Journal of Global Marketing, 27:128–143,

2014 Copyright c Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Ⓧ
ISSN: 0891-1762 print / 1528-6975 online
DOI: 10.1080/08911762.2013.864374

Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots

on Consumer Buying Behavior
Garima Malik
Abhinav Guptha

ABSTRACT. Celebrity and brand mascot endorsements are very popular and often-used techniques
by marketers. Marketers believe that celebrity and brand mascot endorsements provide a higher
degree of appeal, attention, and customer recall ability compared with when this technique is not
used. Marketers also claim that a celebrity affects the credibility of claims about a product and
increases the memorabilia factor of the message, which may provide a positive effect that could be
generalized to the brand. Primarily this essay has been designed such that it examines various
parameters related to advertisements containing celebrity and brand mascot endorsements. Data were
been collected from 150 respondents through questionnaire and subjected to t test, χ 2 test, and
difference of means test to enforce the hypotheses that celebrity endorsements have impacts on
customers’ perceptions and their purchase intentions. The findings of this study provide insights for
marketing and brand managers to design and market their campaigns effectively.

KEYWORDS. Celebrity endorsement, physical attractiveness, source credibility, congruence, cus-

tomer purchase intention, customer attitude

INTRODUCTION egories. Celebrity endorsement acts as a credi-

ble means of spending money for the brand, as
The use of celebrities and brand mascots in the consumer immediately associates with the
advertisements and promotion campaigns is product and differentiates the endorsed brand
one of the topical strategies of many brands; from the given variety. This could be for rea-
the pur- pose of such use may be to get sons of social standing: people want to wear
attention from the target audience, to obtain the “right” clothes, drink the “right” beverages,
easy acceptabil- ity of the products and and use the “right” fragrances. As per the con-
prolonged association, or for the purpose of sumer’s perception, an endorsed product would
recall. This study pur- ports to consider the have higher purchase value than its counterpart
importance of celebrities and brand mascots (Clark & Horstman, 2003). Celebrity endorse-
and will analyze the im- pact of celebrities in ment is more likely to be observed for products
influencing consumers to make purchases from with a high price–production cost margin and
the various product cat-

Garima Malik is an assistant professor associated with Amity Business School, Noida, India. Abhinav
Guptha is an assistant manager-branding at National Payments Corporation in Mumbai, India.
Address correspondence to Dr. Garima Malik, c/o Prince Malik, No. 25, Sector 16-A, Noida, Uttar-
Pradesh, India 201301. Email: [email protected]

128
 Garima Malik and Abhinav 12
Guptha

with a large customer base. In short, celebrity TABLE 1. Valuable Factors That Influence
en- dorsements are more typical for nationally Purchasing Decisions
mar-
keted products than they are for local or niche
market products and are more typical for prod- N Mean SD
ucts such as running shoes, soft drinks, and other
products for which the price–cost margins are Price of the product 150 2.38 1.028
Celebrity endorsement 150 3.04 1.029
large. Quality of product 150 1.83 1.085
There is a tremendous impact of celebrity tele- Value for money 150 2.29 1.102
vision endorsements among Indian consumers;
there is a large fan following in India, and
celebrities act as role models for a majority
of Indians (Balakrishnan & Kumar, 2011). In- estimated that one quarter of all advertisements
creasingly, companies prefer to use celebrities use a celebrity spokesperson to endorse a
from different fields in India such as cricket product or brand (Shimp, 1997) to the extent
players, Bollywood celebrities, and other sports that it is a global phenomenon today. This
personalities to endorse their brands. Many indicates the validity of this strategy as a
com- panies brand mascots to endorse their means of persuasive communication.
products, and this strategy is very popular for Celebrities are often employed by advertisers
fast-moving consumer goods. Marketers spend to lend their personality to a product or brand
an enormous amount of money on celebrity (Kaikati, 1987). They have been found to
endorsement con- tracts based on the belief that produce more positive responses toward
celebrities are effective spokespersons for their advertising and greater purchase intentions
products or brands (Katayal, 2007). Television than a noncelebrity endorser (Atkin & Block,
has widely penetrated the minds of people from 1983; Petty & Cacioppo, 1983). Furthermore,
diver- gent socioeconomic classes. In India, McCracken found that celebrity endorsers
celebrity power can rightly be assessed by their represent an effective way of transferring
successful endorsements; film stars and cricket meaning to brands. From a theoretical
players have been successful not only in perspective, celebrities are effective endorsers
gathering huge public attention but also in because of their symbolic apparition reference
increasing com- panies’ sales volumes. For group associations (Assael, 1984; Solomon &
example, Cadbury and Nestle´ used Amitabh Assael, 1987). Advertisers use celebrities
Bachchan to promote their brand when it went because they heighten the appeal of
through a bad phase in India. Soon, the advertisements. They are believed to enhance
endorsement restored peo- ple’s love for the audience attentiveness; make the advertisement
brand and hence this phe- nomenon increased memorable, credible, and desirable; and add
Cadbury’s and Nestle´’s sales (Joshi & glamour to the product (Spielman, 1981).
Ahluwalia, 2008; Matrade, 2005). Aamir Khan Kaikati (1987) enumerates five advantages
is used by Coca-Cola to com- municate to and of employing celebrities to endorse products:
influence semiurban and ru- ral consumers to drawing attention, crisis management, brand
purchase the brand “Chota Coke.” This repositioning, global marketing, and boosting
celebrity endorsement has also been quite sales.
effective in influencing consumers’ buy- ing
decision. Similarly, various endorsements by
TABLE 2. Friedman Test
Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, and others
have been found to be successful in af- fecting
consumers’ buying decisions (Joshi &
Ahluwalia).
Celebrity endorsement advertising has been
recognized as a “ubiquitous feature of modern
day marketing” (McCracken, 1989). It has
been
Parameters Mean rank

Price of the product 2.50

Celebrity endorsement 3.13
130 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL
Quality of product 1.96
MARKETING
Value for money 2.41
TABLE 3. Factors That Influence Purchases of party endorsement, hence, may be perceived as
Personal and Food Products a signal of product quality. Results clearly in-
dicated the main effects for both endorsement
Brand name Celebrity Quality Cost and sponsorship cues, with endorsement affect-
Personal care 1.91 (3) 3.06 (1) 1.90 (4) 2.60 (2)
ing perceived quality, uniqueness, and esteem
Food products 2.48 (2) 2.93 (1) 1.75 (4) 2.45 (3) and sponsorship affecting only citizenship. The
popularity cue lacks a significant main effect;
Note. Values in parentheses show mean.
the three cues do not significantly interact with
each other.
This study has been divided into two sec- Goldsmith et al. (2000) assessed the impact
tions. First, the literature review related to the of endorser and corporate credibility on
topic is provided. Then the database and re- attitude- toward-the-advertisement, attitude-
search methodology designed for the study are toward-the- brand, and purchase intentions.
described, and the detailed results of the survey One hundred fifty-two adult consumers who
with respect to influence of celebrity and brand viewed a fic- titious advertisement for Mobil
mascots on buying behavior of customers are Oil Company were surveyed. They rated the
presented. The conclusions follow. credibility of the advertisement’s endorser, the
credibility of the company, and attitude toward
the advertisement, attitude toward the brand,
and purchase inten- tions. It was observed that
LITERATURE REVIEW endorser credibility had its strongest impact on
attitude toward the advertisement, while
Trip and Carlson (1994) studied the ef- corporate credibility had its strongest impact
fects of multiple product endorsement by on attitude toward the brand. The findings
celebrities on attitudes and intentions of cus- suggest that corporate credibility plays an
tomers. His study revealed the number of important role in consumers’ reactions to
products a celebrity endorses negatively in- advertisements and brands, independent of the
fluences consumer perception of the en- equally important role of endorser credibil- ity.
dorser and the advertising itself. It was Daneshvary and Schwer (2000) determined
suggested that when as many as four products that credibility of the source is considered im-
are endorsed, celebrity credibility and portant in influence acceptance. A consumer
likability, as well as attitude toward the will accept the accurate influence (information)
advertisement, may attenuate. Mathur, Mathur, and apply it if the source is perceived to be
and Rangan (1997) show that the anticipation credible. Therefore, a product’s endorsement
of Michael Jordan’s return to NBA and the by a credi- ble source may impact purchase
related increased vis- ibility for him resulted in behavior. Zafer et al. (2001) found that some
an increase in the market-adjusted values of his viewers forget the brand that a celebrity
client firms of almost 2%, or more than $1 approves; other viewers are so spellbound by
billion in stock market value. From this study, the personality of the celebrity that they
one can observe that the major celebrity completely fail to notice the brand be- ing
endorser with a gossip- centered personality advertised. Sanyukta et al. (2005) studied the
has tremendous potential to influence the positive and negative aspects of celebrity ap-
profitability of endorsed products. Dean (1999) proval of a brand and found that approval of a
studied the effects of three extrin- sic brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that
advertisement cues (i.e., third party endorse- brand among the target audience. This is espe-
ment, event sponsorship, and brand popularity) cially true in the case of new products.
on brand and manufacturer evaluation and ob- Celebrities ensure the attention of the target
served that endorsement significantly affected group by breaking through the clutter of ad-
only product variables (quality and uniqueness) vertisements and making the advertisement and
and one image variable (esteem). The third- the brand more noticeable. On the negative
side is the extreme use of a celebrity, called
“lazy
 FIGURE 1. Type of Celebrity (color figure available online).

advertising,” which refers to inadequate with three tarnished celebrities: Mike Tyson,
content masked by the use of a celebrity. There Madonna, and Michael Jackson) suggest that
is also the fear of brand–celebrity disconnect, celebrity endorsers may at times become lia-
which points out that if the celebrity represents bilities to the brands they endorse. Observa-
values that conflict with the brand values, the tion reveals an increase in the use of animated
advertising would create conflict in the minds characters as product endorsers. It was deter-
of the target audience. Agarwal et al. (2005) mined that 28% of animated advertisements
defined brand attitude as consumers’ general con- tained cartoon-character celebrities such
evaluative judg- ment of a brand based on as Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse as these
brand beliefs. Such beliefs concern product- characters are generally immune to negative
related attributes, like practical and publicity.
experimental benefits. A success- ful endorser
is able to enhance intentions and preferences
toward brands directly or indirectly. Surana
(2008) revealed that some properties, such as
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
likability, expertise, trustworthiness, and
similarity, cause a celebrity endorser to become
a source of persuasive information, and this • To study the degree to which con-
sumers’ purchasing decision is influ-
cre- ates a sense of certainty. enced by celebrity endorsements and
Shimp (1998) examines the impact that brand mascots.
nega- tive information about a celebrity might
have on consumer evaluations of endorsed
brands. Prac- titioners hope their target
audience’s positive feelings toward a chosen TABLE 4. Attributes of Celebrity
celebrity will transfer to the endorsed brand or
will otherwise enhance the brand’s standing.
What happens if either during or after an ad-
vertising campaign negative information about
the celebrity becomes public? Widely
publicized incidents (e.g., Pepsi Cola’s series
of debacles
N Mean SD SEM

Attractiveness of celebrity 150 2.99 1.093 0.089

Trustworthiness of celebrity 150 3.47 1.041 0.085
Expertise of celebrity 150 3.36 1.038 0.085
 TABLE 5. DOM Test 1 TABLE 7. DOM Test 2

Sum of Mean Sum of Mean

squares df squared F Sig. Model squares squared F Sig.

Attractiveness of Regression df 19.162 3 6.387 16.490 .000∗

celebrity Residual 38.347 99 .387
Between groups 35.285 28 1.260 Total 57.510 102
Within groups 59.058 74 0.798 1.579 .062
∗
Predictors:
Total (constants) attractiveness
94.342 of102
celebrity, trustworthiness of celebrity, expertise of celebrity.
Trustworthiness of
celebrity
Between groups 63.714 28 2.275
Within groups 71.700 74 0.969 2.348 .002
Total 135.414 102 questionnaires (Appendix 1) were pretested on
Expertise of celebrity 20 respondents, and minor changes have been
Between groups 54.528 28 1.947 incorporated in the questionnaire. Further, the
Within groups 32.969 74 0.446 4.371 .000 data have been categorized into two parts: pri-
Total 87.497 102
Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention. mary data (collected through questionnaires)
and secondary data (collected with the help of
news- papers, magazines, and various other
• To ascertain which of the two has a journals) for statistical analysis. The primary
greater impact on consumer: celebrities or instrument for data collection questionnaire
brand mascots. consisted of ordinal-scale questions to
• To study how the image of the celebrity determine the prior- ity of each item among
can influence the brand image. the group of items (1 being the best rank and
4 being the least); later, an interval scale was
used in a Likert-type scale to extract data with
RESEARCH DESIGN magnitude and a nom- inal scale was used to
store demographics of the respondents. The
The research methodology for the present primary data were analyzed us- ing SPSS
study was based on descriptive research software and were depicted using bar charts,
design. Stratified nonprobability sampling pie charts, χ 2, t test tables, etc.
method was used, which involves the sample
being drawn from that part of the population
that is close at hand. In this study, the target DATA ANALYSIS
populations were men and women of 20 to 40
years old. The researcher collected responses Most Valuable Factor Rated by
from 150 respon- dents from the Northern Respondents for Purchasing Product
Capital Region of In- dia during January–
February 2013. In the re- search process, first, In this question, respondents were asked
respondents were made aware of the purpose about the factors that influence the purchasing
of study, and then they were requested to give behavior (given in Table 1). Ranks had been
their unbiased responses. The given by the respondents on the basis of the
importance of factors to know the priority of
each item among the group (1 being the best
TABLE 6. Regression Model Summary rank and 4 being the least).
On applying the Friedman test (Table 2), it
Model R R2 Adjusted R2 SEE is clear that celebrity endorsement is most
valuable and influential to customers when it
1 0.577∗ 0.333 0.313 comes to purchasing a product, followed
immediately by the “price of the product,”
0.62237 “value for money,” and then “quality of
∗
Predictors: (constants) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness product.”
of celebrity, expertise of celebrity.
 TABLE 8. Coefficients

Unstandardized
Model coefficients Standardized coefficients t Sig.

(Constant) 2.026 0.439 4.620 .000

attractiveness of celebrity, 0.039 0.072 0.050 0.543 .588
trustworthiness of 0.183 0.061 0.280 3.011 .003
celebrity,
Expertise of celebrity 0.320 0.072 0.395 4.464 .000

Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention.

Factors That Most Persuade You to considered genuine because of their winning
Purchase Personal and Food personalities. There are other famous person-
Products alities like television stars or famous writers or
singers who also sometimes influence people’s
Respondents were asked to rank the factors
purchasing intent. Politicians possess a negligi-
according to their importance when purchasing
ble share.
the various categories of products.
Table 3 clearly shows the factors that were
ranked on the basis of mean, from which we Attributes of Celebrity That Influence
can clearly ascertain that celebrity has a major Purchase Intention Toward a
role to play in persuading people to purchase Celebrity-endorsed Brand
personal care items. Followed by celebrity, it is
For further analysis, the respondents were
the cost factor that most influences purchase
asked to give their responses on the at-
decision. Brand name is rated as the third most
important factor, followed by quality.
For food products, the factors were ranked,
TABLE 9. Believes Celebrity Endorsements
from which we can clearly ascertain that
celebrity has a major role to play in persuad-
N Mean SD SEM
ing people to purchase food products. Followed
by celebrity, it is the attractive packaging that
most influences purchase decision. Cost is Easily influenced by a 150 2.69 0.970 0.079
rated as the third most important factor, celebrity endorser
followed by quality. when you purchase
a celebrity-
endorsed brand
Ever considered 150 2.67 1.240 0.101
Type of Celebrity Endorsement purchasing a new
That Most Persuades You product just
because of the
A question was asked about the type of presence of a
celebrity you liked.
celebrity the respondents would like to see Believe products 150 2.84 0.984 0.080
most to endorse the product. specifically
Figure 1 shows that more than half of re- advertised by the
spondents said that film stars are most persua- celebrities are of
good quality.
sive of all the types of celebrities. Around 24% Believe the celebrities 150 2.25 1.029 .084
believe that sportspersons are most persuasive; also use those
this is perhaps because sportspersons, products which they
especially cricket players, are personalities that themselves
endorse.
people tend to look up to and, hence, their
opinions are
 TABLE 10. The t Test

Test value = 4
95% CI of the difference

t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean difference Lower Upper

Easily influenced
endorser when by
youa purchase
celebrity a −16.578 149 .000 −1.313 −1.47 −1.16

celebrity-endorsed brand
newconsidered
Ever product just because of
purchasing a −13.107 149 .000 −1.327 −1.53 −1.13

the presence of a celebrity you

liked
149 .000 −1.160 −1.32 −1.00
advertised
Believe by the
products celebrities
specifically −14.444

are of good quality

those products
Believe the that they
celebrities also use −20.862 149 .000 −1.753 −1.92 −1.59
endorse

tributes related to celebrities, like the attrac- level of less than 5%, implying that both are
tiveness of a celebrity, the trustworthiness of significant. “Attractiveness of celebrity” is just
a celebrity, and the expertise of a celebrity above 5%, thereby implying that it is not that
(Table 4). insignificant. The results are insignificant for
Difference of means (DOM) was imple- DOM for purchase intention. The F statistic also
mented to observe significant differences be- confirms this insignificance because all
tween the means of the variables. The results observed F values are less than the critical F
in Table 5 for “Trustworthiness of celebrity” value of 2.76. H0 (Null Hyphothesis):
and “Expertise of celebrity” show a Attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness of
significance celebrity, expertise

FIGURE 2. How Often Do Brand Mascots Influence You? (color figure available online).
 TABLE 11. Attributes in Brand Mascots That TABLE 13. The χ2 Test
Influence Purchase Decisions
χ2 0.107a
df 1
Parameters N Mean SD
Asymp. sig...................................................................744
Friendliness 150 2.55 1.235
Uniqueness 150 2.45 1.108
Humor 150 2.39 1.128
Emotional touch 150 3.01 1.144
Trustworthy 150 2.61 1.335
ing the t test to responses to four statements.
Loyalty 150 2.48 1.294 It was found that the significance value for
Attractiveness 150 2.73 1.262 all is .000, which is less than .05 and, hence,
the null hypothesis is rejected and H1 is ac-
cepted (i.e., Celebrity endorsers has a signif-
icant impact on the consumers’ mind and al-
of celebrity do not highly intend customer to ways received special attention from them)
purchase advertised products. (Table 10).
Tables 6, 7, and 8 show the results of regres- It was ascertained that 69% of respondents
sion testing, where the values to be considered say they are only sometimes influenced by
are R2 values, referring to the fitness of model brand mascots, around 25% said that they are
and the explanatory power of the model. The never influenced, and the remaining 6% said
model has 34% explanatory power of the de- that they are always influenced by brand
pendent variable. Because the significance mascots (Figure 2).
value is .000, which is less than .5, the null
hypoth- esis, H0, is rejected and the alternative
hypoth- esis, H1, is accepted. The Important Attributes of Brand Mascots
attractiveness of the celebrity, the Respondents were asked whether they are
trustworthiness of the celebrity, and the in- fluenced by the brand mascots, and their
expertise of celebrity endorser have signifi- re- sponses were “always,” “sometimes,” or
cant impacts on consumers’ buying decisions. “never.” From Table 11, we can deduce that it
is the emotional touch feature of brand
Believes Celebrity Endorsement mascots that is the most important influence
on a person’s purchase decision.
Respondents were asked to rank the state- Attractiveness, trustworthy, friendliness, and
ments according to their perceptions of what uniqueness are other features
they think about the advertisment and products that influence purchase decisions.
that are endorsed by the celebrities (Table 9).
Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot
H0: Respondents do not pay special
attention to advertisements and products In this question, respondents were asked to
that are en- dorsed by celebrities. compare the celebrity and brand mascot and
asked to give a response regarding their pref-
Responses were collected for four erence.
statements through the use of Likert-type
scales, apply- H0: Celebrity endorsers are not more influen-
tial than brand mascots.
TABLE 12. Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot
On the basis of χ 2 test, because the sig-
Observed N Expected N Residual
nificance value is .744, which is greater than
Celebrity 73 75.0 −2.0 .05, the null hypothesis is accepted. Celebrity
Brand mascot 77 75.0 2.0
Total 150
endorsers are not more influential than brand
mascots.
 FIGURE 3. Descriptive Statistics on Brand Mascot (color figure available online).

Various brand mascots influenced the pur- Coco Monkey and Kraft’s Tiger stand in the
chasing decision of cutomers: Respondents aver- age position, which basically indicates
were asked to rate brand mascots according to that these mascots have low recall value.
their influential power (Tables 12 and 13). Regarding the television channel that most
Figure 3 clearly shows that Amul’s polka- in- fluences purchase intentions, respondents
dotted girl, 7 Up’s Fido Dido, Parle Agro’s were asked to give their responses concerning
Hippo, and Pillsbury’s Doughboy have had a broad- cast medium. According to the survey,
high level of influence on people’s purchasing televi- sion is the most influential medium,
decisions.This indicates that these four mascots followed by newspaper, Internet, magazines,
most certainly have high recall value. Kellogg’s and social network (Figure 4).

FIGURE 4. Demographics on Broadcasting Medium (color figure available online).

 CONCLUSIONS
(product of Pepsi Co.) over “Maaza”
Through this research, an attempt has been (prod- uct of Coca-Cola).
made to draw some conclusions from the • Celebrity-endorsed products are given
survey concerning celebrity endorsements and leverage over other products that have no
brand mascots and their impacts on the celebrity name attached to it. People tend
purchasing be- havior of customers. to believe that a product that is endorsed
by a celebrity is of good quality. In fact,
Celebrity Endorser to be accepted by the people and for sur-
vival in the marketplace, almost all com-
The study determined that a celebrity en- panies are spending huge sum of money
dorser plays a significant role in persuading to get the right celebrity to endorse their
peo- ple in both the personal care products and brands.
food products categories. Celebrity endorsers • It was ascertained in the study that
play the role of “initiator” and “influencer” in even though people consider a celebrity-
the con- sumer’s buying process; they create endorsed brand as a “better” brand, a
awareness and develop the interest of the large number of people are not really sure
people in the brand and enable product that celebrities use the products that they
association. When we discuss types of endorse. This could perhaps be because
celebrities, film stars are the most preferred of multibrand endorsement by the same
ones; film stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh celebrities.
Bachchan, and Katrina Kaif have amazing
persuasive power, and companies spend huge Brand Mascots
amounts to make use of this power. For ex-
ample, Katrina Kaif is a celebrity endorser of The following are some key features of
Pepsi Co.’s “Slice,” Juhi Chawla is the brand mascots, in order of importance, that
celebrity endorser of Kurkure. Many people have an impact on consumers’ buying
also consider sportspeople to be more behaviors. This has been deduced from the
persuasive because cus- tomers tend to look up responses to the survey.
to them and their opinions are considered
genuine because of their winning personalities. 1. Emotional touch
Among sportspeople, cricket play- ers are 2. Attractiveness
undoubtedly the most influential in In- dia. 3. Trustworthiness
Boost, a health drink brand, has been using 4. Friendliness
cricket players as celebrity endorsers to 5. Loyalty
promote the brand. 6. Uniqueness
The charisma of celebrity almost always en- 7. Humor
tices people and their words are worshipped by
many. A strong brand mascot is more successful
than celebrities.
• The trustworthiness of a celebrity is the
most important and necessary feature of It is observed that the popularity of any mas-
the celebrity. A trustworthy celebrity can cot not only is based on the response they ob-
develop people’s faith in the brand. For tain but also depends on the fact that they have
instance, because of her trustworthy im- a higher recall value. The strength of mascots
age, Aishwarya Rai, the celebrity basi- cally lies in its uniqueness and its power
endorser of L’Oreal products in India, of effec- tively communicating the ethos of the
convinces women that L’Oreal products brand. The utterly, butterly delicious Amul girl
• are the best. People also sometimes in polka dots born in 1967 is the best proof of
purchase certain products if they are mascot brand recall lasting years or even
endorsed by a celebrity of their liking. decades. Celebrities become associated with
For example, a fan of Katrina Kaif is too many products and
likely to purchase “Slice”
therefore it is difficult to relate them to one There had been a decline in the use of
par- ticular brand, which is not the case with mascots due to the sudden blast of celebrity
the mascots. For example, Shah Rukh Khan endorsement in the past few years. But now the
en- dorses brands such as Pepsi, Airtel, Santro, Indian market, which is saturated with
Emami, and many more, but Fido is associated celebrity endorsements, has seen emergence of
with just 7 Up. Brand mascots are loyal to the the mascots, and it is in the hands of the
brand. The impact and success of the mascot companies to use this situation in the most
depend on how effectively it conveys the brand beneficial way.
values and the ideals that consumers would as-
sociate with it.
REFERENCES

Agarwal, J., & Malhotra, N. K. (2005). An integrated

RECOMMENDATIONS model of attitude and affect: Theoretical foundation
and an empirical investigation. Journal of Business
Keeping certain successful mascot Research, 58(4), 483–93.
campaigns in mind, like the very successful Assael, H. (1984). Consumer behavior and market action.
Hippi cam- paign, fast-moving consumer Boston, MA: Kent.
Atkin, C., & Block, M. (1983). Effectiveness of celebrity
goods companies must put more light on the endorsers. Journal of Advertising Research, 23, 57–61.
concept of brand mas- cots, especially in the Balakrishnan, L., & Kumar, C. S. (2011). Effect of
food segment. The scope of the success of celebrity based advertisements on the purchase attitude
mascots is much higher in the food products of con- sumers towards durable products (a study with
segment than in the personal care segment. reference
to the city of Chennai. World Review of Business Re-
search, 1(2), 98–112.
• It is recommended not to introduce brand Clark, R. C., & Horstman, I. J. (2003). Celebrity En-
mascots in the personal care segment. dorsements. Retrieved from www.bu.edu/e.con/micro/
pdffav(celebendorse.bu.pdf
This is because customers in this segment Cooper, M. (1984). Can celebrities really sell products?
would like to see some evidence to satisfy Marketing and Media Decisions, 19, 64–65.
them. In the personal care segment, approval Daneshvary, R., & Schwer, K. R. (2000). The associa-
by a celebrity is very essential as it builds a tion endorsement and consumers’ intention to
sense of trust leading to a “genuine” purchase. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(3),
203–213.
perception of the brand.For example, a movie Dean, D. H. (1999). Brand endorsement, popularity, and
actress, with beau- tiful hair, confirming that event sponsorship as advertising cues affecting con-
her secret is a partic- ular shampoo, leads to sumer prepurchase attitude. Journal of Advertising,
building the customer’s confidence in the 16(3), 1–12.
brand. This is hard to achieve through brand Erdogan, B. Z., Baker, M. J., & Tag, S. (2001).Select-
mascots because they lack the re- alistic factor. ing celebrity endorsers: The practitioner’s perspective.
Journal of Advertising Research, 41(3), 39–48.
Goldsmith, R. E., Lafferty, B. A., & Newell, S. J. (2000).
• In the food segment, brand mascots are The impact of corporate credibility and celebrity cred-
promising. ibility on consumer reaction to advertisements and
brands. Journal of Advertising, 29(3), 43–54.
Hippo, Amul polka dress girl, and Fido Dido Joshi, V., & Ahluwalia, S. (2008). The impact of
are a few of the many successful brand mascot celebrity endorsements on consumer brand pref-
campaigns in the food segment of FMCG com- erences. Retrieved from http://www.indianmba.com/
panies. Mascots have a lasting appeal and cre- Faculty Column/FC706/fc706.html
Kaikati, J. G. (1987). Celebrity advertising: A review
ate a whole new persona for the product. They and synthesis. Journal of International Advertising, 6,
manage the product as efficiently as a celebrity, 93–105.
are more cost efficient, and have higher recall Kulkarni, S. A., & Gaulkar, S. U. (2005). Impact of
value; most importantly, they are loyal to the celebrity endorsement on overall brand. Retrieved
brand. from www.indianmba.com/Occasional
Papers/op88/op88. html
Mathur, L. K., Mathur, I., & Rangan, N. (1997). The
wealth effects associated with a celebrity endorser:
 The Michael Jordan phenomena. Journal of
Solomon, M. R., & Assael, H. (1987). The forest or
Advertising Research, 37(3).
the trees: A gestalt approach to symbolic consump-
Matrade, C. (2005) Product market study: consumer
tion. In J. Umiker-Seboek (Ed.), Marketing and semi-
behaviour in India. Scribd [Online]. Retrieved
otics: New directions in the study of signs for sale (pp.
from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/26912919/Product-
189–218). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
Market-Study-Consumer-Behavior-in-India Spielman, H. M. (1981). The celebrity sell: Making it
McCracken, G. (1989).Who is the celebrity endorser? work.
Cul- tural foundations of the celebrity endorsement Marketing Times, 28, 13–14.
process. Journal of Consumer Research, 16, 10–12. Surana, R. (2008). The effectiveness of celebrity
Mowen, J. C., & Minor, M. S. (2000). Consumer endorsement in India (Unpublished Dissertation).
behavior.
The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United
New York, NY: Macmillan.
Kingdom.
Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Schumann, D. (1983).
Tripp, J., & Carlson. (1994). The effect of multiple prod-
Cen- tral and peripheral routes to advertising
uct endorsements by celebrities on consumers’ atti-
effectiveness: The moderating role of involvement.
tude and intentions. Journal of Advertisement
Journal of Con- sumer Research, 10, 135–146.
Research, 20(March), 535–547.
Shimp, T. E. (1997). Advertising, communication and
sup- plemental aspects of integrated marketing
communica- tion (4th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Dryden
Press.
 APPENDIX 1. QUESTIONNAIRE
1) What do you value the most when purchasing a product? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest and 4 being
the lowest rank)

Price of the product Q

Celebrity endorsement Q
Quality of the product Q
Value for money Q

2) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase personal care items? please rank 1 to 4, with 1
being the highest and 4 being the lowest rank)

Brand Q
name
Celebrity Q
Quality Q
Cost Q

3) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase food products? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being
the highest and 4 being the lowest rank)

Celebrity Q
Attractive package Q
Quality Q
Brand name Q

4) What type of celebrity endorsement persuades you personally to purchase

products? Film star Q Sportsperson Q Politician Q Famous
personality Q
5) To what extent do the following variables influence your purchase intention toward a celebrity endorsed brand?
(please check)

Very low Low Average High Very high

Attractiveness of
the celebrity
Trustworthiness
of the celebrity
Expertise of the
celebrity
 Please answer the following questions (please check)

Strongly
Strongly
disagree Disagree Average Agree
agree

6)Are you easily influenced by the

celebrity endorser when you
purchase a celebrity-endorsed
brand?
7)Have you ever considered
purchasing a new product
just because of the presence
of a celebrity you liked?
8)Do you believe products specifically
advertised by the celebrities are of
good quality?
9)Do you believe the celebrities also
use those products that they
endorse?
10) If the reputation of the celebrity
degrades, does the reputation of
the brand also degrade?
11) Would multibrand endorsements
by the same celebrity lead to
overexposure?
12) Does inconsistency in the
professional popularity of the
celebrity lead to negative impact
on brand?

13) Do brand mascots influence your purchasing decision?

Always Q Sometimes Q Never Q

14) What is the most persuasive feature in brand mascots that make you purchase products? (please rank 1 to 5,
with 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest rank)

Feature 1 2 3 4 5

Friendliness
Uniqueness
Humor
Emotional touch
Loyalty
Trustworthy
Attractiveness

15) Of the two, what influences your purchase decision more? (please check)

Celebrities Q Brand Q mascots Q

 16) To what extent have the following brand mascots influenced your purchasing decision?

Brand mascot Very low Low Average High Very high

Polka Dress Girl–Amul

Fido Dido–7 Up

Hippo – Parle Agro

Coco Monkey – Kellogg’s

(Continued on next page)
 Very
Brand mascot Very low Low Average High high

Doughboy – Pillsbury

Tiger – Tiger Biscuits – Kraft

17) What channel most influences your purchase intentions?

Television Q Radio Q Newspaper Q

Magazines Q Internet Q Movie Q
Social network‘ Q

Personal Details

Name: Q
Gender: Male Q Female Q
Age:
20–25 Q
26–30 Q
31–35 Q
36–40 Q
Copyright of Journal of Global Marketing is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its
content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the
copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use.