Major Project Report

IMPACT OF FASHION BLOGGERS ON

CONSUMERS PURCHASING DECISION

By

SAUMYA GULATI
18346

In Partial Fulfillment for the award of the degree

Post Graduate Diploma In Management

Batch (2018-2020)

Specialization: Marketing and Finance

 New Delhi Institute of Management

New Delhi Institute of Management

50 (B&C), Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi-110062
Website: www.ndimdelhi.org

Major Project Report

IMPACT OF FASHION BLOGGERS ON

CONSUMERS PURCHASING DECISION

Under the supervision

of
Dr. AMIT NAGPAL

Submitted By:

Saumya Gulati
18346
 DECLARATION

I SAUMYA GULATI student of New Delhi Institute of Management

Batch(2018-2020) declare that every part of the Project Report “Impact of
Fashion Bloggers on Consumers Purchasing Decision” submitted by me is
original.

I was in regular contact with my faculty guide and contacted 3-4 times for
discussing the project through phone, email or visits.

Date of project submission: ______31 march 2020________

Signature:
 CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY

Faculty Mentor’s Comments:

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

<<Signature of Faculty guide>>

<<Name>>
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my profound privilege and pleasure to express the over whelming sense of

gratitude, devotion and regards to my project guide, Dr. Amit Nagpal, for his
valuable suggestions, timely guidance and words of encouragement during the
project work. Without his co-operation this project would not have been in the
form, as it is today.

Also, I am very grateful to the entire faculty of NDIM for their kind support &
guidance for the accomplishment of this project work.

Saumya Gulati

Batch (2018-2020)
 ABSTRACT

Social media is proving to be very helpful in areas of public relations and

marketing, particularly in an industry like fashion where emphasis is given on
customers association with the brands and doing repeat purchases. Within last
couple of years fashion has become a global industry. Most brands or
companies in today’s world have social media handles set-up, be it Instagram,
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or company blogs.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration i
Certificate of Authenticity ii
Acknowledgement iii
Abstract iv
Table of Contents v
1. Introduction -1
2. Literature Review -5
3. Objectives 7-
4. Research Methodology 8-
5. Tests and Models Applied & Their Analysis 9-
6. Recommendation & Suggestions 18-
7. Conclusion & Limitations -19
References 20-
Tool(questionnaire)
 INTRODUCTION

Social media is proving to be very helpful in areas of public relations and

marketing, particularly in an industry like fashion where emphasis is given on
customers association with the brands and doing repeat purchases. Within last
couple of years fashion has become a global industry. Most brands or
companies in today’s world have social media handles set-up, be it Instagram,
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or company blogs.

Also there is revolution in communication which has led to spread of global

information which any user can easily follow and discuss any trends and fashion
news distributed world-wide as well as easily search for any collections and
purchase them online. These things are giving competitive advantage to the
firms over their competitors.

Most reliable marketing mechanism is word – of – mouth but it has gone online
unlike traditional way. Influencers are increasing and people trust in them also
by increasing the number of followers from 200 to 2000.

The need of the study is to find out the gain business is getting in the form of
increased sale by changing the customer decision about buying particular
apparel.

Emergence

High street fashion has become affordable and accessible. Now with digital
word of mouth people get information not only from people they know but from
anyone on social media who are geographically dispersed. Some research has

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already been done to know about the impact on sales, social media and
influence in terms of people dressing style.

To drive engagement of shoppers, many organizations have aggressively taken

up social media marketing. Most brands or companies in today’s world have
social media handles set-up, be it Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or
company blogs. In Recent years the influencers are sharing the advantages and
disadvantages of any product or service and their overall experience. The
consumers engage in word-of-mouth due to its social or psychological benefits.
It started as a simple digital/electronic word-of- mouth but eventually turned
into more sophisticated phenomenon known as influencer marketing.

Amongst influencers, the most effective social media marketing tools remain to
be Facebook and Twitter. Eighty three percent of influencers post to Facebook
at least once a week, and 71% post to Twitter. This crushes all competitors
including LinkedIn (27%), Google+ (26%), and Pinterest (18%).

Advantages -

The word-of-mouth marketing tactics is used by various companies to build

their customer base. Now the companies are shifting towards it and spending
dollars on it.

 Creates Trust
Buyers tend to trust someone who gives them a referral because they assume
the person was happy with the services or products, and is unbiased.
Encouraging and facilitating word-of-mouth marketing helps you break
down trust barriers by relying on influencers talk about your company.
 Counteracts Cold Calling
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 More than 209 million people are listed on the Do Not Call registry,
according to the Federal Trade Commission, which leads to loss sale for
companies. By using these bloggers, the business is reaching out to fading
source of consumers.

 Long-Term Value
Research conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Centre for
Integrated Marketing and Sales suggests customers who purchase products
or services based on a referral are more likely to buy more than people who
find your company through traditional marketing methods. These bloggers
always recommend a brand to be used which customers usually remember
and this help business to get sales.

 Low Cost
Once your company becomes established, relying on digital word-of-mouth
marketing becomes an inexpensive marketing tool to increase your business.
Compared to the thousands or even millions of dollars required to run a
consistent ad campaign in print, on television or on radio, this costs almost
nothing.

 Builds Brand
Building your brand is critical, but it’s often difficult for a small business to
do, especially when larger competitors have already established well-known
brands. Using word-of-mouth marketing helps build positive feelings about
your products and services, and that helps build your company’s brand.
Providing resources—such as tips, information and articles—gives your

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 customers an easy means of sharing information about your company while
establishing your brand.

Disadvantages -

 Spreads Slowly
The bloggers needs to be really famous to impact consumers. They need to
increase their reach and make really great interactions so that consumers
start believing them but awareness spreads quite slowly.

 Limited Audience
Since blogging has become very common, there are lot of people involved in
this business and everyone has divided audience which limits the number of
followers for each blogger.

 Tracking Issue
It is also difficult to know the number of customers getting affected by
bloggers and are changing their purchase decision for a particular brand. The
tracking issue exists.

4
 LITERATURE REVIEW

This study explains how things are changed and how important it has become
for the consumers to get influenced not only through pages and websites but
also through influencers. Influencers do play some role in customers decision.
Connection is very important for the prospective customers. The major concern
is to know whether how much impact it has on consumers.

Sabyasachi Dasgupta (O. P. Jindal Global University, India) and Reema

Kothari (Genesis Burson Marstella, India)

The result of the study showed that blogs are a source of information and
entertainment. Besides, consumers’ attitudes seem to be influenced by how
consumers assess credibility, which is determined by trustworthiness, para-
social interaction (PSI), and expertise and message credibility.

Laura Esteban-Santos, (Department of Fashion, Department of Marketing

and Retail, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the levels social media (SM)
platforms are influencing consumer decision-making process for Generation X
and Y consumers in the retail fashion environment. The findings revealed that
consumers use a variety of internal and external motivations that influence their
behaviors and perceptions of high-street fashion retailers, and these factors are
aided and facilitated by the use of SM.

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Jill Nash, (Bournemouth University, Poole, UK)

This paper demonstrates how fashion bloggers, together with their

readers, constitute a form of community centered on style. It also shows how
fashion bloggers, by combining and assembling fashion brands and products,
articulate and express different style sets, and how they, together with their
followers, engage in activities connected to these style ideals.

Phil Christopher (School of Business Stockholm University, Stockholm,

Sweden)

Effective Fashion Blogs and Their Impact on the Current Fashion

Industry

Kristina Sedeke

Master Thesis (Media, Culture and Society Faculty of History,

Communication and Art Erasmus University Rotterdam)

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 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The core objective of the study is

 To research about what impact blogging has on consumers

 How it effects customer’s perception of buying the apparels.
 This helps business to gather information about the traffic that come on
their websites after seeing the blogs posted by fashion influencers and to
know which site it should target.

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 METHODOLOGY

The sampling technique to be used is simple random sampling.

The research design used for the study is descriptive and inferential. The
major purpose of using such a design is because Descriptive statistics helps us
to understand the data, we are dealing with by making numerical and/or
graphical summaries and help us gain insight about how the values are
distributed, shape of data, is the data set skewed etc.

In descriptive stats, we present the facts about the data and do not make
conclusions beyond the data we have analyzed or reach conclusions regarding
any hypotheses we might have made. And Inferential Statistics helps us to draw
conclusions from our collected data and we can make assumptions about the
population based on the sample data. The major purpose of using such
technique is to get clear explanation about consumer buying activities using
analytics. The research will be based on studying sample of 50 customers of age
group 18-30.

Independent t-test on three factors listed below with 2 population males

and females. Here the study is to know whether there is significant difference
between males and females. The factors are –

 Fashion bloggers have helped to gain inspirations for your outfit and style by
their blogs.
 Fashion blogging is affecting your spending in clothes.
 I trust new products and/or brands as a result of a fashion blogger posting
about it.

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TESTS AND MODELS APPLIED & THEIR ANALYSIS

Testing of Objective

 Independent t-test

H0: there is no significant difference between males and females in these

factors

HA: there is significant difference between males and females in these

factors

9
 Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test
for Equality of t-test for Equality of Means
Variances

95% Confidence

Sig. (2- Mean Std. Error Interval of the

F Sig. T Df
tailed) Difference Difference Difference

Lower Upper

Fashion bloggers Equal

have helped you variances 1.355 .251 -2.174 44 .035 -.609 .280 -1.173 -.045

to gain assumed

inspirations for Equal

your outfit and variances
-2.174 41.744 .035 -.609 .280 -1.174 -.044
style by their not
blogs. assumed

Equal
'I trust new
variances 1.960 .168 -2.793 44 .008 -.826 .296 -1.422 -.230
products and/or
assumed
brands as a result
Equal
of a fashion
variances
blogger posting -2.793 42.806 .008 -.826 .296 -1.423 -.230
not
about it'
assumed

Equal
variances 1.686 .201 -1.699 44 .096 -.522 .307 -1.141 .097
Fashion blogging
assumed
is affecting your
Equal
spending on
variances
clothes. -1.699 42.873 .097 -.522 .307 -1.141 .098
not
assumed

Since the p value in this table is less than .05 it means we do not accept
the null hypothesis.

10
Findings:

The males are getting inspired less as compared to the women for their
styling decision. Women are more active and follow the bloggers more to get
inspired.

Model Summaryb

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate Durbin-Watson

1 .327a .107 .087 .944 1.634

a. Predictors: (Constant), Rate the usage to see the blogs through various social platforms. [Instagram]

b. Dependent Variable: Fashion bloggers have helped you to gain inspirations for your outfit and style by their
blogs.

Spending done by both the genders on clothes by bloggers is again

different for menand women.

Same is the case for the trust factor. There is difference between males
and females.

Regression model

H0: There is no relation between usage through Instagram and inspiration

gained through bloggers.

HA: There is a relation between usage through Instagram and inspiration

gained through bloggers.

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 Variables Entered/Removeda

Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method

1 Rate the usage to see the Stepwise (Criteria: Probability-

blogs through various of-F-to-enter <= .050,
.
social platforms. Probability-of-F-to-remove >= .
[Instagram] 100).

a. Dependent Variable: Fashion bloggers have helped you to gain inspirations for your outfit and style by
their blogs.

Coefficientsa

Unstandardized Standardized 95% Confidence

Collinearity Statistics
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B
Model t Sig.
Lower Upper
B Std. Error Beta Tolerance VIF
Bound Bound

1 (Constant) 2.320 .344 6.742 .000 1.626 3.014

Rate the
usage to
see the
blogs
through
.228 .099 .327 2.298 .026 .028 .428 1.000 1.000
various
social
platforms.
[Instagram
]

a. Dependent Variable: Fashion bloggers have helped you to gain inspirations for
your outfit and style by their blogs.

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 Excluded Variablesb

Collinearity Statistics

Model Beta In T Sig. Partial Correlation Minimum

Tolerance VIF
Tolerance

1 Rate the usage to see the

blogs through various
-.028a -.190 .850 -.029 .935 1.070 .935
social platforms.
[YouTube]

Rate the usage to see the

blogs through various
-.072a -.476 .637 -.072 .913 1.096 .913
social platforms.
[Facebook]

a. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), Rate the usage to see the blogs through various social platforms.
[Instagram]

b. Dependent Variable: Fashion bloggers have helped you to gain inspirations for your outfit and style by their
blogs.

Now since we have applied the multiple regression to know which website –
Facebook, YouTube or Instagram affects the people and inspire them for their
outfit.

We have applied stepwise method due to which we got segregation of the

Instagram from Facebook and YouTube.

Clearly the p value is less than .05 in case of Instagram which makes it
significant.

We can also say that people are using Instagram on a whole more to
know about the fashion trends in the market and to style their clothing in
comparison to YouTube or Facebook.

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We can interpret certain things

 Adjusted R square shows that 8.7% of the variation of independent variable

is explained by dependent variable.
 Also, if the usage increase by 1 unit then there will be 22.8% change in the
influence.

Multivariate regression

H0:There is no significant difference between the influence with respect

to blogger personality and quality of text

HA:There is significant difference between the influence with respect to

blogger personality and quality of text

Variables Entered/Removeda

Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method

1 Stepwise (Criteria: Probability-of-

Rate the parameters [Bloggers
. F-to-enter <= .050, Probability-of-
personality]
F-to-remove >= .100).

a. Dependent Variable: Rate the parameters [Frequency of blogs]

Model Summaryb

Adjusted R Std. Error of the

Model R R Square Durbin-Watson
Square Estimate

1 .545a .297 .281 .932 1.290

a. Predictors: (Constant), Rate the parameters [Bloggers personality]

b. Dependent Variable: Rate the parameters [Frequency of blogs]

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 Adjusted r square is 29.7% which means that this much % of variation of
independent variable is explained by dependent variable.

ANOVAb

Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 16.169 1 16.169 18.624 .000a

Residual 38.200 44 .868

Total 54.370 45

a. Predictors: (Constant), Rate the parameters [Bloggers personality]

b. Dependent Variable: Rate the parameters [Frequency of blogs]

Coefficientsa

Unstandardized Standardized 95% Confidence Collinearity

Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B Statistics
Model T Sig.
Std. Lower Upper
B Beta Tolerance VIF
Error Bound Bound

1 (Constant) .846 .464 1.822 .075 -.090 1.782

Rate the parameters

.612 .142 .545 4.316 .000 .326 .897 1.000 1.000
[Bloggers personality]

a. Dependent Variable: Rate the parameters [Frequency of blogs]

Excluded Variablesb

Collinearity Statistics
Partial
Model Beta In T Sig.
Correlation Minimum
Tolerance VIF
Tolerance

1 Rate the parameters [Quality of

text] .238a 1.705 .095 .252 .783 1.277 .783

a. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), Rate the parameters [Bloggers personality]

15
 ANOVAb

Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 16.169 1 16.169 18.624 .000a

Residual 38.200 44 .868

Total 54.370 45
b. Dependent Variable: Rate the parameters [Frequency of blogs]

Now if we can see that in this multiple regression model, we saw that
frequency of blogs visited is dependent upon the personality of the blog and not
much on the text used by the blogger. Here we will see that the bloggers
personality significant value is less than .05 so the model is statistically
significant but in case of the text of the blog there are not statistically significant
in increasing the influence on the people.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The analysis done was in a view that the customers were getting
influenced by the bloggers and also this division is made gender wise. We can
see that males and females have different viewpoints in terms of using these
blogs to know about the trend. We can recommend to the business to target
women population as they are more influenced as compared to men. Also, they
have high inclination towards buying the product after seeing the blogs.

Bloggers who are credible are letting customers to purchase more so

companies can promote through famous bloggers.

We can see through the regression model fitted that consumers depend on
Facebook, Instagram or YouTube to know the viewpoint of the bloggers. The
result was Instagram is the best way a business should follow to promote.
Fashion bloggers have helped to gain inspirations for your outfit and style by
their blogs.

 Fashion blogging is affecting your spending in clothes.

 I trust new products and/or brands as a result of a fashion blogger posting
about it.
 Fashion bloggers have helped to gain inspirations for your outfit and style
by their blogs.

We have got positive results with regard to all these factors so our
objective is said to be true and business can actively involve in doing promotion
through this.

17
 Also, one more thing, customers follow the ones who have good
personality and aesthetics and can compromise on the text written in the blog.

18
 CONCLUSION & LIMITATIONS

The study showed various positive impact but still many people are not
aware of the blogs and are still not very active in following people through this.
As the survey showed people were quite neutral in certain questions. So even
after some influence on the purchasing power we are still not sure that whether
actually sales can improve or not. So, the business may be reluctant even now to
spend promoting their products like this or if they are doing that will be limited
for females and not males. Still the traditional way of promotion works more
than these influencers due to the disadvantages mentioned above.

REFERENCES

Books, Sites, Journals, Magazines Referred:

 https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/the-impact-of-digital-word-of-mouth-
communication-on-consumer-decision-making-processes/193404
 https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JFMM-10-2017-0101
 https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JFMM-01-2018-0012
 https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JFMM-10-2013-0108
 https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJSNM.2016.082647
 http://kenanaonline.com/files/0081/81978/Effective%20Fashion%20Blogs
%20and%20Their%20Impact%20on%20the%20Current%20Fashion
%20Industry.pdf

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 TOOL- Questionnaire

1. Name*

2. Gender*

Mark only one oval.

Male

Femal

3. Age Group*

Mark only one oval.

Below 20

20-25

25-31

Above 31

4. How often do you browse fashion related websites?*

Mark only one oval.

Daily

On

alternate

20
 days

Weekly

Monthly

5. On average, how many fashion bloggers do you follow?*

Mark only one oval.

1-2

3-5

5-10

More than 10

6. Rate the usage to see the blogs through various social platforms.*

Mark only one oval per row.

1 2 3 4 5

YouTube
Instagrram
Facebook

7. Fashion bloggers have helped you to gain inspirations for your outfit and
style by their blogs.*

Mark only one oval.

1 2 3 4 5

8. Fashion blogging is affecting your spending on clothes.*

Mark only one oval.

21
 1 2 3 4 5

9. Fashionbloggersareinfluentialinmakingyoubuybrandeditems.*

Mark only one oval.

1 2 3 4 5

10. How much do you interact with fashion bloggers?*

Mark only one oval.

1 2 3 4 5

11. 'I trust new products and/or brands as a result of a fashion blogger
posting about it'*

Mark only one oval.

1 2 3 4 5

12. 'Bloggers who are more credible make me purchase more'*

Mark only one oval.

1 2 3 4 5

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13. Rate the parameters*

Mark only one oval per row.

1 2 3 4 5
Quality of text Bloggers bloggers personality
Frequency of blogs
Overall aesthetic

14. Fashion blogs help to make my overall decision-making process easier'*

Mark only one oval.

1 2 3 4 5

15. How much you recommend other people to follow any blogger?*

Mark only one oval.

1 2 3 4 5

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