

In your opinion, does an association with a

particular influencer affects your choice of the
brand?
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid No 48 32.0 32.0
Yes 102 68.0 100.0
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 46

Figure 19

When examining the opinion of the participants in regards to the brand changes as per the
influencer, more than 60% of the participants agreed with the statement and believed that their
opinions varied greatly in regard to the organisational performance.

Table 11

Do you believe that brands should associate with influencers who

can enhance their brand image or go with the trend and associate
with the popular ones?
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Enhance image 92 61.3 61.3
Going with popular 58 38.7 100.0
ones
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 47

Figure 20

When asked whether the brands should associate with influencers who can arrange their brand
image or go with the trends, 60% of the participants believed that they should go with the ones
who can enhance the brand image.

4.2.3 Influencer marketing

(Refer to tables 12-18 in the appendix)
When influencer marketing is engaged in, it intends to appeal to the larger audience. In this
regard, it can be strongly established that, the success of the influencer marketing is largely
affected by various aspects such as the number of followers, content attractiveness, target
audience design, marketing campaign, audience management and the brand recognition. To
these statements, more than 39% of the participants provided their agreement.

4.2.4 Brand loyalty

(Refer to tables 19-25 in the appendix)
It can be reviewed that a variety of questions were asked to the participants in relation to the
brand loyalty and marketing. One aspect which was commonly identified with respect to all
participants is that they agreed in majority , i.e. above 70% in their opinions that the loyalty
towards a brand were largely affected by a large number of factors. These ranged from
marketing strategy, customer service and satisfaction, customer psychology, product and
 DISSERTATION 48

service quality, value of the brand, customer management and the brand image.

4.2.5 Descriptive analysis

(Refer to table 26)
The descriptive analysis seeks to test the overall way in which the average responses alongside
the skewness and kurtosis is distributed. Pertaining to this, it can be identified that the average
response received can be taken to be close to 2 which stands for agreed. The value of the
standard deviation is close to 1 which represents a close dispersal of the data. The value of the
skewness and kurtosis essentially represents the fact that the data is normally distributed.

4.3 Reliability and validity analysis

The reliability and validity analysis may be established to be the test undertaken to measure
the quality of the data and alongside assess and identify techniques in which the sampling and
data distribution has been engaged in. In this regard, it is essentially important that the
Cronbach Alpha is adopted to carryout the reliability statistics. The standard accepted value of
the Cronbach alpha is 0.7. As the achieved value is 0.898, this means that the data is reliable.
In the following section, data associated with each item values have been given. All data
appears to be above 0.7 (Refer to table 28)

Table 12

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's
Alpha N of Items
.898 16

Table 13

Scale Statistics
Std.
Mean Variance Deviation N of Items
30.7200 92.324 9.60853 16

The validity analysis seeks to gain an insight into the sampling adequacy and other related data.
In this context, it can be rightly outlined that the KMO test identifies that the value of the KMO
 DISSERTATION 49

measure of sampling adequacy is above 0.7 at 0.740 showing the adequacy of the sample. The
value of the Bartlett’s test of Sphericity is below 0.00 which shows that the variables have
autocorrelation amongst one another.
Validity analysis
Table 14

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling .740
Adequacy.
Bartlett's Test of Approx. Chi-Square 1188.213
Sphericity df 120
Sig. .000

Table 15

Total Variance Explained

Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings
% of Cumulative % of Cumulative
Component Total Variance % Total Variance %
1 6.535 40.846 40.846 6.535 40.846 40.846
2 1.227 7.666 48.512 1.227 7.666 48.512
3 1.185 7.404 55.916 1.185 7.404 55.916
4 1.103 6.896 62.812 1.103 6.896 62.812
5 .994 6.211 69.024
6 .807 5.044 74.067
7 .745 4.653 78.721
8 .638 3.986 82.707
9 .561 3.503 86.210
10 .497 3.103 89.313
11 .428 2.675 91.988
12 .414 2.589 94.577
13 .337 2.108 96.685
14 .289 1.804 98.489
15 .164 1.027 99.516
16 .077 .484 100.000
 DISSERTATION 50

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

The table reflects that the variance is explained in the first five variables.

4.4 Inferential analysis

4.4.1 Regression and correlation
The regression and correlation analysis may be identified as tests which can be well categorised
under the inferential analysis and seeks to establish under the relationship between the variables
well. In this regard, it is essential that the correlation analysis measures the correlation
coefficient and values above 0.5 are considered to be within the strong and moderate category
and are largely preferred. On the other hand, it becomes engaging to note that the regression
analysis significantly assesses the relationship between the independent and the dependent
variable. The p value is tested in this regard and the standard acceptable value is below 0.05.
This represents a stronger relationship between the variables.

Table 16

Descriptive Statistics
Std.
Mean Deviation N
BrandLoyalty 1.9133 .75027 150
InfluencerMarketi 1.9600 .87378 150
ng

The descriptive statistics between the variables has been strongly explained.

Table 17

Correlations
BrandLoyalt InfluencerMa
y rketing
Pearson BrandLoyalty 1.000 .527
Correlation InfluencerMarketi .527 1.000
ng
 DISSERTATION 51

Sig. (1-tailed) BrandLoyalty . .000

InfluencerMarketi .000 .
ng
N BrandLoyalty 150 150
InfluencerMarketi 150 150
ng

The value of the correlation coefficient can be identified to be above 0.527. Considering this,
it can be outlined essential to understand the fact that any change in the influencer marketing
can strongly impact the brand loyalty.

Table 18

Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model R R Square Square the Estimate
1 .527a .278 .273 .63977

a. Predictors: (Constant), InfluencerMarketing

The value of the Adjusted R square may be identified to be 0.273. In this regard, the brand
loyalty’s value can be significantly influenced by the influencer marketing by 27%.

Table 19

ANOVAa
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 23.296 1 23.296 56.917 .000b
Residual 60.577 148 .409
Total 83.873 149

a. Dependent Variable: BrandLoyalty

b. Predictors: (Constant), InfluencerMarketing
 DISSERTATION 52

The ANOVA table identifies the value of the significant. It can be well established that, the
value of the significant p is 0.00 which is less than 0.05. Considering this, the relationship
between the variables can be strongly established.

Table 20

Coefficientsa
Standardize 95.0%
Unstandardized d Confidence
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B
Lower Upper
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound
1 (Constant) 1.026 .129 7.978 .000 .772 1.281
InfluencerMarke .453 .060 .527 7.544 .000 .334 .571
ting

The value of the Beta is 0.527 which shoes that any change in influencer marketing can strongly
influence the brand loyalty.

4.5 Cross Tab analysis

Comparing age an opinion on brand and influencer marketing
Table 21

Table 22

Age * In your opinion, does an association with a particular

influencer affects your choice of the brand? Crosstabulation
Count
In your opinion, does an
association with a particular
influencer affects your choice
of the brand?
No Yes Total
Age 18-24 years 8 21 29
25-32 years 11 20 31
33-40 years 12 25 37
 DISSERTATION 53

41-52 years 9 25 34
Above 52 8 11 19
years
Total 48 102 150
It can be well established from the table that all age groups believed that their association with
the influencer affects their choice of the brand.

Table 23

Age * Do you believe that brands should associate with

influencers who can enhance their brand image or go with
the trend and associate with the popular ones?
Crosstabulation
Count
Do you believe that brands
should associate with
influencers who can enhance
their brand image or go with
the trend and associate with
the popular ones?
Enhance Going with
image popular ones Total
Age 18-24 years 15 14 29
25-32 years 21 10 31
33-40 years 26 11 37
41-52 years 22 12 34
Above 52 8 11 19
years
Total 92 58 150
It can be well established that individuals who were aged 25-52 years strongly believed that
influencers who could enhance the brand’s image should be opted for.

Comparing gender opinions with brand and influencer marketing

 DISSERTATION 54

Table 24

Gender * In your opinion, does an association with a

particular influencer affects your choice of the brand?
Crosstabulation
Count
In your opinion, does an
association with a particular
influencer affects your choice
of the brand?
No Yes Total
Gender Female 19 50 69
Male 26 34 60
Others 3 18 21
Total 48 102 150

It can be well established from the table that all genders believed that their association with the
influencer affects their choice of the brand.

Table 25

Gender * Do you believe that brands should associate

with influencers who can enhance their brand image or
go with the trend and associate with the popular ones?
Crosstabulation
Count
Do you believe that brands
should associate with
influencers who can enhance
their brand image or go with
the trend and associate with
the popular ones?
Enhance Going with
image popular ones Total
Gender Female 48 21 69
 DISSERTATION 55

Male 35 25 60
Others 9 12 21
Total 92 58 150

It can be well established that individuals both genders strongly believed that influencers who
could enhance the brand’s image should be opted for.

Use of social media platform and opinion on brands

Table 26

Use of social media platform * In your opinion, does an association with

a particular influencer affects your choice of the brand? Crosstabulation
Count
In your opinion, does an
association with a particular
influencer affects your choice
of the brand?
No Yes Total
Use of social media Facebook 10 15 25
platform Instagram 12 30 42
Others 6 10 16
Snapchat 9 21 30
Twitter 11 26 37
Total 48 102 150

It can be well established from the table that all users believed that their association with the
influencer affects their choice of the brand.

Table 27

Use of social media platform * Do you believe that brands should associate
with influencers who can enhance their brand image or go with the trend
and associate with the popular ones? Crosstabulation
Count
 DISSERTATION 56

Do you believe that brands

should associate with
influencers who can enhance
their brand image or go with
the trend and associate with
the popular ones?
Enhance Going with
image popular ones Total
Use of social media Facebook 16 9 25
platform Instagram 22 20 42
Others 12 4 16
Snapchat 20 10 30
Twitter 22 15 37
Total 92 58 150

It can be well established that individuals who used Instagram and Snapchat wanted to go with
influencers who enhanced image and the rest believed that influencers who were popular
should be opted for.
4.6 Hypothesis testing
Hypothesis 1: Factors of influencer marketing and brand loyalty
Hypothesis 1A: Influencer’s online presence
H0: Influencer’s online presence does not depend on the brand loyalty
H1: The influencer's online presence depends on the brand loyalty

Table 28

ANOVAa
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 20.165 1 20.165 46.846 .000b
Residual 63.708 148 .430
Total 83.873 149

a. Dependent Variable: BrandLoyalty

 DISSERTATION 57

b. Predictors: (Constant), The influencer’s online presence greatly affects the

Influencer marketing

The first hypothesis seeks to establish the relationship between influencer’s online presence
and influencer marketing success alongside brand loyalty success. Here, as the value of the
significant p is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis has been rejected and the alternate hypothesis
has been accepted thus establishing the relationship between the factor and brand loyalty.

Hypothesis 1B: Marketing Campaign

H0: Effective marketing campaign cannot enhance the brand loyalty
H1: Effective marketing campaign can enhance the brand loyalty
Table 29

ANOVAa
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 14.313 1 14.313 30.453 .000b
Residual 69.560 148 .470
Total 83.873 149

a. Dependent Variable: BrandLoyalty

b. Predictors: (Constant), The marketing campaign design is greatly affected by
influencer marketing success

The first hypothesis seeks to establish the relationship between marketing campaign influencer
marketing success alongside brand loyalty success. Here, as the value of the significant p is
less than 0.05, the null hypothesis has been rejected and the alternate hypothesis has been
accepted thus establishing the relationship between the factor and brand loyalty.

Hypothesis 1C: Audience Engagement

H0: Audience engagement with business does not depend on the brand loyalty of a business
H1: Audience engagement with business depends on the brand loyalty of a business
 DISSERTATION 58

Table 30

ANOVAa
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 14.336 1 14.336 30.512 .000b
Residual 69.537 148 .470
Total 83.873 149

a. Dependent Variable: BrandLoyalty

b. Predictors: (Constant), The influencer marketing’s success is affected by
Audience engagement

The first hypothesis seeks to establish the relationship between audience engagement alongside
brand loyalty success. Here, as the value of the significant p is less than 0.05, the null
hypothesis has been rejected and the alternate hypothesis has been accepted thus establishing
the relationship between the factor and brand loyalty.

Hypothesis 1D: Brand Recognition

H0: Effective brand recognition cannot enhance the brand loyalty of a business
H1: Effective brand recognition can enhance the brand loyalty of a business

Table 31

ANOVAa
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 16.149 1 16.149 35.290 .000b
Residual 67.725 148 .458
Total 83.873 149

a. Dependent Variable: BrandLoyalty

b. Predictors: (Constant), The brand recognition largely affects the success of the
influencer marketing
 DISSERTATION 59

The first hypothesis seeks to establish the relationship between brand recognition alongside
brand loyalty success. Here, as the value of the significant p is less than 0.05, the null
hypothesis has been rejected and the alternate hypothesis has been accepted thus establishing
the relationship between the factor and brand loyalty.

Hypothesis 1E: Content Attractiveness

H0: Attractive content cannot improve the brand loyalty of a business
H1: Attractive content can improve the brand loyalty of a business

Table 32

ANOVAa
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 11.560 1 11.560 23.659 .000b
Residual 72.313 148 .489
Total 83.873 149

a. Dependent Variable: BrandLoyalty

b. Predictors: (Constant), The content attractiveness contributes to better influencer
marketing

The first hypothesis seeks to establish the relationship between content attractiveness alongside
brand loyalty success. Here, as the value of the significant p is less than 0.05, the null
hypothesis has been rejected and the alternate hypothesis has been accepted thus establishing
the relationship between the factor and brand loyalty.

Hypothesis 2: Influencer marketing and brand loyalty

H0: Influencer marketing has no impact on the improvement of brand loyalty
H1: Influencer marketing has a positive impact on the improvement of brand loyalty
 DISSERTATION 60

Table 33

ANOVAa
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 23.296 1 23.296 56.917 .000b
Residual 60.577 148 .409
Total 83.873 149

a. Dependent Variable: BrandLoyalty

b. Predictors: (Constant), InfluencerMarketing

The second hypothesis seeks to establish the relationship between influencer marketing
alongside brand loyalty success. Here, as the value of the significant p is less than 0.05, the
null hypothesis has been rejected and the alternate hypothesis has been accepted thus
establishing the relationship between the variables.

4.7 Findings
The findings of the research may be established as follows:
1.At first the tables and graphs given have been able to establish and identify the fact that, a
majority of the consumers are loyal to influencers and not the different brands.
2.The findings also reflected on the fact that the influencer generated content was real and
helped them in making the right choices.
3.The correlation and regression analysis was able to establish a strong relationship between
the influencer marketing and the brand loyalty.
4. With respect to the hypothesis testing, the second hypothesis was proven true and the
alternate hypothesis was accepted. In regard to the first hypothesis, it was examined that, all
factors significantly influenced brand loyalty.

4.8 Discussion
According to Kaur et al. (2020), influencer marketing has become considerably significant tool
of social media marketing which is largely focused on utilisation of the influencers to promote
the goods and services being offered the enterprise and to make a strong emotional connection
 DISSERTATION 61

with the followers. As influencers often become popular and are generally commoners with
increased popularity due to their honest opinion on the varying offerings, the different
individuals generally connect with them easily. This is the reason, why the brands connect with
them and program the social media program and strategies which will help them in gaining
more popularity and assure success with improved revenues. One of the first research questions
which the research intended to answer was associated with identifying: “What is the importance
of influencer marketing within the context of the enterprise?”. Within the context of literature,
it could be well examined that, the influencer marketing has become significantly relevant
within the recent years and the different brands like to make use of them for several reason.
These could be established to be increased popularity, better market share engagement as well
as better connection with the customers and brand loyalty. This finding was further enhanced
within the findings of the survey whereby it was identified that the brands found the influencer
marketing to be comparatively cheaper as well as it costed less than hiring the different
celebrities (Ki et al. 2020).
In this context, it is essential to understand that, these findings add up to the literature
and help in establishing the importance of the literature. Another question which was
considered may be rightly examined as “What is the critical importance of building brand
loyalty?”. The literature has critically highlighted the concept of the brand loyalty. In this
regard, the brand loyalty may be established as the key steps and endeavours which are
essentially adopted in order to make the customers loyal towards a brand. When the overall
level of brand loyalty is considerably very high, then the customers are largely involved in
purchasing their goods and products irrespective of the increase in the price or change in design.
However, it is essentially significant to note the fact that, the brand loyalty is affected by several
factors (Hanaysha et al. 2022). Within the review of literature, it has been rightly identified
that, when the customers have been making use of the product for a very long time, they
generally become loyal to the brand. It is significant to identify and establish that, the literature
has been able to identify a number of factors affecting the brand loyalty such as the Value of
the brand, customer psychology, customer service and satisfaction, product and service loyalty
and the customer management. When these factors are present within the context of the
enterprise, the success can be well guaranteed. Hay et al. (2022) also highlights that the
presence of such factors enhances the overall performance of the brand and has several indirect
benefits as well. From the survey findings as well, it could be rightly identified that the
existence of such factors has a very strong return on value of the customer engagement and
related satisfaction which thereby brings about better end results.
 DISSERTATION 62

Another significant question which was formulated was associated with identifying: “What is
the impact of the influencer marketing on the building of brand loyalty?” In this regard, it is
essential to consider the fact that the impact of the influencer marketing on the brand loyalty
could be identified to be very strong. It is significant here to acknowledge the fact that, even in
the review of literature, a strong association was established between the variables and this has
therefore, been verified in the survey findings (Hanaysha et al. 2022). Hence, these findings
can be identified to be very similar to one another.
Another significant question as set focused on : “What is the relationship between
influencer marketing and the brand loyalty-building process?”. As discussed in the survey, the
influencer marketing and brand loyalty have a strong and positive association with one another.
Concerning this, even in the review, a strong relationship was identified whereby, a majority
of the brands such as luxury or local were engaging in influencer marketing to ensure better
loyalty and revenue generation. Hence, the findings of the review have been affirmed in the
survey findings. Lastly, when understanding “What recommendations can be made based on
which brand loyalty can be built well?”, it can be established that the authors in the review
mentioned that hiring authentic influencers, setting of suitable themes and aligning product
needs with influencer needs is critical. From the findings as well, it was examined that when
spending a considerable amount of money on influencer marketing, several benefits can be
gained. Therefore, although the review had considerable findings on the subject, the findings
assisted in complementing these findings.

4.9 Summary
Therefore, the chapter has followed a structured format whereby it has focused upon discussing
and critically identifying the way in which the influencer marketing and brand loyalty can be
well built. In this regard, it is essential to note that the hypothesis have also been tested and the
findings have been summarised critically.
 DISSERTATION 63

5 Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations

5.1 Overview
Therefore, the research intended to understand how the concept of influencer marketing works
and how it influences the brand loyalty. Through the study, the research intended to establish
the importance of influencer marketing within the context of the enterprise. This objective was
well achieved through the current literature where the key concepts have been discussed.
Another aim of the study was to identify the critical importance of building brand loyalty. In
consideration with this, it is essential that the brand loyalty brings about repeated sales and
overall organisational performance. Considering this, it is important that an enterprise intends
to build suitable brand loyalty. The third objective was to find the impact of the influencer
marketing on the building of brand loyalty. This objective was attained through the statistical
analysis whereby the use of the regression was made to assess the way in which the variables
are strongly associated with one another. A strong relationship between the variables had been
established. This was done through the regression and the correlation analysis. The last
objective of the research was to identify key recommendations using which the enterprise
would be able to establish the way in which brand loyalty may be well built. The study weas
divided into five different chapters. Here, in the first chapter, the background of the research
alongside the key objectives were discussed. This was then followed by the review of literature
where the concepts associated with the brand loyalty and influencer marketing were
significantly assessed. In this context, the research methodology as a chapter identified the use
of primary quantitative research strategy to assess how the influencer marketing and brand
loyalty exist. Lastly the fourth chapter has presented the findings of the research.

5.2 Alignment with objectives

• To identify the impact of influencer marketing on the building of brand loyalty

The study has engaged in a comprehensive review of literature and additionally, also engaged
in a systematic primary research as well. From the primary analysis, that is the survey results,
it was identified that the influencer marketing and brand loyalty are related to one another and
that the influencer marketing strongly influences the brand loyalty. In this regard, it is essential
that through the application of the regression and the correlation analysis, it could be well
examined that when influencer marketing is used, then in such a regard, the overall loyalty of
the brand improves greatly.
 DISSERTATION 64

• To establish a relationship between influencer marketing and the brand loyalty-

building process
Using statistical tools and concepts a strong relationship has been established between the
influencer marketing and the brand loyalty building procedure. As per the hypothesis, each
aspect of the influencer marketing and the factors affecting it such as content, audience,
marketing campaign, influencer popularity and similar factors significantly influence the
overall way in which an enterprise performs in terms of brand loyalty. Here, it becomes
engagingly critical to assure that the correlation analysis has also been able to establish the fact
that the relationship between the variables is positive and moderate and hence, positive
influencer marketer brings about better brand loyalty as well.
• To provide recommendations based on which brand loyalty can be built well.
In the sections below, the overall recommendations which can be made for the different
enterprises has been discussed critically. This helps in establishing how a brand can use
influencer marketing for better brand loyalty building procedure.

5.3 Limitations of the study

The key limitation of this research may be rightly identified as the use of a single method for
the research purpose. In this context, it is suitable to underline that, at present only the primary
quantitative research strategy has been used for the study. Furthermore, only 150 participants
have been used for the purpose of the research.

5.4 Future research scope

In order to overcome these limitations, it becomes engagingly critical to understand and
identify the fact that, the use of an interview method from the brand managers or the influencers
can be engaged in so as to better understand the concept of the brand marketing and related
management so as to assure better results and in-depth concept assessment.

5.5 Implications of the research

The study has brought about practical and academic implications as well. In the context of
practical implications, the study findings can be suitably used for the different enterprises and
their managers so as to appeal to the different influencers with the help of which the brand
loyalty can be engaged in suitably. In line with this, it is essentially critical to identify the fact
that when the different brand managers would utilise the influencer marketing techniques, they
 DISSERTATION 65

would be able to secure better understanding of the market and ensure better strategies to
perform well.
Another implication for the research may be the academic implications. The research has
significantly contributed to the domain of the research by underlying critical literature
associated with the brand loyalty and the influencer marketing. Researchers and academics in
the field would be able to take advantage of this content for their own research work.

5.6 Recommendations
Hence, through the research, it has been largely established that the eCommerce business is
largely dependent on the product sales. When a customer is focused on purchasing a product,
a strong brand is an aspect they generally look out for. In such a context, it is essential to
identify and focus upon the fact that the influencers and brand loyalty appears to be one of the
strongest matches and help the business in gaining suitable return on the investments. Hanaysha
et al. (2022) states that it is because of their reach and trustworthiness, the micro influencers
essentially are able to appeal to the consumers well. In a domain where the audiences can
formulate the personal relationship with an influencer, they are able to trust them in their
purchase decisions as well. Kim and Kim (2021) mentions that 51% of the marketers are
under the belief that the influencer created content generally outperforms the branded content.
Moreover, 89% of the marketers have also identified that the Return on Investment from
influencer marketing is better than other channels. Hence, the influencer marketing may be
established to be the most affordable and potential marketing strategy and must be undertaken
to ensure greater success.

When done right, it can help in gaining high return on investment and authentic items as well.
One of the reasons why the influencer marketing is largely preferred is due to the fact that the
consumers block out the branded content. Here, it is suitable to review upon the fact that several
activities are engaged in online and customers want to ensure that they are being able to review
content useful to them (Hay et al. 2022).

In consideration with this, it is essential to underline that, the brand’s job largely involves
engaging in initiatives and tasks with the help of which the different tasks can be carried out
well and the different individuals can be largely appealed. When the message comes in the
form of ideas from influencer, the customers are wanting to trust them.
 DISSERTATION 66

The influencer campaigns scale fast as well. In consideration with this, it is critical to identify
that the campaigns sell very fast. In this regard, if an enterprise is lucky, they are able to appeal
to the customers well and be able to engage in better return on investment (Hudders and De
Jans 2022). Hence, having understood the advantages of such mediums, it is crucially
significant to understand that, the following recommendation can be given to the different
enterprises who intend to raise their brand loyalty.

1.At first, it is essential that the user generated content is used. When the user generated content
is made use of then, in such a regard, the enterprise would be able to appeal to the consumers
well as they can be engaged and delighted (Ki et al. 2020). Relying on an influencer to help
in creating lifestyle product photos and other demonstrations and appeals may be largely relied
upon. Considering this, it is very essential to understand the fact that, when the fresh photos
would be used for website, the social media and emails blast and the company can secure better
performance.

2.Another recommendation which can be made may be identified that, the brand would be
required to invite the influencers to the referral programs. When the influencers would be
invited to the referral programs, then in such a regard, the influencers can help in growing the
brand. Here, it is essential to note that, one off campaign would assure that the different
influencers help the brand in selling their brand products well (Karagür et al. 2022). Here,
strategies such as paying a flat rate and working on the slew of the campaigns with a platform
like Trend may be well applied to create unique URLs and promo codes for influencers to
share. This would assure higher purchases. In addition to this, inviting the influencer to manage
more campaigns to strengthen their position and have a significant influence on company
success.

3.Another key strategy which can be well utilised by the enterprise may be identified as the use
of cross promotions. This means that co-hosting contest with the influencers and making use
of a branded hashtag challenge and scheduling Instagram TV by unboxing videos and inviting
the influencers to take over the Instagram is a suitable way to attract a larger audience (Kaur et
al. 2020). It is critically important to understand the fact that, when the brand engages in cross
promotion, this helps in applying the overall brand message which assures better end results.
 DISSERTATION 67

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Appendix 1
Questionnaire
1.Age
• 18-24 years
• 25-32 years
• 33-40 years
• 41-52 years
• Above 52 years
2.Gender
• Male
• Female
• Others
3.Income
• Above $50000 annually
• Between $30000 to $50000 annually
• Less than $30000 annually
4.Education
• Diploma
• Graduation
• Others
• Post Graduation
5.Frequency of shopping
• Once a month
• Once a week
• Regularly
• Very rarely
6.Use of social media platform
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Others
• Snapchat
• Twitter
7.Does influencer marketing make a difference to you?
• Yes
• No
8.Are you regularly switching brands?
• Yes
 DISSERTATION 76

• No
9.What makes you loyal to a single brand?
• Branding
• Price
• Quality
• Service
10.In your opinion, does an association with a particular influencer affects your choice of the
brand?
• Yes
• No
11.Do you believe that brands should associate with influencers who can enhance their brand
image or go with the trend and associate with the popular ones?
• Enhance image
• Going with popular ones
Influencer marketing
12.The influencer’s online presence greatly affects the Influencer marketing
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

13.The brand recognition largely affects the success of the influencer marketing
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

14.The influencer marketing’s success is affected by Audience engagement

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

15.The marketing campaign design is greatly affected by influencer marketing success

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
 DISSERTATION 77

Disagree

16.The content attractiveness contributes to better influencer marketing

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

17.The target audience design affects influencer marketing choice

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

18.The influencer marketing is affected by the number of followers the influencer has
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

Brand loyalty
19.The brand image of the enterprise greatly affects the brand loyalty
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

20.The customer management greatly influences brand loyalty

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

21.The value of the brand has a strong influence on the brand loyalty
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
 DISSERTATION 78

22.The product or service quality influences brand quality to a greater extent

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

23.The customer psychology influences their loyalty towards a brand

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

24.The customer service and satisfaction influences their loyalty towards the brand.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree

25.The loyalty towards a brand is affected by its marketing strategy

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
 DISSERTATION 79

Charts and graphs and tables

DISSERTATION 80
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 DISSERTATION 86

Table 34

The influencer’s online presence greatly affects the

Influencer marketing
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly 67 44.7 44.7
Agree
Agree 51 34.0 78.7
Neutral 13 8.7 87.3
Disagree 13 8.7 96.0
Strongly 6 4.0 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 35

The brand recognition largely affects the success of the

influencer marketing
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 61 40.7 40.7
Agree 62 41.3 82.0
Neutral 18 12.0 94.0
Disagree 5 3.3 97.3
Strongly 4 2.7 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 36

The influencer marketing’s success is affected by Audience

engagement
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 55 36.7 36.7
 DISSERTATION 87

Agree 61 40.7 77.3

Neutral 22 14.7 92.0
Disagree 8 5.3 97.3
Strongly 4 2.7 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 37

The marketing campaign design is greatly affected by

influencer marketing success
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 58 38.7 38.7
Agree 66 44.0 82.7
Neutral 13 8.7 91.3
Disagree 12 8.0 99.3
Strongly 1 .7 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 38

The content attractiveness contributes to better influencer

marketing
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 58 38.7 38.7
Agree 59 39.3 78.0
Neutral 20 13.3 91.3
Disagree 11 7.3 98.7
Strongly 2 1.3 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 88

Table 39

The target audience design affects influencer marketing

choice
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 57 38.0 38.0
Agree 63 42.0 80.0
Neutral 14 9.3 89.3
Disagree 10 6.7 96.0
Strongly 6 4.0 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 40

The influencer marketing is affected by the number of

followers the influencer has
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 59 39.3 39.3
Agree 59 39.3 78.7
Neutral 17 11.3 90.0
Disagree 13 8.7 98.7
Strongly 2 1.3 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 41

The brand image of the enterprise greatly affects the brand

loyalty
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 56 37.3 37.3
 DISSERTATION 89

Agree 59 39.3 76.7

Neutral 23 15.3 92.0
Disagree 9 6.0 98.0
Strongly 3 2.0 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 42

The customer management greatly influences brand loyalty

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 57 38.0 38.0
Agree 65 43.3 81.3
Neutral 18 12.0 93.3
Disagree 8 5.3 98.7
Strongly 2 1.3 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 43

The value of the brand has a strong influence on the brand

loyalty
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 52 34.7 34.7
Agree 74 49.3 84.0
Neutral 12 8.0 92.0
Disagree 7 4.7 96.7
Strongly 5 3.3 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0
 DISSERTATION 90

Table 44

The product or service quality influences brand quality to a

greater extent
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 52 34.7 34.7
Agree 60 40.0 74.7
Neutral 21 14.0 88.7
Disagree 9 6.0 94.7
Strongly 8 5.3 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 45

The customer psychology influences their loyalty towards a

brand
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 55 36.7 36.7
Agree 68 45.3 82.0
Neutral 19 12.7 94.7
Disagree 3 2.0 96.7
Strongly 5 3.3 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 46

The customer service and satisfaction influences their

loyalty towards the brand.
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 68 45.3 45.3
Agree 58 38.7 84.0
 DISSERTATION 91

Neutral 14 9.3 93.3

Disagree 8 5.3 98.7
Strongly 2 1.3 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 47

The loyalty towards a brand is affected by its marketing

strategy
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Valid Strongly Agree 57 38.0 38.0
Agree 70 46.7 84.7
Neutral 14 9.3 94.0
Disagree 8 5.3 99.3
Strongly 1 .7 100.0
Disagree
Total 150 100.0

Table 48

Descriptive Statistics
Std.
N Mean Deviation Skewness Kurtosis
Std. Std.
Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Error Statistic Error
The influencer’s 150 1.93 1.115 1.221 .198 .712 .394
online presence
greatly affects the
Influencer marketing
DISSERTATION 92

The brand 150 1.86 .941 1.311 .198 1.897 .394

recognition largely
affects the success of
the influencer
marketing
The influencer 150 1.97 .986 1.089 .198 .995 .394
marketing’s success
is affected by
Audience
engagement
The marketing 150 1.88 .919 1.083 .198 .783 .394
campaign design is
greatly affected by
influencer marketing
success
The content 150 1.93 .967 .992 .198 .514 .394
attractiveness
contributes to better
influencer marketing
The target audience 150 1.97 1.052 1.260 .198 1.190 .394
design affects
influencer marketing
choice
The influencer 150 1.93 .988 1.025 .198 .470 .394
marketing is affected
by the number of
followers the
influencer has
The brand image of 150 1.96 .975 1.004 .198 .694 .394
the enterprise greatly
affects the brand
loyalty
DISSERTATION 93

The customer 150 1.89 .909 1.097 .198 1.141 .394

management greatly
influences brand
loyalty
The value of the 150 1.93 .956 1.409 .198 2.205 .394
brand has a strong
influence on the
brand loyalty
The product or 150 2.07 1.100 1.111 .198 .739 .394
service quality
influences brand
quality to a greater
extent
The customer 150 1.90 .932 1.360 .198 2.341 .394
psychology
influences their
loyalty towards a
brand
The customer service 150 1.79 .917 1.286 .198 1.510 .394
and satisfaction
influences their
loyalty towards the
brand.
The loyalty towards a 150 1.84 .852 1.106 .198 1.283 .394
brand is affected by
its marketing strategy
Influencer Marketing 150 1.9600 .87378 .812 .198 .171 .394
Brand Loyalty 150 1.9133 .75027 .627 .198 .350 .394
Valid N (listwise) 150
 DISSERTATION 94

Table 49

Item-Total Statistics
Scale Corrected Cronbach's
Scale Mean if Variance if Item-Total Alpha if Item
Item Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Deleted
The influencer’s online 28.7867 78.464 .638 .889
presence greatly affects
the Influencer
marketing
The brand recognition 28.8600 82.766 .506 .894
largely affects the
success of the influencer
marketing
The influencer 28.7533 81.516 .552 .892
marketing’s success is
affected by Audience
engagement
The marketing 28.8400 81.249 .617 .890
campaign design is
greatly affected by
influencer marketing
success
The content 28.7867 81.860 .545 .892
attractiveness
contributes to better
influencer marketing
The target audience 28.7533 79.959 .599 .890
design affects
influencer marketing
choice
DISSERTATION 95

The influencer 28.7867 82.290 .506 .894

marketing is affected by
the number of followers
the influencer has
The brand image of the 28.7600 83.110 .465 .895
enterprise greatly
affects the brand loyalty
The customer 28.8333 82.717 .531 .893
management greatly
influences brand loyalty
The value of the brand 28.7933 82.984 .484 .894
has a strong influence
on the brand loyalty
The product or service 28.6467 80.754 .524 .893
quality influences brand
quality to a greater
extent
The customer 28.8200 81.773 .574 .891
psychology influences
their loyalty towards a
brand
The customer service 28.9333 83.405 .483 .894
and satisfaction
influences their loyalty
towards the brand.
The loyalty towards a 28.8800 83.959 .489 .894
brand is affected by its
marketing strategy
Influencer Marketing 28.7600 79.257 .791 .884
Brand Loyalty 28.8067 81.097 .789 .886
 DISSERTATION 96

Participants Information Sheet

The title of the research project:

THE INFLUENCE OF INFLUENCER MARKETING ON BUILDING BRAND

LOYALTY

Bournemouth University Ethical Committee Approval Number : 51417

Supervisor: Nasiru Taura
Student Researcher: Manjinder kaur
Student’s Faculty: Bournemouth University Business School
Student’s Degree: MSc International Management

Dear Participant,

You are being invited to take part in a research project. Before you decide it is important for
you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to
read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Ask us if there
is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. Take time to decide
whether or not you wish to take part.

What is the purpose of the project?

The research aims to significantly assess the influence of influencer marketing on brand
loyalty.

Objectives

Research objectives associated with the study are:

• To assess the importance of influencer marketing within the context of the enterprise
• To understand the critical importance of building brand loyalty
• To identify the impact of influencer marketing on the building of brand loyalty
• To establish a relationship between influencer marketing and the brand loyalty-
building process
• To provide recommendations based on which brand loyalty can be built well.
Research Questions

Research questions that are derived from the research objectives are:
• What is the importance of influencer marketing within the context of the enterprise?
• What is the critical importance of building brand loyalty?
• What is the impact of the influencer marketing on the building of brand loyalty?
• What is the relationship between influencer marketing and the brand loyalty-building
process?
• What recommendations can be made based on which brand loyalty can be built well?
 DISSERTATION 97

Why have I been chosen?

As a consumer, we believe that you would have useful insights into the concept of influencer
marketing and hence, we require 10 minutes of your time to fill an online questionnaire. A
total of 150-200 participants aged 18 and above have been targeted. The questionnaire will
comprise of questions associated with influencer marketing and brand loyalty.

Do I have to take part?

It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part, you will be
given this information sheet to keep (and be asked to sign a Participant Agreement Form).
You can withdraw at any time, up to the point of where the data are processed and become
anonymous, so your identity cannot be determined; without it affecting any benefits that you
are entitled to in any way. You do not have to give a reason. Deciding to take part or not will
not have any impact on you.

Can I change my mind about taking part?

Yes, you can stop participating in study activities at any time and without giving a reason.

If I change my mind, what happens to my information?

Your data will be destroyed and will have no more existence.

What would taking part involve?

Your participation is expected to last no more than 10 minutes. We shall have a small
questionnaire shared via an online link using Google form. We shall distribute it to all
participants. You will be required to fill it up as per your choice and submit it.

What are the advantages and possible disadvantages or risks of taking part?

Whilst there are no immediate benefits for those people participating in the project, it is hoped
that this work will generate insights into the concept of influencer marketing and brand
loyalty and that it can be used by academicians, researchers, students and managers of various
brands as well. Policy wise, the study would contribute to the formation of idea about how
the influencer marketing influences the overall brand loyalty and how engagements can be
taken.
DISSERTATION 98

Will my taking part in this project be kept confidential?

All the information that we collect about you during the course of the research will be kept
strictly confidential. You will not be identifiable in any reports or publications. All data
relating to this study will be kept on a Bournemouth University password protected secure
network.

What type of information will be sought from me and why is the collection of this
information relevant for achieving the research project’s objectives?

Specifically, we expect your insightful perspectives on the concept of brand loyalty and
influencer marketing. In this regard, it is significant to understand that, your perception on
how influencer content infuses you to purchase brand products have to be studied and
identified.

Contact for further information:

Manjinder Kaur (Student Researcher) Nasiru Taura

Student’s Faculty :Bournemouth University Supervisor : Research Project
Business School Senior Lecturer In Entrepreneurship
Student’s Degree : MSc International Bournemouth University Business School
Management
Email:manjinderkaurbdm@gmail.com Email :ntaura@bournemouth.ac.uk

Complaints:

In case of any complaints please contact with my Bournemouth University by email to

Researchgovernance@bournemouth.ac.uk

Will I be recorded, and how will the recorded media be used?

No recordings would be engaged.

Finally, If you decide to take part, you will be given a copy of this information sheet and
a signed participant Agreement Form to keep . We do sincerely thank you for taking
time to read the information sheet and for considering taking part in this research
project.
 DISSERTATION 99

Consent form:

I, …….(name of the respondent) hereby consent to participate in the survey on the topic

titled, ‘The influence of influencer marketing on building brand loyalty’. I hereby confirm

that I have not been subjected to any type of unethical activities like coercion to participate

in the survey. I am going to provide responses to the best of my knowledge.

Name :

Email :

Contact number :

Address :
 DISSERTATION 100

Appendix-2
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