New powerful gear in marketing: Influencer marketing.Use wisely!

Posted byHappio Team Posted onJuly 2, 2019 Comments0
Influencer myanmar

“What makes people buying the specific product/brand?”

My answer is simple.

“People buy a specific brand because of the emotion that the brand makes them feel, the pleasure. When consumers choose a brand to buy, they buy mainly the emotion rather than the product.”

That is one of the reasons behind why products try hard to build good brands.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is one of the newest and the most effective tactics in the marketing scheme to promote your product and build brand awareness in the target groups. Or when your brand is already in the market, you use influencer marketing to expand the market.

It involves using key brand advocates to drive your message to the larger market in an organic way and creates an opportunity for your brand to get the attention from the Influencers’ larger followers. Influencer Marketing works like word of mouth, proof and testimonial approach from someone you believe in. Example: If you see someone you admire wear a pair of NIKE shoes, you might give more chances to consider buying a NIKE Shoe. Because the way that person looks in Nike’s new shoes is just too good and deep down you also want to be like that person and look cool. The person you admire testifies that NIKE shoe is great just by wearing it. It gives the validation that your customers are seeking. The dilemma of making a choice becomes valid when your idol does it before you.

The same concept applies to influencer marketing. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead pay influencers to get out the word for you. Generally, customers trust their peers, friends, and people they admire more than the companies selling the products and services they buy and use.

Global Influencer Marketing Statistic

The numbers don’t lie. This indicates clearly why global brands use influencers and brand ambassadors to expand their market and craft their brand image sturdier. According to statistics from the Digital Marketing Institute,

  • 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers trust influencer opinions over traditional celebrities.
  • On average, businesses generate $6.50 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing.
  • 81% of marketers who have used influencer marketing judged it to be effective.
  • 51% of marketers believe they get better customers from influencer marketing.
  • 59% of marketers increased their influencer marketing budgets last year.

Influencer Marketing in Myanmar

In Myanmar, influencer marketing is relatively new, and brands started to use this tactic to expand the market territory and build their brand image. Nowadays, we have seen many big brands use KOLs (key opinion leaders), macro influencers, micro influencers and brand ambassador.

I mean, why not. The payoff is huge!

Just getting any famous influencers to review your products won’t make your brands well-known as you expected. However, You really need to know the right influencers for your brand and target audiences.  Moreover, you should start your research before you even start your influencer marketing strategy?

Here is an example that show having expensive and famous influencers or celebrities won’t bring 100% success in your campaign if you don’t have a clear strategy to work with the influencers to keep the momentum.

Case study: KFC Myanmar

KFC Myanmar dropped their new product and use famous celebrities to make the promotion last week. Everything seemed fine to expect the artwork they use to promote. The celebrity in the picture is very famous in Myanmar now and he seems like a great choice for your new product campaign. However, the problem is the setting of the picture. Most of the comments mainly talking about the actor and how bad it is to bring your date to the KFC.  As a result, almost nobody seems to care about the new product that presented by KFC Myanmar.

What is going on here?

You see 2 wine glasses with a candle, a man wearing a suit and licking his thumb. If you see this, you assume he is on the date and who would bring their date to KFC? I mean nothing wrong with KFC, it just the way people think: their perception or the value they hold.

So rather than, talking about how it would be delicious to try, people started to talk about the feeling they feel toward this artwork. Of course, you can argue that people at least now know about this new product because of the buzzing effect in the social community. Well, the question is “is that really how you plan to develop your new product?” In my opinion, it shows that this online influencer marketing is not fully successful and it might not drive sale as much as the company expected.

I understand, KFC willing to craft their image as classy but youthful and sexy. At least, that’s how I feel by just looking at the picture. However, the message that they want to deliver is complicated for some people and they misinterpreted it then they started to talk it out loud about what they feel. As a result, it makes people stuck in the fact that the famous actor bringing his date to KFC and licking his finger.

Any possible solution?

There are a couple of things we could try to fix even after this incident.

  • A prompt reply would be nice. (KFC Thailand is very good and entertaining)
  • People complained about the size of the chicken. Fix it.
  • 3 optional of responses
    • Make a parody video about bringing date to KFC
    • Apologize and explain your vision about this artwork.  KFC is too good that make your date feel like she is at the luxurious restaurant.”
    • Create EP2: your go-to buddy. For example, it can say, “KFC can be best suited for party, dinner, meet up and so on”.

I hope you enjoy reading some of my thoughts. For next time, I will describe how to create an influencer marketing strategy and how to pick the right influencer for your brand.

Stay tune!


Need more information about Myanmar market

Myanmar Promotes Foreign Investment with a Secure Plan (MIPP) 

Why a market insightful team is required for Thai businesses in Myanmar?

Does Digital Marketing work on Myanmar consumers?

Myanmar Consumers’ transition to New Media and Channels

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