Hello and Welcome back!
For my ethnographic research I plan to gain a deeper understanding of the way in which lifestyle creators create a ‘digital trust’ within their audience. Check out below my video giving a brief overview of my plan!
As I mentioned my research is to investigate the idea of 'digital trust' within an online audience. This research will offer a great opportunity in regard to the marketing side of social media. As a visual communication major with close interest with marketing the idea of creating trust and welcome into design is very important so what does it mean for lifestyle influencers to create 'trust'? Thus research will hopefully offer immense knowledge into my career prospects.
An ethnographic approach to researching marketing can reveal not only how consumers purchase and use products that influencers post about but their qualitative connection and experience with that product as a whole (Daymon and Holloway, 2011). I want to understand the importance of trust or credibility within the influencer for audiences to build brand loyalty as opposed to celebrity endorsement or mass media marketing which are more instrumental in raising brand awareness among consumers.
Hopefully through my digital artefact I will uncover the connection whether it be attitudinal, emotional and behavioural, the consumer has made to the influencer that lead them to purchase products, take advice or live a life similarly to the influencer. Due to the digital nature of my field site an an ethnographic approach will be important as it can be a close in depth "investigation of virtual communities such as those that emerge via the internet” (Daymon and Holloway, 2011, pp. 145). Through ethnographic research I will gain an understanding of the “methodology for studies of cultures and peoples, with the assumption that they have something in common” (Sobolewska, F. Smith & Turner, 2009). Whilst investigating Sarahsday closely I will hopefully have observations common to other lifetstyle influencers.
Stay tuned for more!!
Live and Laugh,
References:
Daymon Christine and Holloway Immy (2011) ‘Ethnography’, Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications. Routledge: New York.
David Jiménez-Castillo, Raquel Sánchez-Fernández, The role of digital influencers in brand recommendation: Examining their impact on engagement, expected value and purchase intention, International Journal of Information Management, Volume 49, 2019, Pages 366-376
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