Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots on Consumer Buying Behavior Garima Malik & Abhinav Guptha Published online: 06 May 2014.

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1 This article was downloaded by: [James Madison University] On: 19 November 2014, At: 07:18 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: Registered office: Mortimer House, Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Global Marketing Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots on Consumer Buying Behavior Garima Malik & Abhinav Guptha Published online: 06 May To cite this article: Garima Malik & Abhinav Guptha (2014) Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots on Consumer Buying Behavior, Journal of Global Marketing, 27:2, , DOI: / To link to this article: PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content ) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

2 Journal of Global Marketing,27: ,2014 Copyright c Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: print / online DOI: / Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots on Consumer Buying Behavior Garima Malik Abhinav Guptha ABSTRACT. Celebrity and brand mascot endorsements are very popular and often-used techniques by marketers. Marketers believe that celebrity and brand mascot endorsements provide a higher degree of appeal, attention, and customer recall ability compared with when this technique is not used. Marketers also claim that a celebrity affects the credibility of claims about a product and increases the memorabilia factor of the message, which may provide a positive effect that could be generalized to the brand. Primarily this essay has been designed such that it examines various parameters related to advertisements containing celebrity and brand mascot endorsements. Data were been collected from 150 respondents through questionnaire and subjected to t test, χ 2 test, and difference of means test to enforce the hypotheses that celebrity endorsements have impacts on customers perceptions and their purchase intentions. The findings of this study provide insights for marketing and brand managers to design and market their campaigns effectively. KEYWORDS. Celebrity endorsement, physical attractiveness, source credibility, congruence, customer purchase intention, customer attitude INTRODUCTION The use of celebrities and brand mascots in advertisements and promotion campaigns is one of the topical strategies of many brands; the purpose of such use may be to get attention from the target audience, to obtain easy acceptability of the products and prolonged association, or for the purpose of recall. This study purports to consider the importance of celebrities and brand mascots and will analyze the impact of celebrities in influencing consumers to make purchases from the various product cat- egories. Celebrity endorsement acts as a credible means of spending money for the brand, as the consumer immediately associates with the product and differentiates the endorsed brand from the given variety. This could be for reasons of social standing: people want to wear the right clothes, drink the right beverages, and use the right fragrances. As per the consumer s perception, an endorsed product would have higher purchase value than its counterpart (Clark & Horstman, 2003). Celebrity endorsement is more likely to be observed for products with a high price production cost margin and Garima Malik is an assistant professor associated with Amity Business School, Noida, India. Abhinav Guptha is an assistant manager-branding at National Payments Corporation in Mumbai, India. Address correspondence to Dr. Garima Malik, c/o Prince Malik, No. 25, Sector 16-A, Noida, Uttar-Pradesh, India garima261@rediffmail.com 128

3 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 129 with a large customer base. In short, celebrity endorsements are more typical for nationally marketed products than they are for local or niche market products and are more typical for products such as running shoes, soft drinks, and other products for which the price cost margins are large. There is a tremendous impact of celebrity television endorsements among Indian consumers; there is a large fan following in India, and celebrities act as role models for a majority of Indians (Balakrishnan & Kumar, 2011). Increasingly, companies prefer to use celebrities from different fields in India such as cricket players, Bollywood celebrities, and other sports personalities to endorse their brands. Many companies brand mascots to endorse their products, and this strategy is very popular for fast-moving consumer goods. Marketers spend an enormous amount of money on celebrity endorsement contracts based on the belief that celebrities are effective spokespersons for their products or brands (Katayal, 2007). Television has widely penetrated the minds of people from divergent socioeconomic classes. In India, celebrity power can rightly be assessed by their successful endorsements; film stars and cricket players have been successful not only in gathering huge public attention but also in increasing companies sales volumes. For example, Cadbury and Nestlé used Amitabh Bachchan to promote their brand when it went through a bad phase in India. Soon, the endorsement restored people s love for the brand and hence this phenomenon increased Cadbury s and Nestlé s sales (Joshi & Ahluwalia, 2008; Matrade, 2005). Aamir Khan is used by Coca-Cola to communicate to and influence semiurban and rural consumers to purchase the brand Chota Coke. This celebrity endorsement has also been quite effective in influencing consumers buying decision. Similarly, various endorsements by Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, and others have been found to be successful in affecting consumers buying decisions (Joshi & Ahluwalia). Celebrity endorsement advertising has been recognized as a ubiquitous feature of modern day marketing (McCracken, 1989). It has been TABLE 1. Valuable Factors That Influence Purchasing Decisions N Mean SD Price of the product Celebrity endorsement Quality of product Value for money estimated that one quarter of all advertisements use a celebrity spokesperson to endorse a product or brand (Shimp, 1997) to the extent that it is a global phenomenon today. This indicates the validity of this strategy as a means of persuasive communication. Celebrities are often employed by advertisers to lend their personality to a product or brand (Kaikati, 1987). They have been found to produce more positive responses toward advertising and greater purchase intentions than a noncelebrity endorser (Atkin & Block, 1983; Petty & Cacioppo, 1983). Furthermore, McCracken found that celebrity endorsers represent an effective way of transferring meaning to brands. From a theoretical perspective, celebrities are effective endorsers because of their symbolic apparition reference group associations (Assael, 1984; Solomon & Assael, 1987). Advertisers use celebrities because they heighten the appeal of advertisements. They are believed to enhance audience attentiveness; make the advertisement memorable, credible, and desirable; and add glamour to the product (Spielman, 1981). Kaikati (1987) enumerates five advantages of employing celebrities to endorse products: drawing attention, crisis management, brand repositioning, global marketing, and boosting sales. Parameters TABLE 2. Friedman Test Mean rank Price of the product 2.50 Celebrity endorsement 3.13 Quality of product 1.96 Value for money 2.41

4 130 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING TABLE 3. Factors That Influence Purchases of Personal and Food Products Brand name Celebrity Quality Cost Personal care 1.91 (3) 3.06 (1) 1.90 (4) 2.60 (2) Food products 2.48 (2) 2.93 (1) 1.75 (4) 2.45 (3) Note. Values in parentheses show mean. This study has been divided into two sections. First, the literature review related to the topic is provided. Then the database and research methodology designed for the study are described, and the detailed results of the survey with respect to influence of celebrity and brand mascots on buying behavior of customers are presented. The conclusions follow. LITERATURE REVIEW Trip and Carlson (1994) studied the effects of multiple product endorsement by celebrities on attitudes and intentions of customers. His study revealed the number of products a celebrity endorses negatively influences consumer perception of the endorser and the advertising itself. It was suggested that when as many as four products are endorsed, celebrity credibility and likability, as well as attitude toward the advertisement, may attenuate. Mathur, Mathur, and Rangan (1997) show that the anticipation of Michael Jordan s return to NBA and the related increased visibility for him resulted in an increase in the market-adjusted values of his client firms of almost 2%, or more than $1 billioninstock market value. From this study, one can observe that the major celebrity endorser with a gossipcentered personality has tremendous potential to influence the profitability of endorsed products. Dean (1999) studied the effects of three extrinsic advertisement cues (i.e., third party endorsement, event sponsorship, and brand popularity) on brand and manufacturer evaluation and observed that endorsement significantly affected only product variables (quality and uniqueness) and one image variable (esteem). The thirdparty endorsement, hence, may be perceived as asignalofproductquality.resultsclearlyindicated the main effects for both endorsement and sponsorship cues, with endorsement affecting perceived quality, uniqueness, and esteem and sponsorship affecting only citizenship. The popularity cue lacks a significant main effect; the three cues do not significantly interact with each other. Goldsmith et al. (2000) assessed the impact of endorser and corporate credibility on attitudetoward-the-advertisement, attitude-toward-thebrand, and purchase intentions. One hundred fifty-two adult consumers who viewed a fictitious advertisement for Mobil Oil Company were surveyed. They rated the credibility of the advertisement s endorser, the credibility of the company, and attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intentions. It was observed that endorser credibility had its strongest impact on attitude toward the advertisement, while corporate credibility had its strongest impact on attitude toward the brand. The findings suggest that corporate credibility plays an important role in consumers reactions to advertisements and brands, independent of the equally important role of endorser credibility. Daneshvary and Schwer (2000) determined that credibility of the source is considered important in influence acceptance. A consumer will accept the accurate influence (information) and apply it if the source is perceived to be credible. Therefore, a product s endorsement by a credible source may impact purchase behavior. Zafer et al. (2001) found that some viewers forget the brand that a celebrity approves; other viewers are so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity that they completely fail to notice the brand being advertised. Sanyukta et al. (2005) studied the positive and negative aspects of celebrity approval of a brand and found that approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that brand among the target audience. This is especially true in the case of new products. Celebrities ensure the attention of the target group by breaking through the clutter of advertisements and making the advertisement and the brand more noticeable. On the negative side is the extreme use of a celebrity, called lazy

5 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 131 FIGURE 1. Type of Celebrity (color figure available online). advertising, which refers to inadequate content masked by the use of a celebrity. There is also the fear of brand celebrity disconnect, which points out that if the celebrity represents values that conflict with the brand values, the advertising would create conflict in the minds of the target audience. Agarwal et al. (2005) defined brand attitude as consumers general evaluative judgment of a brand based on brand beliefs. Such beliefs concern product-related attributes, like practical and experimental benefits. A successful endorser is able to enhance intentions and preferences toward brands directly or indirectly. Surana (2008) revealed that some properties, such as likability, expertise, trustworthiness, and similarity, cause a celebrity endorser to become a source of persuasive information, and this creates a sense of certainty. Shimp (1998) examines the impact that negative information about a celebrity might have on consumer evaluations of endorsed brands. Practitioners hope their target audience s positive feelings toward a chosen celebrity will transfer to the endorsed brand or will otherwise enhance the brand s standing. What happens if either during or after an advertising campaign negative information about the celebrity becomes public? Widely publicized incidents (e.g., Pepsi Cola s series of debacles with three tarnished celebrities: Mike Tyson, Madonna, and Michael Jackson) suggest that celebrity endorsers may at times become liabilities to the brands they endorse. Observation reveals an increase in the use of animated characters as product endorsers. It was determined that 28% of animated advertisements contained cartoon-character celebrities such as Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse as these characters are generally immune to negative publicity. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES To study the degree to which consumers purchasing decision is influenced by celebrity endorsements and brand mascots. TABLE 4. Attributes of Celebrity N Mean SD SEM Attractiveness of celebrity Trustworthiness of celebrity Expertise of celebrity

6 132 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING TABLE 5. DOM Test 1 TABLE 7. DOM Test 2 Sum of squares df Mean squared F Sig. Model Sum of squares df Mean squared F Sig. Attractiveness of celebrity Between groups Within groups Total Trustworthiness of celebrity Between groups Within groups Total Expertise of celebrity Between groups Within groups Total Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention. To ascertain which of the two has a greater impact on consumer: celebrities or brand mascots. To study how the image of the celebrity can influence the brand image. RESEARCH DESIGN The research methodology for the present study was based on descriptive research design. Stratified nonprobability sampling method was used, which involves the sample being drawn from that part of the population that is close at hand. In this study, the target populations were men and women of 20 to 40 years old. The researcher collected responses from 150 respondents from the Northern Capital Region of India during January February In the research process, first, respondents were made aware of the purpose of study, and then they were requested to give their unbiased responses. The TABLE 6. Regression Model Summary Model R R 2 Adjusted R 2 SEE Predictors: (constants) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness of celebrity, expertise of celebrity. Regression Residual Total Predictors: (constants) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness of celebrity, expertise of celebrity. questionnaires (Appendix 1) were pretested on 20 respondents, and minor changes have been incorporated in the questionnaire. Further, the data have been categorized into two parts: primary data (collected through questionnaires) and secondary data (collected with the help of newspapers, magazines, and various other journals) for statistical analysis. The primary instrument for data collection questionnaire consisted of ordinal-scale questions to determine the priority of each item among the group of items (1 being the best rank and 4 being the least); later, an interval scale was used in a Likert-type scale to extract data with magnitude and a nominal scale was used to store demographics of the respondents. The primary data were analyzed using SPSS software and were depicted using bar charts, pie charts, χ 2, t test tables, etc. DATA ANALYSIS Most Valuable Factor Rated by Respondents for Purchasing Product In this question, respondents were asked about the factors that influence the purchasing behavior (given in Table 1). Ranks had been given by the respondents on the basis of the importance of factors to know the priority of each item among the group (1 being the best rank and 4 being the least). On applying the Friedman test (Table 2), it is clear that celebrity endorsement is most valuable and influential to customers when it comes to purchasing a product, followed immediately by the price of the product, value for money, and then quality of product.

7 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 133 TABLE 8. Coefficients Unstandardized Model coefficients Standardized coefficients t Sig. (Constant) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness of celebrity, Expertise of celebrity Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention. Factors That Most Persuade You to Purchase Personal and Food Products Respondents were asked to rank the factors according to their importance when purchasing the various categories of products. Table 3 clearly shows the factors that were ranked on the basis of mean, from which we can clearly ascertain that celebrity has a major role to play in persuading people to purchase personal care items. Followed by celebrity, it is the cost factor that most influences purchase decision. Brand name is rated as the third most important factor, followed by quality. For food products, the factors were ranked, from which we can clearly ascertain that celebrity has a major role to play in persuading people to purchase food products. Followed by celebrity, it is the attractive packaging that most influences purchase decision. Cost is rated as the third most important factor, followed by quality. Type of Celebrity Endorsement That Most Persuades You A question was asked about the type of celebrity the respondents would like to see most to endorse the product. Figure 1 shows that more than half of respondents said that film stars are most persuasive of all the types of celebrities. Around 24% believe that sportspersons are most persuasive; this is perhaps because sportspersons, especially cricket players, are personalities that people tend to look up to and, hence, their opinions are considered genuine because of their winning personalities. There are other famous personalities like television stars or famous writers or singers who also sometimes influence people s purchasing intent. Politicians possess a negligible share. Attributes of Celebrity That Influence Purchase Intention Toward a Celebrity-endorsed Brand For further analysis, the respondents were asked to give their responses on the at- TABLE 9. Believes Celebrity Endorsements Easily influenced by a celebrity endorser when you purchase a celebrityendorsed brand Ever considered purchasing a new product just because of the presence of a celebrity you liked. Believe products specifically advertised by the celebrities are of good quality. Believe the celebrities also use those products which they themselves endorse. N Mean SD SEM

8 134 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING TABLE 10. The t Test Test value = 4 95% CI of the difference t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean difference Lower Upper Easily influenced by a celebrity endorser when you purchase a celebrity-endorsed brand Ever considered purchasing a new product just because of the presence of a celebrity you liked Believe products specifically advertised by the celebrities are of good quality Believe the celebrities also use those products that they endorse tributes related to celebrities, like the attractiveness of a celebrity, the trustworthiness of a celebrity, and the expertise of a celebrity (Table 4). Difference of means (DOM) was implemented to observe significant differences between the means of the variables. The results in Table 5 for Trustworthiness of celebrity and Expertise of celebrity show a significance level of less than 5%, implying that both are significant. Attractiveness of celebrity is just above 5%, thereby implying that it is not that insignificant. The results are insignificant for DOM for purchase intention. The F statistic also confirms this insignificance because all observed F values are less than the critical F value of H0 (Null Hyphothesis): Attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness of celebrity, expertise FIGURE 2. How Often Do Brand Mascots Influence You? (color figure available online).

9 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 135 TABLE 11. Attributes in Brand Mascots That Influence Purchase Decisions Parameters N Mean SD Friendliness Uniqueness Humor Emotional touch Trustworthy Loyalty Attractiveness of celebrity do not highly intend customer to purchase advertised products. Tables 6, 7, and 8 show the results of regression testing, where the values to be considered are R 2 values, referring to the fitness of model and the explanatory power of the model. The model has 34% explanatory power of the dependent variable. Because the significance value is.000, which is less than.5, the null hypothesis, H0, is rejected and the alternative hypothesis, H1, is accepted. The attractiveness of the celebrity, the trustworthiness of the celebrity, and the expertise of celebrity endorser have significant impacts on consumers buying decisions. Believes Celebrity Endorsement Respondents were asked to rank the statements according to their perceptions of what they think about the advertisment and products that are endorsed by the celebrities (Table 9). H0: Respondents do not pay special attention to advertisements and products that are endorsed by celebrities. Responses were collected for four statements through the use of Likert-type scales, apply- TABLE 12. Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot Observed N Expected N Residual Celebrity Brand mascot Total 150 TABLE 13. The χ 2 Test χ a df 1 Asymp. sig..744 ing the t test to responses to four statements. It was found that the significance value for all is.000, which is less than.05 and, hence, the null hypothesis is rejected and H1 is accepted (i.e., Celebrity endorsers has a significant impact on the consumers mind and always received special attention from them) (Table 10). It was ascertained that 69% of respondents say they are only sometimes influenced by brand mascots, around 25% said that they are never influenced, and the remaining 6% said that they are always influenced by brand mascots (Figure 2). Important Attributes of Brand Mascots Respondents were asked whether they are influenced by the brand mascots, and their responses were always, sometimes, or never. From Table 11, we can deduce that it is the emotional touch feature of brand mascots that is the most important influence on a person s purchase decision. Attractiveness, trustworthy, friendliness, and uniqueness are other features that influence purchase decisions. Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot In this question, respondents were asked to compare the celebrity and brand mascot and asked to give a response regarding their preference. H0: Celebrity endorsers are not more influential than brand mascots. On the basis of χ 2 test, because the significance value is.744, which is greater than.05, the null hypothesis is accepted. Celebrity endorsers are not more influential than brand mascots.

10 136 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING FIGURE 3. Descriptive Statistics on Brand Mascot (color figure available online). Various brand mascots influenced the purchasing decision of cutomers: Respondents were asked to rate brand mascots according to their influential power (Tables 12 and 13). Figure 3 clearly shows that Amul s polkadotted girl, 7 Up s Fido Dido, Parle Agro s Hippo, and Pillsbury s Doughboy have had a high level of influence on people s purchasing decisions.this indicates that these four mascots most certainly have high recall value. Kellogg s Coco Monkey and Kraft s Tiger stand in the average position, which basically indicates that these mascots have low recall value. Regarding the television channel that most influences purchase intentions, respondents were asked to give their responses concerning broadcast medium. According to the survey, television is the most influential medium, followed by newspaper, Internet, magazines, and social network (Figure 4). FIGURE 4. Demographics on Broadcasting Medium (color figure available online).

11 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 137 CONCLUSIONS Through this research, an attempt has been made to draw some conclusions from the survey concerning celebrity endorsements and brand mascots and their impacts on the purchasing behavior of customers. Celebrity Endorser The study determined that a celebrity endorser plays a significant role in persuading people in both the personal care products and food products categories. Celebrity endorsers play the role of initiator and influencer in the consumer s buying process; they create awareness and develop the interest of the people in the brand and enable product association. When we discuss types of celebrities, film stars are the most preferred ones; film stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Katrina Kaif have amazing persuasive power, and companies spend huge amounts to make use of this power. For example, Katrina Kaif is a celebrity endorser of Pepsi Co. s Slice, Juhi Chawla is the celebrity endorser of Kurkure. Many people also consider sportspeople to be more persuasive because customers tend to look up to them and their opinions are considered genuine because of their winning personalities. Among sportspeople, cricket players are undoubtedly the most influential in India. Boost, a health drink brand, has been using cricket players as celebrity endorsers to promote the brand. The charisma of celebrity almost always entices people and their words are worshipped by many. The trustworthiness of a celebrity is the most important and necessary feature of the celebrity. A trustworthy celebrity can develop people s faith in the brand. For instance, because of her trustworthy image, Aishwarya Rai, the celebrity endorser of L Oreal products in India, convinces women that L Oreal products are the best. People also sometimes purchase certain products if they are endorsed by a celebrity of their liking. For example, a fan of Katrina Kaif is likely to purchase Slice (product of Pepsi Co.) over Maaza (product of Coca-Cola). Celebrity-endorsed products are given leverage over other products that have no celebrity name attached to it. People tend to believe that a product that is endorsed by a celebrity is of good quality. In fact, to be accepted by the people and for survival in the marketplace, almost all companies are spending huge sum of money to get the right celebrity to endorse their brands. It was ascertained in the study that even though people consider a celebrityendorsed brand as a better brand, a large number of people are not really sure that celebrities use the products that they endorse. This could perhaps be because of multibrand endorsement by the same celebrities. Brand Mascots The following are some key features of brand mascots, in order of importance, that have an impact on consumers buying behaviors. This has been deduced from the responses to the survey. 1. Emotional touch 2. Attractiveness 3. Trustworthiness 4. Friendliness 5. Loyalty 6. Uniqueness 7. Humor Astrongbrandmascotismoresuccessful than celebrities. It is observed that the popularity of any mascot not only is based on the response they obtain but also depends on the fact that they have a higher recall value. The strength of mascots basically lies in its uniqueness and its power of effectively communicating the ethos of the brand. The utterly, butterly delicious Amul girl in polka dots born in 1967 is the best proof of mascot brand recall lasting years or even decades. Celebrities become associated with too many products and

12 138 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING therefore it is difficult to relate them to one particular brand, which is not the case with the mascots. For example, Shah Rukh Khan endorses brands such as Pepsi, Airtel, Santro, Emami, and many more, but Fido is associated with just 7 Up. Brand mascots are loyal to the brand. The impact and success of the mascot depend on how effectively it conveys the brand values and the ideals that consumers would associate with it. RECOMMENDATIONS Keeping certain successful mascot campaigns in mind, like the very successful Hippi campaign, fast-moving consumer goods companies must put more light on the concept of brand mascots, especially in the food segment. The scope of the success of mascots is much higher in the food products segment than in the personal care segment. It is recommended not to introduce brand mascots in the personal care segment. This is because customers in this segment would like to see some evidence to satisfy them. In the personal care segment, approval by a celebrity is very essential as it builds a sense of trust leading to a genuine perception of the brand.for example, a movie actress, with beautiful hair, confirming that her secret is a particular shampoo, leads to building the customer s confidence in the brand. This is hard to achieve through brand mascots because they lack the realistic factor. In the food segment, brand mascots are promising. Hippo, Amul polka dress girl, and Fido Dido are a few of the many successful brand mascot campaigns in the food segment of FMCG companies. Mascots have a lasting appeal and create a whole new persona for the product. They manage the product as efficiently as a celebrity, are more cost efficient, and have higher recall value; most importantly, they are loyal to the brand. There had been a decline in the use of mascots due to the sudden blast of celebrity endorsement in the past few years. But now the Indian market, which is saturated with celebrity endorsements, has seen emergence of the mascots, and it is in the hands of the companies to use this situation in the most beneficial way. REFERENCES Agarwal, J., & Malhotra, N. K. (2005). An integrated model of attitude and affect: Theoretical foundation and an empirical investigation. Journal of Business Research, 58(4), Assael, H. (1984). Consumer behavior and market action. Boston, MA: Kent. Atkin, C., & Block, M. (1983). Effectiveness of celebrity endorsers. Journal of Advertising Research, 23, Balakrishnan, L., & Kumar, C. S. (2011). Effect of celebrity based advertisements on the purchase attitude of consumers towards durable products (a study with reference to the city of Chennai. World Review of Business Research, 1(2), Clark, R. C., & Horstman, I. J. (2003). Celebrity Endorsements. Retrieved from pdffav(celebendorse.bu.pdf Cooper, M. (1984). Can celebrities really sell products? Marketing and Media Decisions, 19, Daneshvary, R., & Schwer, K. R. (2000). The association endorsement and consumers intention to purchase. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(3), Dean, D. H. (1999). Brand endorsement, popularity, and event sponsorship as advertising cues affecting consumer prepurchase attitude. Journal of Advertising, 16(3), Erdogan, B. Z., Baker, M. J., & Tag, S. (2001).Selecting celebrity endorsers: The practitioner s perspective. Journal of Advertising Research, 41(3), Goldsmith, R. E., Lafferty, B. A., & Newell, S. J. (2000). The impact of corporate credibility and celebrity credibility on consumer reaction to advertisements and brands. Journal of Advertising, 29(3), Joshi, V., & Ahluwalia, S. (2008). The impact of celebrity endorsements on consumer brand preferences. Retrieved from Faculty Column/FC706/fc706.html Kaikati, J. G. (1987). Celebrity advertising: A review and synthesis. Journal of International Advertising, 6, Kulkarni, S. A., & Gaulkar, S. U. (2005). Impact of celebrity endorsement on overall brand. Retrieved from Papers/op88/op88. html Mathur, L. K., Mathur, I., & Rangan, N. (1997). The wealth effects associated with a celebrity endorser:

13 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 139 The Michael Jordan phenomena. Journal of Advertising Research, 37(3). Matrade, C. (2005) Product market study: consumer behaviour in India. Scribd [Online]. Retrieved from: Market-Study-Consumer-Behavior-in-India McCracken, G. (1989).Who is the celebrity endorser? Cultural foundations of the celebrity endorsement process. Journal of Consumer Research, 16, Mowen, J. C., & Minor, M. S. (2000). Consumer behavior. New York, NY: Macmillan. Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Schumann, D. (1983). Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: The moderating role of involvement. Journal of Consumer Research, 10, Shimp, T. E. (1997). Advertising, communication and supplemental aspects of integrated marketing communication (4th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press. Solomon, M. R., & Assael, H. (1987). The forest or the trees: A gestalt approach to symbolic consumption. In J. Umiker-Seboek (Ed.), Marketing and semiotics: New directions in the study of signs for sale (pp ). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. Spielman, H. M. (1981). The celebrity sell: Making it work. Marketing Times, 28, Surana, R. (2008). The effectiveness of celebrity endorsement in India (Unpublished Dissertation). The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom. Tripp, J., & Carlson. (1994). The effect of multiple product endorsements by celebrities on consumers attitude and intentions. Journal of Advertisement Research, 20(March),

14 140 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING APPENDIX 1. QUESTIONNAIRE 1) What do you value the most when purchasing a product? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest rank) Price of the product Celebrity endorsement Quality of the product Value for money 2) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase personal care items? please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest rank) Brand name Celebrity Quality Cost 3) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase food products? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest rank) Celebrity Attractive package Quality Brand name 4) What type of celebrity endorsement persuades you personally to purchase products? Film star Sportsperson Politician Famous personality 5) To what extent do the following variables influence your purchase intention toward a celebrity endorsed brand? (please check) Attractiveness of the celebrity Trustworthiness of the celebrity Expertise of the celebrity Very low Low Average High Very high

15 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 141 Please answer the following questions (please check) Strongly disagree Disagree Average Agree Strongly agree 6) Are you easily influenced by the celebrity endorser when you purchase a celebrity-endorsed brand? 7) Have you ever considered purchasing a new product just because of the presence of a celebrity you liked? 8) Do you believe products specifically advertised by the celebrities are of good quality? 9) Do you believe the celebrities also use those products that they endorse? 10) If the reputation of the celebrity degrades, does the reputation of the brand also degrade? 11) Would multibrand endorsements by the same celebrity lead to overexposure? 12) Does inconsistency in the professional popularity of the celebrity lead to negative impact on brand? 13) Do brand mascots influence your purchasing decision? Always Sometimes Never 14) What is the most persuasive feature in brand mascots that make you purchase products? (please rank 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest rank) Feature Friendliness Uniqueness Humor Emotional touch Loyalty Trustworthy Attractiveness 15) Of the two, what influences your purchase decision more? (please check) Celebrities Brand mascots

16 142 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING 16) To what extent have the following brand mascots influenced your purchasing decision? Brand mascot Very low Low Average High Very high Polka Dress Girl Amul Fido Dido 7 Up Hippo Parle Agro Coco Monkey Kellogg s (Continued on next page)

17 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 143 Brand mascot Very low Low Average High Very high Doughboy Pillsbury Tiger Tiger Biscuits Kraft 17) What channel most influences your purchase intentions? Television Radio Newspaper Magazines Internet Movie Social network Personal Details Name: Gender: Male Female Age: