Under the Influence
Influencer marketing is something that grown exponentially over the past years, especially through Instagram. With new social platforms growing in popularity, influencer marketing can have an even bigger effect on business success. However, this is not just pick one and go, let’s break down the who, what, and why for using influencer marketing.
The Why
Why should a brand use an influencer? Influencers can have a huge impact on social media goals as well as larger business goals. 75% of companies are already using influencers and this number is projected to continue growing. Some main reasons to use influencers include creating fresh content for your brand as well as expanding the audience. Influencers can produce organic content and drive traffic to your own company’s site more than just from your own brand’s social profile. (Critical Mention)
The What
What is being sold? In this example I am looking at the brand Chaco and breaking down their brand identity. In turn this will help choose the perfect influencer to launch a campaign and grow the business. Chaco is a footwear company that specializes in selling sandals for the adventurous soul. (Chaco)
Target market and target audience is something that is extremely important for a brand to decide within their marketing strategy, especially when it comes to Influencer marketing. Chaco has a target market of millennials to adults who are looking for adventure. Chaco as a brand is working to create a unique fashion-forward shoe while still maintaining the integrity of their adventure-based beginnings.
Within this target market Chaco can focus on the everyday adventurer, those who wear their supportive footwear around town and maybe to the beach on the weekend.
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The other half of this target market is focused on the extra adventurous consumer who is looking for a comfortable, supportive, and reliable shoe. These adventurers are hiking, traveling, and creating new experiences weekly. With this target market and audience in mind, Chaco can use an influencer to not only advertise, but engage directly with their audience in an authentic and unique way. (Forbes)
The Who
Who is best to work with this specific brand? When looking for an influencer that would fit best for Chacos, it was important to look at the target market. Chacos is looking to sell to the adventurous soul.
Due to this Angela (@angelaliggs on Instagram) would be a great influencer match for their brand. Angela promotes her hiking adventures and her captions show her authentic voice and passion for what she does. She understands the freedom and power that she gets from experiencing the outdoors. Her images are high quality and fit the best practices for Instagram to allow for maximum engagement and views. While some of her posts have longer character count, these posts tell a story and still receive high levels of engagement. When it is a lengthy caption, it is that way for a reason. This makes her seem and feel more authentic to her audience. Angela has over 400,000 followers on Instagram which means her reach is very large. However, followers are not the most important metric to consider when looking at an influencer. Based on the recent likes and comments, her engagement is also very high. She receives a high number of likes and authentic comments for each post which shows her community not only enjoys her posts, but is ready and willing to engage with it.
There are a few more reasons that she is a good choice as an influencer for Chaco as well.
One main area that Chaco prides themselves in is their sustainability. They have created sandals and footwear that is designed to be used outdoors from the mountains to the sea. Chaco is committed to repurposing and creating a sustainable brand. They promote their ReChaco repair program which allows customers to send their worn out Chaco to their Michigan factory where their team can “resole outsoles, replace straps and buckles, adjust length of straps, and consult on cleaning and care” to create sustainable and repairable products (Chaco). This brand value is something important to consider when choosing an influencer.
Angela is supportive of the environment and has an Instagram story highlight called “Sustainability”. This shows that this is one value that she truly believes in. This allows for more authentic advertisement and promotion. This core value cannot be faked or both the influencer and the brand itself would lose credibility. Knowing that the brand and Angela value sustainability help to add authenticity and meaningful connection to this partnership.
Another reason Angela would be a great influencer to pair with Chaco is that not many of her other posts are sponsored or ads. Some influencers look for brands to promote and almost every post ends up being an advertisement. This causes the influencer to lose credibility and authenticity for their followers. Instead, limiting brands that you work with allows followers to truly value and consider the brands they promote. Angela shows products in pictures, but has not overtly advertised any of these products on her Instagram. If she were to partner with Chaco the promotion would come off as highly authentic and reliable. Similarly, Angela travels all over to take photos and experience the outdoors. While Chaco may be focused in the United States, they also have Instagram accounts for Chaco New Zealand and Chaco Australia. These accounts are not as large as the main brand account so using an authentic local influencer’s voice could help build the audience in these markets. This could be a great opportunity to allow a niche market collaboration at first with the local pages before advertising for the whole brand. Overall, this collaboration is something that could benefit both Angela and Chaco.
https://www.instagram.com/chacofootwear/
