How Does Celebrity Endorsement Influence Consumer Purchasing - Research Proposal Example

? How does celebrity endorsement influence consumer purchasing? Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Research question and research objectives5 Literature Review 6 Method 8 Reference 9 Abstract The 21st century globe is a platform which is developed on the lines of global connectivity. The steady emergence of new technology has eradicated the barriers of engaging in global communication and thereby paved the way for rise of new products and services in the market. Citing considerable business opportunities for various innovative products and services, multinational firms and organizations are increasingly trying to cater to the needs of the masses in the global markets. The arrival of multiple products of the same nature is simply complicating the competition level existent in the global market. As a result, organizations are increasingly trying to use various online as well as traditional advertising methods for connecting with the desired audience. In order to enhance the retention power of the consumers with regards to the products and services offered in the market, organizations sometimes try to use various well known celebrities for promoting the brands of the organization. The celebrities are chosen for advertising mostly because of the high level familiarity and popularity they enjoy in the marketplace. This particular research proposal intends to identify the level of influence that is exerted by celebrity endorsements in connection to purchasing behaviour of the consumers. In this case, the research proposal comprises of an introduction, research question and research objectives, literature review and also the method that will be used to conduct the dissertation type research. Introduction The world of the 21st century is a global platform which promotes fast change and rapid development. The advancement of telecommunications technology since the beginning of the previous decade has played a major role in bringing connectivity based transformation in the lives of the masses around the world. The high level of penetration of the internet and wi-fi connectivity along with the fast acceptance of the multiple sophisticated technological gadgets like the Smartphones, tablets and laptops has resulted in inducing a technological wave in various markets around the world. As a result of this technological transformation, the world has become a single well connected entity. The existence of a single interconnected entity has led to the emergence of various new kinds of trends of globalization from various markets around the world. It is very important to state that the globalization trends has played a major role in increasing the awareness of the consumers present in the developed as well as the developing markets in regards to various innovative kind of products and services. This increased level of consumer awareness has become the centre stage of triggering of new kinds of demands from the consumers all around the world. Naturally, the new kinds of consumer demands are helping in the process of evolution of significant business opportunity in various markets around the world. Witnessing the demand for new products and services in various international markets, companies headquartered in foreign locations are entering into many new markets. In many cases, the organizations record a significant growth in business profits by entering in to new markets, while facing stagnant growth levels in the domestic and home markets. Talking in regards to the issues of market entry by various global and multinational organizations, it has to be stated that the presence of multiple organizations in various global markets lead to the rise of homogeneous products that are available in those markets. The growth of homogeneous products in any specific market raises the choice of products available to the consumers and thereby raises the level of competition that exists in the marketplace. It has to be stated that firms compete with each other by engaging in value communications processes to the target audience in as much differentiated manner as possible. To distinguish the value of the products from its competitor’s offerings, organizations often turn towards celebrity endorsers who have a high level of connectivity with the intended target audience. In this case, the research proposal attempts to gain insights of whether celebrity endorsements help in the purchasing process of the consumers. Research question and research objectives Talking in regards to the research question, it has to be said the research questions holds a considerable amount of importance in regards to the entire research. The research question often acts as a guideline to the research proposal and helps in determining the central theme as well as the format that needs to be followed while approaching with the full length dissertation. The characteristics of a good research question are that the questions should be feasible, interesting, ethical as well as relevant to the topic of the dissertation (Hulley and et.al, 2007, p. 19). While trying to outline the research objective, it needs to be kept in mind that the objectives must be precise, well detailed and clear from the concept point of view (Burns and Bush, 2006, p. 100). Talking in regards to this case, it has to be said that three particular research question and three relevant research objectives has to be identified for this research proposal. The first research question should be “whether the usage of celebrity endorsements helps in bringing a positive influence in the consumer behaviour of the masses?” The second research question will be “Do the usage of celebrity endorsers helps in diffusing a new fashion trend in a specific market?” The third research question should be “Do the use of celebrity help in better sales conversion ratio for various consumer brands?” Now discussing about the three research objectives, it has to be mentioned that the first research objective is to identify the relation that might exist in regards to usage of celebrity endorsers and the influence on consumer shopping. The second research objective is to identify whether the usage of celebrity endorsers helps in creating a demand for the advertised brands. The third and final objective is to ascertain whether the usage of celebrity endorsers helps in increasing the profits for the brands advertised by the celebrity. Literature Review The research topic talks about whether celebrity endorsements help in influencing the purchasing of the goods by the consumers. This particular topic is largely related to the marketing domain. It has to be stated that the scope of success for a product or service is largely dependent on variables of the marketing mix, which comprises of four crucial factors like product, place, promotion and price. The product factor talks about value creation, the place factor talks about value distribution. The factor of promotion talks about value communication while the factor of price talks about value capture. It is very important to state that the promotion process gains a lot of importance as it helps in increasing awareness for a product or service. The factor of promotion and advertising is largely based on the AIDA concept. The AIDA concept talks about issues like awareness, interest, desire and action. The endorsements of various brands by popular and well known celebrities is largely linked with the promotion process which is aimed in communicating the value of the product and services to the customers present in a particular market (Kumar, 2009, p. 58). Basically, from the theoretic point of view, the celebrity endorser is a mass figure who has a tremendous recognition among the consumers. The celebrity endorsers try to use this high level of mass recognition so as to communicate values of a consumer oriented commercial product (Kardes and et.al, 2008, p. 322). Talking more in terms of facts and statistics about celebrity endorsements, it has to be stated that celebrity endorsements are pervasive in nature and around 20% of all advertisement in the television channels of the US region feature a celebrity endorser. When discussing about the connection that exists in regards to attracting consumers through the usage of celebrity endorsers, importance has to be given to the issue of brand message recall that is driven in the minds of the consumers. Findings of previous research conducted by other researchers in this particular issue has highlighted that the promotion of a new or an existing product or service using a well known celebrity endorser helps in a great way in gaining the trust factor of the intended target market. It also needs to be mentioned in this connection that the usage of a celebrity endorser increases the scope of product acceptance by the target audience, while negating the risk factor associated with the acceptance of a new and innovative product or service. It is highly interesting to note that the success of celebrity endorsements is largely linked with the psychology of correspondent inference. In this particular case, the correspondent inference can be explained as a concept where consumer attaches the case of product endorsements by celebrities as a form of reflection of their individual beliefs. Positive influence of correspondent inference happens in the form of the consumer interpreting the fact that a particular brand of product is being endorsed by a celebrity because of the factor of likes and favouritism feeling that the endorser has for the product (Kardes and et.al, 2008, p. 323). Also, when discussing about promotion of product through celebrity endorsements, a unique feature is often provided to the brand or the product that is being marketed. While the usage of traditional and well established celebrities helps in developing a sustaining image for a particular brand line-up of products, on the other hand, using a rebellious and off the record celebrity who has acquired fame in the recent times often helps in creating a rebellious image to the product or brands, which helps in a great way in catalysing the demand for products (Solomon and Rabolt, 2004, p. 345). Finally, when discussing about the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, it has to be highlighted that the promotion campaigns by using the celebrities’ works best for an existing brand. The reason is that in case of an existing brand, there is already a positive brand reputation that is present in the market and that the usage of the celebrity endorser will help in developing a credible image for the existing brand (Majumdar, 2010, p. 154) Method Now in discussing about the research methodology that can be used for handling the research dissertation, it can be stated that the topic is very expansive in nature. For this particular research, the researcher needs to conduct both qualitative and quantitative kind of a research. The qualitative research is needed as it will help in a great way in understanding the trends that have been previously existed in regards to using of celebrity endorsers for endorsing brands and products. The quantitative research is needed as it will help in gaining latest information from the market. It has to be said that for the purpose of conducting a quantitative research, a proper sampling technique also needs to be used by the researcher. Reference Hulley, S.B. and et.al., 2007. Designing Clinical Research, 3rd ed. USA: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. Burns, A.C. and Bush, R.F., 2006. Marketing Research. 5th ed. India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Kumar, S.R., 2009. Consumer Behaviour And Branding: Concepts, Readings And Cases-The Indian Context. India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Kardes, F.R. and et.al, 2008. Consumer Behaviour. USA: South Western Cengage Learning. Solomon, M.R. and Rabolt, N.J., 2004. Consumer Behaviour In Fashion. India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Majumdar, R., 2010. Consumer Behaviour: Insights from Indian Market. New Delhi: Phi Learning Ltd. Read More