T H E M A R K E T I N G P O W E R O F F A S H I O N I S T A S D r . S . J . O p r e e U n i v e r s i t y o f A m s t e r d a m
3 0 - 1 - 2 0 1 5
Midja van Hulsen - 10706747
Master’s Thesis Graduate School of Communication
Master’s programme Communication Science
The influence of fashion blogs on brand awareness, product
attitudes and purchase intention
Abstract
Fashion blogs are becoming an important platform in the consumer-brand relationship. By sharing personal opinions and experiences about certain products, bloggers have the power to influence consumers. In the fashion industry blogs have been recognized and used as
marketing tools. The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of influence fashion blogs have on brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention of young women (ages 18-25). An online experiment was conducted among 95 women in order to achieve the following three aims: to determine (1) whether fashion blogs are more influential than
advertisements, (2) whether professional and amateur blogs are perceived differently, looking at expertise and trustworthiness, and (3) whether professional blogs are more influential than amateur blogs. In short, this study demonstrates that fashion blogs have a greater impact on brand awareness than advertisements, that professionals blogs are being perceived as having more expertise, and that professional blogs have more influence on purchase intention than amateur blogs.
Key words: Fashion blogs, influence, brand awareness, product attitudes, purchase intention,
Table of contents
1. Introduction
4
2. Theoretical background
5
2.1 Effectiveness of blogs vs. advertisement 5
2.2 Credibility of blogs 12
3. Methods
17
4. Results
21
5. Conclusion & discussion
24
1. Introduction
The internet has changed the way brands communicate with consumers. Online communities such as those who access social media platforms, forums, consumer review sites and blogs have become an important part of the consumer-brand relationship. Consumers use social media platforms to discuss products and these consequently play a big role in their decision-making processes (Lee & Yuon, 2009). This phenomenon of sharing experiences online is called electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). In comparison to traditional advertising, a consumer’s opinion and feeling about a product or brand, has been recognized as more trustworthy (Kulmala, Mesiranta & Tuominen, 2013). The consequence is that eWOM is seen as a credible source, as producing more attitude change and strongly affecting consumers’ choices and judgments (Willemsen, Neijens & Bronner, 2012).
The use of social network sites, such as blog reading, has become popular in the Netherlands among youngsters between the ages of 16 and 25 years (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2014). Blogs contain personal information, opinions and product review
information. The focus lies on blogs, not only because they have become extremely popular, but also because they have been recognized as having high influence and marketing power (Hsu & Tsou, 2011). Within this genre, a relatively new source of eWOM is fashion blogs. They are used by individuals to share their opinions and feelings about products, fashion brands, trends, street style and other personal issues with the rest of the world, and also contain product reviews (Halvorsen, Hoffmann, Coste-Maniѐre & Stankeviciute, 2013).
However, research on blogs and the influence of eWOM on consumers’ decision-making processes, particularly fashion blogs, is still in its infancy, compared to research into the influence of advertising. Previous studies into general blogs seem to suggest that they have an influence on consumers and are more effective than traditional advertising, and this is expected to also apply to fashion blogs. Three research aims will be examined by doing an
experiment. The first research aim is to determine whether fashion blogs have more influence on the brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intentions of young women compared to advertisements.
Blogs are seen as credible sources with the ability to influence consumers (Halvorsen et al., 2013) and for this reason eWOM is encouraged by marketers, especially on fashion blogs. They send fashion bloggers free products, discounts, invitations to product launches, store openings and gift vouchers (Kulmala et al., 2013). This has led to clear differences between professional blogs and amateur blogs. The main one is that professional bloggers receive free products and services to encourage eWOM, while the amateur bloggers do not. The question is whether this makes a difference in terms of perceived credibility. The second research aim is therefore to determine whether professional blogs and amateur blogs differ in their perceived credibility (i.e., perceived expertise and trustworthiness).
The third research aim focuses on the difference between professional and amateur blogs and tries to determine whether they differ in their influence on brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention.
2. Theoretical background
2.1 Effectiveness of blogs vs. advertisements
To clearly investigate the influence of blogs in comparison to that of advertisements, the main goal of advertisements should be cited. The main goal of commercial messages, such as advertising or product reviews is to form and change a consumer’s attitude. When
processing such commercial messages, consumers go through three different stages (de Pelsmacker, Geuens, van den Bergh & van Winkel, 2005). These are known as the cognitive stage, affective stage and behavioral stage. The cognitive stage is when the consumer engages in a thinking process that can lead to knowledge and awareness of a brand (de Pelsmacker et
al., 2005). With the affective stage a more emotional response occurs, which is associated with the brand, and the consumer might form an attitude towards the brand (de Pelsmacker et., 2005). Lastly, the behavioral stage is to do with undertaking action regarding the brand, such as buying it (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005).
A marketer should concentrate on one of these three stages in order to change a
consumer’s attitude, but consumers experience more processes than this (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Another important process consumers go through relates to the way a message is processed. One communication model that explains how attitudes are formed and changed, as well as how the message is processed, is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). The ELM sees attitude formation and change in terms of two dimensions. The first dimension also refers to the three stages named above: cognitive, affective and behavioral, and is associated with attitude formation (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005). The second dimension refers to how the message is being elaborated, whether it is processed through the central route or the
peripheral route. If the message is being processed through the central route, the motivation, ability and opportunity to process the message are high (Cacioppo & Petty, 1983; de
Pelsmacker et al., 2005). If the message is processed through the peripheral route the motivation or ability to think is low and information is processed on the basis of simple peripheral cues such as an attractive source and attractive visual cues (Cacioppo & Petty, 1983; de Pelsmacker et al., 2005).
With respect to the three stages used in the first dimension of the ELM that form an attitude, it is interesting to see how fashion blogs influence young women’s consumer
behavior. This study measures the three concepts that explain a consumer’s behavior, namely brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention. These three concepts can be linked to the three stages of attitude formation. Brand awareness can be linked to the cognitive stage, in which knowledge and awareness is created. Product attitudes can be linked to the affective
stage, in which an attitude towards the product is created. And the purchase intention can be linked to the behavioral stage, which determines whether a product is bought.
The first research aim focuses on the difference in influence between fashion blogs and advertisements, whereby fashion blogs are expected to have more influence. One of the reasons for this expectation is that it is expected that people are more involved when reading a blog than an advertisement, because reading a blog is voluntary while advertisements are usually forced on people. Also, because of the commercial nature of advertisements and the intent to persuade, people can develop a certain skepticism towards them (Lu, Chang & Chang, 2014). The difference between advertisements, which are a paid for and non-personal commercial tool (Lu et al., 2014) and a blog, which communicates on a more personal level, accounts for this different expectation. Additionally, it seems that internet consumers are in an active state and are more susceptible to persuasion (Engel, Blackwell & Miniard, 1995;
Halvorsen et al., 2013). Also, with fashion being main subject, it is important to bear in mind that the products being discussed on these blogs are mainly clothes, shoes, accessories and jewelry. As Halvorsen et al. (2013) mention, fashion is mostly driven by inspiration between peers and can influence the consumer more than advertisements. Given this theoretical background the following three hypotheses are presented:
H1.Young women who read a blog, in contrast to young women who read the advertisement
about a certain product, will have high brand awareness.
H2. Young women who read a blog, in contrast with young women who read the
advertisement about a certain product, will have a positive product attitude.
H3. Young women who read a blog, in contrast to those who read the advertisement about a
Brand awareness
Hypothesis 1 underpins the investigation into influence of fashion blogs compared to advertisements in relation to brand awareness. Brand awareness is the first step in the process of influencing the consumer and is also the first step in brand attitude formation (de
Pelsmacker et al., 2005) which can be divided into two aspects: brand recognition and brand recall. With brand recognition a consumer is able to identify an advertised brand from a selection of options, while with brand recall the consumer can recall the brand without a prompt (Lu et al., 2014). This last definition will be used in this study. An important point Lu et al. (2014) make is that the more knowledge a consumer has about a product, the higher the brand awareness. Because a blog provides more information about a brand than an
advertisement, hypothesis 1 is proposed.
Product attitudes
Hypothesis 2 focuses on the product attitudes of young women. After brand awareness has been attained, the second phase in the process of brand attitude formation can start, which is product attitude. In this phase a more emotional response occurs towards the brand (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Product attitudes can be defined as either favorable or unfavorable emotions (Lu et al., 2014) that can be evoked by the commercial message. This definition of product attitudes will be used in this study. The personal opinions and experiences expressed by bloggers help form a certain attitude towards the product (Lu et al., 2014), which are most likely more positive. That is why hypothesis 2 is proposed.
Purchase intention
The last step in the process of influencing the consumer is to positively influence the consumer’s purchase intention, which is usually the ultimate goal of a brand. Brand
intention (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005). In this study purchase intention is defined as a consumer’s intention to make an effort to buy the product (Lu et al., 2014; Spears & Singh, 2004).
In the study of Halvorsen et al. (2013) it was found that blogs can definitely directly influence consumers to buy certain products. However, this depends on different factors, for example how trustworthy and credible a blog seems to be (Halvorsen et al., 2013). Moreover, a consumer’s attitude towards the blog can play a role in the purchase intention. This larger impact and direct influence on behavior can be explained by the fact that the influence is on a more personal level than a commercial level (Halvorsen et al., 2013). Therefore hypothesis 3 is proposed.
These three hypotheses will help to meet the first research aim: to examine how fashion blogs influence brand awareness, product attitude and the purchase intentions of young women compared to advertisements. All the three constructs that are being examined in relation to the three hypotheses can have an influence on attitude formation. Furthermore, to completely understand the relationship between these constructs, a fourth hypothesis is added:
H4. Brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention have an influence on each
other.
To illustrate the difference between a blog and advertisement, the following Figures are presented. Figure 1 is an example of an advertisement and Figure 2 is an example of a professional blog. The main difference is that the professional blog has more information about the product, which consists of a personal opinion and experience. The advertisement has less information and consists of more motivational advertising text.
2.2 Credibility of blogs
As Halvorsen et al. (2013) mention, blogs can influence consumers, but a very important aspect that determines the degree of influence is the credibility of the blog. According to Willemsen et al. (2012) the perceived credibility is measured by two key elements: perceived expertise and perceived trustworthiness. These are important elements because it was found that the more credible the source, the more it could evoke attitude change (Willemsen et al., 2012). Perceived expertise is referred to as a source that is capable of making legitimate claims (Willemsen et al., 2012) and perceived trustworthiness is referred to as the degree of sincerity that motivates a source to communicate legitimate claims
(Hovland, Janis & Kelley, 1953; McCracken, 1989). Importantly, ambiguous results can be found when researching source credibility. An online source can be perceived as having great expertise but can score low on perceived trustworthiness and vice versa (Willemsen et al., 2012).
In the study of Willemsen et al. (2012) about source credibility, a distinction is made between three kinds of sources: a layperson, a self-proclaimed expert and a rated expert. In this study the professional blog will be seen as one that is written by a self-proclaimed expert, which is someone that ‘claims to know about a product as part of their profession’
(Willemsen et al., 2012,p. 16), while an amateur blog will be seen as one that is written by a layperson, which is someone that claims little knowledge of the product (Willemsen et al., 2012).
The second research aim is to determine whether professional blogs and amateur blogs differ in their perceived credibility. This difference is important because it can clarify why the source is perceived as having more expertise or trustworthiness. If we look at the professional blogs, the blogger claims to have certain knowledge of fashion products due to a hobby or training (Willemsen et al., 2012). This can be a cue for the consumer that the source is
providing valid information and can be seen as an expert (Willemsen et al., 2012). If we look at perceived trustworthiness, other aspects are taken into account, such as the blogger’s motivation to talk about this product. This is exactly what Willemsen et al. (2012) found and called an ironic effect, because while the self-proclaimed expert was perceived as having more expertise, the layperson was perceived as having more trustworthiness. Given this theoretical background and to examine if this difference is applicable to fashion blogs, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H5. Professional blogs are perceived as having more expertise. H6. Amateur blogs are perceived as having more trustworthiness.
If a professional blog is compared to an amateur blog, it could be that the professional blog is using a form of eWOM with the intent to persuade. Kulmala et al. (2013) make a clear distinction between amplified eWOM and organic eWOM. Amplified eWOM relates to the practice of brands or companies encouraging bloggers to talk about a product by, for example, sending them free products (Kulmala et al., 2013). Organic eWOM refers to a person
spontaneously wanting to talk about an experience with a product or brand (Kulmala et al., 2013). This difference between professional and amateur blogs and the way they are
perceived, either as amplified or organic, can again influence a consumer’s decision-making process. This difference between these two kind of blogs has lead to the last research aim: professional blogs and amateur blogs differ in their influence on brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention.
When looking at the difference in influence between these two kinds of blogs, it is important to take into account Kelley’s (1973) attribution theory. Its main principle is that when the consumer suspects that the endorsements of the product are not based on
performance but rather on the intention to persuade (amplified eWOM), the consumer will discredit the endorsement (Willemsen et al., 2012). This attribution theory is important to keep in mind due to the fact that the professional blogs are being used as marketing tools these days.
While the various blogs are expected to be perceived differently for certain reasons (expertise vs. trustworthiness), different expectations are presented for professional and amateur blogs regarding the three concepts of attitude formation. First of all, because it is expected that professional blogs are seen as having more expertise, the influence on the consumer regarding brand awareness will be higher than when reading an amateur blog. This is because brand awareness is a concept that appeals more to the cognitive stage, in which knowledge about the brand is created (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005), and having expertise can create a certain awareness and knowledge about a brand (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005).
Secondly, because it is expected that amateur blogs will be perceived as more trustworthy in terms of the attribution theory by Kelley (1973), amateur blogs will influence the consumer more positively when it comes to product attitude. The reason for this is that a layperson can evoke more signals of sincerity because there are no claims to being an expert, so the endorsement is based on their own experience (Willemsen et al., 2012). And lastly, because it is expected that professional blogs are perceived as having more expertise, the influence of these blogs on the consumer’s purchase intention will be higher. Having
expertise is based on the accumulation of skills and knowledge about a product (Willemsen et al., 2012). Therefore a professional blog will be likely to influence the purchase intention more due to the perceived knowledge of the expert blogger. Given this theoretical background the following hypotheses are presented:
H7. Young women who read a professional blog instead of an amateur blog will have high
brand awareness.
H8. Young women who read an amateur blog instead of a professional blog will have a
positive product attitude.
H9. Young women who read a professional blog instead of an amateur blog will have a
higher purchase intention.
To demonstrate the difference between a professional blog and amateur blog more clearly, Figure 3 shows an amateur blog. The main difference visually is that the professional blog (Figure 2) has advertisements on the side, shows the large amount of viewers on Facebook and YouTube, and you can go directly to its YouTube site. The amateur blog has no
advertisements and has a smaller number of followers. Verbally, the blogs differ in a way that the professional blog really highlights the years of experience in wearing Nike shoes, shares a personal opinion and experience, and gives advice about the fitting and where to buy the shoes. The amateur blog describes a personal hesitation about buying the shoes and choosing a color. The blogger is also not sure about liking the trend, shares a negative experience about buying the shoes at a certain website and complains about the lug of the shoe.
3. Methods
Participants
To test the hypotheses, an experiment was conducted. The experiment was conducted online and participants were selected through a snowball sample. They were invited through e-mail and Facebook. A total of 95 women participated, between the ages of 18 and 25. The mean age of the women is 22.7 years (SD = 1.84). A total of 60% of the 95 participants have a university degree.
Research design
The experiment consisted of two parts. First the participants had to read a blog or advertisement. And secondly the participants had to complete a survey with questions about their brand awareness, product attitude and purchase intention. The survey also consisted control questions concerning subjects like; the quality of the blog or advertisement and the attitude towards these two. The respondents were divided into three groups and randomly assigned to one of three conditions. The three conditions were the advertisement the professional blog, and the last condition is the amateur blog.
Stimuli
Participants were asked to evaluate an advertisement or one of the two blogs. Each of these conditions discussed the same product: the Roshe Run sneaker shoes of Nike. The first condition, the control stimulus, was an advertisement of the shoe and written by Nike the brand itself (see Figure 1). The second condition was a professional blog, this condition was written by a self-proclaimed expert. And the third condition was an amateur blog and was written by a layperson. The difference between these two conditions is that the professional blog is written by someone who works together with a certain kind of brand or company
because of their expertise and popularity. This is made clear visually by advertisements on the side (see Figure 2). The amateur blog is written by someone, who mostly talks about personal experiences and does not work together with a brand or company. This is also made clear visually (see Figure 3).
Measurement assessment
The scale items for product attitudes, purchase intention, perceived expertise and perceived trustworthiness were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Items of a scale can be combined, if they all measure the same underlying construct (Pallant, 2010). To see if the scale is reliable, the Cronbach’s alpha of the scales are determined. Scales are reliable if their Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is above .70 (Pallant, 2010).
Measures
To measure brand awareness participants were asked to cite the brand. This is a form of open recall. This variable is a dichotomous variable which means that their answer was either good (= 1) or wrong (= 0), if they could recall the brand.
The variable product attitudes was measured on a 5-point Likert scale with 4 items, ranging from 1 to 5 (e.g. unattractive-attractive, bad quality-good quality, not useful-useful and non distinctive-distinctive) based on prior research of Lee and Yuon (2009). The factor analysis revealed that only one component had an eigenvalue (2.41) exceeding 1, explaining 60.2% of the variance. An inspection of the screeplot revealed a clear break after this
component and all items are positively related to the first component. The variable product attitudes (M = 14.02; SD = 3.02) had a reliability of α = .76.
The variable purchase intention was measured on a 5-point Likert scale with 4 items. Participants were asked on what terms they would agree or disagree with 4 propositions (1=
strongly disagree; 5 strongly agree). The propositions were as follow: ‘I would consider buying this product’, ‘I do NOT have the intention to buy this product’, ‘I will buy this brand the next time I need this product’ and ‘If I need it, I would buy this product’ (M = 8.92; SD = 2.90). The factor analysis revealed that one component had an eigenvalue (2.27) exceeding 1, explaining 56.8% of the variance. There is a clear break after this component and one item is negatively related to the first component. Item 2 (‘I do NOT have the intention to buy this product’) was deleted, to substantial increase the scale reliability from .73 to a Cronbach’s of α = .76.
To measure perceived expertise and perceived trustworthiness scales were adopted from prior research developed by Ohanian (1990). Both variables were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Perceived expertise (M = 13.96; SD = 3.99) was measured with 5 items (e.g. inexperienced-experienced, incompetent-competent, bad informed-good informed, incapable-capable and unskilled-skilled). Only one component had an eigenvalue (3.53) exceeding 1, explaining 70.5% of the variance, which is also visible in the screeplot where there is a clear break after this component and all items are positively related to the first component. The variable perceived expertise had a reliability of α = .90. And perceived trustworthiness (M = 12.76; SD = 3.01) was measured with 4 items (e.g. dishonest-honest, insincere-sincere, unreliable-reliable and invalid-valid). One component had an eigenvalue (2.77) exceeding 1, explaining 69.3% of the variance. There is a clear break after this component and all items are positively related to the first component. The reliability is α = .85.
Manipulation check
To see if the participants were able to recognize what kind of condition they had seen, a manipulation check was conducted. Participants were asked if they could categorize the text they read into three categories; an advertisement, a professional blog or an amateur blog. To
see if the participants were able to identify the text they read, a new variable was made and their answer was either good (= 1) or wrong (= 0). A crosstab was used to find out if there is an interaction between the two variables. The Chi-square test can show if there is a statistical relation between the two variables, or if the variables are independent. A Chi-square test for independence indicated a significant association between the two variables, 𝜒2(2, n = 95) = 50.436, p = .000, phi = .73. From the 32 participants who read the professional blog a total of 30 participants had the wrong answer. From the 32 participants who read the amateur blog, 27 participants had the good answer and for the advertisement condition a total of 25 participants had the good answer of a total of 31. The standardized residuals in the crosstabs shows that values for the condition professional blog and the wrong answer are higher than expected. Unfortunately, most of the participants were not able to recognize the professional blog as a professional blog, but categorized it as an advertisement or amateur blog. Hence, the results of this experiment should be interpreted with caution.
Analytic approach
To test the first hypothesis a logistic regression analysis was conducted to see if young women who read a blog instead of an advertisement would have a higher brand awareness (H1). Brand awareness is the dependent variable and their answer was either good (= 1) or
wrong (= 0), if they could recall the brand. For H2 and H3 independent sample t-test was
conducted. The t-test for H2 will tell whether there is a significant difference between the two groups (people who read the blog or saw the advertisement) and their product attitudes. The t-test for H3 will t-test whether there is a significant difference between these two groups and their level of purchase intention. For H4 a bivariate correlation test was conducted. This test was conducted to test the strength of the relationship and the direction of the relationship between the dependent variables brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention.
For H5 and H6 an independent sample t-test was conducted. The t-test for H5 will tell whether there is a significant difference between the two groups (people who read a
professional blog or people who read an amateur blog) and their level of perceived expertise. For H6 the independent variable is the same, but the dependent variable is the level of
perceived trustworthiness. To test H7 a logistic regression analysis was conducted to see if young women who read a professional blog instead of an amateur blog would have a higher brand awareness. Brand awareness being the dependent variable and their answer was either
good (= 1) or wrong (= 0), if they could recall the brand. For H8 and H9 an independent t-test
was conducted. The independent t-test for H8 will test whether young women who read an amateur blog will have a more positive product attitude, compared to young women who read a professional blog. The t-test for H9 will test whether young women who read a professional blog will have a higher purchase intention, compared to young women who read an amateur blog.
4. Results
To meet the first research aim, four hypotheses were proposed. To test H1 a logistic regression was performed. The full model against a constant only model was marginal
statistically significant 𝜒2(1, n = 95) = 3.117, p = .077. This means that the model was able to distinguish between women who read the blog and did not read the blog (but saw the
advertisement). The model as a whole explained between 3.2% (Cox and Shell R square) and 8.6% (Nagelkerke R squared) of the variance in brand awareness, and correctly classified 93.7% of cases. From these results it seems that reading a blog (p = .089) adds marginal significantly to the model. An odds ratio of 4.59, indicates that the chances that the women could recall the brand is 4.6 times higher if they saw a blog. A total of 89 women could recall the brand and 6 could not recall the brand. Therefore H1 is accepted.
For H2 an independent sample t-test was conducted to compare if women who read a blog have a more positive product attitude than women who saw an advertisement. On average, women who saw a blog have a less positive product attitude (M = 3.43, SD = .82) than women who saw the advertisement (M = 3.66, SD = .58). This difference is marginal significant t(93) = 1.41, p = .081. These results suggest that women who read a blog have a less positive product attitude, in contrast to what was expected. Therefore H2 is rejected.
For H3 again an independent sample t-test was conducted, to see if women who read a blog had a higher purchase intention than women who saw an advertisement. On average, women who saw the advertisement had a higher purchase intention (M = 3.25, SD = .74) than women who read the blogs (M = 2.84, SD = 1.04). And this difference was significant t(80) = 2.21, p = .015, 95% CI [.040, .778]. In contrast to what was expected, women who saw the advertisement have a higher purchase intention and therefore H3 is rejected.
A bivariate correlation test was conducted for H4. This test was conducted to see if the dependent variables brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention would
Table 1 Influence of brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intention on each other.
Brand Awareness Product attitudes Purchase intention
Brand Awareness Pearson Correlation 1 ,031 -,038
Sig. (2-tailed) ,768 ,718
N 95 95 95
Product attitudes Pearson Correlation 1 ,741**
Sig. (2-tailed) ,000
N 95 95
Purchase intention Pearson Correlation 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
N 95
correlate. There was a significant positive relation between the product attitudes and purchase intention, r = .74, p (two-tailed) < .001, which means that if there is a more positive attitude towards the product there will be a higher purchase intention (see Table 1).
The second research aim examined two specific hypotheses. H5 and H6 were
conducted through an independent sample t-test. H5 compares if professional blogs would be perceived as having more expertise. On average, women who read the professional blog perceived the blog as having more expertise (M = 2.68, SD = .66) than women who saw the amateur blog (M = 2.33, SD = .59). This difference was significant t(62) = 2.27, p = .014. These results suggest that H5 is adopted. On the other hand H6 tested if women who read an amateur blog would be perceived as more trustworthy. On average, women who saw the professional blog perceived the blog as more trustworthiness (M = 3.26, SD = .72) than women who saw the amateur blog (M = 3.16, SD = .90). Unfortunately, this difference was not significant t(62) = .50, p = .31. This means that H6 is rejected.
The last research aim examined three hypotheses. H7 stated that women who read a professional blog instead of an amateur blog would have a higher brand awareness. To test H7 a logistic regression was performed. The full model against a constant only model was not statistically significant 𝜒2(1, n = 64) = 0.00, p = 1.00. This means that the model was not able to distinguish between participants who read the professional blog and participants who read the amateur blog. Therefore H7 is rejected.
H8 examined the difference between an amateur and professional blog, and compares which blog would evoke a more positive product attitude. On average, women who read the professional blog have a more positive product attitude (M = 3.50, SD = .77) than women who read the amateur blog (M = 3.36, SD = .87). Unfortunately, this difference was not significant t(62) = 0.68, p = .25, and therefore H8 is rejected.
And finally H9 states that women who read a professional blog instead of an amateur blog will have a higher purchase intention. Women who read the professional blog have a higher purchase intention (M = 3.08, SD = .85) than women who read the amateur blog (M = 2.68, SD = 1.08). This difference is marginal significant, t(62) = 1.64, p = .054. These results suggest that women who read a professional blog have a higher purchase intention, therefore H9 is accepted.
5. Conclusion & discussion
The current study had three clear research aims. The first was to investigate whether fashion blogs influenced consumers’ brand awareness, product attitudes and purchase intentions more than advertisements. Three things became clear. Firstly, in comparison to advertisements, fashion blogs have a stronger effect only on brand awareness. Although the blogs are more informative and therefore trigger recall, they were found to be no more successful in evoking positive emotions. Secondly, it was expected that young women who read a blog would have a higher purchase intention, but the opposite was found. It seems that the young women who saw an advertisement had a higher purchase intention. Thirdly, in terms of the three concepts that can be influenced, two of them had a positive relation:
product attitudes and purchase intention. This means that the more positive a young women’s attitude towards a product is, the higher her purchase intention will be.
These findings are supported by the study of Lu et al. (2014), in which it was found that the more knowledge a consumer has, the more likely it is that the consumer will have a high brand awareness. As the Nike brand was used, most of the participants were able to recognize the brand. For future research, this should be taken into account and an unknown brand could be used to investigate dispersion in the degree of brand recall. The results that indicate that advertisements created a higher purchase intention than blogs can be explained
by how the message is processed. According to the theory, the young women who saw the advertisement probably processed the message through the peripheral route, were less motivated and were more susceptible to attractive visual cues (Cacioppo & Petty, 1983), so the advertisement was perceived as more attractive. Young women who read the fashion blogs were probably more motivated and processed the message through the central route; therefore arguments became more important (Cacioppo & Petty, 1983). Therefore they became more critical and the blogs were perceived as less attractive.
The second research aim focused on the difference between professional and amateur blogs, and in particular on how the blogs differ in their perceived credibility (i.e., perceived expertise and trustworthiness). These do differ, because professional bloggers are perceived as having more expertise than amateur bloggers. In contrast to what was expected, amateur blogs were not perceived as more trustworthy. The ironic effect found by Willemsen et al. (2012) was partly supported by the findings. The professional blogger was perceived as having more expertise, but the amateur blogger was not perceived as being more trustworthy. What can be concluded is that if perceived expertise and perceived trustworthiness are measured as part of one and the same scale, namely credibility, it makes the analyses of how credible the source is perceived as being extremely complex (Willemsen et al., 2012).
The third research aim was to determine whether professional blogs and amateur blogs differed in their influence on brand awareness, product attitude and purchase intention. It seems that the professional blog had a stronger influence than the amateur blog when it came to purchase intention. Theoretically, this is in line with the findings of Halvorsen et al. (2013), because it was found that blogs directly influenced consumers to buy something as long as the blog was perceived as a credible source. Furthermore, it was expected, following Kelley’s (1973) attribution theory, that the amateur blog would have a more positive influence on product attitudes because the experience shared is based on performance (organic eWOM)
and not on the possible intent to persuade (amplified eWOM). However, no difference was found between these two blogs and there could be two reasons for this. Firstly, the amateur blog is not perceived as more trustworthy. Secondly, it seems that the professional blogs are not discredited for using amplified eWOM, and amateur blogs are not specifically perceived as using more organic eWOM.
Overall, it was expected the young women would be more negatively influenced by the fact that professional blogs use amplified eWOM instead of organic eWOM, especially when it came to product attitudes. The results of the manipulation check can explain this, because it seems that the young women who read the professional blogs thought they were reading an amateur blog. This could have influenced the results, making the differences between the blogs small.
Practical implications
Overall, it can be concluded that fashion blogs, compared to advertisements, influence mainly brand awareness, but advertisements still have more influence on purchase intention. The positive news for companies is that they still have the power to influence the consumer through advertisements and can control what information is provided. As opposed to a blog, on which the information cannot be controlled, an advertisement can provide accurate and preferred information. Also, if the influence of professional and amateur blogs is compared, it seems that professional blogs are perceived as having more expertise and influence the
purchase intention more. Moreover, if a company wants to invest in a fashion blog as a marketing tool, the choice to work with professional bloggers would be better for the brand. As professional blogs are perceived as having more expertise, the source seems credible and can evoke more attitude change (Willemsen et al., 2012).
Limitations
First of all, a limitation of the experiment was that, as opposed to the blogs, the advertisement was written in English instead of Dutch, and the shoe was colored instead of black, as in the blogs. It could be that the young women who saw the advertisement, were not as fluent in English as in Dutch. Also, because the shoe in the advertisement was colored, it could have been perceived as more attractive. The results could therefore have been
influenced by the fact that the advertisement was perceived as being more attractive and therefore had more influence on purchase intention, contrary to what was expected. For future research qualitative interviews should be considered to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and motivations. This is recommended because interviews can give more insights into the different influences of advertisements, professional and amateur blogs.
Secondly, the differences in influence between professional and amateur blogs were marginal. This could be because, nowadays, the difference between professional and amateur blogs is small. Amateur blogs usually look very professional, with the only difference that these bloggers do not cooperate with a brand. This is also reflected in the results of the
manipulation check, in which the participants were asked if they could recognize what kind of text they had seen. It was found that almost all the young women who read a professional blog thought they had seen an amateur blog. For future research this should be taken into account. Instead of focusing on the difference between blogs, other social media that are used as marketing tools could be compared to fashion blogs, such as, for example, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
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