| Abstract: |
Owing to its high degree of credibility, influencer marketing is incorporated
into the advertising activities of many companies. However, it is often
unclear for the company which market initiator (defined as the consumer to
whom a company should first provide information) should be given information
for marketing purposes. A company?s choice of market initiators in social
networking services influences advertising speed as well as marketing cost.In
this study, market initiator candidates were identified to determine the most
suitable market initiator in the information diffusion simulation. The cost
effectiveness of each candidate was evaluated in terms of influencer-market
elasticity. First, we optimized the information diffusion model in influencer
marketing and considered whether this or mass marketing is best for companies.
Influencer-market elasticity was then determined based on the information
obtained from the simulation. Using such elasticity, we clarified whether
companies should request advertising from influential users, with an emphasis
on speed of advertising, or from insensitive users, with emphasis on
advertising costs. The proposed methods were applied to actual companies, and
the most suitable market initiator was identified for the maximum and minimum
values of influencer-market elasticity in a certain period. |