The Influence of celebrity endorsement on consumer behavior amongst the middle class residents of Nairobi Kenya

Abstract

Celebrity endorsements appear to be a very popular advertising tool in the modern day marketing. They help in making a product visible or any new brand a visible brand by affecting consumer’s pre purchase attitude. The purchase attitude is influenced by the celebrity endorsement factors, product evaluation and brand recognition. The credibility, attractiveness and match up are the main criteria’s for selecting the celebrities. This study therefore sought to determine the influence of celebrity endorsement on consumer behaviour amongst the middle class residence in Nairobi. It was guided by the following research question ‘Does the use celebrity endorsement influence consumer behaviour amongst the middle class residence in Nairobi? The study found out that there is a positive relationship of different celebrity attributes and purchase intention of the consumers demonstrates the effectiveness of celebrities as successful endorsers. It was found out that people are more likely to buy, already buy and are happy with the purchases done under the influence of celebrities. Regarding negative publicity of the celebrity not many people think about it or are still unsure. The fact depicts that they actually follow their celebrities regardless of negative publicity while some are slightly considered about it. Overall, the results proved the effectiveness of celebrities as endorsers The overall results for purchase intention shows that celebrities can influence the purchase decision of the people by appearing with a product in an advertisement. The results show that most of the consumers are likely to buy or buy the products endorsed by celebrities. Moreover many of the customers are happy or satisfied with the purchases they have done under the influence of celebrity that is a positive sign. The level of after purchase satisfaction builds the trust on the part of the celebrity and the product and influences future purchase decisions. The results also show that there are low numbers of people who are actually not influenced or satisfied with their purchase decisions under celebrity influence. The study recommends that an exploration of how negative publicity can affect the purchase intention of consumer with reference to low and high involvement product and services. Negative publicity of the celebrity associated with the product can destroy the brand and it may take lot of time to recover the same image. Moreover, how easily people can accept a celebrity with a negative publicity to be a brand endorser is also of special interest in addition research on the psychological and practical aspects of consumer buying behavior can provide marketers with deeper understanding of the topic.