The Effects of Celebrity Endorsement towards Purchase Intention among Students in One Public University in Malaysia
Venue: International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
Year: 2019

Celebrity endorser has been tremendously used by advertisers to enhance their product's brand name and it is undeniable celebrity plays a big role in persuading customers. It has become an effective tool to attract customers and helps to create purchase intention among them. Therefore, there are many elements that need to be highlighted in findings the right celebrity to endorse the product. To gain better insight, celebrity attractiveness, celebrity trustworthiness, celebrity expertise and the fit between the celebrity and the endorser are the element tested in the study. The study was conducted to examine the effect of using different celebrity for the same product brand on purchase intention among students. Quantitative method has been employed for this study and survey questionnaire used to collect the data. Questionnaires were collected across faculties at one of the public University in Malaysia and the result of the study indicated only the fit between Celebrity A and the endorsed product associated with purchase among students. Meanwhile, all other independent variables may not lead to purchase intention among students. Recommendation and future study are discussed.  May, 2019,  2222 6990  Many organizations in Malaysia urged to invests large amount of money by hiring popular celebrity to endorse their products and services. They believed the use of celebrity make the advertisement more believable and thus product favourable advertisement results. Furthermore, according to Muda, et.al (2014) celebrities are impactful in promoting products and services. Advertisement becomes more effective with the use of familiar celebrity (McCormic, 2016) Since hiring an appropriate and affluent endorser is very costly and risky, hence there is a need to study the effects of celebrity endorsement towards customer purchase intention. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the effect of two different celebrity endorsements towards purchase intention among students in one of Public University in Malaysia. This study aims to determine how different attributes of these two (2) different endorser (attractiveness, trustworthiness and the fit between the celebrity and the endorsed product) has a positive relationship with purchase intention among students.  Celebrity endorsement and purchase intention: Celebrity endorsement is a universal attribute of modern marketing (McCracken and Grant, 1989) Celebrity endorsement enhances product visibility (Dotson, Hyatt, 2005) and developed the attitude toward purchase behavior (Amos, et. Al, 2008) Celebrities who endorse the brand build up the perception of customers towards the buying intention and it is a customers' positive idea about celebrity endorser (Ohanian, 1991) Furthermore, many multinational organizations used celebrity endorsement in th++eir advertisement because they believed that the use of celebrities in advertisement have given them the greater and positive effect for consumer buying behavior and also their purchase intention (McCutcheon, et al. 2002) However, the result of single celebrity opinion through purchase intention is his expertise rather than other factor attributes. It is found that the use of celebrity can give positive result in consumer buying intention because the message of advertisement is easily reconnected and favorably increase customer attention towards advertisement (Hamish, 2005) Moreover, purchase intention indirectly associated with celebrity endorser and it is found to have a significance influence toward product (Goldsmith, et al. 2000) The study done by Dutta and Singh (2013) found that the purchase of healthy foods brands by the indian housewives also influenced by the celebrity endorsements. But, celebrity endorser also found to have a negative effect on buying behavior when society associate negative event with the celebrity endorser (Thwaites, et. al. 2012) Celebrity attractiveness and purchase intention: Solomon and Michael, (2002) referring celebrity attractiveness as the endorser's physical appearance, personality, likeability, and similarity to the consumer. The previous study stated that physically attractive spokespersons for both celebrity and non celebrity would have a positive impact on brand attitude and buying intentions (Kahle, et. al, 1985) Previous result found that an advertisement for attractiveness related products were more visible with the use of attractive celebrity (Kamins, 1990) However, the effects of celebrity attractiveness and credibility were affected differently by product categories (McCormic, 2016) Hence, a promotion alone does not enough, as the level of attractiveness is a main element that can contribute to the success or failure of promoting the product. Thus, the study predicts the following hypotheses: International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 9 No. 5, May, 2019,  2222 6990  There is a relationship between Celebrity A attractiveness and purchase intention among students.  There is a relationship between Celebrity B attractiveness and purchase intention among students. Celebrity trustworthiness and purchase intention: Moorman et al. (1993) define trustworthiness as a belief or an expectancy that the person can be depend on. It refers to a behavioral intention that explains a reliance on a person and involving vulnerability and uncertainty on the part of the trustor. Choudhuri Holbrook (2002) Mcknight et al. (2002) revealed in his study that trustworthiness occurs when an e vendor enjoys a good reputation in its operation and trusting intention of consumer. However, it did not consider prices, though price is an essential factor that increases or decreases transactional risks and has a great impact on building trust (Ba, S. and Pavlou, P.A. 2002) In addition, trustworthy endorsers assist the brand's credibility, reduce consumer doubts, and promote economic gains (Ketchen Jr. et.al, 2008) Hence, the study presents the following hypothesis: H2A: There is a relationship between Celebrity A trustworthiness and purchase intention among students.  There is a relationship between Celebrity B trustworthiness and purchase intention among students. The fit between celebrity and the endorsed brand and purchase intention: There are different entities that can influence the intention to purchase among consumer such as expert, celebrity, whether an organization or an endorser expertise. Daneshvary and Schwer (2000) McCormick. K (2016) added celebrity endorsers are more attractive and credible compared to non celebrity endorsers. Moreover, according to Lee and Thorson (2008) when there is a moderate mismatch between celebrity endorser and the endorsed product, the celebrity endorsement is appraised more favorably in regards to purchase intention. The choice of celebrity should fit with the associations the brand currently has (Ohanian, 1991) In addition, consumer must have both positive attitudes towards the celebrity as person and also as an endorser to influence them to purchase the products. The previous study revealed the association between brand personality and celebrity personality had a significant influence on brand attitude and purchase intention (Pradhan, et.al, 2015) Other groups of customers (millennials) also shown that they are less likely to be influenced to purchase the advertised product when there is no proper fit between the celebrity endorser and the product (McCormic, 2016) Thus, this study offers the following hypothesis: H3A: There is a relationship between the fit between Celebrity A and the endorsed product and purchase intention among students.  There is a relationship between the fit between Celebrity B and the endorsed product and purchase intention among students. Methodology Primary objective of this study is to examine the effect of two different celebrity endorsement towards purchase intention among students. For this purpose, the study adopts a quantitative International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 9 No. 5, May, 2019,  2222 6990  Two different celebrities were selected: Celebrity A Celebrity B for one product category: smartphone. To capture the respondent's respond, a questionnaire was designed and the variables measurement were developed using a fivepoint likert scale ranging from 'strongly disagree' (1) to 'strongly agree' It ascertained demographic variables (gender, age, race, marital status, faculties and education level) and the variables of interest in the study. The variable of interest included the celebrities' attractiveness, trustworthiness and the fit between the celebrity and the endorser. The variables used to measure each construct were derived from previous studies and adjusted to the context of study. The respondents were from the same location; one public university in Malaysia and the sample was drawn from a mixture of university students. The convenience sampling method was used to reach the target population. The responses were collected and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 2. Pearson correlation and regression were performed to analyzed the data.  Profile Demographic information on the respondents involved are depicted in table 1. Almost all of the respondents surveyed were female (84.9 percent) and 15.1 percent were male. An overwhelming majority (90.8 percent) of students were single while 5.9 percent were married. 43 percent of the students had a bachelor's degree, 30 percent had a diploma, and 2.5 percent had a master. Finally, the study mostly involving students from Faculty of Business and Management which constitute 40.3 percent and the least were Fac