Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Juliana Menna Barreto, and I am a senior Marketing major with a minor in Retail Operations. I was introduced to this research project from a fellow Marketing student and, I was immediately very interested in all the aspects of this project. I am excited to develop a deeper understanding of how influencers’ behaviors and consumer perceptions affect the brands they endorse, while also learning more about research analytics throughout the process. My future plans after graduation are to pursue a career in marketing analytics and further my experiences in brand marketing, particularly within the beauty and fashion industry, which I’m truly passionate about.

The Effect of Negative Endorser Behaviors on Firm Performance

Abstract

With the rise of social media, there has been an observed trend of social media influencers as brand endorsers. Influencers’ characteristics of relatability and pop culture relevancy are seen as valuable to the brands they endorse, yet their unpredictable behaviors and wide range of personalities may lend to certain risk regarding negative effects on endorser brands. Using an events study methodology, we investigate how negative events associated with an endorser can affect the sponsoring firm’s stock performance. At this stage of the research process, we have been gathering data on various social media influencers, their transgressions, and the brands that endorsed them at the time of the transgression. Additionally, we are building and launching a survey to find what characteristics a population sample associates with said influencers. After this stage, we will be running statistical analyses to find what trends lie in the data. The end goal is to develop an understanding of how influencers’ behaviors and consumer perceptions affect the brands they endorse.

Keywords: Data Analytics, Marketing Research, Influencers, Endorsements