The Role of Food Influencers in Shaping the Digital Market in Malaysian Food Industry

Thong, Chia Sheng (Jarron) (2023) The Role of Food Influencers in Shaping the Digital Market in Malaysian Food Industry. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

The rise of social media influencers has made them a figure that everyone in this society looks up to. Food influencers on social media have also become a popular marketing strategy for restaurants to promote their food products. Food influencers are people who have a large following and have the ability to increase brand exposure and brand awareness for eateries, food products, and restaurants. This trend's dominant research is increased assortative mating. Previous research relied on more general types of areas and thus was unable to disentangle changing. In this study, the researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methodology to collect various aspects of opinions in order to justify the research objectives proposed in this study. The goal of this research is to discover a couple of objectives, such as how effective food influencers are at generating business opportunities and how food influencers can influence the audience or consumers for intended sales. Contrary to popular belief, the rise of food influencer marketing has drastically altered the food industries. The findings of this study indicate that food influencer marketing is currently a marketing trend for Malaysian eateries. This paper examines the role of food influencers in shaping the digital market in Malaysian Food Industry. Incorporating evidence from other researchers, personal diaries and correspondence, this study will be showing the impact that food influencers would bring to the eateries in Malaysia. Many citizens who love food in Malaysia rely in food influencers. Whenever consumers having any issues or problem or want to explore more on latest food products or newly opening restaurant, they go to food influencers to search for recommendation and reviews to expand their knowledge towards the products. There are couples of elements that influence the consumer purchasing intention towards the product or food that promoted by food influencers. The findings have reflected that food influencers were able to bring some impact towards the eateries due to couples of elements such as similar interest shared between food influencers and consumer, engagement activity conducted by food influencers and the credibility of food influencers.