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Abstract

Due to the rich visual ambience, Instagram has become a hub of fashion and beauty brands. Specifically, the fashion industry promotes their fashion brands through social media fashion Influencers on Instagram. Grounded on S-O-R, perception-behaviour (P-B) and the snowball effect as the theoretical bases, the present research analyses the conscious (via attitudinal mediation) and preconscious (direct) effects of fashion Influencers’ physical attractiveness and fashion-brand content aesthetics on followers’ fashion-branded content (photos and reels) engagement behaviour on Instagram. The data were gathered from a purposive sample of 300 followers of Instagram fashion Influencers in Pakistan. Construct measures, a proposed model and hypotheses were assessed using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that a fashion Influencer’s physical attractiveness and fashion-branded content aesthetics consciously (via attitude) and pre-consciously (directly) trigger fashion-branded content engagement on social media. The results show that the underlying dimensions of fashion-branded content engagement affect each other in a hierarchical order from consumption to contribution. These findings imply that fashion firms should hire physically attractive Influencers to endorse their fashion brands. Furthermore, Influencers should produce aesthetically pleasing fashion-branded content on Instagram to engage followers.

Keywords

Influencers physical attractiveness fashion-branded content aesthetics attitude engagement

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Influencer’s Physical Attractiveness and Content Aesthetics: Conscious and Preconscious Determinants of Fashion-branded Content Engagement on Instagram

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