Behind the scenes: The effect of Get Ready With Me (GRWM) TikTok videos on the purchase intention of beauty products among Gen Z

The rise of social media as a source of information for buying products positively impacted the beauty industry. Social media platforms such as TikTok are good at persuading customers, which increases purchase intention. On TikTok, GRWM videos, in particular, are a popular format where the followers watch a video in which the influencer is talking or telling a story while getting ready for the day, using beauty products. This study focuses on the age group of Gen Z, as they will become the most profitable generation in the future. Social media marketing is a way to increase people's purchase intention. This study looks at whether purchase intention is influenced by the type of TikTok video. The main question in this study is, "What is the effect of Get Ready With Me videos on the purchase intention of beauty products among Gen Z?". This paper also investigates the mediating role of trustworthiness, parasocial interaction and perceived expertise. This is investigated on the basis of quantitative research that involves an experiment that is sent to the participants via a survey. Here, each participant is shown one video in which a beauty product is advertised, formatted in a GRWM TikTok video or a normal TikTok video. In order to finally answer the hypotheses and the main question, a mediation model with the help of the process macro has been run within SPSS. This shows that GRWM videos contain more trustworthiness than normal TikTok videos. It also found that the purchase intention was higher for videos with more trustworthiness and parasocial interaction. For perceived expertise, no significant effect is found, both in terms of increasing purchase intention and in appearing in GRWM videos. Parasocial interaction also does not show to be more present in GRWM videos than in normal TikTok videos. Based on these results, it can be concluded that GRWM videos on TikTok have a positive effect on the purchase intention of Gen Z in the beauty industry, when looking at trustworthiness. For the other two factors; parasocial interaction and perceived expertise, GRWM videos do not have a significant effect on purchase intention.