Executive Summary
In this age of marketing when each product is placed and projected through various marketing tactics in order to craft the desired image in the mind of the customer, the consumer behavior and motives of buying these products vary and are not merely based on the fundamental need of the products. For instance, if a consumer has the intention of buying a Cadillac, the core reason for buying the car might be fact that it is endorsed and used by his favorite singer, Elvis Presley. Thus the buying intentions of consumers are affected and followed by various marketing tactics like an advertisement, Word of mouth, celebrity endorsement, social media etc ( Heidi, et al. 2011).
This research study IMPACT OF CELEBRITY ADVERTISEMENT is being undertaken to explore the influences of celebrity advertisement on the consumers’ buying intentions. For carrying out this research work, secondary as well primary sources such as academic journals, online-databases, textbooks etc would be explored. This study is being carried out because its findings would enable marketing managers to better understand the relationship between their celebrity advertisements and their targeted consumers’ purchase intentions.
Background:
The consumer mind gets direct and indirect messages and suggestions to purchase a certain thing by media advertisements and celebrity endorsements. Now a day’s media has diverse channels to approach consumer minds and influence their purchase decisions like advertisement through social media including Facebook, Myspace, GooglePlus etc. The social media industry is flourishing rapidly and changing marketing dynamics every day ( Heidi, et al. 2011).
The decision-making process of a consumer can be considered as the cognitive processes that result in the opting for a certain product or service among several other available alternatives. Consumers make final choices after every decision making a process that can be an action, subscribing to certain service or buying a product. The factors that may affect the purchase intention of the consumer can be social, environmental, psychological and demographical. Advertisements have become a major factor in changing consumer minds and making them purchase their desired product or service.
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Problem statement
“Purpose of this research is to find out the impact of celebrity advertisement on the purchase intention of the customers in the UK”
Chapter 2: Research Aims and Objectives
The following research objectives are expected to be achieved from this research study:
- This research aims at discovering the relationship between advertisements and consumers purchase intentions.
- The buying behavior factor of consumers in the UK will be found out through this research study.
- The influence of celebrity advertisement (endorsements) on purchase intentions of customers (buying behavior) will be explored through this study.
- The study will finally assess how strongly the celebrities changed the buying behaviors and intentions of the consumers.
Chapter 3: Literature Review
For this study, the secondary data will be used for literature review which is obtained from textbooks, online test, commercial databases, and electronic books etc. Consumer purchase intention can be regarded as their inclination of buying a brand or a product which is affected by various reasons and factors. The awareness of alternatives and their perceived values in the mind of consumer plays a pivotal role in shaping his purchase decision. The purchase intentions are influenced by certain cultural, societal and environmental values. The culturally accepted and appreciated product the use of which is accepted and enforced by the society is most common. A consumer subscribes to a certain product based on the assumptions he established regarding the products during his search for the product from the existing alternatives (Spry, Pappu & Cornwell,2011).
Advertisement of a product influence the consumer purchase decision vastly, however, it differs when it comes to the nature of the product being advertised. For example, if the product lays in the category of consumer goods the advertisement influence greatly the consumer’s decision, however, the case is different when it is capital or industrial good. The marketers use different marketing strategies for that to influence consumer’s decision.
The people who enjoy a great deal of public recognition and reputation by a certain group of people are called celebrities. They also enjoy a high degree of public awareness and generally differ from social norms. There are lots of attributes such as attractiveness, extraordinary lifestyle or special skills etc which can be observed in celebrities (Walker, Langmeyer & Langmeyer, 1992).
The persuasion of customers and attempt to change or modify the consumer’s attention towards purchasing a particular product or service is the key goal of every advertisement. In this respect, the credible role of an advertisement leads to convincing the target audience. The companies through celebrity advertisement try to portray a credible image of the company as well its brand in terms of expertise, trustworthiness, objectiveness, and persuasiveness (Till & Shimp, 1998).
Chapter 4: Methodology
Exploratory research has been used for this study as this is the suitable research design for the kind of research we wish to pursue. This study would also enable the researcher to clearly defining the problem. The researcher will use primary and secondary data to analyze the impact of celebrity advertisement on consumer buying preferences (Perry, 1998).
Research philosophy
As this research aims at providing new research contexts to assess the problem, therefore, the philosophy being followed here is of ‘interpretivism’. It will help in interpreting the general theories and practices regarding consumer buying behaviors (Perry, 1998).
Research approach
The inductive approach would be used to find out new analytical perspectives by interpreting the collected data critically. It will help in catering to the complex nature of the research topic.
Research strategy
In order to collect data from primary as well as secondary sources, a multi-facet study strategy will be used to conduct this study. The inductive approach will be able to help structure the research findings with the theoretical assumptions (Saunders, et al. 2007).
Primary research
Primary sources would be used to conduct primary research by collecting data through research questionnaires from customers and in-depth interviews.
Data collections methods
- Semi-structured Questionnaire; semi-structured questionnaires would be conducted by approaching a particular set of customers. It will be in the effort to collect data regarding their responses upon their purchase intentions and buying decisions.
- Depth interviews – in order to collect more insightful primary data in-depth interviews will be conducted of the consumers. These interviews will help the researcher to analyze the situation in further depth and would make him establish other perspectives favoring or contradicting the existing facts regarding the research study (Saunders, et al. 2007).
- Sampling; Since the nature of the study is exploratory the appropriate sampling technique to be used would be non-probability sampling, also known as judgmental sampling and snowball sampling. For interviews, retail consumers will be selected on a random basis (Saunders, et al. 2007).
Population and Sample Size:
The retail consumers would be the population from which a sample would be selected using judgmental and snowball sampling methods. The size of the sample would vary according to the different phases of the research methodology (Saunders, et al. 2007).
Chapter 5: Findings
In this globalization era, each year billions of dollars are spent on celebrity advertisement for influencing the consumers’ buying preferences and building global brands. The findings of this research study would help researcher and marketing managers of consumers goods understand the present role of celebrity advertisement and its impact on consumers’ purchase intentions (Till & Busler, 1998). They would also come to know how to build a global brand by using this expensive advertisement method. The findings would also propose further extensive research on celebrity advertisement to know its global impact on consumers buying behavior and global branding (McCracken, 1989).
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Saunders, et al. (2007). Research Methods for Business Students. (5th edition). Pearson
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