TY - JOUR T1 - Conceptualising Influencer Marketing JO - Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management VL - I IS - 1 SP - 79 EP - 87 PY - 2018 DA - 2018/11/30 PB - The Bucharest University of Economic Studies Publishing House PP - Bucharest, Romania T2 - AU - BAKKER, Diederich SN - 2537-5865 DO - UR - http://www.etimm.ase.ro/RePEc/aes/jetimm/2018/ETIMM_V01_2018_57.pdf KW - Influencer marketing KW - social media KW - brand communication AB - Social media has become a prolific tool for companies to build their brands. An effective way to interact with stakeholders on social media has been the relatively new discipline of ‘influencer marketing’. Here, companies engage social media stars to use their large fan-base to promote products and services on their brand’s behalf. While related to the promotional tactic of word-of-mouth marketing, influencer marketing lacks a theoretical foundation in the academic discourse. This paper aims to fill this gap by offering a conceptualisation to operationalize the new discipline in practice. The conceptualisation proposes brand owners a methodology to choose the right influencers for their brands and guides influencers to perform optimally with their fan base. Lastly, a consumer perspective is taken to the discussion to emphasize the relevance of influencer marketing in the consumer purchase decision-making process. ER -