Perceived value and purchase influence of YouTube beauty vlog content amongst generation Y female consumers

Abstract

Globally and in South Africa, the beauty industry, which includes high-involvement products such as skincare, fragrance, makeup, and haircare products, is experiencing robust growth, something partially attributed to the rapidly growing influence of beauty social media influencers. While increased attention is being paid to social media influencer marketing in academic literature, most of these studies focus on the characteristics of the social media influencer rather than on the content that they deliver. Moreover, there is a paucity of studies that specifically consider YouTube vlogs in relation to beauty products and Generation Y female consumers. The purpose of this research was to determine the perceived value and purchase influence of beauty vlog content on YouTube amongst Generation Y female (females born from 1986 to 2005) consumers from the emerging market perspective of South Africa. The study adopted an explanatory research design, whereby data were collected using an electronic questionnaire from 340 Generation Y female consumers. The results of the path analysis indicate that the beauty vlog content dimensions of informativeness, entertainment, and credibility collectively account for 72% of the variability in Generation Y female consumers' perceived value of beauty vlog content on YouTube. In turn, this perceived value, along with its predictors, accounts for almost 50% of the variance in the purchase influence of such vlogs amongst Generation Y female consumers. These findings confirm the salience of beauty brands engaging with YouTube beauty vloggers when targeting Generation Y female consumers. Moreover, when choosing which beauty vloggers to engage with, the results highlight the need to seek out those with a proven track record for delivering informative and interesting beauty product content and who consistently exercise a high degree of integrity in their beauty product review vlogs.