CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS AND CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
In this age of intense competition, consumers are daily bombarded with advertisement and commercials from the various advertising media. In order to capture and register a position in the mind space of consumer, companies tend to adopt several marketing techniques.    According to Friedman and Friedman (1979), a typical supermarket in United States of America (USA) display more than 12,000 brands, an American family has at least one TV set; a consumer is exposing to around 1,000 adverts per day. In Nigeria, Ekeh (2009) observes that there are over 36 TV channels broadcasting over a million TV commercials each year this expresses message clutter within the various media space.   Chung-kue and McDonald (2002) are of the opinion that media explosion can today be demonstrated, people forget 80% of the information just in 24 hours by the habit of flipping adverts on TV.
From marketing communication perspectives, it becomes necessary for firms to design competitive differential advantage for their products or services. Marketing activities back up other elements in the marketing mix such as product design, branding, packaging, pricing and place decisions (distribution channels and physical distribution) in order to create positive effects in the mind of the consumers. In helping achieving this, the use of celebrity endorser is a widely used marketing communication strategy. About 20% of U.S advertisements feature celebrities (Solomon, 2009) and the percentage of advertisement using celebrities in other countries especially Nigeria has increase drastically in the last decade. There is the issue of overexposure to consider. We receive more than 3,000 commercial images a day; our subconscious absorbs more than 150 images and roughly, 30 reach our conscious mind. Therefore practice has it that if a company use a celebrity endorsement strategy, it dramatically accelerates the potential for its brand to reach the conscious mind of the consumers; hence, companies invest large sum of money to align their brand and themselves with endorsers. Such endorsers are seen as being compelling with both attractive and likeable qualities (Atkin and Block 1983) and Companies plan that these qualities are transferred to products via marketing communication messages in today’s highly cluttered environments (Friedman and Friedman 1979; Croft Robin, Dean, Dianne, and Kitchen, Philip J. 1996; Kamen, Joseph, Azhari, Abdul, Kragh, Judith 1975; Kamins, Meribeth, Hoeke, Stuart and Moe 1989; Ohanian 1991; O'Mahony and Meenaghari 1997).
Celebrities are individuals who are well-known to the public (actors, musicians, sport figures etc.) for his or her attainment in areas other than that of the product class endorsed (Friedman and Friedman, 1979).     Celebrity are well recognised characters having a strong attractive and impressive power to persuade the audience either by their likeness, attractiveness, trust or by their congruency with brand which lead to creation of strong brand image and value in the viewers’ mind. Available literature on endorsed effect gives clear information on how value is transferred (McCracken, 1989), by celebrity for promotion of brand and creating awareness for the product by celebrity characteristics, credibility, attractiveness (Porpitakpan, 2004) and image congruence (Choi, lee, kim, 2005,Nazir, khan and mehmood  2014). Consumers are much influenced by celebrities when they believe that the endorser has actual attainment with product rather than materialistic gain.  Numerous studies have similar views that the involvement of celebrities in advertisement shows successful result on credibility communication, evoke recall and likeability of the advertisement and finally on purchase intention (Menon, boone, and rogers 2001; Lafferty & goldsmith 1991).
One of the most common beliefs held in advertising is that celebrity endorsements enhance the effectiveness of marketing strategy. It enables the brand to be notice in the marketplace amidst thousand brands. Celebrity endorsement is one of the powerful tools by which advertisers try to leverage the image and identification of celebrity to promote a product or company (Atkin& Block, 1983). This not only make the advertisement lively, attractive, interesting but attention getting as well (Ohanan 1991, Kamin 1990).   It is believed that celebrities are able to connect faster with viewers, ultimately making the customers more likely to choose the product with a competitive edge.
The positive acceptance of celebrity endorsement is quite prevalent and it is not surprising that more than 50% of commercial advertisement depict them. When well-known personalities promote brand or product, it helps to increase the financial returns of company, creating a mutual benefit to the company and the celebrity.
A study conducted by Anita Elberse (2009) an associate professor at Harvard Business School, has revealed that because of the use celebrities, some brands have their sales increase up to 20% upon commencing the endorsement deal. On the day, thedeal was announce; some companies have their stock increase by 0.25% - simply because celebrity endorsements expedite brand recall, which influence customers’ behaviour and purchase
It is notable that not all the celebrities proven to be effective endorsers, henceselection process becomes more challenging (Griffin 1967). Hence, it becomes necessary for companies to look for and present anappropriate match between celebrity personality and product attribute in a competitive marketing world (Ghaysari, Rasali, Roghanian and Norhalim 2012), lest the advertisement campaign maycome to nothing. When the similarity of feature between the celebrity and the product proves to be successfulthis positively affect the senses of the customer and leads to the development of favourable perception about the brand (Michael 1989, Ohahin 1991).
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Every conceived message is aimed at a particular purpose. Annually, private and public firms alike spend huge amount of money in placing all sorts of commercialin the media. In addition, firms attempt to best each other for customers’ attention by adopting various advertisingapproach.They pay celebrities millions of naira to associate themselves with their brands. This they do in anticipation that such association would have atrickle-downeffectin making the brand more acceptable and eventually affect consumers desire to buy the brand.
 However, several brands have failed to meet the desired level of consumer attention despite various celebrity endorsements and commercials.When a particular endorser is notaccepted by the target audience, this has a repel effect on the proposed brand. (Miciak and Shanklin, 1994) proposethat celebrityendorsement may repelconsumers rather than attract them. Moreover, (Till and Shimp, 1994) emphasize that firms have no restrictionovercelebrities’ imminentbehavior. A perfect illustration is the news report of companies’ shareholderslosses worth billions of dollars due to the scandals involving their celebrity endorser (Tiger Woods).According to the research carried out by Lee, Pack and Kim (2004) they discovered that celebrityendorsement can have anadverse effect on one’s buying behaviour, the brand and even the endorser, especially multiple brands endorsement.
In addition, there exists underlying ambiguity in regards to the possible revenue firms would generate fromthe product as (Till and Shimp, 1994) propose that damaginginformation about an endorser maylessenconsumers’ brandvaluation. Similarly, (Liu, 2001) emphasizeson the challenges advertisers face using native celebrities for global brand as there is difficulty in establishing the similarity between the product and the native endorser.
Moreover, consideringthe success of an endorsed advertisement withregards to the volume of sales, thepopularity of the product and above all its approval by the customers has always been anissueof discussion. Spokespersons or celebrities are often considered to possess expert power, referent power and legitimatepower to influence the behavior of others Tom, Clark, Grech, Massetti (1992).
Likewise, the absence of relationshipor similarity between a celebrity and the endorsed productmay not guarantee effective advertisement, even with thepresence of a celebrity (Kahle and Homer, 1985). A typical example of this isthe endorsement of Harpic Toilet Cleanser by a popular actor NkemOwoh (Osuofia). Reckitt and Benkiser the manufacturer of Harpic, did not recordany significant response fromconsumers because the advertisement was a mismatch as men in Africa traditionally, do not do washing of toilet and this in the end affected the attitudes of consumers towards the product (Adebija, 2010).In addition, a popular musician(2face idibia) in Nigeria was also refused a renewal of his endorsement deal by Guinness Extra Smooth Beer refused due to his sexual escapades forthe fear that it may have negatively affect its brand and ultimatelyaffects its credibility (Durojaiye, 2009). As a result, most organizations are facedwith the problem of determining criteria and the best way(s) of usingcelebrities to endorse their product in such a manner as to achieve desired results. Similarly, mismatch between an endorser and the productbeing endorsed in terms of the inability of consumers to identifyendorser’s quality with the product being advertised is an issue ofconcern in celebrity endorsement. While celebrity endorsement isgood, it can have a negative impact on a product because of:
- Disparity between endorser and product
- Issues/negative impression about celebrity may affect or be transferred to the endorsed brand.
1.3    RESEARCH QUESTION
What factors are responsible for choosing celebrities?
Does celebrity endorsement enable brand recall and brand awareness?
Does celebrity endorsement have negative impact on purchase decision?
How do consumers perceive celebrity-endorsed goods as compared to non-endorsed goods?
OBJECTIVES OF THESTUDY
The main objective of the study is to examine the effect of celebrity endorsement on consumer behaviour. Other subsidiary objectives are-
To determine factors for choosing celebrities in advertisement.
To investigate whether celebrity endorsements constitute brand recall and brand awareness.
To determine the positive/negative impactof celebrity endorsement.
To determine how consumers perceived celebrity endorsed goods as compared to non-endorsed goods.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY    
The research work will benefit all the stakeholders in the advertising industry, the manufacturersof fast moving goods more so, the once that intended to use celebrity endorsement in the future through learning the influence of celebrity endorsement on consumer behaviour. The owners and of these company will be able to determine the effectiveness of these communication strategies, if indeed they worked for their brand.
For the academicians, this will be helpful in understanding the perception and attitude of the consumers towards celebrity endorsement, whichwould reveal some interesting insights anddirectionfor future research.
Thirdly this study willcontribute to the body of knowledge which seem scanty by documenting the influence of celebrity endorsement  on consumer  behaviour since the final aim of every advertising strategy is to instigate the actual behaviour of the targeted audience, whether purchase intention or actual consumption.
1.6 SCOPE OFTHESTUDY
This research will be aimed at the effect of celebrity endorsement in consumable goods on consumer purchase behaviour in Benin-City. However, this research will be constrained to respondent between the age limit of 18-40 years who constitute a major market for a firm product.Likely difference between male and female consumers in terms of perceived image of celebrity endorsement, impacts of celebrity endorsement and preference of a celebrity endorser would also be considered.
1.7 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Celebrity endorsed advertisements are more attractive and effective than non-celebrity advertisements.
celebrity endorsement ensures brand recall and brand awareness
negative publicity about a celebrity affects purchase decision
The celebrity-product combination of attributes positively affects the decisions of the age group to purchase a product.    
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
    In the course of undertaking this study, certain hindrances were encountered. This includes the reluctance on the part of respondent to fully disclose information. Another limitation was that the study was subjected to the use of convenience sampling technique due to the time frame of study.
Yet another constraint is the imprecise measurement of variables due to uncertain and varying behaviours among customers which seems to be subjective and bias, nonetheless, strenuous efforts were made to overcome this limitation so as to make meaningful and accurate contribution to existing knowledge on celebrity endorsement and consumer behaviour.