The influence of celebrity endorsement on consumers' view of fashion products and purchase intention

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Authors
Chen, Chih-Yu
Advisor
Harden, Amy J.
Issue Date
2019-07-20
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (M.S.)
Department
Department of Applied Business Studies
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Abstract

Celebrity endorsements are a powerful form of advertising. In the fashion products world, many companies utilize celebrities to generate more sales. The main question becomes: Do celebrity endorsements influence consumers’ attitudes toward their view of a fashion product or their desire for the product? This study aims to assess the influence of celebrity endorsements on a consumers’ view of fashion products and their intention to purchase. The diffusion theory is one framework that can help add context to the effect celebrity endorsements can have by outlining the stages consumers go through during an adoption process. In order to collect data, a questionnaire was sent to participants who were currently enrolled college students and over the age of 18. They had three weeks to complete the Qualtrics survey, and the total valid sample size remaining to analyze was 140 (n=140). The results show that participants indicated that their desirability of a product is not linked to any celebrity endorsement. However, they indicated that they believe that celebrities' negative behavior in public would influence their view of the product endorsed by those celebrities. Participants also indicated that their ability to remember a fashion product would be improved when a celebrity endorses the product, and they would not purchase an endorsed fashion product for the purpose of fitting into social groups. People with different gender, age and ethnicity were not significantly different in their beliefs on how celebrity endorsements affected their intention to purchase the fashion product. The results indicated that consumers believed there would be no change to their perception of the product having more relative advantages because it was endorsed by a celebrity. Consumers also believed there would be no change to their perception of the fashion product endorsed by a celebrity helping them fit into a social group. They also noted a celebrity endorsed fashion product does not change their perception of product complexity. Lastly, consumers reported that they were not more likely to want a fashion product because it was endorsed by a celebrity. There were some limitations in this study that need to be considered such as biased feedback because the survey was asking questions about what participants believed they would do, rather than actual observed behavior.

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