Keywords

1 Introduction

The convergence between the social media entrepreneurs and their followers via the online platforms, has emerged as a phenomenon parasocial relationship that narrowed the distance between influencers on social media and their followers, this changed the dynamics of the social media by strengthen the impact of influencers on their followers’ actions (Chung, Chu 2014).

Recently, various social media platforms have updated their communication tools in a way that caused a revolution in the social media industry. The interactive tools launched a 24/7 relationship between the followers and their influencers, consequently evolved a new kind of one-sided relationship in which followers feel they are intimately attached to the influencers thus, a high sense of intimacy between the influencers and their followers has arisen, Chung and Chu (2014) defined this unusual relationship as parasocial relationship which grant the influencers the power to affect their followers lives by manipulating their life experiences and decisions making processes.

This phenomenon has big economic impact by launching new marketing opportunities including influencers marketing in which these individuals have more power on customers to persuade them of a product or a service. Not to mention that different studies manifested that the influencers marketing powers exceeded the normal celebrities’ power (Aw, Chuahb 2021). Since the influencers endorsement is considered as a productive tool in marketing and even branding. Influencers act as a stimulus that affect the learning and perception processes of the customers.This kind of relationships exceeds the limit of normality and gained more attention by the researchers and marketers all over the world for the potential economic profits can be drawn via the productive usage of the parasocial relationship.

Weinswig (2016) stated in her article that $255 million dollars is spent monthly on influencers marketing, hence the need for a clear mechanism to operate this business effectively is highly needed. Research indicates that influencers branding facilitates forming a friendship with the brand, thus a higher purchase intention along with a higher brand attitude will arise (Ballentine & Yueng 2015). In addition to all of that, marketers depend highly on influencers who can create an effective brand campaign by pushing customers purchase intentions via spreading information (Wadhwaa, Chaihanchanchaib 2021).

Researcher stated in their article that the best branding strategy for startup company was personal branding as word of mouth, event participation, and more exposure of company logo and products to make memorable (Tuominen 2020). And this strategy can be easily applicable through influencers.

2 Problem statement and ROs

Despite the social media popularity, the extent to which these tools can be effective for commercial impact is not cleared enough. While the desired qualities in influencers to have a positive endorsement message is not explained completely.In specific this paper tends to investigate:

  1. 1.

    The extent to which parasocial relationship can act as a brand endorsement for the purchase intentions of the startup’s companies.

  2. 2.

    The extent to which parasocial relationship impact the brand image.

  3. 3.

    Whether the brand image can positively impact the purchase intentions of startup companies.

3 Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

3.1 Parasocial Relationship

The one-sided relationship social media users develop with the social media influencers that manifested as an illusional intimacy encompassing the elements of understanding and affectionate is defined as parasocial relationship (Aw, Chuahb 2021). Different researchers tried to scale the dimensions of parasocial relationship as (empathy, friendship, understanding, problem solving, interaction, wishful identification, and intimacy). Yet Horton and Whol (1956) specified the key themes of parasocial relationship as understanding, friendship, and identification. Therefore, the influencers who have intimate and personal conversational styles are able to build a strong connection with the social media users resulting as a friendly connection, this friendly nature facilitate the formation of the parasocial relationship (Chung and Cho, 2014).

In recent years new perception for the parasocial relationship has evolved as a result for the electronic word of mouth (Ballantine & Yeung 2015), this change shifted the attention from normal celebrities to social media influencers and the way they interact with each other (Ballantine & Yeung 2015, Chung and Cho, 2014).

Parasocial relationships are highly affected by influencers content, in a way that influencers attributes in some cases are not enough to build a strong parasocial relationship that’s why marketer needs to engage with influencers who have a strong quality relationship with their followers (Aw, Labrecque 2020). Though, some studies stated that the strong relationship the followers have established with their influencers enable them to distinguish the fact if the influencers truly liked the product they are promoting or branding or they just do it for personal gains (Farivar, Wang, & Yuan, 2020). But Woods and Scott (2016) argued that followers cannot differentiate the lines between paid advertising and sincere endorsement is not clear, this blurred area adds more value to the influencer’s endorsement. Nevertheless, these obstacles can be mitigated by choosing an influencer who is already a customer for the brand itself so he can amplify the brands itself by teaching the customers about the products and how they are used or even share information about the company itself (Watkins 2020). Despite all of that we cannot ignore the fact that parasocial relationships remains a largely not explored area as research don’t provide us for a fully understanding of how to manage the parasocial relationships to increase the purchase intentions, brand credibility and brand attractiveness (Aw, Labrecque 2020). However, Influencer credibility reduced the customers resistance for the persuasive effect of the influencer (Breves et al. 2021).

3.2 Brand Image

Brand image is the way people perceived the brand and how it positioned in their minds (Killer 1993). It consists of physical factors that describe the characteristics attributes of the brand such as logo, packaging, products functionality, brand name, and psychological factors related to the emotions and feelings associated with the brand such as beliefs, values and even the personalities of the consumers (Wijaya 2013). Meanwhile, some researchers stated that the psychological factors contribution is larger than the physical factors in forming the brand image (Wijaya 2013).

Brand image is the first impression the consumers have about the products (Yang eat al. 2017). Nevertheless, that brand image is in the customers mind, it formed by the direct experience functionally along with emotionally satisfaction (Wijaya 2013).

At this stage it differentiates the company from its competitors, and grant it a competitive advantage (Rode, Vallaster 2005), it facilitates the company growth and new market entry (Aaker & killer 1990). More powerful distribution channels (Aaker 1991), and better opportunity for development (David 2000).

Brand image depends on credibility and reputation of the brand (Wijaya 2013). Reputation is controlled by the customers as how they interpret the brand in their life, and it impacted by the brand Credibility through guaranteeing specific quality level the brand products deliver as what has been promised, this extremely may change the consumers behaviors to be a brand loyal more than a product loyal by surpasses others and increasing the purchasing intentions (Yang et al. 2017).

3.3 Purchase Intentions of Startup Company

Startup companies is a group of people working together in high risks conditions to achieve new products or services, or as the founders believe they can offer a better version of existed services and products (Tuominen2020). While purchase intention is the likelihood of buying a specific products or service by the customers at specific condition (Mirabi, Akbariyeh,Tahmasebifard 2015). Purchase intention controls the buying decisions of the customers, a good understanding can detect the consumer behaviors, lead to less risks in case of new products, new companies, And new situations (Tahmasebifard 2015). Purchase intention is highly affected by the price, value, and quality, although it is not static as it may impacted by internal and external impulses (Gogoi, 2013).

Branding strategy can be used by startup companies as a marketing tool instead of traditional marketing. Thus, new companies should invest on their brand image to increase the purchase intentions. Higher purchase intentions provide the company with profit and a competitive advantage which stands them out among competitors (Abimbola, 2001). The sustainability of the startup companies depends greatly on branding as it directly affects the equity of the company in the eyes of the customers and facilitate the purchasing decision (Keller 1993).

3.4 Conceptual Framework

The following conceptual framework to inspect the research hypotheses to answer the research questions (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
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Conceptual framework.

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  • H1: there is a significant relationship between the parasocial relationship and the purchase intentions of startup companies.

  • H2: there is a significant relationship between the parasocial relationship and brand image.

  • H3: there is a significant relationship between the brand image and purchase intentions of startup companies.

4 Methodology

4.1 Research Design

The current study has adopted a descriptive and cross-sectional research design aimed at examining the impact of fostering a parasocial relationship on start-up branding between influencers and their followers. This research design involves the collection of data from several different people at a single point in time and the observation of variables is done without influence (Cataldo et al., 2019).

4.2 Sample and Data Collection

The study used quantitative methods and collected data via questionnairs that distributed by social media platforms.Purposive sampling was adopted targeting Generation Z for having the greatest confidence degree in influencers as compared to other groups (Zatwarnicka-Madura et al., 2022).We captured 107 responses that were underttaken in November 2022.

4.3 Data Analysis

The study engaged three main variables, i.e. Parasocial Relationship, Brand image and Purchase Intention. The variables were measured using a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly agree, 5 = Strongly disagree). Generally, SPSS version 26 Software was utilized in hypothesis testing. Correlation analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between the three variables and reliability statistics was done using Cronbach's alpha.

5 Results and Analysis

It is very important to prove instrument’s reliability and validity when handling a quantitative research study to confirm the credibility of the research findings (Rose & Johnson, 2020). Reliability is all about a measure’s consistency while validity explores the measure’s accuracy. The current study adopted Cronbach's alpha to measure the reliability of the test which is considered to be a scale reliability measure. The SPSS version 26 software was used to generate Cronbach’s alpha values. The value for the overall tool was .958, which signifies that the tool used had satisfactory internal reliability above the accepted level (Bujang et al., 2018). Similarly, each variable had a strong Cronbach’s alpha value between .834 and .935 indicating a high internal consistency level, therefore, fit for statistical analysis as shown in Table 1:

5.1 Reliability Statistics

Table 1. Reliablity Statistics
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5.2 Descriptive Statistics

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.
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Participants’ Gender

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Table 2. Parasocial Relationship items
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Table 3. Brand Image items
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Table 4. Purchase Intention items
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Out of the total 107 responses, 42.06% were males while the 57.94% were females as shown in Fig. 1. The descriptive statistics for all the variables tested in the study are reported in Tables 2, 3 and 4. Among the parasocial relationship items, the “he/she is the kind of persona I would like to pay to hang out with” item had the highest mean value (M = 3.00, SD = 1.380), followed by “I would invite the influencer to my party” (M = 2.63, SD = 1.225), “he/she would fit in well with my group of friends” (M = 2.62, SD = 1.130). The rest of the items had mean values below 2.6. Among the brand image items, “this startup company is a brand that gives a belief”, “this startup company is a brand that has a large-scale”, and “this startup company is a brand that has a competitiveness” responses had the highest mean values (M = 2.36) and Standard deviation of 0.882, 1.022 and 1.021 respectively. On the purchase intention variable, the “I will consider this brand first” item had the greatest mean value (M = 2.43, SD = 1.020).

5.3 Correlation Analysis

Hypothesis Testing

  • H1: there is a significant relationship between the parasocial relationship and the purchase intentions of startup companies (Table 5).

Table 5. Correlation analysis H1
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The p-value for the relationship between the parasocial relationship variable and the purchase intention of startup companies is (.000 < .05). Moreover, the correlation coefficient value is .661. Thus, we accept H1 that there is a moderate positive significant relationship between the parasocial relationship and the purchase intentions of startup companies.

  • H2: there is a significant relationship between the parasocial relationship and brand image (Table 6).

Table 6. Correlation analysis H2
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The p-value for the relationship between the parasocial relationship and brand image variables is (.000 < .05).Moreover, the correlation coefficient value is .713. There is a positive significant relationship between the parasocial relationship and the brand image. Therefore, H2 was supported as it proposed a significant relationship between the two variables.

  • H3: there is a significant relationship between the brand image and purchase intentions of startup companies.

Table 7. Correlation analysis H3
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From the above Table 7, the p-value for the relationship between the brand image and purchase intentions of start-up companies is (.000 < .05). The Pearson's correlation coefficient is .832 indicating a positive significant relationship between the variables. The study supports H3 that projected a significant relationship between brand image and purchase intentions of the start-up companies.

From the study findings above it's clear that all variables are significantly correlated with each other having a correlation coefficient above .50.

6 Discussions and Implications

The main goal of this study is to define the factors that influence the Parasocial relationship between influencers and their fans on the social media platforms, and how to fully exploit the relationship to get the desired brand image that match the company brand equity.

The research started with literature review that shed the light on the purchase intentions of the startup companies, brand image and the parasocial relationship. The analysis for the 107 responses resulted as following:

  • The parasocial relationship positively affected the purchase intentions of the startup companies in a moderate way.

  • The parasocial relationship positively affected the brand image of the startup companies greatly.

  • The brand image has a positive impact on the purchase intentions of the startup companies greatly.

In other words, the parasocial relationship between platform influencers and their followers can highly impact the brand image of the startup company, and by enhancing the brand image the purchase intentions increased highly. These factors can used together to launch a strategy that can increase the purchase intentions of the companies in a way that guide the brand image of the startup company. Consequently, positioning the startup company in the market successfully.

7 Limitations and Future Research

Although, this study has met its purpose and shed a light on the main factors that should be focused on while using parasocial relationship to build the targeted brand image for startup companies, it’s quite normal to admit that the sample size 107 is not enough to generalize the results in an accurate way. Also, the used scales within the survey were taken from different journals which are little and new in a way they do not provide a full trust scale, so more context-fitting scales will provide a better result.

8 Conclusions and Recommendations

Parasocial relationship is very important to build the Brand image for the startup companies, Entrepreneurs need to make sure that their brand images are perceived as their companies’ identities, though choosing the right influencer may mean the win or the failure for their campaigns. To avoid any controversial topics in the future of the campaign the marketers need to undertake the following Recommendations:

The influencers number of followers must suit with your company products and services. Moreover, If you seek more visibility so large numbers of followers will be helpful while increasing purchase intentions benefited more from a small audience. Pay attention to the influencers value and content that must aligned with the company values. Understand who your customers aspire to Check the influencers engagement rates with their followers. Taking these recommendations seriously, will greatly build a strong brand image match perfectly with the brand equity.