The purpose of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of the reasons why ecommerce companies work with influencer marketing in order to create brand awareness in international markets. In order to conduct this research, relevant aspects of the phenomenon have been identified and consequently analysed in relation to traditional marketing strategies and international markets. By following a qualitative research method, a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and how companies use influencer marketing vs traditional marketing strategies can thereby be acquired. This was done by acquiring primary data from four different e-commerce companies that works with influencer marketing. The companies are all located in Sweden and active in international markets. The thesis has followed a deductive research approach, due to that the research area was considered to be rather unexplored, and thus a better pre understanding of the research area seemed warranted. Furthermore, the literature review that has been done includes theories related to international marketing, social media, word of mouth, brand awareness and influencer marketing. The literature review has resulted in a conceptual framework, which demonstrates the relations between the different theories. The conceptual framework has thereafter been used in order to analyse the empirical data, which has been derived from the interviews with representatives from four companies. The empirical findings are then presented together with analysis and discussion in the following chapter. Moreover, the empirical findings/analysis chapter visualizes the similarities and the dissimilarities between the theory and the findings. The analysis chapter additionally involves a discussion and is structured in accordance with the conceptual framework and the questions asked. The following and final chapter of the thesis presents the conclusions that have been derived from the analysis. The main theoretical implications that this thesis has resulted in, involves filling the research gap as well as providing a definition of the phenomenon of influencer marketing in a context of international business. The main practical implication is that an understanding of influencer marketing creates word of mouth and brand awareness. This in a combination with being active on social media can consequently help e-commerce companies to internationalize into new markets. As this thesis introduces the phenomenon of influencer marketing in a new context, it provides new information about the topic. Furthermore, the research can be valuable for e-commerce companies that have entered, or plan to enter an international market. The authors furthermore present the theoretical and practical implications and provide recommendations and suggestions for future research.

Under år 2016 har marknadsföringsstrategin influencer marketing, att låta inflytelserika personer dela budskap om varumärken online i form av sponsrade innehåll, ökat i popularitet. Den här uppsatsen ämnar öka förståelsen kring hur Influencers konstruerar inlägg som är sponsrade av företag på medieplattformen Instagram i Sverige idag. Vår ambition är att bidra med kunskap inom området marknadskommunikation, som företag i sin tur kommer kunna använda sig av i framtida samarbeten. I den här studien använder vi oss av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att undersöka sponsrade inlägg från åtta olika Influencers inom fyra intresseområden: mode, hälsa, skönhet och livsstil. Ett strategiskt urval används i valet av Influencers och Instagraminlägg. Varje inlägg analyseras med hjälp av ett analysschema som grundar sig i teori och tidigare forskning. Analysschemat innefattar fyra olika teman: visuell kommunikation, skriftlig kommunikation, lagar och riktlinjer samt branding. Samtliga teman avser att besvara studiens övergripande syfte och frågeställningar. Det teoretiska ramverket är definierat utifrån branding, influencer marketing, user- and producer generated content och visuell kommunikation. Utifrån studiens resultat kan vi utläsa att samarbeten mellan Influencers och företag på Instagram varierar i sin utformning, speciellt med hänsyn till Influencerns intresseområde. Influencers inlägg inom områdena mode och hälsa tenderar att vara proffsiga och genomarbetade, vilket visar upp en idealiserad bild av verkligheten. Influencers inom området livsstil fokuserar istället på verklighetstrogna bilder som skapar ett intimt förhållande mellan dem och dess följare. Utifrån studien går det även att konstatera att det förekommer brister i hur influencer marketing används, exempelvis direkta uppmaningar till köp och att företag har en alltför stor inblandning i utformandet av inläggen. Studien påvisar att nyckeln till att bedriva framgångsrik influencer marketing är att vara transparent med samarbetet och låta en Influencer, vars intresse och ton stämmer överens med varumärket, förmedla ett genuint och personligt budskap om det. / During 2016 the marketing strategy influencer marketing, to let influential people share branding messages online in the shape of sponsored content, gained in popularity. This thesis intends to increase the understanding regarding how collaborations between Influencers and companies are constructed on the media platform Instagram. The study aims to examine how Influencers construct their sponsored posts and through that process give an insight into how Influencer marketing is used in Sweden today. Our ambition is to contribute with knowledge within the field marketing communication which companies will be able to use in future collaborations.   In this qualitative content analysis we are examining sponsored posts from eight different Influencers within four areas of interest: fashion, health, beauty and lifestyle. A strategic selection is used when choosing the Influencers and the Instagram posts. Each post is analysed by the means of an analytic scheme, which is based on theory and previous research within the field. The analytic scheme contains four different themes: visual communication, written communication, laws and branding. All of the themes are designed with the purpose of answering the formulated questions of the study and its overall object.  The theoretical framework is based on branding, influencer marketing, user- and producer generated content as well as visual communication. The results of the study shows that the way companies and Influencers design their collaborations on Instagram vary, especially in regards to the different areas of interest. The collaborations with Influencers within the areas fashion and health tend to have a professional style that shows of an idealized view on reality. Influencers within the area lifestyle instead choose to focus on true to life images that create intimacy between them and their followers. Based on the study a few deficiency problems that exist in the way influencer marketing is being used today have been establish, for example call to purchase and that companies get to involved in the construction of the posts. The study shows that the key to successful influencer marketing is to be transparent with the collaboration and to let an Influencer, whose interest and tone of voice match up with the brand, convey a genuine and personalized message regarding it.

I takt med den ökade betydelsen av symbolisk konsumtion har begreppet Social Media Influencers, SMI, grundats. SMI är ett samlingsbegrepp för de oberoende personer som genom sina sociala medier påverkar och inspirerar sina följare genom att vara en förebild inom mode, skönhet, livsstil, hälsa och inredning. SMI representerar dagens opinionsledare då de genom sina sociala medier sprider marknadsföring som människor uppfattar som uppriktig och genuin. Idag används SMI strategiskt av företag för att nå ut till kunder på ett individualiserat och anpassat sätt. Den här nya typen av marknadsföringsstrategi kan ses som en modern version av Word of Mouth (WOM). Marknadsföringsstrategin grundas i att informationen som kommer från en SMI ofta uppfattas mer som rekommendationer än reklam. SMI har en betydande roll på marknaden idag då det är viktigare än någonsin att visa upp vilken social grupp man tillhör. Speciellt för unga kvinnor, som finner det viktigt att passa in och följa nya trender. Instagram är utsedd till en av de mest skadliga sociala medierna för ungdomars mentala hälsa. Detta då det bidrar till en ohälsosam självbild och skapar höga krav på människors liv. Samtidigt som SMIs roll på marknaden växer, blir konsumenter allt mer reklamtrötta. Därför ifrågasätts SMI som fenomen och 329 kvinnor runt om i Sverige har besvarat en webbenkät kring sin inställning till SMI på Instagram. Det är tydligt att många kvinnor har svårt att bilda en konkret uppfattning kring sin inställning till fenomenet och många varierar sig i sina ställningstaganden. Undersökningen visar att kvinnor med högre utbildning och i äldre åldrar är kritiska till budskapen SMI sprider via Instagram, medan kvinnor med lägre utbildning och i den yngre generationen anser marknadsföringen från SMI som uppriktig och ärlig i en högre grad. Undersökningen visar också att trots att många kvinnor har en negativ inställning till SMI säger de sig ändå handla produkter som SMI rekommenderar. / In line with the increased importance of symbolic consumption the notion of Social Media Influencers, SMI, has been found. SMI is a concept used to describe independent people who both influence and inspire other people on their social media channels by being a role model in fashion, beauty, lifestyle, health and interior design. SMI represents today’s opinion leaders by using their social media channels to spread advertising and marketing to people who perceive the information as sincere and genuine. Today SMI are used in companies business strategies to reach out to customers in a individualized and faithful manner. This new kind of marketing strategy can be seen as a modern version of Word of Mouth (WOM). The purpose by using this kind of marketing is that the information that comes from an SMI are often perceived more as recommendations than advertising. SMI’s got a significant role on the market today and it’s more important than ever before to show what social group you belong to. Especially for young womens, who finds it important to fit in and follow the last trends. Instagram is one of the social media platforms which is the most detrimental for young people’s mental health. It contributes to an unhealthy self-image and creates high demands on people's life. At the same time as SMI is rapidly growing, consumers gets tired of being constantly chased by advertising. Therefore people are now questioning SMI as a phenomenon. 329 women in Sweden have participated in a web survey about their approach to SMI at Instagram. It’s shown that many women find it hard to form a concrete perception of their attitude towards the phenomenon and many women varies in their positions. The survey shows that older women and women with higher education are critical towards what SMI’s are posting on Instagram, while women with lower education and in younger generations consider SMI's marketing to be sincere and honest. The survey also shows that despite the fact that many women got a negative attitude towards SMI, they’re still keen on buying whatever that SMI recommends them to buy.

I det ständigt förändrande digitala landskapet har det för företag växt fram nya möjligheter för marknadskommunikation och sociala media marknadsföring (SMM) har blivit en stor del av företags marknadsstrategier. En växande trend är att använda sociala media influencers (SMI) för exempelvis reklamsamarbeten eller varumärkesexponering. Forskning inom området tyder på att marknadskomunikation med hjälp av SMI:s är effektivt men varför en del SMI:s är mer effektiva än andra framgår inte tydligt. Därför valdes detta område som fokus för studien, med syftet att undersöka vilka variabler inlägg med högt interaktions- och affektionsvärde innhåller. Detta med intention att etablera ett ramverk som företag kan använda vid val av SMI.Studien är en explorativ undersökning av deduktiv ansats, innehållande två kvantitativa innehållsanalyser vilka undersöker totalt 77 intagraminlägg från 17 svenska skönhetsinfluencers. Resultatet påvisade att det finns en tydlig korrelation mellan specifika variabler och högt interaktion- och affektionsvärde. Resultatet visar att inlägg som förekommer inom kategorin hög interaktion och hög affektion antingen innehåller en bild på SMI:n eller denne tillsammans med anhöriga samt använder emojis i inläggstexten. En slutsats kunde dras gällande värdet av att SMI:n även interagerar med sina följare samt har ett inläggsmönster och värderingar som som stämmer med de företag som ett samarbete avses ingås med. Även vikten av parasocial interaktion vilken skapas genom tillit och intimitet till SMI:n belyses i studiens slutsats. / In the ever-changing digital landscape, new opportunities for marketing communication have emerged for companies. Social media marketing (SMM) has become a large part of companies marketing strategies and a growing trend is to use social media influencers (SMI) by, for example, advertising collaborations or exposure of a brand. Research indicates that this trend is effective for marketing communication. However, there are no studies on why some SMI:s are more effective when it comes to marketing communication on Instagram than others. Therefore, the researchers chose to design a study where selected variables ¬¬were examined in instagramposts to determine which variables constitute high interaction and affection value. For the purpose of establishing a framework for what companies should keep track of when choosing to collaborate with an SMI.The study is an exploratory study with an deductive approach that contains two quantitative content analyzes and examined a total of 77 Instagram posts from 17 Swedish beauty influencers.The results showed that there is a clear correlation between specific variables and high interaction- and affectionvalue. Furthermore, the results show that posts that occur in the category of high interaction and high affection contains either a picture of the SMI or the SMI together with relatives. The use of emojis also occur in this category. The conclusion refers to the importance of a SMI:s interaction with its followers. It also proves important to having a post pattern that matches with the value of the brand which a collaboration is initiated with. In addition to this, the study's conclusion highlighted the importance of creating a strong parasocial interaction (PSI) by incorporating trust and intimacy of the followers.

Background: For years companies have been using SMIs to communicate their brands and influencer marketing has become a thriving concept in this social-media era. Beauty retailing industry, as a global business with the third biggest follower base on social media, makes itself qualified and valuable for the study of influencer marketing. Purpose: The aim of the thesis is to investigate which type of influencers would be more influential in promotion of beauty product categories. Furthermore, the study intends to research on consumers’ review habits, preferred traits of influencers and reasons behind the actions. Method: To accomplish the purpose of this study, we conducted an abductive approach by the aid of both qualitative and quantitative data. The data was gathered through a questionnaire and a focus group, primarily among students in international universities. This in order to reach out to young people with different nationalities since it is an international study. Conclusion: Top influentials and narrative experts are shown to be more efficient for influencer marketing in the beauty industry especially when they are perceived trustworthy. Additionally, we found that the influencers have an impact on the consumers most when it comes to information search and the evaluation of alternatives.

Background: Celebrity endorsements is a marketing strategy that has been long used bymarketers to strengthen brands' reputations. Nowadays, due to the fast growth of socialmedia, number of people using social media increase day-by-day. Hence, the use of digitalplatforms as marketing channel has increasing. Plus, a changing shift from traditionalcelebrity endorsement to influencer marketing has also been observed whereby well-knownsocial media users are employed by brands to promote their products. Those people areknown as social media influencers (SMIs) and are deemed as non-traditional celebrities.According to advertising and marketing literature, celebrity endorsement is an effectiveapproach to improve attitudes towards brands and raise buying intentions. However, thereare limited research on the impacts of different types of celebrities on social media uponcustomers, especially in the perfume industry. Therefore, this study was created to fill this gap. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of Instagram influencers onVietnamese customer’s attitude and intentions in purchasing perfume. This paper adoptedthe Ohanian model of source credibility since the authors aim to examine associationbetween SMIs’ perceived attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise and customerattitude. The relationship between customer attitude and purchasing intention of perfumewas then also investigated. Method: The survey method was used as the research method. Online questionnaire wasemployed to gather primary data from the respondents in Vietnam. A total of 147 sampleVietnamese Instagram users participated in the survey and collected data was analysed usingthe SPSS 28.0 version. Conclusion: The research results showed that all three dimension of source credibilitymodel, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise, had significant influences on customerattitude. Findings also demonstrated a positive relationship between customer attitudetowards SMIs and their buying intention of perfumes. This study made several contributionsto both theory and practice, which were also highlighted in this paper.

Background: Given consumers’ rising awareness of the environmental damages caused by the fashion industry, brands now discuss sustainability in relation to their products often through using social media platforms. With the ambition to shift consumers’ purchasing behavior, firms strive to collaborate with influencers to endorse their sustainable products. Following the increased discussion about sustainability and sustainable fashion online, a new niche of influencers has appeared. However, it remains unexplored how the Swedish Gen Z perceives this category of influencers. Purpose: The purpose of the research is to understand how the Swedish Gen Z perceives sustainable [fashion] influencers on Instagram. More precisely, the study attempts to explore how this generation of consumers responds to these influencers with regards to their trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, brand fit, (un)sponsored content, and communication style.  Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of the research, a qualitative study was conducted. The research is of exploratory nature and empirical data was collected through four focus group interviews. The respondents were chosen through a purposive sampling technique, including Swedish Gen Zers who have an active Instagram account. Conclusion: The study found that the Swedish Gen Z responds favorably to sustainable influencers on Instagram. Particularly, this generation supports thrifting influencers the most as they foresee the future of sustainable fashion to be in the hands of this category.

Background: Social media influencers (SMIs) have become an important asset to the constantly changing world of marketing. The impact SMIs have within e-commerce and the influence they have on consumers have been observed. Therefore, the use of SMIs as a marketing tool in improving brand knowledge has been vastly adopted by many companies. However, the extent to which SMIs as co-founders contribute to creation of brand knowledge, remains undiscovered.  Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate how SMIs as co-founders in e-commerce companies contribute to creating brand knowledge. It aims to contribute with valuable knowledge in how e-commerce companies can implement modernized marketing and branding strategies by including SMIs as co-founders in a company.  Method: This qualitative study is based on semi-structured interviews with six relevant participants operating in four companies within the same industry. A deductive approach was implemented, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis, enabling interpretations and extractions of important themes and patterns. Conclusion: The research concludes that SMIs as co-founders significantly impact brand knowledge in e-commerce companies. Consumers form associations with the SMIs that are transferred into the companies. Further, SMIs contribute with an already existing engaged consumer base through their established relationships of trust and credibility. However, it is important to refrain from completely relying on the SMIs.

Background The online second-hand fashion market is a growing market that can be promoted with the help of social media and influencers. Influencers can help with store promotion as well as to promote sustainability and, therefore, promote this alternative fashion consumption style. Furthermore, in social media marketing videos, the aspects of education, entertainment, and esthetics have been noted to be important dimensions to consider.  Purpose This study aims to describe what aspects of influencer marketing videos appeal to consumers in the second hand fashion online store market. Methodology The study took the form of a descriptive and qualitative study in order to describe what aspects of the dimensions of education, entertainment and esthetics appeal to consumers in the second hand fashion online stores. A pilot study with two participants was conducted in order to ensure that the interview guide was understandable for the main study. Six participants took part in the main study with online interviews. Findings The empirical data contributed to the consideration of the most relevant aspects within each dimension. In education, these were the type of information, the message delivery and the deliverer. For entertainment, this was the influencer’s personality and engagement. For esthetics, the visuality of the video was evidently to be considered.  Conclusion The findings contribute to describing an appealing influencer marketing video from all of the three dimensions. For education, the importance lies in the delivering verbal information about sustainability and about the online store, as well as the influencer’s trustworthiness and persuasiveness. The findings of education are highly context specific for the second hand fashion market. Similarly, the persona was important regarding the perceived entertainment, as energetic and engaging persona successfully engaged, together with the aspect of suitable and interesting plot. For esthetics, the visuality, such as basic colors and short text were perceived appealing, as well as the style of the influencer.  The dimensions of entertainment and esthetics, however, act more as enhancing dimensions for the appeal, and education can be seen as an important appealing factor on its own. Moreover, for all dimensions the influencer has a central role for how the content and the marketing video is perceived by the audience.

Background: Social media influencers provide their followers with different monetary sales promotions to increase purchases by the brands they endorse. Hedonic motivation and emotions initiate each other and are fulfilled through consumers' need to act. As a result, monetary sales promotions will encourage consumers to buy unplanned purchases. Previous research recommends additional quantitative research on sales promotions and influencers, and others propose more research to fill the gap on influencers' impact on society. The interest lies in how these, in turn, affect consumers' impulsive buying behavior.  Purpose: This study aims to explain the effects of hedonic motivation and emotions, triggered by social media influencers' monetary sales promotions on consumers' impulse buying online.   Methodology: This paper is explanatory, with a deductive approach to research while utilizing a quantitative strategy to achieve a cross-sectional research design. The study has three hypotheses that were deducted based on the concepts within the theoretical framework, and the data was collected through a self-completion questionnaire to receive its final results: if the hypotheses were rejected or accepted. Furthermore, the questionnaire received a total of 105 responses. Findings: All hypotheses were statistically insignificant when tested with the control variables. However, hedonic motivation was accepted when disregarding the control variables by only testing the independent variables against the dependent. Nevertheless, all hypotheses are rejected based on their statistical insignificance. Furthermore, the findings portray that the variables are too intercorrelated. While the results did not provide any practical contribution, it acknowledged the difficulties with measuring hedonic motivation, pleasure, and arousal simultaneously with impulse buying online.   Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that there are no positive effects of hedonic motivation and emotions and that these are triggered by social media influencers' monetary sales promotion on consumers' impulse buying behavior online.