Understanding Sri Lankan Consumers’ Perception towards Celebrity Endorsement

Abstract

Celebrities are idealized characters we see in the media with perfect appearances and personalities. The influence of their interesting lifestyle and culture is creeping into consumers‟ minds in many ways, such as on to their interests, their views, behaviour, beliefs, and their fashion choices. However, there is a severe lack of prior research exploring how Sri Lankan fashion consumers‟ physiographical and behavioural characteristics are evoked by celebrity endorsements. Given this empirical background, this preliminary research seeks to understand Sri Lankan consumers‟ perception of celebrity endorsement. Furthermore, this research predicts that gender could affect consumers‟ perception of celebrity endorsement. Adopting a survey approach, a sample of 169 consumers participated in this study. The findings show that celebrity-endorsed advertisements could indeed capture consumers‟ attention easily, create faster awareness, and a long-lasting impact on consumers‟ minds. Moreover, consumers are willing to buy celebrity-endorsed products, because of the good look of the celebrity as well as due to their trustworthiness. Further, celebrity-endorsed products are classier, desirable, a symbol of status, glamorous, and increase their self-confidence. Importantly, consumers perceived celebrity endorsement as an effective mode of advertising. Moreover, across our analysis, we found that male consumers were more influenced by celebrity endorsements than female consumers. This current research adds to the emerging body of literature on celebrity endorsement by showing the effectiveness of celebrity-endorsed advertisements. Importantly, this study is the first to investigate the effects of consumers‟ gender on their perception of celebrity endorsement. Moreover, this research offers some practical implications to Sri Lankan fashion marketers to focus on celebrity endorsement as a means to enhance marketing communications.