Determinants of the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement in advertisement

Celebrity endorsement advertisement is an emerging trend nowadays. There are many companies which are inclined to use celebrities as an endorser for their product. However, no perfect celebrity can endorse all types of brands and generate maximum outcomes. Hence, the success of an advertisement depends on the selection of an endorser. Although there are many previous studies done in other countries, there are not many recent studies available, especially in Malaysia. In view of this, the main objective of this paper is to find out source model (attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise) of celebrity endorsement perceived by consumers. Besides, the research also intends to identify the influence of endorser’s nationality (local/foreign) and celebrity endorser/product fit (matched/unmatched) on celebrity endorsement advertisement effectiveness. The celebrity endorsement advertisement effectiveness will be measured according to five dimensions: positive feeling towards the advertisement, attention grabbing, purchase intention, personality and appealand high recall rates. A total of 135 set of structured questionnaires are distributed to the shoppers at hypermarket in Malacca which is Giant, Tesco and Mydin but only 120 sets are usable. The respondents are required to answer according to the “5-point Likert scale” in the questionnaire. The data collected are analyzed using descriptive analysis, reliability test, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis. The results shows that attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise, in celebrity are important determinants for celebrity endorsement in advertisement effectiveness. When a good-looking celebrity is used in an advertisement, theviewer’s first impression is positive even before looking at the products. With regards to expertise, most respondentsevaluate positively on expertise associated with athlete, such as Michael Jordan who endorsed Nike. As different people have different perceptions on trust, building the trustworthiness of a celebrity among the consumers will take some time. Foreign celebrity endorser appeared to be generating higher celebrity endorsement advertisement effectiveness. Advertisement endorsed by foreign celebrity endorsers is perceived by consumers as related to the product quality. A better celebrity endorser/product fit also results in better outcomes such as increases the appeal of the endorsed brand, recall rate and purchase intentions among the respondents.