Research pick: Insta karma - "Suspicion of manipulation on Instagram: is the consumer being duped?"

Research published in the International Journal of Technology Marketing has looked at whether or not marketers using a popular photo- and video-based social media tool are egregiously manipulating consumers to nudge them towards making a purchase they might otherwise not. The conclusion the team draws from a survey of Instagram users is that those third-party brands generally fail to dupe skeptical consumers who recognise when they are being manipulated.

This conclusion suggests that brands hoping to benefit from the popularity of Instagram ought to re-evaluate their methods to reverse the trend towards unfavourable attitudes to their brands triggered by manipulative and cynical marketing methods. Honesty and authenticity, it seems, sell better in the age of social media than attempting to dupe consumers as may well have been the wont of conventional marketers and advertisers.

Souad Maghraoui, Lilia Khrouf, and Azza Frikha of the University of Manouba in Tunis, Tunisia, point out that social media and so-called Web 2.0 presented unprecedented opportunities for the commercial world. They allowed marketing executives to talk directly and almost instantaneously with customers and putative consumers of their products and services. However, for their part knowledgeable individuals using social media would quickly develop skepticism about outlandish promises and offers from companies and brands that failed to live up to expectations.

Moreover, social media allowed those individuals who felt duped to share their opinions directly and almost instantaneously. Such developments empowered consumers and demoted the marketing executives on the commercial world stage to lesser roles that had less of the persuasive power they once had in the conventional advertising world of traditional media. As such, knowledgeable marketers have begun to recognise this paradigm shift. Those that continue to exploit and dupe the consumer are quickly discovered and lambasted publicly, those that find new, less cynical methods to get their message across are finding the sales leads they hoped for. Credibility and authenticity shall reign supreme, as one might hope.

Maghraoui, S., Khrouf, L. and Frikha, A. (2022) ‘Suspicion of manipulation on Instagram: is the consumer being duped?’, Int. J. Technology Marketing, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.204–219.