The Power of TikTok

: An explorative study on how young females perceive UGC on TikTok, and how it influences their brand perception

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to create an understanding of how young females perceive user-generated content on TikTok, and how it influences their brand perception. The theories of parasocial relations, parasocial interactions, utilitarianism, and anthropomorphism were used as a complement to analyse and understand our empirical data gathered from five semi-structured interviews. The empirical data was gathered using a qualitative approach, and in-depth interviews with young female participants were conducted. Firstly, we concluded that our participants found user-generated content to be more trustworthy and genuine than traditional advertising. Secondly, it was found that parasocial interactions were more prevalent in this study, however, parasocial relations were also apparent, as some respondents had followed a certain creator for longer, and therefore perceived a stronger relation towards them. Thirdly, anthropomorphic tendencies were detected, due to the participants explaining the benefits of brands displaying human characteristics and traits on TikTok. In addition, the studied theories provided the research with information on how young female users on TikTok perceive brands and UGC. The findings have contributed with more in-depth knowledge on the topic of brand perception, TikTok and user-generated content. In addition, this thesis also provided insights towards the concept of social media influence on young females.

Date of Award	2022-Jun
Original language	English
Supervisor	Oskar Christensson (Supervisor), Christian Koch (Assessor) & Heléne Tjärnemo (Examiner)