i FORE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, DELHI Consumer Behavior Celebrities are demigods in India Submitted To: Dr. D K Batra 9/14/2009 Celebrities are Demi-gods in India- Perception or Reality Submitted By: Amul Malhotra-81127 Arun Sharma-81130 Isha Arora-81146
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i
FORE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, DELHI
Consumer BehaviorCelebrities are demigods in India
Submitted To: Dr. D K Batra
9/14/2009
Celebrities are Demi-gods in India- Perception or Reality
We would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this Study.
First of all, we would like to thank our honorable Dr. DK Batra for giving us permission to commence this
project in the first instance, to do the necessary research work. We would also like to thank for his
guidance under which I was able to carry out this project successfully.
We would also like to give special thanks to my respondents who took pain in responding to our
questionnaire.
Amul Malhotra-81127
Arun Sharma-81130
Isha Arora-81146
Celebrities are Demi-gods in India- Perception or Reality
Executive Summary
Today, the modern marketing strategy of most business firms relies heavily on creative
advertising to promote their products to their target markets. In fact, a central goal of today's
advertising strategy is the persuasion of customers, who are becoming increasingly educated,
sophisticated and, selective. The main purpose of this study is to explore consumer attitudes
towards the role of celebrity endorsement in influencing Indian customer and making brand
popular, and provide guidance to advertising makers and specialists to improve the effectiveness
of celebrity-based advertising. Research has explored celebrity attractiveness, meaning transfer,
credibility, impact, and celebrity-product fit but these have largely been on Indian cultures. The
study was based on an empirical research approach, which used a convenience sample of 31
drawn from Northern India sample mix consisted of students, working executives. The responses
were collected using a structured questionnaire through a personal interview. The questions
consisted of open-ended question, forced choice decision and some attitude measuring
statements for which answers were to be marked on a likert scale. The data was analyzed by
various statistical techniques, such as Frequency analysis, Descriptive analysis, One Sample t-
Test, and One-Way ANOVA. The main findings showed that Indian respondents were generally
interested in celebrity endorsement in advertising, as the majority recognized its overall
attractiveness, though did not find it convincing enough in terms of brand choice behavior. The
study suggested to reconsider the way celebrities were projected in advertising, or even chosen,
within the context of the Indian culture. Indian consumer has also showed an interest in the
relationship between celebrities and endorsed products in advertising. They seemed to believe in
the importance of the match-up between the two. Further study shows that celebrities have a
good effect on TOP of mind brand recall, Indian consumer also has great tendency to discard
brands if its celebrity is involved in negative publicity and celebrity gets its image diluted if it is
associated with brand of premium and lower image brands simultaneously. The study urged
further research to explore this issue in greater depth in India. More research will have to be
made to explore more specific issues of celebrity endorsement in television advertising within
the context of the Indian culture
Table of ContentsChapter-1....................................................................................................................................................1
Using responses for question 1 & 2 a cross tab is formed for correlating celeb and brand recall
along dimension of sex and age. The question were aimed to find top of mind recall
1. It can be seen that none of male below 10th standard education is able to recall the celebrity or
the advertisement featuring it.
2. Among 10-Graduate people 40% females and 33% males were able to rightly recall both
celebrity and brand. This shows a good impact of celebrity-brand relationship among this
segment
3. In segment of above postgraduate 30% females and 63.5% males were able to rightly recall
the celebrity-brand. So while designing promotion for targeting this segment celebrity
becomes most effective.
3.1. Celebrity Brand-Fit( Q3)
Celeb Linkage * Age * Sex CrosstabulationSex Age Total
Below 18
18-25 26-40 Above 40
female Celeb Linkage
Baichung Bhutiya
3 3 6
John Abrahim
2 0 2
Kapil Dev
5 0 5
Priety Zinta
0 1 1
Total 10 4 14Male Celeb
LinkageBaichung Bhutiya
2 4 3 1 10
John Abrahim
0 1 4 0 5
Kapil Dev
0 1 1 0 2
Total 2 6 8 1 17Table-6
Question-3 was aimed to see how consumers see celebrity-brand fitness. In both males and
females majority has identified Baichung as preferable endorser for Sports category followed by
Kapil dev who is again from sports field and John Abrahim as he is seen as a macho-men of
Indian film industry. Though Preity Zinta instead of huge fan following is discarded. The results
are consistent across age group.
3.2. Negative Publicity
Effect of scandals * Income * Sex CrosstabulationSex Income Total
Below 2 Lac
2-5 Lac 5-10 Lac
10+ Lacs
female Effect of scandals
No 3 3 0 6Yes 3 4 1 8
Total 6 7 1 14Male Effect
of scandals
No 3 1 1 0 5Yes 3 5 3 1 12
Total 6 6 4 1 17Table-7
The question was put to check the effect of negative publicity of celebrity on band 67% of
respondent have stated they will stop consuming the brand which is quiet a high percentage and
this can severely damage the brand reputation. If specifically seeing the male and female
behavior it again comes out to be same across different income levels as they don’t want to
associate with something bad.
3.3. Overexposure
Multibrand Association * Income * Sex Crosstabulation
Count
Sex Income Total
Below 2 Lac
2-5 Lac
5-10 Lac
Above 10 Lacs
female
Multibrand Association
Confused 1 0 0 1
Definitely No 4 4 1 9
Definitely Yes 1 3 0 4
Total 6 7 1 14
Male Multibrand Association
Confused 1 0 1 0 2
Definitely No 4 3 2 1 10
Definitely Yes 1 3 1 0 5
Total 6 6 4 1 17Table-8
This question was designed to test the effect of overexposure of celebrity with various brands.
Results clearly show that such a factor dilutes image of celebrity and she ends-up as a mere
character in advertisement and consumer doesn’t consider her word of mouth results are same for
males and females and across the income groups.
Chapter-5CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS
Despite the conflicting results found in the literature on the use of celebrities in advertising, this
research revealed that Indian consumers were generally positive about many aspects of this
dynamic issue in advertising strategy. It is evident from the findings that consumers were
impressed by the visual attractiveness of advertising messages, which used celebrities to appeal
to target audience. They also showed an interest in the relationship between celebrities and
endorsed products in advertising. They seemed to believe in the importance of the match-up
between the two. Yet, the majority did not seem to view this kind of advertising convincing
enough, in principle, to affect their brand choice behavior. But this should not overshadow
the whole view, as nearly one third of respondents were subject to the effect of CBA regarding
their brand choice behavior, and almost one fourth were neutral on this matter. One possible
explanation behind this phenomenon could be the way the advertising message was designed. In
particular, the way celebrities were portrayed was not, perhaps, convincing enough to appeal to
Indian consumers. One study, which clearly supported this conclusion, showed that the
advertising problem in Asia was not so much the celebrities, but the lack of imagination in the
way they were used (Bowman, 2002). Alternatively, the choice of celebrities was not possibly
able to match up with consumers’ expectations. In either way, this may, however, require a
rethinking or reconsideration to the way celebrities were projected in advertising, or even
chosen, within the context of the Indian culture. In principle, this calls for a better understanding
of Indian consumer behavior, possibly through market research. This will probably lead to a
more convincing and acceptable form of celebrity endorsement in television advertising in India.
It is, therefore, hoped that Indian advertising makers and specialists in the advertising industry
will draw on these conclusions to maximize the benefits of using celebrities in advertising,
taking consumer culture into consideration
1.15. Recommendations
The current research findings suggest that advertising makers and specialists are highly
recommended to improve their perception of the role of celebrities in the advertising strategy in
India. Obviously, this requires further investigation to understand the extent to which Indian
consumers believe what celebrities say about products, including the perceived credibility of
such endorsement. Moreover, it will be helpful if celebrities can be encouraged to participate in
decision-making at all levels of the advertising media and provide valuable inputs to the
process. Undoubtedly, this will improve advertising effectiveness, and consequently increase
potential revenues for Indian advertisers.
More research will have to be made to explore more specific issues of celebrity endorsement in
television advertising within the context of the Indian culture. For example, future research will
have to re-examine the credibility issue of celebrities from the customer’s perspective and
explore how celebrities are positioned in the consumer’s mind. Moreover, future research will
have to investigate the ideal characteristics that best match desirable celebrities, and
consequently make their endorsement more convincing to the Indian consumer.
1.16. Research limitations
This study encountered two limitations:
1. In the literature review, the previous studies that specifically addressed the issue of CBA
were all western-based. In India, in particular, no previous studies were found on this specific
issue. This makes the current research the first of its nature in India. Even on the general issue of
television advertising, only few studies were found.
2. The empirical work was based on a student sample. Clearly, it can be understood that
generalization of results is limited to the student population, not the whole market. In addition,
the sample size was relatively small (31) due to limited resources. Obviously, this adds to the
problem of generalization.
ANNEXURE-Questionnaire
Section-1
Q1: Rate the following on a scale of 1to 5 where ((1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and, 5=strongly agree).
a. Advertising, which uses celebrities, attracts my attraction.b. Advertising, which uses celebrities, is popular.c. Advertising, which uses celebrities, is more attractive.d. Advertising, which uses celebrities, is enjoyablee. Attractive celebrities in Advertising make me pay more attention to product detailsf. CELEBRITIES helps me make the buying decisiong. CELEBRITIES helps me remember the endorsed brand during shoppingh. CELEBRITIES increase acceptance of endorsed brandsi. CELEBRITIES increase my awareness of endorsed brands.j. The character of a celebrity influences the image of the endorsed brandk. The more meaningful the match-up between the celebrity and the endorsed brand, the
greater the trust in the brand
Q2: ………………. is the famous celebrity singing La...lalala...la...la la la la...! for a soap advertisement.
Q3: La...lalala...la...la la la la...! is a jingle of which brand of soap?
Q4: Who would you think is an ideal promoter for sports shoes?
a. Preity Zintab. Kapil Devc. JohnAbrahimd. Baichung Bhutiya
Q5: If your favorite soft-drink brand appoints Shakti Kapoor as its brand ambassador, will you still consume it?
a. Yesb. No
Q6: If your favorite celebrity endorses brands like Teg-Huier, Parker, Emami etc. and now decides to promte Priyagold biscuits (which you know is a sub standard brand) then, will you consider his word of mouth for product which a premier brand.
a. Definitely Yes
b. Definitely Noc. Confused
Section -2
Customer demographics
1. Sex
a. Male b. Female
2. Age: a) Below18 b) 18-25 c) 26-35 d) 36-50 e) 51 and above
3. Qualification:
a) Illiterate b) Xth or Less c) Xth - Graduation d) Graduation/Higher
4. Income Level
a) Below INR 2 Lacs b) INR 2.0-5.0 Lacs c) INR 5.0-10.0 Lacs d) Above 10.0 Lacs
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