The Effect of Influencer Credibility and Influencer Attractiveness on Trust and Purchase Intention
A Survey of Instagram Followers of @facetologyofficial in Indonesia
Keywords:
Influencer Credibility, Influencer Attractiveness, Trust, Purchase Intention
Abstract
With the growing dominance of social media, influencer marketing has become a crucial strategy in shaping consumer trust and purchase intentions. Facetology, a skincare brand active on Instagram, collaborates with mega-influencers to engage its audience. This study investigates the impact of influencer characteristics (i.e., expertise, authenticity, physical attractiveness, and homophily) on customer trust and the subsequent effect of that trust on purchase intention. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory, influencer characteristics are viewed as stimuli, trust as the organism, and purchase intention as the response. A total of 174 Instagram followers of @facetologyofficial in Indonesia were surveyed using a purposive sampling method. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4. The findings show that all four influencer characteristics have significant effects on trust, which in turn influences purchase intention. These findings highlight the importance of credible and attractive influencers in building customer trust and shaping purchase intentions, especially within the Indonesian cosmetics industry.
References
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Hochreiter, V., Benedetto, C., & Loesch, M. (2023). The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Paradigm as a Guiding Principle in Environmental Psychology: Comparison of its Usage in Consumer Behavior and Organizational Culture and Leadership Theory. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Development, 3(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.18775/jebd.31.5001
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Pittman, M., & Abell, A. (2021). More Trust in Fewer Followers: Diverging Effects of Popularity Metrics and Green Orientation Social Media Influencers. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 56, 70–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2021.05.002
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Qureshi, M. A., Shahzadi, S., & Hussain, T. (2024). Exploring the Role of Influencers’ Perceived Fraud Between Influencers’ Credibility and Consumer Purchase Intentions. International Journal of Professional Business Review, 9(1), e04313. https://doi.org/10.26668/businessreview/2024.v9i1.4313
Saima, & Khan, M. A. (2020). Effect of Social Media Influencer Marketing on Consumers’ Purchase Intention and the Mediating Role of Credibility. Journal of Promotion Management, 27(4), 503–523. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2020.1851847
Schouten, A. P., Janssen, L., & Verspaget, M. (2020). Celebrity vs. Influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and Product-Endorser fit. International Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 258–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2019.1634898
Wiedmann, K. P., & von Mettenheim, W. (2020). Attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise – social influencers’ winning formula? Journal of Product and Brand Management, 30(5), 707–725. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2019-2442
Alcántara-Pilar, J. M., Rodriguez-López, M. E., Kalinić, Z., & Liébana-Cabanillas, F. (2024b). From likes to loyalty: Exploring the impact of influencer credibility on purchase intentions in TikTok. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 78(November 2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.103709
Audrezet, A., de Kerviler, G., & Guidry Moulard, J. (2020). Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation. Journal of Business Research, 117(November 2017), 557–569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.008
Chetioui, Y., Benlafqih, H., & Lebdaoui, H. (2020). How fashion influencers contribute to consumers’ purchase intention. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 24(3), 361–380. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-08-2019-0157
Ferdinand, M., & Ciptono, W. S. (2022). Indonesia’s Cosmetics Industry Attractiveness, Competitiveness and Critical Success Factor Analysis. Jurnal Manajemen Teori Dan Terapan | Journal of Theory and Applied Management, 15(2), 209–223. https://doi.org/10.20473/jmtt.v15i2.37451
Hair, J. J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) (3rd ed). In Journal GEEJ (Vol. 7, Issue 2).
Hochreiter, V., Benedetto, C., & Loesch, M. (2023). The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Paradigm as a Guiding Principle in Environmental Psychology: Comparison of its Usage in Consumer Behavior and Organizational Culture and Leadership Theory. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Development, 3(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.18775/jebd.31.5001
Jun, S., & Yi, J. (2020). What makes followers loyal? The role of influencer interactivity in building influencer brand equity. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 29(6), 803–814. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-02-2019-2280
Ki, C. W., Chow, T. C., & Li, C. (2022). Bridging the Trust Gap in Influencer Marketing: Ways to Sustain Consumers’ Trust and Assuage Their Distrust in the Social Media Influencer Landscape. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 39(17), 3445–3460. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2097785
Kim, D. Y., & Kim, H. Y. (2021). Trust me, trust me not: A nuanced view of influencer marketing on social media. Journal of Business Research, 134(November 2019), 223–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.05.024
Kock, N. (2015). Common Method Bias in PLS-SEM. International Journal of E-Collaboration, 11(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijec.2015100101
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management. In Journal of Marketing (Vol. 37, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.2307/1250781
Leung, F. F., Gu, F. F., & Palmatier, R. W. (2022). Online influencer marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50(2), 226–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-021-00829-4
Mabkhot, H., Isa, N. M., & Mabkhot, A. (2022). The Influence of the Credibility of Social Media Influencers SMIs on the Consumers’ Purchase Intentions: Evidence from Saudi Arabia. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912323
Margom, I., & Amar, M. Ben. (2023). Does the Physical Attractiveness of Instagram Influencers Affect Moroccan Consumer Behavior? A Dyadic Analysis: Influencer vs. Consumer. WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics, 20, 2188–2204. https://doi.org/10.37394/23207.2023.20.190
Memon, M. A., Ting, H., Cheah, J. H., Thurasamy, R., Chuah, F., & Cham, T. H. (2020). Sample size for survey research: Review and recommendations. Journal of Applied Structural Equation Modeling, 4(2), i–xx. https://doi.org/10.47263/jasem.4(2)01
Pittman, M., & Abell, A. (2021). More Trust in Fewer Followers: Diverging Effects of Popularity Metrics and Green Orientation Social Media Influencers. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 56, 70–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2021.05.002
Putra, M. A. A. S., & Wulandari, E. P. (2023). Analysis of Factors Affecting Followers Purchase Intention on Instagram Social Media. Jurnal Ilmiah Manajemen Dan Bisnis, 8(2), 203–217. https://doi.org/10.38043/jimb.v8i2.4586
Qureshi, M. A., Shahzadi, S., & Hussain, T. (2024). Exploring the Role of Influencers’ Perceived Fraud Between Influencers’ Credibility and Consumer Purchase Intentions. International Journal of Professional Business Review, 9(1), e04313. https://doi.org/10.26668/businessreview/2024.v9i1.4313
Saima, & Khan, M. A. (2020). Effect of Social Media Influencer Marketing on Consumers’ Purchase Intention and the Mediating Role of Credibility. Journal of Promotion Management, 27(4), 503–523. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2020.1851847
Schouten, A. P., Janssen, L., & Verspaget, M. (2020). Celebrity vs. Influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and Product-Endorser fit. International Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 258–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2019.1634898
Wiedmann, K. P., & von Mettenheim, W. (2020). Attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise – social influencers’ winning formula? Journal of Product and Brand Management, 30(5), 707–725. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2019-2442
Published
2025-07-03
How to Cite
Kayla Putri Ramadhiana, & Agung Nugroho Luthfi Imam Fahrudi. (2025). The Effect of Influencer Credibility and Influencer Attractiveness on Trust and Purchase Intention: A Survey of Instagram Followers of @facetologyofficial in Indonesia. International Journal of Economics, Business and Innovation Research, 4(04), 758-775. https://doi.org/10.63922/ijebir.v4i04.2017
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