This Is How Influencers Make Us Spend

The importance of influence

Brands use social media influencers to drive our impulse to act and create desire, which is why influencer marketing today is bigger and more legitimate than ever – a $14 billion business globally. It’s estimated to be ~₹900 Crores in India and predicted to grow at 25% CAGR to ₹2200 Crore by 2025.

That’s a lot of money. And not a bad thing.

Influencers drive visibility and growth for newer, smaller brands and businesses, especially women-owned ones. Additionally, influencer marketing has empowered many women & folks from smaller towns to forge their own career paths as social media creators and provide for their families.

What is curious, though, is how a product that one wouldn’t have ordinarily given notice to on an e-commerce site becomes instantly covetable when posted by an influencer.

The argument for influencer marketing

The marketing argument for influencers is that they drive sales/revenue through trust, expertise and high-quality content/imagery. While this makes sense, it is superficial to an extent.

It doesn’t explain the burning need that one feels when they see their favourite influencers sporting/showing/eating something new. It doesn’t explain the immediate reaction to check out, if not buy, whatever makes one stop scrolling. Trust, expertise and high-quality imagery feel like sugar, spice and everything nice.

So, what is Chemical X?

Chemical X: AKA why influencer marketing works

According to behavioural economics, influencer marketing works by tapping into Social Proximity.

Social Proximity is the technical term for emulating the behaviours of people you believe are close to you. This is – quite literally – how influence works in real life. The choices our parents make, the choices our siblings make, the choices our friends make, the choices our classmates make, and the choices our colleagues make, all affect our own decisions in varying degrees, given our constant exposure to them and the time we spend with them.

When we decide that we find an influencer intriguing enough, we follow them. And when we follow them, we’re exposed to their lives – the lives they share with us, anyway. And what usually happens is that we end up liking them, their personality, point of view, interests, style, and so on. Pretty soon, we connect with them and feel like we know them.

And that’s when social proximity kicks in.

We end up inducting influencers into the circle of people who affect our decision-making. You’d totally buy something your best friend recommends, right? And, of course you’d check out the restaurant your favourite colleague is raving about. Social proximity ensures that we treat influencer recommendations the same way.

The more relatable one finds an influencer, the greater their social proximity and, therefore, the greater influence they hold. It’s important to remember that ‘relatability’ doesn’t always translate to similar personalities or lifestyles. It’s a pretty wide spectrum. Sometimes, it’s their taste that’s relatable. Some other times, it’s their interests. It could even be their body type or skin tone.

Accounting for aspiration

Relatability is powerful, and when combined with aspiration, it provides the almighty push to go from ‘hmm’ to ‘checkout’. In our heads, influencers are like us but better. So we believe that if we follow their recommendations, we can attain this “better” version of ourselves. And the innumerable likes and comments influencers get, the social proof of their “better” choices cement it.

In conclusion, spending money on influencer recommendations isn’t a bad thing. It’s like spending on anything else. The same questions – do I need this? Can I afford this? – apply. But knowing the why behind our instant reaction to these recommendations will hopefully help us react a little less – and save a little more.