Instead of conventional advertising, many companies are using advertising with Internet personalities. However, this form of marketing is particularly difficult in Germany. This is also shown by the comparison with other countries. In Germany, there is a special market phenomenon.
Influencer marketing is popular in the consumer industry. Advertising deals with well-known internet personalities are intended to bring products to customers in a particularly credible way.
But a global study by the EY consultancy, which WELT AM SONNTAG has received in advance, shows that Germans are particularly skeptical when it comes to influencers – at least according to their own statements.
According to the survey, only one in five men and one in three women in Germany follow influencers on social media. In India, however, 81 percent of respondents admit to being followers, and China and Saudi Arabia are also above the global average of 45 percent.
Accordingly, in each of the three countries, only about ten percent say that they are almost never influenced by influencers when making purchasing decisions. In Germany, 46 percent of respondents see it this way. In general, Europeans are more critical on the subject than Americans and Asians.
This is because Europeans rate the credibility of influencers’ recommendations much lower. Only seven percent of Indians generally consider them to be unreliable, but a third of Germans – and even almost half of Italians – do.
“It is not just the visibility of the product that is crucial, but rather how credible and useful the resulting contribution is,” warns EY expert Michael Renz. The age structure in the countries is also likely to influence the global differences: younger people worldwide follow influencers more often than older people.
Christoph Kapalshinski is a business editor in Hamburg. He reports on Consumption, Einzelhandel, agriculture, Start-ups and Venture capital.
