The Effect of Using Celebrities in Adverts - Research Paper Example

? Business Research Introduction s are ed to hundreds of adverts every day, and this calls for organizations to create a unique position and receive consideration from customers. The use of celebrities in advertisements creates uniqueness and prompts positive effects on the consumer’s attitudes and sales intent towards the products. Over the past few years, celebrity endorsement has been applied in advertisements. Erdogan and colleagues (2001, p. 41) denote that the use of celebrities in advertisements has grown by 20 percent over the past 20 years. This increase in celebrity endorsements in adverts has seen an increase in the sales of the different products. This trend of use of celebrities in adverts is not likely to change in the near future. The media have contributed to this obsession through overloading the society with information and demonstrations of celebrities and giving them entertainment. The use of celebrities in adverts accrues benefits not only to the organization but also to the celebrity. Through the use of a celebrity, the consumer feels a positive feeling of association and security. The consumers deem their celebrities as idols, and once they recommend the use of a product, they deem such products as of high quality. Consumers like to be associated with celebrities, and they end up buying such products because they would like to be like the celebrity. In essence, the use of a celebrity makes a product stand out and be recalled by the consumers. The use of a celebrity makes the products or services stand out. Celebrity endorsement has been regarded as a way of getting the brand noticed amidst the high competition in the market environment. There are huge impacts of the use of celebrities in adverts among consumers through audio visual commercials. A customer, who observes two distinct organization’s products, one product message with a celebrity and the other without, will believe the product advertised by a celebrity. This research will be carried out to determine the effect of celebrity endorsement on sales and marketing of Adidas products after endorsing David Beckham in its adverts. It will involve surveys on numerous selected consumers to determine the effect on their attitudes and an analysis of the company performance before and after the advert. Relevance of the Research Numerous studies have been carried out to identify the impact of celebrity endorsements on sales and marketing. Nevertheless, there is disagreement and debate on the precise role of celebrity endorsement on customer discernment towards the brand. Customer attitudes form the basis for increased sales and marketing of a product. Some studies note that there is a weak correlation between the two while others state that there is a strong correlation between the two. This research proposal will provide a basis on the acquisition of insights in the field of consumer discernments towards a brand or product and the impact of celebrity endorsements on them to influence sales and marketing. This proposal will structure a systematic review with respect to these associations to offer marketing economists a useful guide on celebrity endorsement. Because this proposal will assist clarify the role of celebrity endorsement in adverts, it will also serve societal and practical relevance. For organizations, it is particularly significant to identify the positive and negative effects of celebrity endorsement on the discernment of the customer towards the product and brand so purchase decision making and purchasing behavior can be increased. This paper will give insights on the significance of celebrity endorsement through giving reference to an example of celebrity endorsements such as David Beckham by Adidas. An enhanced comprehension of celebrity endorsement unquestionably prompts managers to take on an effective policy by which sufficient customer discernment will be engendered. This will lead to increased customer purchase intents, which will positively affect the organization’s sales. Literature Review In reference to Friedman & Friedman (1979, p. 64), a celebrity refers to a renowned person such as an actor, sports men and women, entertainers, and other people known for their achievement. The belief among advertisers is that adverts delivered with a celebrity offer a higher level of appeal, message recall and attention than those adverts without a celebrity. In addition, Copper (1984, p. 64) notes that celebrities in an advert influence the reliability of the claims made, increase remembrance of the message and a positive effect. The use of attractive and renowned people is a common practice in the contemporary media advertising, with physically good-looking communicators having proved to be successful in molding consumer’s discernments and beliefs (Ohanian, 1991, p. 47). Menon (1998) carried out a study to determine the effectiveness of the use of celebrities in advertisements. In his research, he used both normal people and celebrities in adverts to identify the difference in influence. Menon (1998) evaluated the efficiency using multivariate analysis. In the Milk advertisements, knowledge, believability, manifestation and fondness for the celebrity were highly correlated to each other, in addition to purchase intents. For promotion with non-celebrity people, reliability was exceedingly interrelated to advertising believability, which was in turn interrelated to purchase intents. For the promotions on Pepsi-Cola, noteworthy interrelations were discovered between credibility and knowledge and advertising believability and purchase intents. In this research, celebrity manifestation, liking, knowledge and trustworthiness were extremely interrelated with advertising believability. Simultaneously, fondness for the celebrity and promotion believability was interrelated with acquisition intentions. For promotion that involves non-celebrities, the examination reveals that credibility, appearance and knowledge were highly associated with advertising believability. At the end of the study Menon (1998) concluded that celebrities play a significant role in influencing the consumer’s believability and their attitudes towards a brand or product. However, when endorsing a celebrity, there should be match-up congruence between the celebrity and the product. Numerous studies indicate that the match-up congruence between the product and the celebrity is essential. According to Rockney and Green (1979, p. 135), this correspondence result in remembrance of the advertisement among the customers and the brand information will positively affect the transfer influence with regard to personification of the brand. When a product is promoted through a celebrity with a comparatively high product congruent image, there is high product believability when compared to a less congruent celebrity. In most instances, the advertisers use celebrities who are well related to the product. For instance, David Beckham has been used by Adidas in its adverts. Beckham is a renowned sports person and advertising sportswear and foot ware would be effective. Match-up engrosses two aspects, which include the image of celebrity and the supposed fit. When a celebrity has a good image appropriately fit to the product and the company, this will result to immense product believability and increased effectiveness. When an advertiser joins these two aspects, he or she creates benefits to the product (Erdogan et al, 2001, p. 42). The most imperative thing to an advertiser is the match-up of the image of the celebrity to the product message that the company wants to pass to the consumers. Another example of a well articulated match-up is that of Nespresso adverts where Gorge Clooney is used as an endorsed celebrity. Nepresso want to be linked with terms as refinement, style, first class brand quality and charm. Consequently, Nespresso asserts that Clooney is the ideal match for their brand because Clooney’s profile indicates the attributes the company wants to be associated with. The phrase attitude has been used in numerous consumer studies. Solomon and colleagues (2006, p. 123) describe an attitude as a long term evaluation of people’s objects, advertisement or issues. They are long term because they tend to last over a long period. In the contemporary competitive business environment, celebrities are used as endorsers, spokespersons and artists for organizations. With the employment of attributes such as expertise, credibility, similarity, attractiveness and familiarity, customers view celebrities as a source of persuasive information, and this generates a high level of certainty for customers. Attitude shows whether a customer is attracted to an item or product, which influences the purchase intentions of the consumer towards the product. Research carried out by Ranjbarian and colleagues (2010, p. 78) shows that the use of celebrities in adverts affect consumers’ attitudes and influence the purchase intents of the patrons. Objectives and Problem Statement With the continued use of celebrities in adverts, numerous issues remain unclear. What is the effect of using celebrities in adverts and how can this effectively modify customer’s attitudes towards the brand and increase sales and marketing? Therefore, this proposal aims at identifying the impact of celebrity involvement in adverts on sales and marketing. Proposed Methodology i. Research Approach and Design A qualitative approach will be employed in this study. According to Creswel (2003, p. 77), a qualitative research is a formal, objective and systematic process to delineate and test relationships and examine cause and effect interactions among variables. Questionnaires will be used in this descriptive, exploratory and explanatory research. A questionnaire is used to collect information for describing a population too large to observe directly (Creswel, 2003, p.79). A questionnaire obtains data from a sample of individuals through means of self report that is, people respond to a series of questions posed by the investigator (Kothari, 185, p.143). In this study, information will be gathered through self-administered questionnaires distributed personally to the respondents by the researcher. ii. Research Setting This research was carried out at business research center in New York City. This hall has an average capacity of 100 seats and has all the facilities that will enhance respondent’s comfort while answering the questions. The hall is well ventilated to provide fresh air and respondent’s comfort. iii. Population and Sample description Kothari (1985, p.179) defines population as all the elements that meet the sample criteria for inclusion in a study. The sample employed in the study will be consumers of sports products within New York City. The consumers will be the aspiring athletes and sports people. A convenient sample of 100 respondents will be selected from sports clubs. A sample refers to the elements chosen with the intention of obtaining certain information from them. A convenient sample engrosses respondents included in the study because they happen to be at the right place at the right time. The sample will include 50 men and 50 women to avoid bias and control the variables within the study. iv. Sampling Criteria The respondents included in the research have to fulfill certain requirements before being selected. These requirements include: a. Should be an aspiring sports person b. Should have purchased a sports product in the past one month c. Should have purchased a sports product before Beckham’s advert d. Must have been exposed to David Beckham’s Adidas Adverts v. Data Collection Instrument A questionnaire will be used in collecting information. Information gained through the questionnaire is no different from that obtained through interviews (Creswell, 2003, p. 81). Information will be gathered to evaluate the role and significance of celebrity endorsements in sales and marketing. Questionnaires were decided upon because of the following: a) They provided the possibility of anonymity because subject’s names were not required on the completed questionnaires b) There were fewer chances of biases as they were presented in a consistent manner However, questionnaires have shortcomings. For instance, there is the question of accuracy and validity (Creswell, 2003, p. 83). The respondents may not reflect their authentic opinions but might answer what they think will please the researcher, and valuable information may be lost as answers are often brief. The questionnaire will have closed-ended queries with numerous indefinite queries. In the undefined queries, the respondents need to respond in writing, where as in the determinate queries the respondents have options determined by the researcher. Determinate queries are easy to administer and analyze. The questions will be in English language The questionnaires will consist of section A and B. Section A aims at obtaining information of the respondents’ sports game and his or her sports organization. Section B requires the respondent to respond on how celebrity endorsement influences their attitudes towards the product and their purchase behavior. vi. Data Collection Procedure Questionnaires will be personally distributed to the respondents to complete. This data will be collected over a period of one week. The respondents will come to the Business Research Center at their convenience during the day from 8.00am to 4.00 pm. After arrival, the respondents will be ushered to comfortable chairs where they will be issued with a questionnaire and a pen to fill. On completion of the questionnaire, the respondent will be issued with a soft cold drink as an appreciation and leave at their pressure. Ethical Considerations The participant’s consent will be gained before they take part in the process. Informed consent is defined as the participant’s agreement to take part voluntarily in the research after receiving all necessary information about the research (Kothari, 1985, p. 201). Anonymity will also be maintained as the subjects will not be linked to the individual responses. The participants will not be required to state their names in the questionnaires. Preliminary Ideas for Data Analysis The data collected from the interviews will be entered into computer files. In addition, the information obtained from section A of the questionnaire will be put in tables. For instance, one of the tables will portray the number of respondents and summarize the clubs or organizations of the respondent. Another table will be developed to show the effect of celebrity endorsement on their attitudes. The responses to the structured close-ended questions will be rated in percentages. The percentage of respondents for each response will be provided and analyzed. Timescale of Research June – July 2013: Review of literature August 2013: Draft literature review September 2013: Agree research strategy with supervisor October 2013: Agree formal access to farmers for collection of primary data November 2013: Compile, pilot and review questionnaire December 2013 - January 2010: Administer questionnaire February 2014: Final collection of questionnaire March 2014: Data analysis April – May 2014: Final writing of project report. Limitation of the Research Study In general, this research will be based on a marketing perspective. Therefore, all conclusions will be drawn from a marketing perspective. In this regard, the objective of this study is to identify how celebrity endorsement influences the attitude variable in customers, and the intents to buy a product. However, consumer attitude is not only affected by these variable but many others. Since this research is restricted in its scale, these factors will be excluded. References Cooper, M. 1984. Can celebrities really sell products. Marketing and Media Decisions, Vol. 1, 64-65 Creswell, J. W. 2003 Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method Approaches 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications. Erdogan, B.Z., Baker, M.J., Tagg, S., 2001. Selecting celebrity endorsers: The practitioner’s perspective. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 41, No. 3, 39-48 Friedman, H., Friedman, L., 1979. Endorser effectiveness by product type. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 19, 63-71 Kothari, C.R.,1985. Research Methodology- Methods and Techniques, New Delhi,Wiley Eastern Limited. Menon, Mohan K. 1998. “Celebrity Advertising: An Assessment of Its Relative Effectiveness” available at http://condor.depaul.edu/dweinste/celeb/celeb_adverts.html. Ohanian, R. 1991. The impact of celebrity spokesperson's perceived image on consumers' intention to purchase. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 31, No. 1, 46-52 Ranjbarian, B., Shekarchizade, Z., Momeni, Z., 2010. Celebrity endorser influence on attitude toward advertisements and brands. European Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 13, No. 3, 76-96 Rockney, E. A., Greene, W. F., 1979, October. Celebrities in TV commercials: Do they pay their way. Advertising Research Foundation, Vol. 25, 134-145 Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S., Hogg, M.K., 2006. Consumer behaviour: a European perspective. Third edition, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Appendices Questionnaire 1. What is the name of your organization or club? 2. Which sport game do you partake in? 3. How often do you buy sportswear or foot wear and any other sports products? 4. When was the last time you purchased such products? 5. Are you a fan of David Beckham? Section B 1. When was the first time you purchased Adidas products? 2. How often did you buy Adidas products before David Beckham’s endorsements in Adidas products? a. Weekly b. Monthly c. Yearly 3. After Beckham’s endorsement, how often do you buy Adidas products? a. Weekly b. Monthly c. After Two Weeks d. Yearly 4. How can you describe the effect of Beckham’s advert on your purchasing behavior? 5. Do you believe adverts made by a celebrity you love than adverts by non-celebrities? 6. Do you think the use of celebrities in adverts have changed marketing of products by companies? Analysis Table Respondent Club/ Organization Respondent Effect on Perspective Read More