Djafarova, E. and Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users.

From Digital Culture & Society

Article Review:

By: Natalie Treude

Djafarova, E. & Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in Human Behaviour, 68, 1-7. Retrieved from: [1]

Regular celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement is a traditional marketing strategy that companies use to sell their products and has been successful in the past. Celebrities use their social status or fame in order to promote and sell a product. Now, with the development of the Internet and social media, the term celebrity is so vastly defined and online celebrities may have a greater impact on the promotion of a product. Although regular celebrity endorsement has been successful in the past it is online celebrities that are truly making a difference for companies in terms of product sales. In Djafarova and Rushworth’s article “Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users,” examines the impact of social media, specifically Instagram, consequent to source credibility, consumer buying intention and social identification with different types of celebrities. Djafarova and Rushworth (2017) conduct interviews with 18 female Instagram users aged 18 to 30 in order to know how Instagram celebrities can influence their buying behaviour and to what extent. Young females are studied as they use Instagram more frequently than older women. Online celebrities, such as YouTubers, bloggers, and 'Instafamous' personalities, are more relatable to young females than regular celebrities because they use a platform that anyone can use.

The halo effect is a theory that is used in the article to understand why young women buy products from their favourite online celebrities. The halo effect is when we find someone attractive we automatically push positive ideas onto that person. We think attractive people are successful, truthful and perfect in every way; this is why young woman buy the products those attractive online celebrities are selling. Regular celebrities are usually famous for their talents, whereas online celebrities can simply become famous for being attractive (i.e. Tammy Hembrow).

This study is significant as it is the opening gates for new research on the topic of online marketing. Djafarova and Rushworth argue that an online celebrity that has social influence must have a large number of followers, just like any other type of celebrity. It is the foundation of celebrity influence and human behaviour. They also discuss self-esteem, something that is known to usually be challenging for young women. Products that will make them look and feel better is usually what online celebrities like to endorse. This was an extremely clever observation that made this article feel relatable. The point of online celebrities is that we feel they are more like us than any other type of celebrity. They seem like everyday people and for that young women want to be like them and feel as though they have that potential. It was extremely important for Djafarova and Rushworth to include self-esteem because as social media starts to grow, there becomes more content to see and more people to compare to. This immediately affects young female’s self-esteem as they will always find someone more popular or more attractive than them online. Online celebrities feed off of that and sell these young women beauty or fitness products that will enhance their lives and looks. These women eventually give in to the endorsement and purchase these products in order to imitate the attractiveness of their favourite Instagram celebrity.

This study went into great depths of the three ideas they wanted to explore: credibility, intention, and identification. Those are probably the three most important areas to cover when discussing a new kind of online marketing as those are the basics. There is little to no research on the topic of online celebrities and marketing as it is a fairly new concept. This could actually be a huge strength for this article as it then becomes the starting point for future researchers. That being said it comes off as a very simplistic and vague piece of research, therefore, lacking some depth to it. Only one demographic and one method was used which allowed it to be micro-focused but excluded other research that could have been developed. This study was definitely a starting point and needs more research behind it to back-up its claims. It also misused the Halo Effect Theory as this can actually be applied to any celebrity endorsement, not just online celebrities. This was meant to be a piece that separates regular celebrities from online ones and this theory does not separate the two.

When online celebrities endorse a product it definitely catches the attention of its followers and Djafarova and Rushworth have done an excellent job in explaining the success behind this in their study. They look at source credibility, consumer buying intention and social identification with different types of celebrities in order to sufficiently cover the basics of this type of celebrity endorsement. This has become the gateway for further research on online celebrity endorsement and was needed for other researchers to expand from. Online celebrities are a platform that can be used by companies if they are willing to utilize this new marketing strategy effectively.