Influencer Marketing Metrics Versus Consumer Perception: A Case Study of POND's Peony FM Campaign
School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56943/joe.v5i3.1049Influencer marketing has become one of the most widely used strategies in digital marketing, particularly within the beauty and skincare industry. However, campaign effectiveness continues to be evaluated primarily through quantitative metrics such as views and engagement rates, which may not fully capture how consumers perceive and interpret influencer-generated content. This study explores consumer perception of influencer-generated content in the POND's Peony FM campaign conducted by Clozette Indonesia and identifies the factors shaping these perceptions. Using a qualitative approach grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 17 purposively sampled female social media users aged 18 to 30. Thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's (2021) six-phase approach revealed five themes: personal relevance, content clarity and informativeness, authenticity and influencer credibility, content improvement needs, and perceived metrics legitimacy. Personal relevance emerged as the most dominant factor, identified across all 17 respondents. Findings also revealed a substantial gap between the campaign's KPI achievement of 2,523 percent, corresponding to 12,816,840 views against a target of 508,000, and its engagement rate of only 0.28 percent, a disparity consistent with respondents' descriptions of passive content viewing. These findings suggest that influencer campaign effectiveness should be evaluated not solely through quantitative metrics, but through the integration of qualitative consumer perception insights for a holistic assessment. This study offers theoretical and practical implications for influencer marketing evaluation.
Keywords: Beauty and Skincare Industry Consumer Perception Influencer Marketing Personal Relevance Stimulus-Organism-Response Framework Thematic Analysis
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