Introduction
Brands need to make much effort to draw attention to their products and support attractiveness among their target audience. The company’s image plays a significant role in this task, and therefore brands strive to create a positive opinion about themselves and communicate with consumers (Febrian and Fadly, 2021, p. 207). Celebrity endorsement is one of the brand’s communication channels with consumers to support goods or services’ popularity (Febrian and Fadly, 2021, p. 207). Celebrities often become symbols and role models; their lifestyle attracts attention, forcing audiences to follow their events and opinions (Calvo-Porral, Rivaroli and Orosa-González, 2021, p. 2). Consequently, one might suggest that celebrity advocacy that appears in marketing a service or product significantly impacts customers’ purchasing intention.
The use of this communication channel to attract consumers is common and effective. Advertising featuring celebrities rarely goes unnoticed, as fans tracking their lives learn about it and share it with other enthusiasts, and the desire for imitation, in turn, contributes to the purchase of the product (Geng et al., 2020, p. 465). According to a statistical report from Influencer Marketing Hub, 50% of users are ready to take specific actions to purchase products after a positive review (Santora, 2022). Moreover, consumers trust feedback about brands from influencers and celebrities (Santora, 2022). Therefore, celebrities’ marketing supports consumer purchase intention and generates significant profits for brands.
While celebrity endorsement can attract many new buyers, brands need to be thoughtful when choosing the star. Different characteristics affect the perception of celebrities and their association with the brand, and they can have both positive and negative effects on consumer opinion (Osei-Frimpong, Donkor and Owusu-Frimpong, 2019, p. 1-3). Researchers often focus on distinct characteristics, but not all their findings are consistent, and some features are less studied, creating a gap in the literature. Understanding all the characteristics and their influence are valuable to the brands developing companies that involve famous people.
Research Aim
The current study intends to research and describe the celebrities’ characteristics, which determine the influence of their endorsement of a particular brand on the consumers’ purchasing intention.
Research Question
What characteristics of celebrities that endorse a specific brand have the most significant influence on the consumers’ purchasing intention toward the products of this brand?
Research Objectives
- Identify how celebrities’ endorsement affects consumers, their attitudes towards products, and purchase intention, as well as endorsement significance to brands.
- To find out what qualities and characteristics of the celebrities endorsing the brand strengthen the influence of the famous people.
- Study how the identified characteristics affect the consumers’ decisions and purchase intention.
Literature Review
Once a famous person decides to use their image to encourage or approve the use of a specific brand or product, they automatically become a celebrity endorser. Schimmelpfennig (2018) defines an endorser as “any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement” (p. 220). A celebrity endorsement occurs when an endorser drives the purchase of a specific company’s products (Hani, Marwan and Andre, 2018). Endorsement is vital in increasing product recognition and creating a precise image for the targeted customers.
Bandura’s social learning theory can explain the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. This theory suggests that a person receives motivation and a positive attitude towards the phenomenon through interaction with socialisation agents (Lim et al., 2017, p. 21). Applicable to marketing, celebrities act as agents, contributing to developing a positive attitude towards the brand or products among consumers, thereby motivating purchase intention (Lim et al., 2017, p. 21). Understanding the impact of celebrity characteristics will therefore help predict consumer behaviour.
Current studies of endorsers’ characteristics cover discussion of many qualities, and data is inconsistent. For example, some studies consider credibility as a feature that includes other aspects such as attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise (Calvo-Porral, Rivaroli and Orosa-González, 2021, p. 3; Schouten, Janssen and Verspaget, 2020, p. 259; Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018, p. 18). Other researchers, such as Schimmelpfennig and Hunt (2019), distinguish credibility as a separate category rather than a collective one (p. 492). At the same time, several studies do not find any influence of studied characteristics on purchase behaviour or consider them not significant (Febrian and Fadly, 2021, p. 207; Schimmelpfennig and Hunt, 2019, p. 489). Therefore, the considered issue of the characteristics’ influence requires additional research to clarify existing correlations.
A complete list of the qualities mentioned in the literature studied includes many items. The focus is predominantly on attractiveness, trustworthiness, familiarity, credibility, and expertise (Calvo-Porral, Rivaroli and Orosa-González, 2021, p. 3; Febrian and Fadly, 2021, p. 208; Hani, Marwan and Andre, 2018, p. 193; Lim et al., 2017, p. 25; Osei-Frimpong Donkor and Owusu-Frimpong, 2019, p. 103; Schimmelpfennig and Hunt, 2019, p. 492; Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018, p. 18). Studies on congruence, that is, the celebrity relevance for the advertised brand or product (Cespedes-Dominguez, Fernandez-Robin and McCoy, 2021, p. 2; Min et al., 2019, p. 1; Rahman, 2018, p. 367). Some researchers add less discussed variables such as status or charisma (Campbell and Farrell, 2020, p. 475; Freire, Quevedo-Silva and Scrivano, 2018, p. 289). The study’s conceptual model focuses on the most mentioned and influential characteristics – attractiveness, congruence, expertise, and trustworthiness.
The proposed independent variables may have the most significant effect on purchase intention. Attractiveness is subjective and well-known in how celebrities present themselves (Wang & Scheinbaum, 2018, p. 16-32). Nevertheless, physically good-looking stars positively affect the results of their endorsements (Hani, Marwan and Andre, 2018, p. 193). However, in some cases, celebrity suitability may be more critical than likeability (Rahman, 2018, p. 367). Therefore, the congruence variable, which estimates how much a star is associated with an advertised product or brand, can be one of the most influential.
The efficiency of an advocate’s message significantly depends on the endorser’s trustworthiness and expertise. A trustworthy endorser is very believable, and the customers who observe their advertising as reliable are more likely to buy than from an unreliable competitor (Osei-Frimpong, Donkor and Owusu-Frimpong, 2019, p. 106). Therefore, one can assume an endorser with trustworthiness is respected as more efficient in manipulating the endorsement results. Expertise, in turn, refers to knowledge, skill, and experience in a particular area and contributes to the fact that the star’s statements will be more reliable (Calvo-Porral, Rivaroli and Orosis-González, 2021, p. 4). This variable is closely related to congruence and trustworthiness since celebrities are often experts in a specific area with which advertising is more likely to be associated. Such circumstances will create a basis for trust and the development of purchase intention.
Based on the literature review and the constructed conceptual model, the following hypotheses are proposed:
- Hypothesis 1. A celebrity’s attractiveness positively impacts the customers’ purchase intention.
- H2. A celebrity’s congruence positively impacts the customers’ purchase intention.
- H3. A celebrity’s expertise positively impacts the customers’ purchase intention.
- H4. A celebrity’s trustworthiness positively impacts the customers’ purchase intention.
Research Methodology
The current study applies a quantitative approach to conducting the research. The quantitative design explores causal relationships between variables the researcher identified and outcomes (Rutberg and Bouikidis, 2018, p. 211). The benefits of this approach are that the research environment is more manageable, and the findings are objective and accurate since the data used can be quantified to summarise (Rutberg and Bouikidis, 2018, p. 211). Such a design is most appropriate to identify the association between celebrity characteristics and consumer purchase intention.
The data for analysis will be obtained using the survey method. It involves the application of a questionnaire tool, which can be posted on an online platform for convenience (Ball, 2019, p. 413). The method’s advantages include simplicity, low cost, flexibility, the possibility of broad coverage of participants, and loading data in various formats (Ball, 2019, p. 414). The questionnaire will include the following components: the purpose and some details of the study, consent to the use of data, and multiple-choice questions.
When surveying the researcher’s attention, an important aspect is to involve participants. Since the survey will be convenient to conduct online, one needs to use the non-probability sampling method. River sampling is suitable for the current study since it includes engaging participants through an invitation link posted in a mailing letter or specific content (Lehdonvirta et al., 2021, p. 137). This method’s advantage is convenience, but response bias may arise due to the involvement of a group with one particular interest (Lehdonvirta et al., 2021, p. 137). The current study entails writing an invitation letter to participate in the survey, which will be sent to colleagues, and creating a social media post on the researcher’s pages to engage participants. The desired number of respondents in the survey is 50 people.
After data collection, it will be analysed to identify correlations between variables. The information obtained can be explored using cross-tabulation, which summarises the data into the table for a convenient study of the frequency of specific responses (Momeni, Pincus and Libien, 2018, p. 93). This method is suitable for testing the current research hypotheses about the relationship between the celebrities’ characteristics and consumer purchase intention.
References
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