The present study looked at identifying what impacts social media influencers have on
consumer purchasing behaviour for different sport leisure clothing businesses. The aim of
this study was to identify any reasons in which the participants would be influenced to purchase a
product if a celebrity had been used to advertise it . This benefits me personally
through running an online clothing business as this allows me to identify potential marketing
techniques which through the use of celebrity endorsement could change the consumer purchasing behaviour. Through conducting this study numerous impacts these celebrity endorsers have on consumer purchasing behaviour have been highlighted which can be used by businesses to improve their marketing techniques in order to impact the
consumers as much as possible into purchasing items they see advertised. In total there was
72 respondents who completed the questionnaire successfully. These respondents were
from various social media platforms who have an active profile. The questionnaire produced was a
mixed method approach containing both qualitative and quantitative questions.
These were focused on several areas; social media usage, social media celebrity/influencer
likeliness to purchase something, persuasion factors which made you purchase an item and
:he influence they have on purchasing behaviour. This was then backed up through the
theory of social influence whereby consumers are more likely to purchase items if they see them
as the norm due to actively seeing them on social media. Braun and Clarke's {2006)
thematic analysis procedure was implemented to identify emergence of themes within the data. The
data which was collected through this study suggests that consumers have three particular
purchasing feelings/emotions which celebrities can control and influence. These are as follows;
personal satisfaction, relationship building and individual needs. This
research has provided a good base for future research and literature to expand upon and is an
opportunity for sports business and any clothing businesses to get an insight into the
consumers reaction to celebrity endorsement.