Gauging the Effects of the Influencer Marketing Events

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing types of marketing. Through the last few years the number of influencers, like traditional celebrities or well-known social networks stars has grown multiple times in the Russian retail market as well as the target audience. In spite of this the area of the topic is still remaining almost unresearched. There are few studies focused on fundamental mechanisms that make influencer marketing effective. This makes relevant the objective of identifying constructs and the nature of the influencing connections between influencers, customers, brand awareness level and customer behavior. It also sets the task to discover the problem of selection the best influencer to provide marketing activities and maximize the effect on the factors mentioned above. This study analyzes the results of foreign researches that assess the constructs and the nature of influencers' effect on customer opinion about products, brand awareness and consumer behavior. Based on the available empirical and theoretical approaches in the light of the Russian market specificity, there has been built and assessed author's model on the structural equation modeling approach basis. As a result, the hypotheses of the direct positive influence of the main influencer marketing constructs on consumer opinion, brand awareness and consumer behavior are not rejected. The results also confirm that there is indirect influence of the constructs taken on brand awareness and consumer behavior. This study offers practical advices on the selection of the optimal effective influencer to conduct marketing events or more productive impact on customer's opinion, brand awareness and consumer choice. It also would provide a retailer with a number of competitive advantages on the market.