Instafamous: The Credibility of Instagram Influencers and Its Impact Consumer Behaviour in The Indonesia Beauty Product Market

CYNTHIA JEANNET, Tarsisius Hani Handoko, M.B.A., Ph.D.

2018 | Tesis | Magister Manajemen

Perkembangan teknologi membawa dampak pada perilaku pelanggan. Ini membawa munculnya media sosial di mana orang dapat saling terhubung dan memberikan kemudahan untuk menemukan informasi. Elektronik Word-of-Mouth (E-WOM) telah dianggap penting bagi orang-orang untuk menemukan ulasan sebelum membeli suatu produk. Selain itu, saat ini, muncul selebritas baru di media sosial seperti yang kita kenal sebagai selebriti online atau selebritis mikro. Di media sosial, selebriti mikro berbagi pengalaman dan pengetahuan mereka dengan para pengikut mereka. Akibatnya, ulasan dari selebritas mikro digunakan oleh orang-orang untuk memberi mereka keyakinan dalam membeli keputusan. Saat ini, salah satu media sosial populer adalah Instagram. Selebritas mikro di Instagram biasa disebut sebagai Instafamous. Instafamous adalah orang yang memiliki popularitas di antara pengikut mereka. Namun, kredibilitas Instafamous masih dipertanyakan untuk memengaruhi perilaku pelanggan. Oleh karena itu, disertasi ini menguji kredibilitas Instafamous pada perilaku pelanggan dalam produk kecantikan di pasar Indonesia. Kredibilitas Instafamous telah dilihat dari tiga aspek seperti daya tarik, kepercayaan, dan keahlian. Selain itu, presentasi diri dari Instafamous telah dilihat sebagai bagian penting juga untuk memepegaruhi perilaku pelanggan. Wawancara dilakukan dengan 14 wanita Indonesia yang aktif sebagai pengguna Instagram melalui panggilan video. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa kredibilitas Instafamous mempengaruhi perilaku pelanggan. Kepercayaan terhadap Instafamous adalah yang paling penting terhadap perilaku pelanggan. Oleh karena itu, ini dapat digunakan oleh perusahaan untuk memanfaatkan fenomena ini untuk menarik lebih banyak pelanggan.

The development of technology brings an impact on customer behaviour. It brings the emergence of social media where people can connect each other and give the easiness to find information. Electronic of Word-of-Mouth (E-WOM) has seen as important for people to find review before buy a product. Moreover, nowadays, it arise new celebrities in social media as we know as online celebrities or micro-celebrities. In social media, micro-celebrities share their experience and knowledge to their followers. As a result, a review from micro-celebrities is used by people to give them confidence in buying decision. Currently, one of popular social media is Instagram. Microcelebrities in Instagram commonly call as Instafamous. Instafamous is a person who has popularity among their followers. However, the credibility of Instafamous is still questionable to influence on customer behaviour. Therefore, this dissertation examines the credibility of Instafamous on customer behaviour in beauty product in Indonesia market. The credibility of Instafamous has seen from three aspects such as attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise. Moreover, self-presentation of Instafamous has seen as important part to influence customer behaviour as well. Interviews were conducted with 14 Indonesian women who are active as Instagram users through video call. This dissertation attempts to find out the credibility framework in the context of online. The finding shows that the credibility of Instafamous influence customer behaviour. Trustworthiness of Instafamous is the most important towards customer behaviour. Therefore, it can be used by companies to take benefit of this phenomenon to attract more customers.

Kata Kunci : Electronic of Word-of-Mouth (E-WOM), Social Media, Instagram, Microcelebrities, Instafamous, Customer behaviour