A study on cosmetic purchasing behavior: The effect of YouTuber's perceived source credibility and soon-to-be graduates' job expectations

As the technology has made progress, social media platforms have been used as a marketing instrument, and thus affecting the users. This thesis aims at examining perceived source credibility of Youtubers shooting videos on beauty and care and the effect of job expectation on buying behavior of soon-to-be female graduates towards cosmetic products. Youtuber is a person who posts or uploads videos on Youtube, a popular social media platform, as a profession. In this study, job expectations and buying behaviors of soon-to-be female graduates towards cosmetic products were investigated by means of a Youtuber's video on beauty and care while the Youtuber's target was soon-to-be graduate female. In the research procedure, a survey was conducted to obtain future plans, job expectations, source credibility and buying amounts of soon-to-be female graduates. Due to the lack of studies conducted in this field in Turkey, findings in this study serve as a preliminary to further studies. In addition, this study is estimated to contribute substantially to Turkish Marketing literature, as being the first study investigating the Lipstick Effect. Findings in this study indicates that first future plan of the soon-to-be female graduates is to find a job and there is a weak correlation between job expectation and buying behavior towards cosmetics of the Youtuber. It was concluded as the perceived source credibility of the Youtuber is getting higher, buying behavior towards cosmetics is getting higher as well (with a low correlation); while job expectation affects buying behavior towards cosmetics positively.