Celebrity Endorsement and Brand Credibility in the Carbonated Soft Drink Industry in Sri Lanka

Vadivelu Thusyanthy

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v13n7p93

Abstract

This study aims to assess the degree of celebrity endorsement and brand credibility in the carbonated soft drink industry in Sri Lanka. Questionnaires were used to collect the data from youth educated consumers of Sri Lankan Universities. Unidimensionality, reliability and validity assessments were performed to confirm scale reliability and validity, whereas one sample t-test was conducted to test hypotheses using 338 responses. The results revealed that the degree of celebrity endorsement and brand credibility were at low levels in the carbonated soft drink industry in Sri Lanka, especially among youth educated consumers. The findings of this empirical study can be effectively utilized by marketing managers in the carbonated soft drink industry in Sri Lanka, in their effort to develop and implement successful and strong celebrity endorsement and brand credibility related strategies.

Highlights

The food and beverage industry performs a vital role in expanding economic opportunity and it is the fastest growing sector across the world as well as Sri Lanka (Gehlhar & Regmi, 2005; Peiris, 2014; Vlachvei & Oustapassidis, 1998) since food and beverages are common to human life and health
Even though there has been no recent statistics available to show the amount spent on celebrity endorsement in the Sri Lankan carbonated soft drink industry, and generally the celebrity endorsement is high degree in the carbonated soft drink industry in Asian countries such as in South Korea (e.g., Money, Shimp & Sakano, 2006) and India (e.g., Goutam, 2013) and the researcher assumed that the celebrity endorsement is high degree in the carbonated soft drink industry in Sri Lanka, especially among the educated youth generation
H1 predicted that the degree of youth educated consumers’ perceived evaluation on celebrity endorsement is at a high level in the carbonated soft drink industry in Sri Lanka; there was no support for this high level, and not consistent with previous studies

Summary

Introduction

The food and beverage industry performs a vital role in expanding economic opportunity and it is the fastest growing sector across the world as well as Sri Lanka (Gehlhar & Regmi, 2005; Peiris, 2014; Vlachvei & Oustapassidis, 1998) since food and beverages are common to human life and health. Friedman and Friedman (1979) indicate that celebrities are more effective than other types of endorsers, such as ‘the professional expert’, ‘the company manager’, or ‘the typical consumer’ To illustrate this effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, Seno and Lukas (2007) cite Thomaselli and Neff (2004), ‘[i]n 2004, Gillette signed an endorsement deal with soccer celebrity David Beckham worth between $US 30 and $US 50 million’. For this effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, companies who are in the soft drink and carbonated soft drink industry spend huge amounts on celebrities to endorse their product (VinayagaMoorthy & Madevan, 2014), but what is the degree of youth educated consumers’ perceived evaluation on celebrity endorsement in the carbonated soft drink industry in Sri Lanka? For this effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, companies who are in the soft drink and carbonated soft drink industry spend huge amounts on celebrities to endorse their product (VinayagaMoorthy & Madevan, 2014), but what is the degree of youth educated consumers’ perceived evaluation on celebrity endorsement in the carbonated soft drink industry in Sri Lanka? Extant published research does not answer this question

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion