Marketing assignment report and literature review: Opinion leaders – Luxury products

Abstract:

Main aim of this literature reviews is to discuss about opinion leaders and their involvement in marketing of luxury products. Traditionally an opinion leader has been considered an agent who is an active user of media and who generally understands the media messages’ meaning or content for lower-end media users. Nevertheless, the changing landscape requires a new standpoint of view with respect to these opinion leaders. They play a great role in marketing luxury products on internet through digital and other marketing strategies. In this context, paper attempts to put forth a few researches and survey to demonstrate the role of opinion leaders in online and internet marketing of products. Moreover, entire luxury market do not cover the range of opinion leaders, some of the high brands do not consider this as their best or effective plan for marketing. Next, in this line, review presents some examples briefing the effects of internet on luxury products’ marketing and effect of opinion leaders towards online communities. Online communities in the World Wide Web have become progressively interactive and networked and they have major role to play in marketing field.

Content:

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….4-5
   1. Research Methodology……………………………………………………………6
2. Representation of Opinion leaders…………………………………………….7-11
3. Marketing of luxury products in the internet………………………….…………….12-18
4. Effects of opinions leaders towards online communities………………………..18-20
5. Conclusion………….…………………………………………………………….20-21
   1. Implication for practice…………………………………………………………….21-22
   2. Further research…………………………………………………………………….22
   3. Limitations…………………………………………………………………………….22
6. References……………………………………………………………………………………..22-27

1. Introduction:
Opinion leaders play a major role in marketing communication. They give informal, consumption connected recommendation or information to other customers. As they do not embody commercial interests, their opinions are concerned more convincing and influential than those that come from commercial sources. In this regard, perfect example of opinion leaders would be models and celebrities. Moreover, opinion leaders influence the others’ decisions and play a major role in distributing information, particularly in the area of e-commerce or shopping by internet. In a corporate framework, opinion leaders also play good role in recommend networks and communities of practice. Opinion leaders are accredited with a large amount of this interpersonal communication, and substantial research resources have been aimed at recognizing the social and demographic aspects of opinion leaders (Bergstorm 2013). The study related to opinion leadership has elevated currently since its significance for internet marketing became manifest. While opinion leaders are considered an important observable fact, it has really not received a good deal of attention in the past decade’s advertising literature. The efficiency and effectiveness of using online campaigns of word-of-mouth or using influencers rather than traditional media for advertising to spread the world about goods and services- is progressively seen as one of the most effective way to reach the customers (Althaus & Tewksbury 2000).

There are various ways to communicate through opinion leaders and market products of a brand. Communicating opinions to others of models and celebrities is on an increase recently. Opinion leaders are accredited with a large amount of this interpersonal communication, and substantial research resources have been aimed at recognizing the social and demographic aspects of opinion leaders. Some studies have discovered that more than about 30% of Twitter clients and around 20% of facebook users post opinions on products at least once a week, and those opinions have a great impact on customers’ buying decision. In domain of luxury brands and products advertising, the internet has come through and changed everything. Online

marketing presents a new set of rules that concentrate increasing connections directly with consumers through one-to-one conversation which never can achieve print and other communication channels for marketing. Ultimately, the secrecy of the internet may also be a lead when buying luxury product. In fact, the internet fits the new model shift of high net worth customer behavior (Rao 2010).

From the perspective of an agency, client of luxury goods demands include paying high attention to the editorial environment where the ads are shown or presented by the influential leaders. The target customers’ sensibilities need that advertisers “ensure that digital is more greatly concentrated and less invasive. The agencies’ business with clients of luxury products is all about determining the stores that truly target the audience (Martini media 2012).

 1a. Research Methodology:

Data used in the literature review has been taken from multiple articles and journals. Mainly, three core data sources were taken into account while making the discussion. Experimental studies reviewed by peers, scholars, reviews published in academic journals, and few research reports on industries and sectors. In addition, specialist content on opinion leaders and their connection with online communities and companies for better marketing were also analyzed in order to provide a good idea of issues, advantages, and disadvantage. Moreover, to demonstrate both previous and recent knowledge, empirical papers issued were also taken into account. Nonetheless, review papers were clinched to ensure that relevant research published or issued before was also captured. Overall, this paper follows thematic structure and concern all the studies related to the topic. Technology has affected all business industries and sectors and entirely changed the consumer behavior’s landscape. Regardless of the crash of internet put in place in the late 1990s, internet has carried on developing the significance and utilization. Now, because of the increased ubiquity of internet and reduced returns of print advertising, more and more luxury brands are creating the evolution to online advertising on internet. Wealthy customers are specifically weighty users of the internet for both online purchasing and information.

2. Representation of Opinion leaders:

Every business wants to reach a mass audience as many individuals as possible taking the mass media into consideration. And it is logical to want to reach decision-makers and insiders in business field. In this context, opinion leaders come into existence. Opinion leaders are someone who has a lively voice in a society. It refers to somebody who speaks up and gets asked for recommendations. This term of opinion leader is possibly untoward since it has tendency to mean people having high status or level who make main decisions. In the context of marketing, opinion leader and leadership is a pertinent concept, and an opinion leader may not be much more powerful than his followers (Blackwell, Miniard & Engel 2001). However, an opinion leader can affect the behavior of a customer towards a product or a service in either positive or negative way. It all depends upon the verbal communication between opinion leaders and other whom they influence in several different ways. For marketing information’s communication through to or various step flow models, opinion leaders are found to have an important role to play at all levels in a community (Aral 2011). That is, customers have a tendency to be influenced by those who are same group’s members. Hence, every status level and community would have opinion leaders with the influence flow usually horizontal with them. Though, the reality that opinion leaders are viewed at every level of society does not essentially mean that they are evenly effective or significant to the marketer at each level of society (Laplante 2013).

Furthermore, social-networkers, discussion-board citizens, and bloggers are invited by the marketers, who believe they create buzz that can create or break new products on internet. But there is developing disagreement nearby such endeavors, and debate over how much influence these opinion leaders actually have (Segev, Villar & Fiske 2012). David Hahn advertising director of one of the famous networking sites LinkedIn was continuously asked some critical questions by big advertisers about how he is able to assist them discover influential or opinion leader- those people within the community of LinkedIn who are the most possibly to go out and stretch the word about a specific product or experience (Burt 1999). He replied that marketers are very much interested in the marketing of their luxury products through opinion leaders on social networking sites and other promotional web sites. In addition, Janet Edan-Harris, the CEO of Umbria Group also stated that the concept of online influencer is the most popular thing currently in the whole marketing world. According to such people, organizations are unbelievably keen to get to those people or opinion leaders. And if they discover them, companies will be in marketing heaven.

But on the other hand, a new research depicts that the concept of using opinion leaders for marketing luxury products may be excessively unsophisticated. The efficiency and effectiveness of using online campaigns of word-of-mouth or using influencers rather than traditional media for advertising to spread the world about goods and services- is progressively seen as one of the most effective way to reach the customers. Dave Balter, the CEO of BzzAgent, which is a word-of-mouth marketing company, stated that they really believed in the notion of using opinion leaders that such people drove market trends at that point or level. But their campaign’s sales data did not match with the opinion leaders’ profiles the company had targeted and it actually caused them to reassess some of their main presumptions (Richins & Root-Shafer 1988). Call them connectors or opinion leaders. Conservative wisdom articulates that more than 85% of the population is overly influenced by these influencers. Whether expanding any news about ideas, processes, innovation, or commercial products, these influential are allegedly the primary medium of information that the rest of people use to make important decisions about their lives. And with the spreading cosmos of online communities, social networks, and blogs like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, the petition of this notion has become even more well-established (Kavanaugh, et al 2006). There is a rising perception that the steadily omnipresent availability of broadband joined with an increase in popularity of online communities and blogs make influentials more influential (Grewal, Mehta & Kardes 2000).

It is decisive to acknowledge, though, that all these supporters of opinion leaders as driver of both social and profitable trends are not discussing about personalities or media stars, but about otherwise apparently ordinary members of a community who, through accretion of knowledge or connections’ number with others, act as means for change. Opinion leaders play a major role in marketing communication. They give informal, consumption connected recommendation or information to other customers (Locock, Dopson, Chambers & Gabbay 2001). As they do not embody commercial interests, their opinions are concerned more convincing and influential than those that come from commercial sources. In this regard, perfect example of opinion leaders would be models and celebrities. Having a celebrity sanction a product would repeatedly mean an increase in product awareness and brand acknowledgement. A celebrity can obviously enhance the reputation of a product or a brand as people get inspired by such people or opinion leaders. This is why models are paid huge amount of money to advertise a product or a brand. Celebrities can advertise products by coming into view in infomercials or by using a specific product in public like wearing or consuming a product (Business Pundit 2013).

(Source: Rivermark LLC 2010)

Influences twigging from the mass media first reach opinion leaders who, in turn, convey on what they read and hear to those of their daily correlates for whom they are influential. This theory was known as “the two-step flow of communication”. Opinion leaders are recognized by their different characteristics based on personality, status, communication behavior, media use, engagement, network position, and knowledge (Earnhardt 2013). They are represented online in following ways:
Personality:

• Represent group standards
• Charismatic power
• Credibility
• Belief in self-efficacy

Status:

• In all social classes
• Inclination to upper status
• Particularly for virtual opinion leaders

Communication behavior:

• Communicative capability
• Recurrent interpersonal communication
• Frequent advice or induce others
• Public individuation

Media use:

• Maximum usage of online and print media
• Information seeking behavior (Chan & Misra 1990)

Network position:

• Middle position, big social network, several contacts

Engagement/involvement:

• High engagement with regards to the topic in question
• Political participation
• Social involvement (Weimann 1991)

Going forward, luxury goods refer to the products or services that are not concerned necessary and are linked with wealth. There are various ways to communicate through opinion leaders and market products of a brand. Communicating opinions to others of models and celebrities is on an increase recently. In case of performers, their daily life, values, fashion codes are conveyed by their homepages. The tendency comes into view that the common public imitates and prefers to follow their lifestyle (Cho, Hwang & Lee 2012). Opinion leaders influence the others’ decisions and play a major role in distributing information, particularly in the area of e-commerce or shopping by internet. In a corporate framework, opinion leaders also play good role in recommend networks and communities of practice. Opinion leaders are accredited with a large amount of this interpersonal communication, and substantial research resources have been aimed at recognizing the social and demographic aspects of opinion leaders. Some studies have discovered that more than about 30% of Twitter clients and around 20% of facebook users post opinions on products at least once a week, and those opinions have a great impact on customers’ buying decision (Beaumont 2011). All of this has put a good weight by marketers to work out what people are stating about their products in online forums and to attempt to influence that. In past, that was a comparatively simple task, as influence in distinct sectors was typically confined to bloggers’ handful. Now, nonetheless, big brands have thousands of opinion leaders influencing opinions about their products or services, and those opinion leaders are mainly spread out over a broad variety of online forums and social networks (Copeland 2012).

3. Marketing of Luxury Products in the Internet

Luxury brands were uncertain to discover the online marketing space. One of the key reasons for shying away from internet, particularly social media advertising was the outlook of trailing the elite tag. Nevertheless, in spite of arriving a bit late to the social media party, luxury brands have more than created for the lost time. The luxury products industry has a good image for being nervous about using the Internet (Mattison 2011). Many executives have disagreed that all but the most cutting-edge customers will recoil at spending around $1,200 and more on a dress and a handbag if they cannot stroke it and attempt it on first. Further studies done on over 300 brands or luxury products illustrate that involving the French behemoths LVMH, Richemont of Switzerland, and PPR are available on over 700 websites and more than around 2 million online comments arrive including those from Facebook and Twitter. Global online sales of luxury goods reached more than up to $7.5 billion, developing three times faster than the whole personal luxury products market with its estimated worth of approximately $240 billion. The study also approximates that digital sales will reach about $18 billion by the year 2016 (Sanderson 2012).

The luxury goods industry in the world, manufacturing and offering drinks, cosmetics, watches, fashion, luggage, fragrances, jewellery, handbag, etc is presently worth some $170 billion. Since 1990s, the internet has influenced the world of business in several different ways. Today, internet is considered an unavoidable marketing and a perfect weapon for small, medium, and large organizations in almost all industries and sectors. However, few sectors have been more enthusiastic than other sectors to use the internet for marketing their products like hotel industry, Swiss private banks and other luxury brands (Goldsmith & De Witt 2003). Among Swiss private banks, where safety and security is a top concern, the internet still involves with respect to more customary ways of communicating with clients. Large hotel chains were also rather uncertain; until they comprehended they were being overhauled by online travel organizations, which then generated a sense of urgency. Even at the roll of the millennium, in spite of the internet fizz, it carried on to be a main distribution channel, a winner of commoditization, and a preferred place for all age groups in quest of new contracts or deals (Sanderson 2012).

(Source: Ryan 2013)

Technology has affected all business industries and sectors and entirely changed the consumer behavior’s landscape. Regardless of the crash of internet put in place in the late 1990s, internet has carried on developing the significance and utilization. If luxury is best described as the unachievable and a high-priced, then can it really keep hold of a positive reputation on a device of commoditization like the internet? Since its premature stage, the internet has been defined as one of the fastest commoditization device ever (Mulvey 2010). The internet is a synonym for easy and quick access. In this framework, it is really likely to deform the fundamental principles of the internet and turn it into a stage for exhibiting and distributing luxury products while regarding their sense of the unfeasible and excessive (Van der Merwe & Van Heerden 2009). The luxury goods’ sensory nature is another main hurdle to expanding the full purchase experience to the web. The presumption behind this obstruction is that customers will be better capable to close the contract and expend a greater share of folder when they experience the products in store, i.e. with the touching component of the sales relationship and the sensory touch-and-feel understanding, more than in any other segment, the psychological and emotional brand responses are critical. In spite of these key theoretical impediments, rich customers are really buying luxury products online (Lyons & Henderson 2005).

Particularly, customers tend to purchase online when they have already understood and experienced the brand and the products in store. In this regard, a recent study of Google demonstrates that ultra-wealthy make best use of the internet for buying luxury products online: indeed, more than 94% of the 262 millionaires surveyed made their previous luxury goods purchase online. Google defines ultra-wealthy with net worth of $1 million or more and household income of around $250,000 a year for married people and approximately $175,000 for singles. It would come into view that convenience and time efficiency make internet a perfect channel for buying online for people who have more money than time. One more study made by Google demonstrates that over 90% of those surveyed stated that they often or always go through reviews before making a purchasing decision for luxury products, which also illustrates that they make good use of internet as an effective and useful device for enhancing their bargaining power (Shah & Scheufele 2006). Ultimately, the secrecy of the internet may also be a lead when buying luxury product. In fact, the internet fits the new model shift of high net worth customer behavior. The advantage of the internet for luxury goods as discovered by the affluent customers’ target market is:

• Convenient
• Time efficient
• Personalization
• Get right place
• Instant gratification
• Selection of products
• Access to information around goods, their reviews, web, etc

Nevertheless, the internet engages few disadvantages for luxury brands which, while not essentially stopping consumers from using it as channel, tend to obstruct development:

• Safety & security issues
• Delivery timing
• Shortage of full sensorial
• Slow process: booking the purchase
• Any technical issues that dampen or obstruct the buying process
• Lack of advice/personal or human contract

In this field, visual design is core to luxury products websites since it requires making a “wow” effect. Organizations like Giorgio, Rolex, Prada, and Armani developed websites that foster their brand through the powerful use of products and video. All these organizations recognize that strong visuals like sounds and video effects, and large pictures can recreate the unforgettable experience of store (Chadel n.d).

Luxury and status goods are targeted at customers at the top end of the wealth level. These luxury goods, which range from clothing and leather products to jewellery and other accessories, are categorized as sensory goods. The luxury experience is added in the store visit, the fascination within the greatly artistic, prestigious, and creative ambience of the retail atmosphere and finally interacting with the goods through stroking, feeling, and sometimes smelling them. However, the retail store plays a major role in the luxury retailing. But in the latest technology and convenience driven retail environment, online shopping and e-commerce is posing a crucial flattering distribution channel for offline retailers. More captivatingly, internet penetration in multiple nations is on a pace to develop at a frighteningly high rate. In UK, over 10 million people consider themselves as profound web users and this fashion is same in other countries as well. By 2006, more than 50% of German and UK populations, and about 42% of Italian and French populations will be online, approximately a 100% rise from 2000 (Merwe & Heerden 2009).

Accordingly, the demand for worldwide luxury online sales is on the increase. Recent reports point out that affluent are almost all on internet and are pleased with generating their online purchases. In most developed countries or economies, internet penetration is as elevated as 94% and the ratio of prosperous people who have purchased products worth above $245 online versus the rest of the total population is 3:1. This has specified mount to the question of putting luxury goods on online sales. In this relation, website and e-store look to attain more than fundamental, practical needs like offering a favorable and enjoyable shopping experience. E-retail includes a continuous flow of ground-breaking means of demarcation that will meet the online customers’ exact expectations in order to create more online traffic and uphold customer faithfulness.

(Source: Okonkwo 2005)

Moreover, there are some brands that perceive that the internet is not yet a point of maturity that would entail full sensory experience with the customer presently restricts their online existence to a website that conveys only information and public relations. The same case took place in Prada in the fashion and trend industry in current years, and various luxury watch producers still attach to this web strategy. Luxury car producers also restrict the use of websites to information but shove the notion of sensory experience by making use of strong visuals like picture galleries, videos and engine sounds as well. Consequently, luxury brands have been uncertain to move online. Now, because of the increased ubiquity of internet and reduced returns of print advertising, more and more luxury brands are creating the evolution to online advertising on internet. Wealthy customers are specifically weighty users of the internet for both online purchasing and information (Raghupathi, Arazy, Kumar & Shapira 2009). More than up to 85% of high-income users of internet frequently shop online. Since the internet is discovered on fundamentals of democracy and accessibility, luxury goods normally use digital as a mean to spread the mythology and dream of brand. The media world has changed and remains in constant evolution. The internet has busted all the communications rules and spoiled all the unrecorded codes of information broadcasting. In domain of luxury brands and products advertising, the internet has come through and changed everything. Online marketing presents a new set of rules that concentrate increasing connections directly with consumers through one-to-one conversation which never can achieve print and other communication channels for marketing. Now, brands prefer to apply their communication devices online as an alternative of purchasing a few seconds TV mark for a luxury beauty good that will be served at main time. In addition to it, luxury brand advertisers think that digital media is offered to generate more effective brand image and assist to enhance brand awareness (Karmis 2013).

While attaining new consumers in social media through internet is logical provided the demographics it illustrates, luxury brands require growing strategies built on expanding their brand assurance, encouraging fans and offering the individuality they expect. One of the surveys done found:

• More than around 75% of respondents state that if they could direct only one social media account for marketing luxury brands or products, it would be Facebook.
• About 94% articulated that they vigorously connect their consumers on Facebook, compared to 84% on Twitter and about 55% on Pinterest.
• While over 2 quarters of respondents assign about 18% of their digital budget to social media sites, over 45% report that the leading budget line-item is people-oriented, involving expenses for in-house and agency resources (Ryan 2013).

4. Effects of opinion leaders toward online communities:

Online communities, in which internet users’ large groups with common activities or interests communicate and share resources with one another, create a significant portion of an internet use. They evident as social networking services like facebook or MySpace, content sharing sites like flickr and you-tube and all range of message boards. Even blogs, swamped with comments from loyal readers or first time users exhibit a flourishing community. Opinion leaders that are considered individuals who put forth a reasonable amount of influence on others’ opinions are a vital component in the dispersal of information in a community. Inspired by the seminal work, researchers have made additions to the key understanding of opinion leaders by methodically examining the process of how individuals come out as opinion leaders in a community, how they assist the dispersal of information by their influence on others’ opinion (Bodendorf & Kaiser 2010).

With the dawn of Web 2.0, websites where customers willingly contribute product reviews like Epinions (www.epinions.com) have flourished in the past few years. By sharing their personal opinions on the forums available on internet, customers influence opinions of others as well. The main benefit of such activity being online is that it can be easily traced. For an instance, Epinions generally employs a fresh mechanism in which community’s every member is given right to involve other members, whose evaluations she has trust, in her web of trust. This, in turn, leads to the formation of a trust’s network among evaluators with high-in-degree persons being the opinion leaders. There are several other websites which offer forums for user-created material give mechanisms of the above nature under which users can enlarge connections to other users whose content or opinion they trust and value, hence escorting to a networked community. Examples of such sites enroll seeking alpha, The Motley Fool for sharing of opinions on matters related to financial markets, like youtube for sharing of videos and their links, Rotten tomatoes for sharing of opinion on movies, yelp for sharing the opinion or information on entertainment or local food, and lastly social networking sites like facebook, twitter, etc (Bickart & Schindler 2001).

Furthermore, one of the main aspects of online review communities is that the individual behavior and structure of network are animatedly changing over time. For an instance, over the time, reviewers might get new incoming conviction links as well as contribute new reviews, both of which enhance their magnetism to community’s other members (Lu, Jerath & Singh 2013). Contrasted with offline social networks, the cost associated with changing structural and behavioral aspects is smaller in online background and setting, and so the dynamic belongings may become most important. Consequently, how the time-changing aspects of individuals influence the configuration of ties is a question of high significance in acknowledging how online review communities grow, particularly provided the current bang in user-produced material (Doumit, Wright, Smith & Grimshaw 2011). Findings of model and researches reveal that time is the most vital mediator of the effect of node-based and network structure-based aspects on the bind configuration process- node-based features are important short-term drivers of extra links, while the network-structure based favored attachment effect is a longer-term but less efficient driver of supplementary inlinks. This fresh finding offers a deeper understanding of how opinion leaders come out in online communities and make contributions to the generative model’s theory of large networks (Junbo, Min, Fan & Xufa 2005).

5. Conclusion:

Opinion leader and leadership is a pertinent concept, and an opinion leader may not be much more powerful than his followers. However, an opinion leader can affect the behavior of a customer towards a product or a service in either positive or negative way. It all depends upon the verbal communication between opinion leaders and other whom they influence in several different ways. Thus, every status level and community would have opinion leaders with the influence flow usually horizontal with them. Though, the reality that opinion leaders are viewed at every level of society does not essentially mean that they are evenly effective or significant to the marketer at each level of society. Opinion leaders are recognized by their different characteristics based on personality, status, communication behavior, media use, engagement, network position, and knowledge. Big brands have thousands of opinion leaders influencing opinions about their products or services, and those opinion leaders are mainly spread out over a broad variety of online forums and social networks (Cross, Laseter, Parker & Velasquez 2006).

Furthermore, the luxury goods industry in the world, manufacturing and offering drinks, cosmetics, watches, fashion, luggage, fragrances, jewellery, handbag, etc is presently worth some $170 billion. Since 1990s, the internet has influenced the world of business in several different ways. Even at the roll of the millennium, in spite of the internet fizz, it carried on to b a main distribution channel, a winner of commoditization, and a preferred place for all age groups in quest of new deals. Global online sales of luxury goods reached more than up to $7.5 billion, developing three times faster than the whole personal luxury products market with its estimated worth of approximately $240 billion. Particularly, customers tend to purchase online when they have already understood and experienced the brand and the products in store. In this regard, a recent study of Google demonstrates that ultra-wealthy make best use of the internet for buying luxury products online: indeed, more than 94% of the 262 millionaires surveyed made their previous luxury goods purchase online.

Ultimately, the secrecy of the internet may also be a lead when buying luxury product. In fact, the internet fits the new model shift of high net worth customer behavior. But in the latest technology and convenience driven retail environment, online shopping and e-commerce is posing a crucial flattering distribution channel for offline retailers. The luxury experience is added in the store visit, the fascination within the greatly artistic, prestigious, and creative ambience of the retail atmosphere and finally interacting with the goods through stroking, feeling, and sometimes smelling them. However, the retail store plays a major role in the luxury retailing. With the dawn of Web 2.0, websites where customers willingly contribute product reviews like Epinions (www.epinions.com) have flourished in the past few years. The main benefit of such activity being online is that it can be easily traced. There are several other websites which offer forums for user-created material give mechanisms of the above nature under which users can enlarge connections to other users whose content or opinion they trust and value, hence escorting to a networked community. One of the main aspects of online review communities is that the individual behavior and structure of network are animatedly changing over time. While attaining new consumers in social media through internet is logical provided the demographics it illustrates, luxury brands require growing strategies built on expanding their brand assurance, encouraging fans and offering the individuality they expect.

5a. Implications for practice:

It is important to acknowledge, though, that all these supporters of opinion leaders as driver of both social and profitable trends are not discussing about personalities or media stars, but about otherwise apparently ordinary members of a community who, through accretion of knowledge or connections’ number with others, act as means for change. Companies should put vital dollars into efforts to discover the opinion leaders, whether they are make contributions to discussion boards, are bloggers, or social network sites’ members. Certainly, an entire cottage industry has jumped up based upon the concept that all marketers require to kick off an effective marketing strategy with a complete list of internet opinion leaders. Since opinion leaders’ personal influence is quite important, marketers are apparently interested in attempting to reach such influential. Therefore, they may be reached with promotional messages and then take active participation in supplementary communication and influence with their fellow group members.

5b. Further research

A transformed study of opinion leaders and their links with online marketing is needed to moderately evaluate if the issues highlighted, have changed since former analysis and findings. It should be taken care that all the examples presented with reference to opinion leaders’ role in internet marketing of luxury products need to be concerned. From the viewpoint of attitudinal, responses to customers and marketers should be put before in order to make the recommendations rather than briefing about them. Secondly, research should also take care of the role of opinion leaders in brand management of luxury products, order level, and company condition of products and reviews. Furthermore, future research may look into few of the qualitative insights that would give information on strategies and frameworks pursued by the successors of the nation.

5c. Limitations

The literature review was restricted by a meticulous word count of around 5500 words. Nevertheless, the contraction of the research topic and content, alongside confined research in the specific area of opinion leader and social marketing involved for an organized review. Evenly, ease of understanding of journal problems was well-known; though, only some of the papers were limited from attachment.

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