Business Research proposal and Questionnaire Essay

Business Research proposal and Questionnaire - Essay Example Companies usually use talent – movie actors, models, athletes or famous people for endorsement (Bergestrà ¶m & Skà ¤rfstad, 2004). Not just the large firms, even smaller companies with limited budget use sports and athletes to promote their products. I will look into the benefits that companies derive from such endorsement. A celebrity is defined as "an individual who is known to the public (i.e., actor, sports figure, entertainer, etc.) for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed" (cf., Friedman and Friedman 1979 cited by Kamins, Brand, Hoeke & Moe, 1989). Celebrities exert their influence on the consumers through perceived attributes such as expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, familiarity, and likeability and hence celebrity endorsement becomes more attractive when images or the characteristics of the celebrity match the endorsed product (Choi, Lee & Kim 2005). The use of celebrities for product endorsement was on the rise in the late 1970s. While it was estimated that 15 percent of prime time television commercials featured celebrities in 1975, by 1978 it was reported to be over 20 percent (Kamins, Brand, Hoeke & Moe, 1989). On the other hand, according to a report published in Campaign (2007) a survey revealed that only 16 percent of the people would buy products that had celebrity endorsement. Since 2001 the number of television ads featuring celebrities has been steadily increasing as the budgets have tightened and researchers not sure to what extent celebrities make a difference to the sales. Marketing Week (2006) suggests that when celebrities are used to endorse a product, people quickly forget the product that has been endorsed and the celebrity becomes the focus of attention while ECM (2007) suggests celebrity trend is already weakening in the US. Cross-cultural studies also suggest that celebrities with worldwide recognition in advertising is an effective means of