Abstract:
With the rapid growth of social media platforms, TikTok has become a powerful
medium for beauty care brands to build authentic connections with audiences.
However, in Sri Lanka, limited scholarly attention has been given to how TikTok
users engage with beauty-related content. This study examines in what way content driven and influencer-driven promotional strategies differ in generating audience
engagement in the beauty care industry. By comparing TikTok user responses to
product-focused versus influencer-focused content, it explores effects on perceptions,
trust, and interaction, offering practical insights for digital-era marketers. Adopting
an interpretive, qualitative research design, purposive sampling was employed to
select TikTok beauty care videos. User comments were collected using the Apify
TikTok Comment Scraper, resulting in a dataset of over 3,000 comments. The
thematic analysis was applied to uncover underlying sentiments, attitudes, and
engagement dynamics where the data were systematically organised and manually
coded to identify recurring themes and patterns. Findings reveal that influencer driven content often cultivates deeper emotional and parasocial relationships,
enhancing trust and relatability. In contrast, content-driven videos tend to generate
more product-centered discussions that emphasise product quality, features, and
performance. These results highlight that both strategies serve complementary roles
in shaping consumer engagement and brand perception. The study contributes to the
existing body of knowledge by offering a comparative understanding of influencer
credibility versus content quality in driving authentic engagement within Sri Lanka’s
cultural and social media landscape. From a practical perspective, the insights
provide actionable recommendations for marketers, beauty brands, and influencers
to design effective TikTok campaigns that balance emotional connection with
informative content, ultimately strengthening consumer trust and engagement.
