Title: Do celebrities influence urban and rural bottom of the pyramid consumers? A comparative study-based approach

Authors: Debadrita Panda; Tanmoy Dasgupta

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, The University of Burdwan, India; MAKAUT, Haringhata, Nadia, 741249, West Bengal, India ' Department of Business Administration, The University of Burdwan, India

Abstract: Celebrity endorsement is a very popular way to influence the purchase behaviour of consumers. It is used frequently as a part of marketing strategy and promotion. Several studies have provided evidence about its significant effect on various types of consumer segments. Different types of consumers have shown different types of responsive behaviour for celebrity endorsements. Being a developing country, India has a huge amount of bottom of the pyramid (BoP) living with an income of less than dollars 2 per day. Broadly dividing them into urban and rural BoPs, this current study tries to determine the effect of celebrity endorsements behind purchase intention for both urban and rural BoPs. Paschim Medinipur, one of the largest districts of West Bengal state, India has been selected for this study. This district also has high human poverty index. A sample size of 500 consisting of both urban and rural BoPs are showing a significant difference towards the effect of celebrity endorsement for purchase intention as well as attitude towards advertisements and brand preference.

Keywords: bottom of the pyramids; BoPs; celebrity endorsement; multivariate statistical analysis; West Bengal; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2022.126531

International Journal of Management Practice, 2022 Vol.15 No.6, pp.799 - 819

Received: 11 Aug 2020
Accepted: 23 May 2021

Published online: 28 Oct 2022 *

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