celebrity endorsement in advertising a comparative study between uk and india
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The influence of celebrity endorsement in
advertising
Comparative study on India vs. United Kingdom
ARITTRA BASU
UWL ID: 28001438
Word Count: 28296
October 2009
Dissertation submitted as part fulfillment of the MBA (Masters of Business Administration at University of Wales, Lampeter /College of Technology, London)
Social Science and Business Administration Programmes
Department of Management and Information Technology
UNIVERSITY OF WALES LAMPETER
PRIFYSGOL CYMRU LLANBEDR PONT STEFFAN
PERSONAL DECLERATION:
MBA Dissertation Thesis
2009
09/23/2009
MBA Dissertation Thesis
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It is hereby notified to the Academic Registry and the Department of Management and
Information Technology of University of Wales, Lampeter that “this dissertation is submitted in
part fulfilment of the M.B.A (Masters of Business Administration) at College of Technology
London” by student bearing UWL ID: 28001438. It is an original piece of work which has been
solely researched and written by the student with the help and support of academic supervisor
allocated to the student by the University management. The topic of the dissertation has been
chosen by the student from his experience and knowledge gathered from the previous marketing
modules which he has undertaken during his Term 2 (Marketing Pathway) and the idea and
concept behind the topic came from the IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) module
assignment which has initiated the phenomenon to develop the research. The student has seen a
cause behind the research for the benefit and enhancement of advertising media in the context of
Global Marketing for prospective companies. Therefore, the whole research is a genuine piece of
research and is a reflection of the academic effort and management knowledge of the student
from his postgraduate studies. As, a student I completely understand the rules and regulation of
the academic procedures in a postgraduate study and acknowledge their concern for the
perspective students. I solely respect and honor the rules of the University and thereby certify
this research as my own work.
“I declare that this dissertation is the result of my own research and all sources are duly
acknowledged by the researcher”
Thanking You
Yours Faithfully,
Arittra Basu
UWL ID: 28001438
Dated: 28/06/09
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
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I Mr. Arittra Basu would like to dedicate my master’s degree dissertation to my loving parents
Mr. Asit Basu and Mrs Ratna Basu who has always supported and encouraged me throughout my
life and in my academic studies. They have always supported me emotionally and bought
courage to my life which has given me the present platform to do my master’s degree from
University of Wales, Lampeter. I am grateful to god for giving me such wonderful parents who
always cared me and bought me up to become a proper individual in life. I would also like to
thank Ms. Lipi Begum for supervising my dissertation and her assistance as a faculty has
immensely helped me to produce my scholastic work. Lastly, I would like to thank all my
friends, fellow class mates and faculties in the College of Technology, London for showing me
the light of management studies and making me a professional during the whole tenure of my
MBA.
ABSTRACT:
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Purpose – The main purpose of this research paper is first, to gain a deeper understanding of the celebrity endorsement strategy and consumers perception about it. What do consumers feel about celebrity endorsements and where this marketing strategy lays when it comes to actual purchase of goods and products? Moreover, when the world is heading towards a global economy multinationals and established brands are enhancing their prospects to market products in an international market. How effectively they can use the celebrity endorsement strategy. Secondly, to evaluate whether there is any cultural difference among the consumers from different countries and cultures? How companies face the challenge to convince consumers about their product by utilising the celebrity endorsement strategy. These are the kind of questions evaluated and analysed in the whole research.
Research Methodology – A survey was conducted of 80 consumer samples (India and UK) and the sample was chosen as ‘convenience sample’. They were approached about the research by using online community networking website for Indian sample and for UK, questionnaire were distributed to volunteering participants in the reception area of Ramada Ealing, hotel. They were asked various questions about the impact of celebrity endorsement and consumer’s buying attitude. Even cultural significance from consumers’ view point was taken into consideration.
Findings – The data analysis of the research resulted in forming a positive and significant relationship between the celebrity endorsement and consumers buying behavior. It has been revealed that consumers are attracted towards celebrity advertisements and it initiates the 1 st
phase of the consumers buying cycle. (Pre-purchase dissonance) Also, the influence of culture plays an important role in the recognition of a celebrity as described by the sample tested. Difference between Indian and UK consumers were also found from the analysis.
Research limitations/implications – Results are based on limited and small sample. Different locations within UK and India would have constructed a better research design. There are many scopes for further studies in this area concerning advertising and marketing relationships.
Realistic implications – Celebrities are mere promotional tools used by the companies and brands to attract consumers. Charisma of the characters doe’s appeals many people, but it doesn’t demonstrate whether it fosters the sales growth. Culture plays a vital role in the human society and it’s the fundamental basis to approach people (consumers) across the world.
Originality/value – The paper has demonstrated the significance and importance of celebrity endorsement as promotional tool by examining consumers’ perception. Also it has given an insight to the global marketing sector about the importance of understanding the cultural difference to penetrate the market effectively.
Table of contents: Page Number
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Chapter 1
1. Introduction
1.1 The topic…………………………………………………………………………………10
1.2 Background……………………………………………………………………………...12
1.3 Current facts about celebrity endorsements……………………………………………..15
1.4 Celebrity endorsement in Indian Advertisements……………………………………….18
1.5 Celebrity endorsements in UK advertisements………………………………………….20
1.6 Problem Discussion……………………………………………………………………...22
1.7 Rationale behind the research……………………………………………………………24
1.8 Purpose of the research…………………………………………………………………..25
1.9 Outline of the research……………………………………………………………….......25
Chapter 2
2. Literature Review
2.1 Celebrity Endorsements and its importance in Promotion Mix…………………….27
2.1.1 Pros and Cons of Celebrity Endorsement Approach………………………………….27
2.1.2 Meaning Transfer Model……………………………………………………………...30
2.2 The Process of Celebrity Selection……………………………………………………35
2.2.1 The TEARS model……………………………………………………………………35
2.2.2 The No TEARS Approach for celebrity selection…………………………………….38
2.2.3 Celebrity endorsement and Cultural Dimension………………………………………41
2.2.4 Acceptance of Celebrity Endorsement based on Cultural Difference……………….. 44
2.2.5 Celebrity endorsements and ROI (Return on Investments)………………………….. 50
Chapter 3 Page Number
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3. Research Methodology
3.1 Purpose of Research…………………………………………………………………..53
3.1.1 Exploratory Research………………………………………………………………..53
3.1.2 Explanatory Research……………………………………………………………….53
3.1.3 Descriptive Research………………………………………………………………. 54
3.2 Research Approach………………………………………………………………… 55
3.2.1 Quantitative Research……………………………………………………………….56
3.2.2 Qualitative Research……………………………………………………………….. 56
3.3 Research Strategy…………………………………………………………………….57
3.3.1 The Survey…………………………………………………………………………...58
3.3.2 Designing of Questionnaire………………………………………………………….59
3.3.3 Principles of questionnaire construction…………………………………………….61
3.4 Data Collection Procedure and Analysis…………………………………………....62
3.5 Sample Selection……………………………………………………………………...63
3.6 Research Principle…………………………………………………………………....65
3.6.1 Construct Validity…………………………………………………………………...66
3.6.2 Reliability…………………………………………………………………………....66
3.7 Logistical and Ethical Consideration……………………………………………….67
3.8 Summary……………………………………………………………………………..69
Chapter 4 Page Number
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4. Data Analysis
4.1 Data Collection Draft…………………………………………………………………….70
4.2 Data Analysis of Questions……………………………………………………………….72
4.2.1 Analysis of Close Ended Questions…………………………………………………….72
4.2.2 Analysis of Open Ended Questions……………………………………………………..86
Chapter 5
5. Findings and Conclusions
5.1 Consumers and Companies Opinion about Celebrity Endorsements as a Promotional
Strategy………………………………………………………………………………………..89
5.1.2 Repetition of Celebrities in Advertisements and Consumers Opinion…………………..90
5.1.3 Celebrity Endorsement and Cultural Significance……………………………………….91
5.1.4 Cultural difference between India and UK………………………………………………92
5.1.5 Meeting objectives of the Research………………………………………………………93
5.1.6 Implication for future Research…………………………………………………………..94
5.2. Emerged Model of Celebrity Selection from the Research…………………………….96
5.3. Cultural difference among consumers in (India and UK) model………………….......98
6. List of References…………………………………………………………………………...99
Appendix Number 1 (Questionnaire)Appendix Number 2 (Ethical Consideration Form)Appendix Number 3 (Data collection of the open ended questions)
Appendix Number 4 (Email interactions between the student and supervisor)Appendix Number 5 (Letter of Consent from General Manager: Ramada London Ealing)
List of Figures and Tables Page Number
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Figures
Figure 1.1 Framework of the research………………………………………………………………26
Figure 2.1 Pros and Cons of Celebrity Endorsement Strategy……………………………………...28
Figure 3.1 The Meaning Transfer Model…………………………………………………………...30
Figure: 4.1 TEARS model…………………………………………………………………..36
Figure: 5.1 Factors essential for Celebrity and Brand Congruency……………………….39
Fig 6.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of United Kingdom…………………………45-46
Fig 7.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of India………………………………………46-47
Fig 8.1 Cultural Dimensions accepted in India and UK……………………………………48
Fig 9.1 Comparison between India and UK based on Geert Hofstede: Cultural Dimensions…49
Fig 10.1 Research Strategies for different situations………………………………………..58
Fig 11.1 Basic Principles of Questionnaire Design………………………………………….61
Fig 12.1 5 Sources of Evidence: Strength and Weakness……………………………………62
Figure 13.1 summarizes the different methods which are been applied in the research in a
diagrammatic flowchart………………………………………………………………………69
Fig 14.1 Population Participation of the research…………………………………………….71
Fig 15.1 Division of age group of the sample………………………………………………...71
Fig 16.1 Celebrities in advertisements………………………………………………………..72
Fig 17.1 Celebrities in media channels……………………………………………………….73
Fig 18.1 Celebrity endorsement influencing busying behaviour of consumers………………75
Page Number
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Fig 19.1 Power of persuasion of celebrities………………………………………………….76
Fig 20.1 Products ideal for having celebrity endorsement…………………………………..77
Fig 21.1 Consumer appeals in terms of advertisements……………………………………...78
Fig 22.1 Areas prone for celebrity advertisement……………………………………………79
Fig 23.1 Preference of celebrities in advertisements by consumers………………………….80
Fig 24.1 Percentage of repetition of celebrities in advertisements…………………………...81
Fig 25.1 Consumers preference of celebrity advertisement in purchasing…………………...82
Fig 26.1 Ranking of celebrity characteristics in an endorsement…………………………….83
Fig 27.1 Line chart representation of the characteristics of celebrity from consumer survey…..85
Fig 28.1 Model of Celebrity Selection………………………………………………………..96
Fig 29.1 Cultural difference among consumers in (India and UK) model……………………98
CHAPTER 1
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1. Introduction:
In this chapter the researcher has provided the readers an insight about the inception of the
problem of the research and has explained the history behind the problem with various facts and
documentation which relates to the actual cause of taking celebrity endorsement as a topic of
research from global marketing perspective. Later in this research we will see the problem
discussion followed by purpose of thesis writing addressing the research questions and
hypothesis.
1.1 The topic:
The use of celebrities in advertising has been phenomenal since the inception of the advertising
media in the field of marketing. From decades many companies and world’s renowned brands
has taken the advantage of the using public figures in promoting their products to the consumers.
Advertising being one of the essential tools of the promotion mix of marketing has played an
important role in the prosperity of the brands and portrayed them as consumable products to the
consumers from different aspects and cultural diversity of the world. However, it has been
observed in the recent years with the modernization of technology and advancement in the
advertising media, advertising accounts to become a fundamental part for the success and failure
of a particular product / brand for major companies and organizations. Advertising has captured
the consumers mind and has psychologically influenced the buying behavior of the consumers. It
has acted as a technique of selective vision for the consumer which has helped the brands to
become associated along with the life style and cultural entity for many individuals. Consumers
like to get the notion of being associated along with the tangible and intangible aspects of the
brands and products. In a specific way it depicts the personality and attributes of the individual.
Additionally, with the advancement in the field of consumable products and with invention of
modern hi-tech technology there has been an increased state of competition in the market
globally and several companies came up with similar product offerings which created a big pool
of developed products and goods with slightly modified attributes. Now, the challenge for the
marketers arises when they are trying to establish their own brand in the market in order to
achieve brand equity and market share.
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In relation to this subject there comes the importance of individual personalities and known
figures of the society who portray specific images of them in promoting the products and goods
of the companies which gives them another dimension of association and catalyzes the
promotional mix of the marketing dynamics. However, as we study human psychology it would
be eminent from the behavioral characteristics of human beings that they tend to follow their
superiors in order to learn the behavioral attributes. The major example would be taken from the
child and parent relationship where the child always follows what their parents teaches them to
do. It is to assume that they learn each and every element to become a proper human being from
their parental upbringing. Therefore, some get the good attributes and some get bad from their
parents. Similarly, in the consumer world the consumers do follow certain personalities and
distinguished people to purchase goods and products as they carry emotional traits which are
similar to certain consumer’s nature and behavioral characteristic. They find their own
distinctiveness within these personalities and enjoy the relationship of using those products
endorsed by them. These personalities or characters are defined as celebrities in the societal
terms and they not only belong from the tinsel world of glamour but also from other sectors like
sports, academics, business giants, politicians and even entrepreneurs.
But the question arises why these characters become a subject of attention from the public and
get huge response over their activities. Needless to mention that with their achievement in
specific field the celebrities also gain a lot of power and prestige in the society which acclaims
them to be personified figures and the clever marketers use them in their promotional mix to
utilize their power of persuasion to convince consumers for purchase. However, in the 21st
century it has been observed that the involvement of celebrities into the marketing activities of
various companies has risen enormously. The main objective of the research is to find out the
reason behind celebrity endorsement and why do companies do that. Is there any benefit which
the companies attain through it? If they want to target different market across the globe do they
have to follow the same strategy or they need to redefine it. Moreover, it has been observed that
celebrity endorsement is very popular mode of marketing in India rather than in UK where the
effectively of the product/goods are considered more by the consumers than endorsement and
even if there is an endorsement of any product the companies rather do it very intelligently as
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consumers are intrinsic in nature. In order to do the research a comparative study about the
consumers from UK and India has been taken as sample.
1.2 Background:
The world economy has become a global arena, where each and every activity of the trade is
imitable by the rest of the world. What is happening in the recent economic crisis situation
throughout the world is just an evidence to prove the phenomena that recession has not only
effected the western world but all the developed, underdeveloped and emerging economies of the
world as businesses has become global and are operating in every parts of the world. So the
adverse effect or the privilege of operating a successful business is experienced by all. In terms
of enhancing a company, a brand or a product to a particular target audience marketers play a
vital role. On the other hand side it is not a case of miracle to convince consumers in this highly
intrinsic and inquisitive society where people are considerably rational about their buying
behaviour. Consumers are not living in a fool’s paradise and the conventional phenomenon of
ruling the market from a companies offering and perspective is no more pertinent. Now
consumers are giving the verdict or opinion about what they want from companies and in order
to survive in the market all major industries have to accept the judgement. [Haugtvedt et.al.
(2008) in Basu (2009: unpub)]
However, marketers are very clever to nurture with the emotions and psychology of the
consumers and they always initiate the phenomenon of buying into the grey matter of the over
eloquent society with the help of advertising. Moreover, advertising is a weapon which the
marketers use to dominate the consumers attitude towards a specific brand or product.
Additionally, advertising principles are based on certain theories of consumer psychology where
uses of different kinds of messages with expressions are highly recognized. [Brook and Green
(2005) in Basu (2009: unpub)] Kambitsis et.al. (2002) suggests that advertising has become
important to the contribution and development of the society in the early era of 1930’s.
Celebrities and known faces have taken the role of spokesperson to advertise and promote
goods, services and ideas for various companies and organizations. They came from all facet of
the society after claiming their identity as personified person from the public and belonged from
glamour world of movie, modeling, arts and even sports background. But when it comes down to
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promotion an important role has been played by the use of testimonials in marketing. According
to theory of advertising, testimonials are considered as promotional tools which are also known
as endorsements. But both testimonial and endorsements carries different meanings in the
application, where the former is often used to strengthen ‘sales pitches’ for general mass and
convey messages to a larger community and the later take into account the use of ‘celebrities’ in
communicating the message. An endorsement essentially consists of a well written document or
statement of a person who has a public image or a personality of a charismatic leader whose
work or contribution to society has been recognized considerably by the community and their
approval of the product or brand significantly improves the promotional aspect and buying trend
of the product or services. [Heath (2004) in Basu (2009: unpub)] This phenomenon has been
prominent since 1893, when British actress Lillie Langtry was portrayed on the package of
Pears Soap and thus she became the world’s first celebrity endorser. Though, in those
generations the advertisers used celebrities in their campaign to address the consumers about the
current trend. (Ibid).
Moreover, Tellis (1998) asserts that endorsers of products can be classified into three broad
groups; as in experts, lay endorsers and celebrities. Generally, experts are those people who have
specific knowledge in a particular field and they use their expertise to promote the product/
goods of the company. Experts are chosen by the marketers because they have gathered a sound
knowledge about the product and the usage of the item through learning, training or experience
(Ibid). An example of showing the approval of Oral-B brand by the British Dental Health
Foundation claiming it as an expert’s authority to endorse it as a quality product in dental
material enhancing the credibility of the product. [(www.oralb.com) in Basu (2009: unpub)]
Additionally, Tellis (1998) suggests that there is another segment of endorsers who are fictitious
characters or rather unknown individuals or characters known as ‘lay endorsers’. They are
chosen by the marketers based on the target market they wanted to capture and there are certain
characteristics of these endorsers which are similar to the target audience which eases the process
of identifying the endorser and the message communicated by the companies. Example would be
taken from the anonymous voice-over in video and audio advertisements which often uses lay
endorsers to promote the products.
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However, Shimp (2000) talks about another form of endorsement which is similar to the lay
endorser concept of Tellis, but instead of using voice, typical individuals are used in this
segment. Shimp (2000) asserts that individual endorser’s are inexpensive than that of using
celebrity marketing techniques and avoid the conventional biasness of using ‘beautiful people’
with physical attributes or individual characteristics which are rather identical in advertising
media. Shimp (2000) also suggests that adverts which uses person endorsers includes several
persons rather than singular ones with the intension that multiple number of endorsers will
generate higher levels of message involvement and in the same way would create greater
message circulation. This technique creates a mind block in consumer’s mind and starts showing
favorable attitude towards the brand/ product (Ibid).
On the other hand use of endorsements is not only limited to celebrities or experts but
consumers are also endorsed by the brands to reflect the understanding what consumers are
going to get from the use of the product demonstrating the rational judgement of a common
person. Using consumer endorsements specially targeting necessity commodities and famous
products or brands are having substantial benefit for the product as it relates to everyday person
and a consumers can imagine him / her in that person which is another way of playing with
consumer psychology. [Perle et.al. (1999: A99) in Basu (2009: unpub)]
Subsequently, there is a rational aspect of using celebrities into the endorsement of a product. If
the products can be classified as technical (e.g. PC’s) or non-technical (e.g. jeans) then using
celebrities in a technical product is less substantial than using them in non-technical products. It
is to relate to the rational aspect of evaluating the use of the product, where technical product are
used by all consumers coming from every aspect of the society and in such purchases showing
someone reliable preferably a technical person or common users are more effective. Their
connotations are highly recognized and valued by the consumers whereas in the use of non-
technical products the use of celebrities are of high importance as it associates the brand name
and image of the person along with the product. People tend to perceive a delineation of a
personified figure into the brand and gets the association of being recognized as part of the clique
summoning the celebrity as a captivating leader. [Leon et.al. (2008:328) in Basu (2009: unpub)]
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1.3 Current facts about celebrity endorsements:
McCracken (1989: 311) states that Celebrity Endorsement is defined 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” Moreover, celebrity endorsement has become an
omnipresent factor in the global arena of modern marketing and is recognized worldwide in the
field of marketing and advertising (Ibid). In toady’s word of modern hi-tech media celebrities are
used in all the communication channels like Television, Radio, Internet, Publications etc and a
vivid presence of TV actors, movie stars, sport personalities and even dead celebrities are
observed into the marketing campaign of various companies. (Shimp, 2000) However, Kambitsis
et.al. (2002) asserts that the use of celebrities in advertising has been associated along with
several complexities involving the celebrities individual life-style and claims the process to be
rather sophisticated marketing technique than mere promotional agenda. Marketers around the
world in various established organizations spends a huge amount of money annually on celebrity
contracts for their products and it is an established belief among the marketers that celebrities are
efficient spokesperson for their products / brands. Another, important verity described by (Belch
& Belch, 2001) is that from 1979 to 1997 the popularity of celebrity endorsement has risen from
15 to 25 % in USA and in present 21st century more than 20% of all TV commercials around the
world feature celebrities in advertisements. According to (Forbes 2003) in the year 2003 actress
Jennifer Aniston has been ranked the No. 1 celebrity for endorsing various products for
companies and brands followed by Rapper Eminem and Dr Dre in the 2nd place and in the 3rd
place Comes Tiger Woods who has got a contact with Nike worth $105 million. This data proves
the fact that how companies are spending a huge block of money on their marketing budget
especially when it comes to endorse celebrity for product branding.
Moreover, (Mowen & Brown, 1981) asserts that marketers also rely on multiple celebrity
endorsement as an advertising practice where they target more than one celebrity to endorse the
product / brand. Examples of companies who are involved into this practice are Pepsi, Coke and
Nike who have introduced this technique into their advertising campaigns. Most important
practical illustration of the above tactic has been found in the “Milk Mustache” campaign in the
USA where they have engaged more than 100 celebrities for the promotion of milk since 1995.
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Subsequently, previous research from scholars proves the fact that while considering celebrity
endorsement the ‘thumb rule’ is to consider whether the characteristics of the product matches
with the profile of the endorser as this tie-up acts as an effective mode of communication. (e.g.
Kahle and Homer, 1985; Kalra and Goodstein, 1998; Kamins and Gupta, 1994; Misra and
Beatty, 1990; Sengupta et al., 1997; Till and Busler, 1998)
Additionally, multiple celebrity endorsement has positive impact on the consumers as it
influences their behavior. As described by the attribution theory, people summon that the cause
of certain events in their life is influenced by their own behavioral acts or is affected by the
behaviors of others around them. From celebrity endorsement perspective it could be analyzed
that consumers receive the message of the endorser based on the fact that he / she actually
believes in the qualities and effectiveness of the product (internal attribution) or they are paid to
say so (external attribution) Although, consumers do acknowledge consensus voting about the
same which acts as credit for the marketers and they tend to view the product from endorsers
perception. (Kelley, 1967)
However, another interesting phenomenon which has come across in the marketing agenda of
companies having less resources and financial flexibility is bringing in sports personalities into
the marketing campaign to promote their products. As, most of the companies have consensually
agreed that celebrity endorsements has become a distinguished part of the promotional drive,
therefore for companies having limited budgets endorsements of sports and athletes has turned
out to be potentially viable investment than endorsing named celebrities. (Martin, 1996)
Moreover, there are certain general objectives which are expected to be accomplished by the
endorsers of any brand. They are as follows:
Capturing consumer’s attention.
Building up the brand name.
Strengthen the brand image of the product
The endorsed message should be plausible.
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Adding charisma to the endorsed product.
Creating a liking for the advertisement and add recall by consumers.
The prospect of having amplified sales from the campaign (Ibid).
On the other hand Jagdish and Wagner (1995) illustrates that celebrities enhance the potential of
having the advertisement recalled by the target audience because of their persuasion power. They
also enrich the possibility of having positive brand recognition for the product, create a positive
attitude of the consumers towards the brand, catalyze brand consumption among the consumers
and construct the identity of the celebrity along with the endorsed brand / product. Furthermore,
celebrity endorsement has become an integral part of the advertising strategy for many
companies as it increases the marginal expenditure of the marketing budget but gives a huge
return on investment by creating brand equity with the association of “secondary association”
of a celebrity with a brand (Ibid).
Another facet of the celebrity endorsement is the technique of using them by the companies. Till
(1998) mentioned that companies uses the celebrity endorser into their adverts either periodically
or opportunistically based on the situational requirement of the person in endorsing the product
campaign. From another perspective it would be assumed that the return on investments from
celebrity endorsements could be dynamic if the celebrity is used by the brand often to endorse
the product. The repetition of the celebrity into the adverts strengthens the association of the
celebrity along with the consumers as many already know the endorser and the rest would come
to know from the previous group’s association. It also creates awareness about the brand and
celebrity among the consumers. Subsequently, the caution is that marketers should maintain
stability in endorsing the same personality into the brand which they have endorsed earlier as
unexpected fluctuations among the endorser generates a negative association of the brand and
simultaneously fades the possible outcome from the endorsement. (Till, 1998)
Some of the example would be taken from Nike’s consistent use of Michael Jordan, Armani and
David Beckham, Penelope Cruz and L’Oreal. In all the above cases the advertisements has
encouraged the consumers to think about the perfect symbiosis between the product and the
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personality which signifies that all the characters later became intangible element of the brand.
(Ibid). If we take the example of different media channels it would be more prominent like
L’Oreal brand uses the celebrity film stars and international models to endorse their shampoos
and cosmetic ranges using the universal pay off “because I am worth it” which a patent version
of their testimonials used by the endorsers conveying the message to the consumers that if being
a celebrity if the product works on being my beauty secret why not for you. [Mooiji (2005)]
However, Jagdish and Wagner (1995) describes that though from investment perspective
endorsing a celebrity into the marketing campaign of a company is expensive and accounts a
huge involvement of money and networking, but simultaneously is a very effective medium to
get a brand attention in the competitive market. It helps the companies to get their product/ brand
identified by the consumers because of the relationship which both the celebrity and brand
carries in the societal structure. Endorsements are rather classified as good technique to maintain
a continual flow of stocks as it enhances the consumption making the investment worthwhile.
But potential threats of associated risks are not to be eliminated as association (positive /
negative) both have certain impacts on the product / brand.
1.4 Celebrity endorsement in Indian Advertisements:
However, in order to do a research about the impact of celebrity endorsement in marketing and
advertising media and considering this phenomenon as a major tool of promotional mix by
various organizations of the world, it is very important to do a comparative study between
different countries to exemplify the impact of celebrity endorsement among the consumer’s of
different cultures and their perception towards the association of a product, service / brand along
with celebrity attachment. Therefore, for the purpose of the research India has been chosen a
country of research and the current facts about celebrity endorsements in India is demonstrated in
this section to give the clear understanding of the country’s position in relation to celebrity
endorsement.
Chaturvedi (2008) talks about the impact of celebrity endorsement in India during one of the
countries major movement for Polio eradication which has portrayed numerous celebrities of
the bollywood banner to communicate with the common mass and publics of India through
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television ads, friendship cricket matches, awareness programmes, rallies etc. Some of the major
known celebrities who have done television and media shots for the polio campaign are Priety
Zinta, Rani Mukherjee and Priyanka Chopra. Even famous actress and Miss World 1994
pageant winner Ashwarya Rai and Tennis player Sania Mirza have done print ads for the same
campaign. Moreover, to generate awareness and literate the Indian mass about the importance of
Polio vaccination a wide spectrum of celebrities were approached to endorse the immunization
programme and various television spots were prepared and telecasted in the National and
terrestrial channels in the television throughout India. (Ibid.)
Additionally, the impact of cricket as a sport in India has a huge response from all aspects of the
society and various community people and in that relation a ‘Friendship Series’ between India
and Pakisthan was organized in April 2004 to raise awareness for the Polio Immunization
prorgamme where the captains of 2 cricket teams urged the people to “Bowl out Polio”.
Similarly other important celebrities were also approached to do awareness rallies and direct visit
to the household to intensify the magnitude of the programme. Farooque Sheikh, an ex
Bollywood actor who has substantial knowledge about Koran addressed the Muslim prophet nad
religious leaders about the importance and validity of the campaign. Javed Akhtar, a script and
songwriter for bollywood films, Sharmila Tagore (ex actress) and Soha Ali Khan (a new
comer in the tinsel world) also did direct home campaigns where they visited the household of
common people in particular areas of India to justify the essentiality of the programme and
communicated the message to the mass. (Ibid.)
Another important aspect of celebrity endorsement in India is observed in the ‘Cola Wars’
where the major concern comes for all the fizzy drinks company is to create price sensitivity. As
most of the cola ads are endorsed by popular bollywood celebrities like Sharukh Khan, Amir
Khan, Akshay Kumar etc and have glamorous associations which shows the association of the
drink along with the position and celebrity predilection. However, considering the price per
bottle was a challenge as most of the companies endorse similar people and Coca Cola
implemented a strategy where they reduced 300 ml bottle to 200ml bottle and sold it in INR 5
equivalent to 7p in GBP and $10 in US which benefitted Coca Cola to rule the market for a short
20
term, with the celebrity influence to purchase smaller bottles in a cheaper price as the ads were
focused on the price of the bottle than other aspects of the drink. (Amis & Cornwell, 2005)
On the other hand there are current facts about celebrity endorsements in India where
international companies have endorsed bollywood celebrities for their product launch in India.
Some of the references would be taken from the endorsement of bollywood superstar Sharukh
Khan as the brand ambassador of Swiss watch maker TAG Heuer, a part of LVMH Watch and
Jewellery. As per Jean Christophe Babin, president and CEO of LVMH Watch and Jewellery the
company has plans to open 4 more outlets in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad and
the brand ambassador will involve in the marketing of the new models of watches of the
company in India. Being the brand ambassador Sharukh Khan commented that the watch has
always stood for luxury, style, prestige and exception and in India the brand will enhance its
market creating its association along with the pristine society. (9th September 2003)
As a celebrity Sharukh has also endorsed another Swiss watchmaker Omega before getting
associated along with TAG Heuer. However, TAG Heuer has also endorsed bollywood actress
Priyanka Chopra (Ex Miss World 2000) as a brand ambassador for ladies collection in India
and has replaced Susmita Sen from the TAG banner. TAG has always represented glamorous
figures to execute the brand to the world and in India as well they have targeted the celebrities to
maintain the consistency of supremacy of the brand. (16th March 2007)
However, the world famous brand of fizzy drinks Coca Cola has also endorsed actor Amir
Khan as a brand ambassador of coke in India and has made several Indian ads featuring Amir in
various cultural perspective portraying the Indian eccentricity in different regional cultures
prevailing in different states in a humorous version.
1.5 Celebrity endorsements in UK advertisements:
In compare to India the impact of celebrity endorsements in the advertising and marketing of
products / brands in UK are entirely different as seen superficially from a common observation.
In UK particularly the adverts are made according to the effectiveness and usage of the product
to the general mass and celebrity endorsements are rather limited than its generous use in Indian
21
adds. In UK as well there are several organizations who endorse celebrities from different
background and societal structure than using them from the world of glamour. Example would
be taken from using Chef Jamie Oliver in the advertisement of grocery retail supermarket
Sainsbury where they show Jamie endorsing the Sainsbury products and certify that their
products are best for cooking and as raw ingredients. Celebrities in UK are rather classified into
several categories as companies choose them according the fame of popularity in the public
index. They can be chosen from sports world, glamour, television or from recent scandal as well.
Taking the reference of Late. Jade Goody who died of cervical cancer was pointed out as one of
the characters of arousing racism in a celebrity lifestyle television show Big Brother where she
was accused of doing racist behavior to one of her contestant (Indian actress Shilpa Shetty) by
abusing her in public media. This particular event captured a lot of media attention in UK and
again ignited the fire of white vs. brown in UK mass. But with the sudden discovery of her
having cervical cancer grabbed the attention of the Britons and she got the sympathy of the
common public from UK and her previous behavior was rather substituted for her illness.
Though she had to beg apology but her terminal cancer gave her the fame and the NHS made her
a role model of creating awareness among the young women in UK about cervical cancer. Well
it could be described that she turned out to be the person from ‘ashes to gold’ but women in UK
has recognized her as a person who has shown the female Britons about the danger of having
cervical cancer and a positive impact for cervical cancer checks among the women as recorded
by NHS.
Subsequently, there are other adverts in UK where presences of celebrities are also noticed. But
as UK and US both follows Hollywood film stars therefore the ads of UK also depicts celebrities
from US as a vast majority. But there are few adverts where domestic celebrities are seen as
being an endorser. Some of the examples would be taken from ‘Cadbury’s Milk Tray’
magazine advert where Laura Bailey was endorsed for the marketing of Cadbury’s product in
1998. Cadbury has also endorsed the television personality Mat Lucas for the marketing
campaign of ‘Cadbury’s Crème Egg’ in 2000. However, there are also certain facts where 2
major brands like Cadbury’s and MTV – (chart numbers and pop songs hit channel) jointly made
a marketing campaign to promote free live musical events for the popularity and promotion of
both the brands. For this campaign they endorsed Five, 5ive, Ritchie Neville, J Brown the
22
singers to promote Cadbury’s as well as MTV to the young audience.
[www.advertisingarchives.co.uk]
However, there are brands and companies which have endorsed celebrities for their marketing
campaign and the current data about their endorsement policies depicts the phenomenon that
they not only choose celebrities from the glamour world but from all other business entities.
Walkers endorsed celebrities Cat Deeley and Garry Lineker for their marketing campaign in
2009, Moneysupermarket.com endorsed entrepreneur and Dragon Den’s Peter Jones for
promoting their price comparison website and L’Oreal endorsed actress Jane Fonda for their
cosmetics and skincare range which emphasized on antiageing and ageing wrinkles skin care.
Even the royal family was endorsed into magazine adverts which were reflected in the cover
page TV Times magazine, 1981 following the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Lady
Diana. Princess Diana appeared back in the cover page of Woman magazine after the birth of
Prince William in 1982. Even sport celebrities like Ian Botham, Andrew Freddie Flintoff,
Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry, Roger Federer were endorsed into several consumer goods and
mostly into men’s skin care products and sport shoes from companies like Gillette, Sureman
and Nike. Interestingly, in UK politicians are also endorsed by companies and recently
Schweppes endorsed Prime Minister Gordon Brown in their Magazine Advert. Also prestigious
brand for men, Dunhill has endorsed actor Jude Law for their newspaper advert in 2009.
Surprisingly, the Dorchester Collection of Hotels used personalities like Grace Kelly, Albert
Einstein, Kristin Scott Thomas and Orson Welles in their 2009 magazine advert, who were
once associated along with the hotel in her glorious past. [www.advertisingarchives.co.uk]
1.6 Problem Discussion:
Bryne and Breen (2003) claims that studies and researches in the field of consumer behavior and
marketing shows that celebrity endorsement have positive impact on the purchasing behavior of
the consumers than non celebrity endorsers. Moreover, McCracken (1989) suggests that celebrity
endorsements are effective ways of transferring the association of the personality to the brand
and is highly recognized by the marketing community of international organizations. Bryne et al
(2003: 289) states that “celebrities can build, refresh and add new dimensions. What celebrities
23
stand for enhances brands and they save valuable time in terms of creating the credibility a
company has to create in order to build its brands by transferring their values to the brand.
When consumers see a credible celebrity endorsing a product they think the company must be
OK”
Moreover, in this research the specific problem which has been observed by the researcher is
related to the difference in endorsing celebrities into the advertisements in India and UK. After
evaluation of the advertisements of both the countries it has been reflected that in India the
prominence of celebrity endorsement are more from the tinsel world (Bollywood) of glamour
and in all types of product endorsements the companies are eager to get a Bollywood celebrity
enrolled into the advertisements rather than endorsing other personalities from any other sectors.
On the other hand in UK it has been observed that companies are eager to endorse the
celebrities / personalities into the advertisement campaign of the product or brand based on the
effectively and practical realization of the advertisement in the societal structure. For example,
L’Oreal hasn’t endorsed Deborah Meaden (entrepreneur) and Dragon of Dragon’s Den Show
(BBC 2) as a celebrity endorser to promote their cosmetic range for women or
Moneysupermarket.com has not enrolled Penelope Cruz to promote their price comparisons
websites. In contrast it has been observed in India that domestic Banking and financial sector
giant ICICI bank has endorsed actor Sharukh Khan to promote the banks financial and NRI
banking facilities in the form of television adverts. Moreover, celebrities in India endorse all
types of products from cosmetics, fizzy drinks to National Polio Vaccinations programme where
the presence of Bollywood personalities are in abundance.
According to Bryne et al (2003) most of the companies face the problem while choosing the
right personality/celebrity for their product endorsements. It is the responsibility of the
advertisers within a specific company to be able to match the company’s image or product image
with the personality of the celebrity and the characteristics of the target market to establish
effective messages for the consumers. McCracken (1989) state that endorsements are more
effective when there is a ‘fit’ between the endorser and the endorsed product. Subsequently,
Martin (1996) illustrates that in order to achieve maximum outcome of a celebrity endorsement it
is very important to consider the degree of similarity between the image of the celebrity and the
24
image of the product. The more is the similarity in association between the image of the product
and the celebrity, the more positive response from the consumers which leads to purchasing
intension of the product. (Ibid).
On the other hand Tellis (1998) identifies that companies should concentrate in building up a
prolonged relationship between the product / brand and the celebrity (long-term relationship) as
it helps the company in designing its strategic goals and objectives in relation to the
establishment of the brand and maintaining a clear and consistent brand strategy over time.
Bryne et al (2003) argues that maintaining a long tern relationship with a celebrity in an
endorsement campaign for a company remains challenging because there is no harmony,
between the product and the celebrity and in reality the consumers recalls the celebrity more than
the product. This is termed as “Vampire Effect”, in marketing terms which signifies the fact that
celebrities sucks out the ‘life blood’ from the product / brand (Ibid).
1.7 Rationale behind the Research:
The researcher has chosen this topic as a matter of subject for the dissertation of his MBA
following the creation of the problem area which has been observed by the researcher while
doing the term 2 (MBA) assignment of IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication). The topic
given by the University was to discuss about impact of testimonial advertising by the advertisers
and marketers comparing its advantages and disadvantages. While doing the research for the
assignment it has been found by the researcher that there is a distinction between the ways of
celebrity endorsement in India and UK where the former is having greater affinity towards
celebrity (Bollywood Stars) endorsements in media ads and consumer goods of all genres
whereas in UK the endorsement is based on the credibility of the endorser and their association
along with the product / brand they are endorsing. Even in UK personalities are endorsed into the
advertisement from various backgrounds and not only from the glamour world. In UK the
companies are more concerned about matching the profile of the product along with the
personality and expertise of the endorser. Therefore, they chose various people who have
acclaimed recognition from the society due to their success and achievement in different sectors
(sports, business, acting, modeling, politics etc.)
25
However, the interesting constituent of the research is to establish the fact for international
organizations who are considering India as a prospective market for expanding their business and
willing to invest in the huge market, is to portray the scenario that they might have to change
their advertising technique considering the importance and existence of celebrity influence
among the consumer life-style of general public in the Indian community. Therefore, a
comparative study between India and UK has been done in this research based on the consumer
preference of celebrity endorsement in the advertisement of various products in both countries.
1.8 Purpose of the Research:
Through the analysis of previous studies and academic research on consumer behavior it has
been observed that celebrity endorsements in the advertisements of goods for particular brands
and companies enhances the purchasing behavior of the consumers. Even studies have also
established the fact why companies are in a row to endorse celebrities and how they do it and for
what objectives? But the segment which has not been researched is the distinction about the way
of endorsing celebrities into different cultures (e.g. western and eastern) where some celebrities
have greater influence than the others. The purpose of the study is as follows:
Showing the influence of celebrity endorsements in the marketing campaign of brands / products
and significance of culture in the recognition of a celebrity by consumers’ from various cultures
across the world. Also creating awareness for the probable organizations trying to become
global corporations.
1.9 Outline of the Research:
The dissertation is a specific research project which is done by the post graduate students of
master’s degree and higher studies. As, dissertation is a research process therefore it is very
important to consider the structure of the research in which it is going to be drafted in theory. In
this specific research the dissertation is divided into 6 sections starting from the introduction of
the topic and background analysis. The 1st chapter illustrates about the cause of taking the topic
as a research agenda. The 2nd chapter is the literature review where various consumer behavior
and advertising theory models and previous literature about the research area are analyzed
26
critically. Main emphasis would be given to the models which organizations follow to endorse
celebrities into product / brand campaign and hence structuring a strong reference of academics.
The 3rd chapter would reflect the research methodology of the research followed by the data
collection techniques in chapter 4. In chapter 5th the data gathered is analysis in reference with
theory and academic models with quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Lastly, chapter 6 is a
discussion about the conclusion and findings which the researcher gathered out of the research
and individual recommendation suggestion.
Figure 1.1 Framework of the research Source: (Basu: 2009) Author’s creation
LITERATURE REVIEW – CHAPTER 2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY – CHAPTER 3
DATA ANALYSIS – CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSON AND FINDINGS- CHAPTER 5
INTRODUCTION – CHAPTER 1
27
CHAPTER 2
2. Literature Review:
In the previous chapter the researcher has discussed about the current facts of celebrity
endorsement and illustrated the cause of doing the research about the impact of celebrity
endorsements in India and UK. This chapter will narrow down the research area to the specific
objectives with critical discussion of theories and models. The chapter will entail theories like:
Pros and Cons of celebrity endorsements, Meaning transfer model, Cultural dimension about
celebrity endorsements, TEARS model, no TEARS approach strategy and Investment returns on
celebrity endorsements.
2.1 Celebrity Endorsements and its importance in Promotion Mix:
This section of the thesis will demonstrate the theories which support the phenomenon of
endorsing celebrities by various organizations worldwide along with the illustration of theories.
A critical discussion of the academic models will add value to the research and would establish a
firm grounded theory.
2.1.1 Pros and Cons of Celebrity Endorsement Approach:
Erdogan (1999) suggests that the academic research and annual reports of companies about the
schema of celebrity endorsements clearly states the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers as a
promotional strategy than non celebrity endorsers. While evaluating the universal thought about
celebrity endorsement it has been observed that there is a higher affinity of organizations behind
celebrity endorsements as it nurtures the consumer’s attitude towards endorsed brands and
products which supports in the purchasing behavior and results higher sales in terms of quantity.
Moreover, desirable outcomes are preferable by companies when they endorse celebrities having
public consensus and their personality matches with the product profile and the target clientele
than celebrities who have never been endorsed (Ibid).
28
Although there are potential benefits of using celebrity endorsements in the advertising,
marketing and promotion of products / brands there are certain risks associated along with the
cost of contracts. Moreover, Erdogan (1999) explains about the advantages and disadvantages of
celebrity endorsements and even if while companies are using celebrities as endorsers, he
illustrates a table showing the benefit of this strategy along with suggestion of preventive
measures for the organizations.
Figure 2.1 Pros and Cons of Celebrity Endorsement Strategy:
Potential Advantages Potential disadvantages Preventive tactics
Increased attention Overshadow the brand Pre-testing and careful planning
Image polishing Public controversy Buying insurance and putting
provision clauses in contracts
Brand prologue Image transformation and
overexposure
Explaining what is their role
and putting clause to restrict
endorsement for the brand
Brand repositioning Image change and loss of
public recognition
Examining what life-cycle
stage the celebrity is in and
how long this stage is going to
exist in future
Strengthen global campaigns Expensive contracts Selecting celebrities who are
appropriate for global target
audience, not because they are
‘hot’ in all market audiences
Source: Erdogan (1999, p. 295)
29
Moreover, Erdogan(1999) illustrates that with the invention of new products the consumer
market has become very competitive and the companies are in a row to compete with each other
for establishing their brand. Thus they are taking the help of celebrity (media stars) attention to
assist the marketing of their products. Additionally, with the advancement in the field of
technology and with entrance of digital TV, Video control systems, internet and satellite TV, 3D
media effects, internet advertising etc. the consumers were bombarded with overpowered
advertising from various channels and advertising media became more challenging sector than
before (Ibid). On the other hand the companies have discovered that with celebrity attention in
their product advertisements these potential threats from modern technology can be minimized to
a certain extent. From a general perspective celebrity endorsement in any product creates an
attention for the consumers and an unrevealed biasness of curiosity which makes this strategy
more favorable for the organizations. Furthermore, Erdogan (1999) argues that celebrity
advertisements stand out of the clutter from similar product advertising. Subsequently, celebrities
also catalyze the communication process and eradicate the excessive noise of the communication
from the surroundings which improves the process of sending the message of the product to the
target audience.
In contrary, there are certain difficulties which the organizations face while entering into global
marketing of their products and the massive barriers comes from the foreign markets due to the
cultural ‘roadblocks’ from various countries in the form of time, space, language, relationships,
power difference, masculinity, femininity (Ibid). E.g. the Indian culture of collectivism vs.
individualism in U.K. for which many companies operating in UK has to understand the cultural
background of India in order to sustain business and enhance operation in India. People in Indian
culture are more prone to accept what the society accepts as a whole even if there are certain
variations but they all obey the cultural consensus, which in UK is entirely different and
consumers here are more intrinsic in nature. Erdogan (1999) defines ‘celebrities’ as a powerful
weapon of promotion and conviction while entering the foreign markets as there are many
celebrities whose popularity is wide spread and the publics in those nations accept their
recommendations. But there are risks associated with celebrity endorsements as well and the
challenge for organizations is to maintain the harmony due to the celebrity image incongruity,
30
drop in popularity, celebrity involvement in events of ethical turpitude and loosing credibility
due to over endorsements in products / brands (Ibid).
2.1.2 Meaning Transfer Model:
McCraken (1989) describes the process of endorsement through his model of meaning transfer
which has a comprehensive description about the phenomenon. The focal point of meaning
transfer model states that if the celebrity is utilized appropriately they encode positive set of
meanings which can be transferred to the endorsed product. The model is divided into 3 sections:
culture, endorsement and consumption.
Figure 3.1 The Meaning Transfer Model Source: McCracken, 1989, p. 315
Culture Endorsement Consumption
Key: Path of meaning transfer
Stage of meaning movement
Stage 1
Stage 1
Stage 2 Stage 2 Stage 3Stage 3
Objects
Persons
Context
Celebrity
Role 1
2
3
Celebrity Product Product Consumer
31
Stage 1: Culture
McCraken (1989) illustrates that celebrities are different from that of anonymous models or
actors and organizations invest huge amount of money on celebrities to bring value to the
advertisement. They convey extra amount of depth and power of persuasion which is carried
over as a message to the consumers. It is a matter of common sense that advertisement carries
out messages to the publics and thus they serve the purpose of meaning transfer from the
commodity to the usability of the product. But it has been observed that organizations are deeply
indulged into endorsing celebrities into their marketing campaign in spite the fact that they are
expensive to maintain and are taking most of their marketing budget. Now the question arises
why do they do it? What benefit they have got in doing celebrity endorsements than endorsing a
local star or popular personality (anonymous professionals)? How a celebrity endorsement adds
value to the meaning transfer model? What are the attributes of a celebrity endorsement in
relation to marketing campaign and association with culture? Are there any special features
which the celebrities bring in to the product campaign which influences the consumer behaviour
towards the brands / products?
On the other hand Bergstrom and Skarfstad (2004: unpub) suggests that anonymous actors and
models presents demographic community in the form of gender, age, status and symbols which
are relatively indistinguishable and vague in carrying meaning to a specific culture due to lack of
popularity and recognition. Celebrities offer all these attributes with the verity of a special life-
style that anonymous models cannot offer and they break the communal barrier with the act of
exactitude. Each celebrity carry a unique constitution of meaning due to their association within
the community and social power which companies cannot get from the anonymous models /
actors. Moreover, it is quite certain that celebrities are more powerful endorsers than that of
anonymous actors / models. Though they also bring in meaning to the any endorsements but their
power of persuasion is considered limited in compare to celebrity endorsements as celebrities
32
have a wider circulation of identity and thus they receive consent from various communities
throughout the world. Celebrities also transfer the meanings of their association to the brand
with great radiance and accuracy creating a long term acquaintance with the product which they
have developed from their re-appearance and intense participation.
Interestingly, Bergstrom and Skarfstad(2004: unpub) discusses that celebrities gather the
meanings of a powerful persona from their characters which they act in television, movie,
athletes, politics, sports and other careers. These specific roles which they perform give them the
opportunity to associate with various ranges of objects, persona and context which remains with
the celebrity and are reflected in the advertisements making a meaning transfer from a character
to the product / items.
Stage 2: Endorsement
Subsequently, the 2nd part of the meaning transfer process is endorsement where the celebrity and
product are major variables and the meanings are transferred from the celebrity to the product
making it a real endorsement. McCracken (1989) suggests that selection of a specific celebrity
based on their characteristics is a challenging task. Advertising agencies choose the celebrities
based on the criteria that which kind of the characteristics the consumers are looking for from the
product / brand and who are the celebrities making a ‘close fit’ in that quality circle for
endorsement. Selection of the celebrity also takes into account the financial viability of the
campaign.
McCracken (1989) after celebrity selection the probable expectation would be that the
advertising should identify the necessity of bringing the celebrity association to the product.
However, care must be taken in this process as the celebrities carry a lot of meanings along with
them but the advertisers should understand the ‘perfect match’ of the celebrity and product
association eliminating the vague aspect of culture instead concentrating on the specific objective
of the endorsement. Hence, to satisfy the process the advertisers uses people, objects, context
which are parallel to have same meaning as the celebrity. Celebrities also take advantage of the
advertisement where there is overreliance and the celebrity utilises this opportunity to refrain
their image (Ibid).
33
Additionally, McCracken (1989) asserts that the advertisement should be designed in such a way
that there is a perfect symbiosis between the product and the celebrity association which initiates
the consumers to take part in the meaning transfer process. In advertising theory copy testing is
done to measure the success of the advert and when the advert is put forward to the consumers
they realize the connection of the celebrity with the product which helps in the meaning transfer
movement from celebrity to product.
Stage 3: Consumption
From a general conception consumers today are looking for meaning in everyday life and when
consumption comes into play they are looking for the absolute value into it. Consumers come
from various cultures and in all societies the life-style of the public is influenced by the current
phenomenon which is happening in the surrounding of the people. In the 21st century when there
is abundance of materials from various sources the consumers are bombarded with the product
offerings and that makes confusion in the mind of the consumers about the consumption of the
product. Celebrity association supports the buying behaviour of the consumers as it reflects
reliability of the persona in the product endorsement.
McCracken (1989) suggest that the final stage of meaning transfer from the product to the
consumer is the most complicated process. It is not just a matter of fact that consumers merely
own the product and take possession of its meaning nor the meanings are automatically
transferred back to the consumers. Consumers must incorporate the meanings into them and they
have to claim the meaning transfer from the product to self and work along with it. They have to
participate in the whole process of claiming the meaning where the use of the product will
develop the process of meaning transfer and it can be assumed as a test examination where the
consumers test the product quality and effectiveness along with the celebrity association and
judge the viability of the association.
Celebrities have already influenced the process of buying in the 1st stage of the meaning transfer
where they have associated them along with the product and reflected their own life-style along
with the product. Consumers have accepted what the celebrities has shown them in the initial
phase and then only they have progressed into the final stage. Celebrity association is combined
along with the objects, people and events around the consumer’s life-style and this phenomenon
34
shows that celebrities built their own self well which is appreciated by the consumers. In an
everyday life the consumers are interchanging among various consumer goods and therefore they
are constantly changing various products / goods to construct the aspect of their self and world.
They admire those characters that are also changing their characters depending on the situation
of the life and can accomplish the changes well into the situation. As celebrities has already done
the stage 1 of meaning transfer process, now the consumers are processing their mind in their
own stage 1 process where they construct the self meaning out of the meaning provided by the
celebrities and judge whether the meanings are accessible to them there.
Additionally, McCracken (1989) states that the consumers simply do not admire the celebrity
because of their association but the reason behind their liking is related to what the consumers
wanted to see from the celebrity. When the celebrities enter into the endorsing process they make
the meaning of the celebrity self out of the elements in the form of dramatic cultural disposition
which is available in the materials form (products) for the consumers. McCracken (1989)
illustrates that celebrities also plays the role of a ‘super consumer’. What actually happens in this
phenomenon is that when a movie star is acting they take up a character based on the script and
within the script they portray the individual based on the circumstances and situation of the story
line rather then depicting their own life-style. In most circumstances they carry the character of a
person (imaginary) but they are quite similar to that of the human characters what we see in a
daily life. If that character succeeds, then the celebrity becomes a known personality and posses
a power of a new self which is accepted by the consumers. (E.g. the role of Kate Winslet in the
‘Titanic’ movie gave her the character of the survivor lady of the tragedy and she became
associated along with the historic epic.) Thus celebrity world is such a imaginary world where
the characters give new meaning to the person due to their association in a specific role and this
trial method of the celebrities taking up different characters becomes a compelling source of
meaning in marketing. Similarly, they are also termed as ‘superior customers’ as they gave
meaning to a character and the association of the character with the tangible and intangible
aspect becomes a matter of marketing. They capture the characters in a rational way which gives
life to the characters and the product association along with the characters become a matter of
new entrants in marketing terms.
35
However, in the society certain groups of people are having higher affinity towards celebrity
association due to their social supremacy and cultural hierarchy which makes a positive
association of these consumers along with the celebrity life-style. Interestingly, these societal
groups are followed by their societal subordinates who gather the knowledge of association of
the celebrity from their pioneers and they do that not because they know about the celebrity but
in order to associate along with the societal supremacy of their peers. Association can also differ
from the generation to generation and also depend upon gender, class, personality and life-style
in a culture of having higher individualism in people than collectivism, but individuals does have
personal liking and when the consumers chosen character endorse the product the meaning
transfer from product to the consumer becomes relatively easy.
Therefore, McCracken (1989) advocates the celebrity endorsement operates as a method of
meaning transfer from the phase when meaning moves into the persona of the celebrity following
celebrity to the product and from product to the consumers where the celebrity becomes the key
player of meaning transfer process.
2.2 The Process of Celebrity Selection:
In this section the researcher will entail with the theories which reflect on how the companies
select the celebrities. Theory model discussed in this section are TEARS model, no TEARS
approach and the stereotyping of the endorsers.
2.2.1 The TEARS model:
Moreover, Shimp (2000) suggests that there are 2 general attributes which the companies should
consider while endorsing a celebrity for marketing. These are the credibility of the character and
the attractiveness of the celebrity which determines the effectiveness of the communiqué of the
endorser to the target audience. Under the credibility characteristic trustworthiness and expertise
of the endorser are also counted as sub- quality. Credibility refers to the celebrity’s judgment and
reliability and expertise refers to the explicit skills, knowledge or capability that the endorser has
about the brand (Ibid). Additionally, Shimp (2000) describes that attractiveness consists of 3 sub
categories namely physical attractiveness, respect and similarity.
36
An example of physical attractiveness is reflected when the Swiss watchmaker, Omega choose
tennis player Anna Kournikova for their marketing campaign. However, Kournikova never won
a tournament in her tennis career but the company’s marketing director believes that she is
“really everything in one package” (Ibid). Secondly, celebrities are recognized by the publics for
their athletic power, appealing personality and acting ability etc which earns them respect from
the society and a consensus voting of recognition. The last attribute is similarity where the major
concern is focused on the endorser and their capability to match along with the target group of
consumers in terms of age, gender, ethnicity etc. (Ibid). However, Shimp (2003: 293) states that
the reason behind taking attributes of the celebrity as a major issue is to “ identify how brand
managers and their agencies actually go about selecting celebrities, as to avoid the grief from
making an unwise decision”.
TEARS model of Celebrity Selection:
Credibility Attractiveness
T E A R S
Figure: 4.1 TEARS model Source: (Basu, 2009) Author’s creation
The TEARS model consists of 5 major parameters based on which the companies select the
celebrity for the advertisement campaign. These 5 parameters are: trustworthiness, expertise,
attractiveness, respect and similarity.
Trustworthiness: It is related to the fact, how reliable and dependable is the celebrity. As
companies endorse the celebrity for enhancing their marketing campaign therefore the main
Trustworthiness Expertise Attractiveness Respect Similarity
37
objective of selection is based on the circumstances whether the celebrity carries the image in the
society to convince the target audience. Celebrities earn their trust from the public due to their
work and achievement in respective field and the marketers utilizes the trustworthiness of the
celebrities in the advertisement. On the other hand if the celebrities are showing self interest in
endorsing the product the persuasive effect of the endorsement can be negative and consumer’s
reliability towards the celebrity falls but increasing reliability can be enhanced when the endorser
is seen as a character having ‘zero’ interest in endorsing the brand.
Expertise: Expertise relates to the specific skills and knowledge of the endorser in any particular
field. The celebrities achieve these expertises from their prolonged association within any
specific subject and also due to excessive media attention. Whether or not the celebrity is a real
expert is unimportant but for companies what matters is the celebrity interference in changing the
opinion of the consumers about their product / brand.
Attractiveness: In this respect the attractiveness of the celebrity plays a vital role. Celebrity
attractiveness in terms of physical attributes grabs a lot of public attention more than their
achievement in acting or expertise. Marketers are clever manipulators to visage the mind of the
consumers with the physical attractiveness as it becomes a prime role of getting general
consensus in pursuing the mass in various cultures. E.g. Leonardo Dicaprio known as a
handsome actor and his association with TAG heuer, Jude Law and Dunhill, Dipika
Padupune (Indian actress) and Kingfisher Airlines.
Respect: Celebrities earn respect from the general audience due to their acting skills and their
contribution to the society in sports, business, politics and their arguments in any concerning
issues of the society. All these are counted as the personal qualities of the celebrity which earns
then respect and the credibility of a spoke person. When a respected celebrity endorses a product
their association enhances the brand’s equity due to the positive alliance of the celebrity. E.g.
Shabana Azmi (Indian actress) endorsed the AIDS campaign in India and became the face of
the WHO’S (world health organization) AIDS campaign in India.
Similarity: Similarity relates to the fact how the celebrity relates them along with the age,
gender, ethnicity, social class, creed, community and cultural variations. It is highly important
for companies to consider because consumers admire the individuals who are similar to them in
38
any of the mentioned attributes like from same ethnicity, gender or country. Shimp (2000) states
that research on ethical minorities reveals that they show greater affinity to the spokesperson
who comes from the same background as they matches with the audience’s liking and gain trust
in endorsing a product / brand. (Adopted from Shimp, 2000 and modified by Basu, 2009)
2.2.2 The No TEARS Approach for celebrity selection:
In compare to Shimp’s (2000) TEARS approach which shows the attributes of the celebrities and
how companies select the celebrities based on the requirement of their advertising campaign, No
TEARS approach of Shimp (2000) describes the correct procedure of celebrity selection by the
managers / decision makers of an organization to avoid the unnecessary hazard of taking an
unwise decision of selecting a wrong personality for marketing campaign. The TEARS approach
only reflects on the attributes of the celebrities and the 1 st letter of the word describes the
qualities of the characters based on their credibility and attractiveness but the “No TEARS”
approach talks about the real quintessence of using the attributes in conjunction with TEARS.
According to Shimp (2000) the advertisers considers various factors while endorsing celebrities
into their marketing campaign and some of the core aspects what they are looking from the
celebrity and brand concurrence are:
1. Celebrity and target market match up
2. Celebrity and brand concurrency
3. Celebrity credibility
4. Attractiveness of the celebrity
5. Cost of endorsement
6. Working easy vs. difficulty factor
7. Endorsement dissemination
39
8. Celebrity association and risk of brand dilution
All the above mentioned factors are essentials elements which the companies consider while
endorsing a celebrity. Most important aspect of having the factorial analysis is to establish the
brands association with the positive aspect of the celebrity association. Marketers are clever to
establish this phenomenon and a well known idiom “when you are in Rome (do as Romans
do)” reflects the ideology behind the strategy. The choice of ‘right celebrity’ to target the ‘right
market segment’ and eliminating the celebrity as well due to their negative manifestation in the
society is the ‘mantra’ behind celebrity selection by the companies in today’s economic
scenario. However, a diagrammatic description of the factors essential for celebrity and brand
congruency is established as follows:
Figure: 5.1 Factors essential for Celebrity and Brand Congruency
Celebrity and target market match up
Celebrity and brand concurrency
Celebrity credibility
Attractiveness of the celebrity
Cost of endorsement
Working easy vs. difficulty factor
Endorsement dissemination
Celebrity association and risk of brand dilution
Celebrity Endorsement
Factors required
Brand Factors in quest of
40
Source: (Basu, 2009) Author’s creation
Celebrity and target market match up: Marketers always choose the celebrity based on the
fundamental element whether the celebrity endorsement is going to work for the prospective
target market where they want the advertisement to launch. Celebrity alignment has to be in
parallel with the target audience. E.g. Sport Stars endorsing brands like Addidas, Nike, and
Reebok etc.
Celebrity and brand congruency: The reflection of the celebrity in relation to the brand
values, decorum, principle and also the image required by the celebrity to enhance the brand
advertised. E.g. Moneysupermarket.com and entrepreneur Peter Jones: a well knitted congruency
where the celebrity’s association with the business world and financial assessment put forward
the image of moneysupermarket.com.
Celebrity credibility: It associates along with the reliability and dependability of the celebrity
and the knowledge of the person about the product / brand and its effectiveness. If the celebrity
trust is reflected in the brand and celebrity’s vow for the brand is significant then the advert is
considered valuable. E.g. the key statement of L’Oreal said by all the endorsers around the world
“because I am worth it”
Attractiveness of the celebrity: While choosing celebrities as spokesperson the companies
evaluate the attractiveness of the person and in this relation attractiveness doesn’t means physical
beauty but also the personality of the character and charisma of the person as an individual. E.g.
Dipika Padupune, being the brand ambassador of Kingfisher airlines, India.
Cost of endorsement: Another important consideration which all the companies and the
advertising agencies are looking at is the cost of celebrity endorsement. As endorsement itself, is
cost sensitive and accounts to huge amount of marketing budget, therefore companies are
looking at the worthiness of the investment. In many occasion they choose the celebrities
depending on the budget limitations. Subsequently, they also consider the aspect of the brands
image and its association along with the consumer class, where popular celebrities’ appearance
holds the identity of the brand in spite of the cost involved. Therefore, cost is not a fixed
constraint for endorsement strategy but variable depending on the situation and the need for
41
attention of the brand. E.g. Armani with David and Victoria Beckham (expensive endorsement)
but its paying off Armani the return on investment due to the celebrities association. Companies
always do a cost-benefit analysis in order to determine the celebrity as it relates to the
justification of the fact that what is expected from the return in terms of sales and revenue for the
product and this analysis establishes the decision of endorsement.
Working easy vs. difficulty factor: There is a major concern for the advertisers about the
celebrity endorsement and that relates to the attitude and professionalism of the celebrity.
Companies prefer to deal with celebrities who are ‘hassle free’ and are specific about their
routine. Unprofessional, arrogant, temperamental characters are hard to manage and are difficult
people to work with as they follow the typical celebrity headed life-style.
Endorsement dissemination: If a celebrity is overexposed into the media channel due to their
association with various product / brand endorsement there is a possibility that the credibility of
the celebrity as an endorser fades away. Over exposition of the celebrity reduces their perceived
credibility and attains saturation among the consumers.
Celebrity association and risk of brand dilution: However, there are not always positive
effects of celebrity association. Sometimes the celebrity association with the brand can dilute the
brand image. The marketers and the advertisers are always concerned about the celebrities
private life in which their relation with unsocial or trouble elements can hamper the brands
position recognition failure. There are no set principles to illustrate why the brands suffers a
pessimistic position when the celebrity endorsing the brand is convicted of any crime or unsocial
affair. (Adopted from Shimp, 2000 and modified by Basu, 2009)
2.2.3 Celebrity endorsement and Cultural Dimension:
On the other hand if we consider culture as a dimension to measure the impact of celebrity
endorsement then it would be argued that the principles of marketing and the advertising doesn’t
comply with the cultural difference which is predominant in the sentient world. Marketing and
promotions for companies is a vital agenda for market development and their weapon to enhance
the target market for the brand / product. But considering the fact that when all companies are
going global and are operating throughout the world their products are also available to various
42
countries in spite of cultural difference and consumers are also accepting the product / brand.
The question arises how it is possible to penetrate the deep-rooted cultural ethos of various
nations. While endorsing a celebrity for a product / brand marketers do consider the cultural
dimension to evaluate the suitable personality who is going to be recognized and accepted in the
prevailing culture and society. When it comes to the core essence of cultural dimension
marketers study the structure and the societal make-up of the country they are willing to target.
Moreover, Ginsburgh and Throsby (2006) suggest that there certain fundamental issues with
culture which is denoted by the fact, how the people behave in other cultures, their customs,
religion, beliefs, and societal hierarchy. From organization point of view the challenge is to
investigate how well the public could be motivated to adopt the product, gaining trust among
them, establishing the product / brand within the specific culture, technological advancement in
the culture and its reach to the human population of that nation. Therefore, describing culture as
a nucleus becomes a challenging task for marketers. Ginsburgh and Throsby (2006) describes
that there are 4 main dimensions of cultural variations based on which the cultural segregation
has been done from one culture to another.
Based on the assumption that a pragmatic approach to identify culture which nurtures the
development and influences economic growth the 4 dimensions of culture are introduced. They
prevail in the western competitive individualistic society as well as in idyllic closed society of
solidarity. Casson (1993) in Ginsburgh and Throsby (2006) illustrates the 4 types of dimensions
which are:
1. Individualism Vs. Collectivism
2. Pragmatism Vs. Proceduralism
3. Low trust Vs. High trust
4. High-tension Vs. Low-tension
Individualism vs. Collectivism: Earl (1986) in Ginsburgh and Throsby (2006) suggests that
people having individualistic approach believes that common people are autonomous in nature in
that respect each and every individual values their own personal ‘lifestyle’ than that of others. In
43
the individualistic culture the information required for coordination is widely distributed and the
after shocks received by the individuals are very specific. In this approach people believe that
ownership and control of resources should be invested in the individuals as individuals only have
the ability to take decisions based on the information received.
On the other hand, collectivist believes that common people are part of the community where
they are born and they follow the communal structure more than their individual thoughts and
judgement. Even if they have individual thoughts about specific matters, but they always tend to
substitute that with the consensus from the communal hierarchy. Even adults seek opinion from
their elders regarding survival issues. People having collectivist view also believe in group
uniformity as in everyone is same and values group ideas. Information required for coordination
is centralized based to the group and the after shocks are having collective impact. Ownership
and control of resources in this approach is invested in group. [Ekelund and Tollison (1997) in
Ginsburgh and Throsby (2006)]
Pragmatism vs. Proceduralism: Pragmatists believes that sensitive judgements are based upon
wide personal experience and should be based upon the grounded theory or practical world i.e. to
say what is obvious to happen in circumstances of odd and even in human life and decisions
based upon these approaches tend to reflect successful decisions. In spite of the fact that there
might be situations where intuition are very strong based on the circumstances but these
perceptions can be tested through informal conversations with other people. Decisions should be
based on individual judgements and needs prompt attention in the same. Individuals should be
responsible for their own decisions. Proceduralists believes that good decisions are formed from
closely knitted formal procedures, which are having a theory base and subsequently follows a
systematic collection of objective information. Proceduralists believes that the decisions which
are taken in the form of committees may be time consuming and lengthy, but the argument is that
it is better to get the right decisions than taking random decisions within a short span of time.
Ginsburgh and Throsby (2006)
Low trust vs. High-trust: Cultures which are having the reliability based on high-trust believes
that people and common public will be honest, work hard, loyal and generally keep their
promises in situations of odd and even and in adverse conditions when they have little / no
44
material inducement related with the subject / matter. In contrast, cultures having low trust
appeal believe that common people are motivated to do certain things based on the material
incentives and their motive is concerned with self attainment. Therefore, there might be tendency
towards deceitful behaviour, cheating or elusion. High trust characteristics are a prominent
feature of the individualistic society where the power of enforcement about any agenda is not the
same as compared to collective society. Holmes and Sustein (1999) in Ginsburgh and Throsby
(2006)
High-tension vs. Low-tension: Subsequently, Scitovsky (1976) and Casson (2002) in
Ginsburgh and Throsby (2006) assert that person with the attribute of a high-tension society will
engage in ambitious projects whereas a person belonging from low-tension society prefers to
have easy projects. High-tension people are more inclined to be stressed out as they are aiming
high for their own achievement and are ashamed of failure. On the contrary, low-tension people
are relaxed minded as their aim is comparatively low than others and they blame the situational
factors for their failure i.e. ‘external locus of control’. Though, low-tension people tend to
behave in an unstructured manner, which often has anti-social repercussion.
2.2.4 Acceptance of Celebrity Endorsement based on Cultural Difference:
Now the main distinction for marketers and advertisers comes when there is a huge cultural
difference between the countries where they operate and are willing to operate in future. Taking
into consideration the cultural difference between India and UK it has been observed that there is
a major cultural difference among the cultures of the 2 countries, where the former is having a
collectivism approach towards societal decision and the later is having Individualism approach
towards society. From the above discussion of the cultural dimension it is already clear that
Individualism cultures are always very eccentric and people value their own decisions, whether it
is good or bad. In the similar path it would be argued that people is this culture are very much
self conscious and always represent them as an individual in respect to their life and decisions
which they make in the course of life.
While discussing about the acceptance of celebrities in the endorsements of products / goods it
has been commonly viewed that people in individualistic culture are having varied opinion about
45
endorsement and following celebrities as stereotypes is not a permanent constraint. Some of the
people do value endorsement of celebrities and some don’t, even there are groups of people who
are concerned about the association of the celebrity along with the individual life style of them,
and therefore follows based on the characteristics match of them with the celebrity character.
E.g. People having a business class mind will value celebrities or spokesperson from that
background, like entrepreneurs, business magnet endorsing products, whereas teen people will
value the pop singers and other teen idol celebrities who match a real connection along with the
life-style of them. People in this cultures are looking for the affectivity and efficiency of the
product / brand more than the endorsers reliability and when the former characteristics matches
along with celebrity recommendation it catalyzes the process of buying behaviours among the
consumers.
According to Hofstede (2009) there are 5 main cultural dimensions which distinguish the world
cultures. They are Power distance index (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS),
Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), Long term-orientation (LTO). The charts below outlines the
difference between UK and Indian cultures based on the dimensions.
PDI (Power distance index) UK is having a low PDI of 35.
IDV (Individualism) Individualism is very high in UK and is 89.
MAS (Masculinity) UK scores 66. Masculinity vs. Femininity
UAI (Uncertainty avoidance index) Society’s tolerance for uncertainty ambiguity. UK’s
score is 35.
LTO (Long-term orientation) Long tern orientation vs. Short tern Orientation.
46
UK’s score is 25.
Fig 6.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of United Kingdom
Source: Adopted from [www.geert-hofstede.com (2009)] and modified by Basu (2009)
On the contrary, if we look at the collectivist culture and the community prevailing in those
cultures it would be eminent that people in those cultures are more concerned about the group
activity and obey the communal cause than utilizing their own opinion about any given matter. In
a collectivist culture people seek opinion from others to form their own decisions and they are
very cautious about the societal structure and the general consensus of acceptance. They always
take the decisions or modify their own opinion based on what a collectivist society will accept.
There is a high tendency of interference of powerful people in the decision making stage in the
collectivist society. Therefore, when it comes to celebrity endorsement people always recognize
the characters which are accepted by the society. In a collectivist society people recognize the
power and strength of the people to adjudge them as a spoke person and celebrities in these
cultures plays a vital role in getting general consensus in the society.
PDI (Power distance index) Power distance in India is high and scores 77.
IDV (Individualism) Individualism is low and is 48.
47
MAS (Masculinity) Masculinity is average and scores 56.
UAI (Uncertainty avoidance index) Society’s tolerance for uncertainly ambiguity is 40.
LTO (Long-term orientation) Long term vs. Short term is 61.
Fig 7.1 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of India
Source: Adopted from [geert-hofstede.com (2009)] and modified from Basu (2009)
While, taking the example of India it is very prominent that people have a high influence of
celebrity culture and acceptance in the social life. They recognize the Bollywood characters as a
depiction of the society and want them to be portrayed into the commercial so that, they get a
notion of substantiation from them. Even in many advertisements it has been seen that 1 celebrity
is used in different forms of product / brand endorsements. Though, according to the principle of
endorsement it might hamper the image of the brand / company but due to high acceptance of the
celebrity image in the society, celebrities are considered as powerful societal tools to rule the
mass and thus form a matter of acceptance in all aspects. Power, money, strength, popularity and
mass acceptance are major factors which companies consider endorsing while a celebrity into a
brand / product endorsement in Indian advertisements. Subsequently, it has been seen that global
organizations are also making their ads domesticated to the Indian community to attract
consumers and are entirely different from their western campaigns. Even people are looking at
the reliability and trustworthiness of the celebrity more than the affectivity of the product. They
believe that if popular celebrities endorse the product it has got some ‘weight’ which diminishes
the anxiety of the consumers for acceptance. E.g. Sharukh Khan the Indian Bollywood actor and
a popular celebrity in the tinsel world endorses variety of brands and products, but interestingly
his reliability is having a powerful power of persuasion which flounce the consumers mind and
adds as a weapon of marketing for advertisers.
48
Fig 8.1 Cultural Dimensions accepted in India and UK:
Source: (Basu, 2009) Author’s creation
More of the emphasis about the difference between individualism and collectivism has been
illustrated by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. His primary interest was to discover the work
related values in a cross cultural community which measures the behavioural attitude of people
in different cultures. Moreover, Doole and Lowe (2008) describes that in a individualistic society
(IDV) there is a variety of relationship between individuals and his / her fellow members in the
society. E.g. nuclear families, extended families, tribes have a greater degree of individual tie-
ups. These societies allow greater proximity of freedom in individual life and expect people to
behave as a person representing them as an individual caring their own self interest. These
Dimensions India UK
Individualism Low High
Collectivism High Low
Pragmatism Low High
Proceduralism High Low
Low Trust High Low
High Trust Low High
High-Tension Variable High
Low-Tension Variable Variable
49
societies reflect a loose integration of cultural biasness and communal harmony. On the other
hand in a collectivist society individuals are cared and protected from their hierarchal peers and a
matter of consensus judgement comes into the decision making process of any individual where
societal approval about any given matter (life/work) is valued more than person opinion.
Collectivist love to mingle in groups and consult their person life and interest’s in creating and
maintaining a communal harmony. In these societies there is a high degree of cultural and
communal integration. Hofstede (2003) in Doole and Lowe (2008) identifies countries like USA,
UK and Netherlands as Individualistic society and Colombia, Pakisthan and Taiwan as
collectivist society whereas India, Japan Austria and Spain are in the mid-range of the
Individualism vs. Collectivism society.
Fig 9.1 Comparison between India and UK based on Geert Hofstede: Cultural Dimensions
Source: [geert-hofstede.com (2009)]
50
2.2.5 Celebrity endorsements and ROI (Return on Investments):
However, Shimp (2000) illustrates that companies always perform a cost benefit analysis before
they endorse an expensive celebrity into their marketing campaign. This analysis determines the
fact that whether or not it is justified to endorse an expensive celebrity in terms of scope as it is
difficult to forecast the future revenues which would be obtained from using a special celebrity
endorser. The major task for the marketers and the financial analyst of the companies is to
compute the ROI which can be projected from a set of celebrities that connects favourably along
with the brand’s image the target market (Ibid).
Agarwal & Kamakura (1995) suggest that in the present scenario the importance of economic
value towards strategic marketing decisions are becoming significant aspects of core company
values. Farrell et.al. (2000) describes that previous studies and researches in the similar field
explains the positive impact of celebrity endorsements in the consumer behaviour segment, but
few researches evaluated the importance of celebrity selection criteria and the companies
valuation in terms of market growth and stock price. Agarwal & Kamakura (1995) explains that
companies spend million of dollars on celebrity for a multi year contract and it always varies
according to the status of the celebrity. It can also lead up to generating invest in the form of
intangible asset for the company who is endorsing the celebrity. These intangible assets are
recognized as future sales increase, revenues and profits which are important aspect of the
endorsement agenda from the company’s strategic perspective (Ibid). Agarwal & Kamakura
(1995) suggests that the major question for the companies behind the celebrity endorsement
policy is concerned with the economic returns which the company is forecasting from the
investment in the form of celebrity advertising and how companies estimate the ROI on celebrity
endorsements.
51
Moreover, Agarwal & Kamakura (1995) assert that it is very hard to determine the overall
success of the advertising campaign on the sales performance of the company / brand as it is
impossible to assess the effectiveness of a celebrity endorsement and calculate profitability.
Additionally, the advertising campaign for a company / brand runs for a period of time with the
intension of sales increase or marketing, therefore the current profit might not reflect the true
profitability attained from the advertising campaign (Ibid). Agarwal & Kamakura (1995) used an
alternative way of measuring the profitability gained from celebrity endorsement by taking the
expected profit associated along with the endorsement campaign as replicated in the abnormal
returns of the company. Subsequently, they also used the event study methodology to measure
the abnormal return on endorsements.
Mathur & Mathur (1997) suggest that event study methodology is often used in order to identify
the valuation effects based on the marketing decision of a company. Mathur et.al. (1997: 70)
states that the basic principle of event study methodology is that “investors evaluate and use in
their investment decisions all relevant new information that becomes available to them” Agarwal
& Kamakura (1995) describes that because endorsements involves a lot of financial commitment
therefore a proper scrutiny of financial implications are vital for the investors and the company.
When companies endorse a celebrity into the advertising campaign the investors will engage into
making an independent judgement based on the future returns and profit impact of the contract
targeting the revenue and sales performance evaluating the company’s stock returns of the
product / brand endorsed. Thus event study methodology examines the valuation of the product /
brand in the current market along with the net economic worth of the celebrity endorsement.
Additionally, Agrawal & Kamakura (1995) suggest that the research of 110 celebrity contracts of
various companies showed proximity towards the positive aspect of the celebrity endorsement
policy. It has been reflected in the positive outcome of stock return of the products / brands after
using celebrity advertising and companies’ value endorsement as a worthy investment in spite of
having an expensive budget. Farrell et.al. (2000) used the event study methodology to evaluate
the impact of celebrity endorsement and studied some companies’ performance where Tiger
Woods endorses their products based on a survey on Wood’s tournament performance and the
contract for the endorsement. The outcome shows that they didn’t found a relationship between
52
Wood’s tournament performance and the excessive ROI of fortune brands (Ibid). However,
Farrell et.al. (2000) illustrates that there was a matter of relationship distraction between
American Express (AMEX) and Wood’s as AMEX viewed the credibility of a Golfer is not
significant to the market of their product. In contrast, Nike has viewed Wood’s performance as a
confirmatory constraint as it has boosted it sales with Wood’s winning performance in his
matches and gave Nike an additional publicity. Moreover, there is another interesting facet that
both Nike and Wood’s are related to sports and thus a parallel relationship of the brand along
with the celebrity is viewed credible by the consumers. Additionally, Mathur et.al. (1997) entails
that most of research on celebrity endorsement came up with the evidence that celebrity
endorsement of a brand / product enhances the profitability of the product and have considerable
values from company’s perspective to attain higher brand equity and market share.
53
CHAPTER 3
3. Research Methodology:
In the previous chapter we discussed about the literature behind the research and analysed some
theoretical framework suggested by academics in the field of celebrity endorsement. The
literature has given us background knowledge about the research and in this chapter we are going
to frame up questions based on the foundations cited in the literature. However, in this chapter
we are constructing our research methodology which is required to discuss and validate our
research. The research methodology will give us the guideline to gather adequate information for
the research and how to practice the methods while gathering information effectively from the
sample size. It will help us to construct appropriate questions in order to achieve the accurate
answers for the research and thus validating the research with justified findings and conclusions.
Research methodology is divided in to 6 sections whilst: research approach, strategy of the
research, data collection technique, sample selection, data analysis and research quality
criteria.
3.1 Purpose of Research:
Generally there are many different ways of conducting a research, although it is variable based
upon what kind of research the researcher is doing and a clear perception and elementary
knowledge about the research area helps the researcher to classify the problems which are due to
be investigated. Wiedersheim-Paul and Eriksson (1999) suggests that there are 3 different
research categories which are essential aspects while dealing with a research problem. The
54
research problem could be dealt with exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research
approaches.
3.1.1 Exploratory Research:
Reynolds (1971) suggests that exploratory research enables the researcher to investigate certain
phenomenons which are similar to the research objective and forming suggestive ideas which are
included in the actual research. In other way it is a process of gathering relevant data available
from the previous researches which are vital aspects to construct and support the causes of the
research. Patel & Tebelius (1987) defines that the main objective is to gather a pool of
information which are specific to the research problem. Exploratory research is conducted when
the research problem is indistinctly known or when there is lack of clarity about the knowledge
available and there are no explicit findings. The ideal practice for data gathering in case of an
exploratory research is to conduct interviews (Ibid).
3.1.2 Explanatory Research:
The objective behind conducting explanatory research is to form precise theory which could be
used to used to define pragmatic explanations (Reynolds, 1971) Based on the theory the
researcher constructs the hypotheses of the research which are tested empirically (Patel &
Tebelius, 1987) However, Yin (2003) defines that a research is explanatory when there is a
cause-effect relationship, explaining what are the causes behind the effects shown in the
research. Aaker & Day (1990) explains that explanatory research approach should be taken
when one of the variables in the research causes or determines the value of the other variables
and is an appropriate research technique when the problems of the research are difficult to
demarcate (ibid). This kind of research technique is also valid when there is no clear
demonstration about specific model to be used in case of problem and what kind of qualities and
relationship are important while considering the problem (Wiedersheim & Eriksson, 1999)
3.1.3 Descriptive Research:
Patel & Tebelius (1987) suggests that descriptive research provides an explanation about various
incidents which are connected along with individuals, situations or events that occurs and creates
55
a problem. However, its purpose is also to create empirical generalizations which later leads to
theory development based on the generalizations illustrated in the research (Reynolds, 1971).
Additionally, it is ideal for researches where there is no requirement to investigate a cause-effect
relationship and the problem is well defined (Wiedersheim & Eriksson, 1999). Aaker & Day
(1990) suggests that descriptive research is another way of doing secondary research based on
the previous research data and findings where the objective is to demonstrate few aspects of a
particular problem.
However, from the research perspective it is very important to form some questions which are
the focus of the research are the objective of conducting the research. As stated in chapter 1 that
the purpose of the research is “Showing the influence of celebrity endorsements in the marketing
campaign of brands / products and significance of culture in the recognition of a celebrity, by
consumers’ from various cultures across the world. Also, creating awareness for the probable
organizations trying to become global corporations.” Therefore some of the research questions
which seek attention are: Why companies choose celebrity endorsement as a promotional
strategy? How companies select their endorsers? Are there any cultural dimension which
companies consider and value while endorsing any celebrity / character? How major companies
and global organizations take the advantage of celebrity endorsement while they are expanding
in different nations? Do culture and consumer’s perception about known celebrities plays a vital
role in advertisement and marketing? How different is Western and Eastern society and hence
the impact of celebrity advertising? Are consumers from different cultures having different
attitude towards consumption and processing of advertisements? Do companies select the
celebrities addressing ROI and cost benefit analysis? Moreover, the research questions are trying
to explain the problem of a specific nature in a broad spectrum. Some of the answers are there
with the consumers and some are undefined. Therefore, consumer’s perception plays a vital role
in the research, and descriptive research methods are chosen to conduct the research.
3.2 Research Approach:
While conducting a research it is very important to consider the research approach and specially
in the field of management and social science when the research are done with a cause-effect
56
relationship, therefore the researcher test a huge amount of sample to gather data and later
analysis of the data which ultimately gives the firm position about drawing a rational conclusion
based upon the findings. Denscombe (1998) suggests that qualitative and quantitative research
approaches are very common methods in social science research. Moreover, Wiedersheim-Paul
& Eriksson (1997) asserts that a research can be classified into 2 distinct types as qualitative and
quantitative research. However, Denscombe (1998) states that there is a difference between
qualitative and quantitative research because both the methods treats the data analysis in
different ways, one with the use of statistical tools and is a scientific approach and the other is
analysis of the data gathered in a particular format to understand the human behavior and the
reasons the govern those behavior. Denscombe (1998: 174) states that “the most elementary
distinction between the two approaches lies in the use of words of numbers as the basic unit for
analysis”.
3.2.1 Quantitative Research:
Aliaga & Gunderson (2002) in Muijs (2004) defines that quantitative research is a phenomenon
where the researcher explains by colleting numerical data from the sample and later analyses
them by using mathematically based methods (statistical tools). Denscombe (1998) defines that
in quantitative research the data gathered from observations, reports and recordings etc are
transformed into quantifiable numbers which is measured in an order of a scale termed as
nominal, rational and ordinal data. Quantitative research considers analysis of numbers as the
prime criteria as numbers are suitable to carry out comparisons and correlations required for the
research and while analyzing the data based on statistical tools it helps to control analysis
process when the numbers are large. Therefore, quantitative research is valid when the research
is done on a large scale and the sample size entails large quantities and numbers (Ibid).
Additionally, Blaxter et.al. (2001) in Bell (2005) suggests that quantitative data appear to
provide more precise data about the outcome of the research.
3.2.2 Qualitative Research:
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Huberman & Miles (1994) suggests that qualitative research is carried out through an intense
contact with a particular ‘field’ or life situation. Huberman & Miles (1994: 6) states that “these
situations are typical “banal” or normal ones, reflective of the everyday life of individuals,
groups, societies and organizations”. According to Silverman (2004) qualitative research takes
in to account a wide range of different contradictory activities which are related with the research
topic. Moreover, Maxwell (2005) suggests that qualitative data analysis is a kind of data analysis
which constitutes data in the form of language and texts. Language is one of the most important
factors which effect the qualitative research as it carries significant expressions and these data’s
can be easily changed into linguistic form through descriptions and field notes. Denscombe
(1998) describes that qualitative research is favorable for conducting smaller and in depth studies
when the sample size is limited. However, Yin (2003) suggests that qualitative research aims to
receive detailed information from the data gathered so the researcher can obtain a detailed
understanding of the problem in matter.
For this research regarding celebrity endorsement the researcher has chosen qualitative approach
to deal with the problem of the research matter. As, the matter of study will engage consumers
from 2 different culture (UK and India) therefore the opinion of normal and everyday consumers
are vital aspect of the research. Qualitative approach will design the questionnaire which will
enable the researcher to study in depth the consumer’s perception about celebrity endorsement in
different cultures and also how they value it in their buying decisions. However, the opinion of
the consumers will be collected in the form of questionnaire survey and while interpreting the
data, qualitative analysis will be produced. However, in order to give precise demonstration of
certain segment of consumers and their attitudes quantitative data would be produced in the form
of bar charts and graphs.
3.3 Research Strategy:
Research strategy is the way to approach the research for any given topic. It depends mostly on
the questionnaire formed for the research which will define which strategy would be best suitable
for investigating the research objectives. Yin (2003) suggests that there are 5 different situations
where research strategies could be used. There are varieties of strategies but the best suited ones
are the most applicable and recognized for specific type of research. Some of the situations
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illustrated are experiment, survey, archival, analysis, history and case study. However, there
are both positive and negative elements of using each strategies and the researcher would choose
the appropriate strategy based on the situation analysis where he/ she is gathering data (Ibid).
Yin (2003) also narrates further classification of the strategies which distinguishes them with
each other. These are as:
Form of research question
Control over actual behavioral events
Focus on contemporary events.
The table here demonstrates the different research strategies in relation to the 3 conditions laid
out.
Fig 10.1 Research Strategies for different situations:
Source: Yin (2003: 5)
Research Strategy Form of Research
Questions
Control over actual
behavioral events?
Focuses on
contemporary
events?
Experiment How, Why Yes Yes
Survey Who, what, where,
how many, how much
No Yes
Archival analysis Who, what, where,
how many, how much
No Yes / No
History How, why No No
Case study How, why No Yes
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3.3.1 The Survey:
McBurney & White (2007) suggests that surveys are vital research strategies used while
gathering scientific information. However, the purpose of survey is to gather information from
people about their experience or opinion about any specific issue which is related to the research.
Alternatively, there are surveys which tend to seek the judgment about people’s behavior from
any particular issue / event. In this research survey technique is used to gather information from
the consumers about their opinion about celebrity endorsement and attempting to find out the
effect which the celebrity endorsement might have to the consumer’s buying attitude. Moreover,
McBurney & White (2007: 237) states that “surveys provide an opportunity to examine the
correlations among the participants’ responses and to look for possible patterns of cause and
effect”.
Another, interesting aspect of using surveys as a research strategy is to dispel the myths. A case
in relation is about women who suffer from ‘the empty nest syndrome’ whose children have
grown up and left home suffer a kind of depression. However, Rubin (1979) in McBurney &
White (2007) suggests that after surveying 160 women for the above cause it is found out that
the majority of women are actually feeling ‘a sense of relief ’ rather being ‘depressed’. In this
research the survey technique is used to study the behavior and attitude of the consumers about
the use of celebrities in advertising and marketing or products / goods and a comparative study is
proposed to be done with consumers from UK and India to find out whether consumers have
high affinity towards celebrity endorsement in different cultures or they are more concerned
about the effectively of the product. From cultural dimension it seems that 2 different cultures
have diverse attitudes about the same. Therefore, a survey research would entail us to determine
the real psychology behind the whole marketing agenda of companies / brands and conclude a
judgment whether the marketing strategy is feasible and worth investing.
3.3.2 Designing of Questionnaire:
However, in a survey research designing a questionnaire is the difficult task and a complex
procedure. Designing proper questionnaire is key to have accurate data collection from the
sample selected and thereby formation of a good research. The first question to be asked by the
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researcher is: What do I expect to accomplish? In many circumstances researcher design the
questionnaire without considering the purpose of the research. Moreover, in this research the
survey questionnaire plays an important role as it is the only source of data collection from the
sample selected. Proper, accurate and precise questions are always desirable for any research
conducted. [McBurney & White (2007)]
According to McBurney & White (2007) survey questions are divided into 2 categories: open-ended and closed-ended questions. (Appendix Number 1 Questionnaire)
Open-ended: These questions help the respondents to answer the questions in their own words.
Close-ended: These questions limit the respondents in answering the questions in a pre-
determined process selected by the researcher.
However, both types have their own advantages and disadvantages. An open-ended question
permits the respondents to answer the questions more accurately and reveals the reasoning
behind the answers. It is desirable to get new ideologies from the respondents which are not
anticipated by the researcher by using open-ended questions, but they are hard to code as the
questions are in narrative form. Additionally, an open-ended question requires more effort from
the researcher and is hard for less expressive respondents to answer. Coding of these questions
can be done for small number of surveys but for a huge sample it is a difficult task. However,
some open-ended questions done in the preliminary process of the research helps to determine
the range of likely answers, which helps the researcher to standardize the questionnaire pattern in
the close-ended questions and is easily manageable for large number of sample. [McBurney &
White (2007)]
On the other hand close-ended questions are easier to code and analyze and there are few absurd
responses. In these questions the alternatives are pre-decided by the researcher and the
respondents find it easy to answer and whether the respondents are articulate or not don’t affect
the research process. Disadvantages of close-ended questions are that the issues of the research
may be too complex to reduce to small set of alternatives and respondents might not agree with
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all of them, which will hamper the process of accurate data collection. Moreover, close-ended
questions are likely to feed the probable answers to the respondents as the alternatives are
specified by the researcher. Additionally, there are chances of having errors if the respondents
misinterpret the question or there is any mistake while coding the data. In both ways data
gathered is undiscovered (Ibid).
However, for an ideal research both types o questions are desirable as both have its advantages
and disadvantages. From research perspective both the questions should be mixed together in a
questionnaire design which gives the opportunity to the respondents to expand the answers on
their own views and also selecting the accurate alternative in close-ended questions. This process
helps the data to code and analyze easily giving the opportunity for the respondents to choose the
alternatives with a justified reasoning. In this research both open and close ended questions are to
be used for designing questionnaire and would be provide to the sample for data collection.
3.3.3 Principles of questionnaire construction:
There are certain basic principles of questionnaire design which are detailed below in a tabular format
which helps the researcher to avoid the major pitfalls during formation of questions.
Address a single issue per item Primary concern is that the questionnaire items should
be explicit. Each question should address a single matter
with clarity.
Avoid Biasness Write the question in a way that will avoid biasness
about any specific matter / issue, especially which is
researcher’s weakness. Avoiding biasness will give clear
findings from the respondents.
Make alternatives clear While making close-ended questions make sure that the
alternatives selected are not repeated in other questions
asked and should be distinctly different from others to
avoid misinterpretation.
Beware of the social desirability affinity Biasness often occurs when the respondents feel that
one alternative is desirable and more socially
acceptable than the other option which is known as
62
social desirability. The challenge for the researcher is
to construct the questions by using words that each
alternative appears to be equally acceptable from
respondents view point.
Fig 11.1 Basic Principles of Questionnaire Design:
Source: Adapted from McBurney & White (2007) and modified by Basu (2009)
3.4 Data Collection Procedure and Analysis:
According to Swanson & Holton (2005) there are 5 sources of substantiation which are
commonly used while conducting a survey research. They are Observation survey, Direct
observation survey, Participant observation survey, Interviews survey and Questionnaire survey.
Fig 12.1 5 Sources of Evidence: Strength and Weakness:
Evidence Strength Weakness
Observation survey Respondents are viewed by the
researcher and mostly the activities
of the sample are noticed. Useful in
large scale research E.g. Consumers
using London underground at 8:00
am to 10:00 am
Less involvement of the respondents, no
guidance from the researcher about what
should the sample respond on.
Difficult to gather data and time consuming,
variety required, expensive.
Direct observation survey Covers events in real time and also
considers the context of the event.
Survey is done in a real situation.
Time consuming, data gathering problem
unless broad coverage, continuation of the
event, expensive.
Participant observation survey (Same as above for direct
observations)
(Same as above for direct observation) Bias
due to researcher’s manipulation of
respondent’s behavior and attitude.
63
More insight into personal behavior
and attitudes of the respondents.
Interview survey Targeted and focused mainly on the
research topic. Provides in-depth
outlook of the subject
Biased due to error in questionnaire
construction. Interviewees answer what
interviewer wants to hear.
Questionnaire survey Focused on the research topic. Helps
in data collection from a large
sample size. Helps in consumer
behavior studies and cross cultural
research
Poor construction of questionnaire affects the
outcome of the research. Result in biased
findings. Lack of participation of the
respondents.
Source: Adapted from Swanson & Holton (2005) and modified by Basu (2009)
As the research approach includes both qualitative and quantitative methods, though mostly
qualitative analysis followed by quantitative data representation, therefore questionnaire survey
has been selected as the method of data collection from the sample size. Moreover, in the
research consumer behavior and attitude is studied based on 2 countries and questionnaire survey
is best suited in this case. As the study is a cross cultural research so questions will be send out in
the form of web link for distance respondents and for local respondents (UK) Ramada Ealing’s
Reception has been chosen to distribute questionnaire to the participants. Other forms of survey
techniques are not considered as the research is based on the effort of a single researcher with the
fact to be considered that time and money both have value in doing an elaborate research.
Additionally, the time period is also limited where the other forms (discussed earlier) are not
creditable.
The data collected from the respondent sample would be analyzed based on a qualitative data
analysis. The primary selection of the answers would be segregated based on the age group
where it would be easy for the researcher to form certain groups based on the answers and
opinion which will give accurate data measured. Then it would be evaluated according to the
theories explained about celebrity endorsement and culture. Similarity and dissimilarity based on
the assumptions given in the literature of the research will be evaluated based on the
respondent’s data. Critical analysis of the questionnaire survey will be done for both the
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countries to draw conclusion out of the research hypothesis and give accurate findings of the
research.
3.5 Sample Selection:
The selection of an appropriate sample is an essential element of any research. Moreover, social
research is often conducted in certain situations where a probability sample is not appropriate
due to the study of a vast majority, like studying homelessness and there is no specific list of all
homeless people nor it is possible to create such a list. Thus, there are many situations where
social surveys calls for non probability sampling. However, there are 4 types of non probability
sampling base upon reliance on available subjects of the research, purposive (judgmental)
sampling, snowball sampling and quota sampling. Babbie (2007)
Moreover, in this research the sample which has been selected for research is based upon
reliance and availability and in technical terms it is known as ‘convenience sampling’ or
haphazard sampling. This method doesn’t permit any control over the representatives of the
sample and are extremely risky sampling method for social research. The sample is considered
justified only if the researcher wants to study the characteristics of the people and while
generalizing any conclusion out of the data gathered caution must be taken. Convenience
sampling does not have any known probabilities of the sample selection and in consumer
research convenience sampling is an approved way of sample selection. Babbie (2007)
However, in this research about celebrity endorsement the survey study is done through
questionnaire and the sample selected for the research is from 2 countries UK and India. As, the
research is a comparative study between UK and India, the objective of the research is to seek
judgment from the consumers of 2 countries about the impact of celebrity endorsement and their
perception and processing of the celebrity endorsement while buying goods / products. However,
certain elements of cultural dimensions of 2 countries are also nurtured in the research and the
researcher is seeking the answers from the respondents. The sample selected for the research
would be consumers from UK and India. For UK survey, questionnaire would be distributed to
general public in a hotel reception area (Ramada Ealing, Jarvis Hotels Ltd.) where is a point of
contact with many people from various parts of UK, who visit the hotel on various occasions
65
(private and business / leisure). Also the questions would be given to the employees of the hotel
who would account for UK sample and these people are considered prime as they are everyday
consumer in daily life. For, India the questionnaire would send to the participants of the survey
through online community network sites like Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, emails etc. as the
researcher is presently residing in UK and it is difficult to gather information physically being in
India. The questions will be sent out to the respondents through web link and response would be
stored like raw data which will be analyzed later. Data would be pasted as print screens /
diagrams.
3.6 Research Principle:
Wiedersheim- Paul and Eriksson (1999) defines that while writing a research project there are 2
major aspects which the researcher has to consider and they are Validity and Reliability. Validity
is described as the ability of a gadget to measure the data which is necessary. On the other hand
reliability refers to using the same procedures or techniques in the research which would give a
stable and consistent result. However, the way the measuring is conducted and the information
are processed affects the reliability of the research (Ibid).
According to Yin (2003) in case of any pragmatic research there are 4 common tests which are
used to determine the quality of the research. These are Construct Validity, Internal Validity,
External Validity and Reliability.
Construct Validity Ascertaining the correct operational measures
for the concepts used in the research.
Internal Validity Creating a casual relationship where certain
circumstances lead to other situations.
External Validity Establishing a domain where all the findings of
the research can be generalized into.
66
Reliability Signifying the fact that data collection
procedures can be repeated, with the same
results, which measures the operational
efficiency of the research
However, in this research internal validity is not appropriate for the research as the nature of
research is not explanatory with a cause effect relationship. External validity seeks to form a
specific area where all the findings can be generalized and in a cross-cultural survey method it is
hard to generalize the outcomes. As the survey is taken from both UK and Indian consumers
therefore there is no similarity between the 2 sample categories and the responses would
contradict with each other. Yin (2003)
3.6.1 Construct Validity:
Mallette & Duke (2004) suggests that a researcher should identify the topic of the research
whether it is related to psychological, behavioral, social or educational aspect and devise
accurate measurement strategy for the research which is also known as construct validity.
However, Yin (2003) defines that there are 3 ways to improve the construct validity of the
research. They are multiple source of evidence, maintaining a chain of evidence and key
information from the survey research which will entail the findings. We have used multiple
source of evidence in the data collection category. Even the samples are convenience samples
with the advantage of having a easy selection, but the ‘goodness’ of the samples in terms of
representative population is not evaluated. Anderson et.al. (2009) The data collection method is
Questionnaire survey for UK and Indian consumers. Though for Indian consumers online
questionnaire survey is done through web link. To establish validity of the research various
models related to celebrity endorsement and academic theories were discussed to construct the
research base. The questionnaire survey has given us ample source of evidence from consumers
which are valuable form of data and the sample of the survey has given us chain of evidence in
relation to the same research subject. The key information / findings were evaluated in the data
analysis section and represented in charts and graphs format.
67
3.6.2 Reliability:
According to Fowler (2002) a survey research is an interaction between the researcher and the
respondents. Mostly, surveys are self administered by the researcher and they make direct
contact with the respondents through written questionnaire or words which are scripted on the
computer in word document. However, in other forms of surveys the interviewer reads the
researcher’s questions / word to the respondents. In either ways the survey techniques are the
etiquette of the interaction between researcher and respondents. Additionally, Fowler (2002)
suggests that in order to get consistent data from respondents the following properties should be
included in questionnaire.
Researcher’s point of the question and the answer process should be scripted properly
enabling the respondents to answer consistently.
The meaning of the question should remain same for all respondents
The probable alternatives which consist of an accurate answer should be framed up and
communicated consistently to respondents.
In the research the respondents were given an overview about the subject matter in the beginning
of the questionnaire which gives them background knowledge about the research area. Both open
and closed ended questions were used in order to valid data from respondents. However, more
close ended questions were asked to respondents to ease the process of answering and limiting
the parameter around the research area to avoid distraction.
3.7 Logistical and Ethical Consideration:
However, the data collection technique of gathering data from Indian participants through online
community network might have biased effect on the research as these communities are mostly
new generation’s cyber friendship communiqué. A varied quality of respondents from Indian
mass is required to construct a valuable sample and hence questionnaires would be send out to
anonymous persons using their email address. Subsequently, while collecting data from the UK
sample the reception has been selected as it is considered a point of contacting various people
from UK and abroad visiting the hotel and a perfect place to get a combination of consumer
68
sample. Moreover, there is another fear of biasness due to the fact that while doing the research it
has been described that the research is a comparative study and i.e. both Indian and UK sample
are studied which might include Indian people staying in UK or UK people staying in other
countries for a long time. This will hamper the process of illustrating the cultural dimension
based on Hofstede dimension as people have influence over other cultures. Therefore, the sample
is strictly limited to UK people living in UK only and same for Indian counterparts.
As, per the ethical dimension is considered the name of the participants will be kept secret and
will be acknowledged under an age group category (alphabetical order) and is coded by the
researcher. Moreover, none of their personal comments about any celebrity endorsement and
product will be revealed in the research and only the accurate data will be used for the research.
With the online questionnaire, the name of the participants will be omitted and accumulation of
data would be stored in the software used which will be received in a tabular or chart format. All
the participants of the research will be asked to fill in a consent form for their willingness to
participate which will eliminate chances of being forced but rather generous participation.
(See Appendix 2 for UWL ethical consideration form)
69
3.8 Summary:
Figure 13.1 summarizes the different methods which are been applied in the research in a
diagrammatic flowchart. Source: Basu (2009) Author’s Creation
Research Methodology Flowchart
Purpose of Research
Research Approach
Research Strategy
Data Collection MethodData Analysis
Exploratory Research
Explanatory Research
Descriptive Research
Quantitative Analysis
Qualitative Analysis
Survey Case Study Archival Analysis
Experiment History
Primary Research Secondary Research
Direct Observation Survey
Questionnaire Survey
Observation SurveyParticipant
Observation SurveyInterview Survey
Questionnaire Survey Analysis
Critical Evaluation of Survey with Theory and models
Comparative Analysis
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CHAPTER 4
4. Data Analysis:
In the previous chapter the research approach and methodology used in the research is
described in detail. This chapter will provide the reader about the detailed analysis of the data
gathered by the research methodology approach. Miles and Humberman (1994) suggest that
data analysis of a particular research consists of three divisions, data reduction, data display
and conclusion drawing. In this chapter, we are going to analyse the data based on each of
our research questions with what is referred to as within the case analysis, where data from
the respondents of the survey will be compared against the theory of celebrity endorsements
and thereby proving the hypothesis of the research true / false based on the analysis. Also
new addition of different aspects of consumer philosophy about celebrity endorsements and
marketing would be enlightened.
4.1Data Collection Draft:
The survey research conducted for the purpose of the research on celebrity endorsement and
its influence on the consumers of India and UK has received responses from various people
with a varied age group and as on 30th September 09’ total 80 responses have been received
from the voluntary participants to whom questionnaire was approached online / printed. Out
of 80 responses received 47 of the respondents were male (60%) and 31 of them were female
(40%) which is indeed a good participation of the chosen convenience sample. Though, 2 of
the sample have not mentioned their gender and due to the time consuming nature of the data
Research Philosophy Positivist
71
collection procedure the researcher has to stop collecting data after 80 responses as the
participation is entirely voluntary. Due to the same consequence the sample size has fallen
down to 80 from estimated (100 numbers), with a deficit of 20 respondents.
Fig 14.1 Population Participation of the research
Fig 15.1 Division of age group of the sample
The number of participants of the research has been subdivided based on their age and 4 groups
have been created. According to the data gathered from the survey it has been observed that
Male 47 60%
Female 31 40%
72
participants within the age range (20-30) are higher in percentage to take part in the survey
followed by (30-40) age range and the rest as shown the figure 15.1 From the above figure it
would be assumed that celebrity endorsement of products / goods is a matter of interest for adult
young consumers who are represented by the age group (20-30). The age group consists of both
male and female population and participants from both India and UK. However, what is
observed from the initial participation graph that mostly young generation are influenced or
attracted by the celebrity marketing agenda or they are forming opinion about this particular
issue. The age group of (30-40) people are also taking active interest but as a matter of fact
celebrity and young generation are having high association which might be positive or negative
that is analysed later in the report.
4.2Data Analysis of Questions:
In the consumer research survey about celebrity endorsements 14 questions were asked to the
participants, out of which 4 questions were open ended questions, seeking suggestions from the
sample respondents to illustrate their own views about the matter asked and justifying their
opinion with a logical explanation. Another 10 questions were close ended questions where the
alternatives were given to the respondents to get the accurate data from the sample which is only
concerned about the research topic and to avoid deviation. In the first section of the analysis
close ended questions were analysed followed by the open ended questions. Moreover, a critical
discussion and correlation of both types of questions and literature will be analysed in the
evaluation of the data.
4.2.1 Analysis of Close Ended Questions:
Q 1. What type of celebrities do you like in advertisements?
Hollywood 2836%
Bollywood (Indian Cinema) 1114%
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Soprts Personalities 2329%
Media Host 2 3%
TV Personalities 7 9%
TV Show presenters 1 1%
Business Magnets 6 8%
Politicians 0 0%
Fig 16.1 Celebrities in advertisements
In this specific question asked to the sample, the above results were shown where 36% of the
respondents were keen to see Hollywood celebrities in the adverts followed by sports
personalities (29%) and 14% of the sample wanted to see bollywood (Indian Cinema) actors /
actress in the advertisements. As these are the major types of celebrities who are mostly
preferred by the sample researched, therefore it would be assumed that celebrities from these
media channels are having high propensity to be indulged into advertising campaign for various
companies to promote their products. A few percentages of votes were also received by TV
personalities (9%) and business magnets (8%) which show that some of the consumers in today’s
world are rational about the acceptance of celebrities and merely don’t like celebrities from the
tinsel world of glamour.
But on the other hand if we evaluate the ranking of the celebrities based on the consumer liking
then it would be argued that most of the participants of the research are within the age range of
(20-30) who are more interested into media especially movies and sports. Subsequently, the
results shown that most of the consumers have given their voting for Hollywood and sports
celebrities whom they are attracted to or bear a special connection in terms of being a ‘fan’ and
accepting them as spokesperson for their consumable products. Due to the exposure of these
celebrities in the media channels (TV, magazines, internet, etc) they are more famous in the eye
of general public and companies endorse these celebrities into product campaigns to enhance
attention of the consumers. This relates to the theory of ‘pros and cons’ of celebrity
endorsements, where celebrities having high exposure in the mass public are having persuasion
skills to attract consumers, the least to pay attention to the adverts which they endorse.
74
Q 2. Where do you mostly watch advertisements?
Fig 17.1 Celebrities in media channels
In this question where the consumers were asked to mention about media channels where they
see most advertisements. The result of the participating sample shows that 53% of the consumers
view adverts on television followed by 38% in magazines and 5% in posters and 3% in public
displays. This statistics gives us the information that in spite of improvement in the field of
media technology and cyber addiction, most consumers actually sees and pay attention to adverts
seen in the television. As a matter of common concern that most television programmes are
sponsored by adverts and these adverts give the broadcasting channels to charge higher TRP to
the companies based on the peak time of showing, which is often evening hours. Adverts viewed
by the public either intentionally or unintentionally of these products garb the attention of the
consumers. Though, companies invest a lot on these advertising campaigns but the ROI on these
are high due to its maximum coverage and mass distribution at the same time throughout the
country. Even tele-adverts are more attractive and appealing to the consumers as it shows the
creativity of the advertisements which engages a lot of consumers. Companies target their
campaigns to specific programmes which are more popular, giving them a wider circulation and
marketing of the product.
On the other hand magazines also show a high proportion of coverage after television. Most of
the magazines now a day are indulged into marketing of fashion products and other labelled
brands and especially target market oriented magazines like Elle, Vogue, Cosmopolitan etc are
more into the female group where as Men’s health and fitness, sports and financial magazines are
into male groups. Both types of magazines are highly prone to celebrity advertising and
Television 42 53%
Magazines 30 38%
Newspapers 1 1%
Posters 4 5%
Public Displays 2 3%
Boardings 0 0%
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marketers target these specific magazines to tap the audience from various genres with
diversified interest. Poster and public displays are also attractive mode of communication to the
consumers as in daily life these eye-catching celebrity adverts draw attention of the publics.
Q 3. As a consumer do you think that celebrity endorsement influences buying behavior?
Agree 5
4
68%
Strongly agree 1
1
14%
Disagree 1
1
14%
Strongly disagree 2 3%
Unsure 1 1%
Fig 18.1 Celebrity endorsement influencing busying behaviour of consumers
This question measures the influence of celebrity endorsements in the buying patterns of the
consumers. Out of 80 participants sample 68% of the respondents voted that they ‘agree’ that a
celebrity endorsement in advertising of products / goods does influences the buying attitude of
the consumers. On the other hand 14% of the samples said they ‘strongly agree’ with the above
76
fact and 14% also ‘disagree’ with celebrity influence in buying behaviour. This statistics
confirms the fact that consumers agree that celebrity association in the advertisements attracts
them towards the product but that doesn’t necessarily means that they buy the product, but it
does appeals the consumers to certain extent. The proportion of consumers strongly agreeing and
disagreeing about the agenda reflects the phenomenon that consumers in today’s world are very
rational in their approach of buying and they do not blindly rely on celebrity endorsement, but
utilize their own capacity of buying the product, which depends on their budget and
requirements.
Q 4. Do you think celebrities are having a power of persuasion to convince consumers?
Agree 5
6
70%
Strongly agree 1
0
13%
Disagree 911%
Strongly disagree 0 0%
Unsure 5 6%
Fig 19.1 Power of persuasion of celebrities
In this question the consumers were asked whether they think that celebrities have the power of
persuasion to connive them in order to purchase goods / products. The result obtained from the
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survey shows that 70% of the participating population said they agree with the fact that
celebrities do have certain persuasion skills followed by 13% who said they strongly agree with
the above fact. However, 11% of the respondents disagree with celebrity persuasion skills and
6% of the samples are unsure of it. From the above statistics obtained it is very clear to mention
that celebrities convey the message of the product / goods to the consumers and due to their
influence in the life of the normal people, consumers get affected. It can be justified by saying
that that there are certain people who are sports fanatic or movie fans and they entertain
themselves by watching sports / movies. However, in this phenomenon of watching and making
connection with that entertainment they get attracted to some specific characters either in sports /
movies, whom they summon as a role model or favourites. When these favourite characters
endorse a product and consumers see the advertisement they immediately make a connection
with the pre-determined image of the personality based on their favourite list. The whole
phenomenon is a matter of ‘processing’ which the consumers does and thus celebrities get the
advantage to persuade them based on their characters disposition over individual people.
Q 5. Which products do you think are ideal to have celebrity endorsements?
Consumer goods 1
8
23%
Branded cloths 3
2
41%
Financial products 1 1%
Service industry products 3 4%
Watches 7 9%
Motor / Car Industry 4 5%
Cosmetic Products (Men & Women) 117%
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3
Electronics and Telecommunication 0 0%
Fig 20.1 Products ideal for having celebrity endorsement
In this question the consumers were asked to give their own opinion about the type of products
where celebrity endorsements could be best suited or consumers would prefer of see them. From
the responses gathered 41% of the respondents voted for branded cloths, followed by 23%
consumer goods and 17% cosmetic products which are having higher votes than the rest. Few
votes were also received by watches (9%), motor / car industry (5%), service industry (4%)
and financial products (1%). Now the majority of the people agreed that branded cloths are
ideal to have celebrity endorsements because celebrity and fashion are the industry which runs
parallel and there are many aspects of both the industries which compliment each other.
However, celebrity image and fashion is also reflected in the brand image of cloths which gives
consumers value and convince them to pay premium price for the cloths. However, there are
several branded cloths which are officially endorsed by celebrities and they do market the
clothing line by giving the celebrity name. Like Armani and Beckham family are associated
along with the Armani level and they became an image of the brand. Many people who like
David Beckham as a footballer or as a personality get associated along with the brand, though
many would not like Armani as a fashion brand. On the other hand consumer goods are also
voted as a preferential choice by consumers to have celebrity endorsements. Specially, if we look
at the cosmetics (men & women) and other daily products, there are several items which are
endorsed by celebrities in order to fetch the attention of the consumers. Behind this strategy,
there is a notion that if celebrities are endorsing the products which are used by the consumers on
a daily basis that would increase consumption and celebrities shadow the products as their own
patent version, which catalyzes this process. Also in cosmetic products there is higher affinity of
consumers to get celebrity endorsements because skin and complexion or (how people look?)
makes a lot of difference in 21st century. The opinion from consumers gives the similar statistics.
Q 6. When you see an advertisement what appeals you the most?
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Celebrity association 5 6%
Actual product 1
4
18%
Effectiveness of the product 1
5
19%
Reliability of the product 1
0
13%
Brand image 2
3
29%
Value for money 1
2
15%
Fig 21.1 Consumer appeals in terms of advertisements
When this question was asked to the consumers in the form of a survey, the feedback which was
received from the sample population is shown in the figure. Brand image constitutes 29% of the
votes which is the highest, followed by effectiveness of the product 19% and actual product
18% are on the priority list from the consumers view point. However, value of money also
constitutes around 15% of the votes and reliability of the product 13% and celebrity
association only 6% from the consumer statistics. From the above deduction of the statistics
about the question it is quite clear that brand image is most important factor for the consumers to
consider while watching an advertisement and it appeals consumers. However, some data states
that effectiveness of the product and the actual product are also important factors considered by
the consumers which initiates the buying process. But consumers are keen to know about the
brand image of the product from the advertisements rather than evaluating ‘value for money’
factor of the product. It might be an essential element to consider while purchasing the product,
but as a first attempt to view the product brand image is more important to consumers.
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Subsequently, celebrity association is only having 6% of the total consumer voting which depicts
the fact that showcasing of a celebrity in an advertisement is not a big appreciation from the
consumers but the important bit is brand image, which is reflected and added along with the
celebrity image and broadcasted to the consumers. Other factors mentioned in the fig 21.1 are
equally important for consumers to consider a product based on advertisement appeals.
Q 7. Where do you see more celebrity advertisement?
Cosmetics (Men & women) 28 35%
Fashion 39 49%
Grocery items 7 9%
Entertainment 6 8%
Financial services 0 0%
Fig 22.1 Areas prone for celebrity advertisement
In the above question when consumers were asked about their opinion, ‘where they see more
celebrity advertisements’ the statistics obtained shows that fashion constitutes 49% of votes
followed by 35% votes from cosmetics (men & women), grocery items 9% and entertainment
8% of the total sample surveyed. Therefore, it would be assumed that most of the consumers
prefer to see celebrity advertisements in fashion (clothing) as it is related to the glamour world
and clothing depicts a life style of an individual. Hence, following a celebrity in order to look
alike or build a personality like them is a common phenomenon among consumers. Moreover,
cosmetics is also preferred by the consumers to have celebrity endorsements as most branded
cosmetic manufacturers endorse celebrities as their brand ambassador to promote a new line of
cosmetics. Additionally, celebrities’ looks after them very minutely cause of their profession,
hence, these products are best suited for them to endorse. Even the consumers do get the notion
that in their everyday life they might not be as same as a celebrity, but in certain occasions they
want to portray their superiority and reflect their personality and attitude which may have certain
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connection with a celebrity of their choice. Grocery items and entertainment are less important
for consumers to have celebrity endorsement as these products are used by them on a daily basis
and most people would evaluate the requirement aspect of buying the products than mere
celebrity association. In these areas consumers judge ‘value for money’ criteria before their
purchase. Even entertainment got less votes cause for people there are various modes of
entertainment depending on their individual taste, hence celebrity is not a prime source of
selection.
Q 8. Which celebrities do you prefer the most in advertisements?
Models (male & female) 3
7
47%
Actors (male & female) 4
1
52%
TV personalities 1
4
18%
Cartoon characters 7 9%
Singers 3 4%
Note: People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.
Fig 23.1 Preference of celebrities in advertisements by consumers
According to preference of consumer’s actors (male & female) and models constitutes the
highest percentage of votes. Most of the consumers prefer to see movie actors and actress in the
advertisements followed by models that are suitable for media industry and promotion. Needless
to mention that physical attractiveness is required in advertising campaign to give glamour to the
promotion and companies deliberately choose these people to highlight their product. Hence, it is
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very common phenomenon for consumers to vote for them as they see these personalities more
often in the advertisement and media campaign. Some consumers do have affinity towards TV
personalities and anchors who are conducting a TV series and mostly consumers like them
because of their personality and attitude which grabs their attention. Other characters are less
important from a consumer’s perspective to consider in an advertisement. Though, there are
many consumers who doesn’t like celebrity endorsements in advertisement and rely more on the
actual product and its effectiveness, but the research is about celebrity endorsement and for
similar reason the sample has been given a set alterative to choose from.
Q 9. Do you like repetition of celebrities in advertisements?
I like repetition 4 5%
Dislike repetition 2
3
29%
Wanted to see known faces 2
5
32%
Doesn't makes difference 2
7
34%
Fig 24.1 Percentage of repetition of celebrities in advertisements
From the above statistics gathered from the survey it clear that consumers attention towards
celebrity endorsement is not a prime factor as most of the votes 34% says that a celebrity advert
doesn’t makes any difference to them. Moreover, 32% of the participants suggest that, they
would like to see known faces on the screen which signifies that these known faces are none
other than celebrities who are popular in the media channel. Another portion of the sample 29%
illustrates that they dislike repetition as they would like to see new faces into the advertisement
as that engages them to look at the advert with the appearance of a new personality. Very small
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amount 5% of the population suggests that they would like repetition. However, there is conflict
between the opinion from consumers (wanted to see known faces) and (dislike repletion) that
some of the consumers are having higher affinity to see known faces as they resemble the
personality whom they like the most, but on the other hand some would like to see new faces as
their opinion suggests known faces would diminish the potential attractiveness of the
advertisement and loose appeal from consumers.
Q 10. How prone are you to celebrity advertisement in your purchase?
High 6 8%
Low 2
2
28%
Medium 3
1
40%
Average 1
0
13%
None of the above 912%
Fig 25.1 Consumers preference of celebrity advertisement in purchasing
In this specific question the consumers sample were asked to give insight about their purchasing
decisions based on celebrity advertisement. However, the statistics obtained from the sample
surveyed demonstrates the fact that 40% of the sample responded that they have medium
relation to celebrity advertisement in their purchasing decisions. Additionally, 28% of the sample
said that they have low affinity towards celebrity advertisements and purchase. This statistics
depicts that most of the consumers are moderately affected by celebrity advertisements and that
does manipulates their purchasing decisions. However, that doesn’t signify the fact that
consumers are bound to purchase products based on their liking to celebrity ads. It can be
assumed that primarily, celebrity adverts initiate an attention for the product in the consumers
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mind and induce the consumers to think about the product in the ‘pre-purchase dissonance’
phase. On the contrary some of the consumers are merely affected by the celebrity highlight in
the adverts and are having low affinity to celebrity association. They rather judge the product
quality and effectiveness before any purchase. Moreover, only 8% of the consumers are highly
affected by celebrity advertisements and they are the consumers who shop mostly due to
celebrity association, which is a small proportion compared to the rest of the sample surveyed.
Out of the statistics 13% of the respondents have average tendency to purchase products based
on celebrity advertisements and 12% didn’t count themselves into the groups selected. Therefore,
the majority of the consumers are moderately affected by celebrity advertisements in their own
purchasing decisions. A picture is drawn out of the statistics that celebrity advertisements
initiates purchasing behaviour of the consumers primarily in the initial phase of the buying
process which might merely end in a window shopping experience.
Q 11. Rank the following characteristics of a 'CELEBRITY’ from (1-5) where 1 is most
important and 5 least important.
Credibility, Expertise, Physical attractiveness, Personality, Popularity
Note: Rank 1 = most important, Rank 5 = least important
Fig 26.1 Ranking of celebrity characteristics in an endorsement
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In this question the participating sample of the consumers were asked to give ranking for the
characteristics of the celebrities (Credibility, Expertise, Physical attractiveness, Personality,
Popularity). From the feedback obtained from the sample, it has been evaluated that credibility
accounts for 78% of the celebrity characteristics followed by 77% personality, physical
attractiveness 76%, expertise 75% and popularity 71%. Therefore, from the analysis of the
characteristics ranking of celebrities from consumers view point, it is eminent that credibility is
the most important aspect what consumers are looking from a celebrity endorser. Credibility
determines the trustworthiness of the celebrity as an endorser and also consistency of the brand
to portray the celebrity. When both the credible aspect compliments each other then the
advertising claims a success and enjoys having great pay off. Personality also forms an
important aspect of celebrity consideration from consumer’s view point as seen in the statistics
given in the graph followed by physical attractiveness and expertise. These are the ancillary
qualities which the consumers evaluate while considering a celebrity in an advertisement.
Popularity counts the least cause the personality and credibility of the celebrity makes the
person popular in the media and in the mass. Therefore, while making a purchasing decision
consumers are mainly looking at the credible aspect of the celebrity association and whether their
reflection in the advertisement suits with the personality of the character. These phenomenons
catalyse the buying process and also the celebrity selection criteria by the consumers in a pre-
purchase dissonance process.
Moreover, there is another line graph outlined below which determines the qualities that are most
important to the consumers while selecting a celebrity. Based on the statistics obtained a line
graph is drawn which shows the important characteristics of the celebrity from a consumer’s
view point. From the line graph statistics it is shown that credibility is the most important aspect
having 55% votes, personality having 32% votes, physical attractiveness 22% and 20% and
popularity having 13%. All these characteristics are measured upon a scale from (most important
to least important) and the highest percentage is taken as a constraint to determine the scale on
each evaluation. The graphical representation shown below demonstrates the above fact. From
the line graph analysis the following outcome is shown
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Most Important (Credibility = 55%), Important (Popularity = 32%), Averagely Important
(Physical attractiveness = 22%), Less than average important (Physical attractiveness = 22%
and 20%), Less Important (Popularity = 13%)
On each scale measurement the highest percentage is taken to determine the importance of the
characteristics and thus the above result is obtained. Though, expertise has not been mentioned in
the line graph as the percentage obtained is less than the rest of the qualities and in few
occasions’ physical attractiveness obtained more percentage than the rest. However, it is an
important characteristics for celebrity selection as mentioned in the earlier graph (75% votes),
but in the line graph selection it has been outdated by the rest of the qualities.
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Fig 27.1 Line chart representation of the characteristics of celebrity from consumer survey
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4.2.2 Analysis of Open Ended Questions:
Q 1. As a consumer do you find yourself liking or buying products more if a celebrity is
promoting it? If yes name some products.
(For the data received refer to Appendix Number 3)
Out of the total number of respondents i.e. 80 respondents of the survey conducted, the results of
the open ended question shows that 32 respondents said (Yes) in response to their answer and
42 respondents said (No) in response to their answers. Some of the participants of the survey
didn’t answer the question. So we have only got 74 responses in total out of 80 participants of
the entire survey. To get the actual percentage of participants liking or buying products based on
celebrity endorsement, we have done a percentage calculation based on the number of actual
participant of this question and got the results of Yes / No for the above question.
1) Yes : 43.24% out of 74 participants
2) No : 56.75% out of 74 participants
This percentage figure shows that most of the consumers are not interested in buying the product
based on celebrity advertisements and promotion. Even though they would like to consider the
product to be evaluated based on their own requirement, but purchasing decision is entirely
rational for consumers. Even the margin of Yes vs. No is 13.51% which is not a massive
difference. It reflects that certain consumers are very much prone to celebrity adverts in their
purchase but that is ultimately less than the percentage of consumers having ‘No’
Q 2. As a consumer do you rely on celebrity endorsement of products / goods?
(For the data received refer to Appendix Number 3)
In this question the responses were receive from 78 participants out of 80 survey participants and
out of that 22 participants said (Yes) and 56 said (No) Out of the total participants of the survey
2 respondents didn’t answer the question. However, to make an analysis based on the yes and no
of the respondents answer, a percentage evaluation is done based on the data gathered.
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1) Yes : 28.20% out of 78participants
2) No : 71.79% out of 78 participants
The percentage analysis of this question shows that consumers don’t rely on the celebrity
endorsement of products / goods and 71.79% of the participants view makes the opinion more
strong. However, only 28.20% of the respondents said yes which shows that there are certain
customers who rely more on celebrity advertisement and promotion before purchasing a product.
They depict celebrity image as a brand standard and gets associated along with the advert. But if
we look at the rational aspect most of the consumers are more inquisitive about their own
purchasing decisions and eliminate the idea of celebrity reliance on their own purchase. They
suggest that mostly their purchase is drifted by their need and requirement which is
complimented by their budget and preference. Quality, reliability and effectiveness of the
product form the base of decision making while purchasing.
Q 3. Do you think culture plays an important role in the recognition of a celebrity?
(For the data received refer to Appendix Number 3)
This is one of the vital questions asked to the participants of the research as the hypothesis of the
research is associated along with the response from the consumers. The main motive behind this
question was to seek opinion from the consumers that, whether celebrity recognition among the
consumers around the world is associated along with the local culture prevailing in the societies.
This question will enable the researcher to form an opinion to the global companies about their
strategy of celebrity selection and taking consideration of the cultural dimension of different
cultures across the globe while defining advertising / promotion / marketing strategy of a product
campaign.
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However, from the data gathered out of 73 respondents of the actual number of participants (80)
of the research survey, 52 respondents voted Yes, 14 said No and 7 of them are Unsure about
the presence of culture in celebrity advertising. All the individual answers received in the form of
data are presented in appendix 3 with color coding for each type. This will enable the reader to
understand the difference and exhume the critical difference. Like other questions here as well as
percentage analysis is done to understand the consensus received.
Therefore, out of 73 respondents
1) Yes : 71.23% out of 73participants
2) No : 19.17% out of 73 participants
3) Unsure : 9.58% out of 73 participants
The percentage of the respondents voted yes is 71.23% compared to 19.17% of the respondents
saying no, which determines the fact that most of the consumers agree that culture does plays an
important role in the recognition of a celebrity. As celebrities are also part of our society and
they come from a specific culture of a country, therefore to get recognition from their own
country people and culture is quite common. Moreover, as they portray a particular society and
represents a community, therefore consumers belonging from those communities would have a
coalition or biasness with the celebrity from that culture. Now, when in adverts the celebrities
from the similar culture and community are shown the consumers feel a sense of liking and
admire it, which initiates the attention of the advert into the consumer’s mind. In many cases due
to the celebrity and culture association consumers make a purchase, though it is not a rational
purchase by the consumers. Thus, culture plays an important role for recognition of a celebrity
and in commercial world it is very important that companies should understand the cultural
difference amongst various nations and domesticate their adverts in order to enhance globally.
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CHAPTER 5
5. Findings and Conclusions:
In the previous chapter, the data gathered from the research approach with the help of data
collection technique i.e. survey is analysed in detail along with the questions which were asked
to the participants of the research. From the sample researched some valuable justification about
the celebrity endorsement and consumer psychology has been drawn out and a critical analysis
was formed in relevance with the theory discussed in the research. According to Miles and
Huberman (1994) conclusion is a fact which is drawn to an activity at the end of the research and
it begins with data collection and is confirmed in the data analysis stage. In this chapter we are
drawing a conclusion of the entire research and summarising the findings which were analysed in
the data analysis section and the importance of this chapter lies in the establishment of new
models of celebrity endorsement and consumer behaviour which will strengthen the global
marketing and advertising activity for multinationals.
5.1 Consumers and Companies Opinion about Celebrity Endorsements as a Promotional Strategy:
From the data analysis of the primary data gathered from the consumers, it is evident to suggest
that celebrities are mere promotional tools which companies use to lure and attract consumers
towards their specific product / goods offerings. As a matter of common judgement consumers
agree with the fact that celebrities draw a lot of attention in the advertisement, especially due the
fact that they are famous and popular characters in the media channels. Their exposure in the
world of 21st century media (TV, magazines, newspapers, journals, internet etc.) has given then
enormous heights to capture a huge amount of audience from all over the world. Needless to
mention, that this is caused due to our technological innovation to create the whole world a small
place to live in. Thus, to become famous and popular in today’s world is not difficult. Now,
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another contradicting matter is, celebrities life span is very limited and it exists till the time the
personality is famous in the media channels and appear in the mass audience. Media channels are
the creator of the celebrities and also they are behind their destruction. For companies to promote
a product it is highly important to consider a celebrity based on their international coverage and
recognition. When a particular character is popular in a specific due to their contribution and
remarkable achievement the media grabs their entire attention and promote them as a significant
personality. This strategy initiates the companies to choose the celebrity from the current
ongoing affairs. Because of the media attention towards these characters they are recognized by
the common people and attain the status of a celebrity. Thus for companies it is relatively
important to consider a celebrity who is active in the media channels and recognized. Therefore,
they choose the celebrities based on their performance index. However, it is not essential that
companies will follow the same strategy as there are known brands and exclusive labels whose
endorsers are recognized by the people and media channels for a prolonged period of time. E.g.
Tiger Woods and Tag Heuer, David and Victoria Beckham with Armani etc. are there in the
celebrity’s worlds that are associated along with a brand for a long period due to their popularity
and recognition in the media and mass population. This forms a continuum among the brand and
the celebrity and ultimate they become the face of the brand.
5.1.2 Repetition of Celebrities in Advertisements and Consumers Opinion:
Another important aspect of the celebrity association and consumers perception relates with the
notion of having known faces appearing in the adverts of products / goods. It has been observed
that popular brands and international companies always endorse a celebrity for a long term
strategic objective and they choose celebrities from higher ends. Subsequently, they have to
invest a huge amount of finance in making a contract with these celebrities. However, companies
are looking for a continuum and ROI from these endorsement deals i.e. promotion and increase
of sales of the endorsed goods / products. Companies think that popular high end celebrities will
last in the media channel for a longer period of time due to their fame and recognition, but in
contrast consumers do have a different opinion where a vast majority of the consumers doesn’t
get affected from a known celebrity advertisement nor they have any preferential liking. It
doesn’t matter to them what celebrity is endorsing the product, what matters is the effectiveness,
reliability and requirement aspect of the product. Moreover, some of the consumers dislike
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repetition of celebrities in the adverts and this is a valid area where companies should take a
strategic look in order to avoid brand damage / dilution. The argument is that due to repetition of
known celebrities the attractiveness and creativity of the advertisements fades away over time.
When a person is repeatedly endorsing a product, from consumer’s perception and processing
phase the appeal of the advertisement doesn’t motivates or instigate the consumers in the initial
phase of advertisement processing. Moreover, it brings in bore drum and loss of attention in that
advert as well as the product. In contrast, the view found from the consumers illustrate that most
of them appreciate the creativity aspect of the commercial advertisement (from fashion to
consumer goods) more than the celebrity and that is more genuine cause of a real purchase.
5.1.3 Celebrity Endorsement and Cultural Significance:
From the consumer survey research about celebrity endorsement, some of the facts investigated
support the hypothesis that culture stands a base of celebrity selection in different cultures. As in
the research consumers from 2 countries (UK and India) were chosen to evaluate the importance
of cultural significance while selecting celebrities. It has been observed that 71.23% of the
consumers from both countries voted ‘YES’ and justified that culture has enormous importance
in the formation and recognition of a celebrity. Moreover, celebrities are part of the same culture
where all the consumers belong from. They are also normal people whose significant work in
any specific field is being recognized by the society and people and thus they acclaim the
societal hierarchy of celebrity. Additionally, this phenomenon is boosted by the efforts of
modern media channels which makes them more significant and on ‘top of the news’. But the
argument is that these celebrities come from a particular culture and a societal demography.
Therefore, for consumers it is fundamental that they will support and recognize those characters
that they are more acquainted with or feel a connection because of their culture and community.
E.g. Sharukh Khan is more recognized in India as a Bollywood celebrity than UK and other parts
of the world and his presence in all advertisement is not recognized as a repetition, rather
appreciated by the consumers and seen as high pay off’s for the companies.
Similarly, Freddie (Andrew Flintoff) is recognized more in the UK as a cricketer and celebrity
sportsperson than other parts of the world and companies like ‘Suremen’ endorse him to
promote their men’s line of toiletries. He is having a fame of recognition as a sportsperson in the
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whole world but Britons generally consider him as a representative of their society and recognize
him as a celebrity in Britain. He is having more importance among the Britons than any other
personalities and thus companies endorse him to promote their product in UK specifically.
5.1.4 Cultural difference between India and UK:
From the research on consumer psychology and celebrity endorsement strategy a comparative
study is done between the consumers of India and UK to draw a distinction between the attitudes
of the consumers and the acceptance of celebrities in the promotional and marketing criteria for
various brands / products offered by the companies. After the data analysis process there are
certain differences between the attitudes of the consumers in 2 countries were revealed in terms
of celebrity endorsement strategy.
India: Consumers from this country form the opinion that celebrities are used by the companies
and brands to promote their product and it is a ‘sheer marketing tactic’, which is a common
fact. However, some of the celebrities are worth endorsing the products because they are
portrayed in the society as an ‘icon’ and there presence in consumer goods and products makes
the people of the nation proud about the personality’s achievement and recognition. They
perceive that the celebrity is representing the whole country and enriching their culture. Thus,
repetition of celebrities is seen often in the adverts made in India where bollywood celebrities are
predominant characters and are more likely to grab attention in the media.
Moreover, from consumption aspect consumers in this country are also eccentric in nature and
try to rationalize their buying attitude by justifying the cause behind it. But, they like the
consensus of the society and gets attracted towards the bollywood celebrities. Argument is that in
India, bollywood is such a big industry and a key media player that most of the consumers are
exposed to Indian tinsel world of glamour than other parts of the world. Moreover, there is an
attitude of patriotism is the consumers where they like the products to be promoted by
personalities from their own country which makes connection with their lives and society.
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United Kingdom: In UK consumers are logical and individualistic in nature. There is no proper
way to demonstrate the attitude of the consumers as all of them have different way of perceiving
the celebrity endorsement strategy. Some criticize it as a marketing agenda and some say, ‘it for
the rich people’ as products having more endorsements are likely to be expensive than others.
However, with the formation of EU (European Union) concentration of people from all over
Europe is seen in UK, mostly due to the value of pound (£). Thus, products are available in the
market readily and there is a huge concentration of products from various parts of Europe and
rest of the world. Only high end products (branded) are having celebrity endorsements in them.
Consumers opinion says that mostly they find celebrity advertisement in fashion and cosmetics,
specially in UK as that’s an area where celebrities makes connection with consumers in terms of
fashion consumption and beauty (men & women). Additionally, UK consumers like sports
celebrities more than glamour celebrities as sports have high significance in the UK society and
culture. Though, some people like glamour world, but most criticize it as an indistinct area and
separate it out as a culture within the celebrity world, fashion and glamour industry.
Most consumers in UK are rational about their purchase and they judge the requirement aspect
before buying. Often consumers do a self assessment of the product and the market before actual
buying. Value for money is ‘thumb rule’ for consumers in UK as goods are expensive in the
market and they want the complete value of the investment. As, people are individualistic in
nature therefore, their own decision is more important than a mere celebrity promotion. For some
it works as the purpose to serve window shopping. Hollywood celebrities are more recognized
by the consumers here as UK and US glamour world compliments each other.
5.1.5 Meeting objectives of the Research:
While conducting the research several barriers and hazards were felt by the researcher. Specially
while conducting a consumer survey in the reception area of a hotel it has been realized by the
researcher, hard to convince people to do voluntary participation. Selecting the sample having
absolutely Indian or British consumers from their consumption practice i.e. consumers living in
only UK and India only was a difficult task. People’s participation delayed the data collection
process and slowed down the research pace. The research questionnaire served the purpose to
standardize the process of data collection and helped in achieving quality data from consumers
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(India & UK). Moreover, the interesting questions and the research topic engaged most of the
sample to give proper answers to the questions asked which were used to analyze in the research.
Using google documents as the tool to launch online questionnaire and their spreadsheets format
helps the researcher to gather the statistics efficiently and succinctly.
Additionally, the questionnaire pattern of using both open and close ended questions has
organized the data analysis section and helped in a detailed evaluation of the aims and objectives
of the research. Especially the question on cultural significance has revealed the preferential
criteria of consumer’s regarding their choice of celebrity from the home culture and society.
Thus one of the objectives to prove the influence of culture on consumer’s attitude and celebrity
selection in varied nations was supported by the research approach. Additionally, the findings
drawn out from the data analysis especially from the cultural part support the hypothesis of the
research. In the conclusion it has been found that cultural differences in 2 countries are different
and thus the matter of acceptance in terms of celebrity endorsement is also different. This was
mentioned in the hypothesis of the research. But what is found that consumers from both
countries are rational and logical about their consumption, but there is a bonding of their culture
which compels them to obey the consensus acceptance (Both for UK and India) More in India as
people put celebrities in a order of high status and they accept it because of the power of society.
Limitations were measured particularly while approaching people about participation and lack
of co-operation from the willing participants. Lateness in receiving data has reduced the sample
sixe from 100 to 80 having a deficit of 20 numbers. Even, London being a cosmopolitan city has
made it difficult to choose consumers who are solely base in UK. The same problem were
experienced while approaching the Indian sample in online community as most of them are in
young generation and to reach a varied age population was a difficult task being accomplished.
Overall it has been a real life experience and a challenge to conduct a research by own. Time,
finance and members within the research were lacking in the research and it is felt by the
researcher that a proper research should have enough time to collect data and a team is required
to distribute the task in order to reduce the burden of the sole researcher.
5.1.6 Implication for future Research:
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During the research it is found that there are few areas where further research can be carried out
in the future. These areas are listed below:
Since the research is limited to the consumers of 2 countries, therefore the possibilities to explore
the cultural significance in celebrity endorsement strategy for other countries were omitted.
Moreover, the research is limited to a small number of samples which can be increased and
various places in UK and India could be taken to form a sound sample size.
The research was based completely on consumer’s perception and the companies view point is
not taken into consideration. Therefore, a comparative study between consumers and companies
about the similar topic can be researched. Research methodology was limited to survey only
which could have been enhanced to focus group interviews and case study of a particular
company to broaden the spectrum of the research and investigate other areas. To establish a
relationship between the marketing and advertising world this topic would have been a good area
of research and illustrate ‘how both the sectors work together for making a successful
commercial advert’.
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5.2. Emerged Model of Celebrity Selection from the Research:
From the whole research certain aspect of consumer’s perception about celebrity selection and
endorsement strategy in the advertisement and promotion of products / goods are evaluated.
Some key information’s were collected from the consumers to form a model of celebrity
selection for companies endorsing them in their promotional campaign.
Fig 28.1 Model of Celebrity Selection Source: Basu (2009) Author’s Creation
Companies’ choice of celebrity endorsement as a promotional strategy
The Meaning Transfer Model (Stage 1: Culture)
Pros and Cons of Celebrity Endorsement Strategy
Cultural Significance while choosing a celebrity
Studying the cultural difference in the countries of operation
Cultural dimensions as per Geert Hofstede
Domesticating the advertisement as per consumers liking
Companies’ way of selecting their celebrity endorsement
The ‘No TEARS’ Approach (all factors)
The Meaning Transfer Model (Stage 2: Endorsement)
The TEARS Model (Trustworthiness, Expertise, Attractiveness, Respect, Similarity)Investment returns on celebrity endorsement (ROI)
Event Study Methodology
The ‘No TEARS’ Approach, Factor 5 (Cost of endorsement)
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Description of the Model:
Stage 1: Companies’ choice of celebrity endorsement as a promotional strategy
In this section the company’s select this strategy as a promotional tool based on the (culture)
stage of the ‘meaning transfer model’ discussed in the literature review section. Also they
consider the model of ‘pros and cons of celebrity endorsement strategy’ for selecting the right
celebrity for their promotional campaign.
Stage 2: Cultural Significance while choosing a celebrity
In this section the companies study the cultural difference existing amongst various cultures
across the world in order to enhance market growth and successful product campaign. They
follow Hofstede’s cultural dimensions matrix to evaluate the cultural difference between the
countries of operation. By understanding the cultural significance of the specific society, the
companies now try to domesticate their adverts based on the cultural values of the operating
nation.
Stage 3: Companies’ way of selecting their celebrity endorsement
In this section the companies are looking at the actual endorsement and they consider the ‘No
TEARS’ model, ‘TEARS’ model and the ‘meaning transfer’ model (endorsement) stage to
select the appropriate endorsement campaign for their product showcasing the right celebrity
character. (All discussed in literature review section)
Stage 4: Investment returns on celebrity endorsement (ROI)
In this section of the selection stage companies are looking at the ‘Event study methodology’
for cost consideration of the celebrity endorsement contracts and the ‘return on investment’
(ROI) evaluation. They also consider ‘cost of endorsement’ factor 5 of the ‘No TEARS’
strategy in order to critically evaluate the financial viability of the project.
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5.3. Cultural difference among consumers in (India and UK) model:
Fig 29.1 Cultural difference among consumers in (India and UK) model
Source: Basu (2009) Author’s Creation
List of References:
List of References:
List of References:
List of References:
List of References:
List of References:
List of References:
IN INDIA
Indian Consumers live in a Collectivist Society.
Matter of acceptance in terms of celebrity endorsement is easy.
Consumer’s decision making process is based on requirements and societal consent.
Celebrity status is recognized higher in the societal hierarchy and they have controlling power. Media does up-lift that as well.
Diversity among the cultural group is huge, thus consumers come from various ethnic background. E.g. Each state of India represents different cultural ethnicity and richness. Thus values and morals are different.
People mentality is close minded (majority)
Education in India is sector based. Urban India has higher literacy % than rural India.
Power of society is more than the power of Individual.
UNITED KINGDOM
UK consumers live in an Individualistic Society.
Matter of acceptance in terms of celebrity endorsement is hard.
Consumer’s decision making process is original and more driven by individual needs.
Celebrity status is created by media channel and their power is limited. Even their authority and status is transferable and depends on the situational impact on celebrity life-style.
Diversity among the consumer group is limited based on region of concentration. E.g. London is more diverse than other parts of UK.
People are open mined in the society (majority)
Education in UK is standardized in all parts of the country.
Power of Individual is more than the power of society.
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28. Mathur, L.K., & Mathur, I., (1997), ‘The wealth effects associated with a celebrity endorser: The Michael Jordan phenomenon’, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 37 No.3, pp. 67-73.
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Appendix Number 1 (Questionnaire)
Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising of Products / Goods and Consumer Perception
This research is about studying consumer behavior and attitude towards celebrity endorsements in advertising of various products / goods available in the market. Celebrity endorsement has
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become an integral part of the marketing strategy for companies and brands to promote their product. This research would allow us to find out the consumer's attitude towards celebrity endorsement and how they value it. Does celebrity endorsement affects the purchasing behavior of consumers? Do they get attracted or influenced by any celebrity branding? How this phenomenon is similar / different among different countries. Does culture plays a vital role in the acceptance of a celebrity? The research is a comparative study between the consumers of India and United Kingdom, therefore people's opinion from both cultures would be taken into account. Does recognition of a celebrity in a culture depends on the cultural dimensions of the country? The research would entail us to find out the cause behind the celebrity marketing strategy by various companies and would also suggest marketing alternatives (Cultural significance) based on their operations in global scenario.
NOTE: The participation in the research is entirely voluntary and all participants can withdraw their likelihood to be a part of the research. All information provided by the respondents would be kept confidential and limited to the actual cause of the research. Feel free to take part in the consumer research. Participants Name (Full Name)
Gender
Male
Female
Contact Information Email / Mobile Number
Q 1. As a consumer do you find yourself liking or buying products more if a celebrity is promoting it? If yes name some products. Just write your own experience or preference
Q.2 What type of celebrities do you like in advertisements?
Select from the following
Hollywood
Bollywood (Indian Cinema)
Sports Personalities
Media Host
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TV Personalities
TV Show presenters
Business Magnets
Politicians
Q.3 Where do you mostly watch advertisements?
Select from the following
Television
Magazines
Newspapers
Posters
Public Displays
Boarding
Q.3 As a consumer do you think that celebrity endorsement influences buying behavior?
Select the appropriate one
Agree
Strongly agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Unsure
Q.4 Do you think celebrities are having a power of persuasion to convince consumers?
Select from the following
Agree Strongly agree Disagree Strongly disagree
Unsure
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Q.5 Which products do you think are ideal to have celebrity endorsements?
Select the appropriate of the closest one
Consumer goods
Branded cloths
Financial products
Service industry products
Watches
Motor / Car Industry
Cosmetic Products (Men & Women)
Electronics and Telecommunication
Q.6 When you see an advertisement what appeals you the most?
Select from the following
Celebrity association
Actual product
Effectiveness of the product
Reliability of the product
Brand image
Value for money
Q.7 As a consumer do you rely on celebrity endorsement of products / goods?Give a reasoning of your answer. (Yes / No) Why?
Q.8 Rank the following characteristics of a 'CELEBRITY’ from (1-5) where 1 is most important and 5 least important. Rank in the order of (1-5)
Credibility ExpertisePhysical
attractivenessPersonality Popularity
Rank 1
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Credibility ExpertisePhysical
attractivenessPersonality Popularity
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5
Q.9 Do you think culture plays an important role in the recognition of a celebrity?Give reasoning for your answer. (Yes / No) Why?
Q.10 Do you like repetition of celebrities in advertisements?
Select the following
I like repetition
Dislike repetition
Wanted to see known faces
Doesn't makes difference
Q.11 Where do you see more celebrity advertisement?
Select from the following
Cosmetics (Men & women) Fashion Grocery items Entertainment
Financial servicesQ.12 Which celebrities do you prefer the most in advertisements?
Tick the most appropriate one
Models (male & female)
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Actors (male & female)
TV personalities
Cartoon characters
Singers
Q.13 How prone are you to celebrity advertisement in your purchase?
High
Low
Medium
Average
None of the above
Q.14 Any suggestions or recommendations you would like to mention from celebrity advertising point of view? Write your own opinion
Thank You very much for your time and participation. University of Wales, Lampeter 2009.Please write your address and any honest opinion about the survey
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Appendix Number 2
University of Wales Lampeter / College of Technology London
Ethical Considerations Form
Student’s name: …Arittra Basu………… Registration number: ……28001438…….
For all research involving other people as participants or accessing personal data, the following must also be completed:
1. Who are the Participants?
Please tick/give further details as appropriate:
Y/N/further detailsChildren under 18 NChildren in care NIndividuals with a learning disability NIndividuals suffering from dementia NPrisoners NYoung offenders (16-21 years old) NIndividuals in Care Homes NElderly persons Y ( Normal Consumers)Individuals without legal capacity to consent NOther Vulnerable Groups NSpecific Ethnic Groups NStudents YStaff Y
2. Approximately how many participants did you recruit, and how were they selected, and how were they invited to participate in the study?
Participants for my research are from both UK and India. Consumers of UK lived in UK and Indian consumers lived in India solely. Approximately 150 samples are selected. UK participants are selected randomly based on the reception check-in area of Ramada Ealing Hotel which is a point of contact of various people from and within UK who visit the hotel for leisure/business purpose. Even staffs of the hotel are also included in the sample. For Indian sample email, online community network websites are the channel to contact the participants of the research due to the researcher’s location being in UK. The entire samples are chosen based on the criteria that they are solely Indian / UK citizen lived only in their respective countries.
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3. Is there any link with the investigator (client, friend, etc.)? If there is a link, detail what safeguards to preserve objectivity and to prevent conflicts of interest were put in place?
Yes many of the participants of the research from the UK and Indian sample are within the friend’s network of the researcher. To safeguard the objectivity of the research and to keep the research bias less the participants are selected based on the researcher choice of keeping the sample restricted to their own countries, by which their wouldn’t be any cross cultural influence in their answers. Moreover, all the samples are contacted on a professional manner demonstrating the cause of the research and the subject matter rather using personal influence. All the samples are from varied age group to get a consensus answers from the consumer community which consists of all age group. This will avoid influence of any age group over the research topic and cause.
4. Please describe briefly what happened to the participants (e.g., interviews, questionnaires, the anticipated nature or duration of each). For interviews please outline any proposed topics that were covered, when considering designing interview or questionnaires etc what measures did you take to be ethical?
The research is done through a questionnaire survey based in UK and for India it is done through using Google doc. which will form a web link and forwarding the link to the specific samples in their emails and online community network to gather data. For UK sample questionnaire were distributed to the residents of Ramada Ealing Hotel, London where people come from all over UK and also to the staff of the hotel who are UK citizens or staying in UK for a long time. They are requested to fill up the questionnaire and hand back in to the reception for collection by the researcher. For Indian sample the online survey records all the answers filled up by the participants and are gathered in a statistical technique inherited in the software. The whole process is less time consuming and participant’s friendly, encouraging them to participate in the survey.
5. What risks, potential hazards, stress, discomfort or inconvenience to participants may have been present? What steps were taken to minimize any adverse impact of the research on participants?
The sample selected for the research is convenience sample and thus it is difficult to evaluate the ‘goodness’ of the sample in terms of its representativeness of the population participation. People are generously asked to participate in the survey both online and distribution method, but the willingness varies from people to people. So, these are the basis potential hazards which the researcher might face while conducting the research. To minimise the adverse effects the participants are asked to fill the questionnaire on their own time and not in a rush so that they can input some valid judgement which would constitute a strong data for the research.
6. Was written consent obtained? This is the normal expectation, therefore if your response is that you did not obtain written consent, please explain in detail.
Yes. Consent letter from the General Manager of Ramada Ealing to conduct the research in the premises of the establishment is attached as appendix (4)
7. Did you provide written information to participants indicating the nature and purpose of the research, that their participation is voluntary, that they may withdraw at any time, and providing contact details for further information about the study? Please provide a copy of any written information that you may have used.
Yes. All the information about the research and a brief summary about the topic are stated in the beginning of the questionnaire to give insight about the subject matter of the research and are mentioned that it is a voluntary participation for the research work done by UWL MBA Student ID: 28001438. Questionnaire attached as appendix for reference (1)
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8. Please indicate what steps were taken to safeguard the anonymity and confidentiality of the participant’s records [whether the records are of paper, tape recordings, video recordings...], and confirm that the requirements of the Data Protection Acts will be complied with.
All the participants are told that their names and details would be left confidential and only their input data would be grouped according to the age of the participants, where they would be put into a specific group and will be coded as alphabetic order and all their personal details will be strictly under the supervision of the researcher and later filed and not used in the analysis of the research. They have also got the option of writing their contact details for further assistance for future research programme but it is not essential, but their age and sex is.
Once you have submitted your dissertation, it will be reviewed by the department’s ethics committee and your tutors.
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Appendix Number 3
Data collection of the open ended questions
Q. 1) As a consumer do you find yourself liking or buying products more if a celebrity is
promoting it? If yes name some products.
Yes = Maroon color, No = Purple color
As a consumer do you find yourself liking or buying products more if a celebrity is promoting it ? If yes name some products.
Yes, I do. Fashion Cloths, Cosmetics, Sport items.
Like the products endorsed by flintoff, david beckham, sharukh khan, tiger woods. etc
A celebrity promoting a product makes little difference to me.Yes some times.
Like David Beckham endorsing Police sun glasses or Messi advertising for adidas shoes.no, not much . for me its just an information which i want to investigate more before making any purchase decisions.Not necessarily, but my attention is certainly drawn to a product more if I like the celebrity, or even if I don't. They are good way to grab attention. So I guess sometimes using a celebrity is like a catlyst to getting a product into my mind. If it is a celebrity I like I can't help but give the product extra thought, and if its a product that I buy it may reassure me of that product emotionally, not necessarily rationally. For me its just purely an emotional reaction.
Celebrity endorsement works in fashion for me. Especially like Vincent Gallo for Yves Saint Laurent / H & M as he is a cool indie actor and it gave the brand more credibility in my eyes, especially for an average high street retailer like H&M who you would expect to use more obvious and cheesy celebs. Yes, products like Reymonds, Reed n Teylor, Sony, Apple and so on.Nono not really Not really interested into celebrity adds. I only look value for money into materials which I purchase. Some cricket stars like Sourav ganguly, schin tendulkar etc provokes my purchasing while shopping.....specially fizzy drinks and commodities...biscuits (britania tiger)NononoGillette Products, Sports wear specially shoes. No I do not go for a celebrity promoted productnonoDefinitely yes. Like Amitabh Bachchan for Reid & Taylor and for Dairymilk chocolate. Abhishek
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Bachchan for Motorola. Akshay Kumar for Thums up, Sachin with Pepsi, Britania Biscuits and so many more.yes as it creates a curiosity in the product and the features associated with it.
Sachin Tendulkar for Pepsi India
Akshay Kumar for Thums Up
yes as for mine concern i think the celebrity promots the products based on the qualit and i love the quality can compromise price Yes...viz:Samsung, Tata Sky, Coco-cola-- by Amir KhanRoyal Stag-- by Saif Ali KhanBikes , Softdrinks Advt. by Sportsmanetcno D&G
Nike
Gillette
Yes, because I feel like, we can trust a product which the celebrity is promoting, as we trust the celebrities and accept that the words spoken by them are true and genuine.Some of the products are: Lux Soap, L'oreal products, Sony Vaio computers promoted by Shahrukh Khan, etc.NoWell Kind of...........Nomost oftely it is true that i go for products that are merchandised by celerbity.for example -david bekhamroger federertheory henry
but to the product which i am biased to doesnt need any celebrity endorsementNoHero Honda SplendorKarizmayes... amir khan advertisement for coca cola.yes sometimes. I get attracted to the celebrities of old generation who promotes goods or products.
Cinthol soapBollyhood and Hollywood celebrities of my young age. Business peopleYes it does appeals me. Ladies cosmeticsLO'realGarnierSunsilk ShampooSarees
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Clothing Yes
Bengali actress promoting products ( sarees and cosmetics)YES
COSMETICS BY INDIAN CELEBRITIES NIL value for moneyyes
cosmetics SareeClothsno
I go for value for money and see the products whether they match my profile or not Yes
Branaded ClothsLevis JeansLee CooperAllen SolleyArmani ETCNo, a celebrity could work against product great products Rolex, sports car are all not endorsed by celebrity all are most aspirational.Not really. I tend to avoid products that's promoted by celebrities as I personally believe that this kind of products are for commercial purpose only. Levis, Puma Espirit, Armani, Gucci, ADDIDASNot reallyNONot applicable as quality and price is my preference. No,
because it doesn't make any difference to me NoCosmetics
RevlonLakmeLO'real Cussons
Cloths Pantaloonsdesigner sareessatya paul
NOSometimesPerfumes cosmetics burberrygucci
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yesPradaGucciD&GDKNYMULBERRYMASCIMO DUTTI NoNO yes i do only with fashion cloths no No yes fashion goods and perfumes, shoes etc NoIf a celebrity is promoting a product it will make me pay attention to the product, but not buy it, as cost and quality are the most important celebrity advertising doesn't make me want to purchase a product any more than any other products I am not attracted to celebrity marketing. just I find myself suitable in what I think is good for me and I can afford No thing like that. But its eye-catching and makes me feel to look at the product while shopping No. It is a very good stunt of advertising and marketing promotion for companies to launch new products. We do it but I personally never practice it. I am very old fashioned about my taste of shopping (value for money)Not really apart from some products ...like fashion and designer cloths and shoes NO No Not exactly, but there are some products which attracts me due to celebrity endorsementsMens Cosmetics PerfumesSuits No i rely more on the price of the product rather than just celebrity association Yes to some extentperfumesBagsCloths No
to expensive for me to afford but sometimes i think i am attracted to the celebrities specially with cars, perfumes etc Yes with watches, fashion clothing and cosmetics yes lots with cloths and fashion No (value for money)Not really. I buy products based on my own requirement and what I think is good for me. Whether expensive or cheap......the price and purchase of me depends on the quality of the product Yes sometimesPerfumesCloths Shoes Watches
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Q. 2) As a consumer do you rely on celebrity endorsement of products / goods?
Yes = Orange color, No = Blue color
Yes i do
just as a natural phenomenon I like celebrities endorsing my usable products No. I make my own mind up by independently finding out more about a product.no not exactly.But when a celebrity is endorsing a product, that product is assumed to be an extenion of his personality and if u have an affinity towards that celebrity then there are chances you are bound to use that product or atleast try it.NO. I would rather rely on the message and information given in the adverts than what crap celebrity is talking as rationally talking they are paid for doing these endorsement. I don't rely on them, I rely more on quality to go back to a brand. I think the industry relies on them to attract customers because it works in terms of speeding up their purchase behaviour, but I don't think me as a consumer relies upon them. If I like a product and come to be aware of it it doesn't matter if someone famous or non famous is promoting it. I rely on products for doing what they actually say they will do on the package, i.e rational things. The celebs are just for reassurance and added positive emotional connection. depends on the type of product that is being used by me, celebrity endorsement gives a sharp age to the product to be more popular. No. because a good product do not need the so much advertisement. many products like Maruti Versa failed in market despite celebrity like Amitabh bacchan endorsing it.no. i just wait n watch ...and see who sticks in my mind when i go shoppingnot alwaysNot really, doesn't affects me whether celebrity or anyone else is featured in the add.....what makes the difference is how effective is the product and whether it is in par with my requirements and budget. Nonob'cos I think it is a ploy to determine the customers perception and IT INVOLVES MERE CHEATING OF CUSTOMERS no.. as I look for quality of product and know celebrity endorsed product can not be always quality based product.Not Completely, I do consider the overall value, benefits and features of the product. No not at all I go for quality and the priceno because they dont use that productno because i care about value for money. need to get the worth of what am paying for. dont really care about the celebsYes. Because if any celebrity associates with any product he/she considers the all dimensions associated with the product. Because at the end of the end it also affects the celebrity image itself. On the other hand it also reflects the company's comfort and wealth too. Yes, but on certain occasions only as many times celebrity become ambassadors for those products, which are virtually of no or less importance and which do not create a sense.yes i do NOno No. Personaly i carve for products which suits me.Not really, but yes till some extent. As we trust celebrities.
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NoNo......Because advertisements do not tell the actual thing. You need to use it in order to believe it.No, Its possible that because i know better, I dont expect that these celebrities have vast or any knowledge on the products they sell. yes i do only if it is logicalyesyes, a celebrity he/she will thinks b4 advertising any productsyes.. i cant explainNot really. it is just a eye catching media stunt.....and marketing technique. But yes it does get me involved sometimes. No. I just try things based on what i actually require and whether it is going to suit my personality and preference. Not really. I look at the price tag first.....NO
I THINK ITS NOT JUSTIFIED TO RELY ON CELEBRITIES RATHER I WOULD LIKE TO NURTURE MY GREY CELLS No Not rely as I value the product more than the celebrity endorsementNOYes it does stimulate my buying behaviour as it relates me to the personality and image of the celebrity.No as explained earlierNOnothing as such but sometimes yes as they are really big personalities No - as celebrity endorsements are only used for attracting a select population.No I choose products based on my own informed decision.Reasons are that they are rich mostly and their spending gap is non reliable -hence product wise different.no, because it doesn't really make any difference to me and I only buy products if only I need them and they are value for money No.
More on the product and my own requirement than celebrity marketing Yes I do to some products where the celebrity has an association along with my personality and liking No. I buy products which suits me and my personality.....and depending on the use and requirements..NOT NECESSARILY sometimes i do cause i wanted to look alike......just a thing in mind sometimes comes YES I DO only when it comes to fashion items like bags, watches, cloths, accessories etc. NoYES FOR BRANDED CLOTHS AND FASHION ITEMS no but get into the marketing YESnonoyes sometimesNoNo / they only get paid well to endorse the product, rarely do they live and breathe it, just take
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Q. 3) Do you think culture plays an important role in the recognition of a celebrity?
Yes = Pink color, No = Red color, Not sure = Yellow
yes it does. the culture of the country plays a vital role in the recognition of a celebrity as the celebrity is from that place and gets a consensus voting for their work and also admiration Yes. Even if a celebrity is very popular they have remain within cultural limits or risk losing their reputation and / or their celebrity status.YesA hollywoood celebrity would not appeal to a small town people of India who are not aware of him or if they are aware of him they do not associate themselves with the celebrity due to differences in culture.to a certain extent yes, as an Indian i will associate myself with a Indian celebrity but still for me as an individual it's not important for me who is endorsing as I will rather investigate further before making any decision.Yes. Some cultures celeb culture and media is more prolific i.e in India and USA where the Hollywood and Bollywood industries are economic drivers and part of the cultural foundations built over the years. some times yes as because regional products are more popular in the market if any regional celebrity becomes the brand image for that particular product. Yes wt do you mean .....well i guess celebrities are only related to a particular culture i guess ... for example .... a chinese celebrity in india .... is not a celebrity ..... nor is an arabic one .......( i guess .. well atleast to me tough incase some on thinks differently)yesYes, it does as the person who is a celebrity comes from the culture of the country they belong to...e.g Bengali actor / actress are recognized more in West Bengal, India than rest of India. So, Hollywood stars are recognized more in US than anywhere else. However, education and how people know about the rest of world is a matter of question behind knowing a celebrity. Some of the Indian mass does recognize Hollywood celebrities but some don't ..........so there is no clear specification. YesYES, being a typical Indian I respect my tradition and culture so I expect the same in return.yesDifferent cultures can have different choice of celebrities.They plays importent role on product image. Companies should study culture before choosing celebrity.No, It depends on the presentation of the entire advertisement. It depends upon what product they are promoting yes every one is culturednoDefinitely. Because culture nurtures our perception and thus buying behaviors. Because we all are associated with different culture and if celebrity belongs from the same culture we like to more tend to buy that product. That as I am Indian, i will be more selective to the product endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar compare to the product endorse by David Beckham.depends on the past background of the concerned celebrity and the product they endorse.
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Noyes No. Celebrity represents people and not culture. YesYes.......Culture is the backbone of a community and celebs are a part of thatYes, The media culture in the UK is celebrity crazy you usually cant help but notice them on tv or paper. for me NOyesyes, it is very important in any product according to Indian culture, becoz adds should not be opposite to any cultureyesYes it does. As an Indian I prefer Indian celebrities in the ads but sometimes Hollywood celebrities as well, but that only is limited as in general in India Bollywood people are famous in the media. Yes it does but then again we are heading to a world when the whole world is a open market place and recognition of known celebrities are approaching everywhere.....say angelina jolie is known to Indian, UK and US people as a diva and a celebrity actress. So i think the cultural boundary is depleting, though literacy is a big part of it and in general yes culture is the base of recognition in all cultures. yes it does, I recognize bengali actor / actress more than anyone else. my preference cause I am bengali by birth....and it appeals me when they are promoting a product which I prefer to use. NO
It does plays a role but it is not a constraint.yes it does as culture is the backbone of all celebrities who are depicting our societyYES IT DOES AS COMMON PEOPLE RECOGNIZE THEM Nothing that important. I rely more on celebrities from international and national background and therfore hollywood is a preference. But then again commom people are having a different opinion and they are more inclinded to Indian celebrities but this all depends on the education and knowledge about the outside world and globalization. yes the defination of celebrity will vary with various cultures. In India hero worship of cele. like Amitabh Bacchan is not the same as Cheryl Cole administration in UK Yes I believe that consumers are attracted to celebrities from their own country due to the fact that they may prefer to support their national products. Yes as it is a part of business Yes - as celebrity importance is a cultural thing - some countries value and rely more on celebrity branding whereas others don´t.No
Celebrity crosses over cultural barrier. Yes easily identify and relate to such celebrities. No as i think most of the celebrities are recognized for their expertise and popularity. Yes. Celebrities get recognized by the people of the local community and prevailing culture.Not really as most brands endorse celebrities who are recognized globally.Yes, culture bind the celebrity along with the society and forms an opinion about the community May be cause they reflect the present society and the place they belong from
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yes it does as culture is the base of all civilization and celebrities are also part of our society and civilization Not sureyes yes YES yesno Yes yes, unfortunately we are brain washed by the general media, that we must look up the people. Its a sad fact of UK culture that will never change Yes, especially in the younger generation i.e. children Yes it effects the general view of the people as celebrity are part of society and they show the way people should act in a growing world Yes it does as the culture engages the people to participate in the community and celebrities are born from a specific culture and they represent a community Not not really in a global world like this when capitalism has opened the gateway of business, so all products are available worldwide so as the advertising has become global with a cross cultural reference Not sure NOT SURE Yes.
It forms an opinion from the consumers to accept the product. Like brewtling watches are typical american and astonmartin British Yes, It does as people recognize the known faces which are very prominent character in the society. UK people recognize more celebrities who are from UK as they replicate the UK society. I don't think there is any role of culture into the celebrity endorsement as it is mere a marketing strategy for companies Not sureNoNot sure but yes in the west people recognize more hollywood celebrities as a matter of fame Yes, cause they tell you about the modern society and educate the public by showing their concern Yes it does as it is easy for the people to recognize known faces who are popular in the media Yes it does as culture is what makes then popular in the society, so they get recognition from the people who know them Yes.
No comments Yes it does cause they are part of our culture and they form the society
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Appendix Number 4
Email interactions between the student (Arittra Basu: UWL ID: 28001438) and supervisor Ms Lipi Begum (College of Technology, London) and University of Wales, Lampeter
Dear All June 16 I am pleased to be your supervisor for MBA dissertation. I have attached your dissertation timetables - you will only need to see me fortnightly at the allocated times and dates. You only need to come on the dates and times allocated. I will mark you present for the dates you are not scheduled to come in, however if you miss your scheduled time then you will be marked absent. Any changes personal changes need to be notified in advance. I have attached dissertation layout outline (Which tells you how many estimated words for each section) , and template of summary of discussions sheets- most of this is in your handbook. Every meeting we will discuss your work and write down what we discussed in our summary of discussion sheets, and we will also set targets for your work before the next meeting (see planning and efforts sheet attached). It is up to you to try and meet targets as best as you can and use the meetings to ask questions, the better you meet targets the better planning it will show. You are given 10% for planning, so it's important you make a record of all that you do.
Also before and during your meetings I am available via emails, and often check work via emails as you know, so if you have any queries before your meeting you can raise them via email.
For now please work on the feedback from your proposals, think about the changes you need to make and bring queries to your next meeting or email. CTL will send you your feedback soon.
Your meetings will take place every fortnight between 2.15 and 4.15pm on Wednesdays (room TBC) please see timetable attached for further details and print/save for your reference
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RegardsLipi Begum
Hi Lipi, July 7
I am very sorry to inform you that due to some unforeseen circumstances I am unable to attend the session of dissertation workshop with you at 14:15 pm on 8th July 09'. I have tried my level best to postponed the date but it has something to do with my own physical problem for which I have to meet the doctor in Whipp's Cross Hospital at around 13:00 pm which will last until 14:30 pm and more. For this situation I am unable to attend the meeting but I am really tensed about loosing your valuable advice and suggestion about dissertation and I am not willing to loose the meeting in no condition.
Therefore, I would like to request you that if you would kindly allow me to come and see you after 16:00 pm which will be very much convenient for me and I would be happy to discuss my progress in the same. I have done a lot of work which you have given as a task in our last workshop and would like to talk more about the same. I am also sending you a copy of the progress work and would like to seek some help regarding the approach whether it is OK or not. Please Please Please consider this case as a matter of great concern as I am begging my apology for not making it out on the stated date as per the university schedule. But in no condition I would not like to suffer my dissertation by loosing academic advice and suggestion. Please pay kind attention to the above subject and make a judgment. I am looking forward to hear from you soon. Sorry again for short time notice.
Regards,
Arittra Basu MBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arittra, July 8
Don't worry, I will mark you in, and will read your work so far and give you feedback - you can use the feedback as part of planning and progress and put into the planning sheets we fill out each week. Unfortunately I have a meeting with CTL after 4pm today and have to dash off afterwards. If you like you can come in tomorrow between 4.15 and 5.15 - I will be in staff room or room 301. If you can't make that and you feel my feedback on work so far is sufficient enough for you to carry on without guidance, then I will either see you at your next meeting or you can come in next week.RegardsLipi
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Hi Arittra, July 8
The work so far reads well. And I am looking forward to you completing your introduction with facts and figures to frame the research problem. So you need to complete the facts and current trends of celebrity endorsement bit - try and focus on comparing India with UK as this is your focal point. More emphasis can be placed on India as you are trying to highlight the current trends for celebrity endorsement in India and how it is unique to other countries, and you will demonstrate that by comparing UK.
For next meeting I would like: Final draft of introductionClear aims and objectivesHypothesis if anyRationale for research.RegardsLipi
Hi Lipi, July 9
Thank you for your help. I am glad that you have taken out some time fro your busy schedule to re arrange a meeting with me regarding the dissertation. Though, I won't be able to see you after 16:00 pm today, but I am willing to see you sometime on Monday the coming week as I am free that day. I am working on the mentioned areas and would like to discuss more with you once we see each other for the dissertation workshop. I am doing the task assigned by you for the next meeting 23 rd of August 09'.
Please let me know if you have some spare time on Monday so that I can see you on that day.
Regards,
Arittra BasuMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arittra, July 9
I am away on Monday, but you can send me an email or drop by to CTL on Tuesday between 2.15 and 4.15pm room 220 or staff room, or Wednesday usual time, or Wednesday and Thursday between 4.30-5pm in room 301 or staff room. Hope we can arrange a mutual time, otherwise let’s stay in touch via email and see you at your next meeting.RegardsLipi
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Hi Lipi, July 14
I am coming to see you in college today @ 15:30 pm in 220 or in staff room. I have done the draft and sending you via email and also bringing in the copy for further discussion.
ArittraMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arritra July 14
That is fine, please send me attachments.RegardsLipi
Hi Lipi, July 14
I am coming @ 16:00 to the college to see you and I am also sending you the draft which I just made now. Please have a look and comment, on that.
Thankyou
Arittra MBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arittra, July 14It looks great so far. Make sure to put the Year reference beside all main body references. Also you can support some of your discussion with relevant celebrity endorsement images ( again make sure to reference accordingly). Your introduction should amount to about 2000 - 2500 words.
Next step is to write down aims and objectives, your rationale for research (i.e personal interest and positionality for doing research, maybe 300 words) and start writing up literature review.
See you 4.30pm
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RegardsLipi
Jul14
I meant see you 4pm, I have to leave by 4.15pmRegardsLipi
Hi Lipi, July 22
Today is my meeting with you @ 14:15 pm. Would it be possible for you to see me around 10:30 am or 12:00 pm instead of 14:15 pm. I have a company training in my work place, but I have requested my manager that I might not come due to my meeting with you today. Though she insisted me to try and let her know whether I can or not. I have finished the Introduction part and sending it to you via email for checking. Just starting up with Literature review now. My training schedule time for today is from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm.....so I was wondering what would be probable solution for this? Help..........!!!Regards,Arittra BasuMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438Hi Arittra, July 22
You can come at 10.30, I will be in room 301, you may have to wait around as I will be in class, but I'll try and see you for a while. Although I think it's better if I send you email feedback for now, and will mark you in. If you still need face to face feedback then I can see you tomorrow at 4pm either in room 301 or staff room. Let me know what suits. I am going to class so may not be able to reply. So see you at 10.30, or tomorrow, otherwise you can come next week with other group and we can stick to email feedback for now. Will send you feedback later.RegardsLipi
Hi Lipi, July 22
I will see you tomorrow at 4 pm in room 310 or in the staff room as I have to attend the training as its part of the company regulations. Tried to speak to my line manager but she was insisting me to come over. Anyway, I am sending you the draft of the completed Introduction and later on today will start with the literature review. So, please have a look and we will discuss more tomorrow about the same. Please advice any corrections which I will have to do in this part.
Regards,
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Arittra MBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arittra, July 22
Your introduction looks good and you have discussed why the need for the research. Some suggestions would be that you have applied theory to parts of your introduction and I would recommend you leave the theory for literature review and focus on the current affairs for introduction. So avoid explaining theory e.g attribution theory, secondary association and some of the quotes from the shimp book. The theories and more academic quotes can be used to support literature review. Your introduction should be around 2000-2500 words and literature review around 6500- 7-000 words. RegardsLipi
Hi Lipi, Aug 3
Before our meeting I am sending you the draft copy of the work which I have done so far. Don't know whether it is going in right direction, but I have used all relevant theories in conjunction with the topic of my dissertation in the Literature Review. Let me know how it sounds to you.
Regards,
Arittra MBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Lipi, Aug 5
that's fine ......will do the same as directed by you and see you @ 2:15 tomorrow.
Regards,ArittraMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Lipi, Aug 14
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Here is the draft of the work which we both discussed in the previous meeting. As we have discussed about the cultural dimension and its illustration in the research about India and UK, I have done the same in the literature review as directed by you.
So, I am sending you a copy of the same to review the subject and get the valuable feedback from you. Looking forward to hear from you ASAP.
Regards,ArittraMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arittra, Aug 14
It reads very well, and your discussion on cultural dimensions is good, only thing I would say is that the evidence you have to show India as collectivist is based on your own subjective facts which will require some objective facts on the matter to add scope and depth. RegardsLipi
Hi Lipi, Aug 15
I am on the process to add some more about the association theory model in relation to what is accepted in India and UK, also going to add the financial implications which companies do while selecting celebrity endorsement, then forming a proposed structure of research based on my own model which should be applied by the companies. Will send you the draft before the 19th of august as that's the date for our next meeting.
Regards,
Arittra BasuMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Lipi, Aug 18
I hope that jaishree already spoken to you that, she is coming in 14:15 tomorrow in place of mine and I am coming in place of her at 14:30 pm...Hope this is going to be ok with you. She called me yesterday to make the changes in the schedule. See you tomorrow with some more work.
Arittra MBA Marketing Pathway
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Dissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
HI Arittra Aug 18Thats fine. I have emailed Jaishree.Regards
Lipi
Hi Lipi, Aug 19
Here is the work updated till now. Please see and I will take the feedback from you @ 14:30 pm today
ArittraMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arittra, Aug 19
It looks good. Regarding the cultural dimensions framework I noticed you have used your own creation of what you think UK and India are in terms of cultural dimensions, this is okay, but my worry is that there is no theoretical or factual support, which is required to add depth and scope to your literature review, and it is also an important element to your research. This is the only thing you need to develop regarding literature review. Now I prefer to move on from that and will ask you to start designing your methodology and conducting it even. Shall we say you will design your questionnaire by next meeting and even start conducting? and whilst you are waiting for respondents you can start writing up methodology and improving that bit on literature review. I think we have focused too much on literature review and we need to move on to more important things i.e primary research and gathering findings.Regards
Lipi
Hi Lipi, Aug 27
I'm not sure about the date of the next meeting. Could you please confirm me the dates if possible. Additionally, I have already spoken to my HR Manager and GM about seeking permission to conduct a survey based on the employees and the customers who are check-in the hotel on a daily basis. Thereby I can actually have a good sample size for my research and I can
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have a nice data analysis for UK consumers. As, most of the customers in our hotel are from UK, so as the employees so it would be a nice place to gather data. Do I have to get a consent form signed by the HR and GM of my work place to conduct the research and also need to sign them the ethical consideration form. Please let me know. The questionnaires are still on the process and as soon as I finish with the draft I will send you a copy. However, for Indian consumers I am sending the questionnaire to my friends are others through email and community networking websites by which I can gather a good number of sample from India for my research. In that way it would be nice to analyze in the data analysis section where i can form a good formation of the finding of the research.
Let me know how it sounds and other details which I might need to consider while conducting the research .
Regards,
Arittra Basu MBA Dissertation StudentUWL : 28001438
Hi Arittra, Aug 27
Yes you need at least verbal permission from the HR managers etc, no need to get them to sign ethics form or anything. However the respondents may ask proof of ID or legibility to do research so for that reason you may need to show your i.d or even a permission letter. So it's up to you. If you can get one, then why not, it just adds credibility.
Your next meeting is next Wednesday 2nd September same time same place.
Using community networking sites is okay, you may want to do your questionnaire on Google Docs (you can ask one of your friends or Kevin in library how to do that), Google docs is an online questionnaire building tool. This way you can send people the URL and they can fill in online, plus the software analyses the data for you so it saves you time and hassle later in terms of trying to analyze the data and put into bar charts and graphs yourself.
RegardsLipi
HI LIPI. Sep 2
HERE IS THE UPDATED WORK. WILL SEE U IN CTL
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Arittra BasuMBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Dear Students, Sep 4
A basic checklist for methodology (see dissertation examples for further scope)
1. The research strategy and methodology:
Have you:
Mentioned the research philosophy /paradigm i.e positivist, intrepretivist, ontological etc...that your research follows.
Mentioned the sampling techniques, and whether the study is qualitative or quantitative and why? – define the methods.
Defined and explained choice of methodologies – looked at advantages and disadvantages of methodologies chosen i.e. questionnaire, case study, interviews etc...
Discussed and defined validity, external and internal validity aspects in relation to your chosen methodologies and own research
How you will analyze your data once it is collected i.e. bar charts, graphs, excel, spss, tables etc….
2. Logistical and ethical consideration.
Discuss how you will you gain access to respondents, premises, information? Are there ethical considerations? – fill out
UWL ethical and logistical considerations form to support.
Diagrams and flow charts can be used to present your methodology. You can look at the theory of alternate perspectives e.g quantitative vs qualitative or say positivist vs intrepretivist however the main aim is to briefly discuss the alternate perspective but to elaborate on the perspective your research follows, or the one you are using. To avoid listing theories apply your research to the theory and adapt it to your research. So discuss what you will be using and why more so and then support with theory.
Regards,
Lipi
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Hi Lipi, Sep 11
I have already completed the Research methodology section i.e chapter 3 and I'm sending you the draft copy of the whole work. In the mean time I am constructing the questionnaire for the research which I will forward you by tonight. It’s almost done and needs some alternation. When I will forward you the entire set of questionnaire please check and advice me whether its OK or not. Also I’m going to publish the same questions in the web link through Google.doc.
I am very tensed at the moment after Jill's meeting and need your support very much. Hope the work which I have done is OK.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Regards,
Arittra Basu MBA Marketing PathwayDissertation under progressUWL ID: 28001438
Hi Arittra, Sep 11
It looks very good compared to the last one, and I can say even almost complete. You need to mention the research philosophy in the beginning i.e positivist, and apply that to your diagram at the end. You have covered all areas and the only thing is you haven't defined the type of sampling you are using from a theoretical perspective despite critically discussing it (this is what Jill quizzed you on so make sure you define the appropriate types and justify its validity and reliability to your research despite any limitations). Also please refer to relevant appendix for the UWL ethical and logistical considerations form (which needs to be filled out thoroughly) to support ethical section.
You can either discuss data analysis techniques as part of your methodology after data collection or before presentation of findings. I suggest in methodology. Here you need to discuss how you plan to analyze and present your data i.e. google docs, bar charts, graphs excel etc...and why.
Your meeting with Jill went well, but she did raise some fair points, after all she wanted to see your planning and knew you had just reached the sampling and primary data stage so wanted to quiz you on it so that you plan accordingly. Don't let the meeting stress you and stop you in your stride, let it motivate you, as am sure it has :-)
Keep going, so far so good
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RegardsLipi
Name: MBA Dissertation (Planning and Effort Sheet) Timetable of Events
Record of meetings
Date: 24/06/09
Summary of Discussion:
Better approach to the research and refining the proposal. Suggestion about various journals and research papers, libraries to be visited etc.
Work required by next meeting:
1. Final draft of introduction2. Refine aims and objectives3. Rational behind the research
Date of next meeting: 8/07/09Date: 8/07/09
Summary of Discussion:
Discussion about the topic of the research, introduction, literature review, referencing, looking at various models, aims and objectives, rationale for the research
Work required by next meeting:
Finalize introduction, aims and objectives, rationale, gathering information for literature review.
Date of next meeting: 22/0709
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Date: 19/08/09
Summary of Discussion:
Final discussion reframing of literature review section. Discussion about the research approach and strategy.
Work required by next meeting:
1st draft of methodology and design questionnaire.
Date of next meeting: 19/08/09
Date: 2/09/09
Summary of Discussion: amendments to literature review, Research methodology is going to be descriptive approach. Applying theories of methodologies to the research problem. Survey collection methods, sampling methods, validity and reliability, charts and diagrams, using google docs etc.
Work required by next meeting:
Complete questionnaire design and send out questionnaire (face to face) email
Write up methodology
Date of next meeting: 23/09/09
Date: 05/08/09
Summary of Discussion:
Discussion about literature review and implementation of the models used. Refining the models used in literature review and better diagrammatic description. Discussion of cultural dimension in literature review, a practical implications for organizations about the culture and financial implications. India and UK difference about celebrity endorsements. Use simple terms for methodology and short introduction reference.
Work required by next meeting:
To complete final draft of literature review. Start thinking about methodology.
Date of next meeting: 19/08/09
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Date: 07/10/09
Summary of Discussion:
Final discussion about the findings and conclusion. Draft design of the recommended models and final presentation of the dissertation.
Work required by next meeting:
Nil
Date of next meeting: nil
Date: 23/09/09
Summary of Discussion:
Discussion about the data analysis process and evaluation of the entire raw data collected from the sample.
Work required by next meeting:
Complete presentation of findings, organized open ended questions, start writing 1st draft of critical analysis and think about conclusions.
Date of next meeting: 07/10/09
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Appendix Number 4
Letter of permission from the General Manager of Ramada London Ealing
(See the printed copy)