Social media has become an essential way of how we communicate with one another. Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, brands and companies have had to heavily rely on their social media pages to advertise new products and product lines. But even before that, social media has been a vital way for businesses to share and advertise their brand and who they are as a company on a personal level that allows for them to connect with their followers in a new and more intimate way.
One of the most predominant ways that companies advertise to their customers and followers is through the use of social media influencers and celebrities. Celebrities have a huge influence on their fans and followers and can easily manipulate them into buying whatever product they are trying to sell. We all have fallen victim to our favorite celebrity influencing us into buying a product that we really did not need or want but buy because we want to be just like them. Celebrities such as the Kardashians are prime examples of people who constantly advertise new products. They are infamous for promoting countless amounts of weight loss products and appetite suppressants. However, they constantly come under fire due to the fact that the products they tend to advertise are extremely dangerous and are not FDA approved. Celebrities, including Jameela Jamil from The Good Place, have spoken out criticizing the Kardashians for using their celebrity “power” to influence fans into buying these unsafe products.
Although the Kardashians have repeatedly posted paid advertisements promoting other companies, they also have their own companies that they advertise on their social media pages as well. Kylie Jenner, for example, has a billion dollar business that she constantly advertises. She has millions of fans all over the world who look up to her and want to be just like her so she was smart enough to use her own insecurities and turn it into a business. The way she branded her business was by speaking out about her being insecure about her lips and that in order to feel pretty about herself she would overline her lips with makeup to make them look larger. She claimed that she could never find the perfect lipstick so she decided to make her own “Kylie Lip Kits” to sell to her fans. However, she neglected to mention that she actually had cosmetic procedures to enhance the size of her lips. Her smart advertising convinced her fans to think that in order to look just like Kylie, all they would have to do is buy her lip kits. On the day of the launch of her first line of products, she sold out within minutes. Her restricting access due to the limited numbers of products available made her products more desirable and created so much hype. It started to become almost like a competition just to be able to possess this one item.
Besides the use of online celebrity influence and social media, media on it’s own is such a powerful tool to promote or fuel consumerism. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Amazon made it evident that they wanted to make sure that consumers had access to whatever they might need even with the shipping restrictions imposed. They practiced solid e-commerce by broadcasting commercials to support their message of making sure customers had what they needed. Amazon has been successful because they proved to be reliable but also branded itself through television ads featuring its workers who have pledged a commitment to customers to make sure deliveries continue. Amazon is one of the few companies that actually benefited from the pandemic and the use of advertising through media helped demonstrate their loyalty and obligation to their consumers.
Usually when you think of social media advertisements you think of advertising through platforms such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, however TikTok has become a huge sensation when it comes to marketing and branding to consumers. TikTok influencers such as Charli D’Amelio, constantly post short videos advertising different products and brands. Charli for example, is the most followed person on the video app and has advertised her love for Dunkin’ Donuts with non-sponsored videos of her regularly drinking her favorite coffee. Dunkin’ Donuts took note and made a sponsorship deal with her allowing her to create her own drink called “The Charli.” Fans from all over the country rushed to Dunkin’ Donuts to get “The Charli” posting their own TikTok videos of them trying the drink. Because of Charli, Dunkin’ Donuts gained a lot of attention from the media and even new customers.
As you can see, the media plays a huge role when it comes to consumerism and gaining the influence of the public. Without different forms of media to advertise on, it would be so much more challenging for companies to brand themselves because they need different platforms to post on and they need new followers to turn into future customers. Social media, in particular, shows that even with the hardships and restrictions of a pandemic, there are still virtual ways to produce content and create advertisements for new products to be sold.
Questions:
- How has COVID changed consumerism?
- What do you think is more important – the quality of goods and products or the marketing/branding? Why?
- Do you think that US consumers are guided more by price or do you think they care more about whether the products are made in America rather than overseas?
- Do you think social media influencers have a real impact when it comes to the sales of products or is it all hype?
Mediated Pop 
2. I believe marketing always reigns supreme over the actual quality of a product. The Kardashians are a great example of a vehicle that pushes products nobody would ever want in a million years. I think it’s universally agreed upon that diet and lifestyle products such as “fit teas” are money grabs, and nothing more. Even designer brands rely on their clout to make sales, rather than the actual quality of the product. I have a Tory Burch bag made of approximately $3 worth of black nylon, and I purchased it for over 200 dollars. I’m advertising for them in admitting this. It’s a cunning scheme, in which where we know that we’re being duped, and we buy in (literally) anyway.
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I wish the quality of products was more important to people, but I think marketing/branding makes much more of an impact. I’m upset by influencers like the Kardashians advertising weight loss products and appetite suppressants just for the money because they have an insane amount of people who follow them and want to look like them. The Kardashians are rich people with access to resources to make them look the way they do that the average person doesn’t have. I’m glad that people like Jameela Jamil have called them out because it’s very harmful. Influencers do have a real impact since they have a lot of people following them, especially young and impressionable fans. I think that influencers should take their role more seriously and be especially cautious in deciding what to promote to people. Last year, YouTubers Jake Paul and Ricegum, who have mainly kid fans, were called out for doing sponsorships for what was essentially a scam gambling website. I believe they were each paid $100,000 for the sponsorship, and it’s so terrible that they didn’t care that what they were promoting was a scam. Clearly, some influencers are driven only by money, and by promoting a scam to kids and manipulating them into believing they can win AirPods or authentic designer clothes by paying this website real money, kids obviously are going to want to try it. Influencers should be much more responsible in what they choose to promote. I generally don’t care that much when influencers do sponsorships, since it’s not always a bad thing. However, they need to understand that their advertising will have an impact on their fans, and influencers should be careful not to promote a harmful product or service.
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As someone who works as a Barista at Dunkin’, it’s not hard to see how the rise of influencers drives products. I can’t even tell you how many times I have been asked for a Charli drink and then was asked for it to be modified a certain way. It makes me angry that people choose to buy a drink just because there is an influencer on the title. Similarly, when McDonalds released the Travis Scott meal, consumers went crazy and it drove up sales. The increase in influencers and the ability to become ‘famous’ through an app has definitely changed consumer behavior.
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I think social media influencers absolutely have an impact when it comes to the sales of products. We’re currently seeing previously unknown teenagers gain national fame for simply posting 15 seconds clips of themselves dancing on Tik Tok and now many of them have branched out into other areas, including their own makeup lines or producing their own music. The Kardashians are obviously one of the original, prime examples of something like this so I think it’s really already been proven that this can be the case.
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I have closely followed many social media influencer and I have seen almost all of them endorse a product or brand. It’s a win, win for basically both the company, gaining customers and the influencer gaining money. Recently I have seen the tik Tok influencer Addison Rae pair up with American Eagle. When you walk into the stores there are giant posters of her wearing their clothes and I’ve seen multiple instagram posts with her promoting their clothing. These kids that are fans of Addison don’t really care about the product. they want to purchase it because one of their favorite stars like it. They will beg their parents for these clothes. I remember this happening with me when my favorite Viners had their own line at Aeropostale. These influencers are basically used by these companies to gain consumers and it’s being go one forever. Having these influencers even just wear the product and be photographed in the clothes can make them thousands of dollars.
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Great post! Well thought out! To start, I definitely think the media benefitted from COVID-19. Although, media was used before COVID began, it’s just more focused on marketing now. Social media apps have changed layouts like Instagram to grab consumers attention from what you can sell on there. I definitely think social media has led people to think having an Instagram and Facebook page means you have started a “small business”. Also, it’s the quality of the marketing that matters now because of how much influencers and celebrities influence everyone else. If a product is marketed correctly online and all of the right people have it, it’s more likely for there to be an increase in sales. It’s unfortunate but true!
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I think marketing/branding is equally as important as the quality of goods and products.
Marketing is important to get the word out about the product. Partnering with social media influencers is one of the more current ways to do this. The partnership might sell a lot of a product because people trust influencers to recommend products that they would buy or use, especially if they are professionals or very experienced in the area that the products fall under. For example, makeup is an industry that utilizes partnerships with social media influencers to get their followers to buy the product. Some influencers will refuse to partner with a product/brand if they think the quality is low. Others will choose to partner with brands and when they find out the product is low quality, they, as well as the brand, get burned. Yes, cheap prices and partnerships will sell a product, but as soon as word gets out that it’s not good quality or not worth the amount of money it costs, sales will tank. Marketing/branding and the quality of goods is a symbiotic relationship – each one depends on the other to succeed.
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Although this isn’t necessarily relevant to the main point, it’s made me think of Americans’ obsession with exclusivity. Re-reading this pop-talk reminds me of my boyfriend. Like many other people, he is very involved in “sneaker culture,” where he is hugely updated on new releases and has basically mastered the bidding process. For those that don’t know, the ‘Jordan’ franchise releases new sneakers occasionally, which usually retails from anywhere between 130$ to 180$. Reasonable right? Some keep them for collective purposes, BUT others resell them on websites like StockX or GOAT. What typically would be a 150$ pair of sneakers, I have seen go for prices as high as 1000$… I say all of this to say that I think Americans have a problem with exclusivity. They will purchase anything that will separate them from the majority. Corporations know this, so they release a limited amount of products to become apart of this group of “outliers.” If corporations released an accessible amount of products, there would be no demand for their products. Unfortunately, companies have only their best interest in mind instead of their consumers.
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4) I do believe they do have an impact. I remember back in my old high school, there was a trend with this brand new sneaker that looked way too flat to be supportive in actual sports. But it was worn on some famous basketball player for one of the teams (I believe the Miami Heat).
Then all of a sudden, the boys were coming in wearing the same shoe, showing them off to their friends. Talks about preordering the shoes and just to wear them, it was the biggest talk for the longest time!
It amazes me how something as simple as someone wearing a shoe can get almost all them to chase after an impractical shoe.
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Great topic! Maybe it’s not so much that COVID has changed consumerism as it has advanced the process of changing consumerism. Even without COVID, consumerism is still evolving in a more electronic direction, with people relying more and more on social media and the visual experience that advertising brings, including a lot of exaggerated grooming techniques that overstate the performance of products. In my mind, the quality of the product and the brand have the same status because the brand can not be established and developed without the support of product quality. Even if the impact strategy and the use of advertising are very appropriate, consumers will not trust the brand if there are problems with product quality. Although in the current era of FMCG products, some brands will use social media marketing to overstate the performance of their products, they also face the risk of losing consumers. A solid brand image should never override deceiving consumers and compromising product quality.
I think whether consumers are guided by price is not unique to the U.S. consumer. It is a global consumer issue. The same goes for the question of whether it’s made in America. But I think the two are together to influence consumers because one of the leading factors in the price of products is the cost of manufacturing. Whether it is made in the U.S. determines the starting point of manufacturing costs. However, people may be mindful of the quality of overseas production, but there is no guarantee that the quality of U.S. manufacturing is necessarily perfect. For different industries, each country’s manufacturing development level is also different, so extreme care and manufacturing origin will also affect the price of products to a certain extent.
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