Brands keep making the same mistake: they hire an influencer with millions of followers, launch a campaign, and the product doesn’t sell.
The problem? They confuse two completely different types of influence.
Aspirational influence: The audience wants to live like that creator. They buy because they believe that product will bring them closer to that idealized life.
Personal attraction influence: The audience consumes because of the creator’s attractiveness or charisma. High engagement, excellent visual retention. But here’s an unexpected twist.
Yes, there are purchases. But not the kind brands expect.
When it comes to a female influencer, for example, part of her male audience buys compulsively as a demonstration of purchasing power. It’s testosterone release converted into wallet flexing, like a peacock displaying its feathers. They don’t buy because the product is good. They buy to get noticed.
The problem: these purchases are volatile, impulsive, and only work with low or medium-priced products that allow this “accessible showing off.”
Disaster strikes when a brand offers an incompatible product. If you’re selling life insurance or business software, the creator’s personal attraction doesn’t generate conversion. The engagement is there, the views are there, but the sales aren’t.
Brands conclude: “Influencers don’t work anymore.” But the culprit isn’t the creator. It’s that they paid for one type of influence expecting a different result.
The key question before hiring: Does your audience follow you for what you do, for who you are, or for what you represent sexually?
The answer changes everything.
Essay by RGartner