How Do the Managers Launching a Niche Product - Research Paper Example

NICHE PRODUCTS by Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor University City/State Date Background Ноw mаnаgеrs lаunсhing а niсhе рrоduсt can use celebrity endorsement as a strategy of pushing it to the mаinstrеаm rарidly? A niche market is part of a larger market that a particular product is targeting. Therefore, a niche product is a product that targets a subset of a particular market. A niche market is a highly specialized market that aims to survive within a competitive environment. The niche market segment comprises of groups of consumers who have similar consumption and lifestyle characteristics (Shank 2002). Niche markets have provided attractive opportunities for small businesses to compete against the large economies of scale that larger companies are able to achieve. Managers launching a niche product can make the product penetrate the mainstream market quickly. However, this is not easy. Critical assessment must be made before a strategy of penetrating the mainstream market is chosen (Trip 1994). While niche marketing provides managers with methods of using new resources, which remain untapped as they create new revenue streams, pushing niche products to the mainstream market requires marketing skills and strategies that are significantly different from niche marketing strategy. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is i. To determine efficacy of celebrity endorsement as a strategy of pushing niche products into the mainstream quickly. ii. To determine consumer’s perception of celebrity credibility, attitude toward endorsed products, and purchase intention. Objectives of the Study The main objective of this study is i. To establish whether celebrity endorsement strategy can push niche products to the mainstream market rapidly ii. To establish a relationship between the credibility of a celebrity and the purchase intentions of consumers of the products advertised by celebrities. Research Questions This research seeks to answer the following questions, based on the objectives of the research 1. Can celebrity endorsements bring niche products into mainstream prominence 2. How does the credibility of a celebrity endorser determine the response of consumers to the advert the celebrities have been featured? Scope of the study This study will focus on how credibility and authoritativeness of a celebrity endorser can push niche products into the mainstream rapidly. It will not seek the opinion of marketers and players in the advertising world Significance of the Study Celebrities have been used successfully to promote mainstream products, giving them greater prominence in the market (Paul 2005). However, they have been used sparingly in promotion of niche products. This study is significant because it investigates whether celebrity endorsement can be extended to the promotion of niche products with a view of giving them mainstream prominence. This study will alert marketers, advertisers, and communication specialists to further investigate the novelty and untapped possibilities of celebrity endorsements in niche product marketing. Literature Review Celebrity endorsement has become among the strategies most used in modern marketing. Musicians, movie stars, and professional sportsmen are in demand by corporations seeking endorsement of their products to enhance sales. In return, the celebrities rake in millions of dollars from endorsement fees (Chung, Derdenger, & Srinivassans 1999). There are several reasons why celebrity endorsers are being used increasingly in the modern business environment. First, celebrities have name recognition: their fame resonates across industries and the expectation is that the product will benefit by association. Advertisers believe – and research has shown – that the profile of a product or service is enhanced in the perception of consumers simply by association with the name of the popular individual, performing arts group, or sports (Hoyer & MacInnis 2008). Secondly, admirable and attractive qualities in the celebrity help the brand by identification. The celebrities draw attention towards the information that is communicated in the advertising, thereby helping to fulfill one of the crucial objectives of a marketer. Celebrities are able to generate improved purchase behaviors because of their influence upon the masses (Klaus 2008). This creates a positive impact on the economic status of the brand. Apart from promoting brands that are already in existence, celebrities are also used to position emergent brands, introduce new brands or reposition them (Aaaker 1997). Celebrities also create a psychological attachment towards a brand. Associating a product with a celebrity promotes its visibility and position in the market. Furthermore, international celebrities transcend the cultural roadblocks that make other marketing strategies vulnerable in individual countries. A celebrity is a communicator with personal attributes and public persona which is widely recognized and which is used by marketers to transfer attractiveness (physical and reputational), familiarity, similarity, credibility, expertise, and trustworthiness to the marketer's commodity (Aaaker 1997). A celebrity's high profile and value make them a medium of communication for businesses and brands that want to gain exposure for their products through the popularity and influence of these celebrities. Past research indicates that the use of celebrities to endorse products generates much attention from consumers, which give the products more visibility (Aaaker 1997). A celebrity endorser is an individual widely recognised by the public and can that recognition to advertise a product by appearing with it in an advertisement. It is a person who is well known by the public due to their extraordinary achievements and not as an association with a product (Brassington & Pettit 2000). A celebrity endorser uses his or her name or fame to promote a product that does not have a past effect on his recognition. Celebrity sports endorser acts as an economic and cultural intermediary who helps the producers to penetrate the consumer world. Celebrity sports endorsers are social alchemists who create a positive connection between the world of production and the world of consumption (Brassington & Pettit 2000). Celebrities are effective in advertising because they bring, in their unique ways, features which convey meaning and which have resonated with the public. The aim of marketers is to have the credibility of the meaning that the public figure conveys transferred to the product or service promoted. McCracken (2008) calls this the "meaning transfer model. Celebrities have several qualities that make them attractive for endorsements. The main quality is their publicity. In their professional role, they are often in the public eye. Even away from their professional roles, they in many instances retain the spotlight. Whenever they attend events like movie premieres, award ceremonies and media functions, they are under public scrutiny and are often regarded as newsmakers. Besides their public appearances, they are always in the news, on magazine covers and reviews and tabloid gossips. All these make them highly visible and, therefore, attractive as means to promote products. David Beckham, Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi, Lance Armstrong, and Rafael Nadal are among the global icons among sports endorsers in modern advertising and branding. The association of English footballer Beckham and Sharp GX10 mobile phones can evidence the power of celebrity endorsement. Weeks after Beckham endorsed the commodity; more than 50,000 were sold in less than a month (Kim & Na 2007). The Russian tennis star, Anna Kournikova, was used to endorse the Berlie Sports-Bra in 2000. She boosted sales by more than 150 percent. An analysis of 40 sporting and 40 non sporting hours of TV programs in 2007 found out that sports celebrities were featured in 14 percent of all adverts on television. Research also indicates that 70 percent of celebrity endorsements in the United States feature celebrities (Kim & Na 2007). Endorsements elevated athletes and brands to a level of public awareness that neither of the two parties could have realized on their own. The earliest example of sports celebrity endorsement was baseball players endorsing cigarettes, in the early 1900s (Kim & Na 2007). This idea was small scale, but it inspired other businesses to use sports celebrities to promote their brands. Eventually, it created a billion dollar celebrity sports endorsement industry. Babe Ruth was an American baseball legend. He revolutionized sports endorsements in the early 20th century (Kim & Na 2007). He endorsed almost everything due to his immense popularity across generations. This made him an ideal marketing icon at a time when there were few sports celebrities in America. Brands would compete to attach his name to their products and this would attract massive sales. This is because people transferred the greatness of Babe Ruth to the greatness of the product he was endorsing (Hoyer 2008). His sheer greatness and winning resume he achieved as a baseball player conveyed a message that if you shopped what he shopped or where he shopped, you would be a winner like him. Babe Ruth endorsed cars, cigars, suits, and even bank products (Kim & Na 2007). As time went by, and companies discovered that using sports celebrities was a valuable tactic. This made them look beyond baseball. In the 1950s, the value of celebrity sports endorsements peaked. Most professional sportsmen had one or more endorsements. Even low-key sports celebrities had minor deals with businesses in their localities. In the sixties and seventies, television had become a ubiquitous gadget in almost every American home. Prevalence of television led to unprecedented growth of celebrity endorsements (Chernartony 2006). The growth of television presented marketers with a potential to reach audiences. Players in the business world started signing exclusive deals with prominent names in the sports industry to keep away competitor from the celebrities. In the 80s and 90s, American footballer Joe Namath and basketball player Michael Jordan became the symbols of celebrity sports endorsement, with Jordan making Nike a near monopoly in sports shoes business (Klaus 2005). Before his scandal in 2010, the golfer Tiger Woods was the most appealing celebrity sports endorser. Argentinean soccer star and three-time world footballer of the year, Lionel Messi, is now the most valuable celebrity sports endorser. Methodology The method section of a research study describes the procedures that will be followed in conducting the study. This chapter presents the methodology that will be used in order to achieve the purpose of this study. Research Design Research design is the scheme, outline, or plan used to generate answers to research problems. The various types of study design according are descriptive, experimental, correlation, case study and cross cultural research design. This study will adopt a descriptive research design. It can be used when collecting information about people's attitudes, opinions, habits, and any of the varieties of education and social issues (Herzog 1996). The descriptive research design will be most appropriate for this study. Descriptive research design combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The objectives of this research require collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data will be collected to measure organizational identification. In determining the level of internal communication, both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected. Population and Sample Population is a group of individuals that have common observable characteristics (Tromp 2006). The population of this research will be marketers of niche products and employees of advertising firms. A sample refers to a subset of objects that are included in a research study; it usually determines the validity of any generalization whether or not it is based on statistical inferences; it is required that one has an adequate sample from the population of interest. A sample size of 20% of the entire population will be used in the study. Sampling Technique Sampling is selection of a number of individuals or objects from a population for study. Convenience sampling technique will be used due to nature of the work of marketers that make it hard to use any other sampling technique. Data Collection Instruments Data collection is the gathering of specific information aimed at providing or refuting facts. Data collection is important in research as it allows for aggregation of accurate information and the development of meaningful conclusion (Tromp 2006). Since a majority of the data to be collected will be quantitative; measuring the level of organizational identification and internal communication, the most appropriate method for data collection will be the questionnaires. The questionnaire will therefore comprise of three parts: i) General questions on demographics; ii) organizational identification; and iii) employee communication. All the items in the questionnaire will be answered based on five point Likert scales apart from a few open-ended questions. Administration of the Questionnaire Through the help of trained assistants, the researcher will distribute printed self-administered questionnaires. Research assistants will be used to eliminate any bias on the part of the researcher Also, the use of standardly designed measures of OI and communication audits, which has been found to have high reliability and validity will help minimize the researcher's biases in conducting the study. Questionnaires will be distributed to the target sample of respondents. The research assistants will carry out the supervision of questionnaire filling by explaining to the respondents the objectives of the research before giving out the questionnaires. Secondly, the questionnaires will have an email address through which respondents can ask for clarifications on anything that may not be clear. A response rate of at least 85% is expected, as the researcher will do preliminary notification; personalize the questionnaire; and assure respondents of anonymity which are some of the techniques of increasing response. Data Analysis Data Analysis refers to examining what has been collected in a survey or experiment and making inferences and deductions (Cooper 2008). Data will be edited, coded, classified, and tabulated so that it is ready for analysis. This is because it is difficult to interpret data obtained from the field in its raw form. Analysis will be done using (SPSS) computer software to provide descriptive and relational statistics. This program will be used because it is reliable and capable of sorting and providing relationship between variables. Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive and relational statistics. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviations will be computed for all for the overall internal communication and organizational identification to determine the employee communication satisfaction level and the level of organizational identification. The satisfaction level for the different dimensions of internal communication i.e. i) communication climate; ii) sufficiency of information about the company and on personal roles; iii) communication media and iv) integrated internal communication will be computed by calculating the mean of responses corresponding to each dimension. (Herzog 1996) Relational statistics that include bivariate analysis will be done to establish. In analyzing correlations, Chi-Square tests will be used to check for significance of the correlation, the strength of the relationship will also be considered in reporting findings. The results will be presented in the form of tables, pie charts, frequency distribution tables, and bar graphs. Percentages, ranking scales, and averages will also be used for general questions on employee demographics and internal communication. Qualitative data will be analyzed using the constant comparative technique. Qualitative data will be integrated with quantitative data. This will be done through using qualitative data in interpretation of the quantitative data to provide insights that might have been missed. Ethics To ensure ethical issues are handled, permission has already been sought from the management of the various companies where the research will be carried. Reference List Aaker, J 1997, “Dimensions of brand personality”, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 34, no.2, pp. 347-356. Brassington, F & Pettitt, D 2000, Principles of Marketing, 2nd edition, Pearson Education Limited, Essex Cooper, D 2006, Business Research Methods, McGraw Hill, Boston Chernatony, L 2006, Creating Powerful Brands: in Consumer, Service and Industrial Markets, Butterworth- Heinemann, Oxford Herzog, T 1996, Research methods and data analysis in the social sciences, Harper Collins College Publishers, New York Hoyer, W 2008. Consumer Behaviour, Cengage Learning, London Kim, Y. J & Na, J. H 2007, “Effects of celebrity athlete endorsement on attitude toward the product: The role of credibility, attractiveness and the concept of congruence”, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 8, no.2, pp. 4-13. Klaus, N 2008, “Celebrity Endorsements: An Examination of Gender and Consumers’ Attitudes”, American Journal of Business, vol. 23 (2008): 2, pp.53 – 62 Morton M 2004, “The Chain of Effects from Brand Trust and Brand Affect to Brand Performance: The Role of Brand Loyalty”, Journal of Marketing, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 81-89. Oliver, L 1997, Structural Equations with Latent Variables, John Wiley & Sons, New York Paul, S 2005, Researching Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty, Cogan Page Limited, Washington Rajgopal, J 2000, Impact of Advertising Variability on Building Customer-Based Brand Personality in a Competitive Environment: Empirical Analysis, The Haworth Press, Inc, Austin Shank G 2002, Qualitative Research. A Personal Skills Approach, Prentice Hall, New Jersey Tripp, C1994,” The effect of multiple product endorsement by celebrities on consumer’s attitudes and intentions”. Journal of Consumer Research, vol.20, no. 4, pp. 535-547 Tromp, A 2006, .Proposal and thesis writing: An introduction, Harper Collins, New York Read More