مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله تحقیقات بازاریابی – Journal of Business Research

Social media provides marketers with an expansive set of tools that enable them to reach consumers directly. The specificity of individual platforms allows for creative and innovative social media marketing strategies. Using the defining characteristics of social media platforms, marketers can tailor content to fit the needs of the audience; therefore, it is important for researchers to study social media platforms individually, with a focus on what makes the platform unique for marketing and branding. This study focuses on YouTube, the video-sharing website, that allows users to create and upload videos that are viewed and shared by hundreds of millions of viewers (Freeman & Chapman, 2007).

YouTube users create vlogs and some have amassed a large following, with some vloggers having upwards of 100 million subscribers. Vloggers upload videos about products they use or their personal life, thereby increasing traffic from subscribers and anonymous viewers. Consequently, vloggers become what is referred to as YouTube celebrities. The emergence of the vlog and the success of “YouTube celebrities” have provided luxury brands with a marketing tool to connect with consumers. For example, L’Oréal launched a new makeup line inspired by Guru Michelle Phan, a YouTube beauty vlogger with more than 4.5 million subscribers (Lacy, 2013).

Research on the use of social media for luxury fashion marketing is limited (Mike, 2014). This study investigates the potential of fashion vloggers as luxury brands ambassadors. PSI and social comparison theory provide the theoretical framework for this investigation. PSI has been studied extensively in communication and provides a foundation for understanding the one-way relationship between media personalities and viewers. The relationship between consumers and vloggers, even though it is a one-way relationship, has potential to influence consumer perceptions of luxury brand products. Social comparison theory is used to explain the effect of PSI on consumers’ luxury brand perceptions.