Title: Persuadability of celebrity brand endorsements: socio-economic and cultural perspective

Authors: Kim Anne Menezes; Suku Bhaskaran; Itika Yadav

Addresses: G.D. Goenka World Institute ' Lancaster University, G.D. Goenka Education City, Gurgaon Sohna Road, Delhi-NCR, 122103, Haryana, India ' G.D. Goenka World Institute ' Lancaster University, G.D. Goenka Education City, Gurgaon Sohna Road, Delhi-NCR, 122103, Haryana, India ' G.D. Goenka World Institute ' Lancaster University, G.D. Goenka Education City, Gurgaon Sohna Road, Delhi-NCR, 122103, Haryana, India

Abstract: The article reviews celebrity endorser traits that influence brand beliefs and attitudes of upwardly mobile young and educated customers in urban India. The study draws information from intercept and electronic surveys, in-depth unstructured interviews of a subset of individuals not captured in the surveys and content analyses of information transcribed from television advertisements. Findings from these three sources were reviewed, analysed and triangulated. Results reveal that customers in India, unlike those in developed countries where extant studies have predominantly been conducted, have greater proclivity to 'source attractiveness' and 'source likeability'. In contrast to customers in developed countries, 'source credibility' is not important to customers in India. Celebrity endorsements are not highly persuasive in fostering brand beliefs and attitudes but it fosters brand recognition and brand recall. Celebrity traits that are important to target customers and the persuadability of celebrity endorsements are significantly different across market segments and countries.

Keywords: celebrity endorsement; source attractiveness; source likeability; source credibility; persuadability; belief transferance; culture; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2019.100787

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2019 Vol.23 No.1, pp.69 - 87

Received: 05 Aug 2017
Accepted: 14 Sep 2017

Published online: 18 Jul 2019 *

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