Beauty Influencers and Consumer Trends
- On the Money Magazine
- Jul 28
- 2 min read
Yaritza Chavez, University of Illinois-Chicago, Junior, Summer 2024
What recent purchasing impulse did you have because of an influencer? It is likely to find an influencer promoting makeup products while scrolling on social media. This is a new shift many makeup companies have taken to promote their products to bigger or new target audiences. These digital content creators possess significant power in molding consumer preferences, particularly in the makeup sector after a study found that 41% of internet users follow influencers for beauty information (Boehm, 2023).
Influencers speak highly about brands' products that sponsor or endorse them to sway consumers to buy the products they demonstrate. As this new marketing tactic develops, the global influencer market value stands at 21.1 billion U.S. dollars as of 2023, which has tripled since 2019 (Dencheva, 2023). With beauty influencers on the rise, it is unsurprising that consumers increasingly reject traditional marketing forms like TV commercials and magazine ads and consider them less credible and trustworthy. Marketing graduate Alyssa Cano, mentions that “influencers are trusted as they have established themselves online through personal storytelling (creating and fostering a community - where they feel close with followers) – especially compared to old forms of advertising that were more staged and untrustworthy.”
Considering influencers are getting paid to talk positively about the product, consumers are now weary regarding the authenticity of the promotion. College student Mandy Lor notes, "Some influencers only post when they must promote products, which makes them seem more interested in making money than recommending products to people.” This new need for genuineness of content among consumers has created a new value-driven shopping trend that preaches to the ‘de-influencing’ of popular products; instead of telling followers to buy products, ‘de-influencers’ ask them not to; amid the hype for the product. Other focus topics are decluttering, minimizing beauty consumption, and encouraging the discovery of cheaper duplicates that perform similarly to the original. This follows the trend of consumers valuing reviews, word-of-mouth recommendations, and research products, including influencer recommendations (Boehm, 2023).
With so many opinions from influencers, choosing what products to buy can be challenging. Undoubtedly, influencers will continue to shape consumer preferences, but doing research can ensure that you buy the best product for you or not at all!
Sources:
Dencheva, V. (2023, December 18). Influencer marketing worldwide - statistics & facts. Statista. https://www-statista-com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/topics/2496/influence-marketing/#topicOverview
Boehm, W. J. (2023). Beauty Influencers - US - 2023. Mintel. https://clients-mintel-com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/report/beauty-influencers-us-2023
Mandy Lor / College Student
Alyssa Cano / Marketing grad
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