Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 203

Proceedings of the 2021 3rd International Conference on Economic Management and

Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2021)

The Different Perception and Reaction of Customers

Towards Traditional Marketing and Influencer
Marketing in Food Industry
Qingyang Ren1*, Lin Zhou 2, Fengyang Liu3
1
Shanghai Uinted International School (Gubei campus), Shanghai, Shanghai 201103, China
2
Xiamen the Third High school, Xiamen, Xiamen361000, China
3
Divine savior academy, Dora, Dora33178, America
*Corresponding author Email: lily43231@sina.com

ABSTRACT
This research paper is aimed at investigating the consumer preference for traditional marketing and influencer marketing
in food industry. To accomplish this, the researchers set two questionnaire surveys to collect data. These two
questionnaires investigated consumers’ different attitudes and reaction toward two rose-cake brands (Holiland and LI
ZI QI), by showing them the two different types of advertisements: one for traditional marketing and the other for
influencer marketing. After a detailed analysis of the data collected, it was discovered that both influencer marketing
and traditional marketing have the capability to deliver the persuasive product information and make consumers
desirable to purchase the products. However, consumers tend to pay more creditably and trust to LI ZI QI’s brand, which
is the brand using influencer marketing, and are willing to spend more money on it.

Keywords: Influencer marketing, traditional marketing, food industry, questionnaire survey

1. INTRODUCTION to attract the fans. In this paper, we aim to understand and

investigate the different perceptions and reactions of
Traditional marketing is not strange to us. Since we potential customers to traditional marketing and
were born, we have been receiving all kinds of influencer marketing in food industry.
advertisements all the time, from the earliest telephone
and SMS promotion, to the advertisements in TVs. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
However, with the development of science and
technology, traditional marketing seems to be on a 2.1 The Advantages and disadvantages of
declining path. It is certainly true that this is an era of the Traditional Marketing
rise of social networks, and all kinds of social software
and live streaming software begin to take root in people's Traditional marketing is a rather broad category that
life, especially the youths. For example, the number daily incorporates many forms of advertising and marketing. It
active users of TikTok, which is a short video app, is one of the most recognizable marketing types,
exceeded 600 million by August 2020. As there is an encompassing the advertisements that people see and
increasing number of people are using social network, hear every day. Most traditional marketing strategies fall
influencer marketing has become prevalent. The rise of under four categories: print, broadcast, direct mail, and
selling goods in live-broadcasting platforms can be telephone [1].
observed as the best example of influencer marketing. The advantages of traditional marketing are many,
Influencer marketing has many advantages, such as the such as the ease of reaching a local audience and the
fast speed and wide range of communication through the ability of advertising to be fully utilized, reused and
network and further expanding the audience. In recent reduced in cost [2]. However, its disadvantages are also
years, a market we seeing growth is the food industry. As obvious. For example, static text information
an old Chinese saying goes, "Food is the most important dissemination and information updating are slow
thing in people's daily life." It is no wonder that there are because many advertisements are printed in magazines
so many influencers who start to sell food online in order

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.

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or newspapers that he updates speed cannot keep up with permeated all aspects of our lives [13]. This is why we
them [3]. And fewer and fewer people pay attention to chose the food industry as the topic of this article.
these paper advertisements [4]. as same as telemarketing. Because the development of the food industry is closely
People rarely answer cold calls from strangers, which related to our lives, because food is not only related to
makes telemarketing difficult. With The development of our daily life, but also related to our survival, people do
science and technology, TV print media has been not eat is not to survive. So the argument that we support
neglected and People use mobile phones and computers through these literature reviews is to investigate the
more [5]. And as the pace of life is getting faster and different perceptions and reactions of potential
faster, people are in a hurry on the road, and more and customers to traditional and influencer marketing in the
more people are pubbing -- making it hard to notice the food industry.
ads on the roadside/subway station [6].
3. METHODOLOGY
2.2 The Advantages and disadvantages of
Influencer marketing The researchers used questionnaire survey to
complete the experiment. There are two questionnaires
Traditional marketing is a rather broad category that being set up; one aims to investigate consumers’ attitude
incorporates m Influencer marketing is a type of social of traditional marketing, and the other is to those of
media marketing that uses endorsements and product influencer marketing. In order not to let these two groups
mentions from influencers–individuals who have a of participants overlap (since having done one
dedicated social following and are viewed as experts questionnaire in advance may affect their choice of
within their niche [7]. Influencer marketing works answering questions in the second questionnaire), we
because of the high amount of trust that social influencers keep these two groups of participants different. There are
have built up with their followers, and recommendations 64 participants answering the questionnaires, and 32
from influencers serve as a form of social proof to your answering each.
brand’s potential customers [8]. Another benefit of
influencer marketing is that it spreads quickly and 4. DATA ANALYSIS
reaches a wide range, because it's online.
Influencer marketing does not require a large budget, 4.1 Traditional Marketing Group
and it does not require the use of a special A-list star, and
According to the different stages of the experiment,
influencer marketing relies on the Internet to spread
we divided the data analysis into three parts: Experiment
quickly. It can be used with a few micro-tier influencers
design, data results and general discussion.
to achieve a more practical and rational application.
Influencers influence people's purchasing power and
gain their trust so that they can sell more effectively [9].
4.1.1 Experiment design
Even influencer marketing is so popular; there are The experiment below aims to investigate the
disadvantages to influencer selling, such as choosing the perception and reaction of potential customers to
wrong influencer, which his is the deadliest of all. A traditional marketing in food industry. We used brand
wrong influencer can make your otherwise good product Holiland, which is, a brand famous for its rose cake, as
worthless [10]. And there's a lot of uncertainty in an example, to test the different reactions of consumers
influencer sales, and there's no way to know if people before and after watching its promotional video. 32
will approve of the influencer you've chosen [11]. But participants finished the questionnaire until March 27th.
overall, influencer marketing is definitely a part of the
future of marketing. 4.1.2 Data results
2.3 The original intention and goal of this paper According to figure1, most of the participants are
from young generation, consisting of 68.75% teenagers
Whether it's traditional marketing or influencer and 21.88% 18-25 aged people.
marketing, it makes a big difference in our lives, even
gradually changing our habits. From these literature
reviews we determined that what we wanted to see was a
comparison between traditional marketing and
influencer marketing, either to show that traditional
marketing is still effective or that influencer marketing is
better in [12]. We still don't know whether influencer
marketing can really beat traditional marketing, but one
thing is certain that the development of influencer
marketing is positive, and the changes it brings have Figure1 illustrates the proportions of our participants
between various ages.

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According to figure2, when being ask whether they

watch televisions or using short-video apps more often in
their daily lives, most of the participants chose “Using
short-video apps”. This result shows a trend among the
youths, which is the increasing popularity of getting
access to influencer marketing.

Figure5 shows the awareness of the brand Holiland of

the participants.

After watching the rose-cake promotional video,

more participants give credit for the brand. The
proportion of people who chose “pay the lowest trust”
Figure2 shows the participants’ preferences for drops form 59.38% to 28.13%, and the proportion of
watching TV and using short-video apps in their daily people who chose “knowing the brand very well”
lives. increase form 9.38% to 15.63%, which is an increase.
However, the amount of people who are willing to pay
Despite only 15.63% of the participants pay their their greatest trust does not increase at all, still remaining
greatest trusts to this brand, 53.13%of the participants are 15.63%. It may reveals a disadvantage of the traditional
still willing to give a try of buying the rose-cake. It is marketing, which is the fail to gain consumers’ greatest
possibly due to the popularity of this brand——almost confidence. (Figure6, 7, 8)
60% of the participants have heard of this brand, maybe
even have watched its promotional videos before.
(Figure3, 4, 5)

Figure6 illustrates the participants’ knowledge of the

Figure3 illustrates the participants’ creditability of the brand Holiland.
brand Holiland. The degree range from 1-7 [1-the lowest; 7-the
The degree range from 1-7 [1-the lowest; 7-the highest]
highest]

Figure7 illustrates the participant’s creditability of the

brand Holiland after watching video.
Figure4 shows the participants’ willingness to pay for
the Holiland rose cake before the promotion video. The degree range from 1-7 [1-the lowest; 7-the
highest]

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4.1.3 General Discussion

In conclusion, traditional marketing is effective and
useful on stimulating consumers buying products, since
it provides an access for more customers to know a
certain brand, and enhances consumers’ credibility.
However, it lacks the ability to gain consumers’ greatest
confidence and provide attractive videos, which is able
to make consumer want to finish watching the full of
them. These drawbacks may result in a lost of potential
consumers as well as the financial profits.
Figure8 shows the participant’s knowledge of the brand
Holiland after watching the promotion video. 4.2 Influencer marketing Group
The degree range from 1-7 [1-the lowest; 7-the highest]
4.2.1 Experiment design
Most importantly, there is an increase in the
percentage of the potential consumers who are willing to This investigation is the counterparts of the
buy the rose-cake. It rises from 53.13% to 62.5%. traditional marketing research, both driven by our
(Figure9) research group in China. We had set up a questionnaire
about influencer marketing and collected data from 32
participants in total. The research uses the influencer ‘’LI
ZI QI’’ as the marketing example; LI ZI QI is a well-
known video creator who makes short video about
Chinese cuisine. As early as in 2015, LI ZI QI starts to
film short video about Chinese traditional food.
The questionnaire is separated into two parts; the first
part is the pretest that we used to understand the
participants’ attitude toward the influencer brand’’ LI ZI
QI’’ and its product. In the next section, the participants
Figure9 illustrates the participant’s willingness to pay are required to watch a influencer video about ‘’LI ZI QI’’
for the Holiland rose cake after watching the promotion after watching the video, they will be able to see some
video. questions the same as the former part in order to compare
the differences of the participants’ thinking about ‘’ LI ZI
QI’’ before and after the video. To achieve our goal, we
ask the participants to express the degree of their certain
opinions to the ‘’ LI ZI QI’’ such as familiarity,
willingness of purchasing and credibility.

4.2.2 Data Result

With the following diagram, there are some effective
data that we discovered. We have found some age
differences according to the data.
Figure10 shows the participant’s willingness to watch
the full promotion video of the brand Holiland.

The degree range from 1-7 [1-the lowest; 7-the

highest]
However, one of the drawbacks of traditional
marketing is its less-attractive potential videos. Nearly
31.25% of participants showed their greatest
unwillingness of watching the full video, which indicates
the boringness of the promotional video. (Figure10)

Figure11 compares the differences of the way that the

participants access information between various ages.

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In graph11, the participants under 18 years old and that chose degree 6 from 10% to 20% after watching the
26-30 are more often using the short-video application in video. The proportion of women that chose degree 1
their daily life. On the contrary, 100% of the participants declined from 22.73% to 9.09% after watching the video.
over 50 years old are more often watching TV. Secondly, two augments could be found in the proportion
of women that chose degree 6 from none to 13.64% and
the women that chose degree 7 from 13.64% to 18.18%.

Figure12 illustrates the awareness of the brand “LI ZI

QI” of the participants between different ages.

When turn to graph12, it is clear that participants

under the age 18 all known about ‘’ LI ZI QI’’, but
participants above the age 50 doesn’t aware of it.
Approximately 80% of the participants between 18 -40
know ‘’LI ZI QI’’. Since the channel they accessed to
the information are various, it’s more likely to know
about’’ LI ZI QI’’ from the Internet, so older people are
kind of ignorant of the brand ‘’ LI ZI QI’’.
Figure14 compares the change of participants’ attitudes
toward buying the rose cake before and after watching
the influencer marketing video.

Via graph14, before watching the video, there are half

of the participants are willing to buy the product and the
other half are not willing to buy it. After watching the
video, the proportion of participants that are willing to
buy the product increased from 50% to 62% conversely.

Figure13 compares the change of the attitudes of the

participants with different genders to the brand “LI ZI
QI” before and after watching the influencer marketing
video.

The degree range from 1-7 [1-the lowest; 7-the

highest]
Furthermore, we have noticed that there are some
gender differences among the data as well.
As for the digram13, we can see from the diagrams Figure15 illustrates the difference between how much
that the proportion of that of men that chose degree 1 the participants are willing to pay for the brand “LI ZI
decreased from 40% to 30% after watching the video and QI”’s rose cake before and after the promotion video.
an increment could be found in the percentage of men

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About graph15, before the video, the average price the present era, compared with traditional marketing, the
that the participant gave is 31.56 yuan, however, after influencer marketing could offer a wider range of
watching the video the average price increased to 34.09 reception from potential customers because of the
yuan. platform- short-video application is now an essential
parts of people’s life. Secondly, customers tend to trust
the influencer product because of its genuineness, the
influencer always try its products in person so that
audiences can know how good it is directly, instead of
the traditional marketing sometimes it’s too exaggerated.

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