Effects of Celebrities Endorsement on Consumer Purchase Intentions for Soft Drink Products in Tanzania

RESEARCH PURPOSE: The study attempted to find an answer to the effect of celebrity endorsement on customer purchase intention for soft drinks in Tanzania. CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION: The current study is built on the three main aspects of celebrity endorsement: (source attractiveness, source expertise, and match-up). It was hypothesized that source attractiveness, Source expertise, and match-up positively affect consumer purchase intention of soft drinks in Tanzania. METHOD AND DESIGN: The study employed a cross-sectional research design whereby data was collected from 450 customers of soft drinks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Descriptive analysis and Stepwise multiple regression models were used to analyze the data collected for this study. MAIN RESULTS: The current study found that celebrity endorsement positively impacts consumer buying intention because it ensures the attainment of product recognition, advertisement, promotions, and others, which automatically assures consumers of buying intent. Apart from that, with the relationship between celebrity endorsement and consumer buying intention, all three predicting variables tested on the dependent variable have been found positive with a significant effect statistically on the consumers buying intent. However, of the three explanatory variables, celebrity attractiveness has more weight in explaining the impact than the other two variables. THEORETICAL/METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: This paper contributes to the body of literature by showing that many studies employ only two models (Source attractiveness and source expertise) in studying celebrity endorsement as independent variables. Match-up being utilized as a moderating variable, the current study has employed all three variables as independent variables, resulting in a 56.7% ability of the variables to explain the variance of the dependent variable.