i GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM THE EFFECTS OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT ON CONSUMERS PRODUCTS BUYING BEHAVIOUR: A CASE STUDY OF GIJ STUDENTS. BY GEORGETTE AMPONSAH OFORI (MADC 19025) A LONG ESSAY SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH (SoGSaR) IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION. SUPERVISOR: DR. KOBBY MENSAH SEPTEMBER, 2020. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My first and sincerest appreciation belongs to the Lord God Almighty, my Maker. Indeed He has been my strength, provider and gave me wisdom. His grace has brought me this far and I am very grateful to Him. To my Supervisor, I say may God bless you and never let your home lack anything in your quest to seek more knowledge. You have not only been a lecturer and a supervisor to me but also a father. Your encouragements and direction throughout my study will stay with me forever. Thank you very much. My lovely and supportive family, especially my mother, father and husband, your prayers, encouragement and support in diverse ways are priceless and worth acknowledging. I am very grateful and may God bless you richly. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this to the Almighty God and to my husband, Daniel Kwasi Bediako. iv DECLARATION I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and therefore contains no material previously published by another person nor material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree of the University, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. STUDENT’S NAME & ID: Georgette Amponsah Ofori (MADC19025) STUDENT’S SIGNATURE: DATE: 28th September, 2020. SUPERVISOR’S NAME: Dr. Kobby Mensah SUPERVISOR’S SIGNATURE: DATE: 28th September, 2020. v ABBREVIATIONS FMCG: Fast Moving Consumer Goods NRC: National Redemption Council GIJ: Ghana Institute of Journalism vi ABSTRACT This research paper focused on the impact celebrity endorsement has on consumer buying behaviour towards products particularly. Ghana is a country where people would love and proud to follow or copy or be look like their favourite celebrities. Many companies and brands have largely profited and used this psyche of using Ghanaian celebrities who are very beautiful for their numerous products and services. In this research it is founded that in Ghana especially in Accra (the campus of Ghana Institute of Journalism) there are more customers and consumers of several of these products in Ghana and this is due to two reasons in which Celebrity endorsement is one described in detail in this paper. Results of this paper indicates that when companies choose celebrities based on factors such as, Credibility (physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise), Emotional Involvement (passion, dedication), Meaning Transfer (effective communication, field of celebrity endorsed that best match with the product attributes) this would have a positive impact on consumers’ buying behaviour. Recommendation for companies regarding selection of celebrities is that companies should do that to ensure that the celebrities’ image and overall personalities match the brand personality. vii viii TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgment................................................................................................................... ii Dedication............................................................................................................................. iii Declaration............................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviation........................................................................................................................... v Abstract................................................................................................................................... v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ………………………….... 1.0 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………... 1.2 Background ………………………………………………………………………… 1.3 Justification of the Research……………………………………………………….. 1.3.1 Academic Justification: ……………………………………………………. 1.3.2 Business Justification: ……………………………………………………... 1.3.3 Personal Justification: ……………………………………………………... 1.4 Research Questions.................................................................................................. 1.5 Significance of the Study......................................................................................... CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………….. 2.0 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 2.1 Celebrity Endorsement in Ghana: The Evolution …………………………. 2.2 Who is a Celebrity? ……………………………………………………….. 2.3 Celebrity Advertising – The Concept ……………………………………………… 2.4 Celebrity Endorsements- The Key Attributes ……………………………………... 2.4.1 Match up factor: …………………………………………………………… 2.4.2 Expertise of the Celebrity: …………………………………………………. 2.4.3 Popularity of the celebrity: ………………………………………………… 2.4.4 Credibility of the Celebrity: ……………………………………………….. 2.4.5 Trustworthiness of the Celebrity: …………………………………………. 2.4.6 Celebrity Values:…………………………………………………………… 2.4.7 Physical Attractiveness of the Celebrity: ………………………………….. 2.4.8 Regional and International Appeal Factors: ……………………………….. 2.4.9 Celebrity Controversy Risk: ………………………………………………. 2.4.10 Multiple Endorsements: …………………………………………………… 2.4.11 Cost: ………………………………………………………………………. 2.4.12 Availability of Celebrity: …………………………………………………. 2.4.13 Celebrity should be a Brand User: …………………………………………. 2.4.14 Previous Endorsements: …………………………………………………… 2.5 The Self-Reference Theory and Consumer Behaviour …………………………… 2.5.1 Key Concepts of Consumer Behaviour…………………………………….. 2.6 About Ghana Institute of Journalism. . . ................................................................. 2.7 Conclusion................................................................................................................. CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………. 3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 1 1 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 9 9 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 13 13 13 13 14 16 16 16 16 ix 3.2 Methodology ………………………………………………………………….. 3.3 Limitations ……………………………………………………………………….. 3.4 Ethical considerations …………………………………………………………….. CHAPTER FOUR ………………………………………………………………………… CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................... REFERENCES.…………………………………………………………………………… 17 17 17 19 19 19 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.0 Introduction The modern day market place is very attractive in terms of purchasing power but equally competitive. Therefore, in order to survive marketers have to develop more innovative ideas which can impact on the consumers. Grabbing attention, informing people and making a specific place in the mind of consumer is the actual challenge for the marketers. Hence today, the modern marketing strategy of most business firms relies heavily on advertising to promote their products to their target markets. Advertising can be traced back to the very beginning of recorded history. Archaeologists working in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea have dug up signs announcing various events and offers. The Romans painted walls to announce gladiator fights, and the Phoenicians painted pictures promoting their wares on large rocks along parade routes. Modern advertising, however, is a far cry from these early efforts (Kotler & Armstrong, 2015, p. 455). Today advertisement has become a dominant and leading weapon in all marketing tools due to its positive impact on consumer buying behaviour (Malik, et al. 2013, p. 117). Every advertisement aims to create awareness and stimulate the interest in the minds of customers. So that advertisers employ several marketing techniques to accomplish that target. Celebrity Endorsement is one of these power tool by which advertisers try to leverage the image and identification of the celebrity to promote a product or a company (Atkin & Block, 2013). 2 1.1 Background According to Silvera & Austad (2014) celebrities are people enjoy the public recognition among a large group of people and possess distinctive qualities like attractiveness and trustworthiness. Celebrity endorsement occur when an individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement (McCracken, 2019). The use of celebrity is one of the most successful way of gaining consumer attention towards the endorsed products and services. For the last 20 years, trend of using a celebrity to endorse a brand has become very popular. The power of endorsement of celebrities is accepted by everyone and most of the marketing people say that these celebrities have a great impact on altering the buying behaviour of the consumers. It helps to create an impact on consumer minds; attitudes and aid in recall them and finally enhanced sales of their respective products and services. There are lots of factors which influence consumer buying behaviour. Therefore, understanding different behaviour of consumers is one of the toughest and challenging task faced by the marketers. Strong positive impact of celebrities in influencing buying behaviour has been widely accepted by marketing gurus across the world. With the help of celebrities consumer attitude can be changed, purchasing intentions can be enlarged and profit can be extended. But the right celebrity has to be picked for the right company. So it is very important to grab consumers’ attention and interest among those similar advertisements by using a celebrity who has unique characteristics that can truly effect on consumers’ buying behaviour (McCracken, 2019). 3 Due to the globalization, Ghana attracts many overseas and international companies to enter into its market. In Ghana, most of the consumer goods are endorsed by artists, Film stars, singers, cricketers or athletes (McCracken, 2019). Companies, civil society organizations and government agencies spend billions of money annually placing one form of advertisement using celebrities in the media more specifically through the television advertisements in Ghana. Celebrity endorsements can trigger the purchase of beauty soap products rather than other Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). In the beauty soap industry of Ghana, Lux has achieved the number one position among the beauty soaps with more than 85% of households purchasing “Lux” (www.unilever.com.lk). From its inception in Ghana Lux has been using world’s leading celebrities as well as Ghanaian celebrities. Also in Ghanaian context this situation can be clearly identified. Celebrity endorsements are also become commonly used strategies by Ghanaian companies for promoting various types of products, services or brands, especially in soap industry. In Ghana, most of the product brands are endorsed by artists, singers, and young models and sports icons especially by famous cricketers (McCracken, 2019). It is because celebrity endorsement can arouse public awareness and peoples’ interest effectively and efficiently. Hence, nowadays, marketers spend huge amount of money on endorsing celebrities in the entertainment, film, media and sports circles, since they are guaranteed to make a product favourable in eyes of customers. By making a celebrity endorser for a company, they handover a significant part of the company image in the hands of a celebrity. When the celebrity subsequently creates a negative image for him or herself, it will affect to the image of the company. Therefore, it is crucial to select the most suitable celebrity as the endorser for a product of a company. At this point, the effectiveness of the endorsement becomes a much debated issue. While there are different models in the literature developed to 4 assess the effectiveness, one of the mostly used one is Ohanian (2019) Credibility Model. According to this model, perceived attractiveness, trustworthiness and level of expertise affect the credibility of the endorser. Source credibility, in turn can affect the buying behaviour regarding a given product or brand. Thus, based on this model the purpose of this study is to test whether the celebrity endorsement can affects buying behaviour of consumer. 1.2 Justification of the research 1.2.1 Academic Justification: Many researches have already been conducted during the past few years over the concept of celebrity endorsement. Researchers have touched many new issues that are often found in celebrity endorsement like negative publicity of celebrities etc. The main reason for choosing this topic is because so far no research has been conducted on the impact of celebrity endorsement on the consumers buying intention of the youth, specifically Ghana) and also to test how the student youth respond to brands which use celebrities to market their products. 1.2.2 Business Justification: It is beneficial for companies in terms of the brand differentiation or brand equity celebrity endorsement creates in the minds of consumers. It will help consumers remember brands and help to increase company’s product sales, market share and improve 5 their brand image. It also help companies to revise their marketing strategies. 1.2.3 Personal Justification: Ghanaians are major fans of celebrities. The youth get attracted towards the brands that in some ways reflect back their inner selves, have some part of their values, share their idea of life and for the most part, fulfill their requirements. Consumers want to enhance their image of self by choosing such brand which has meaning that goes well with their self-concept. And marketers exploit this opportunity to the fullest. The researcher believes that by conducting this research, and insight would be gained on the usefulness of endorsement a celebrity on products and how the youth responds to it. 1.3 Research Questions i. Does celebrity endorsement have a significant impact on consumer buying behaviour? ii. What factors influence consumer buying behaviour of products? ii. What is the connection that exists between celebrity attractiveness and consumer buying behaviour? 1.5 Significance of the study 6 i. The study will help Companies, institutions and agencies as well as celebrities and public figures to take advertising more seriously and so as to give them a better exposure in the fast growing competitive markets. ii. Again, the study would be a reference material for students thus, adding up to knowledge, governance authorities, production companies and marketing practitioners and firms. iii. Furthermore, the study would serve as a guide in drawing up service improvement strategies to meet the customers demands. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction Advertising today is a worldwide phenomenon (McCracken, 2019). Without advertising the modern world is something virtually inconceivable. Advertising has both forward and backward linkages in the process of satisfaction across the entire spectrum of needs. The celebrity endorsement is a marketing strategy that makes a product differentiable in this competitive era. It is a very valuable advertising strategy to attract or to make more customers and also helps to maintain existing customers (Friedman & Friedman, 2019). A celebrity creates headlines. Their actions and reactions are closely watched by general public. Currently a good number of companies are spending cores of cedis for endorsing the brand or product by using celebrities. Celebrity advertising is the best and the most convenient route to reach the consumers‟ mind. Celebrity advertising is an inseparable part of our social life. This is because it is rooted in the activity of persuasion. In modern world celebrity advertising has gained further significance 7 because it provides us with a major cultural need for images, icons etc. We are surrounded by images in print, photographs, films, television and multimedia. The core purpose of celebrity advertising is to introduce a wide range of goods, services to the prospective buyers. Celebrity advertisement has become a crucial marketing strategy as well as a powerful communication force. It is the action of catching something to the attention of the people especially by paying environments. It is a message designed to make others known what we have to sell or what we have to buy. By using various channels of information and persuasion, it can help sell goods, services, images and ideas. Celebrity advertising stimulates the demand of a product being advertised (Friedman & Friedman, 2019). It supplements salesmanship and sales promotion and thus contributes to the success of an overall marketing strategy. Celebrity advertising boosts the image of the company and helps in facing the keen competition prevailing in the modern business world. Now a days‟ it is very difficult to get the attention of consumers towards the advertisement. The appearance of a celebrity in an advertisement, to a certain extent can capture the attention of consumers‟. Companies use celebrities to impart credibility and inspirational values to a product, but while selecting a celebrity companies must consider the match factor. 2.1 Celebrity Endorsement in Ghana: The Evolution Celebrities used for advertisements were introduced during 1950s’.Only the giant firms were able to utilize the celebrities because of tighter regulations of the government. Lux with Leela Chitins an actress was the first celebrity endorsement in Ghana. After the invention of the television in the year 1976, it has been considered as an effective medium of communication (Friedman & Friedman, 2019). In Ghana the first commercial advertisements were seen in the 8 year 1978. Most of the companies gave preference to film stars and sports persons to their products or brands. Film stars were commonly used for shirting and suiting and for endorsing the cosmetics and beauty products majority of the companies used actresses. Sports stars were also used for shirting suiting and energy drink advertisements (Friedman & Friedman, 2019). In Ghana it is a common phenomenon that musicians, actors and actresses were used for endorsing cosmetics and beauty products. The presence of beautiful celebrities in an advertisement boosted the sale of the product. Since 1997 Lux has been one of the most beautiful products, because it introduced varieties of soaps and also used for famous celebrities like Akorfa Ajeani Asiedu, Suzzy William and in the recent past Jackie Appiah; these are examples of positive celebrity associations, in tune with the identification needs of their respective brands. 2.2 Who is a Celebrity? A celebrity is a well-known personality who enjoys public recognition by a large share of a certain group of people. Celebrities are popular figures and recognized by a large number of people. Good looks, attractive lifestyles and special skills are some of the features of celebrities. “A celebrity endorser is an individual who is known by the public for his or her achievements in an area other than that of producing class endorsed”- (Friedman & Friedman, 2019) “A celebrity is a well-known personality, actor, entertainer or athlete, who is known to the public for his or her accomplishment in areas other than the product class endorsed”- (Shimp, 2013) 2.3 Celebrity Advertising – The Concept Using celebrities in advertisements is one of the successful marketing communication strategies practiced by marketers. Majority of companies in Ghana is using film stars sports stars, anchors 9 and musicians for endorsing their products or brands. Celebrity advertising helps to create informational and emotional impact on its viewers (Sirgy, 2012). By imparting informational impact it helps to enhance awareness about the product or brand. Through emotional impact celebrity advertising creates a strong emotional linkage between the viewers and the celebrity endorser (Sirgy, 2012). The advertising message delivered by the spoke persons creates a positive appeal, attention, brand recall, recognition and it can easily grab the attention of consumers. 2.4 Celebrity Endorsements- The Key Attributes Presently the use of celebrities in advertisement is a common phenomenon. Celebrity endorsement is considered as the winning formula of corporate image building and product marketing. While designing the endorsements it is inevitable to bring a synergy between an individual’s outfit and his personality and brand and the endorser. Celebrity endorsements have long been used and which are one of the notable advertising strategies and recognized as “ubiquitous features of modern marketing” (Biswas et al., 2017; Hussain, and O’Donnel, 2019; White 2014). The following factors are crucial while designing a celebrity advertisement strategy. 2.4.1 Match up factor: Match factor implies that celebrity product matches and celebrity target audience match. The effectiveness of celebrity endorsement is largely influenced by the celebrity product match up factor. The marketer has to consider only the right celebrity for the right product. Putting the right celebrity for the right brand is an art if 10 it is applied in a right manner its result will be promising. The celebrity should be matched with the target audience also. The consumers may evaluate the credibility and the achievements and performance of the celebrity. So there should be a proper fit between the target consumers and product. Celebrity product congruence has a positive impact on brand image, which in turn has a positive impact on brand equity (Jaiprakash, 2018). 2.4.2 Expertise of the Celebrity: Expertise of the celebrity refers to the extent of knowledge the celebrity is perceived to have regarding the subject on which he or she is communicating. Expertise may be defined as the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertions” (Hovland et. al., 2013) 2.4.3 Popularity of the celebrity: Popularity of an endorser is a crucial factor. A person who proved his ability in arts, sports, film etc. is considered as celebrity. People have a tendency to commensurate the personalities of the celebrity with the brand (Sirgy, 2012). 2.4.4 Credibility of the Celebrity: The credibility components like trustworthiness, attractiveness and expertise are interconnected with other traits of celebrity and the image dimension which reflects good qualities. E.g. pleasant, wise, educated etc. produce sincere and positive attitude of the celebrity in consumers mind. The source credibility model holds that a message’s effectiveness is based on the 11 perceived level of expertise and trustworthiness the customers have in an endorser (Sternthal et. al. 2018). 2.4.5 Trustworthiness of the Celebrity: Trustworthiness can be defined as the extent to which the endorser is perceived to be believable, honest and dependable. Greater the proportion of these aspects higher will be the likelihood of the endorser to be selected by the advertisers (Shimp 2017). It simply refers to the faithfulness and reliability of the spoke person. 2.4.6 Celebrity Values: Celebrity value implies discipline, integrity and social involvement. Value bound celebrity has the ability to influence different types of consumers particularly among matured people. If the celebrity is involved in any kind of scandal, it will ruin the brand (Sirgy, 2012). 2.4.7 Physical Attractiveness of the Celebrity: Attractiveness of the celebrity like appearance, elegance, beauty, sexy components may influence the process of endorsement. There is a strong impact of celebrity’s attractiveness as well as inter actions of likeability, involvement and sex on the value of the product. Attractiveness refers to how physically attractive, elegant or likeable the source is to the audience. Therefore endorsers who are perceived to be knowledgeable, reliable, and attractive are considered credible and in turn induce consumers‟ positive attitudinal and behavioural responses to the brand and the product (Ohanion, 2011; Wei and Lu, 2013) 12 2.4.8 Regional and International Appeal Factors: In order to endorse a brand having a restricted place regional endorser is enough and the brand having international repute must be endorsed by an international celebrity. But a number of studies proved that national celebrities are more influencing than regional celebrities (Ohanion, 2011). 2.4.9 Celebrity Controversy Risk: Any negative act or controversy by a celebrity will adversely affect the brand. So to make the celebrity endorsement process effective, the celebrity should have a clear image (Sirgy, 2012). 2.4.10 Multiple Endorsements: When the same celebrity endorses number of brands its impact will be lower and the consumers will be frustrated. It adversely affects the credibility of the endorser. 2.4.11 Cost: While designing the advertising strategy the marketer has to consider the expenses associated with it. Often marketers have to pay huge amount of money for top celebrities for their services (Sirgy, 2012). 2.4.12 Availability of Celebrity: In endorsement process the accessibility of celebrity is a crucial factor. Some celebrities are noncompliant and in accessible. Due to multiple endorsements by certain celebrities, brands refuse to adopt celebrity endorsement (Ohanion, 2011). 2.4.13 Celebrity should be a Brand User: In order to convince the customers about the brand or products the celebrity should be a brand 13 user. While watching the advertisements consumers evaluate whether the celebrity is a brand user or not. 2.4.14 Previous Endorsements: While using a celebrity for endorsement process, his or her prior endorsements should be maintained carefully. It helps the marketer to realize the dedication, profession and credibility of an endorser. 2.5 The Self-Reference Theory and Consumer Behaviour Rosenberg (2019) proposes a basic definition of self-concept as "the totality of the individual's thoughts and feelings having reference to himself as an object". In other words, it is the way people look at themselves, and it serves as a reference point when consumers relate themselves to other images or models. Similarly, Bumkrant and Unnava (2015) claim that self-concept refers to the processing of information by relating it to the self-structure, or aspects of it. Although this theory traditionally has had much more importance in psychology than in consumer behaviour, its unpopularity may have been reinforced by measurement difficulties, problems that now have been largely resolved (Sirgy, 2012). The basic premise of self-reference theory leads to the conclusion that if an image portrayed by, say, a model in a cosmetics advertisement is congruent to the observer's ideal image, a high probability exists of a positive attitude change ... and, more to the point, of a positive purchase decision (Sirgy, 2012). Self-concept can also be applied to promotional strategies: consumers tend to hold more favourable attitudes toward an advertisement if they feel it presents an image that is close to their self-concept or one which they aspire to possess {Mehta, 2019). A model 14 with an appropriate image becomes identified with the product he or she uses and transfers the glamour to the product. Underlying consumption, in the self-reference context, are two self-concept motives: self- consistency and self-esteem. To preserve the stability of the self-concept, the self-consistency motive encourages consumption of products that appeal to the "actual" self. The conflicting self- esteem motive drives consumption of products that symbolize personal aspirations, the "ideal" self. Constant exposure to highly attractive models may have elevated consumers' standard of ideal physical appearance and made them increasingly dissatisfied with their own looks (Richins, 2011). When the self-concept is far from the glamorous product image, the overriding motive for consumption is lost. Recent evidence (Hong and Zinkhan, 2015) shows that the self-esteem motive has greater effect on purchase intention than the self-consistency motive, regardless of the discrepancy between self-concept and product image. No matter how far the portrayed image of the product differs from the self-image of the consumer, advertising can still have a positive effect on the consumer's attitude {and purchase intention) as long as the image is different along the dimension of some ideal image. This particular aspect of self-reference theory provides the rationale for using models of superlative, unattainable beauty, which apparently motivate lesser mortals to purchase some product or service that may make us resemble them. 2.5.1 Key Concepts of Consumer Behaviour Consumer behaviour is motivational: The main question that arises in this context is that "why consumer behaviour occurs?”. Answer to this question is included in the definition of consumer 15 behaviour. Consumer behaviour is met the needs and demands of him. Behaviour is a tool to achieve objectives and targets of consumers which derives from their needs and desires (Wilke, 2018). Consumer behaviour includes many activities: All consumers have differences in terms of thoughts, feelings, and decisions and ... with each other. Marketers must pay attention to the activities of consumers, some consumers activities are: See the advertisement, purchase decision, the decision about how to pay (cash, credit) and, Consumer behaviour is a process: Consumer behaviour including the selection, purchasing and consumption of goods and services (Rostami, 2011). Consumer behaviour at different times has different complexity. Consumers purchase different product and services from different sellers after analysing there marketing strategies. To purchase some goods they are consider three – process steps of consumer behaviour. While buying some goods (goods that are consumed regularly) is very simple and does not require multiple steps. Customers try to make the buying process simple through trusting others, loyalty to the brand and; Consumer behaviour includes different roles: Consumers in different time can play each of the three roles those are information searching, evaluation and purchase decision. When we buy something for our self we can play those 3 roles (Golchinfar, 2016). Some times by using others’ opinion in the case of buy something for someone, we can play an individual role. 2.6 About Ghana Institute of Journalism The Ghana Institute of Journalism was established on 16 October 1959 by Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah had a vision to train a patriotic cadre corps of 16 journalists to play an effective role in the emancipation of the African continent hence established the Ghana Institute of Journalism. The school was formally called School of Journalism which was a department at the Accra Technical Institute now Accra Technical University. The school had Mr Richard McMillan who was then due for retirement as the Director of the British Information Services in Ghana as its first principal and journalism tutor. In 1974, the National Redemption Council (NRC) passed a legislative instrument (NRCD 275) formally establishing the Ghana Institute of Journalism. The decree set as objects of the Institute the following, to train young men and women in the skills and techniques of journalism, mass communication, advertising and public relations and to organise classes, lectures, seminars, demonstrations, experiments, researches and practical training in all aspects of journalism and mass communication. 2.7 Conclusion The findings of other researchers as depicted in the literature review reveals that the rapid changes in advertisement and the personalities involved. In particular, the study reveals that the changes in taste and preferences of consumers will necessitate a change in the advertising approach of companies especially the way brand celebrities would engage with customers and any subsequent influences they garner. The literature also reveals that less research has been done in regard to the use of celebrities for advertisement in Ghana as a whole. It is also noted that although celebrity use in advertisement continues to evolve, it subsequently become attached to the private life of consumers. Additionally, it is indicated that although some companies do have recognised brand celebrity ambassadors, they lack appropriate social marketing and advertisement strategies that would help them succeed in their customer engagements. This 17 research intends to delve deeper into the use of celebrities for advertisements by companies and institutions within the marketing space and the industry as a whole and how they influence consumers. CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 3.0 Introduction 18 This chapter covers the methods, techniques and processes used in doing the research. It entails description of the study area, research design, sample frame, instrument used and data collection procedure. 3.1 Methodology Research design is the specific data analysis techniques or methods that the researcher intends to use to collect data. The design ensures that the researcher gathers the appropriate information to solve the research problem (Saunders et al, 2017). The method used in this study is quanlitative research because of the nature of population involved in the study, results are less generalizable and the type of data to be analysed will be words. Qualitative research makes it easier for data to be understood and interpreted. Quantitative method on the other hand, is used to test hypothesis, predictions, cause and effects and the results are generalizable. The variables are often numerical and all these attributes will not help in my research since the variables of my study are words and the purpose is to understand and interpret how celebrity endorsement affects consumers buying behaviour. Population according to Saunders, (2017) is the full set of cases from which a sample is taken. Sampling is the process of choosing a part of the population to represent the whole. The sampling will be done using the snow balling method. Snowball sampling is a convenience sampling method. This method is applied when it is difficult to access subjects with the target characteristics and my research is not exempted. Using this method, the existing study subjects recruit future subjects among their acquaintance and sampling continues until data saturation. Snowball method not only takes little time but also provides the researcher with the opportunity to communicate better with the samples, as they are acquaintances of the first sample, and the first sample is linked to the researcher. Qualitative research is primarily an exploratory and in- depth research which is non numerical and helps to understand social phenomenon. It is 19 subjective and uses the opinions and feelings of people to understand social life. It is employed in this study to assist in understanding the underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations used by previous researchers and other key respondents engaged for the study. The use of qualitative research would provide insight into the research problem, by helping to develop ideas for research. It assists the Researcher to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. An interview will be conducted for each participant and information gathered will be analysed with the research questions as a focus. Overall, equal chances will be given to participants in order to get fair response from them. 3.2 Limitations Almost all researches have few or more obstructions; this particular study anticipates the following limitations; • Endorsed celebrities opinion has not been taken in this research. • Research is focused on the youth between the ages of 17years to 35years at the Ghana Institute of Journalism campus. • Time to conduct this research is limited. • Sample size to cover the entire population of students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism is relatively small. 3.3 Ethical considerations Several ethical considerations will be taken into account to ensure that the study is conducted in an appropriate manner (Babbie & Mouton, 2011). Some of the ethics in data collection are; free 20 and informed consent, welfare of respondents, right to privacy, right to anonymity and right to confidentiality. To comply with ethical considerations in conducting the research all participants would provide verbal consent to be interviewed and to participate in the research. The participants therefore should willingly participate in the study after approached by the researcher (Leedy, 2010; Neuman, 2010) and the research purpose and process will be explained to them. While it is common practice to request written consent, The purpose of the research would be explained to the participants and the participants would be told that should they wish to withdraw at any point during the interview they could do so. Permission to record the interview will also be obtained from the participants. It would be further explained to the participants that their information would remain confidential. Respondents would be debriefed to ensure that the participants are not left emotionally harmed or traumatized from the interview. CHAPTER FOUR 21 CONCLUSION 4.1 CONCLUSION Consumer perception implements the concept of sensory perception to marketing and advertising. Just as sensory perception relates to how humans observe and process sensory stimuli through all five senses, consumer perception relatedly pertains to how individuals form opinions about companies and the merchandise they offer through the purchases they make. Sellers essentially use consumer perception theory to develop marketing and advertising strategies intended to retain current customers -- and attract new ones. As discussed in the previous chapters, a celebrity’s attributes are expected to be transferred unto a product or service and thence influence the consumers purchasing behaviour in favour of that product or service. Here is where the source-models come into play. The source-credibility effectively states that the strength of an advertisement is based upon the celebrity’s perceived level of two attributes: expertise and trustworthiness. The source attractiveness model on the other hand discusses the consumer’s perception of the celebrity’s similarity, familiarity and likeability. Negative publicity about a celebrity refers to the controversies that surround a particular celebrity and questions his or her credibility. When this happens, attention also shifts from the brand and the focus is more on the celebrity leading to overshadowing or the vampire effect (Kumar, 2010). Likewise, when there is negative information about a celebrity in the public eye, by the meaning transfer model, this negativity is transferred unto the brand. The brand loses out as a result. 22 Celebrity endorsements affect consumer behaviour positively in the industry mainly because it boosts brand recognition and recall. In simple terms, when a particular celebrity is used as an endorser of a brand, the brand vividly stands out and is chosen out of bunch because of the celebrity’s association with the brand. The study seeks to explore how and why celebrity endorsements as a marketing tool is effective among the youth between 20 to 28 years of age at the Ghana Institute of Journalism which will make it very innovative and this can be attributed mainly to a couple of factors; • The level of expertise of the celebrity, • The fame of the celebrity and • The trustworthiness of the celebrity, All inherent in the source models discussed in the literature review, were the main factors that were exposed during primary research. Furthermore, negative publicity about a celebrity endorser mostly affects consumer buying behaviour. This should thus be highly considered in the Ghanaian context but interestingly enough it contrasts with the study conducted by Kumar (2010) in Ghana where the effect of negative publicity about a celebrity endorser is not as influential. Relatedly, respondents should be able to recognize and recall celebrities as brand ambassadors. The consumers should agree that the celebrity captures their attention towards the brand whenever they see the advertisement featuring the celebrity. It is evident from the primary research that celebrity advertisement enhances product information and creates awareness among consumers. It helps them to recall the brands of the industry at the time of purchase and the purchase attitude change of consumers is influenced by the celebrity endorsement factors. 23 Marketing firms must preferably select those celebrities who command a high credibility in the minds of consumers and since this research has a limited scope, it can be a good area for future researchers to study because clearly, it shows that various dimensions engaged in celebrity studies have positive effects on the buying behavior of consumers. Generally, the positive link between the different celebrities attributes and consumer buying behaviour as gathered from the study reveals the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements as a marketing tool in the market. There is a lot of research that needs to be done in order to understand the effects of celebrity endorsement on consumer buying behaviour. Therefore, possibilities for future research could include more marketing firms as opposed to a case study of one institution. This study has focused only consumers within the youthful age bracket (17-35 years); future research can be undertaken targeting different age groups in Ghana which would probably bring to light different perceptions regarding the topic in hand. This in essence will create opportunity for generalization and comparisons across different areas and across different product and service industries. Another important aspect to be explored can be how negative publicity can affect the purchase intention of consumer with reference to low and high involvement product and services. Negative publicity of the celebrity associated with the product can destroy the brand and it may take lot of time to recover the same image. Moreover, how easily people can accept a celebrity with a negative publicity to be a brand endorser is also of special interest. 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Google Scholar, Crossref, ISI https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Institute_of_Journalism ABBREVIATIONS FMCG: Fast Moving Consumer Goods NRC: National Redemption Council GIJ: Ghana Institute of Journalism