"EFFECTIVENESS OF AKADEMI FANTASIA CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS FROM THE EYES OF CON.SUMERS IN KLANG VALLEY" MOHO ZULKIFLI BIN ABDUL RAZAK Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons.) Marketing FACULTY OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA MELAKA 2007 DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HONS) MARKETING FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA MELAKA "DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK" I, Mohd Zulkifli bin Abdul Razak, ( \I C Number: 820120-14-5823) Hereby, declare that, • This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree locally or overseas and is not being concurrently submitted for this degree or any degrees • This project paper is the result of my independent 'NOrk and investigation , except where otherwise stated • All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks and sources of my information have been specifically acknowledged. ~crol- Signature: -r-~Y---f-+-\t:...- Date: II I b> L { TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv LIST OF TABLE viii LIST OF FIGURES ix ABSTRACT x CHAPTERS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Company Background 2 1.2 Background of the Study 2 1.2.1 Celebrity Endorsement 2 1.2.2 Akademi Fantasia Celebrities 4 1.3 Problem Statement 5 1.4 Research Questions 6 1.5 Research Objectives 7 1.6 Theoretical Framework 8 1.7 Significance of Study 8 1.8 Scope of Study 9 1.9 Research Constraints 9 1.10 Definition of Terms 10 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The TEARS Model 13 2.2 Endorsement as a Promotional Strategy 14 2.3 Celebrity Endorsement 16 2.4 Celebrity Endorsement for the Brand 18 2.5 Pros and Cons of Celebrity Endorsement Strategy 19 2.6 Multiple Brand Endorsement 20 2.7 Managerial Implications for Effective Usage of Celebrity Endorser 21 2.8 Celebrity Endorsement Selection Theories 22 2.8.1 Source Attributes 23 2.8.2 Source Credibility 24 2.8.3 Source Attractiveness 25 2.8.4 Source Power 25 2.9 Stereotyping of Endorsers 25 2.10 Consumer's Intent to Purchase 26 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN 3.1 Definition of Population and Sample 28 3.2 Sampling Method 28 3.2.1 Sampling Technique 28 3.2.2 Sample Size 29 3.3 Research Design 29 3.4 Data Collection 29 3.4.1 Primary Data 30 3.4.2 Secondary Data 30 4. DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 Introduction to Data Analysis 32 4.2 Reliability testing 32 4.3 Frequency Analysis 34 4.4 Research Objective 1 48 4.5 Research Objective 2 49 4;6 Research Objective 3 50 4.7 Research Objective 4 55 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1 Introduction 61 5.2 Conclusions 61 5.3 Recommendations 62 REFERENCES APPENDIXES Sample Questionnaire A1 Statistical Output A2 ABSTRACT Celebrity endorsement has become an important element in advertising and communication management. Therefore, this study will focus on the discussion on Akademi Fantasia celebrity endorsement's effectiveness in Malaysia, Here, the main focus of study is on the perception of the consumer relating their purchasing intention to the Akademi Fantasia celebrity endorsers' attributes, using the TEARS model by Shimp (2003). The objectives are to identify endorser attributes (trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, respect and similarity) that are important for the celebrities as perceived important by the con$umers, and to identify relationship between consumer's purchasing intentions to respondents' demographic profiles. This research also identifies the relationship between endorser attributes with consumer purchasing intentions. Non.probability sampling is used as sampling method. KnOWledgeable respondents that have at least little knowledge on the subject are chosen for the study. Questionnaires handed to the respondents to be answered and collected for further analysis. From the 5 endorser attributes, respect is perceived most important, followed by physical attractiveness, similarity (to the target audience) and trustworthiness. Expertise is perceived least important by respondents. There is no significant difference between purchasing intentions with gender, age group income level of respondents. Respect, physical attractiveness, similarity and trustworthiness have highly significant with moderate positive relationship with consumers' intention to purchase. It is not the researcher's intention to establish facts but rather to identify the consumers' perceptions in order to understand and determine Akademi Fantasia celebrity endorser attributes and its influences to consumer's purchasing intehtions. In general, It also increases the understanding of Malaysian consumer regarding the issues of celebrity endorsement as a marketing tool..