PARASOCIAL INTERACTION ON INDONESIA’S BEAUTY INFLUENCER: ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES

Consumers' dependence on product reviews provided by other consumers makes consumers make social media influencers (SMI) a source of information and reference before purchasing products. The influence of SMI on their followers has led many beauty marketers to use social media influencers to communicate their products. However, the increasing use of influencer marketing by marketers has led to consumer suspicion of the authenticity of influencers. Therefore, based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this study analyzes consumer behavior through the content attributes and interaction strategies exposed by social media influencers to followers, leading to consumers' internal perceptions of parasocial interaction, hedonic value, and utilitarian, and ultimately influencing consumers' response of purchase intention. This study used PLS-SEM as a data analysis technique using a sample of 363 respondents. The PLS-SEM results revealed that content attributes (i.e., attractiveness and prestige) and interaction strategies (i.e., interactivity) positively influence parasocial interaction and, in turn, lead to purchase intention. The results also show that parasocial interaction has a significant effect on hedonic (perceived transparency and perceived enjoyment) and utilitarian (informativeness and credibility) responses. It was also found that hedonic (perceived enjoyment) and utilitarian (credibility) responses significantly influenced purchase intention. Meanwhile, the hedonic response (perceived transparency) and utilitarian response (informativeness) did not significantly affect followers' purchase intention. This research demonstrates the role of content attributes and interaction strategies in creating parasocial interactions and the effects of parasocial interactions on hedonic, utilitarian and purchase intention responses. Based on the results of this study, marketers and influencers are advised to build intimate relationships with the audience to increase purchase intention. This relationship-building can be created through high interactive power, attractiveness, and prestige content. Then, it is also recommended to pay attention to aspects of audience comfort and maintain the credibility of influencers to shape the buying interest of the audience of social media influencer content.

消费者对其他消费者所发布的产品评价的依赖，使得社交媒体影响者（SMI）成为消费者在产品购买前的信息来源与参考依据。社交媒体影响者对其粉丝群体的影响力，促使众多美妆品牌营销人员借助社交媒体影响者开展产品宣传活动。然而，营销人员对网红营销的应用愈发频繁，引发了消费者对影响者内容真实性的质疑。因此，本研究基于刺激-机体-反应（SOR）框架，通过分析社交媒体影响者向粉丝展示的内容属性与互动策略，剖析消费者行为：这类因素会引发消费者在拟社会互动（parasocial interaction）、享乐价值与实用价值层面的内在感知，最终影响其购买意向。本研究采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）作为数据分析工具，共收集363份有效样本。PLS-SEM分析结果显示，内容属性（即吸引力与威望）与互动策略（即互动性）均对拟社会互动产生正向影响，并进而推动购买意向的形成。研究结果同时表明，拟社会互动对享乐维度（感知透明度与感知愉悦）与实用维度（信息性与可信度）的感知均具有显著正向作用。此外，本研究还发现，享乐维度中的感知愉悦，以及实用维度中的可信度，均会对粉丝的购买意向产生显著正向影响；而享乐维度中的感知透明度与实用维度中的信息性，则未对粉丝的购买意向产生显著影响。本研究阐明了内容属性与互动策略在构建拟社会互动中的作用，以及拟社会互动对享乐感知、实用感知与购买意向的影响机制。基于本研究结果，我们建议营销人员与社交媒体影响者通过与受众建立亲密关系来提升购买意向，而这类亲密关系可通过高互动性、具备吸引力与威望属性的内容来构建。同时，还应关注受众的体验舒适度，并维护影响者的可信度，以此激发社交媒体影响者内容受众的购买意愿。