BUSINESS RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Factors of celebrity endorsement through advertising influence
on young customer’s purchasing intention towards Pepsi
beverage in Ho Chi Minh city
STUDENT ID:
Word Count: 1,531 words
Factors of celebrity endorsement through advertising influence on young customer’s
purchasing intention towards Pepsi beverage in Ho Chi Minh city
1. Introduction
Today, organizations can use celebrities’ images on their marketing communication
channel to endorse for their products because they affect to customer’s purchase intention.
Celebrity endorsement has been one of the most common advertisement forms; this tool help
companies maximize revenue (Ahmed et al., 2015) and send their marketing messages to
target audiences (Adewale, Hameed and Moshood, 2019). Besides, it has a huge influence on
customer’s experience when choosing products (Ahmed et al., 2015). Therefore, this tool
attracts the concern of marketers to promote new products and increase sales of existing items.
Pepsi is one of soft drink produced by Suntory Pepsico corporation and they mostly use
celebrity endorsement in their product’s publication. Recently, Blackpink, a famous Korean
band, has been invited as celebrity to endorse for Pepsi beverage’s advertisement in Asia
Pacific region. This attracts a lot of customer’s attention, especially teenagers. This study
aims to identify the factors of celebrity endorsement through advertisement platform on the
young customer’s intention to buy Pepsi beverage in Ho Chi Minh city, based on independent
variable hypothesis factors: physical attractiveness, celebrity credibility and congruence. In
the next parts, premilitary literature review part will be mentioned to describe literature
review, research questions and theoretical framework. Besides, methodology section will
refer to identification of paradigm, choices of research method and data, research limitation
and ethical issues. Moreover, the last section – timetable and expected outcomes will
highlight on important milestones to complete this study.
2. Preliminary review of the literature
2.1. Literature review
Celebrities have their own physical characteristics and abilities that are socially
attractive and recognized by a large community (Moraes et al., 2019). They are highlighted
on social groups and social events (Rojek, 2015). Besides, Choi and Rifon (2007) confirmed
that celebrities have been received the credibility from audiences and advertisement need
reliable information to persuade customer behaviors. Therefore, celebrities become the
important factors in marketing communication process..
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Celebrities endorsement is brand communication tool that endorsers confirm about the
position, advantages of product and create a niche market (Ogunsiji, 2012). Besides, HalonenKnight et al. (2010) stated that traditional opinions of this endorsement based on theories of
communication and the cultural meaning transfer theories. Communication theories
confirmed about convincing process through celebrities’ characteristics such as attractiveness
or credibility. Nevertheless, the theories of meaning transfer stated that the efficacy of
endorsement process influences on his congruence from his role in film or drama to endorsed
products. Although celebrity endorsers can help organizations beat other competitors’
advertisements and create emotional connections between customers and products (Yang,
2018), it spends much expenditure (Moraes et al., 2019; Ogunsiji, 2018). Hence, celebrity
endorsement can bring benefits and drawbacks for organizations.
There are source models involved in the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement: source
attractiveness model (Ebhote and Odia, 2019; Yang, 2018; Austad and Silvera, 2004), source
credibility (Van der Veen, 2018) and match up hypothesis (Moraes et al., 2019). Actually,
source attractiveness link to celebrities’ physical attractiveness and other factors, such as
likability (Moraes et al., 2019). Tangen and Temperley (2006) refers to the credibility through
trustworthiness and expertise. Trustworthiness highlights on the audiences’ honesty given to
famous people and expertise is the level of their authority involved in endorsed products
(Moraes et al., 2019). Match up hypothesis refers to the congruence between celebrity and
product (Moraes et al., 2019). If marketers choose celebrity not matching with their product,
“vampire effect” can make customers remember celebrity, not product (Yang, 2018). Young
customers from 16 to 24 years old also affect to the way marketers promote their products.
Spero and Stone (2015) stated that teenagers are regarded as modern authority about
technology and marketers must communicate to them through digital channels to create
emotion between their life-style and products. Therefore, customer endorsement is also a tool
helping marketers connect to young customers through social media.
2.2. Research fit and research questions.
The previous researchs mainly focused on the celebrity-product relationship and they
ignored the important of celebrity-customer layout (Choi and Rifon, 2016). Besides, Moraes
et al. (2019) stated that the relationship between celebrity and customer through social media
is also under-researched. They also confirmed that the degree of this influence needs the
answers in future researchs.
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Food and beverage become the competitive industry when the number of competitors increase
and they use more digital channels to brand name, marketers also consider about using
celebrity’s image to promote their products. This study will base on the Pepsi’s
advertisements on social media such as Youtube, using celebrities to explore the effectiveness
of celebrity endorsement to adolescent purchase intention.
This project will contribute to reaffirm the elements in celebrity source model affected
to customer purchase intention towards advertisements on social media and their application
in the case study of Pepsi through main research questions:
● What are the factors of celebrity endorsement affecting to young customer buying
intention through Pepsi’s advertisement in Ho Chi Minh city?
● In what level the impact of each factor on teenager purchase intention toward soft
drink “Pepsi” through their advertisement in Ho Chi Minh city?
Theoretical framework for hypotheses is built:
Physical attractiveness
Celebrity credibility
H2
Customer purchase intention
Celebrity congruence
Hypotheses:
H1: The physical attractiveness of celebrity endorsement through advertising positively
impacts young customers' purchase intention towards Pepsi beverage in Ho Chi Minh city.
H2: The credibility of celebrity endorsement through advertising positively impacts young
customers' purchase intention towards Pepsi beverage in Ho Chi Minh city.
H3: The congruence of celebrity endorsement through advertising positively impacts on
young customers' purchase intention towards Pepsi beverage in Ho Chi Minh city.
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3. Methodology
3.1. Identification of paradigm
This study uses the elements from the prior researchers to build hypothesis model and
test them again in different contexts, typically the case of soft drink “Pepsi” in Ho Chi Minh
city is used for testing. Besides, concepts are covered from academic papers and focused on
facts. Therefore, the model is developed from the positivism method.
3.2. Justification for choice of methodology and methods
While the quantitative method uses numbers and statistics to create measures for
comparison or ranking (Thamhain, 2014), the qualitative method uses non-numeric data such
as observations, thoughts to make judgements about problems. One of the purposes in this
study is to determine the ranking of factors to assess the impact of celebrity endorsement to
customer’s intention, and using the surveys is helpful to approach a large sample size and test
the theoretical framework. Therefore, a quantitative method is applied in this research.
Similar to others, this research uses secondary data from reliable sources for the purposes of
understanding concepts and having a model to conduct experiments in different situations.
Primary data are collected from respondent’s opinions to confirm the purposes of the topic.
To complete objectives, data would be collected in Ho Chi Minh city after Tet holiday
because this city is one of two largest cities in Vietnam and Tet holiday is the opportunity for
customers to buy lots of beverages. To verify the validity and reliability of hypotheses,
questionnaires are designed by the paper and electronic form, the data is collected through
offline locations and online channels. Therefore, respondents will be asked for questionnaires
through social media “Facebook” and some locations such as International university or
supermarkets such as Vinmart, where there are more young people drinking and buying Pepsi.
Some problems can occur when participants do not have real experiences about celebrities or
products. Hence, these answers will be omitted by asking them about these problems before
they answer main questions. Moreover, SPSS software with Exploratory and Confirmatory
Factor Analysis is used to explain variances and validate the measures. Besides, the SEM
model is used to test the model and omit measurement problems.
3.3. Scope of research
Sample size for this study is young people, aging from 15 to 24 years old in Ho Chi
Minh city. The research would analyze the factors and impacts of celebrity endorsement on
their buying intention in the case of Pepsi.
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3.4. Research limitations
The majority of this research involved scope because it is conducted in Ho Chi Minh
city and this study cannot give accurate conclusions for any broad geography areas. Therefore,
they just explain partly the effects of customer endorsement and its factors.
3.5. Ethical issues
To avoid the ethical issues such as plagiarism, secondary data from previous journals,
articles will be cited clearly and transparently with the list of references. Besides, this study
will research based on voluntary young customers’ opinion through surveys, not research on
vulnerable groups as children or sensitive problems as the part of the body.
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4. Timetables and expected outcomes
Duration of business project: 6 months (1/12/2020 – 29/04/2021)
Timetable for expected outcomes:
Time Nov
Activities
7th
Dec
1st
Dec 15th Jan
Jan
Jan
Feb
Feb
April
14th
21th
25th
5th
26th
29th
Choose issue
Decide the
topic
Write proposal
Submit
proposal
Design
questionnaire
Plot test
questionnaire
Deliver surveys
Collect and
analyze data
Write project
Submit project
This study expects to get outcomes about utilizing data from surveys and giving accurate
findings and conclusions in the chosen context. Besides, achieving objectives and testing
model are also hopeful to complete.
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o REFERENCES
● Adewale, G.A., Hameed, O.G. and Moshood, M. (2019) Influence of celebrity
endorsement on customer patronage of soft drink: A study of Pepsi ‘long throat’ bottle
advertisement. Hallmark University Journal of Management and Social Sciences. 1
(2), pp. 38 - 48.
● Moraes, M., Gountas, J., Gountas, S. and Sharma, P. (2019) Celebrity influences on
consumer decision making: New insights and research directions. Journal of
Marketing Management. 35 (13-14), pp. 1159-1192.
● Rojek, C. (2015) Celebrity. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and
Consumer Studies. Available from:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs036
● Choi, S.M. and Rifon, N.J. (2007) Who is the celebrity in advertising? Understanding
dimensions of celebrity images. The journal of popular Culture. 40 (2), pp. 304-324.
● Ebhote, O. and Odia E. (2019) Celebrity Endorsement and Consumer Purchase
Demeanor in Benin City. Journal of Marketing and Information Systems. 1 (3), pp. 1825.
● Silvera, D.H., and Austad, B. (2004) Factors predicting the effectiveness of celebrity
endorsement advertisements. European Journal of marketing. 38 (11/12), pp. 15091526.
● Ogunsiji, A.S. (2012) The impact of celebrity endorsement on strategic brand
management. International journal of business and social science. 3 (6), pp. 141-145.
● Ahmed, R.R., Seedani, S.K., Ahuja, M.K. and Paryani, S.K. (2015) Impact of
Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behavior. SSRN Electronic Journal
[online]. Available from:
http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2666148doi:10.2139/ssrn.2666148.
● Abimbola, T., Lim, M., Halonen‐Knight, E. and Hurmerinta, L. (2010) Who endorses
whom? Meanings transfer in celebrity endorsement. Journal of Product & Brand
Management. 19 (6), pp. 452-460.
● Yang, W. (2018) Star power: the evolution of celebrity endorsement
research. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 30 (1), pp.
389-415.
● van der Veen, R. (2008) Analysis of the implementation of celebrity endorsement as a
destination marketing instrument. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 24 (2-3),
pp. 213-222.
● Temperley, J. and Tangen, D. (2006) The Pinocchio factor in consumer attitudes
towards celebrity endorsement: Celebrity endorsement, the Reebok brand, and an
examination of a recent campaign. Innovative Marketing. 2 (3), pp. 97-111.
● Thamhain, H.J. (2014) Assessing the effectiveness of quantitative and qualitative
methods for R&D project proposal evaluations. Engineering Management Journal. 26
(3), pp. 3-12.
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● Spero, I., and Stone, M. (2004) Agents of change: how young consumers are changing
the world of marketing. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal. 7 (2),
pp. 153-159.
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