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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In todays world advertising is very important. Consumers get to know what is new in the market just

by sitting in their homes. Different products are being advertised so consumers can also choose from

alternatives according to their needs and preferences. This helps product makers to increase their sales

and earn profits. The use of endorsers as means of communication has been generally utilized in

advertising and branding. Public fascination for celebrities and the extravagant lifestyles they lead has

a strong influence on fashion and popular culture. This is done because it is assumed that celebrities

have a convincing effect on the people of the brands they endorse (Forkan, 1980). If when advertising

a product the advertisers use an appropriate celebrity who matches the product and is compatible with

it, then the advertisement will be effective, and the celebritys believabilit y will increase (Kamins and

Gupta, 1994).

Now a days FMCG companies spend a significant amount of their budget on hiring endorsers to

advertise their brand. These companies aim to have a sufficient return on investment with the

expectation that these endorsers catch their prospective customers attention, strengthen brand image,

increase product awareness, and increase consumers purchase intentions. Hiring an endorser who is

good looking and physically attractive, therefore, an important decision for a company (Kahle &

Homer, 1985).

The celebrity endorser can be defined as a person who is well known. An endorser is a famous

individual who is recognized by the society. It has also been believed that as any person who enjoys

public appreciation and uses this appreciation on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with in an

advertisement. Endorsers increase sales by lending their favorable image to a product through

endorsement. Both marketers and celebrities have much at stake is undeniable (McCracken, 1989).

Problem Identification

As celebrity endorsement has become a more popular business since past many years, consumers were

constantly overwhelmed by the influence of these endorsements before making their purchase

decisions. Companies spend billions in celebrity endorsement for their products just as to compete

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with their competitors and increase exposure of their products with increase in purchase intentions

also. This study will test whether the endorser effect is more of an anonymous endorser or a celebrity

endorser.

Problem statement

Many companies advertise their brand frequently because in current market, numerous FMCG brands

exist and customers have many alternates to choose from. This is also done so that a brand is recalled

and preferred over others. Endorsers are used more often because people praise and love them and

will follow what the endorsers represent. A brand hiring anonymous endorsers does not appeal youth

to that extent like a famous brand endorser does. The impact of celebrity endorser plays a dominant

role rather than an anonymous model.

Research Question

What is the Impact of Celebrity endorser on the purchase intentions of a consumer?

Objectives of study

Advertising spreads awareness about products or services existing in the market at a consumers

disposal.

This study will be focused on understanding a relationship between Brand Endorser andpurchase intention of a consumer in FMCG market.

Brand Endorsers play a vital role in enhancing the value of a product and creates a positiveimage in consumers mind which ultimately results in purchasing.

Rationale of study

Choosing the appropriate endorser to represent a brand is very important because not all endorsers can

portray a positive image of a brand in a consumers mind which would strengthen the purchase

intentions. The rational for product endorsement and the criteria for selecting an appropriate and

effective endorser is different for every FMCG product available in the current market and selecting

the right endorser is a very tough decision. This is because the competition in the market is getting

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stronger and stronger and it would be beneficial for marketers to understand that among so many

endorsers, which type of them or what characteristics they possessed would be most effective when

endorsing different FMCG products because ultimately all these factors affect consumer intention of

purchasing one product than another. Moreover, the findings will also help the researchers to do more

research on this area, and it is believed that this study may serve as a contribution to the existing

researches.

Scope of study

This research contributes to the literature by demonstrating that the influence of an Endorser is

directly linked with the purchase behavior of consumer. The physical attractiveness, endorser

following, trustworthiness, value and status of the endorser all contribute to the purchase intensions of

the consumers.

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Brands all over the world use celebrities to advertise their products. As early as 1890, actress Sarah

Bernhardt appeared on posters for La Diaphane, a famous brand of rice powder at the time (Lehu,

1993). The use of celebrities in advertising is not, therefore, a new phenomenon, but it has become

increasingly widespread. In a single week, French footballer Zinedine Zidane appeared on posters for

Dior perfume and Leader Price hard-discount supermarkets, as well as TV ads for Dannon yoghurt.

Stars have become a vital component of advertising for certain categories of products, like perfume andcosmetics.

While celebrity endorsement in advertising is not a new phenomenon, it has certainly become much

more widespread over the past twenty years. It has even become common practice for some companies.

In fact, consumers have become increasingly keen on celebrities (Masse-Stamberger, 2005): they are

interested in people who are well-known simply due to the fact they have appeared on television,

like the stars of reality shows, and celebrity magazines are tremendously popular, as people always

want to know more about stars' lives. The number of celebrities in advertising increased by 60 %

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between 2000 and 2004 (Neumann, 2006).

Consumers are exposed to millions of advertisements throughout their lives. Among these some were

easily ignored or forgotten by the viewers but some of the better advertisements which stood above

the others. Existing research has shown that there are benefits to use spokespersons or endorsers in

advertising. The endorser type, credibility, and physical attractiveness of the endorsers will all

influence the persuasiveness of the advertisement when targeting different markets (OMahony &

Meenaghan, 1997)

There is also a concept of the lay endorsers which are unknown individuals who are chosen based on

the target market demographics and companies current financial resources. These anonymousindividuals offer association with the target audience for a less expensive price. They are usually

packaged as the typical person that the consumers can identify with (McCracken, 1989).

In 1989, McCraken defined celebrity endorsers in advertising as any individual who enjoys public

acknowledgment and uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing & associating

with it in an advertisement. This advertising strategy has been found to induce positive consumer

responses. The reason behind this popularity of celebrity advertising was that marketers and

advertisers believe messages delivered by these famous people would gain a higher level of attention

and recall for the consumers. Customers purchasing behaviors were positively influenced by the

perceived expertise of the salesperson. It is also believed that although physical attractiveness had an

effect on purchase intentions, the expertise of the source was more important for matching a brand

with the appropriate endorser (McCraken, 1989).

A survey by OMahony and Meenaghan in 1997 revealed that consumers regarded advertisements

featuring celebrity endorsers as attention-gaining, reliable, entertaining, interesting, likeable and

impactful. The use of celebrity endorsement was relatively more influential than other types of

endorsements in several ways. In FMCGs it is not an easy decision for a consu mer to switch very

quickly, because these products are of daily use and the competition for marketers is challenging

where as the decision for consumer is also tough.

Despite all the advantages, celebrity endorsement also involved some risks. The large sum of money

spent in the endorsement would become unrewarding when the selected endorser was involved in

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illegal or unethical behaviors. Another concern was that when any endorser became linked with

multiple products, the overexposure would decrease the positive effect of the endorsements and in

result causes the message delivered to be less effective. Consumers might become skeptical about the

message carried by the endorser and think the endorser appeared in the advertisement for the

compensation he or she receives, rather than sincerely believed in the merit of the products (Tripp,

Jensen & Carlson, 1994).

As the use of endorsers has grown over the years in FMCG market, there have been a number of

studies that have examined under what conditions endorsers were more appropriate for products and

to explain the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the endorsers, and the circumstances under which

effectiveness was increased. In determining the major characteristics of an effective endorser,researchers have focused mainly on three dimensions of the endorser: attractiveness, expertise and

trustworthiness. All the three characteristics are related to source credibility, which is commonly

used to imply a communicators positive attributes that affect the receivers acceptance of a message

Many different theories have also been used to evaluate the successful use of celebrity endorsers, the

match-up hypothesis e.g. (Kamins 1990) believed that endorsers were more effective when there

was a fit/match between the endorser and the product that is being endorsed (Ohanian, 1991).

Model of research

McCracken explains that various cultural meanings exist in the world today, and that celebrities draw

meanings from the culturally constituted world when developing their images for the society, which

are accumulations of meanings from the roles they assume in various aspects of their careers, both in

media and in the public eye. An endorsement to become successful, products must match well with

the bundle of meanings or overall image of celebrity endorsers rather than with the element of

attractiveness or expertise alone (McCracken, 1989).

On the other hand certain criteria must be considered when choosing celebrity endorsers, including

trustworthiness, expertise, physical attractiveness, familiarity, and likeability of the source. Further,

the importance of the criteria depends on the product brand to be endorsed. These factors plays a

significant role in enhancing the value of the product and ultimately in purchasing intention(MacKenzie et al., 1986).

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A message source with greater credibility is usually more effective compared to a message source that

has lower credibility (Sternthal, Phillips, and Dholkia 1978). Behavioral changes are caused by

positive attitudes which are created when the message is delivered by a highly creditable source.

(Craig and McCann, 1978; Woodside and Davenport, 1974), so advertisers trend to go for celebrities

which they believe have a greater level of creditability.

For ease of understanding and measurement a theoretical framework has been developed for the

purpose of this study. The framework shows that overall effect of Consumer behavior is affected by

four factors. These factors are Endorser Type, Endorser Credibility, age and gender. These all are

labeled as the independent variables and Purchase Intention written on right is labeled as thedependent variable.

Independent Variables Dependent Variable

Defining Variables

Endorser Type

Endorser

Credibility

Gender

Age

Purchase Intention

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Endorser Type

An endorser is a person who makes a testimonial, or a written or a spoken statement, extolling the

virtue of some product. This person could be a public figure or a private citizen. The endorsers

endorse the product and enhance its worth. A testimonial usually applies to sales pitches attributed to

ordinary citizens whereas endorsement usually applies to pitches by celebrities. It further consists of

two types of spokespersons - celebrity and anonymous (Liu, Huang, & Jiang, 2007).

i. Celebrity endorsersCelebritys endorsers are well-known individuals (TV stars, movie actors and actresses, famous

athletes, pop stars, entertainers, etc.) who owe their fame to their achievements. defines a celebrity

endorser as any individual who enjoys public recognition and public acceptability and uses the

recognition on behalf of a consumer good by endorsing it with the help of an advertisement

(McCracken, 1989).

ii. Anonymous modelsAnonymous endorsers are unknown individuals who are chosen based on the target market

demographics. These anonymous individuals offer association with the target audience for a less

expensive price (McCracken, 1989).

Endorser Credibility

Endorser Credibility is commonly used to imply a communicators positive characteristics and

attributes that affect the receivers approval of a message. The term has three dimensions:

attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise. Referred to endorser credibility as the level to which the

source is supposed as possessing expertise related to the communication topic / product and can be

trusted by the target audience which ultimately influences the effectiveness of advertisements

(Goldsmith, Lafferty & Newell, 2000).

Purchase Intentions

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Spears and Singh (2004) define the term as an individuals conscious plan to make an effort to

purchase a brand. Endorsers who are liked, perceived to be trustworthy, expert, and attractive, are

said to have more positive influences on advertisement believability and brand image, which can

contribute to purchase intentions.

References

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Erdogan, B. Z., Baker, M. J., & Tagg, S. (2001). Selecting celebrity endorsers: the practitioners

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Goldsmith, R., Lafferty, B., & Newell, S. (2000). The impact of corporate credibility and celebrity

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Kahle, L. R., & Homer, P. M. (1985). Physical attractiveness of the celebrity endorser: A social

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Kamins, M.A and Gupta, K (1994), Congruence between spokes person and product type: a

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