Influencers & Influencer Marketing: Implications for Consumers &

Society

Guest Editors:

Dr. Rebecca Mardon, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Consumer culture, digital consumption, consumer collectives, influencer marketing, digit

materiality

Dr. Hayley Cocker, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

Consumer culture, social media influencers, influencer marketing, celebrity culture, fando

Professor Kate Daunt, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Disinformation, influencer marketing, social media dynamics, consumer deviance, service

dysfunction

Professor Robert Kozinets, University of Southern California, California, USA

Consumer culture, digital technology, influencer marketing, digital methods, netnography

Special issue information:

The emergence of influencers – personal brands that build an audience over social media with a
consistent flow of distinctive content (Kozinets et al. 2023) - has had important implications for
marketing and consumer culture. Whilst some influencers are niche, unknown outside of a small
circle of devoted and highly engaged followers, others have followings that rival those of
mainstream celebrities (Campbell and Farrell 2020). Brands have been quick to capitalise on
influencers’ fame and influence and are forecast to spend over $32.5 billion on influencer
marketing in 2023 (Nasrin 2022). Marketing research on influencers has largely focused on
identifying factors that impact the effectiveness of influencer marketing strategies (e.g., Hugh et
al. 2022; Leung et al. 2022a, 2022b; Wies et al. forthcoming; Borges-Tiago et al. 2023; Ren et al.
2023) and exploring issues of transparency and media literacy surrounding the disclosure of
influencers’ commercial activity (e.g., Boerman et al. 2017; Eisend et al. 2020; De Jans et al.
2018; Karagür et al. 2022). Yet, the emergence and increasing prevalence of influencers and
influencer marketing presents important societal implications that require further investigation.
Indeed, this phenomenon appears to present a complex and contradictory mix of positive and
negative implications for consumers and society, with which both researchers and consumers
must grapple.

For instance, ‘greenfluencers’ can drive sustainable consumption (Kapooret al. 2022), yet
influencer culture appears to be promoting materialism (Lee et al. 2022; Dinh and Lee, 2021)
and driving overconsumption (Reid 2022) as consumers strive to keep up with the ever-changing
trends showcased by influencers. Similarly, whilst influencers can help consumers make
informed purchase and consumption decisions (Scholz 2021), they can also spread
misinformation and disinformation that can have important implications for consumers and
society (Barrett 2022; Fisher 2021; McGowan 2021). Additionally, whilst many consumers
follow influencers to experience a sense of connection and community that can boost their self-
esteem and benefit their general wellbeing (Bond and Miller 2021; Hoffner and Bond 2022),
influencers can also stimulate feelings of envy and dissatisfaction (Chae 2018) that can
negatively impact consumers’ mental health (Valkenburg 2022). Furthermore, whilst influencers
can empower consumers by disrupting normative beauty standards (Duthely 2022; McFarlane
and Samsioe 2020; Veresiu and Parmentier 2021), raising awareness of marketplace
discrimination (Södergren and Vallström forthcoming), and striving to achieve greater
inclusivity within markets (Scaraboto and Fischer 2013), they can also shift beauty standards in
more problematic ways, encouraging body dysmorphia and driving consumers towards cosmetic
procedures as they attempt to imitate the idealised faces and bodies of their favourite influencers
(Rodner et al. 2022).

Influencers also present contradictory implications for consumer collectives. Likeminded

consumers often congregate around influencers’ content and many influencers actively cultivate
supportive communities that provide a sense of unity, identification, and empowerment, which
can be of particular importance to otherwise marginalised or oppressed groups (Bond and Miller
2021; Jenkins et al. 2019; Sobande 2017; Södergren and Vallström forthcoming). However, the
emergence of influencers within consumer collectives, and in particular their engagement in
incentivised brand endorsements and other brand collaborations, can threaten the value that
consumers gain from participating in these collectives and prompt some members to disengage
from these collectives entirely (Mardon et al. forthcoming a). Further research is needed to
understand the impact of influencer marketing strategies on consumer collectives. Consumer
collectives may also form surrounding influencers that perpetuate controversial or potentially
damaging views, as in the case of Andrew Tate, who amassed an active and loyal online fan base
despite being banned from multiple social media platforms for perpetuating extreme
misogynistic views (Das 2022). Problematic online consumer collectives are not a new
phenomenon, however the role of influencers in creating and cultivating these collectives
warrants further investigation.

Research is also needed to understand consumers’ relationships with influencers, and in

particular to understand when and how they may become problematic. Prior research emphasises
the positive, friendship-like parasocial relationships that consumers may form with their
favourite influencers (Hwang and Zhang 2018; Reinikainen et al. 2020). However, the intimate
parasocial relationships that influencers cultivate with their followers can become negatively
charged if not effectively maintained, potentially leading consumers to participate in anti-fan
communities dedicated to obsessively critiquing all aspects of influencers’ lives (Duffy et al.
2022; Mardon et al. forthcoming b), or to engage in trolling or cyberbullying behaviours such as
sending abusive or hurtful comments or direct messages directly to influencers (Abidin 2019).
Whilst these behaviours do not typically shift into the offline domain, they may nonetheless
involve active attempts to negatively impact influencers’ relationships, careers, and general
wellbeing. Further research is needed to understand when and why consumers’ relationships with
influencers become dysfunctional, how these dysfunctional relationships and resultant
behaviours impact consumers’ and influencers’ lives, and how these problematic behaviours
might be avoided or managed.

These are just a selection of the salient issues raised by the rise of influencer culture, which has
far-reaching consequences that are yet to be fully understood. This special issue seeks to delve
deeper into the wider implications of influencers and influencer marketing for consumers and
society. We welcome both conceptual and empirical papers, quantitative and qualitative research,
and work from other disciplinary perspectives beyond the field of marketing. We encourage the
submission of papers exploring topics such as (but not limited to):

 Implications of influencers for consumers’ values, beliefs, and aspirations (e.g., shifts in
materialism, beauty standards, anticipated lifestyles), and resultant consequences for
consumers’ wider consumption behaviours, lifestyles, and wellbeing (e.g., sustainable
consumption, financial stability, mental health)
 The implications of influencer marketing for consumer collectives and their members.
 The formation and implications of online consumer collectives surrounding influencers
that perpetuate misinformation, disinformation, and/or problematic views and beliefs.
 Problematic or unhealthy consumer relationships with influencers and their implications
for consumers and influencers.
 Collective and individual consumer involvement in, and perspectives on, contemporary
cancel culture, and the implications of this phenomenon for influencers and brands.
 Diversity, equity, and inclusion issues within the influencer marketing industry and their
implications for consumers.
 The implications of virtual influencers for consumers and society.
 Consumers’ coping mechanisms for dealing with the contradictory or paradoxical
implications of influencers and influencer marketing.
 Regulatory responses to issues surrounding influencers and influencer marketing, and
their implications for consumers and society.
 The role of social media platforms’ affordances in creating, amplifying and/or addressing
influencers’ implications for consumers and society.
 Critical reflections on the future of influencer marketing and influencer culture; where
will we go, or should we go, from here?

Manuscript submission information:

 Submission open date: 2 January 2024

 Submission deadline: 1 March 2024

If you'd like to submit to this special issue, you can do it here. Please make sure you choose the
article type 'Influencer Implications' when submitting your paper.
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