Impacts of digital influencers on the vietnamese consumers purchase intention of cosmetic products

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY DANG MINH ANH IMPACTS OF DIGITAL INFLUENCERS ON THE VIETNAMESE CONSUMERS’ PURCHASE INTENTION OF COSMETIC PRODUCTS MASTER’S THESIS VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY DANG MINH ANH IMPACTS OF DIGITAL INFLUENCERS ON THE VIETNAMESE CONSUMERS’ PURCHASE INTENTION OF COSMETIC PRODUCTS MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CODE: 8430101.01 RESEARCH SUPERVISORS: Prof Dr INOUE TOHRU Assoc Prof Dr PHAM THI LIEN Hanoi, 2021 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Conducting Master thesis in VJU devotes a huge of my time and effort Therefore, it could not be finished if I not have the encouragement of people around me Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thankfulness to my great supervisor Prof Inoue Tohru and Assoc Prof Pham Thi Lien for supporting and providing me plenty of valuable recommendation for Master Thesis Secondly, I also would like to say thank you for my lecturers from both Vietnam and Japan side, my classmate at MBA04, my schoolmate at VJU and my dear program assistant – Ms Nguyen Thi Huong Thank all of you for encouraging and helping me during VJU learning period The 2-year journey of VJU will be a memorable experience I have never forgotten in my life I wish to all of you always have health and success Finally, I am grateful for my family who always beside me even in a tough time I will never complete my Master thesis if not have the support of my family Author Dang Minh Anh CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES i LIST OF FIGURES ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research motivation 1.1.1 Practical necessary 1.1.2 Theoretical necessary 1.2 Research objectives 1.3 Research question 1.4 Research scope 1.5 Research structure CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of related definition 2.1.1 Social media and influencer marketing 2.1.2 Digital influencers 2.1.3 Definition and segment of cosmetic product 2.1.4 Consumer buying process and Purchase intention 10 2.2 Review of relevant theoretical models 12 2.3 Hypothesis development and conceptual model 15 2.3.1 Expertise 16 2.3.2 Attractiveness 17 2.3.3 Trustworthiness 18 2.3.4 Likeability 19 2.3.5 Product fit 20 CHAPTER 3: DATA AND METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Research process 22 3.2 Sample design 23 3.3 Measurement scale 23 3.4 Data analysis methodology 26 3.4.1 Descriptive analysis 26 3.4.2 Inferential analysis 26 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS RESULTS 30 4.1 Descriptive statistics 30 4.2 Scale measurement of constructs 35 4.2.1 Reliability test 35 4.2.2 Validity test 37 4.3 Analysis and hypothesis testing 39 4.3.1 Regression analysis for whole sample 39 4.3.2 Hypothesis testing for whole sample 44 4.3.3 Demographic differences in evaluating independent variables 45 4.3.4 Regression analysis for each product groups 50 4.3.5 Hypothesis testing for each product group 65 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION 67 5.1 Discussion 67 5.2 Implication 72 5.2.1 Theoretical implications 72 5.2.2 Practical implications 73 5.3 Conclusion and limitation 76 References 78 Appedix 1: QUESTIONNAIRE 85 Apendix 2: DATA RESULTS 92 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Likert 5-point scale 24 Table Measurement scale development 24 Table Cronbach's alpha summary 35 Table Exploratory factor analysis results of independent variables 37 Table Rotated components matrix 37 Table 4.4 Exploratory factor analysis results of dependent variables 38 Table Rotated components for dependent variable 39 Table Pearson correlation 39 Table 4.7 Variance inflation factor results 41 Table 4.8 Summary of regression analysis 42 Table 4.9 Summary of regression analysis (second time) 43 Table 4.10 Hypothesis testing results for whole sample 44 Table 4.11 T-test analysis among independent variables 45 Table 4.12 Anova analysis among age in independent variables 45 Table 4.13 Anova analysis among living areas in independent variables 47 Table 4.14 Anova analysis among product segment in independent variables 49 Table 4.15 Summary regression analysis for Cleanser product 50 Table 4.16 Summary regression analysis for Makeup remover product 51 Table 4.17 Summary regression analysis for Facial oil or serum product 53 Table 4.18 Summary regression analysis for Moisturizer product 55 Table 4.19 Summary regression analysis for Toner product 56 Table 4.20 Summary regression analysis for Sunscreen product 58 Table 4.21 Summary regression analysis for Facial mask product 59 Table 4.22 Summary regression analysis for Peeling product 60 Table 4.23 Summary regression analysis for Spot corrector product 62 Table 4.24 Summary regression analysis for Anti-aging cream 63 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure Source credibility model (Ohanian, 1990) 13 Figure 2.2 Conceptual model (by authors) 15 Figure Age 30 Figure Occupation 31 Figure Income 32 Figure 4 Product segment 33 Figure Product type 34 Figure 4.6 Regression Standardized Residual 41 ii ABSTRACT Social media is more increasingly used in the worldwide In a globalization process, influencers marketing would be considered as one of the most popular marketing methods in the world Since the companies have a harder time reaching out to their customers, digital influencers have been used as an appropriate solution to influence the purchase intention of them The digital influencer has a role as a communicator who influences the purchase intention of the followers In cosmetics industry in Vietnam, there are plenty of beauty influencers who uses their impact to suggest cosmetic products to their followers such as Trinh Pham, Changmakeup, Quach Anh, etc This research aims to study purchase intention of consumers who have been enacted by social media influencers in cosmetic industry in Vietnam by testing the effect of digital influencers through expertise, attractiveness, trustworthiness, likeability, and product fit The results testing shows that expertise does not affect to purchase intention while attractiveness, trustworthiness, likeability and product fit have a significant impact to intention to buy Moreover, the difference among demographic information including gender, ages, living areas and product segment are checked This study also provides the examination about hypothesis testing for each kind of product, including Cleanser, Makeup remover, Facial oil or Serum, Moisturizer, Toner, Sunscreen, Facial mask, Peeling, Spot corrector and Anti-aging cream Keyword: digital influencers, purchase intention, cosmetics, Vietnam CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research motivation 1.1.1 Practical necessary Nowadays, social media content has been used by various brands for approaching nearby the consumers Following to Clement (2020), in 2020, an estimated 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025 Besides, the average time per day spent on social media varies greatly by country Moreover, GlobalWeb Index's special study surveying Internet users in 17 countries in Covid-19 lockdown found that nearly half of users spent more time on social media, compared to about half of people (Telecommunication of Information and Communication Newspaper, 2020) This user indicated that they used more social media than before the social distancing Therefore, with the increasing users accumulating, trading in social media is potential activities which determine the success of each company Celebrities who are known as a public person by the recognition of a group of people has the large contribution in social media content (Schlecht, 2003) Using a celebrity in social media is more likely to positively affect consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intention (Schlecht, 2003) In Vietnam, following to the Advertising Vietnam (2019), influencer have been become as the brand’s favorite new sources for attracting customers buying products, particularly micro influencers Micro influencer blossomed with a large number, close-touser characteristics, high authenticity, although the reach was not high but had good influence Besides, CafeF (2020) stated that global brands' budgets for Branded Contents (content created by influencers that mention / use a product / service) increased from $ 3.6 billion in 2016 to $ 13.7 billion in 2020 and is forecast to more than double (25 billion USD) by 2025, opening great opportunities for influencer marketing Therefore, the Vietnamese market is also not out of this wave with the influencer marketing budget 2020 increasing to 35% compared to 2016 Businesses use many influencers in many different areas, operating on multiple channels such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok The Vietnamese cosmetics market is growing fast and highly competitive with trend of online purchase According to Statista (2020), the market value of Vietnam cosmetic industry at $2.35billion while Revenue of skincare product which is the highest spending product in Vietnam at 8.3tn VND Furthermore, the trend of buying cosmetics online from retailers is increasing with total website visits of the whole cosmetics retailers skyrocketed to 10.63% from Q2/2020 – Q3/2020 (Brandvietnam, 2020) Moreover, according to market research site Vinacresearch (2020), Vietnam's cosmetic market will reach 2.3 billion USD by the end of 2018 This is an extremely potential market when the Vietnamese middle class in 2020 is expected to reach 33 million people Besides, according to this page, according to the Insight Handbook (2019) report of Kantar Worldpanel, the most popular product in the Vietnamese cosmetic market is skincare with the average spending on skin care products is increasing Following to the same report, the average spending on skin care products like makeup remover increased 1.5 times, moisturizer by 1.2 times and sunscreen by 1.8 times From those data about current situation of cosmetic market, there is a need to enhance communication way to attract customers in order to raise competitive advantage of firm Current, according to Vietnam cosmetic market report in 2020, Majority of the cosmetics information source of Vietnamese customers are online leading by Facebook, Website, YouTube Digital influencer as a key online channel which effectively communicates to customers in social media platform in cosmetics industry According to report of Celebrity Intelligence (2018), Digital influencers have overtaken celebrities and are now the number one choice of talent and play a crucial role in shaping opinions and purchasing decisions of consumers This kind of influencers also are the major opinion to shaping beauty trends, models and products Moreover, using digital influencers enable cosmetic suppliers received a success in sales activities The report of Celebrity Intelligence (2018) shows that spending $1.3 for digital influencers to review, PR, advertise cosmetic products, brands get T-test 100 Anova Age 101 Areas 102 103 Product Segments 104 Regression analysis for each product kind Cleanser 105 Makeup remover 106 Facial oil or Serum 107 Moisturizer 108 Toner 109 Sunscreen 110 Facial mask 111 Peeling 112 Spot Corrector 113 Anti-aging cream 114 ... however, the content only focused on the effect electronic word of mouth (eWOM) to Wardah cosmetics purchase intention and did not mentioned about the characteristics of digital influencers to the purchase. .. substitute products and the benefits that each feature brings, consumers consider the intention to buy the product Then, from the intention to buy the product, the consumer considers more attitudes of. .. development of the brand and product 2.1.2 Digital influencers There are many researchers disclose the definition of digital influencers In the age of social media, the interpretation of digital influencers