The Use of Celebrity Endorsement in Social Media Advertising and its Impact on Online Consumers’ Behavior: the Lebanese Scenario

Abstract

The use of the internet, social media, smartphones, mobile apps, and other digital communication tools has become an essential part of billions of people's daily lives. Corporations worldwide are increasingly adopting social media for advertising by having official Facebook pages, Instagram and Twitter accounts. In addition, and in order to better use this new variety of advertisement, corporations utilize celebrities in their social media campaigns for product promotions. Therefore, the aim of this research paper is to study the impact of the use of celebrities in social media advertising on the consumer behavior of the Lebanese people and the role celebrities can play in brand associations. Hence, a survey using structured questionnaire was administered among 170 consumers with a response rate of 82 per cent (received responses were 140). The results show that consumers find the use of celebrity endorsement on social media believable and helps them better remember a brand or a product. Moreover, it can be concluded that celebrity endorsement on social media positively affects the purchase intention of consumers. However, consumers will not purchase celebrity endorsed products or services that they do not need.