CHAPTER II
LITERATURE
This chapter demonstrate the background information of cosmetic product,
celebrity endorsement, the impact of celebrity endorsements on consumer purchasing,
the determinants of consumer purchasing intention, empirical reviews and conceptual
framework of the study.
2.1 Cosmetic Product
The FDA, which oversees cosmetic regulations in the US, describes cosmetics
as goods that are "intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing,
beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the
body's structure or functions." Cosmetics are primarily employed to achieve three
goals: to improve or modify nature; to mask fundamental faults; and to enhance
personal attractiveness through body decorative features (Milstein, Bailey, & Halper,
2001).
According to Kim & Chung (2011), buying personal care items is a way to
satisfy one's need for beauty and maintain one's overall appearance. Therefore,
cosmetics products in this research are scoped only to those cosmetic products in
general perception that are used to satisfy one's need for beauty and appearance
enhancement, namely all kinds of make-up applied to the face, hair, and skin, such as
lipstick, mascara, eye shadow, foundation, brush-on, highlighter, hairstyling products,
perfume, and cologne, including skin-nurturing products like facial and body lotion,
anti-aging or whitening cream, and lotion, while excluding basic personal care
products used for personal hygiene, such as shampoo, soap, and toothpaste, mainly
due to differences in purpose and necessity of use.
2.2 Celebrity Endorsement
Nowadays, marketing campaigns use a celebrity or other well-known person
to support a good or service. Ad stars that have a major effect on society, such as
performers, entertainers, or sportsmen, are called celebrities. Celebrity images have a
favorable impact on customers and can be evaluated depending on how effective and
attractive they are. Numerous factors, such as age, gender, class, status, personality,
and way of life, are associated with each celebrity. Marketers are adamant that
celebrity endorsements provide a host of advantages, including the building of trust,
the attention of customers, and the creation of credibility—all of which contribute to
increased brand sales. Using celebrity endorsements to increase sales and capture
market share is an efficient strategy. With the hope that a well-known face will
increase a product's attractiveness and recognition, this strategy provides the product
with an attraction (Emonena & Christopher, 2023). There are numerous approaches to
using celebrities as endorsers. These include public appearances, social media posts,
print ads, web campaigns, and television commercials. Sales, customer impressions,
and brand visibility can all be considerably affected by these endorsements.
Additionally, they may provide marketers with entry to the celebrity's fan base, which
can be a very large market.
There are three ways that celebrities could influence consumers: through
identification, internalization, and compliance. When someone is influenced by
another person or group in the hopes of getting a positive response from them,
compliance may result. Adopting a behavior from a different person or group might
result in identification. This behavior is linked to a satisfying self-definition; the
person feels drawn by wanting to fit in with everyone else, leading the buyer to
believe that the product will have a celebrity-like appearance if purchased.
Internalization can happen when someone is influenced by a behavior that is induced
and is satisfied with its value.
Celebrities serve as brand ambassadors in addition to their various forms of
support, which help to increase the credibility and effectiveness of advertising by
communicating with the public. Customers may find it simpler to locate what they
need or want when celebrities endorse or advertise a product. Endorsers, also referred
to as advertising stars, are those who promote products. When a celebrity endorses a
product, they take on the role of spokesperson and lend their popularity, charisma, and
social standing to the company. Thus, this endorsement affects the product's brand
and has an effect on the community. Nonetheless, the celebrity's popularity,
personality, and standing in society all reflect that influence. Celebrities can make
money off of this endorsement, so to speak. In addition, he works as a sportsman,
entertainer, or actor. Because endorsements affect the brand of products due to the
celebrity's notoriety, they become an added source of income for the main profession.
In the latter plan, endorsers are crucial since they bring customers' attention to their
brand and advertisements. Subsequently, the advertisement endorsed a brand and an
image.
A brand's image in the eyes of consumers is created by endorsers; their
primary responsibility is to foster a positive relationship between themselves and the
things they are endorsing until a favorable consumer view arises. Today, we can sense
endorsement in its presence. Unquestionably, endorsements might be a dependable
advertising tactic for businesspeople on social media due to their extensive promotion.
Celebrity endorsements can raise awareness of a product and draw in customers. Star
endorsements are becoming more common, and this may influence individuals who
are selective to choose things that a star uses. The match-up idea states that for a
celebrity to endorse a product and a consumer to be a good fit, the celebrity, the
product, and the advertising must complement one another. As a result, businesses
look to celebrities to sway consumers' purchasing decisions.
Celebrity endorsers ought to have the ability to market goods that they believe
in, particularly to their fan base. One of the most important marketing mix activities is
promotion. In general, promotion refers to actions taken actively by the business
(seller) to attract customers' interest in purchasing the goods or products it sells. The
term "brand endorser" is used to describe a variety of endorsements, including those
in which a celebrity clearly states that they are endorsing a product, those in which the
celebrity uses an advertised product, and those in which the celebrity encourages
others to use.
An influential factor in sales is a celebrity's popularity. The public will feel
more comfortable with well-known celebrities, and this will have a major impact on
product sales. Another claim is that celebrities need to be capable of product
promotion, which includes introducing, clarifying, encouraging, and motivating belief
in the product's quality.
2.3 The Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on Consumer Purchasing
The internet, one of the most powerful media platforms available today, is
used by businesses in their strong competition to grow their business networks. In
Myanmar, there has been an increase in both economic growth and technological
advancement, leading to the public's preference for online media. When people or
groups select, buy, utilize, or dispose of goods, services, concepts, or experiences to
satisfy their needs and wants, this is referred to as consumer behavior (Solomon et al.,
2006). According to the definition of consumer behavior, the purchasing process
begins in the consumer's mind and proceeds to the identification of substitute products
that have comparable benefits and drawbacks.
Many aspects, including demographics, culture, psychographics (lifestyle),
motivation, personality, reference group, knowledge, perception, beliefs, and
sentiments, all have an impact on consumer behavior. Furthermore, the consumer's
demands and attitudes are formed as a result of all these influencing elements (Khan,
2006). With the several instruments of the marketing mix at their disposal, along with
these influencing elements, marketers create programs that shape consumers' attitudes
and purchasing decisions.
According to Khan (2006), attitude is an informed capacity to consistently
react favorably or unfavorably toward a particular thing. Marketers can use an
attitude's set of indications to forecast future purchases, restructure their marketing
strategies, and improve consumers' attitudes. Attitudes reveal beliefs, emotions, and
planned behavior in response to the presented stimulus. According to Solomon et al.
(2006), an attitude can be classified as broad or permanent based on its tendency to
persist throughout time and apply to more than a single, fleeting incident. Customers
have opinions about both more general consumption-related behaviors and actions
that are highly product-specific. Attitudes influence a person's choice of friends,
music preferences, recycling or can-to-throw policy, and career path—such as going
out with people or working as a consumer researcher. Although attitudes are not
directly observable, they can be deduced from people's actions and words since they
are the result of psychological processes. The idea of attitude toward the commercial
is crucial. It is described as a tendency to react either positively or negatively to a
specific advertising stimulus on a specific exposure occasion.
Business owners utilize social media to market their goods by hiring
celebrities to endorse them. Cosmetic purchases place an emphasis on emotional
connection or engagement, allowing the brand ambassador or character to influence
consumer decisions through cosmetic advertisements. The public's communication or
introduction of a product to a brand is impacted by celebrity endorsements. As
opposed to this, a cosmetic's perception encourages users to apply the product. These
days, products are highly sought after, particularly cosmetics, as more and more
people become conscious of their product consumption.
The decision to buy is made up of five steps: introduction, need analysis,
information search, evaluation of other options, choice to buy, and later. Consumers
will learn about the product by searching social media for information on celebrity
endorsements of the product, which they ultimately decide to purchase. A consumer's
propensity to choose a brand or make a purchase can be obtained by looking at the
probability that they will do so. This tendency is influenced by internal as well as
external variables. The consumer's motivation, perception, feelings, and emotions are
examples of internal elements. Simultaneously, socio-cultural and marketing business
variables constitute external factors. Because celebrity endorsements include
additional information that sways customers' purchasing decisions, there is a
correlation between both of these variables and their intention to buy. Because of the
encouragement of celebrity endorsements that explain a product and make the
consumer's perception of the product needed or sought after and imaginable by
consumers who are obsessed with the celebrity, two internal and external factors are
explained that come from the internal impulses and outside influences that make the
consumer's benchmark for purchasing decisions.
A consumer's decision-making process, sometimes referred to as their
purchase choice or buying decision, is the sequence of events that begins with the
identification of their needs and ends with the fulfillment of those needs. (Violani &
Liswandi, 2016), or the method that customers employ for market exchanges prior to,
during, and following the acquisition of a good or service. (Nicosia, 1966)
Theoretically, there are five forward-moving stages to the purchase choice process:
problem detection, information search, alternative appraisal, buy decision, and
behavior after the purchase. Only stages three (assessment of alternatives) and four
(buy decision) of this theory of the decision-making process are the subject of the
theory, which aims to uncover the factors that influence the evaluation of alternatives
and, ultimately, the purchase choice. In the third step, known as the evaluation of
alternatives, an individual evaluates the data they have gathered and determines which
brand they ultimately prefer based on both endogenous and exogenous criteria.
Concurrently, an intention to buy is generated.
At stage four, known as the buy decision, an individual makes the
commitment to carry out their intended purchase. It is noteworthy, however, that
purchase intention is not regarded as an entirely accurate indicator of actual purchase
behavior because there are two general intervening factors that can occur between the
intention and decision to make a purchase (Keller, Manceau, Hemonnet-Goujot, &
Kotler, 2015). These factors include other people's attitudes, particularly those of
friends, relatives, or family, which may be contrary to the original intention and
decision, and unexpected situational factors like sudden financial constraints, time
constraints, or other emergencies that could arise and alter the purchase intention.
Purchase intention, which is a component of consumer purchasing behavior, is
characterized as a propensity to purchase a particular brand (Belch & Belch, 2003).
The customer may create a purchase intention as a result of the alternative evaluation
stage, but at some point, in the buying process, the consumer must cease looking for
and assessing information about alternative brands in the evoked set and make a
purchase decision. The literature frequently uses purchase intention as a predictor of
future purchases. It is the moment at which a customer's motive, interest, or choice
may be put into practice.
Purchase intentions are typically determined by comparing the reasons for the
purchase with the features or qualities of the brands that are being considered.
Numerous psychological subprocesses, including motivation, perception, attitude
formation, and integration, are involved in their formation. But a buying choice is not
the same as an actual purchase; frequently, there is a lag between the decision to make
a purchase and its completion. A brand's purchasing intentions are determined by the
expectations and considerations of its customers, including information, evaluation,
and interest. External factors that influence purchase intentions include referrals from
others, product features, the process of acquiring information, and marketing
campaigns.
Various studies show that promotional methods have a significant impact on
purchase intention since they have a greater impact on attitude change, which in turn
influences buy intention (Belch & Belch, 2003). It's normal practice to use celebrity
endorsements to sway consumers into buying a product. Shekarchizade and Momeni
(2010) state that it is thought that using celebrities in product advertisements will help
the product get a distinctive look while also having a favorable impact on the attitude
and sales intention of the same.
2.4 Determinants of Consumer Purchasing Intention
Four factors are associated with celebrity endorsements: trustworthiness,
attractiveness, celebrity popularity, and product promotion expertise. Celebrity
popularity has a significant impact on sales. The public will feel more at ease with
well-known celebrities, and this will have a big effect on product sales.
EMPIRICAL REVIEWS
According to Steven J Hoffman and Charlie Tan (2015), fourteen mechanisms
of celebrity influence were identified. According to the economics literature,
celebrities distinguish endorsed items from competitors and can catalyze herd
behavior. Marketing studies tell us that celebrities’ characteristics are transferred to
endorsed products, and that the most successful celebrity advisors are those viewed as
credible, a perception they can create with their success.
Molla Beyene (2019) investigate the effect of celebrity endorsement on
consumers’ purchase intention: the case of commercial bank of Ethiopia. The study
showed that there was positive and statistically significant effect between celebrity
endorsement and intention to purchase. The coefficients of the regression equation
showed the magnitude and direction of the relationship among independent and
dependent variables.
Pan Moh Moh Zin (2020) identify the impact of beauty influencer on
consumer purchase intention towards the natural cosmetic industry in Mandalay
Myanmar. The results of this study have shown that independent variable as expertise,
attractiveness, trustworthiness and eWOM factors do impact on purchasing intentions
as regards the natural cosmetic products illustrated in Mandalay, Myanmar.
Consumers hold mostly positive opinions towards the cosmetic industry with the
majority of beauty influencer approving that they identify and relate to the expertise,
attractiveness, trustworthiness, and eWOM on purchase intention.
Onewo, T et.al (2021) analyzes the effects of celebrity endorsement on
consumer buying behaviour: evidence fromseven-up bottling company plc. The study
found that celebrity endorsements have a significant effect on consumers’ buying
behavior by using regression analysis. Furthermore, the findings of the study revealed
that; celebrity’s trustworthiness and celebrity’s familiarity, has effect on purchase
decision 0.05 level of significance. The study concluded that celebrity endorsement
has positive effect on consumer buying behaviour. It was recommended that
organisations should use celebrities who are perceived to be honest, reliable,
trustworthy dependable and familiar in advertising their products and services.
Yumin Sun (2021) determines a systematic review of celebrity effect and its
impact on the consumer economy. After ensuring that celebrity advertising attracts a
lot of public attention, companies also need to invest more to introduce high-demand,
high-quality, purposeful and creative products to make eye-catching celebrity posters
fully realize their value. This study found that the severe economic situation and
people's pursuit of suitable products and presents that popularity and credibility in
advertising are two key essences as well. Advertisements often show cultural values.
Celebrity is a well-packaged product cooperating with the product company and
become the biggest manifestation of glamour in the promotion.
