INFLUENCER MARKETING FROM A SENSORY MARKETING PERSPECTIVE - DIVA PORTAL
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Degree Project
Influencer marketing from a
sensory marketing perspective
Social Media Influencers’ impact on the lack of
tangibility online
Authors:
Christoffer Håkansson
Frida Magnusson
Supervisor: John Jeansson
Examiner: Miralem Helmefalk
Term: VT2020
Date: 21-05-2020
Subject: Degree Project Bachelor
Course: 2FE67EAbstract The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate the phenomenon of shopping-hauls from a consumer perspective. Along with exploring if consumers’ purchasing behavior is affected by shopping-hauls, the aim is to provide insights into the phenomenon and how it affects consumers. In particular, the study aspires to understand whether consumers perceive shopping-hauls as a possible substitute for the need for touch. If so, shopping-hauls could be used to decrease uncertainty online. This thesis was conducted using a qualitative research method, with semi-structured interviews. The respondents in the interviews were consumers living in Sweden with knowledge of shopping-hauls. Twenty-five consumers participated in the interviews for the thesis, and they are all anonymous. The thesis has followed an inductive research approach to gain deeper understanding of the phenomena of shopping-hauls and receive new insights based on the respondents’ experiences. The literature review in this thesis includes theories about influencer marketing, sensory marketing, and online consumer behavior. Furthermore, the conceptual framework demonstrates the relationship between the mentioned theories. The empirical results of the thesis highlights challenges and opportunities which might occur when consumers make purchases online, as well as provides insights into how shopping-hauls are perceived by consumers. Based on these results, we created a three-step model for developing a strategy where shopping-hauls are used to reduce the consumer’s uncertainty when shopping online. The three steps are: Selection of influencer, identify the consumer, and evaluation. Keywords E-commerce, Influencer marketing, Online consumer behavior, Purchase behavior, Sensory marketing, Shopping-haul.
Acknowledgments We would, first of all, take the opportunity to show our gratitude to everyone who has participated in any way to this thesis, and brought valuable thoughts and knowledge. We will send gratitude to the 25 respondents who took their time to help us accomplish this thesis. We will also send gratitude to our supervisor, John Jeansson, for guidance and valuable feedback throughout the thesis. We would as well be thanking our opponents who, along the writing process, contributed with constructive feedback and advice. Additionally, we send our gratitude to Elisabeth Håkansson for giving us helpful advice and guidance throughout the process. Finally, we would like to show our appreciation to our examiner, Miralem Helmefalk, who provided valuable feedback during the seminars. Linneaus University Kalmar, 21 May, 2020. ______________________ __________________ Christoffer Håkansson Frida Magnusson
Table of content
1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background ............................................................................................. 1
1.1.1 Developments in Digital marketing .................................................. 1
1.1.2 New ways of marketing ................................................................... 2
1.1.3 Social Media Influencers’ in a marketing context ............................. 2
1.1.4 The five senses ................................................................................ 3
1.1.5 The five senses in a marketing context ............................................. 3
1.2 Problem Discussion................................................................................. 5
1.2.1 Theoretical Problem......................................................................... 5
1.2.1.1 Product information among senses ....................................................... 5
1.2.1.2 Uncertainty & Lack of information online............................................ 5
1.2.2 Managerial problem ......................................................................... 6
1.3 Research GAP ......................................................................................... 7
1.4 Purpose ................................................................................................... 7
1.5 Research question ................................................................................... 7
1.6 Delimitations ........................................................................................... 7
2 Method .......................................................................................................... 8
2.1 Research philosophy................................................................................ 8
2.2 Research approach .................................................................................. 8
2.3 Research methods.................................................................................... 9
2.4 Sample .................................................................................................. 10
2.5 Data collection ...................................................................................... 11
2.5.1 Primary and Secondary data ........................................................... 11
2.5.2 Interviews ...................................................................................... 12
2.6 Data processing .................................................................................... 12
2.6.1 Analysis of data ............................................................................. 13
2.7 Operationalization ................................................................................ 14
2.8 Quality of research ................................................................................ 14
2.8.1 Ethical considerations .................................................................... 15
2.8.2 Sustainability considerations .......................................................... 17
2.9 Method criticism.................................................................................... 17
2.10 The group’s work process ...................................................................... 18
3 Literature review ........................................................................................ 19
3.1 Sensory Marketing................................................................................. 19
3.1.1 Introduction to Sensory Marketing ................................................. 19
3.1.2 The unmet need for touch (NFT) in e-commerce ............................ 19
3.1.3 Autotelic and instrumental dimensions ........................................... 20
3.1.4 Compensating for the NFT............................................................. 21
3.2 Influencer Marketing ............................................................................. 22
3.2.1 The social media influencer ........................................................... 22
3.2.2 Influencer marketing on YouTube.................................................. 22
3.3 Online Consumer Behavior.................................................................... 24
3.3.1 Purchase behavior .......................................................................... 25
3.4 Conceptual Framework ......................................................................... 264 Empirical findings ....................................................................................... 28
4.1 Online consumer behavior ..................................................................... 28
4.1.1 The importance of size and quality ................................................. 28
4.1.2 The need for touch ......................................................................... 29
4.1.3 Expectations VS Reality ................................................................ 29
4.1.4 Size XL is not size XL ................................................................... 29
4.1.5 Tools for selecting the correct size ................................................. 30
4.1.6 Uncertainty online ......................................................................... 31
4.1.7 Opportunities with online shopping ................................................ 32
4.2 Shopping-hauls...................................................................................... 32
4.2.1 Hauls ............................................................................................. 32
4.2.2 How often do you watch shopping-hauls? ...................................... 32
4.2.3 The usage of hauls ......................................................................... 33
4.2.4 Positive effects of hauls ................................................................. 34
4.2.5 Negative effects of hauls ................................................................ 35
5 Analysis ....................................................................................................... 36
5.1 Consumer behavior ............................................................................... 36
5.1.1 The change from physical stores to the online channel ................... 36
5.1.2 Important factors ........................................................................... 36
5.1.3 Information.................................................................................... 37
5.2 Sensory Marketing................................................................................. 37
5.2.1 The need for touch ......................................................................... 37
5.2.2 Expectations .................................................................................. 38
5.2.3 Alternative solutions ...................................................................... 38
5.3 Social Media Influencers & Shopping-Hauls ......................................... 40
5.3.1 Success factors and challenges with shopping-hauls and SMIs ....... 40
5.4 A strategy for leveraging shopping-hauls to reduce consumer uncertainty
online 44
5.4.1 Identify the consumer .................................................................... 45
5.4.2 Consumer behavior ........................................................................ 46
5.4.3 Evaluation ..................................................................................... 46
6 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 48
6.1 How are Social media influencers’ shopping-hauls perceived by
consumers? ....................................................................................................... 48
6.1.1 How do shopping-hauls affect consumer behavior in an online
context? 48
6.1.2 How are consumers’ purchase decisions affected by shopping-haul
due to the lack of touch online? ..................................................................... 49
6.2 Theoretical implications ........................................................................ 49
6.3 Practical implications ........................................................................... 50
6.4 Ethical and sustainable implications...................................................... 50
6.5 Limitations ............................................................................................ 51
6.6 Suggestions for future research ............................................................. 51
7 References ................................................................................................... 52
8 Explanation of figure .................................................................................. 588.1 Appendix 1, Interviewer information ...................................................... 58 8.2 Appendix 2 Interview guide ................................................................... 59
1 Introduction
In this section, background information about the area that the thesis aims to investigate
will be presented. A problem discussion will follow, as well as a presentation of the thesis’s
purpose and the research question. Lastly, the delimitations of the thesis will be presented.
1.1 Background
1.1.1 Developments in Digital marketing
There is an increasing growth and development in the retail e-commerce market, which
shapes the development of the sector towards being strongly competitive (Statista,
2019). The growth of the industry is also visible in how online-shopping today is a natural
part of most peoples’ everyday life (Bucko, Kakalejčík & Ferencová, 2018). Additionally,
studies show that the growth development continues to increase in the online market, which
can be related to what has been referred to as the digital era of today’s market. This era’s
“digital human” (Svenskhandel, 2018) lives his life digitally, reading his paper in the
morning on a tablet, working in front of a computer, and ending the day on social media
(Svenskhandel, 2018). Moreover, the demographics of the internet users have changed
remarkably since the beginning of e-commerce in 1995. Back then, the typical customer
using internet was a younger educated man (Doherty & Ellis-Chadwick, 2010). Today,
however, the digital market has a global reach, which makes it important to identify
consumers’ target market (Doherty & Ellis-Chadwick, 2010). When it comes to the
Swedish population, in particular, the majority uses social media, and this number increases
yearly, with the daily usage growing even more (Svenskarna och internet, A, 2018). The
statistics from the last decade present a notable increase in the regular use of different social
media platforms (Svenskarna och internet, A, 2018).
Social media is a broad concept, and the daily use is increasing. Social media is described
as a collection of communication channels, a two-way communication that allows users to
interact directly with each other through videos, text, and pictures, among other things (NE,
2020; Wahldén, 2009). Additionally, research shows that 7 out of 10 Swedes use the
internet daily for watching videos and movies (Svenskarna och internet, B, 2018). The
platform that is the largest platform for video and movie usage is YouTube, which 87% of
internet users in Sweden are using (Svenskarna och internet, B, 2018). YouTube is an
online community where users can share their videos or watch others’ videos. YouTube’s
goal is to give everyone a voice and direction out in the world. The company is working on
four factors that define who they are as a company: freedom of speech, freedom of
information, the opportunity to succeed, and lastly, affinity. YouTube’s approach is that
everyone should have the possibility to express themselves, access to information to be
educated, and the opportunity to create an understanding of what’s going on in the world.
The company has a wide range of product offers to the customer, the offers consist of
YouTube Kids, YouTube Music, YouTube Originals, these are among the existing products
(YouTube, A, 2020). The community works continuously with security for its users and has
1(59)a wide range of policies to keep an environment-friendly space on YouTube (YouTube, B,
2020). The second-largest social platform, Instagram, was founded in 2010, and 61% of the
Swedish population who use the internet use the platform (Svenskarna och internet, C,
2019). Instagram is a platform that aims to bring people closer to one another and the things
they like (Instagram, A, 2018). Instagram describes itself as the Instagram-service where the
services include all of Instagram’s products, functions, apps, and services, along with
techniques, among other things (Instagram, A, 2018). One of Instagram’s features is stories,
where you can share your everyday moments and interact with friends (Instagram, B, 2020).
This feature can also be used by companies wishing to promote their items, and according
to Instagram, 68% of users become more interested in items after watching a story
displaying the brand and the product (Instagram, B, 2020).
The digital era has not only influenced the daily life of consumers. Today’s companies
continuously have to work on developing their e-commerce to stay alive in the competitive
market. Additionally, the competition is no longer local, and research shows that Swedes' e-
commerce consumption from abroad has increased annually over the last decade
(Bränström, A, 2017). Ten years from now, e-commerce is expected to represent for one-
third part of all commerce (Bränström, B, 2019).
Digitalization creates new business models involving new ways of creating direct sales.
Direct sales are enabled for companies through the direct interaction with the customer
without intermediates (Svenskhandel, 2018). Without intermediates, companies can create
an in-depth customer relation, where the communication is between the company and the
end consumer (Svenskhandel, 2018). E-commerce is thriving and continues to grow bigger.
One industry that benefits from this is the fashion industry, which is rapidly expanding and
developing with the changes of e-commerce (Svenskhandel, 2018; McCormick, Cartwright,
Perry, Barnes, Lynch & Ball, 2014).
1.1.2 New ways of marketing
Traditional mass marketing is defined as selling highly standardized products or services to
a broad audience to reach as many consumers as possible (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012).
Historically, companies have invested a lot of money in using mass marketing channels
such as television, magazines, and radio, among others (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012). This
has, for a long time, been the most used marketing type. Nowadays, it is more questioned
than ever if mass marketing is the right way to reach customers in terms of profitability and
success. Therefore, mass marketing is disappearing more and more and is being replaced
with marketing strategies targeting split markets with different segmentations. Companies
now tend to focus more on customization and tailor-made products (Hussain, 2019).
1.1.3 Social Media Influencers’ in a marketing context
Social Media influencers (SMIs) “represent a new type of independent third- party
endorser” (Freberg, Graham & McGaughey, 2010, p.90.), which companies can use as
effective spokespersons (Freberg et al., 2010). The SMI’s marketing technique is a tool for
companies to use in influencer marketing to reach out to customers and promote products in
digital channels (Kemp, McDougal & Syrdal, 2018). Thus, since it is a relatively new
2(59)technique, there is not much known about the SMI concept. Therefore, a relatively small
amount of information is available regarding what extent SMIs affect customer perception
(Freberg et al., 2010). However, the key takeaway is that SMIs have persuasive power on
their social media platforms, as proven by the success SMIs have enjoyed on digital
platforms. This is calculated in terms of daily views on blogs, likes, and the number of
followers, among other things. (Freberg et al., 2010).
The benefits of using SMI marketing to promote products is that it could make it easier for
companies to control the product promotion and aim the promotion at a specific target
group (Schwemmer & Ziewiecki, 2018). On the social media platform YouTube, for
example, product promotion is displayed in videos called hauls and in look books. These are
video formats where the content creator is in front of the camera and shows the products,
for example, clothes or make-up (Schwemmer & Ziewiecki, 2018). As explained by
Schwemmer and Ziewiecki (2018): “The whole video might be produced in the usual style
of the Youtuber, but production or distribution of the content is controlled by the brand”
(p.4.). Product promotion can take different forms, such as asking the audience to buy a
particular product shown in the video, talking positively about a product or testing a
product, and sharing one’s opinions about it (Schwemmer & Ziewiecki, 2018). The market
in influencer marketing is growing rapidly and keeps developing compared to other paid
advertising. Finally, the tactic also allows companies to promote products through a more
honest approach (Kemp et al., 2018).
1.1.4 The five senses
Sensory marketing is an alternative marketing form of marketing compared to the
traditional mass marketing. Here, one or more of the consumer’s five senses: touch, sight,
hearing, smell, and taste are leveraged to market something to the consumer (Hussain,
2019). The senses work to assemble and send information to the brain about what the
consumers perceive around them (Bradford, 2017). Touch is a sense that communicates
with the brain through several sensations that the skin responds to, including temperature,
pressure, and vibration. Sight is perceived with the eyes and uses a complex process that
includes several phases inside the eye to register information. The hearing sense collects
vibrations to the middle ear, which can then be interpreted by the brain. The fourth sense is
smell, which can detect over 1 trillion scents (Bradford, 2017). The last sense, taste, is
divided into four dimensions, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter; the sense of taste is a part of
human evolution (Bradford, 2017).
1.1.5 The five senses in a marketing context
Sensory marketing is considered to be an essential marketing strategy as it helps consumers
to differentiate between brands and products in their decision-making process (Jang & Lee,
2019). In a marketing context, sight is the most dominant sense, and the visual stimulus
includes design, packages, names, and logos, among other things. Because of this, it is
essential to make one’s products differ from others to boost purchase (Hussain, 2019). As
an example, companies can use different lightings to highlight products. Favorable lightning
can increase the chances of a customer touching a product and encourage them to examine
it. It is mostly used to meet human psychological and physical requirements influencing the
3(59)perception of the environment (Hussain, 2019). Prior research also concludes that color has
a significant influence on the visual, or sight, experience as different colors connects to
different emotions (Hussain, 2019). Sight is also considered to be the most effective sense
to target when it comes to delivering different marketing messages (Jang & Lee, 2019).
When it comes to sound, it is often the background music when entering a retail store or
website that comes to mind. In addition, in marketing, the hearing sense can be stimulated
through the use of music, jingles, and voices (Hussain, 2019, Krishna, 2011). A lot of
information is absorbed through sounds since it has a long-term effect on memory, which
varies depending on the tempo, pitch, and intonation (Jang & Lee, 2019). The sense of
smell, in turn, can be applied to enhance and affect the mood of the customer. The scent can
be used to attract customers towards products, and a pleasant scent can also extend the
amount of time the customer spends in the store (Hussain, 2019). Moreover, smell also has
an impact and direct effect on memory (Jang & Lee, 2019, Krishna, 2011). When it comes
to touch, touching is used to evaluate the quality of a product, and brands can also make the
customer's touch products to encourage a more profound or deeper emotional connection to
the brand, stimulated by the interaction the customer has had with the product (Hussain,
2019). Finally, the sense of touch might considerably affect communication and create or
lead to a link between communication and changed emotions (Jang & Lee, 2019). The last
sense is taste. Currently, taste is mostly used in the food industry, but more and more, other
sectors as slowly starting to adopt it. Since this sense cannot be used over distance and
differs between different people depending on saliva, it is a difficult sense to leverage.
However, stimulating customers’ taste can result in more sales and customer retention.
Therethrough, successfully leveraging the sense of taste can be extremely valuable and
create a more reliable emotional connection between the brand and the customer (Hussain,
2019). When a consumer is chewing, the five senses work simultaneously, and the
experience is not only tied to taste, but also the sound of eating, the smell and texture (Jang
& Lee, 2019).
The most successful brands today are those who can deliver emotions and feelings (Keizer-
Keijzer, 2016). An excellent way to do this is to stimulate the senses. Through activating
one or multiple of the customer’s senses, a brand can enable a deeper connection with the
customer (Keizer-Keijzer, 2016). This connection might be crucial in this era of
digitalization where there are more options than ever for customers to choose from, making
it a challenge for companies to attract customers (Shareef, Dwivedi & Kumar, 2016). In
addition to sensory marketing, using social media influencers has proven to be a beneficial
way to reach a selected group online and create an emotional connection to them. Social
media influencers provide an opportunity for companies to target a specific group with a
particular product promotion (Schwemmer & Ziewicki, 2018). Over time, social media has
grown to become an essential part of companies’ marketing strategies, where influencers
are an indispensable part. An influencer is defined as a person that is active on social media
and has a wide range of followers (Sandell, 2018). When using influencer marketing, the
influencer is hired to interact with and influence their followers in line with companies’
marketing strategies. A key benefit from using this marketing strategy is that influencers are
perceived to be closer and more reliable than companies (Sandell, 2018). Therefore, using
4(59)an influencer for marketing their brand and reaching out to their customers might enable the
company to create a more in-depth relation with the end consumer (Sandell, 2018).
1.2 Problem Discussion
1.2.1 Theoretical Problem
1.2.1.1 Product information among senses
During 2019 an upper estimation of total online sales was 14.1% globally (Ringler, Sirianni,
Gustafsson & Peck, 2019). This shows that even though there is a growing trend of online
shopping, more than 85% of customer’s purchases are made in physical retail stores, and
the main reason for this is that customers still prefer to use their sensory cues to evaluate the
items (Ringler, Sirianni, Gustafsson & Peck, 2019). In particular, one of the top five crucial
reasons why people avoid purchasing online is the lack of possibility to touch products
(Workman, 2010).
1.2.1.2 Uncertainty & Lack of information online
As the trend of online shopping grows (Ringler et al., 2019), the online competition among
companies grows as well (Bucko et al., 2018). Research shows that if companies choose to
not monitor the factors that may affect the potential customer in their purchasing behavior,
companies risk losing the customer to competitors (Bucko et al., 2018). In addition, there
has been a change in retail settings due to digitalization. New issues have occurred, such as
that the customer might fail to choose the product that meets their expectations or cater their
needs (San-Martín, González-Benito & Martos-Partal, 2017). E-commerce limits the
customer’s ability to fulfill their needs when online shopping as the web browser limits the
customer’s ability to evaluate the products (Bucko et al., 2018). As an example, when there
is no possibility to touch products, consumers will instead have to rely on more complex
information about the item’s features. Because of this, the customer might feel more
insecure in their product evaluation (Jha, Balaji, Stafford & Spears, 2020). Previous
research into how online shopping, e.g., fashion, is affecting customer satisfaction shows
that product descriptions, product photos, and payment options, among other things, can be
essential factors (Bucko et al., 2018).
However, it is difficult to find solutions for enabling information through touch within the
online channel. The problem will remain as long as there is a need to touch the product but
no possibility to decide the quality through contact (San-Martin et al., 2017). Bucko et al.
(2018), support the need for information due to compensating the impracticability for the
customer to touch and explore the product, this is an issue several companies are working
on today for enhancing the customer needs (Bucko et al., 2018). Among the companies are
fashion retailers such as Asos (Bucko et al., 2018)
1.2.1.3 Purchase behavior
Consumers are planning their online purchases through collecting information about a
product or brand features and the price (Pappas, Kourouthanassis, Giannakos, & Lekakos,
2016). Here, Bucko et al. (2018) suggests that one strategy is for companies to focus on
understanding need for information. Through doing so, the company increases the
5(59)probability of being able to give the customer what they desire. This is considered to be an
important attribute when customers purchase products online (Bucko et al., 2018). During
the evaluation process, customers also compare different brands, products, and options,
where digitalization has enabled the customer to remain in one place during this evaluation
process. Therethrough, the customer’s possibility to compare different options has
increased. As a result, companies often have a minimal possibility to attract potential
customers (Bucko et al., 2018).
1.2.2 Managerial problem
Large companies such as Asos, Nordstrom, and Macy’s are doing their best to find
solutions for the lack of tangibility, e.g., by offering free delivery and returns to replicate
the dressing room experience. The benefit of this is that the downsides of shipping costs are
eliminated, and the customer still has the opportunity to touch and try (Magnarelli, 2018).
Still, most people prefer to buy certain products such as clothing in person. However, this
preference is remarkably reduced when companies instead explain the fabrics verbally.
Therefore, some researchers suggest that video, an audio file, or persuasive copywriting that
describes the characteristics of the products might help (Magnarelli, 2018).
YouTube-hauls offers a massive opportunity for companies because of the spread of free
online word-of-mouth advertising that the haul might achieve online (Dishman, 2013).
Furthermore, working with social media influencers (SMIs) when promoting a product
offers the company a broad spectrum of additional advantages such as the large audience of
consumers who are following social media influencers and that SMIs are usually perceived
as trustworthy by their followers (Stubb, Nyström & Colliander, 2019). This means that
even though consumers’ interest in traditional advertising is decreasing, a new way of
marketing to consumers has evolved. Companies can thus use SMIs to promote their
products for more truthful and credible marketing, and one of the key social media
platforms used by SMIs is YouTube, which recently developed into a leading marketing
tool (Carter, 2016; Schwemmer & Ziewiecki, 2018).
This research into sensory and influencer marketing can thus potentially result in a deeper
understanding of online consumer behavior and the need for touch (NFT). The insights
from this research may additionally reduce the issue of consumers choosing items that does
not meet their expectations, thus contributing to decreasing unnecessary consumption.
Through shopping-hauls, a form of product promotion, customers are given a clear visual
image and a more specific description of the item (Schemmwer & Ziewiecki, 2018).
Therethrough, customers receive additional information that they can use to evaluate
whether they want to buy the product or not. The evaluation of the product will be based
upon/well-founded in the display and description of the product, which can provide the
customer with a sincerer image of the product and facilitate a decision based on
information. While touch is vital for many reasons in the customer evaluation process,
especially since it might be the most crucial sensory cue in purchase decisions
(Yazdanparast & Separs, 2012), additional information might aid the customer in their
decision making when there is no possibility to touch the products (San-Martin et al., 2017).
6(59)1.3 Research GAP
E-commerce is, as mentioned previously, a growing trend that companies need to keep up
with to maintain customers and market shares. One of the challenges with this is that
customers feel a need for touch in their purchasing journey, which, along with trust, is one
of the most crucial issues when shopping online. However, there is little previous research
concerning the gap of reducing uncertainty online with sensory marketing, which offers
suggestions for how the need for touch in online channels can be reduced. One of the
suggestions is that need for touch might be compensated for with additional information.
This thesis therefore aims to explore and understand the phenomenon of shopping-hauls
from the perspective of consumers, and in what way shopping-hauls can be used to provide
the customers with additional information and therethrough fulfill their needs.
1.4 Purpose
The purpose of this thesis is to study the relationship between consumers and shopping-
hauls within the fashion industry in order to understand how it affects consumer behavior
online. The thesis therethrough contributes to collecting more knowledge about how
retailers could compensate for the need for touch (NFT) in an e-commerce context.
1.5 Research question
Main:
1. “How are Social Media Influencers’ shopping-hauls perceived by consumers?”
Sub-questions:
1.1 “How do shopping-hauls affect consumer behavior in an online context?”
1.2 “How are consumers’ purchase decisions affected by shopping-haul due to the lack of
touch online?”
1.6 Delimitations
The study is delimited to the perspective of consumers since the primary focus is to
investigate how consumers perceive shopping-hauls and the effect that the shopping-hauls
might have on consumers’ purchasing behaviors. There are shopping-hauls on other social
media platforms than YouTube and Instagram, but this thesis will focus on hauls on these
platforms specifically. The primary focus of this thesis is to investigate consumer behavior
and influencer marketing from a sensory marketing perspective, and, therefore, other topics
will be excluded. The study focuses on the retail fashion sector since the need for touch is
an essential aspect of the online context in the fashion industry. All five senses are
mentioned, but the main focus of the thesis is touch and sight, why only these two senses
are areas of focus in the literature review. A qualitative research method is used since the
purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.
7(59)2 Method
The section describes the thesis’ research approach, research method, collection of data,
processing, sample, operationalization, quality of research, ethical considerations,
sustainability considerations, and lastly, method criticism.
2.1 Research philosophy
An epistemological position that applies methods in natural science is positivism, which is
used to study the social reality and beyond (Bryman & Bell 2011). The theory is used to
generate hypotheses that later on can be tested, as well as assess explanations of laws,
which is the principle of deductivism (Bryman & Bell, 2011). In social sciences, however,
positivism has been criticized, which has led to the development of interpretivism, that has
an association with the philosophical position of idealism (Dudovskiy, 2019). In this
approach, diverse approaches can be combined through grouping. This includes
phenomenology, social constructivism, and hermeneutics (Dudovskiy, 2019). It is essential
in the interpretive method that the researcher appreciates the variation between people
(Dudovskiy, 2019). Furthermore, naturalistic approaches of data collection, such as
observations and interviews, are the base of the interpretive approach (Dudovskiy, 2019).
Therefore, the authors find the interpretive approach a suitable to work with during the
process of this thesis since the purpose is to explore the phenomenon of hauls and to get
new insights into experiences from the respondents.
2.2 Research approach
There are three different research approaches, where two of them are the inductive and
deductive approaches (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2016). The deductive research
approach starts with looking at theory and after that, create a hypothesis based on that
theory to test it (Greener & Martelli, 2015). The inductive approach, on the other hand,
begins with looking at the focus of the research, e.g., economic issues, a business problem,
or the organization. The focus point will then be investigated using an appropriate research
method with the goal of generating theory from research (Greener & Martelli, 2015). To
describe it efficiently, “deductive reasoning moves from the general to the specific and
inductive moves from the specific to the general” (Greener & Martelli, 2015, p.19). To
make the inductive approach work as intended, careful observations of specific situations
will have to be performed with the goal of identifying casual links that can create the basis
of a decent idea or theory that has connections to other situations as well (Greener &
Martelli, 2015). However, there is also a third research approach, abductive reasoning
(Saunders et al., 2016). When using the abductive approach, the research starts with a
‘surprising fact’ being observed. Instead of being a premise, the ‘surprising fact’ is the
conclusion. The researcher then determines a set of possible premises based on the
conclusion to see if it offers an acceptable or almost acceptable explanation for the outcome
(Saunders et al., 2016). If the premises prove to be acceptable or almost acceptable
explanations for the ‘surprising fact’, the premises are deemed correct. The result will be
valid as well since the premises are acceptable or almost acceptable to generate this
conclusion (Saunders et al., 2016).
8(59)However, choosing one approach does not exclude all others. Authors can combine both the
inductive and deductive in the same research, although, in most cases, one approach is more
dominant (Saunders et al., 2016). In this study, the authors will start by gathering data to
explore the phenomenon of shopping-hauls. Based on this, the researchers will apply an
inductive approach (Saunders et al. 2016). This is motivated by the fact that the authors are
seeking to understand the phenomena of shopping-hauls, i.e., the research starts with a
specific focal point rather than a general theory. To investigate the phenomena, the authors
will be looking for the best explanation among many alternatives and receive new insights
based on experiences from the respondents, to gain a deeper understanding of the
phenomenon of shopping-hauls.
2.3 Research methods
The research methods are divided into two main directions for collecting and processing
data. These two methods are defined as qualitative and quantitative research (Bryman &
Bell, 2011). This thesis will be conducted through a qualitative research method. In a
qualitative research method, the focus is to decode and translate the collected data to find
meaning (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). A quantitative research method, on the other hand,
focuses on the quantity of data and tend to focus on numerical values (Cooper & Schindler,
2014; Bryman & Bell, 2011). Quantitative research attempts specifically to measure things,
and the focus lies on answering questions such as how many, and how much (Cooper &
Schindler, 2014). In qualitative research, on the other hand, the study aims to understand
and analyze the specific phenomenon and give the researcher a deeper level of insight
(Cooper & Schindler, 2014; Patton, 1990).
To understand the research area and move it forward, a qualitative research method will be
applied in this thesis. The purpose of using a qualitative research method is to explore and
investigate how shopping-hauls affect consumer behavior in an online context, as well as
how consumers’ purchase decisions are influenced by shopping-hauls in relation to the lack
of touch online. The research will be conducted in the form of qualitative interviews. All the
interviews will be semi-structured, which means that they are organized around several
different themes or questions that the authors have prepared as a guide (Blomkvist, Hallin,
Lindell, 2018). Using qualitative research is suitable for this type of study as it aims to
investigate the primary purpose and the qualities of a specific phenomenon (Widerberg,
2002), i.e., shopping-hauls. Additionally, qualitative research offers a more in-depth
understanding of a phenomena (Cooper & Schindler, 2014) and is ideal for the studies using
individual depth interviews as a projective technique. The technique aims to encourage the
participant to explain and express their attitudes and experience about a subject (Cooper &
Schindler, 2014) and is suitable to use when the aim of the research is to capture the
participant’s point of view and receive detailed answers (Bryman & Bell, 2011). As the
purpose of this research is to explore and understand the phenomenon of shopping-hauls
from a consumer perspective, qualitative interviews are thus, as mentioned, deemed to be a
suitable research approach for this thesis. The aim of the interviews is to collect information
about the participants’ perceptions and experience on the phenomenon shopping-hauls.
9(59)2.4 Sample
The approach of this thesis is to collect information from participants through semi-
structured interviews. Qualitative research can be a way of studying a phenomenon and
gathering detailed explanations of a specific situation (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). In this
case, the researchers are collecting data about the phenomenon of shopping-hauls. The data
is thus a collection of a detailed explanation of the current event, i.e., shopping-hauls.
Through collecting this data, the authors will gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena
and accurate information to use in the exploration and understanding of the phenomenon so
that the purpose of the thesis can be achieved (Cooper & Schindler, 2014).
The interview participants were selected using a non-probability sample. This means that
the selection of participants is random, where some are more likely to be selected than
others (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Since the selected participants in the interviews are required
to be familiar with a certain phenomenon, i.e., shopping-hauls, the selection of participants
will follow the non-probability sample (Bryman & Bell, 2011). There are several forms of
non-probability sampling. In this thesis, the aim is to select participants that have
knowledge that is relevant to the research question, which in this case means that they are
customers who have experience with shopping-hauls. Here, a purposive sampling method is
deemed suitable to use to ensure that the participants possesses the relevant knowledge, in
this case experience with shopping-hauls (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The participants in the
interview will be demographically segmented to males and females in the ages of 18 to 35.
In qualitative research, in depth-information is collected from a small number of
respondents (Patton, 2002). Considering this and the time frame of the thesis, the authors
choose to have a sample of 25 people, which is deemed to be manageable for collecting and
analyzing the data.
Since there is no limitation on the number of respondents (Patton, 2002), the author's choice
of 25 participants is consciously selected. The participants in the interviews are between 22
and 31 years old, and both male and female participants have been selected. 9 out of the 25
participants are male, and 16 are female. The authors’ criterions when selecting the
participant for the interview were:
- The participant is well-aware of the phenomenon of shopping-hauls.
- The participant uses e-commerce for purchasing fashion products and have done so at
least once during the last six months.
- The participant is well-aware of influencers
The participants’ experience with and perception of shopping-hauls will contribute to the
purpose of this thesis, which is to explore the phenomenon of shopping-hauls effect on
consumer purchasing behavior.
10(59)Table 1: Table of interviews (Authors’ contribution)
2.5 Data collection
2.5.1 Primary and Secondary data
The data collection of this study includes both secondary and primary data. The secondary
data collected for this thesis is peer-reviewed scientific papers, which were collected with
the purpose of understanding the already existing theories and previous research within the
field (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The secondary data is presented in the sections “problem
11(59)discussion” and “literature review”. The results from previous research have made it
possible for the authors to attain the right knowledge to understand and deliver correct
information while explaining the results from the chosen method (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
The search for scientific articles focused on articles written within the last ten years, and the
collected data has been compared with the theoretical aspects included in this study to
ensure that this research contributes to the future of the research field. The study’s primary
data was collected through semi-structured interviews.
2.5.2 Interviews
Semi-structured interviews are suitable for the thesis since the choice of specific topics that
qualify a semi-structured interview (Bryman & Bell, 2011). An unstructured interview is a
form of interview with open-ended questions, where the participants can answer freely
about a general topic (Bryman & Bell, 2011). A semi-structured interview gives the authors
the flexibility of choosing what questions to ask and in what order, based on what they find
suitable for the study (Cooper & Schindler, 2014; Bryman & Bell, 2011). The authors in
this thesis will, throughout the interviewing process, follow Kvale's (1996) criteria, which
explains how to structure the order of the questions to achieve a successful interview. The
purpose of the interviews is to understand and listen to the respondents’ experience of the
phenomenon shopping-hauls. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews, the collection
of primary data will give the authors answers where the respondents can associate freely on
their perception and experience (Bryman & Bell, 2011). In order to achieve this, however,
the authors need to use the correct language and be careful about what questions they ask.
Since the purpose is to explore and investigate the participants’ experiences, leading
questions should be avoided (Kvale, 1996; Bryman & Bell, 2011).
In sum, the collection of data was initiated through the search of relevant theories within the
research area, with the aim of getting a clear picture of prior research and a better
understanding of the research issue. Thereafter, key themes and issues were compiled into
an interview guide to guide the collection of primary data. This data was collected through
qualitative interviews, with the purpose of analyzing and comparing the data. After the
interviews, the authors’ strategy was to search for relevant keywords in the transcribed
material. Based on the results, the insights from 25 respondents’ experience and perception
of shopping-hauls determined the outcome of the thesis.
2.6 Data processing
The processing of the primary data was initiated when transcribing the interviews.
Transcribing means that the researcher convert speech to text (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
Transcribing is a process after the interview has been conducted, where the material from
each interview is listened through and written down literal. The interviews were in this
thesis recorded, and every participant gave their approval for recording the interview, which
eases the process of transcribing. The interviews were performed either in person or over
the phone, and the recording was made using an iPhone app. The recording was tested
before each interview to ensure that sounds were registered. In this thesis, the interviews
were conducted in Swedish, which the authors later translated to English. When translating
interviews, it is, according to Bryman and Bell (2011), essential to consider grammatical
12(59)structures that can be hard to translate. Therefore, the authors have been very meticulous
throughout the process and considered the interviewees’ background when situations have
occurred where grammatical structures have been an issue (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
The process of transcribing can appear to be extensive work in itself (Bryman & Bell,
2011). Therefore, each interview was transcribed shortly after being conducted.
Therethrough, the authors could also ensure that no theme or other aspect that the authors
may want to introduce to subsequent interviews were lost (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
2.6.1 Analysis of data
Content analysis is a systematic process including coding and looking for connections in
texts. The first step of the process is to decide which of all units of data to analyze (Cooper
& Schindler, 2014). In this case, the data was first be transcribed and then analyzed using
thematic analysis. Themes refers to the topics mentioned by the majority of the respondents
in their respective interviews (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). The themes occurring in this
thesis related to shopping hauls and consumer online behavior. Hence, the themes of the
analysis are consumer online behavior and shopping hauls, which are described in detailed
in the empirical findings section, where subheadings are used to make it easier for the
reader to understand the relationship between each theme. Saunders et al. (2016) supports
the thematic approach to first analyze on a general level to receive the overall perspective of
the answers, then move forward to recieve key ideas to the theme. The authors analyzed the
answers and thereafter made a summary under each theme in order to create a visual image
and see the relationship between each theme. This provides insights into the answers and
makes it easy to highlight relevant keywords, which are presented later on in the thesis.
13(59)2.7 Operationalization
Table 2: Operationalization concepts (Authors contribution)
Operationalization is, according to Saunders et al. (2016), “The translation of concepts into
tangible indicators of their existence” (2016, p. 722). The concepts in this thesis are
founded on the conceptual framework, and the purpose of this is to make it clear for the
authors what they should be looking for when collecting and analyzing the data. When
analyzing the collected data, the authors will limit the analysis to the in-depth questions.
This limitation is both based on the limited time given to conduct the thesis and the purpose
of the research: to analyze and understand and how the customer perceives shopping-hauls,
as well as how purchase decisions are affected by shopping-hauls in relation to the lack of
touch online. Based on the concepts presented in the figure below, an interview guide was
established. The interview guide has the purpose of guiding the collection of in-depth
information about the concepts, using a semi-structured interview approach that gives the
authors answers which are open and about the consumers’ perception (Bryman & Bell,
2011). This makes it possible to create a clear connection between the conceptual
framework, the collected data, and the analysis for this thesis. According to C. Rodrigues
(Degree Project Guidelines, 2020), this will give the thesis a clear analytical thread
throughout the paper.
2.8 Quality of research
In the evaluation of a business research process, the most important criterions to taken into
consideration is validity and reliability (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Validity is a measurement
14(59)tool that is used to see if we measure what we wish to measure and if this corresponds to the
thesis’ purpose. Reliability focuses on accuracy, and if the study could be repeated with the
same results (Cooper & Schindler 2014; Bryman & Bell, 2011; Saunders et al. 2016).
During the thesis process, these criterions will be taken into consideration to maintain the
validity and reliability of the study.
According to Bryman & Bell (2011), validity is essential for interviews; an interviewer
needs to write down exactly what the respondents answered in the interview in order to not
compromise the validity of the research. Therefore, the authors transcribed the interview to
make it possible to analyze and compare the answers. Also, in order to ensure that the
respondents’ answers were correct, then transcription was sent to each interviewee to ensure
that no errors in translation had been made. According to Saunders et al. (2016), participant
validation is a fundamental factor in the qualitative research method since it allows the
respondents to confirm its accuracy, which contributes to a more valid answer (Saunders et
al., 2016). Due to respondents’ ability to read their answers and confirm the transcribing.
Reliability was in this thesis ensured through two authors being involved in the process of
interviewing, transcribing, and analyzing. According to Saunders et al. (2016), reliability is
possible when there is more than one researcher in a study. Something that further
strengthens the reliability is that there in addition to the authors in a supervisor involved in
the data processing, as well as an examiner judging the validity and reliability of the work.
However, the authors in this thesis have in mind that the collection of data is gathered in a
semi-structured interview, which limits the transferability and that the results “cannot be
used to make statistical generalization about an entire population” (Saunders et al. 2016,
p.400).
All the questions asked are relevant to the chosen theories: influencer marketing, sensory
marketing, and online consumer behavior. This ensures that the answers are relevant and
contributes to the field of research. Through using semi-structured interviews as a research
method, the authors aim to receive answers with a deeper level of understanding. The
answers will then be studied to find relationships between the collected empirical data
compared to prior research and the results in the particular area, with the purpose of
answering the research question.
A challenge with choosing interviews as a research method is to ask the right questions to
receive a well-formulated answer that contributes to the research. Therefore, it is extremely
important that the interviewer is well prepared to conduct the interviews, in order to ensure
a high quality (Blomkvist et al., 2018).
2.8.1 Ethical considerations
Prior research has broken down ethical principles into four different main areas, “whether
there is harm to participants; whether there is a lack of informed consent; whether there is
an invasion of privacy; whether deception is involved” (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.128).
Together these four main areas create a useful classification of ethical principles in business
research (Bryman & Bell, 2011). In addition to these areas, this thesis will also strictly
follow the principles established of the Swedish research council; reliability, honesty,
15(59)respect, and accountability (Swedish research council, 2020). Reliability means that the
authors need to make sure to deliver quality throughout the whole project. The honesty
criteria mean that the author needs to be honest with the results and informative in an open
and complete way and stay objective. The third criterion, respect, means that the authors
will treat colleagues, participants, ecosystems, society, environment, and cultural heritage
with respect. The last topic, accountability, means that the authors have full accountability
for the research from the idea throughout the whole process, including accountability to all
the research participants and other wider consequences (Swedish research council, 2020).
To avoid harm to participants, this thesis will ensure that none of the participants will feel
harm against self-esteem, development, or stress. It is also important for the authors that the
participants do not experience any harm to future employment or career prospects or that
the subjects are induced to perform reprehensible acts (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The
contributors to the thesis will remain anonymous with an exception for the authors,
supervisor John Jeansson and examiner Miralem Helmefalk. All the collected data in the
form of names and records of interviews will be maintained in a confidential way (Bryman
& Bell, 2011). Additionally, all the respondents will receive information about how the
collected data will be used in the thesis and for whom the information will be supplied. All
the respondents will also be informed that the collected data will not be used in any other
way than for the purpose of the paper (Bryman & Bell, 2011). This information will be
given before the interview takes place.
When it comes to preventing the lack of informed consent, it means that the participants
should receive all the information that is needed to give their informed consent (Bryman &
Bell, 2011). In other words, the respondents should receive all the information they need to
decide whether or not they wish to participate in the study (Bryman & Bell, 2011). If people
are aware of that they will be asked to participate in the study, it is also essential that these
individuals receive enough information to be able to follow the research process (Bryman &
Bell, 2011). According to Bryman & Bell (2011), the respondent should be asked to accept
any recording equipment that is being used during the interview. Based on this, all the
respondents in this thesis’ interviews will be asked before the interviews start if they accept
being recorded.
The next area, the invasion of privacy, has the following guidelines “the objectives of any
study do not give researchers a special right to intrude on a respondent’s privacy nor to
abandon normal respect for an individual’s values” (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.136). This
means that this area is connected to the informed consent area and to the importance of
ensuring that the respondents understands what their involvement in the research could
possibly entail (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Based on this, all the respondents in this thesis will
have the right to refuse to answer specific questions or withdraw their participation at any
time without any need for explanation.
According to Bryman & Bell (2011), it is within the deception area essential to stay honest
about the results and how the interviews were conducted. The authors will take this
seriously and apply it during the whole process. Therefore, all the participants will be able
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