The more followers the better? The impact of food influencers on consumer behaviour in the social media context

PurposeThe study explores the impact of food influencers on consumer behaviour in the social media context. It assesses the interplay between the number of followers an influencer has and the type of content this influencer communicates to the audience. Doing so, the research contributes to the stra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British food journal (1966) 2024-11, Vol.126 (12), p.4018-4035
Main Authors: Misra, Ankita, Dinh, Tam Duc, Ewe, Soo Yeong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audiences
Celebrities
Consumer attitudes
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Context
Credibility
Digital media
Food
Food industry
Heuristic
Influence
Influencer marketing
Information processing
Perceptions
Social behavior
Social networks
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Summary:PurposeThe study explores the impact of food influencers on consumer behaviour in the social media context. It assesses the interplay between the number of followers an influencer has and the type of content this influencer communicates to the audience. Doing so, the research contributes to the strategic refinement of influencer marketing practices, especially in the food industry.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed an experimental between-subject design 2 (influencer type: micro vs macro) x 2 (content type: informational vs entertaining). It recruited 197 Prolific participants (45.7% female, Mage = 45.076), testing their perceptions towards the influencer and the endorsed product in the social media post.FindingsThere was a significant interaction between influencer type and content type on consumers’ attitudes towards and their willingness to buy the advertised product. Specifically, the notion that “the more followers, the better” may only be applicable when consumers peruse the content for entertainment purposes, whereas while they read it for information purposes, a micro influencer (with hundreds to thousands of followers) may have as much impact on consumer behaviour as a macro influencer (with hundreds of thousands to a million followers).Originality/valueOur findings offer a nuanced understanding into the conventional wisdom that people often follow crowd behaviour. Using the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM), we explicate when the number of followers matters and when the content type prevails.
ISSN:0007-070X
1758-4108
DOI:10.1108/BFJ-01-2024-0096