Photo by Yan Ots on Unsplash

Prelude

Marketing is as cluttered as the market.

The 4Ps of marketing is an age-old lesson taught to anyone trying their hands on marketing. To reiterate, it is Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Post-globalization, ‘Promotion’/advertising/communication of the other 3Ps became a challenge, with the world shrinking to ‘one’ market, with a ‘man-eat-man’ situation.

While all advertising is communication, not all communication is advertising. Communication can cover a wide range of interactions that foster connections with an audience, while advertising is specifically about promoting something to encourage a particular response.

The world’s first known print advertisement dates back to 1472 in England. It was a handbill—a single-page flyer—printed by William Caxton, an early English printer, to advertise a prayer book he was selling. Caxton posted this flyer on the doors of a church in London, making it one of the earliest examples of print advertising.

Celebrity endorsement became rampant only in the 20^th century as a major advertising strategy and remains in vogue even today. However, the primary focus was to endorse and sell a product. It has always been a ‘celebrity-centric’ promotion.

People-centric approach 

In the latter half of the last millennium came the 5^th P of marketing (in the 1980s and the 90s), obviously turning all heads towards ‘people’, who mattered the most. Philip Kotler, a renowned marketing scholar, contributed significantly to this expanded approach, highlighting the importance of customer service and human interactions in creating value for consumers.

With the advent and the fast-growing ‘Social Networking Sites’ in the current millennium, primarily Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005), Twitter (2006), and Instagram (2010), the face of communication, and hence advertising started changing quickly.

Influencers have now taken the center stage. As the name suggests, they aren’t celebrities but influencers. They have (almost) entered into the souls of their followers and have started to influence their lives to a large extent.

People listen to them, follow them, adore them, and imitate them.

Parasocial Influencers in Marketing

This relates to the 5^th P of marketing, highlighting the importance of customer service and human interactions in creating value for consumers.

It reiterates the need for communication that can cover a wide range of interactions that foster connections with an audience and not merely promote a product. It’s a prolonged engagement with the audience and not a flip of an ad. 

And the Parasocial Influencer actually does that. It’s a one-way relationship where you develop an emotional attachment with the influencer, even though the relationship is not reciprocated.

The Parasocial Influencer is listened to, followed, adored, and imitated by his/her followers, a dedicated group of ‘consumers’. He is the one who talks to ‘people’, one-on-one, though para-socially.

The influencer:

• Establishes an intimate connection with the audience, as if the followers ‘know’ him/her ‘personally’. It defies the definition of ‘parasocial’, perceptually. It translates into ‘trust’ and hence any endorsement, though tactically, will command an enormous impact on the audience (consumer).
• Has a ‘personal engagement’ between the influencer and the audience (follower) by way of ‘exchanging’ comments and sharing personal stories.
• May help in shaping consumer behavior, imitating the influencer in terms of fashion, fitness, tech, etc.
• Has a reach to a specific target audience with a specific set of demographics and community, thus amplifying brand reach, tapping into the existing fan base leading to even viral exposure
• Perpetuate prolonged brand loyalty. As the fan club swells, so does the association with the brand that is associated with the influencer.
• Depending on whether the influencer falls under the category of Macro, Micro, or Nano influencer, the budget is decided. It is at the discretion of the ad spender to choose between the three, depending on his/her judgment. It’s a point of debate as to which of the influencers, i.e. macro, micro, or nano influencers would bring the best RoI   

 It is beyond doubt that the future of brand communication will be intertwined with the Parasocial Influencers, given their reach and engagement with the target audience.