CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT AND CONSUMER CHOICE OF PRODUCT IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

Celebrity endorsement in recent times has become a veritable tool in achieving sustainable
sales of products and services by business managers. It is based on this, that this study
examined celebrity endorsement and consumer choice of product in Anambra State, Nigeria
as the objective of the study. The study was narrowed down to Onitsha local government
Area of the State. This is because of presence of various consumer markets the city is
hosting. The study adopted a survey research design with a population of 250 consumers
selected randomly, and 207 copies of questionnaire were retrieved and used for the study.
A Likert structured questionnaire format was deployed for data collection, which was tested
for validity using face and content method while its reliability was assessed using Cronbach
Alpha reliability test for internal consistency where an alpha level of .999 was obtained
signaling a good consistency level. The data generated was analyzed using Mean, and
Hypothesis was tested using simple regression on Statistical packages for Social Science at
5% level of significance. The findings reveal that, there is a positive effect of celebrity
influence on customer conviction on patronage r= 0.728, n=207-1=206 and p=0.25. Thus,
since p value is less than 0.05, hence, there is positive effect of celebrity influence on
customer conviction on patronage of a product. Therefore, the study recommended that,
product or service management should adopt criteria for adopting celebrity endorsement if
they want to influence consumer choice of products.