Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement on Social Media towards Consumer’s Purchase Intention

Abstract

In spite of numerous theoretical and empirical studies that examine celebrity endorsement on traditional media, few studies have attempted to examine the relationship between Source Characteristics and Consumer Purchase Intention in the domain of social media. Furthermore whether this relationship is differ from Male to Female is not empirically investigated. This study combines Source credibility and Source Attractiveness theories to oversee Source Characteristics factors on Consumer’s Purchasing Intention. As a result Source Attractiveness dimensions namely Source Familiarity, Source Likeability and Source Similarity have been introduced to the Source Characteristics which is the main theoretical contribution. A sample of 338 consumers who use social media for FMCG product purchase decisions responded to the survey. The results provided preliminary support for the hypothesized model. It was found that there is a positive relationship between Source Expertness, Source Trustworthiness, Source Likeability, Source Similarity and Consumer’s Purchase Intention while there is a negative relationship between Source Familiarity and Consumer’s Purchase Intention. The study further revealed that the impact of Source Expertness, Source Trustworthiness, Source Likeability, and Source Similarity is different for male and female consumers. Thus, in promotional campaigns a product which is used by only one particular gender has to concern itself with the characteristics of that particular gender, and Source Familiarity should not concern itself with gender diversity in celebrity endorsement since it has no impact on the relationship between Source Familiarity and a Consumer’s Purchase Intention.