Department of Media studies and Journalism

Brand Communication through Beauty Blogging

Internship Project Report

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Bachelor of

Social Science in Media Studies and Journalism

Submitted By

Suraiya Mahnur
Student ID: 131012084

Date of Submission: 26 April, 2017

 Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................ii

Plagiarism Declaration ............................................................................................... iii

Internship Report Approval Form ...............................................................................iv

Summary ...................................................................................................................... v

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1

1.1 Background: ....................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Research Question .............................................................................................. 7

1.3 Research Objective: ............................................................................................ 7

1.4 Significance of the Study: .................................................................................. 8

1.5 Scopes and Limitations:.................................................................................. 8

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................... 9

2.1 Definition of Terms ............................................................................................ 9

2.1.1 Blogs/Blogging............................................................................................ 9

2.1.2 Types of Blogs. ........................................................................................... 9

2.1.3 Beauty Blogs........................................................................................... 10

2.1.4 Brand Communication. ........................................................................... 10

2.2 Literature Review ............................................................................................. 10

Reference .................................................................................................................... 20

i
 Acknowledgements

I would like to pay my deepest gratitude and deep respect to my Internship Supervisor

Assistant Professor Dr. Sarkar Barbaq Quarmal for his continuous support, guidance,

valuable suggestions and helping me wherever I needed throughout writing this thesis paper.

I really can’t thank him enough for the support he gave me to complete my report. The way

my supervisor helped me, I must say without his help it would’ve been impossible for me to

complete my report in a good manner. His continuous guidance, precious advice and

constructive criticisms always kept my bewildered thoughts towards an appropriate focus.

Last but not the least; I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to all my respected

teachers in Media Studies and Journalism Department. I would like to thank admin officer

Al Imran for his support and help. And I am grateful to my loving family, my classmates

and my friends for their endless support.

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 Plagiarism Declaration

1. I know that plagiarism means taking and using the ideas, writings, works or inventions of

another as if they were someone’s own. I know that plagiarism not only includes verbatim

copying, but also the extensive use of another person’s ideas without proper

acknowledgement (which includes the proper use of quotation marks). I know that

plagiarism covers this sort of use of material found in textual sources and from the Internet.

2. I acknowledge and understand that plagiarism is wrong.

3. I understand that my research must be accurately referenced.

4. This assignment is my own work, or my group’s own unique group assignment. I

acknowledge that copying someone else’s assignment, or part of it, is wrong, and that

submitting identical work to others constitutes a form of plagiarism.

5. I have not allowed, nor will I in the future allow, anyone to copy my work with the

intention of passing it off as their own work.

Name: Suraiya Mahnur

ULAB ID: 131012084

Signature _____________________________ Date ___________________

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 Internship Report Approval Form

Student Name: Suraiya Mahnur ID No: 131012084

Major: Public Relations Year: 2017
Local Phone: +88 01618616819 Email: suraiya.mahnur.msj@ulab.edu.bd
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERNSHIP/PROJECT INFORMATION
Internship Project: Research Project under Pathway to Masters in Communication
Internship Project Title: Role of Screen Time in Academic Standing of Dhaka-adolescents
Semester: Spring 2017
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUPERVISOR APPROVAL
(Please place a Tick)
Approved Not Approved Partial Re-write Full Re-write
Remarks (If, Not Approved/Partial/Full Rewrite):
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Signature: ___________________ Date:____________________________
Name: Dr Sarkar Barbaq Quarmal Title: Assistant Professor
E-mail: sarkar.barbaq@ulab.edu.bd Phone: +88 01816 951062

iv
 Summary

This Study aims to present the current scenario of beauty blogging in Bangladesh and the

way brand communication is being done through the beauty blogs. Nowadays, no one can

imagine life without social media. Though, at the beginning social media, such as blogs,

social networking sites etc. were spaces to express feelings as well as to interact with other

people, it soon became a very effective business tool. Such aspect of social media has been

explored by many scholars in different countries in the world. But, that’s not the case in

Bangladesh. As, such there is a lack of existing literature and insights regarding the issue.

The present study is expected to make some contribution in fulfilling that knowledge gap.

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 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background:

Social media are web-based communication tools that enable people to interact with each
other by both sharing and consuming information (lifewire.com, 2017). Boyd (2008)
provided a more precise definition of social media that reads:

Web based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semipublic
profile within a bounded system, (2) articulates a list of other users with whom they
share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those
made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections
may vary from site to site”.

Nowadays, social media has become the part and parcel of our life. Now People can’t even

imagine their life without social media. Drew Hendricks (2013) on smallbiztrends.com

stated that, “Interacting with friends and family across long distances has been a concern of

humans for centuries. As social animals, people have always relied on communication to

strengthen their relationships. When face-to-face discussions are impossible or inconvenient,

humans have dreamed up plenty of creative solutions. The first recognizable social media

site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997. It enabled users to upload a profile and make friends

with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a social media

sensation that’s still popular today.

After the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites

like MySpace and LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like

Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005,

creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share with each other across

great distances.

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 By 2006, Facebook and Twitter both became available to users throughout the world.

These sites remain some of the most popular social networks on the Internet. Other sites like

Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began popping up to fill specific social

networking niches.

Today, there is a tremendous variety of social networking sites, and many of them

can be linked to allow cross-posting. This creates an environment where users can reach the

maximum number of people without sacrificing the intimacy of person-to-person

communication.”

According to socialmediatoday.com (January, 2017), “In United States, Teens

now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms, while 30% of all time spent online is

now allocated to social media interaction. And the majority of that time is on mobile - 60%

of social media time spent is facilitated by a mobile device. And, not only in the US but

people from all around the globe spend a great amount of their time using social media.

According to Pew Research Center (2016), “A majority of Americans now say they get

news via social media, and half of the public has turned to these sites to learn about the 2016

presidential election. Americans are using social media in the context of work (to take a

mental break on the job or to seek out employment), while also engaging in an ongoing

effort to navigate the complex privacy issues that these sites bring to the forefront”.

As of 2016, more than Sixty-eight percent of internet users was social media users

(statistica.com, ND) Statista.com (ND) has estimated that the number of social media users

around the globe to reach 2.67 billion in 2018 which was 1.91 billion in 2014. It wouldn’t be

2
an exaggeration to state that social media penetration worldwide seems to be ever-

increasing.” (statista.com)

Just like the rest of the world, numbers of Internet users and social media users have

been rapidly growing in Bangladesh in recent years as well. According to Bangladesh

Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC, 2017a), the number of Internet

subscribers in Bangladesh was 67.245 million at the end of February 2017 among which

63.120 million people use mobile Internet. Also, at the same time the number of mobile

subscriber in Bangladesh was 129.584 million (BTRC, 2017b). According to the UK-based

organization “we are social” (September, 2016), 22 million or 14 percent of Bangladeshis

have social media accounts.

It can be seen that in last few years, social media has become one of the biggest

sources of news and information. Alongside, it has become a great place for doing business.

Many people from all over the world now do business based on social media and also

companies are now more active on their social sites more than before. Social media

networks are incredible resources for businesses looking to promote their brands online. The

platforms themselves are free to use, but also have paid advertising options specifically for

brands that want to reach even more new audiences. Newer social platforms, including

Snapchat, Instagram, Musical.ly, are also competing for their share of the

market. Accordingly, brands are jumping into social media with social media ad spend

expected to reach $36 billion in 2017 (socialmediatoday.com, 2017) And, many brands,

specially brands those related to beauty products, are doing their advertising through beauty

blogs.

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 Beauty blogging is a relatively new phenomenon in the world of social media.

According to vicibeautyschool.com (September, 2016) “Beauty bloggers have tons of

knowledge about hair, makeup, skincare and fashion. They don’t keep it to themselves,

though. Through personal blogs and websites, they share what they know with the world. So

basically, content that made by a beauty blogger is known as a beauty blog. All the beauty

bloggers have their own blog site where they post their content.

Beauty bloggers have to create a lot of contents, a lot. They blog about makeup, hair

styles, skincare products, outfits and pretty much anything else that falls under the category

of “beauty.” They take photos of hair and makeup, so some knowledge of lighting and

photography is important. And they make videos showing their readers how to create their

own looks. It’s a lot of work, but it’s done by people passionate about the beauty industry.

In addition to blogging, beauty bloggers have to keep their social media up-to-date.

They post engaging photos to their Instagram and Facebook accounts. They tweet regularly

and often run YouTube channels. What’s the point of making amazing content if you don’t

share it?

Also, beauty bloggers collaborate with other artists in their community. Building

relationships with the other beauty gurus is super important. They often exchange content in

the form of guest blogging, they host events together and they visit local shops and salons to

feature on their websites”.

It can be extracted from the discussion above that Beauty Blogging means not just

reviewing makeup product or uploading makeup videos, beauty blogging is much more than

that.

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 Precise information regarding the first beauty blogger couldn’t be found, however,

probably it started around in 2006-2007 in the US and then it started to flourish. The first

popular Beauty Blogger on Youtube was Michelle Phan who is also owner of a company

and affiliated with various brands. According to Wikipedia, till 2016, In the YouTube

beauty community, there is a large number of more than 45,000 YouTube channels

specializing in fashion and beauty videos, such as beauty talks, makeup tutorials and other

suggestions.

Beauty bloggers have already become a very important group in the social media

world. Sophie Bianchi, digital marketer based in Hong Kong, states in her Huffington Post

article “Why Beauty Bloggers Are More Powerful Than Celebrities”:

Recently brands have started paying attention to these ‘Beauty Bloggers’ and rightly
so, as they should be a crucial part of their marketing and communications
strategy”.

Bianchi explained in the later part of the article why beauty bloggers have become

more powerful as campaigners. She noted:

For decades, brands chose to be represented by celebrities in the public eye. This
strategy made perfect sense: stars are attractive and well-known. Who better to sell
a beauty product than the beautiful Scarlett Johansson? The problem is, consumers
grew increasingly skeptical of these endorsements. They could clearly tell that a)
Scarlett’s photos had been photoshopped and b) the celebrity was being paid to sell
the product.

Bianchi also noted that consumers turned to the beauty bloggers for unbiased and

truthful reviews of products and making purchase decisions regarding beauty products based

on their recommendations:

5
 Bloggers and vloggers have become huge influences in consumers’ purchase
decisions worldwide. In fact a recent poll by London Beauty Queen showed that 47%
of people had made “tons of purchases off the back of a blog recommendation” and
46% had made “a few”. Only 7% hadn’t made any purchases based on a blogger

The trend of beauty blogging has reached Bangladesh as well. Though beauty

blogging is a very recent phenomenon in Bangladesh, already a number of beauty bloggers

have managed to create a significant audience/followers base. They continuously write blogs

and post videos on their YouTube channels. And, looking at the comments in such beauty

blogs, it seems that many young Bangladeshi women now follow the reviews that beauty

bloggers provide while purchasing any product. Like any other country, the number of

beauty blogger in Bangladesh is increasing fast. It is difficult say who started this for there is

no precise information regarding the first Bangladeshi beauty blogger. However, one of the

pioneers in beauty blogging in Bangladesh, Tansia Ayon, started her blog around the year

2010. In the years 2014-1015, the number of beauty bloggers started increasing rapidly and

currently there are many beauty bloggers who writes blogs and also post videos on youtube.

Ashfi Onadi, Umme Sumaiya, Nuzuma Shama, Farhana Niloy, Shahanaz Shimul are the

most popular beauty bloggers in Bangladesh these days. And, as people believe beauty

bloggers more than celebrities, many famous brands have started using beauty bloggers to

advertise their product. For example, Sunsilk Hair expert BD nowadays does advertising for

their Facebook page using few beauty bloggers. Another popular makeup brand Golden

Rose has also made a beauty blogger their ambassador.

Blogging is one of the most popular social media tool, and just like rest of the world

bloggers have influence over other social media users. In Bangladesh, such influence could

be understood from events like Shahbagh movement.

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 Beauty blogging is a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. From the experiences in the

other countries, it can be assumed that beauty bloggers, just like other bloggers, have a

particular group of audiences and can greatly influence them regarding fashion and beauty

practices. As such, famous and popular brands are using them as ambassador’s. As a girl

interested in fashion and beauty as well as a Public Relations student, the researcher has an

interest in the issue that how much influence the beauty bloggers have on the makeover

decision-making of young women in Dhaka City and how they are promoting different

brands through their blogs. However, she couldn’t find any academic research regarding this

and decided to explore the issue which would satisfy her personal curiosity as well as

provide with insights that might be useful in her future career.

1.2 Research Question

 What is the perception of beauty bloggers among the women of Dhaka City?
 What is the role of beauty bloggers in women’s makeover decision-making?
 What are the tactics beauty bloggers do apply to promote different brands through
their blogs?

1.3 Research Objective:

 To explore how brand communication is being done through beauty blogging.

 To identify and analyze how beauty bloggers promote different brands through their
blogs.
 To understand the influence of beauty bloggers in women’s makeover decision
making.

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1.4 Significance of the Study:

 There is a dearth of research regarding the issue in focus. As a matter of fact, no such
academic study was found. So, the present study is going to be a ground-breaking
research work in this area.
 The findings of the study would help brands to come up with better communication
strategies.
 The study will be helpful for future researchers. They may use it as a guideline.

1.5 Scopes and Limitations:

As it was mentioned earlier that no academic study was found regarding the issue in focus,
there is a lot to explore. However, due to time and resource constrains, the researcher will
limit her study within the Dhaka North and Dhaka South City Corporation area.

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 CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW

In the chapter I, background of this research has been described. Definitions of the terms

used in this study and a review of existing literature is presented in this chapter. This

literature review will include both the global and national perspective about brand

communication through the beauty blogging.

2.1 Definition of Terms

2.1.1 Blogs/Blogging. There two definitions of blogs in merriam-webster dictionary:

a website that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks,

videos, and photographs provided by the writer; also: the contents of such a site.

a regular feature appearing as part of an online publication that typically relates to a

particular topic and consists of articles and personal commentary by one or more authors”.

The person who write blogs known as a blogger.

2.1.2 Types of Blogs. Blogs are mainly categorized as Personal Blogs,

Collaborative blogs or group blogs, Microblogging, Corporate and organizational blogs,

Aggregated blogs, etc. Blogs can also be categorized by genre, by media type and also by

Device.

Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, journalism blogs,

health blogs, travel blogs (also known as travelogs), gardening blogs, house blogs, book

blogs, fashion blogs, beauty blogs, lifestyle blogs, party blogs, wedding blogs, photography

blogs, project blogs, psychology blogs, sociology blogs, education blogs, niche blogs,

9
classical music blogs, quizzing blogs, legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs), or

dreamlogs. How-to/Tutorial blogs are becoming increasing popular. Two common types of

genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog featuring discussions especially about

home and family is not uncommonly called a mom blog and one made popular is by Erica

Diamond who created Womenonthefence.com which is syndicated to over two million

readers monthly. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of

spamming is known as a splog.

2.1.3 Beauty Blogs. Precise definition of the terms “beauty blog” and “beauty

blogger” could not be found on the web. However, people’s perception regarding beauty

blogger was found. From those perceptions “Beauty Blogger” can be defined as “a person

who teaches how to do make ups, and take care of skin as well as reviews products and

provide lifestyle tips through their writing or video.”.

2.1.4 Brand Communication. In easy words, Brand communication means the

way Brand communicates with its customer. According to cambride.org, Brand

Communication is “the combination of activities that influence customers' opinions of a

company and its products.” Brand communication can be done in many ways, however,

nowadays one of the major tool of brand communication is using social media and beauty

bloggers who have a vast influence on people.

2.2 Literature Review

Finding current literature for the thesis was a critical part due to the fact that the topic

researched is a new field of study. It was especially difficult to find any books with

theoretical framework on blogging and its effect on the purchase behavior of the consumers.

10
Specially, any published research related to the issue in focus couldn’t be found in

Bangladesh. As such, it was quite challenging to gather on recent updates about beauty

blogs in Bangladesh. However, after extensive search some related literature could be found.

A review of such literature is presented below:

From the discussion in the background section presented in Chapter I, it can be

understood that beauty blogging is a rising phenomenon all over the world, and Bangladesh

is not an exception to this. Globally, over 50 million people watch more than 1.6 billion

minutes of consumer created fashion and beauty videos on YouTube (StyleHaul, 2014).

Fashion and beauty videos are a specific type of video blogging, or vlogging. Since 2006,

there have been over 14.6 billion views of these videos, with an average of 700 million

views per month in 2013. More than 45,000 YouTube channels exist specializing in fashion

and beauty videos. Consumers currently create ninety-seven percent of these videos (Beauty

on YouTube, 2014). In 2015, “in total 45.3 Billion views on beauty video, and 50% views

increase in beauty video on youtube. Pixability’s new study analyzes the YouTube practices

of 215 beauty brands and 182,621 independent YouTube beauty creators who create

YouTube videos focused on makeup, skincare, hair, nails, and perfume.

(pixability.com,2015). This study was done in 2015, and it might be taken as obvious that in

last two years the number of beauty videos and views on them increased by a lot.

Sykes (2014) stated in her thesis paper "Making Sense of Beauty Vlogging" that

adolescent and young adult females are the primary viewers of fashion and beauty videos on

YouTube. Watching these videos not only provides women with information about new

products but also inspires new styles for daily looks. The personable and relaxed nature of

these videos allows the viewer to feel a more intimate connection with the vlogger. She also
11
added, “Young women are not the only players within this space. Retailers feel the impact

on products featured in videos. A recent Google study showed that four out of every ten

apparel videos viewed led to the viewer visiting the physical or online store as a direct

response to seeing a video (The Role of Mobile, 2012). Marketing and advertising firms

have begun to pay attention to these videos.

Nowadays, teenager to middle age women love to watch beauty videos and it seems that

beauty bloggers have a good influence on their audience. And that’s why brands promote their

product through beauty blogger now a day. It’s a win-win situation for all the parties because the

blogger get paid by the companies, audience buy the product as they get a good review by the

blogger.

From Sanna Penttala and Heidi Saarela’s (2012) research “Study on the effect of blogs on

young women’s online buying behavior when purchasing fashion items from online stores”

we got to know that:

Fashion bloggers can earn to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, fashion
industry trade paper Women's Wear Daily reports. And the bulk of the money isn't
necessarily coming from brands paying for ads on their sites —it comes from brands
paying the bloggers to endorse their products in various ways. A clothing label
might hire a fashion blogger to style a runway show and tweet and blog about the
project; or to serve as a model in their ad campaigns and post the images on their
blog; or to simply endorse a product the way a celebrity would, by tweeting about it
or posting about it on their site. For such endorsements, brands might pay bloggers
four to six figures. While many experts say the value of the return on that investment
is unclear, some bloggers do have the power to cause an item to sell out by simply
tweeting a link to where followers can buy it (Buzzfeed Shift, 2012).

These fashion bloggers do vast amounts of product advertisement on their web

pages. Naturally when a blog discusses clothing and accessories, they must also be displayed

12
in the blog through photographs and images. Fashion blogs are explanatory where especially

the products and their brand names are emphasized. Thereby, fashion blogs can also be seen

as a form of indirect product advertisement not only because of the content of the text and

images posted by the blogger, but as they include links to company web store where the type

of products blogged may also be purchased (Practical Ecommerce, 2012).

The case of Hanneli Mustaparta a Norwegian photographer, fashion blogger, stylist

and former model could be taken as an example in this regard. Hanneli’s interest in fashion

and style has driven her to different projects involving fashion. Her eye for style can be seen

in her blog www.hanneli.com, and it has inspired women across Europe. Her vast blog

popularity has caught the attention of different companies across the globe and has made her

a celebrity.

One of Hanneli’s collaborations was with Massimo Dutti, a Spanish high street

fashion company. She was hired to do an advertising campaign with her favorite picks from

Massimo Dutti`s clothing and accessory line of Spring 2012. Not only did she advertising

Massimo in their international campaigns but also adding videos and links of the company

in her own blog. It's a win/win situation for both as Hanneli gains a financial benefit and

further acknowledgement from the collaboration, Massimo Dutti gains the acceptance of a

celebrity blogger and updates their brand and company image with a fresh and current media

person. In addition, Hannelis popularity had enabled her to attend events like that of H&M

for Marni Spring 2012. She was highly photographed in the launching event of Marni for

H&M in Los Angeles, wearing Marni’s collection. She also picked her favorite style from

the collection and displayed it in her blog with links.

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 Other examples of how much influence Hanneli’s blog has on the fashion industry

can be seen in the popularity of the articles written by her in international women's

magazines like Elle and Vogue. One of her recent statements in the Elle Finland was that she

"fans" Tory Buches famous ballerinas and tunics (Elle Magazine Finland, 2012). Statements

like these are part of current branding techniques for companies to gain acknowledgement

from famous bloggers and celebrities. They are part of indirect marketing.

As it can be sees that how much a blogger has influence on their audience and that’s

why writing blogs and making tutorials has become one of the very popular thing among the

young women. And Bangladeshi women bloggers are not lagging behind in this. They are

writing blogs as well as publishing video tutorials in you tube. An assumption regarding the

results of such efforts can be seen from the comments posted be the followers.

Figure 1. Screenshot of Blogger Ashfi Onadi’s tutorial;

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljn12wV-iLI

Fig. 1 shows a screenshot of a video tutorial released for Pohela Boishakh (Bengali
New Year’s Day) by Ashfi Onadi, one of the most famous beauty blogger in Bangladesh.

14
 Figure 2 shows the comments of the abovementioned video on youtube. So as we

can see most of the people wants suggestions from beauty bloggers and wants to know what

they use and from where they buy because people believe their recommendation.

Figure 2. Comments on Ashfi Onadi’s Pohela Boishakh tutorial on yputube

Looking at the comments like “won’t you provide a hair-care tutorial this time, sis!”

[translated by the researcher from original Bengali comment] or “Sister, I have a lot acne

mark on my face. Can you give me any tips? My age is 14”, the role of and influence of a

beauty blogger can be assumed.

Figure 3 presents screenshot of a Youtube video posted by Sumayaa Meem, another

popular beauty blogger in Bangladesh. Figure 4 shows the description of the same video.

15
 Figure 3. Screenshot of Sumayaa Meem’s Tutorial,
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mMvdpyXRRM

Figure 4. Links to those Brands who sponsored Sumayaa Meem’s tutorial

In the description shown in Fig 4, it can be easily understood that the blogger is
making suggestions by putting the sources of her fashion accessories. And again, the
comments presented in Fig 5 (e.g. You’re looking so beautiful; the dress is really beautiful,
where did you get it? I want to buy that dress) show the result.

16
 Figure 5, Comments on Sumayaa Meem’s tutorial

Brands used to endorse their product through celebrities before and still many brands

do the same. But, as social media is making huge impact everywhere and a large number of

people have account on social media even in a developing country like Bangladesh, brands

are changing their tactics. Alongside, using celebrities in their TVCs, they are also using

beauty bloggers to promote their products through social media. Many brands like Sunsilk,

Knor, Ponds, etc. are even producing specialized social media ads endorsed by beauty

bloggers to attract people.

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 Figure 6, Screenshot of Sunsilk Page on Facebook

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that companies started considering the

Internet as a strategic communication tool have also recognized the power of influential

members of this platform, i.e. bloggers, who share their brand experiences on a regular

basis. These digital influencers have an effect on the members of particular communities

gathered around similar interests. The influence of the bloggers in this case could be seen

similar to the opinion leaders which Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) first introduced in their two-

step flow theory. According to the theory, certain people recognized as opinion leaders

interpret media information they receive and then pass it to others, thus increasing its

influence. In other words, mass media messages may not always affect the public directly;

as the two step flow theory states, opinion leaders mediate the transmission of information.

18
Bloggers can be considered as digital influencers, similar to the offline opinion leaders

considered in two-step flow theory. These influencers can mediate messages and affect

communities in the digital environment, where messages can be disseminated rapidly and

easily with a potentially viral effect. Consequently, it is essential for brands to engage with

bloggers, online influencers, in order to attain authentic and trustworthy presence among

online communities.

No published academic study regarding the brand communication through beauty

blogs has been found. However, a study on Social Meida’s problems and prospects as a tool

of Brand Communication was found. In the study Bhuyan (2014) noted that the companies

doing business in Bangladesh to grab “the tempting economic benefits of social media”.

Also, he urged the companies to be consistent and active with their social participation to

minimize the risks associated with any adverse publicity. In order to do so, the author

suggested the companies to appoint executives who will be responsible for developing and

maintaining contents in social media.

For the area of Brand Communication Through social media, more precisely- beauty

blogging, is almost untapped in Bangladesh, this phenomenon should be critically observed

for having a proper understanding of it. It is expected that the present study will partially

contribute to that.

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