Services Marketing Quarterly

Reimagining Service Marketing in the Age of Influencers and Virtual Voices

 Service marketing generally relies on traditional advertising to communicate the brand with customers through channels like TV, radio, and banners; however, in recent years, social media has changed how brands communicate with their existing and new customers. Using social media platforms, namely Instagram, TikTok, WeChat, and Snapchat, has introduced different ways of communication between businesses and consumers from different generations. In recent years, brands have moved from having celebrities as their ambassadors to influencers or digital creators to promote their brands and products (Tabari and Ding, 2024). Digital creators or influencers provide authentic and personalised messages to the target audience. Influencers and content creators have revolutionised the way businesses communicate and consumers make decisions. Specifically, the usage of social media platforms has been linked to increased communication, engagement and satisfaction levels among consumers and brand performance. The interactive nature of influencers encourages meaningful connections, facilitates real-time interactions, allows for personalised experiences (Paul et al., 2024) and trust between brands and customers. Lee et al., (2021) noted that influencers are powerful opinion leaders who have remarkably impacted the service industries and their marketing strategies. Influencers exert a persuasive impact on customers through their knowledge-based authority and the strong connections they maintain with their followers, who often view their posts as genuine and trustworthy recommendations (Hudders and Lou, 2022; Ye et al., 2022).

The vital role of influencers and virtual influencers in service marketing highlights the need for both conceptual and empirical research to better understand the dynamics between businesses, customers, and influencers.

This special issue seeks to explore theoretical developments and examine the role of influencers and virtual influencers in addressing the existing gaps within service marketing. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

·         Effectiveness of influencer marketing for intangible services

·         Role of micro and macro-influencers in niche services

·         Cultural and geographic variations

·         The cultural dynamics of influencer acceptance and rejection

·         Role of influencers in service failures and recoveries

·         Influencer marketing communication for start-ups

·         Ethical and regulatory challenges

·         Role of virtual influencers in services

·         Influencers and healthcare services (wellness influencers)

·         Role of finfluencers on financial services

·         Innovative methodology

References:

Hudders, L., and C. Lou. 2022. A new era of influencer marketing: Lessons from recent inquires and thoughts on future directions. International Journal of Advertising 41, no. 1: 1–5.

Lee, P.Y., M.A. Koseoglu, L. Qi, E.C. Liu, and B. King. 2021. The sway of influencer marketing: Evidence from a restaurant group. International Journal of Hospitality Management 98, Article: 103022.

Paul, J., Ueno, A., Dennis, C., Alamanos, E., Curtis, L., Foroudi, P., Kacprzak, A., Kunz, W. H., Liu, J., Marvi, R., Nair, S.L.S., Ozdemir, O., Pantano, E., Papadopoulos, T., Petit, O., Tyagi, S., & Wirtz, J. (2024). Digital transformation: A multidisciplinary perspective and future research agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 48(2), e13015. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.13015

Tabari, S., & Ding, Q. S. (Eds.). (2024). Celebrity, Social Media Influencers and Brand Performance: Exploring New Dynamics and Future Trends in Marketing. Springer Nature.

Ye, F., Q. Xia, M. Zhang, Y. Zhan, and Y. Li. 2022. Harvesting online reviews to identify the competitor set in a service business: Evidence from the hotel industry. Journal of Service Research 25, no. 2: 301–27.