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Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots

on Consumer Buying Behavior
Garima Malik & Abhinav Guptha
Published online: 06 May 2014.

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To cite this article: Garima Malik & Abhinav Guptha (2014) Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots on Consumer
Buying Behavior, Journal of Global Marketing, 27:2, 128-143, DOI: 10.1080/08911762.2013.864374

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 Journal of Global Marketing, 27:128143, 2014
Copyright c Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0891-1762 print / 1528-6975 online
DOI: 10.1080/08911762.2013.864374

Impact of Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Mascots

on Consumer Buying Behavior
Garima Malik
Abhinav Guptha

ABSTRACT. Celebrity and brand mascot endorsements are very popular and often-used techniques
by marketers. Marketers believe that celebrity and brand mascot endorsements provide a higher degree
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of appeal, attention, and customer recall ability compared with when this technique is not used.
Marketers also claim that a celebrity affects the credibility of claims about a product and increases the
memorabilia factor of the message, which may provide a positive effect that could be generalized to
the brand. Primarily this essay has been designed such that it examines various parameters related to
advertisements containing celebrity and brand mascot endorsements. Data were been collected from
150 respondents through questionnaire and subjected to t test, 2 test, and difference of means test to
enforce the hypotheses that celebrity endorsements have impacts on customers perceptions and their
purchase intentions. The findings of this study provide insights for marketing and brand managers to
design and market their campaigns effectively.

KEYWORDS. Celebrity endorsement, physical attractiveness, source credibility, congruence, cus-

tomer purchase intention, customer attitude

INTRODUCTION egories. Celebrity endorsement acts as a credi-

The use of celebrities and brand mascots in
advertisements and promotion campaigns is one
of the topical strategies of many brands; the pur-
pose of such use may be to get attention from
the target audience, to obtain easy acceptabil-
ity of the products and prolonged association,
or for the purpose of recall. This study pur-
ports to consider the importance of celebrities
and brand mascots and will analyze the im-
pact of celebrities in influencing consumers to
make purchases from the various product cat-
ble means of spending money for the brand, as
the consumer immediately associates with the
product and differentiates the endorsed brand
from the given variety. This could be for rea-
sons of social standing: people want to wear
the right clothes, drink the right beverages,
and use the right fragrances. As per the con-
sumers perception, an endorsed product would
have higher purchase value than its counterpart
(Clark & Horstman, 2003). Celebrity endorse-
ment is more likely to be observed for products
with a high priceproduction cost margin and

Garima Malik is an assistant professor associated with Amity Business School, Noida, India. Abhinav
Guptha is an assistant manager-branding at National Payments Corporation in Mumbai, India.
Address correspondence to Dr. Garima Malik, c/o Prince Malik, No. 25, Sector 16-A, Noida, Uttar-Pradesh,
India 201301. Email: garima261@rediffmail.com

128
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 129

with a large customer base. In short, celebrity en- TABLE 1. Valuable Factors That Influence
dorsements are more typical for nationally mar- Purchasing Decisions
keted products than they are for local or niche
market products and are more typical for prod- N Mean SD
ucts such as running shoes, soft drinks, and other
products for which the pricecost margins are Price of the product 150 2.38 1.028
Celebrity endorsement 150 3.04 1.029
large. Quality of product 150 1.83 1.085
There is a tremendous impact of celebrity tele- Value for money 150 2.29 1.102
vision endorsements among Indian consumers;
there is a large fan following in India, and
celebrities act as role models for a majority
of Indians (Balakrishnan & Kumar, 2011). In- estimated that one quarter of all advertisements
creasingly, companies prefer to use celebrities use a celebrity spokesperson to endorse a
from different fields in India such as cricket product or brand (Shimp, 1997) to the extent
players, Bollywood celebrities, and other sports that it is a global phenomenon today. This
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personalities to endorse their brands. Many com-
panies brand mascots to endorse their products,
and this strategy is very popular for fast-moving
consumer goods. Marketers spend an enormous
amount of money on celebrity endorsement con-
tracts based on the belief that celebrities are
effective spokespersons for their products or
brands (Katayal, 2007). Television has widely
penetrated the minds of people from diver-
gent socioeconomic classes. In India, celebrity
power can rightly be assessed by their successful
endorsements; film stars and cricket players
have been successful not only in gathering huge
public attention but also in increasing com-
panies sales volumes. For example, Cadbury
and Nestle used Amitabh Bachchan to promote
their brand when it went through a bad phase
in India. Soon, the endorsement restored peo-
ples love for the brand and hence this phe-
nomenon increased Cadburys and Nestles sales
(Joshi & Ahluwalia, 2008; Matrade, 2005).
Aamir Khan is used by Coca-Cola to com-
municate to and influence semiurban and ru-
ral consumers to purchase the brand Chota
Coke. This celebrity endorsement has also been
quite effective in influencing consumers buy-
ing decision. Similarly, various endorsements
by Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, and
others have been found to be successful in af-
fecting consumers buying decisions (Joshi &
Ahluwalia).
Celebrity endorsement advertising has been
recognized as a ubiquitous feature of modern
day marketing (McCracken, 1989). It has been
indicates the validity of this strategy as a means
of persuasive communication. Celebrities are
often employed by advertisers to lend their
personality to a product or brand (Kaikati,
1987). They have been found to produce more
positive responses toward advertising and
greater purchase intentions than a noncelebrity
endorser (Atkin & Block, 1983; Petty &
Cacioppo, 1983). Furthermore, McCracken
found that celebrity endorsers represent an
effective way of transferring meaning to brands.
From a theoretical perspective, celebrities are
effective endorsers because of their symbolic
apparition reference group associations (Assael,
1984; Solomon & Assael, 1987). Advertisers
use celebrities because they heighten the appeal
of advertisements. They are believed to enhance
audience attentiveness; make the advertisement
memorable, credible, and desirable; and add
glamour to the product (Spielman, 1981).
Kaikati (1987) enumerates five advantages
of employing celebrities to endorse products:
drawing attention, crisis management, brand
repositioning, global marketing, and boosting
sales.
TABLE 2. Friedman Test
Parameters Mean rank
Price of the product 2.50
Celebrity endorsement 3.13
Quality of product 1.96
Value for money 2.41
 130 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING
TABLE 3. Factors That Influence Purchases of
Personal and Food Products
Brand name Celebrity Quality Cost
Personal care 1.91 (3) 3.06 (1) 1.90 (4) 2.60 (2)
Food products 2.48 (2) 2.93 (1) 1.75 (4) 2.45 (3)
Note. Values in parentheses show mean.
This study has been divided into two sec-
tions. First, the literature review related to the
topic is provided. Then the database and re-
search methodology designed for the study are
described, and the detailed results of the survey
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with respect to influence of celebrity and brand
mascots on buying behavior of customers are
presented. The conclusions follow.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Trip and Carlson (1994) studied the ef-
fects of multiple product endorsement by
celebrities on attitudes and intentions of cus-
tomers. His study revealed the number of
products a celebrity endorses negatively in-
fluences consumer perception of the en-
dorser and the advertising itself. It was
suggested that when as many as four products
are endorsed, celebrity credibility and likability,
as well as attitude toward the advertisement, may
attenuate. Mathur, Mathur, and Rangan (1997)
show that the anticipation of Michael Jordans
return to NBA and the related increased vis-
ibility for him resulted in an increase in the
market-adjusted values of his client firms of
almost 2%, or more than $1 billion in stock
market value. From this study, one can observe
that the major celebrity endorser with a gossip-
centered personality has tremendous potential to
influence the profitability of endorsed products.
Dean (1999) studied the effects of three extrin-
sic advertisement cues (i.e., third party endorse-
ment, event sponsorship, and brand popularity)
on brand and manufacturer evaluation and ob-
served that endorsement significantly affected
only product variables (quality and uniqueness)
and one image variable (esteem). The third-
party endorsement, hence, may be perceived as
a signal of product quality. Results clearly in-
dicated the main effects for both endorsement
and sponsorship cues, with endorsement affect-
ing perceived quality, uniqueness, and esteem
and sponsorship affecting only citizenship. The
popularity cue lacks a significant main effect;
the three cues do not significantly interact with
each other.
Goldsmith et al. (2000) assessed the impact
of endorser and corporate credibility on attitude-
toward-the-advertisement, attitude-toward-the-
brand, and purchase intentions. One hundred
fifty-two adult consumers who viewed a fic-
titious advertisement for Mobil Oil Company
were surveyed. They rated the credibility of the
advertisements endorser, the credibility of the
company, and attitude toward the advertisement,
attitude toward the brand, and purchase inten-
tions. It was observed that endorser credibility
had its strongest impact on attitude toward the
advertisement, while corporate credibility had
its strongest impact on attitude toward the brand.
The findings suggest that corporate credibility
plays an important role in consumers reactions
to advertisements and brands, independent of
the equally important role of endorser credibil-
ity. Daneshvary and Schwer (2000) determined
that credibility of the source is considered im-
portant in influence acceptance. A consumer will
accept the accurate influence (information) and
apply it if the source is perceived to be credible.
Therefore, a products endorsement by a credi-
ble source may impact purchase behavior. Zafer
et al. (2001) found that some viewers forget the
brand that a celebrity approves; other viewers are
so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity
that they completely fail to notice the brand be-
ing advertised. Sanyukta et al. (2005) studied
the positive and negative aspects of celebrity ap-
proval of a brand and found that approval of a
brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that
brand among the target audience. This is espe-
cially true in the case of new products.
Celebrities ensure the attention of the target
group by breaking through the clutter of ad-
vertisements and making the advertisement and
the brand more noticeable. On the negative side
is the extreme use of a celebrity, called lazy
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 131

FIGURE 1. Type of Celebrity (color figure available online).

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advertising, which refers to inadequate content with three tarnished celebrities: Mike Tyson,
masked by the use of a celebrity. There is also the Madonna, and Michael Jackson) suggest that
fear of brandcelebrity disconnect, which points celebrity endorsers may at times become lia-
out that if the celebrity represents values that bilities to the brands they endorse. Observa-
conflict with the brand values, the advertising tion reveals an increase in the use of animated
would create conflict in the minds of the target characters as product endorsers. It was deter-
audience. Agarwal et al. (2005) defined brand mined that 28% of animated advertisements con-
attitude as consumers general evaluative judg- tained cartoon-character celebrities such as Bugs
ment of a brand based on brand beliefs. Such Bunny and Mickey Mouse as these characters are
beliefs concern product-related attributes, like generally immune to negative publicity.
practical and experimental benefits. A success-
ful endorser is able to enhance intentions and
preferences toward brands directly or indirectly.
Surana (2008) revealed that some properties, RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
such as likability, expertise, trustworthiness, and
similarity, cause a celebrity endorser to become To study the degree to which con-
a source of persuasive information, and this cre- sumers purchasing decision is influ-
ates a sense of certainty. enced by celebrity endorsements and brand
Shimp (1998) examines the impact that nega- mascots.
tive information about a celebrity might have on
consumer evaluations of endorsed brands. Prac-
titioners hope their target audiences positive
TABLE 4. Attributes of Celebrity
feelings toward a chosen celebrity will transfer
to the endorsed brand or will otherwise enhance
the brands standing. N Mean SD SEM
What happens if either during or after an ad- Attractiveness of celebrity 150 2.99 1.093 0.089
vertising campaign negative information about Trustworthiness of celebrity 150 3.47 1.041 0.085
the celebrity becomes public? Widely publicized Expertise of celebrity 150 3.36 1.038 0.085
incidents (e.g., Pepsi Colas series of debacles
 132 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

TABLE 5. DOM Test 1 TABLE 7. DOM Test 2

Sum of Mean Sum of Mean

squares df squared F Sig. Model squares df squared F Sig.

Attractiveness of Regression 19.162 3 6.387 16.490 .000

celebrity Residual 38.347 99 .387
Between groups 35.285 28 1.260 Total 57.510 102
Within groups 59.058 74 0.798 1.579 .062

Total 94.342 102 Predictors: (constants) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness
Trustworthiness of of celebrity, expertise of celebrity.
celebrity
Between groups 63.714 28 2.275
Within groups 71.700 74 0.969 2.348 .002
Total 135.414 102
Expertise of celebrity
questionnaires (Appendix 1) were pretested on
Between groups 54.528 28 1.947 20 respondents, and minor changes have been
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Within groups 32.969 74 0.446 4.371 .000
Total 87.497 102
Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention.
To ascertain which of the two has a greater
impact on consumer: celebrities or brand
mascots.
To study how the image of the celebrity can
influence the brand image.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research methodology for the present
study was based on descriptive research design.
Stratified nonprobability sampling method was
used, which involves the sample being drawn
from that part of the population that is close at
hand. In this study, the target populations were
men and women of 20 to 40 years old. The
researcher collected responses from 150 respon-
dents from the Northern Capital Region of In-
dia during JanuaryFebruary 2013. In the re-
search process, first, respondents were made
aware of the purpose of study, and then they were
requested to give their unbiased responses. The
TABLE 6. Regression Model Summary
Model R R2 Adjusted R 2 SEE
1 0.577 0.333 0.313 0.62237
Predictors: (constants) attractiveness of celebrity, trustworthiness
of celebrity, expertise of celebrity.
incorporated in the questionnaire. Further, the
data have been categorized into two parts: pri-
mary data (collected through questionnaires) and
secondary data (collected with the help of news-
papers, magazines, and various other journals)
for statistical analysis. The primary instrument
for data collection questionnaire consisted of
ordinal-scale questions to determine the prior-
ity of each item among the group of items
(1 being the best rank and 4 being the least);
later, an interval scale was used in a Likert-type
scale to extract data with magnitude and a nom-
inal scale was used to store demographics of the
respondents. The primary data were analyzed us-
ing SPSS software and were depicted using bar
charts, pie charts, 2, t test tables, etc.
DATA ANALYSIS
Most Valuable Factor Rated by
Respondents for Purchasing Product
In this question, respondents were asked
about the factors that influence the purchasing
behavior (given in Table 1). Ranks had been
given by the respondents on the basis of the
importance of factors to know the priority of
each item among the group (1 being the best
rank and 4 being the least).
On applying the Friedman test (Table 2), it is
clear that celebrity endorsement is most valuable
and influential to customers when it comes to
purchasing a product, followed immediately by
the price of the product, value for money,
and then quality of product.
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 133

TABLE 8. Coefficients

Unstandardized
Model coefficients Standardized coefficients t Sig.

(Constant) 2.026 0.439 4.620 .000

attractiveness of celebrity, 0.039 0.072 0.050 0.543 .588
trustworthiness of 0.183 0.061 0.280 3.011 .003
celebrity,
Expertise of celebrity 0.320 0.072 0.395 4.464 .000

Note. Dependent variable: purchase intention.

Factors That Most Persuade You to considered genuine because of their winning
Purchase Personal and Food Products personalities. There are other famous person-
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alities like television stars or famous writers or

Respondents were asked to rank the factors singers who also sometimes influence peoples
according to their importance when purchasing purchasing intent. Politicians possess a negligi-
the various categories of products. ble share.
Table 3 clearly shows the factors that were
ranked on the basis of mean, from which we can Attributes of Celebrity That Influence
clearly ascertain that celebrity has a major role to
Purchase Intention Toward a
play in persuading people to purchase personal
care items. Followed by celebrity, it is the cost Celebrity-endorsed Brand
factor that most influences purchase decision. For further analysis, the respondents were
Brand name is rated as the third most important asked to give their responses on the at-
factor, followed by quality.
For food products, the factors were ranked,
from which we can clearly ascertain that TABLE 9. Believes Celebrity Endorsements
celebrity has a major role to play in persuad-
ing people to purchase food products. Followed
N Mean SD SEM
by celebrity, it is the attractive packaging that
most influences purchase decision. Cost is rated Easily influenced by a 150 2.69 0.970 0.079
as the third most important factor, followed by celebrity endorser
when you purchase
quality.
a celebrity-
endorsed brand
Ever considered 150 2.67 1.240 0.101
Type of Celebrity Endorsement That purchasing a new
Most Persuades You product just
because of the
A question was asked about the type of presence of a
celebrity you liked.
celebrity the respondents would like to see most Believe products 150 2.84 0.984 0.080
to endorse the product. specifically
Figure 1 shows that more than half of re- advertised by the
spondents said that film stars are most persua- celebrities are of
good quality.
sive of all the types of celebrities. Around 24% Believe the celebrities 150 2.25 1.029 .084
believe that sportspersons are most persuasive; also use those
this is perhaps because sportspersons, especially products which they
cricket players, are personalities that people tend themselves
endorse.
to look up to and, hence, their opinions are
 134 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

TABLE 10. The t Test

Test value = 4
95% CI of the
difference
t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean difference Lower Upper

Easily influenced by a celebrity 16.578 149 .000 1.313 1.47 1.16

endorser when you purchase a
celebrity-endorsed brand
Ever considered purchasing a 13.107 149 .000 1.327 1.53 1.13
new product just because of
the presence of a celebrity you
liked
Believe products specifically 14.444 149 .000 1.160 1.32 1.00
advertised by the celebrities
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are of good quality

Believe the celebrities also use 20.862 149 .000 1.753 1.92 1.59
those products that they
endorse

tributes related to celebrities, like the attrac-
tiveness of a celebrity, the trustworthiness of
a celebrity, and the expertise of a celebrity
(Table 4).
Difference of means (DOM) was imple-
mented to observe significant differences be-
tween the means of the variables. The results
in Table 5 for Trustworthiness of celebrity
and Expertise of celebrity show a significance
level of less than 5%, implying that both are
significant. Attractiveness of celebrity is just
above 5%, thereby implying that it is not that
insignificant. The results are insignificant for
DOM for purchase intention. The F statistic also
confirms this insignificance because all observed
F values are less than the critical F value of 2.76.
H0 (Null Hyphothesis): Attractiveness of
celebrity, trustworthiness of celebrity, expertise

FIGURE 2. How Often Do Brand Mascots Influence You? (color figure available online).
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 135

TABLE 11. Attributes in Brand Mascots That TABLE 13. The 2 Test
Influence Purchase Decisions
2 0.107a
Parameters N Mean SD df 1
Asymp. sig. .744
Friendliness 150 2.55 1.235
Uniqueness 150 2.45 1.108
Humor 150 2.39 1.128
Emotional touch 150 3.01 1.144
Trustworthy 150 2.61 1.335 ing the t test to responses to four statements.
Loyalty 150 2.48 1.294 It was found that the significance value for
Attractiveness 150 2.73 1.262 all is .000, which is less than .05 and, hence,
the null hypothesis is rejected and H1 is ac-
cepted (i.e., Celebrity endorsers has a signif-
of celebrity do not highly intend customer to icant impact on the consumers mind and al-
ways received special attention from them)
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purchase advertised products.

Tables 6, 7, and 8 show the results of regres-
sion testing, where the values to be considered
are R2 values, referring to the fitness of model
and the explanatory power of the model. The
model has 34% explanatory power of the de-
pendent variable. Because the significance value
is .000, which is less than .5, the null hypoth-
esis, H0, is rejected and the alternative hypoth-
esis, H1, is accepted. The attractiveness of the
celebrity, the trustworthiness of the celebrity, and
the expertise of celebrity endorser have signifi-
cant impacts on consumers buying decisions.
Believes Celebrity Endorsement
Respondents were asked to rank the state-
ments according to their perceptions of what they
think about the advertisment and products that
are endorsed by the celebrities (Table 9).
H0: Respondents do not pay special attention
to advertisements and products that are en-
dorsed by celebrities.
Responses were collected for four statements
through the use of Likert-type scales, apply-
TABLE 12. Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot
(Table 10).
It was ascertained that 69% of respondents
say they are only sometimes influenced by brand
mascots, around 25% said that they are never
influenced, and the remaining 6% said that
they are always influenced by brand mascots
(Figure 2).
Important Attributes of Brand Mascots
Respondents were asked whether they are in-
fluenced by the brand mascots, and their re-
sponses were always, sometimes, or never.
From Table 11, we can deduce that it is the
emotional touch feature of brand mascots that
is the most important influence on a persons
purchase decision. Attractiveness, trustworthy,
friendliness, and uniqueness are other features
that influence purchase decisions.
Celebrity Versus Brand Mascot
In this question, respondents were asked to
compare the celebrity and brand mascot and
asked to give a response regarding their pref-
erence.
H0: Celebrity endorsers are not more influen-
tial than brand mascots.

Observed N Expected N Residual

On the basis of 2 test, because the sig-
nificance value is .744, which is greater than
Celebrity 73 75.0 2.0 .05, the null hypothesis is accepted. Celebrity
Brand mascot 77 75.0 2.0 endorsers are not more influential than brand
Total 150
mascots.
 136 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

FIGURE 3. Descriptive Statistics on Brand Mascot (color figure available online).

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Various brand mascots influenced the pur-
chasing decision of cutomers: Respondents were
asked to rate brand mascots according to their
influential power (Tables 12 and 13).
Figure 3 clearly shows that Amuls polka-
dotted girl, 7 Ups Fido Dido, Parle Agros
Hippo, and Pillsburys Doughboy have had a
high level of influence on peoples purchasing
decisions.This indicates that these four mascots
most certainly have high recall value. Kelloggs
Coco Monkey and Krafts Tiger stand in the aver-
age position, which basically indicates that these
mascots have low recall value.
Regarding the television channel that most in-
fluences purchase intentions, respondents were
asked to give their responses concerning broad-
cast medium. According to the survey, televi-
sion is the most influential medium, followed
by newspaper, Internet, magazines, and social
network (Figure 4).

FIGURE 4. Demographics on Broadcasting Medium (color figure available online).

 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha
CONCLUSIONS
Through this research, an attempt has been
made to draw some conclusions from the survey
concerning celebrity endorsements and brand
mascots and their impacts on the purchasing be-
havior of customers.
Celebrity Endorser
The study determined that a celebrity en-
dorser plays a significant role in persuading peo-
ple in both the personal care products and food
products categories. Celebrity endorsers play the
role of initiator and influencer in the con-
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sumers buying process; they create awareness
and develop the interest of the people in the
brand and enable product association. When we
discuss types of celebrities, film stars are the
most preferred ones; film stars like Shah Rukh
Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Katrina Kaif have
amazing persuasive power, and companies spend
huge amounts to make use of this power. For ex-
ample, Katrina Kaif is a celebrity endorser of
Pepsi Co.s Slice, Juhi Chawla is the celebrity
endorser of Kurkure. Many people also consider
sportspeople to be more persuasive because cus-
tomers tend to look up to them and their opinions
are considered genuine because of their winning
personalities. Among sportspeople, cricket play-
ers are undoubtedly the most influential in In-
dia. Boost, a health drink brand, has been using
cricket players as celebrity endorsers to promote
the brand.
The charisma of celebrity almost always en-
tices people and their words are worshipped by
many.
The trustworthiness of a celebrity is the
most important and necessary feature of
the celebrity. A trustworthy celebrity can
develop peoples faith in the brand. For
instance, because of her trustworthy im-
age, Aishwarya Rai, the celebrity endorser
of LOreal products in India, convinces
women that LOreal products are the best.
People also sometimes purchase certain
products if they are endorsed by a celebrity
of their liking. For example, a fan of
Katrina Kaif is likely to purchase Slice
137
(product of Pepsi Co.) over Maaza (prod-
uct of Coca-Cola).
Celebrity-endorsed products are given
leverage over other products that have no
celebrity name attached to it. People tend
to believe that a product that is endorsed
by a celebrity is of good quality. In fact,
to be accepted by the people and for sur-
vival in the marketplace, almost all com-
panies are spending huge sum of money
to get the right celebrity to endorse their
brands.
It was ascertained in the study that
even though people consider a celebrity-
endorsed brand as a better brand, a
large number of people are not really sure
that celebrities use the products that they
endorse. This could perhaps be because
of multibrand endorsement by the same
celebrities.
Brand Mascots
The following are some key features of brand
mascots, in order of importance, that have an
impact on consumers buying behaviors. This
has been deduced from the responses to the
survey.
1. Emotional touch
2. Attractiveness
3. Trustworthiness
4. Friendliness
5. Loyalty
6. Uniqueness
7. Humor
A strong brand mascot is more successful
than celebrities.
It is observed that the popularity of any mas-
cot not only is based on the response they ob-
tain but also depends on the fact that they have a
higher recall value. The strength of mascots basi-
cally lies in its uniqueness and its power of effec-
tively communicating the ethos of the brand. The
utterly, butterly delicious Amul girl in polka dots
born in 1967 is the best proof of mascot brand
recall lasting years or even decades. Celebrities
become associated with too many products and
 138 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING
therefore it is difficult to relate them to one par-
ticular brand, which is not the case with the
mascots. For example, Shah Rukh Khan en-
dorses brands such as Pepsi, Airtel, Santro,
Emami, and many more, but Fido is associated
with just 7 Up. Brand mascots are loyal to the
brand. The impact and success of the mascot
depend on how effectively it conveys the brand
values and the ideals that consumers would as-
sociate with it.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Keeping certain successful mascot campaigns
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in mind, like the very successful Hippi cam-
paign, fast-moving consumer goods companies
must put more light on the concept of brand mas-
cots, especially in the food segment. The scope
of the success of mascots is much higher in the
food products segment than in the personal care
segment.
It is recommended not to introduce brand
mascots in the personal care segment.
This is because customers in this segment
would like to see some evidence to satisfy them.
In the personal care segment, approval by a
celebrity is very essential as it builds a sense
of trust leading to a genuine perception of the
brand.For example, a movie actress, with beau-
tiful hair, confirming that her secret is a partic-
ular shampoo, leads to building the customers
confidence in the brand. This is hard to achieve
through brand mascots because they lack the re-
alistic factor.
In the food segment, brand mascots are
promising.
Hippo, Amul polka dress girl, and Fido Dido
are a few of the many successful brand mascot
campaigns in the food segment of FMCG com-
panies. Mascots have a lasting appeal and cre-
ate a whole new persona for the product. They
manage the product as efficiently as a celebrity,
are more cost efficient, and have higher recall
value; most importantly, they are loyal to the
brand.
There had been a decline in the use of mascots
due to the sudden blast of celebrity endorsement
in the past few years. But now the Indian market,
which is saturated with celebrity endorsements,
has seen emergence of the mascots, and it is in
the hands of the companies to use this situation
in the most beneficial way.
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 140 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

APPENDIX 1. QUESTIONNAIRE
1) What do you value the most when purchasing a product? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest and 4 being
the lowest rank)

Price of the product 

Celebrity endorsement 
Quality of the product 
Value for money 

2) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase personal care items? please rank 1 to 4, with 1
being the highest and 4 being the lowest rank)

Brand 
name
Celebrity 
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Quality 
Cost 

3) Which of the following factors most persuades you to purchase food products? (please rank 1 to 4, with 1 being the
highest and 4 being the lowest rank)

Celebrity 
Attractive package 
Quality 
Brand name 

4) What type of celebrity endorsement persuades you personally to purchase products?

Film star  Sportsperson  Politician  Famous personality 
5) To what extent do the following variables influence your purchase intention toward a celebrity endorsed brand?
(please check)

Very low Low Average High Very high

Attractiveness of
the celebrity
Trustworthiness of
the celebrity
Expertise of the
celebrity
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 141

Please answer the following questions (please check)

Strongly Strongly
disagree Disagree Average Agree agree

6) Are you easily influenced by the

celebrity endorser when you
purchase a celebrity-endorsed
brand?
7) Have you ever considered
purchasing a new product just
because of the presence of a
celebrity you liked?
8) Do you believe products specifically
advertised by the celebrities are of
good quality?
9) Do you believe the celebrities also
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use those products that they

endorse?
10) If the reputation of the celebrity
degrades, does the reputation of the
brand also degrade?
11) Would multibrand endorsements by
the same celebrity lead to
overexposure?
12) Does inconsistency in the
professional popularity of the
celebrity lead to negative impact on
brand?

13) Do brand mascots influence your purchasing decision?

Always  Sometimes  Never 

14) What is the most persuasive feature in brand mascots that make you purchase products? (please rank 1 to 5, with
1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest rank)

Feature 1 2 3 4 5

Friendliness
Uniqueness
Humor
Emotional touch
Loyalty
Trustworthy
Attractiveness

15) Of the two, what influences your purchase decision more? (please check)

Celebrities  Brand  mascots 

 142 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL MARKETING

16) To what extent have the following brand mascots influenced your purchasing decision?

Brand mascot Very low Low Average High Very high

Polka Dress GirlAmul

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Fido Dido 7 Up

Hippo Parle Agro

Coco Monkey Kelloggs

(Continued on next page)
 Garima Malik and Abhinav Guptha 143

Very
Brand mascot Very low Low Average High high
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Doughboy Pillsbury

Tiger Tiger Biscuits Kraft

17) What channel most influences your purchase intentions?

Television  Radio  Newspaper 

Magazines  Internet  Movie 
Social network 

Personal Details

Name: 
Gender: Male  Female 
Age:
2025 
2630 
3135 
3640