Journal of Global Marketing, 27:128–143, 2014

Copyright c Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0891-1762 print / 1528-6975 online
DOI: 10.1080/08911762.2013.864374

Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots

on Consumer Buying Behavior
Garima Malik
Abhinav Guptha

ABSTRACT. Celebrity and brand mascot endorsements are very popular and often-used techniques
by marketers. Marketers believe that celebrity and brand mascot endorsements provide a higher degree
of appeal, attention, and customer recall ability compared with when this technique is not used.
Marketers also claim that a celebrity affects the credibility of claims about a product and increases the
memorabilia factor of the message, which may provide a positive effect that could be generalized to
the brand. Primarily this essay has been designed such that it examines various parameters related to
advertisements containing celebrity and brand mascot endorsements. Data were been collected from
150 respondents through questionnaire and subjected to t test, χ 2 test, and difference of means test to
enforce the hypotheses that celebrity endorsements have impacts on customers’ perceptions and their
purchase intentions. The findings of this study provide insights for marketing and brand managers to
design and market their campaigns effectively.

KEYWORDS. Celebrity endorsement, physical attractiveness, source credibility, congruence, cus-

tomer purchase intention, customer attitude

INTRODUCTION egories. Celebrity endorsement acts as a credi-

ble means of spending money for the brand, as
The use of celebrities and brand mascots in the consumer immediately associates with the
advertisements and promotion campaigns is one product and differentiates the endorsed brand
of the topical strategies of many brands; the pur- from the given variety. This could be for rea-
pose of such use may be to get attention from sons of social standing: people want to wear
the target audience, to obtain easy acceptabil- the “right” clothes, drink the “right” beverages,
ity of the products and prolonged association, and use the “right” fragrances. As per the con-
or for the purpose of recall. This study pur- sumer’s perception, an endorsed product would
ports to consider the importance of celebrities have higher purchase value than its counterpart
and brand mascots and will analyze the im- (Clark & Horstman, 2003). Celebrity endorse-
pact of celebrities in influencing consumers to ment is more likely to be observed for products
make purchases from the various product cat- with a high price–production cost margin and

Garima Malik is an assistant professor associated with Amity Business School, Noida, India. Abhinav
Guptha is an assistant manager-branding at National Payments Corporation in Mumbai, India.
Address correspondence to Dr. Garima Malik, c/o Prince Malik, No. 25, Sector 16-A, Noida, Uttar-Pradesh,
India 201301. Email: [email protected]

128
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 129

with a large customer base. In short, celebrity en- TABLE 1. Valuable Factors That Influence
dorsements are more typical for nationally mar- Purchasing Decisions
keted products than they are for local or niche
market products and are more typical for prod- N Mean SD
ucts such as running shoes, soft drinks, and other
products for which the price–cost margins are Price of the product 150 2.38 1.028
Celebrity endorsement 150 3.04 1.029
large. Quality of product 150 1.83 1.085
There is a tremendous impact of celebrity tele- Value for money 150 2.29 1.102
vision endorsements among Indian consumers;
there is a large fan following in India, and
celebrities act as role models for a majority
of Indians (Balakrishnan & Kumar, 2011). In- estimated that one quarter of all advertisements
creasingly, companies prefer to use celebrities use a celebrity spokesperson to endorse a
from different fields in India such as cricket product or brand (Shimp, 1997) to the extent
players, Bollywood celebrities, and other sports that it is a global phenomenon today. This
personalities to endorse their brands. Many com- indicates the validity of this strategy as a means
panies brand mascots to endorse their products, of persuasive communication. Celebrities are
and this strategy is very popular for fast-moving often employed by advertisers to lend their
consumer goods. Marketers spend an enormous personality to a product or brand (Kaikati,
amount of money on celebrity endorsement con- 1987). They have been found to produce more
tracts based on the belief that celebrities are positive responses toward advertising and
effective spokespersons for their products or greater purchase intentions than a noncelebrity
brands (Katayal, 2007). Television has widely endorser (Atkin & Block, 1983; Petty &
penetrated the minds of people from diver- Cacioppo, 1983). Furthermore, McCracken
gent socioeconomic classes. In India, celebrity found that celebrity endorsers represent an
power can rightly be assessed by their successful effective way of transferring meaning to brands.
endorsements; film stars and cricket players From a theoretical perspective, celebrities are
have been successful not only in gathering huge effective endorsers because of their symbolic
public attention but also in increasing com- apparition reference group associations (Assael,
panies’ sales volumes. For example, Cadbury 1984; Solomon & Assael, 1987). Advertisers
and Nestlé used Amitabh Bachchan to promote use celebrities because they heighten the appeal
their brand when it went through a bad phase of advertisements. They are believed to enhance
in India. Soon, the endorsement restored peo- audience attentiveness; make the advertisement
ple’s love for the brand and hence this phe- memorable, credible, and desirable; and add
nomenon increased Cadbury’s and Nestlé’s sales glamour to the product (Spielman, 1981).
(Joshi & Ahluwalia, 2008; Matrade, 2005). Kaikati (1987) enumerates five advantages
Aamir Khan is used by Coca-Cola to com- of employing celebrities to endorse products:
municate to and influence semiurban and ru- drawing attention, crisis management, brand
ral consumers to purchase the brand “Chota repositioning, global marketing, and boosting
Coke.” This celebrity endorsement has also been sales.
quite effective in influencing consumers’ buy-
ing decision. Similarly, various endorsements TABLE 2. Friedman Test
by Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, and
others have been found to be successful in af-
Parameters Mean rank
fecting consumers’ buying decisions (Joshi &
Ahluwalia). Price of the product 2.50
Celebrity endorsement advertising has been Celebrity endorsement 3.13
recognized as a “ubiquitous feature of modern Quality of product 1.96
Value for money 2.41
day marketing” (McCracken, 1989). It has been
130 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

TABLE 3. Factors That Influence Purchases of party endorsement, hence, may be perceived as
Personal and Food Products a signal of product quality. Results clearly in-
dicated the main effects for both endorsement
Brand name Celebrity Quality Cost and sponsorship cues, with endorsement affect-
ing perceived quality, uniqueness, and esteem
Personal care 1.91 (3) 3.06 (1) 1.90 (4) 2.60 (2) and sponsorship affecting only citizenship. The
Food products 2.48 (2) 2.93 (1) 1.75 (4) 2.45 (3)
popularity cue lacks a significant main effect;
Note. Values in parentheses show mean. the three cues do not significantly interact with
each other.
Goldsmith et al. (2000) assessed the impact
This study has been divided into two sec- of endorser and corporate credibility on attitude-
tions. First, the literature review related to the toward-the-advertisement, attitude-toward-the-
topic is provided. Then the database and re- brand, and purchase intentions. One hundred
search methodology designed for the study are fifty-two adult consumers who viewed a fic-
described, and the detailed results of the survey titious advertisement for Mobil Oil Company
with respect to influence of celebrity and brand were surveyed. They rated the credibility of the
mascots on buying behavior of customers are advertisement’s endorser, the credibility of the
presented. The conclusions follow. company, and attitude toward the advertisement,
attitude toward the brand, and purchase inten-
tions. It was observed that endorser credibility
LITERATURE REVIEW had its strongest impact on attitude toward the
advertisement, while corporate credibility had
Trip and Carlson (1994) studied the ef- its strongest impact on attitude toward the brand.
fects of multiple product endorsement by The findings suggest that corporate credibility
celebrities on attitudes and intentions of cus- plays an important role in consumers’ reactions
tomers. His study revealed the number of to advertisements and brands, independent of
products a celebrity endorses negatively in- the equally important role of endorser credibil-
fluences consumer perception of the en- ity. Daneshvary and Schwer (2000) determined
dorser and the advertising itself. It was that credibility of the source is considered im-
suggested that when as many as four products portant in influence acceptance. A consumer will
are endorsed, celebrity credibility and likability, accept the accurate influence (information) and
as well as attitude toward the advertisement, may apply it if the source is perceived to be credible.
attenuate. Mathur, Mathur, and Rangan (1997) Therefore, a product’s endorsement by a credi-
show that the anticipation of Michael Jordan’s ble source may impact purchase behavior. Zafer
return to NBA and the related increased vis- et al. (2001) found that some viewers forget the
ibility for him resulted in an increase in the brand that a celebrity approves; other viewers are
market-adjusted values of his client firms of so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity
almost 2%, or more than $1 billion in stock that they completely fail to notice the brand be-
market value. From this study, one can observe ing advertised. Sanyukta et al. (2005) studied
that the major celebrity endorser with a gossip- the positive and negative aspects of celebrity ap-
centered personality has tremendous potential to proval of a brand and found that approval of a
influence the profitability of endorsed products. brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that
Dean (1999) studied the effects of three extrin- brand among the target audience. This is espe-
sic advertisement cues (i.e., third party endorse- cially true in the case of new products.
ment, event sponsorship, and brand popularity) Celebrities ensure the attention of the target
on brand and manufacturer evaluation and ob- group by breaking through the clutter of ad-
served that endorsement significantly affected vertisements and making the advertisement and
only product variables (quality and uniqueness) the brand more noticeable. On the negative side
and one image variable (esteem). The third- is the extreme use of a celebrity, called “lazy
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 131

FIGURE 1. Type of Celebrity (color figure available online).

advertising,” which refers to inadequate content with three tarnished celebrities: Mike Tyson,
masked by the use of a celebrity. There is also the Madonna, and Michael Jackson) suggest that
fear of brand–celebrity disconnect, which points celebrity endorsers may at times become lia-
out that if the celebrity represents values that bilities to the brands they endorse. Observa-
conflict with the brand values, the advertising tion reveals an increase in the use of animated
would create conflict in the minds of the target characters as product endorsers. It was deter-
audience. Agarwal et al. (2005) defined brand mined that 28% of animated advertisements con-
attitude as consumers’ general evaluative judg- tained cartoon-character celebrities such as Bugs
ment of a brand based on brand beliefs. Such Bunny and Mickey Mouse as these characters are
beliefs concern product-related attributes, like generally immune to negative publicity.
practical and experimental benefits. A success-
ful endorser is able to enhance intentions and
preferences toward brands directly or indirectly.
Surana (2008) revealed that some properties, RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
such as likability, expertise, trustworthiness, and
similarity, cause a celebrity endorser to become • To study the degree to which con-
a source of persuasive information, and this cre- sumers’ purchasing decision is influ-
ates a sense of certainty. enced by celebrity endorsements and brand
Shimp (1998) examines the impact that nega- mascots.
tive information about a celebrity might have on
consumer evaluations of endorsed brands. Prac-
titioners hope their target audience’s positive
TABLE 4. Attributes of Celebrity
feelings toward a chosen celebrity will transfer
to the endorsed brand or will otherwise enhance
the brand’s standing. N Mean SD SEM
What happens if either during or after an ad- Attractiveness of celebrity 150 2.99 1.093 0.089
vertising campaign negative information about Trustworthiness of celebrity 150 3.47 1.041 0.085
the celebrity becomes public? Widely publicized Expertise of celebrity 150 3.36 1.038 0.085
incidents (e.g., Pepsi Cola’s series of debacles
132 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

TABLE 5. DOM Test 1 TABLE 7. DOM Test 2

Sum of Mean Sum of Mean

squares df squared F Sig. Model squares df squared F Sig.

Attractiveness of Regression 19.162 3 6.387 16.490 .000∗

celebrity Residual 38.347 99 .387
Between groups 35.285 28 1.260 Total 57.510 102
Within groups 59.058 74 0.798 1.579 .062
∗
Total 94.342 102 Predictors: (constants) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness
Trustworthiness of of celebrity, expertise of celebrity.
celebrity
Between groups 63.714 28 2.275
Within groups 71.700 74 0.969 2.348 .002
Total 135.414 102
Expertise of celebrity
questionnaires (Appendix 1) were pretested on
Between groups 54.528 28 1.947 20 respondents, and minor changes have been
Within groups 32.969 74 0.446 4.371 .000 incorporated in the questionnaire. Further, the
Total 87.497 102 data have been categorized into two parts: pri-
Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention. mary data (collected through questionnaires) and
secondary data (collected with the help of news-
papers, magazines, and various other journals)
• To ascertain which of the two has a greater for statistical analysis. The primary instrument
impact on consumer: celebrities or brand for data collection questionnaire consisted of
mascots. ordinal-scale questions to determine the prior-
• To study how the image of the celebrity can ity of each item among the group of items
influence the brand image. (1 being the best rank and 4 being the least);
later, an interval scale was used in a Likert-type
scale to extract data with magnitude and a nom-
RESEARCH DESIGN inal scale was used to store demographics of the
respondents. The primary data were analyzed us-
The research methodology for the present ing SPSS software and were depicted using bar
study was based on descriptive research design. charts, pie charts, χ 2, t test tables, etc.
Stratified nonprobability sampling method was
used, which involves the sample being drawn
from that part of the population that is close at DATA ANALYSIS
hand. In this study, the target populations were
men and women of 20 to 40 years old. The Most Valuable Factor Rated by
researcher collected responses from 150 respon- Respondents for Purchasing Product
dents from the Northern Capital Region of In-
dia during January–February 2013. In the re- In this question, respondents were asked
search process, first, respondents were made about the factors that influence the purchasing
aware of the purpose of study, and then they were behavior (given in Table 1). Ranks had been
requested to give their unbiased responses. The given by the respondents on the basis of the
importance of factors to know the priority of
each item among the group (1 being the best
TABLE 6. Regression Model Summary rank and 4 being the least).
On applying the Friedman test (Table 2), it is
Model R R2 Adjusted R 2 SEE clear that celebrity endorsement is most valuable
and influential to customers when it comes to
1 0.577∗ 0.333 0.313 0.62237 purchasing a product, followed immediately by
∗
Predictors: (constants) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness the “price of the product,” “value for money,”
of celebrity, expertise of celebrity. and then “quality of product.”
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 133

TABLE 8. Coefficients

Unstandardized
Model coefficients Standardized coefficients t Sig.

(Constant) 2.026 0.439 4.620 .000

attractiveness of celebrity, 0.039 0.072 0.050 0.543 .588
trustworthiness of 0.183 0.061 0.280 3.011 .003
celebrity,
Expertise of celebrity 0.320 0.072 0.395 4.464 .000

Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention.

Factors That Most Persuade You to considered genuine because of their winning
Purchase Personal and Food Products personalities. There are other famous person-
alities like television stars or famous writers or
Respondents were asked to rank the factors singers who also sometimes influence people’s
according to their importance when purchasing purchasing intent. Politicians possess a negligi-
the various categories of products. ble share.
Table 3 clearly shows the factors that were
ranked on the basis of mean, from which we can Attributes of Celebrity That Influence
clearly ascertain that celebrity has a major role to
Purchase Intention Toward a
play in persuading people to purchase personal
care items. Followed by celebrity, it is the cost Celebrity-endorsed Brand
factor that most influences purchase decision. For further analysis, the respondents were
Brand name is rated as the third most important asked to give their responses on the at-
factor, followed by quality.
For food products, the factors were ranked,
from which we can clearly ascertain that TABLE 9. Believes Celebrity Endorsements
celebrity has a major role to play in persuad-
ing people to purchase food products. Followed
N Mean SD SEM
by celebrity, it is the attractive packaging that
most influences purchase decision. Cost is rated Easily influenced by a 150 2.69 0.970 0.079
as the third most important factor, followed by celebrity endorser
when you purchase
quality.
a celebrity-
endorsed brand
Ever considered 150 2.67 1.240 0.101
Type of Celebrity Endorsement That purchasing a new
Most Persuades You product just
because of the
A question was asked about the type of presence of a
celebrity you liked.
celebrity the respondents would like to see most Believe products 150 2.84 0.984 0.080
to endorse the product. specifically
Figure 1 shows that more than half of re- advertised by the
spondents said that film stars are most persua- celebrities are of
good quality.
sive of all the types of celebrities. Around 24% Believe the celebrities 150 2.25 1.029 .084
believe that sportspersons are most persuasive; also use those
this is perhaps because sportspersons, especially products which they
cricket players, are personalities that people tend themselves
endorse.
to look up to and, hence, their opinions are
134 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

TABLE 10. The t Test

Test value = 4
95% CI of the
difference
t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean difference Lower Upper

Easily influenced by a celebrity −16.578 149 .000 −1.313 −1.47 −1.16

endorser when you purchase a
celebrity-endorsed brand
Ever considered purchasing a −13.107 149 .000 −1.327 −1.53 −1.13
new product just because of
the presence of a celebrity you
liked
Believe products specifically −14.444 149 .000 −1.160 −1.32 −1.00
advertised by the celebrities
are of good quality
Believe the celebrities also use −20.862 149 .000 −1.753 −1.92 −1.59
those products that they
endorse

tributes related to celebrities, like the attrac- level of less than 5%, implying that both are
tiveness of a celebrity, the trustworthiness of significant. “Attractiveness of celebrity” is just
a celebrity, and the expertise of a celebrity above 5%, thereby implying that it is not that
(Table 4). insignificant. The results are insignificant for
Difference of means (DOM) was imple- DOM for purchase intention. The F statistic also
mented to observe significant differences be- confirms this insignificance because all observed
tween the means of the variables. The results F values are less than the critical F value of 2.76.
in Table 5 for “Trustworthiness of celebrity” H0 (Null Hyphothesis): Attractiveness of
and “Expertise of celebrity” show a significance celebrity, trustworthiness of celebrity, expertise

FIGURE 2. How Often Do Brand Mascots Influence You? (color figure available online).
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 135

TABLE 11. Attributes in Brand Mascots That TABLE 13. The χ2 Test
Influence Purchase Decisions
χ2 0.107a
Parameters N Mean SD df 1
Asymp. sig. .744
Friendliness 150 2.55 1.235
Uniqueness 150 2.45 1.108
Humor 150 2.39 1.128
Emotional touch 150 3.01 1.144
Trustworthy 150 2.61 1.335 ing the t test to responses to four statements.
Loyalty 150 2.48 1.294 It was found that the significance value for
Attractiveness 150 2.73 1.262 all is .000, which is less than .05 and, hence,
the null hypothesis is rejected and H1 is ac-
cepted (i.e., Celebrity endorsers has a signif-
of celebrity do not highly intend customer to icant impact on the consumers’ mind and al-
purchase advertised products. ways received special attention from them)
Tables 6, 7, and 8 show the results of regres- (Table 10).
sion testing, where the values to be considered It was ascertained that 69% of respondents
are R2 values, referring to the fitness of model say they are only sometimes influenced by brand
and the explanatory power of the model. The mascots, around 25% said that they are never
model has 34% explanatory power of the de- influenced, and the remaining 6% said that
pendent variable. Because the significance value they are always influenced by brand mascots
is .000, which is less than .5, the null hypoth- (Figure 2).
esis, H0, is rejected and the alternative hypoth-
esis, H1, is accepted. The attractiveness of the Important Attributes of Brand Mascots
celebrity, the trustworthiness of the celebrity, and
Respondents were asked whether they are in-
the expertise of celebrity endorser have signifi-
fluenced by the brand mascots, and their re-
cant impacts on consumers’ buying decisions.
sponses were “always,” “sometimes,” or “never.”
From Table 11, we can deduce that it is the
Believes Celebrity Endorsement emotional touch feature of brand mascots that
is the most important influence on a person’s
Respondents were asked to rank the state- purchase decision. Attractiveness, trustworthy,
ments according to their perceptions of what they friendliness, and uniqueness are other features
think about the advertisment and products that that influence purchase decisions.
are endorsed by the celebrities (Table 9).
Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot
H0: Respondents do not pay special attention
to advertisements and products that are en- In this question, respondents were asked to
dorsed by celebrities. compare the celebrity and brand mascot and
asked to give a response regarding their pref-
Responses were collected for four statements erence.
through the use of Likert-type scales, apply-
H0: Celebrity endorsers are not more influen-
TABLE 12. Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot
tial than brand mascots.

Observed N Expected N Residual

On the basis of χ 2 test, because the sig-
nificance value is .744, which is greater than
Celebrity 73 75.0 −2.0 .05, the null hypothesis is accepted. Celebrity
Brand mascot 77 75.0 2.0 endorsers are not more influential than brand
Total 150
mascots.
136 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

FIGURE 3. Descriptive Statistics on Brand Mascot (color figure available online).

Various brand mascots influenced the pur- Coco Monkey and Kraft’s Tiger stand in the aver-
chasing decision of cutomers: Respondents were age position, which basically indicates that these
asked to rate brand mascots according to their mascots have low recall value.
influential power (Tables 12 and 13). Regarding the television channel that most in-
Figure 3 clearly shows that Amul’s polka- fluences purchase intentions, respondents were
dotted girl, 7 Up’s Fido Dido, Parle Agro’s asked to give their responses concerning broad-
Hippo, and Pillsbury’s Doughboy have had a cast medium. According to the survey, televi-
high level of influence on people’s purchasing sion is the most influential medium, followed
decisions.This indicates that these four mascots by newspaper, Internet, magazines, and social
most certainly have high recall value. Kellogg’s network (Figure 4).

FIGURE 4. Demographics on Broadcasting Medium (color figure available online).

 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 137

CONCLUSIONS (product of Pepsi Co.) over “Maaza” (prod-

uct of Coca-Cola).
Through this research, an attempt has been • Celebrity-endorsed products are given
made to draw some conclusions from the survey leverage over other products that have no
concerning celebrity endorsements and brand celebrity name attached to it. People tend
mascots and their impacts on the purchasing be- to believe that a product that is endorsed
havior of customers. by a celebrity is of good quality. In fact,
to be accepted by the people and for sur-
Celebrity Endorser vival in the marketplace, almost all com-
panies are spending huge sum of money
The study determined that a celebrity en- to get the right celebrity to endorse their
dorser plays a significant role in persuading peo- brands.
ple in both the personal care products and food • It was ascertained in the study that
products categories. Celebrity endorsers play the even though people consider a celebrity-
role of “initiator” and “influencer” in the con- endorsed brand as a “better” brand, a
sumer’s buying process; they create awareness large number of people are not really sure
and develop the interest of the people in the that celebrities use the products that they
brand and enable product association. When we endorse. This could perhaps be because
discuss types of celebrities, film stars are the of multibrand endorsement by the same
most preferred ones; film stars like Shah Rukh celebrities.
Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Katrina Kaif have
amazing persuasive power, and companies spend Brand Mascots
huge amounts to make use of this power. For ex-
ample, Katrina Kaif is a celebrity endorser of The following are some key features of brand
Pepsi Co.’s “Slice,” Juhi Chawla is the celebrity mascots, in order of importance, that have an
endorser of Kurkure. Many people also consider impact on consumers’ buying behaviors. This
sportspeople to be more persuasive because cus- has been deduced from the responses to the
tomers tend to look up to them and their opinions survey.
are considered genuine because of their winning
personalities. Among sportspeople, cricket play- 1. Emotional touch
ers are undoubtedly the most influential in In- 2. Attractiveness
dia. Boost, a health drink brand, has been using 3. Trustworthiness
cricket players as celebrity endorsers to promote 4. Friendliness
the brand. 5. Loyalty
The charisma of celebrity almost always en- 6. Uniqueness
tices people and their words are worshipped by 7. Humor
many.
A strong brand mascot is more successful
• The trustworthiness of a celebrity is the than celebrities.
most important and necessary feature of
the celebrity. A trustworthy celebrity can It is observed that the popularity of any mas-
develop people’s faith in the brand. For cot not only is based on the response they ob-
instance, because of her trustworthy im- tain but also depends on the fact that they have a
age, Aishwarya Rai, the celebrity endorser higher recall value. The strength of mascots basi-
of L’Oreal products in India, convinces cally lies in its uniqueness and its power of effec-
women that L’Oreal products are the best. tively communicating the ethos of the brand. The
• People also sometimes purchase certain utterly, butterly delicious Amul girl in polka dots
products if they are endorsed by a celebrity born in 1967 is the best proof of mascot brand
of their liking. For example, a fan of recall lasting years or even decades. Celebrities
Katrina Kaif is likely to purchase “Slice” become associated with too many products and
138 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

therefore it is difficult to relate them to one par- There had been a decline in the use of mascots
ticular brand, which is not the case with the due to the sudden blast of celebrity endorsement
mascots. For example, Shah Rukh Khan en- in the past few years. But now the Indian market,
dorses brands such as Pepsi, Airtel, Santro, which is saturated with celebrity endorsements,
Emami, and many more, but Fido is associated has seen emergence of the mascots, and it is in
with just 7 Up. Brand mascots are loyal to the the hands of the companies to use this situation
brand. The impact and success of the mascot in the most beneficial way.
depend on how effectively it conveys the brand
values and the ideals that consumers would as-
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140 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

APPENDIX 1. QUESTIONNAIRE
1) What do you value the most when purchasing a product? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest and 4 being
the lowest rank)

Price of the product 

Celebrity endorsement 
Quality of the product 
Value for money 

2) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase personal care items? please rank 1 to 4, with 1
being the highest and 4 being the lowest rank)

Brand 
name
Celebrity 
Quality 
Cost 

3) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase food products? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the
highest and 4 being the lowest rank)

Celebrity 
Attractive package 
Quality 
Brand name 

4) What type of celebrity endorsement persuades you personally to purchase products?

Film star  Sportsperson  Politician  Famous personality 
5) To what extent do the following variables influence your purchase intention toward a celebrity endorsed brand?
(please check)

Very low Low Average High Very high

Attractiveness of
the celebrity
Trustworthiness of
the celebrity
Expertise of the
celebrity
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 141

Please answer the following questions (please check)

Strongly Strongly
disagree Disagree Average Agree agree

6) Are you easily influenced by the

celebrity endorser when you
purchase a celebrity-endorsed
brand?
7) Have you ever considered
purchasing a new product just
because of the presence of a
celebrity you liked?
8) Do you believe products specifically
advertised by the celebrities are of
good quality?
9) Do you believe the celebrities also
use those products that they
endorse?
10) If the reputation of the celebrity
degrades, does the reputation of the
brand also degrade?
11) Would multibrand endorsements by
the same celebrity lead to
overexposure?
12) Does inconsistency in the
professional popularity of the
celebrity lead to negative impact on
brand?

13) Do brand mascots influence your purchasing decision?

Always  Sometimes  Never 

14) What is the most persuasive feature in brand mascots that make you purchase products? (please rank 1 to 5, with
1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest rank)

Feature 1 2 3 4 5

Friendliness
Uniqueness
Humor
Emotional touch
Loyalty
Trustworthy
Attractiveness

15) Of the two, what influences your purchase decision more? (please check)

Celebrities  Brand  mascots 

142 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

16) To what extent have the following brand mascots influenced your purchasing decision?

Brand mascot Very low Low Average High Very high

Polka Dress Girl–Amul

Fido Dido – 7 Up

Hippo – Parle Agro

Coco Monkey – Kellogg’s

(Continued on next page)
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 143

Very
Brand mascot Very low Low Average High high

Doughboy – Pillsbury

Tiger – Tiger Biscuits – Kraft

17) What channel most influences your purchase intentions?

Television  Radio  Newspaper 

Magazines  Internet  Movie 
Social network‘ 

Personal Details

Name: 
Gender: Male  Female 
Age:
20–25 
26–30 
31–35 
36–40 
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