Blogs, Blogging, the Blogosphere Research Papers (original) (raw)

(Requests paper via mail - patricia.sanmiguel@isem.es) Fashion bloggers constitute a new player in the fashion industry. As far as fashion brands are concerned, fashion bloggers have changed the rules of the game, having become a new factor to take into account in brands’ marketing strategies, replacing or coexisting with traditional media.
Today, the largest segment of the blogosphere consists of fashion blogs, i.e. blogs that focus on fashion brands, fashion products, street style, and personal style (Halvorsen et al., 2013). Bloggers inspire the way people dress and they work alongside publishers and designers. They have also begun to play an increasingly important part at catwalk shows, showrooms and other fashion events (Belch & Belch, 2011; Okonkwo, 2010; Rogers, 2003).
There are few but an increasing number of studies on fashion blogs’ real influence on the fashion scene and, specifically, on the consumer decision-making process (Kulmala et al., 2013; Hahn & Lee, 2014). In spite of the important developments that have been witnessed, there is still little concrete data for marketing managers to work with. There is a lack of literature and, as some authors claim, “more research is needed to better understand how social media has altered brand relationships, in particular how it influences consumers to make choices and recommend products to their social media” (Kontu & Vecchi, 2013, pp. 211).
This paper seeks to shed some light on this new scenario by analyzing how the customer decision-making process works today, following the emergence of fashion bloggers. In this respect, an analysis of what blogger influence means and how it operates is clearly required. Although we have taken into account studies on the profile of who influences the fashion scene (Sádaba & Sanmiguel, 2014; Vernette, 2004; Summers, 1970), in this case our attention focuses on how this influence is exercised.