The Effect of Celebrity Physical Attractiveness and Trustworthiness on Consumer Purchase Intentions: A Study on Nigerian Consumers

Abstract

Celebrities are individuals who are popular in public arena because of their physical attractiveness and trustworthiness. To take advantage of these components, marketers use celebrities for product promotion to create awareness and enhance the credibility of their advertisement. However, the use of celebrities to endorse consumer products by the Nigerian telecommunication industry led to huge cost of acquiring physically attractive endorsers and lack of celebrity trust because customers perceived that the celebrities were paid to feature in the brand and not necessarily, they believed in the brand. This study, therefore, examined the effect of celebrity physical attractiveness and trustworthiness on consumer purchase intentions of selected telecommunication in Nigeria. Survey design was employed and a target population of 519 students was used in the study. Random sampling technique was adopted to select the sample size and a well-structured questionnaire was adopted for the study. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the constructs ranged between 0.71 and 0.85. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Structural equation modeling).

Findings from the study reveal that celebrity physical attractiveness had positive effect on consumer purchase intention of selected telecommunications companies in Nigeria (P=0.000<0.05; R²= 0.533). Celebrity trustworthiness had positive and significant effect on consumer purchase intention of selected telecommunication companies in Nigeria (P=0.000<0.05; R²= 0.314). The study concludes that celebrity endorsement components were jointly important in explaining the changes in the consumer purchase intentions of selected telecommunications companies in Nigeria. The study recommends that telecommunications companies should focus on the recruitment of physical attractiveness and trustworthiness whose images align with theirs for endorsement purpose.