The Influence of Celebrity Endorsement on Customers Purchasing Decisions of Fast Moving Consumers' Goods Among Low and Middle Social Class in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Celebrity endorsements are new paradigm in the advertising in the recent marketing environment. These types of advertising make a product visible by affecting consumers’ pre purchase attitude. The attitude from the consumers has been observed to be influenced by these new paradigms of marketing, brand recognition and product evaluation. The attractiveness, credibility and match up are the main criteria for selecting the celebrities in the marketing field. The study consequently sought to establish the influence of celebrity endorsement on customers’ purchasing decisions of selected consumer goods among low and middle social class in Kenya with particular focus on Nairobi County. The study established there is a positive correlation by different celebrity attributes and purchase intention of the middle class consumers thus demonstrating the contributions of celebrities as effective endorsers in the purchase attitude. For low-income consumers, the study revealed that they are not very receptive to celebrity-endorsed products thus celebrity endorsements as a strategy is not very successful with them. The study recommends that an exploration of how purchase intention by the consumers will be affected by the negative publicity with reference to low and high involvement services and products. The extend of how the celebrity endorsement especially on the negative publicity can affect the brand image of a certain product which the organization can take quite some time o regain the same image in the market environment. The further studies should also be able to analyze on how easy people can accept a celebrity with the negative publicity to a brand endorser in consideration of the psychological and practical aspect of consumer buying behavior with a clear understanding of the marketing aspects.