Introduction
In the introduction this research paper will be providing an insight about the research area. It would begin by briefly speaking about the background and relevant concept of celebrity endorsements and exactly how it affects the buyer pre-purchasing behavior.
1. 1 Background
Advertisement had become in early on 18th Century. Since that time the concept started out playing an active role in the introduction of the contemporary society in the early 1930s. A lot of the celebrity in the past used their status in society to market product, service or charity. These superstars performed level shows; modeling, sports activities and almost all of them were from movie industry (Kambitsis, Harahousouy, Theodorakis and Chatzibeis, 2002). In the first 19th century, world's first star endorser Lillie Langtry (English actress) appeared in the ad for 'pear cleaning soap'. It designated the start of the brand representation by endorsers. These endorsers according to the Tellis (1998) "can be divided into three major communities - experts, lay endorsers and celebrities". Here 'experts' are those people who find out about the product plus they have limited understanding of the product which they have assembled during analysis, training or activities. Such an occasion can be shown in advert where dentist for toothpaste advert or nutritionists for healthy foods as both of these have the ability to offer an expert thoughts and opinions about the merchandise. Secondly 'place' endorsers are people who may be real or fictional, which resembles to the mark groups and can be quite effective to provide meaning. Finally comes 'superstar' endorser who can be explained as folks "who enjoys general public acceptance and who uses this on the behalf of any consumer good by captivating with it within an advertisements "(McCracken, 1989, p. 310).
Celebrity endorsements are used for advertisement because they can create an appeal and can increase its elegance for the visitors and consumers. For example JORDAN acted in advertisements for Nike; David Beckham for Gillette and newly made football cup advertisement of coca cola where Roger Milla's celebrates wonderful world of soccer goals.
According to Ohanian (1999) "both theory and practice demonstrates that the utilization of super stars in advertisements creates a whole lot of promotion as well as draws the interest of public". Most of the companies make an effort to utilise the already made image of the superstars to catch the attention of more customer platform and increase their devotion. Just as this highly competitive business environment brand commitment is among the most utmost important for success.
Companies use superstars endorsement in the advertising so that they are able to associate with super star and are able to cash there image for an extended period of time. It is said that, "In the event the consumers are able to see the link between the movie star and the product then the endorsements can be impressive" (Hsu and McDonald, 2002). It is presumed that attractive endorsers can be highly affective while promoting products and may be used to enhance consumer's elegance. "Attractive people have greater influences on the consumers compared to unattractive people" (Right up until and Busler, 1998).
Till (1998) expresses "companies used celebrity endorsers either sporadically or opportunistically at the whim of your client or the agency". Paying back for the assets in the movie star endorsement usually originates from using the super star regularly as time passes. The reputation strengthens the associative link for those consumers who have been already alert to the super star endorsement. In addition, it increases the pole of consumers who commences to make themselves aware of the link between the brand and the celebrity. Some marketers change superstar endorsers very frequently which weakens the power likely to be derived from the endorser. Such as Nikes steady use of Michael Jordon has urged customers to take into account Nike when considering Jordon and vice versa these show that Nike and Jordon have become a part of each other's relationship in the same way association of the Nike and Tiger woods have made same impact as whenever customers think of golfing products they think of the Tiger woods and its endorsed Nike product. McCracken (1989) proposed the hypothesis that "endorsers are more effective when there is a fit between your endorser and the endorsed product".
Byrne et al (2003, p. 289) state governments "celebrity can help the brand to rebuilt and even create a new id with new dimensions". Superstar endorsement increases brands attractiveness among the list of consumers and saves precious time in terms of fabricating the reliability. When consumers see a credible super star endorsing something they think the business should be good and reputed.
The major job for the business is to find the right kind of the movie star for the endorsement and it's really the work of the marketers within the company to match the business's image or product with the personality of the celebrity and characteristics of the target market to determine effective subject matter and mass expectance.
According to the Shimp (2003) "two basic attributes which are essential when determining the potency of the endorsers as well as the communication's performance are trustworthiness and attractiveness". The first feature concerns endorser's quality of being believable or trusted and the achievements and skills of the star which could correlate with the brand image. The last mentioned attribute refers to the superstars' capacity to appeal, attract and indulge large consumer basic on the basis of their attractiveness. A good example of these would be golf star PADRAIG HARRINGTON whose scandalous image led to his ruining his trustworthiness on the list of consumers which lead to his sponsors (AT&T, Gillette, Label Heuer and Accenture) shedding his adverts and Anna Kournikova who although hasn't gained any pro-level competition but was still utilized by Swiss watch maker Omega to endorse their products because of her international reputation and captivating looks.
Purpose and research questions
Many of the prior studies on the star endorsement have been centered on how celebrity endorsements effect consumer tendencies. But there has been less consideration on the empirical research on super star endorsement specifically on sport movie star endorsements and in what way do they use superstar and how do they addresses the future results on the purchases in celebrities. The lack of proper research in this area inspires the present dissertation. So the main aim of this research would be to gain deeper understanding of the superstar endorsement and exactly how it influences the consumer's tendencies specifically in sports activities industry.
To be able to achieve that following question were developed:
1. How come athletics industry uses superstar endorsements for promotional strategy?
2. How does celebrity endorsement have an impact on the consumer behavior in sports industry?
3. How exactly does company select the celebrity?
4. How effective are star endorsement for sports activities industry?
Demarcations
This topic comes into the very wide-ranging area. Restrictions of both time and resources have led this research to give attention to the specific questions. Therefore the research newspaper will concentrate specifically on sports industry and can analyses the visible companies in the field.
Furthermore there are several viewpoints that could be adapted in the study of the celebrity endorsement. There is certainly consumers view point because they are affected by movie star endorsement and then there's a company's point of view as they use star endorsement as there promotional strategy. The study is performed by remember that both things of views are highly important in understanding the buyer behavior as well as company's way in promoting super star endorsement.
Literature review
This section of the research newspaper would be speaking about what was already done by other authors on the topic and their realization about the effect on consumer pre-purchasing decisions.
Celebrity image is one of the major concerns for the endorser. Whichever company is endorsing celebrity the major issue they need to see is the compatibility between your superstars and their brand. "Advertising companies look for stars who compete and maintain a graphic" (Kambitsis et al, 2002). Mostly companies are looking for the some basic properties such as likeability, skills, trustworthiness and similarity that's why is celebrity endorser to become a way to obtain persuasive information and this creates a feeling of certainty. Physical attractiveness of the endorser is also appreciable and can be highly effective in producing an effective concept. "Acceptance of a message by a recipient could be inspired by movie star endorsers as believable sources of information in regards to a product or a firm" (Amos et al, 2008). The usage of celebrity endorsers to support products is explained by balance theory guidelines too. According to theory, "successful companies set up an emotional relationship between your observer and the endorser and a connection between endorser and brand too" (Mowen, 2000).
One of quite issue which develops here's whether there is a link between the consumers purchasing goal and super star endorsement. Many research workers have figured they have observed that many customers can pay reduced price for the product which were endorsed by superstars then product that have not been endorsed by superstar. But the consumer should be able to see associations between the product and endorser as well as his/her intentions and goal with the endorsers. The question that arises here is how does consumer associates itself with the star endorser, to make a connection and relationship. It could be simply recognized as the majority of the companies choose an endorser who uses the merchandise and where in fact the use of the product is reflected scheduled to endorsers professional competence" (Daneshvary and schwer, 2002). An athlete endorser such as David Beckham endorses sports shoe then connection can be seen but if he endorses golf products or rushing car then customer will not be in a position to identify relationship. Therefore companies need to be careful while associating with brand and product with the endorser so that they are able to utilize endorser's capacities according with their need. Super star endorsement predicated on attractiveness is common among everyday consumers which, almost all of enough time, effect consumers positively. Michael Jordon is an example of a wonderful endorser but his efficiency is likely increased when endorsing to the athletic ability is more as opposed to the products which are not relate to athletic shows. "Consumers frequently have the positive result towards the product and the celebrity even though it is well known that the endorser acquired a whole lot when promoting a product". (Cronley et al. , 1999)
It's far better to use celebrity endorsement constantly to boost the strength of the link between the movie star and the endorsed brand. "It's also more effective to work with celebrity who's not associated with another product" (Till, 1998). When a "Celebrity endorses just a few products it is a lot more trustworthy than a celebrity who endorses even more products" (Tripp at al. , 1994). Super star endorsement can have both negative and positive effect on company's image e. g. , many celebrities who switch their endorsement to the rival brands increase the risk of negative impact and misunderstanding on the list of consumers.
Pros and cons of celebrity endorsement
Erdrogen (1999) claims "that academic conclusions and company information properly argues that celebrity endorsers are more effective than non superstar endorsers as it pertains to generate all desirable outcomes (attitudes towards advertisings and endorsed brands, intension to buy and genuine sales)". Companies usually utilize stars whose general population image and personality match with product and the target audience and who've not endorsed recently.
It has been obviously known by the advertisers that star endorsement gets the significant potential to raise the recognition of the product and the brand. "The increasing competition and new product increase in the market have made companies and marketers to make use of attention creating multimedia stars to aid product marketing" (Erdogan, 1999). With recent technology such as remote control controlled televisions, video tutorial handled systems, internet and satellite television, the energy over programmed adverts have increased and has made advertising more difficult. These threats with an increase of products, competition and technology development can be eased by the use of the celebrity endorsements as star presence in the advertising campaign have a tendency to make effect on consumers reaction toward the advertisements and "can help making advertising stick out from the clutter"(Erdogan, 1999). Promoters use celebrity to develop the communication between your consumers and the brand by reducing excessive noises in the communication process.
Some of the most complicated problem with the global marketing is to type in foreign countries scheduled to social roadblocks such as time space, dialect relationships, a robust risk, masculinity, femininity. And to overcome this problem companies retain local celebrities because they are powerful methods to enter the foreign market. It makes it easier for companies to help make the residents understand and connect the product with them. But it can also bring too many risks as well usually because celebrities loss of credibility due to the frequently changes in endorsements or if celebrity drops in attractiveness.
Therefore celebrity endorsement is an innovative as well as dangerous tool for the companies. The whole procedure for celebrity endorsements requires a proper proper plan before risking their investment.
Celebrity Endorsers' Effect on consumer's attitude
Marketers and promoters are particularly thinking about consumers' behaviour towards advertisements and brands. They always have to be aware of how sensitive consumers are about the adverts and brands. Plus they should know how do consumers start liking the product and consider it. It very much depends after the consumer's attitude towards certain product or brand or super star endorser. An frame of mind shows whether we like something or not. Attitudes have three basic components: affective, cognitive and behavioral. "Affective component relates to our preference or emotions about an object. Cognitive is described beliefs about an subject and behavioral element regards activities we take about that subject" (Severin and Tankard, 2001). Frame of mind towards advert is defined as "a learned propensity to act in response in a constantly desirable or undesired approach toward advertisement in general" (Haghirian, 2004). Determinants of advert consist of frame of mind on the advertiser, assessment of the advertising execution itself, the feeling evoked by advertising and the extent to which the advertising impact viewer's encouragement. An effective advertisement in one country or region is not necessary it will be successful in other parts of the world as what makes advertisement impressive will change noticeably in cross-culturally. Many experts have concluded that the use of the super star endorsement in advertising creates constructive effect on attitudes of the consumer towards products and brands with which they are associated. Agarwal and Malhotra (2005) have identified brand attitude as "consumers' standard evaluative judgment of your brand predicated on brand beliefs". Such beliefs concern product-related features, like functional and experimental benefits. A successful endorser is able to enhance motives and choices towards brands straight or indirectly. "An endorser who have major source factors of trustworthiness (like know-how, trustworthiness and performance) can impress purchase intentions of the consumer considerably" (Liu et al, 2007). "Information from a credible source can win over ideas, attitudes and behaviour through an activity called internalization"(Belch and Belch, 1993). Internalization occurs when the device is motivated with an issue. The device learns and accepts the idea of the credible spokesperson, since he supposes that information of this person represents an accurate position on the problem. Therefore, if such spokesperson who's regarded as an expert endorses a product, consumers will more probably have an appealing idea about that advertisements and brand and they'll consider it in their shopping list the next time they go shopping.
"Experts have used the recognition process of social influence to be able to explain the effectiveness of superstar endorsers" (Basil, 1996). This theory suggests that if an individual recognizes with another individual, then he's more likely to simply accept an attitude or behavior of this individual or an organization. The internalization procedure for social impact occurs "when an individual accepts influence because the induced patterns is congruent along with his value system". A person accepts the effect, since it offers a remedy to issues (Daneshvary and Schwer, 2000)
"A successful endorser strategy can boost the amount of consumers' recalling towards product information, reinforces consumers' reputation to endorsed brands, favorably influences consumers' attitude to low-involved products and even boost consumers' purchase intention and choice towards brands" (Liu et al, 2007)
Celebrity endorsement and its own involvement athletics industry
Sports industry is now the vital income generator in world market which is mainly due to increase in the broadcast coverage of important sports like Olympics, World Cup football, UEFA Cup, Wimbledon, US Open up, Australian Open, French Open, Formula 1 racing, World Athletic meet, NBA and Field hockey championship. Due to increase coverage athletics persons have started out becoming stars as more and more people know them and consider them as their idols. Sports celebrities have become major spectacles of today's advertising culture. Sports stars have been seemed upon as role models from the today's young generation. A lot of the athletics companies (Adidas, Nike, Wilson, Puma, Slazenger, Stiga, Dunlop and Yonex ) that have international recognition wishes to have an international sport super star which is recognized by the the majority of their consumers and has enough reliability and attractiveness to appeal to large customer platform. Because of which, Super star endorsements in the activity industry continues to grow both in number and value. Certain sportsmen are used by brands as endorsers of their products as a result of celebrity status gained by these sportsmen therefore of their success in their chosen activities.
Most models of celebrity endorser effectiveness proposed by past research workers have been based mostly upon two basic models: the Source Reliability Model (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; Hovland & Weiss, 1951) and the Source Elegance Model (McGuire, 1968). THE FOUNDATION Reliability Model significances that the potency of the message is basically determined by the knowledge and standing of the star endorser, which offers explanations for why certain athlete endorsers such as highly successful men's playing golf professionals Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer could easily stand for any brand of tennis equipment. Inside a different vein, the Source Appeal Model significances that similarity, familiarity, and preference of celebrity endorsers primarily determine their effectiveness, which attempts to clarify why some athletes such as Manning, Woods, and racecar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. can endorse brands in numerous product categories. "An over-all way of measuring physical appeal has often been used to evaluate celebrity endorser performance, assuming what is beautiful is good" (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). However, merged findings suggest that extreme care should be exercised in basing endorsement decisions on this model together, since consumers perceive physical attractiveness in another way. The Product Matchup Hypothesis (Forkan, 1980; Kahle & Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1989; Kamins, 1990) "emphasizes the need for a matchup, also referred to as congruency or fit, between your celebrity and the product". For example, the fit between Woods and Nike Golfing is undeniable. However, relating to sport marketing specialist Marc Cagins, Woods has failed as an endorser for Buick because of a lack of fit: "People always shook their head as to the reasons he did the offer anyway with Buick. If he's going to do a deal with GM, you would have thought Cadillac more than Buick" (Thomaselli, 2008, p. 28). Research based on attractiveness matchup and know-how matchup has reinforced the hypothesis that star/product fit remains critical to endorsement success. Kamins (1990) "tested the matchup hypothesis predicated on attractiveness and found that the physical attractiveness of the source only mattered when an attractive source was paired with an attractiveness-related product, leading to increased perceived source trustworthiness and attitude toward the advert". Current illustrations would include the female tennis pros and sisters Serena and Venus Williams' Avon makeup plan and the Western european men's' soccer legend Thierry Henry/Woods/Federer Gillette advertising campaign. In a study evaluating the "impact of gender and physical appeal on replies to motorsports sponsorships" (Roy, Stewart, & Goss, 2003), appeal played a larger role for feminine drivers than for men individuals, with the more appealing female drivers regarded as possessing greater expertise with products such as shampoo, tanning products, and dietary products. However, Bower and Landreth (2001) found that highly attractive models were not more effective than normally attractive models for problem-solving, attractiveness-related products and attributed these leads to the idea that consumers understand highly attractive models to haven't confronted an attractiveness-related problem and therefore have little skills using these products. To illustrate, this premise would suggest that the existing campaign utilizing female tennis legend Serena Williams for ProActiv acne medication would be unsuccessful. However, a reasonably attractive model may be more apt to be felt to have confronted an attractiveness-related problem and beat it using the publicized product, totally illustrating the premise that the knowledge of the source is more important than the attractiveness of the foundation.
Chapter 3 Methodology
Research can be defined as the seek out information or as any prepared investigation to establish facts. You can find two main types of research methods: quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative study uses numerical data to test hypothesis under exploration, which is versatile and objective. "Qualitative research uses softer method of look at perceptions and insights of individuals based on few samples however in great depth" (Silverman, 2006)
In quantitative research usually numerical data is gathered through surveys. In order that they are able to observe studies and develop it in to the meaningful results. In quantitative research it is important to acquire large sample to build up fairly accurate results, small the sample less chances to build up proper results.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research assists with developing more important complex researches. It's been characterized into four main strategies: they are really observation, record, interpretation and realization. In qualitative research data is gathered by focus categories or by interviews and then the data is witnessed thoroughly. Once witnessed data is collected or saved in important way such that it can be interpreted into understandable form. Then finally bottom line is created in the right way.
"Observational review has been criticized to be unreliable and subjective depending on observer's understanding of the data. This form of research would be more appropriate at initial period of research" (Silverman, 2006). Researcher also uses other methods to investigates, it is mostly done by reading of varied materials about them to develop and discover relevant information. This technique of research is less common amongst qualitative research.
"Most popular method among qualitative research is interviews and concentrate categories" (Silverman, 2006). In interviews, members respond to questions asked by researcher to research their knowledge of the topic and allows respondent to elaborate further with his or her ideas and feelings. "Focus group method is a more costly approach to perform than methods mentioned, but often criticized for limited sample size which may well not be representative of the population under investigation" (Silverman, 2006)
Research Method
The reason for this research seeks to research the information and views of the consumers above the superstar endorse and will it really impact the consumer behaviour during the purchasing. To aid my research and understand the consumer behaviour comprehensive study will be conducted where common people/consumer from all strolls of life and you will be gathered and interpreted into significant results and final result.
To understand the topic in the perception of the company interviews will be conducted with the folks, who have knowledge of the marketplace and know how companies become profitable from the movie star endorsement and what they make of celebrity endorsements influence on consumers attitude.
Key Data Collection
Primary data is information get first-hand to donate to what could be explored further into the research and also to justify. It involves collecting data using basic methods such as interviews, questionnaires, observations and abstractions. But the key point here's that the info gathered should be unique and should not resemble with already done researches. The primary data, which is generated by the aforementioned methods, may be qualitative in mother nature (usually by means of words) or quantitative (usually by means of numbers or counts of items assessed). In such a research both questionnaires and interviews are utilise so that consumer behaviour could be known fully from both possible consumer as well from companies. in this research questionnaire will have both open up and closed ended questions so that precised options and answers could be obtained and it will be more correct in interpreting the info. For the interviews, semi-structured style with open-ended questions will be develop in order to understand interviewee's view and belief in regards to a particular subject or situation and not restrict respondents' answer to restricted questions. "Semi-structured questions are being used in this research to encourage respondent to elaborate on things they feel appropriate and offer a blueprint to allow them to understand the progression of the interview" (Ruane, 2005). Although qualitative and quantitative data collection can be time consuming, but it is reasoned that this form of research provides more appropriate results. Individuals for survey will be the common people whom solved to a placing on Facebook, tweeter and collage email. Members for the interview will be the managers of the various companies which have international experiences and have some kind of knowledge and knowledge of the superstar endorsements. Researcher carefully reviewed each participant's position and company track record to ensure they match requirements of the research. The final members were chosen after their certification and supply. Interviews were conducted individually in their respectable office because of their supply in the London U. K. The time assumed for interviews were 20 to 30 minute but Interviews were longer than predicted, as individuals were remarkably wanting to elaborate their answers with personal experiences; each interview lasted about 30minutes to 60 minutes.
3. 5 Limitations
An extra treatment is need in planning the questions for the interview and questionnaire as though researcher conducts the framework too loosely then it could lead to undesired information making the result and concision less effective. Therefore composition of interview and questionnaire should be in a means that appropriate information is collected. Even semi-structured interview and questionnaire are criticized for possibility of missing information if researcher employs the framework too closely. Option of the time constrained the research by creating the boundaries such as limited respondents for research as well as constrained involvement of interviewers. The research was concluded in a limited timeframe.
