ANALYSIS OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT INFLUENCE ON PURCHASE INTEREST: THE CASE STUDY OF A SKINCARE PRODUCT
Journal Title: The EUrASEANs: journal on global socio-economic dynamics - Year 2018, Vol 1, Issue 3
Abstract
Introduction Fierce competition between marketers has led many companies to the conclusion that they must have the uniqueness to be able to excel at their market and get high enough sales’ volumes. One of the most beneficial marketing ways for manufacturers is promoting their products through the Internet. According to the Trybisnis survey results (www.trybisnis.com) the following media sources are used for such matters most frequently: Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedln, Pinterest. While using the vast capacities of the Internet a company is able to advertise all of its products in order to be fully accessed by the audience and receive enough attention from consumers, however, it needs the right strategy. Promotion through advertising starts with attraction, and ideally - finishes with influencing consumer feelings and perceptions of brands/products (Kotler and Keller, 2009: 213). One of the ways to get the initial attraction is through celebrity endorsement. The overall image of an artist, trust to him/her and his/her personal positive qualities can supposedly support products’ development and success at a market. Celebrity support to a product can go in three directions - making it currently trendy, making it very profitable, and finally gaining trust from the people who tend to mix personal image with product features (Simamora, 2000: 801). Arora (2013) stated that the use of celebrity endorsement tends to create greater trust, which is effective in encouraging purchases. Celebrity endorser is someone who talks about a product with the aim to influence the behavior and the attitude of a wider circle of consumers (Kotler and Keller, 2009: 216). According to (Rodrigues, 2008), there are three constituents in credibility of an endorser: Attraction (Attractiveness), Expertise and Trust. MD Glowing Strategy to convey persuasive communication by means of promotion through social media (namely, Instagram) and using celebrities known in the of capital city is commonly called a Program. Below we present the list of celebrity endorsers (involved in the so-called “selebgram”) of the MD Glowing products: Table 1. Celebrity endorsers of the MD Glowing (source: Internet) Celebrity endorser of the brand Source Gita Savitri Official Instagram account of MD Glowing Nisa Cookie Official Instagram account of MD Glowing Hamidah Official Instagram account of MD Glowing Shella Alztha Official Instagram account of MD Glowing According to the interviews carried out with MD Glowing's marketing manager, the strategy used by this company brings the impact through increasing the number of consumers - patients at the MD Glowing clinic. According to the marketing manager of MD Glowing (as of 22/12/2017), celebrity endorsers are being involved to attract consumers. With such ads being used, people will by more interested at least to try even if they do not really need the recommended product. Literature Review According to (Kotler, 2012: 5), marketing is a social process in which groups and individuals get what they need by creating, offering, exchanging freely those products and services that are valuable to others. Managers often think product marketing is an integral part of the art of selling products. Many people are surprised to hear that selling is not the most important part in marketing, selling is just the tip of the marketing iceberg. The core purpose of marketing is to make sales abundant. In relation to our research directly and in the context of marketing we need to elaborate a bit more on the following elements of promotion: Advertising This is a one of company’s promotion activities carried out through non-individual communication. Traditionally, it is quite costly since advertising involves working with mass media, advertising companies, non-profit institutions and sole entrepreneurs (Daryanto, 2011: 95). L. Monle and C. Johnson (2011: 3) describe advertising is a nonpersonal communication about an organization and its products disseminated through mass media such as radio television, newspapers, magazines, direct mailing, outdoor billboards or public transport. According to (Abdullah Ma'ruf, 2016: 107), advertising is a form of communication with the aim to persuade and influence consumers. Since advertising is impersonal in its nature, advertising design must clearly predetermine who of the potentially target consumers get the well targeted messages. Personal Sales According to (Daryanto, 2011), personal sales is a type of promotional activity which takes place between individuals who establish and maintain the relationship of exchange between themselves for mutual benefits. Sales Promotion This is a form of promotional activities using props such as demonstrations, exhibitions, gifts, free samples of goods etc. (Daryanto, 2011: 95). Publicity Publicity is a promotional activity that is similar to advertising since it also involves direct participation of mass media. However, information provided for publicity purposes usually goes not in the form of advertising but in the form of news. Quite often publicity agencies do not pay at all for such news’ dissemination as such (unlike with advertisement), but there is another side of this coint - public institutions can be somehow harmed once publicity-related “news” are published. Advertising Attraction Advertising is always promoting certain ideas, services, and goods (Basu Swastha and Irawan, 2000: 178). According to (Morissan, 2007), the attractiveness of advertising is something that moves people, talks about their wants or needs and arouses interest. There are two key approaches to advertising appeal: attractiveness of rational advertising messages and advertising appeal based on emotions and feelings (Ma'ruf Abdullah, 2016: 120). Celebrity Endorser Suyanto (2007) mentioned that the use of celebrities can affect attitudes and customers to products and services. One form of endorsement is typical personal endorsement which is when some people, other than celebrities, convey their message about a product. Celebrity endorsement is when a well-known person can influence the opinions and attitudes of the others due to his/her reputation and previous achievements (Shimp, 2000). Credibility of a Celebrity Endorser Celebrity endorser’s credibility consists of at least three dimensions as it is outlined in (Lafferty et al., 2002): 1. Attractiveness - when objects are assessed in the context and direct relation to personal features, such as ambition, intelligence etc. 2. Trustworthiness - when the endorser is perceived as a truly honest source of information. 3. Expertise - when the endorser is taken as a professional in a certain field with sufficient level of knowledge and experience to describe and explain the recommended product/service. Purchase Interest According to (Assael, 2008), buying interest is the tendency of consumers to buy a brand or take other action related to purchase possibility. According to (Ferdinand, 2006: 129), buying interest can be identified through the following indicators: - transactional interest = one's desire to buy this product; - referential interest = one's desire to recommend this product to others; - preferential interests - describes the behavior of a person who has a primary preference for product t, however, the latter can be replaced if something happens to this product; - explorative interest - when a person is actively searching for information about a particular product he or she became interested in. Research Methodology This research used is essentially a descriptive causal research. Data collection has been performed by means of using a questionnaire. Sampling technique selected for our case is probability sampling. The technique chosen within probability sampling is random sampling, that is, sampling has been done randomly, without considering strata in population. The survey was conducted among the MD Glowing online followers, the number of respondents being 385. The questionnaire has been divided into two parts, both to be filled by the respondents. The first part contained questions to describe the identity of a respondent, while the second part contains 15 items directly related to celebrity Endorsement, advertising appeal and purchase interest. The Likert scale was used as a means of grading, at later stages path analysis was applied. The preliminary hypotheses of this research were intentionally formulated in a simplified way: Celebrity Endorsement effects Advertising Appeal. Celebrity Endorsement effects Buying Interest. Advertising Appeal effects Buying Interest. Celebrity Endorsement effects Purchase Interest with the Advertising appeal serving as an intervening variable. Results and Discussion In total, six indicators were used to measure celebrity endorsement for the case of MD Glowing. The accumulated average score was equal to 390.33, with the score percentage reaching 780.06% (high category). Celebrity Endorsement Percentage Category 20% - 36% Very low >36% - 52% Low >52% - 68% Quite high >68% - 84% High 84% - 100% Very high Advertising Appeal Percentage Category 20% - 36% Very low >36% - 52% Low >52% - 68% Quite high >68% - 84% High 84% - 100% Very high In total, two indicators measure the advertising appeal for MD Glowing products. The average accumulation score is 390.33, with the score percentage of 78.06% (high category). Purchase Interest Percentage Category 20% - 36% Very low >36% - 52% Low >52% - 68% Quite high >68% - 84% High 84% - 100% Very high In total, four indicators were used to measure the buying interest. The average accumulation score was 366, and the score percentage reached 73.2% (again, high category). Path Analysis To check the effect of celebrity endorsement (X) on buying interest (Y) we then used the sub-structural regression model which is Y1= b1Y 1X 1+E1. The result can be seen in the table below. Coefficients Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 3.102 .782 3.969 .000 X .344 .036 .698 9.650 .000 a. Dependent Variable: Y This table above shows that the probability (sig) value of celebrity endorsement variable is <0.05. The value of t arithmetic is higher than the table value (1.66055), meaning that the celebrity endorsement variable has a positive and significant effect on advertising appeal (Y). Above we can see that R2 = 0,487. This means the regression model explains the relationship of variable X to variable Y by 48,7%, or 0,487, while the rest of 51,3% (or 0,531) are influenced by other variables, not covered by our study. From the test we also obtained the following equation: Y1= b1Y1X1+E1, Y1 = 0,698+0,513. To understand better the influence of celebrity endorsement (X) and advertising appeal (Y) upon purchase decision (Z) we then used the sub-structural regression model 2 which is Z1 = b2Z1X1+ b3ZY+E2. We found that F = 49.344, with the probablility value (sig) = 0.000. because F > Ftable (3.09). This means that both variables, that of celebrity endorsement and of advertising appeal, have a positive and significant effect on buying interest. The probability value (sig.) of the variables of celebrity endorsement and advertising appeal is worth <0.05. t value of the variables is > ttable (1.66071), which means X and Y have positive and significant effect on the buying interest (Z). More details can be seen below: ANOVAa Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 989.956 2 494.978 49.344 .000b Residual 973.016 97 10.031 Total 1962.972 99 a. Dependent Variable: Z. b. Predictors: (Constant), Y, X. Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients T Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 3.745 1.667 2.246 .027 X .227 .099 .230 2.299 .024 Y 1.063 .200 .531 5.315 .000 a. Dependent Variable: Z Model Summarya Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate Durbin-Watson 1 .710a .504 .494 3.167 1.785 a. Predictors: (Constant), Y, X b. Dependent Variable: Z It is found that R2= 0,504. This means the regression model describes the relationship of variables X and Y to Z being at the level of 50,4%, while the rest (0,496 or 49,6%) isinfluenced by other variables, outside the scope of this study. From this test we have also obtained the following Sub-Structural 2 equation: Z1= 0,230 + 0,531 + 0,496. Direct and Indirect Influences Influence Variable Path Coefficient Direct Indirect Total, % Result X >> Y 0,698 0,487 48,7% Significant Y >>Z 0,531 0,283 28,3% Significant X >> Z 0,230 0,0529 5,29% Significant X >> Z Y 0,370 0,370 37,0% Significant 1. direct influence : (X>>Y) 0,698x0,698= 0,487, or 48,7% ; (Y>>Z) 0,531x0,531= 0,282 or 28,2%, (X>>Z) 0,230x0,230= 0,529, or 5,29%. 2. indirect influence 0,698x0,531= 0,370, or 37%. 3. total effects (0,230+0,370= 0,6). Conclusion Therefore, our key conclusion, in simple terms is: the influence of celebrity endorsement is high. Most of our respondents rate the celebrity endorsement via Instagram as being appropriate and directly related to the endorsed beauty product. The respondents' response to the advertising appeal of the MD Glowing products is also quite high-level. This indirectly indicates that the ad displayed can emotionally influence consumer behavior. Buying interest in the MD Glowing products also got quite high level of responses. This means that most of our respondents have certain interest in skincare products, they are actively looking for MD Glowing product information, and they are willing to recommend these products further to others. Therefore, the role of endorsers in communicating MD Glowing product was quite properly and fit the product itself. The amount of indirect influence between celebrity endorsement and buying interest through advertising appeal is 0.370. This value is greater than the direct influence of celebrity endorsement on buying interest which is 0.230. This means that indirectly celebrity endorsement, through advertising appeal, has a slightly more significant influence on buying interest. What this means in more practical terms? This means that companies should be more daring in streamlining their creativity to look more different and unique in the eyes of consumers, especially when it comes to comparison with other ads.
Authors and Affiliations
Putu Nina Madiawati, Mahir Pradana, Luthfiany Alrasyid
Keywords
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