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The endorsement is a source of communicating a brand's message to the consumers. In the case of celebrity endorsement, celebrities become the spokesperson for the brand and intercede on behalf of the brand. People consider celebrities as their role models and draw inspiration from them. People generally try to follow their celebrity role models and adapt their lifestyles. They also transform their lifestyles according to their ideal celebrity. This thing significantly affects customers buying behavior. Customers generally get more attracted to the products endorsed by their favorite celebrity. This, in turn, leads to a very positive impact on the company's sales (Escalas & Bettman, 2015).
Celebrity Brand endorsement is the most popular form of marketing used these days. Brands tend to look for the most famous faces to promote their products. With the advent of television, this form of marketing known as celebrity endorsement gained much popularity; before that, the only billboard was used for this purpose. As time progressed and usage of social media grew, this form of marketing became even more popular now, and then celebrities were seen endorsing one product or another. Companies say that this has played a significant role in increasing their sales. This research study focuses on how celebrity endorsement has become the most popular advertising tool (Ahmed et al., 2015).
Celebrity Endorsement
Celebrity endorsement is a marketing strategy in which a celebrity markets a product and attracts people to purchase it. McCracken (1989) has described celebrity-endorsed advertising as a ‘ubiquitous feature of modern marketing’ (p.2). He also defines a celebrity endorser as someone who enjoys being recognized by the public and who uses this recognition on behalf of consumers goods manufacturers by appearing with the manufactured product in the advertisements (p.2). It can be identified as a phenomenon that marketers have extensively used since the birth of the television to sell their products or services to consumers; all the while delivering value in the form of developing a good brand perception, promoting brand loyalty, and arousing in their consumers a frequent condition of buying behavior. However, with the advent of new technology, celebrity endorsement in brand advertisements has become customary and has lost its efficacy in attracting a larger target market. Instead, advertisers now use celebrity endorsement as a strategy to appeal to a particular market- the youth. In Pakistan, the youth bulge has been growing at an appalling rate, and the most recent statistics place the population of youth between the ages 15 to 55 years at approximately 60.8 million (The World Factbook 2016).
Relationship between Endorsers and the Consumer’s Perception
This paper explores the correlation between celebrity endorsement and its consequent effect- perceived customer value for Pakistani urban youth. Customer value here may be defined as the buyer's contentment after a product has been purchased relative to what had to be given up for a successful purchase to occur. We have used three indicators to measure customer value - brand perception, brand loyalty, and consumer buying behavior for our research purposes. Perceptions are a work of the consumers' minds as the products are manufactured in factories, but brands are created in the minds of consumers (Kotler & Armstrong 2012, p. 207). The consistency with which a specific brand is purchased is known as brand loyalty. Buying behavior may be characterized by how frequently or infrequently that brand is procured by the consumer.
Statement Of The Problem
It was observed that this form of marketing known as ‘celebrity endorsement’ has become increasingly popular these days. However, the literature concerning Pakistan was either completely missing from the research papers or was very briefly covered. This research entirely focuses upon the impact of celebrity endorsement on people from Pakistan.