Does the Development of Cognitive Dissonance Inhibit the Success of Influencer Marketing? - An Empirical Study on Implicit Associations Towards Influencers as New Advertising Ambassadors

Összefoglaló

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,3,, language: English, abstract: The present master's thesis addresses the subject of the development of cognitive dissonance and its potential inhibitory effects on the success of influencer marketing. The focus lies on the one hand on the investigation of the topic on the foundation of a theoretical literature analysis of meaningful theories, as well on the other hand on the execution of an empirical study. The theoretical investigation of the topic is carried out in the introductory chapter 'Identification and Initial Review of Key Literature' on the basis of literature and applied, practical examples. The empirical investigation is based on the research question: Which effect do cognitive disso-nances have on the purchase of products advertised by influencers?" and the hypothesis: Consumers tend to possess unconscious, automated attitudes in the arrangement of bias or stereotypes towards influencer marketing. In order to investigate these, an implicit association test with pictorial and literal stimuli to the categories influencer and classic advertising figure was created. In this study 59 persons participated as valid test participants. The central results of the research show that both explicit and implicit attitudes towards influencers and their form of marketing exist. Cognitive dissonances resulting from this are very likely, though an actual slowing down of these attitudes on the purchasing process of products advertised by influencers cannot be confirmed fully. Since the proven implicit attitudes only show a medium IAT effect, a retardation of the purchase decision can be assumed. However, as current figures from influencer marketing indicate, a final inhibition cannot be assumed in total.