Abstract 

Background: Online marketing has transformed how businesses engage with consumers, largely through the rise of social media and ephemeral content within. These platforms facilitate direct communication and engagement by providing short-lasting content that captures the consumers’ attention in a quick manner, tapping into consumers’ fear of missing out. Despite increased use of said marketing tactics and content, ephemeral marketing impact on consumer perception and engagement is largely under-researched, specifically with an industry emphasis, in this case the fitness apparel industry.

Purpose: The main goal of the study is to find out how Gen Z consumers of the fitness apparel industry perceive and engage with ephemeral marketing, and the variables which have an effect on these.

Method: A qualitative method with a deductive approach through two focus groups consisting of Gen Z consumers from Jönköping University. Primary data was analysed through a deductive thematic analysis using a conceptual framework derived from the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Conclusion: A thorough interpretation and analysis of the empirical findings provided a proper understanding of consumers perception and engagement with ephemeral marketing, emphasising the importance of different elements in the ephemeral content. Furthermore, there were new findings regarding the influential factor FOMO, which demonstrated the potential to be an element alongside WOM and eWOM, playing a role in both central and peripheral routes. Thus, a final reconceptualization of the conceptual model is presented.