To what extent does YouTube marketing influence the consumer behaviour of a young target group?

Abstract

The topic of this thesis is the influence of YouTube marketing on a young target group which belong to the consumer segment of Generation Z. YouTube as a social marketing channel will be examined, as well as the various different ways of doing marketing and advertising on the platform. Influencer marketing, which means that brands use for example Youtubers as their brand advocates, is also one of the main topics of the thesis and one of the ways of doing marketing on YouTube. The Generation Z as a consumer group will also be discussed. The ways the young consumers use social media and how they make decisions as consumers are important information for this research. The influencer marketing will also be presented focusing on YouTubers as social media influencers.

The research questions of how much the young audience is being influenced by the YouTube marketing regarding their buying decisions and how brands can use the results of this thesis are being examined and answered by conducting primary and secondary research. The primary research was conducted in the form of group interview for the young consumers of Generation Z and the secondary one by reading and analysing the previous studies and existing literature. The results tell that YouTube marketing influences the young target audience’s buying decisions to some extent, but actually has more impact on the general opinions and attitudes of the youth. The lack of trust towards the authenticity and honesty of the commercial cooperations between YouTubers and brands is one of the reasons why the influence on consumer behaviour of this target group is not direct.