Marketing Research Project - Free Essay Example

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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION5 LITERATURE REVIEW7 PURPOSE, SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS8 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE9 Primary Objective9 Secondary Objective10 METHODOLOGY10 Type of Research Design10 Primary Data Sources11 Secondary Data Sources11 Scaling Techniques11 Questionnaire Development11 Sampling Techniques11 Data Collection11 Data Analysis11 Methodology11 Tools11 Data Evaluation12 Data Analysis12 Factor Analysis12 Regression Analysis12 RESULTS12 Focus Group Discussion12 Reliability Of The Questionnaire13 Popularity of dead celebrities14 PRODUCTS THAT CAN BE ENDORSSED:14 Factor Analysis15 Total Variance Explained16 Rotated Component Matrix17 Regression Analysis18 Dependent Variable19 Independent Variables19 Colinearity Statistics19 Table 4: Colinearity statistics19 Model Summary19 Coefficients20 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS20 RECOMMENDATIONS21 ANNEXURE 1(QUESTIONNAIRE)22 ANNEXURE 2(SCREE PLOT)25 REFERENCES26 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: KMO and Bartletts Test16 Table 2: Total Variance Explained17 Table 3: Rotated Component Matrix18 Table 4: Colinearity statistics19 Table 5: Model Summary20 Table 6: Coefficients20 Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Marketing Research Project" essay for you Create order INTRODUCTION In today’s dynamic and intense competitive market situation survival for the fittest is the new mantra. There has been a shift from the traditional concept of â€Å"Seller’s market† to the new and emerging concept of â€Å"Buyer’s market†. The customer is the king in today’s context. In India both the MNC’s and the domestic players are leaving no stone unturned to connect their brand with their target audience. There has been a radical shift from the traditional promotional mix elements to a new and emerging Integrated Marketing Communication concept. With brands becoming me-too in terms of feature and quality, it became all the more important for advertiser and their advertising agencies to determine the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of their brand and communicate it successfully in their marketing communication. The phenomenon of using celebrities in advertisements is creating a lot of noise world over and in Indian context the situation is no different. A celebrity is a person who is successful in his/her own profession, widely recognized in the society and have huge fan following and enjoy media attention. They have Demographic and Psycho graphic connect with the target audience. It can be said that within a corresponding social group, celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy a high degree of public awareness. Today’s celebrities in Indian context are especially from Bollywood (Hindi Film Industry in Mumbai) like Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Mr. Shah Rukh Khan, and Mr. Aamir Khan. Celebrity branding is a type of branding, or advertising, in which a celebrity uses his or her status in the society to promote a product, service or charity. Celebrity branding can assume different forms like a celebrity simply appearing in advertisements for a product, service or charity, to a celebrity attending PR events, creating his or her own line of products or services, and/or using his or her name as a brand. At present celebrity voice-overs in advertising is an emerging trend noticed in India. Some celebrities have distinct voices which are recognizable even when they not present on-screen. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan in Indian context is one such example. This is a more subtle way to add celebrity branding to a product or service. This study focuses on a specific aspect of celebrity attitude formation, specifically the attraction and apparent strengthening of attitudes toward a celebrity after their death. Fortune recently released its annual review of dead celebrities’ current earnings, with Elvis still the leading revenue producer 30 years after his death[1]. This study seeks to understand what factors influence such celebrity worship by fans with such persistence over time. Voices of dead celebrity can be an effective way of communication as this may add an extra edge to the product with the nostalgia associated with t. Dead celebrity endorsement is a very popular concept in USA though its relevance in Indian prospective is highly doubtful. There are instances where the voices of dead celebrities have been used like the ads of Maggi Ketchup, Krack Jack Biscuits, Pepsi, certain regional advertisements also uses a similar approach. There are also instances where the image of the dead celebrities has be en used to infuse trust like the State bank of India advertisements. The main aim of this project is to understand the consumer behavior and preferences towards these dead celebrities in advertisements in India. LITERATURE REVIEW According to McCrackens (1989) definition, a celebrity endorser is an individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement (marketing communication). Research has shown that in general celebrity endorsement influences the feelings of the consumers and can also influence the attitude consumers have towards the advertisement and attitude towards the brands, which can increase the purchase intentions and, consequently, increase sales. A celebrity endorser used in an advertisement can be interpreted as a reference group. A Reference group is defined as any person or group of persons that serves as a point of comparison (or reference) for an individual by communicating values, attitudes and providing a specific guide for behaviour (Shiffman and Kanuk, 2006). An aspiration group is a derivative of the reference group: in this case, the consumer does not belong to the group but is willing to be associated with it. To become associated with this group, consumers are willing to behave like members of the aspiration group. This means that consumers are trying to behave in the same manner, e. g. try to use the same symbolic meanings – of the aspiration group. Research has shown that the use of celebrities in advertisements can have a positive influence on the credibility, message recall, memory and likeability of the advertisements and finally on purchase intentions (Menon, 2001). Today – no doubt inspired by the declining effectiveness of the different marketing communications (Blonde and Roozen, 2006) the advertising industry is willing to pay the increasing rewards he celebrities are asking. However an alternative to this high cost of celebrity endorsement can be the use of dead celebrities in advertisements. This idea has been very popular in the west. As long as there is mass media, there will be celebrity worship. Worship of celebrities has often been compared to religious worship (Giles 2000), or likened to a similar level of dedication (Maltby et al. 2004). Celebrity status has be en claimed to be a specific product of the media (Martin et al. 2003). Studies conducted in the U. K. and U. S. ave so far succeeded at establishing that cognitive factors (Levy 1979)and social psychological factors (Maltby et al. 2004) are involved in celebrity worship . Both Elvis Presley and Princess Diana have their band of followers who identify with them and want to emulate them. A scrutiny of the qualities they aspire to emulate suggests that they do not degrade societys values, rather the reverse. Both Presley and Diana were charismatic personalities who have posthumously reached cult icon status. It has even been suggested that the veneration given to each carries the hallmark of incipient religions. (Susan MacDougall,2005). For the dimension of Celebrity Identification, perceived social risk is the greatest influence, followed by the conceptual dimensions of nostalgia. Age difference between the celebrity and respondent and perceptions of Celebrity Enjoyment also plays a very important role (Robert D. Evans, Jr et al , 2006). In the article: Why are dead athletes endorsers better than live ones? (Robert E Carr, 1997) talks about the fad generated over running ads on the dead celebrity. Today, these computer generated dead endorsers are a huge success as compared to the live celebrity endorsers mainly due to their untainted images. Celebrity endorsement has always been beneficial for the company for example for the products like shoes endorsed by the performers (athletes) signifying that superior people uses superior products. But stating that the changing image of the endorser does not affect the image of the product/company would be wrong. The credibility of the endorser and company image is directly proportional. Dead celebrity endorsed companies are therefore saved from this changing image and hence changing credibility. Today people are not looking for someone who is perfect but for someone whom they can relate to and if a product is related to an endorser whose image cannot be tarnished with future, the company is therefore in safe mode. Therefore it can be inferred from the article that the dead celebrity endorsement is better than live celebrity endorsement as the former is less prone to credibility changing issues and hence making their achievements and credibility earned during the life cycle more important rather than counting on the present celebrities. Celebrities have also been reanimated using modern technology to prevent any legal hassles and have been used in advertisements and this industry has grown to 300 million dollars in 2008(Ross D Petty, 2009). In Indian prospective not much of a work has been done with relation to dead celebrity endorsement and its viability. This study thus tries to find out this very aspect of dead celebrity endorsement and whether it is a viable option in India. PURPOSE, SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS The purpose of the project is to find out: 1. The consumer behavior towards dead celebrity endorsement in Indian prospective. . To see whether the dead celebrity endorsement will actually influence consumer in buying these products. 3. To check whom among the dead celebrities can be a possibly used in an advertisement. 4. Also find the possible products which can be endorsed by these celebrities. Scope: The study can be useful in identifying the dead celebrities who can be used in advertisements and products th ey can endorse. Limitations: 1. The age groups considered could have been much more diverse. 2. The co operation level of the respondents was a problem. 3. The awareness of the respondents towards dead celebrities was a problem. 4. The number of respondents was low due to time and mobility constraints. 5. The customers may not always fill the entire questionnaire hence data may be incomplete. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE Primary Objective 1. To see whether dead celebrity endorsement is a viable option for promotions of products and services in Indian Context. 2. To find out the consumer purchasing intentions about the same. Secondary Objective 1. To see which dead celebrity can be possibly used to endorse a product or service and influence their purchasing intentions. . To see which products can be endorsed through these dead celebrities. 3. To determine how demographic and psychographic variables influence the preferences. METHODOLOGY Type of Research Design Exploratory research has been used to find out the possible variables affecting consumer behavior towards dead celebrity endorsement and also to see which celebrities and products can be use d in the study. Descriptive research design is also used for this study. It is used to provide further insight into the research problem, regarding the factors affecting consumer behavior towards dead celebrity endorsement. And also to see the popularity levels of dead celebrities and the possible products or services they can be used to promote. Primary Data Sources The main source of data for the study is the primary source that is the respondents themselves. These respondents are from various age groups and occupations and also geographic regions. The sample size is 150. Moreover Focus Group Discussion was conducted to get more insights into the problem at hand. Secondary Data Sources This research uses secondary data in the form of literary works done on this topics by other researchers to get an insight of the problem in hand. Scaling Techniques The Likert scaling technique is used for this research which is a non comparative itemized rating scale technique. For capturing the responses, respondents were asked to indicate the amount of agreement or disagreement on a five point Likert scale. There were also questions based on nominal scale where the respondents were to answer Yes or No to a particular question. Questionnaire Development The questionnaire has been developed based on the insights that came out from the Focus Group Discussion that was conducted. The celebrities to be considered as well as the products to be considered in the study were got from the FGD. Moreover the variables to be included in the study were obtained from the FGD as well as secondary data i. e. from research papers on this topic. Sampling Techniques Non-Random Sampling is done to capture responses. The respondents were all above the age of 19. Data Collection 150 respondents have been contacted and their response has been noted for further analysis. This has been tabulated in a MS Excel work sheet. Data Analysis Methodology Factor Analysis, regression and cluster analysis is used in this study in order to come up with certain recommendations discussed further. Tools SPSS 13. 0 has been used for analysis for this research. SPSS for Microsoft Windows provides a powerful statistical analysis and data management system. In addition to this MS Excel has been used to tabulate the information and do graphical analysis. Data Evaluation 1. First of all data screening is done to identify missing data in the responses. 2. Missing data is entered. Some level of subjectivity is involved in doing this. 3. Data coding is done in SPSS 13. 0, which also included labeling all the factors created during the analysis. This is done to standardize the responses in numeric format, which eases the analysis. 4. Lastly the negatively poised questions were computed to their positive values to enable proper interpretation. Data Analysis Factor Analysis Factor analysis has been used to reduce the data complexity by reducing the number of variables and also to understand the hidden structure of a set of variables to smaller number of factors. In this study by using factor analysis we tried to find out the major factors from the variables used in the questionnaire that affect consumers preferring dead celebrity endorsements. Regression Analysis The main objective of regression analysis is to explain the variation in one variable (called the dependent variable) based on the variation in one or more other variables (called the independent variables). The dependent variable used is: How much do you prefer to buy a product endorsed by your favorite dead celebrity? The independent variable used is the factors got from the factor analysis. The result will help us to identify the factors that affect the consumer behavior towards dead celebrity usage in advertisements. RESULTS Focus Group Discussion Reliability Of The Questionnaire Reliability Statistics |Cronbachs Alpha |N of Items | |. 841 |19 | A high value of Cronbachs alpha proves that the questionnaire is reliable and can be used for the study. Popularity of dead celebrities [pic] Figure 1: Dead Celebrities Popularity PRODUCTS THAT CAN BE ENDORSSED: [pic] Figure 2: Products Factor Analysis We found out that there are a number of variables having high degree of correlation among them at a significance level of 5%. Therefore we used Factor analysis to group correlated variables and separated them from other variables with low (correlation coefficients 0. 5) or no correlation. We used iterated Principal Components Analysis Extraction Method and Varimax with Kaiser Normalization Rotation Method. Four factors were extracted which had Eigen values more than 1. Detailed Analysis of outputs of Factor Analysis: KMO Test of Sample Adequacy Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy This measure varies between 0 and 1, and values closer to 1 are better. A value of 0. is a suggested minimum. KMO value is 0. 744, which is fair enough. Bartletts Test of Sphericity This tests the null hypothesis that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. An identity matrix is matrix in which all of the diagonal elements are 1 and all of diagonal elements are 0. We want to reject this null hypothesis. As the significance level of Bartlett’s test is . 000 which rejects the null hypothesis that the correla tion matrix is an identity matrix. Thus we can say that the data is adequate to be used for factor analysis. Table 1: KMO and Bartletts Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. |. 744 | |Bartletts Test of Sphericity |Approx. Chi-Square |388. 841 | | |df |55 | | |Sig. |. 000 | Total Variance Explained Table 2: Total Variance Explained |Component |Initial Eigenvalues |Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings |Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings | | | Cumulative percentage – this column contains the cumulative percentage of variance accounted for by the current factors. In our project, three factors explain 59. 456% of the variance. Rotated Component Matrix Table 3: Rotated Component Matrix | |Component | | |1 |2 |3 | |I enjoy discussing about my favorite dead celebrity in my peer group |. 09 | | | |I Identify myself with my favorite dead celebrity |. 601 | |. 530 | |I think the dead celebrities are better than the alive ones, for endorsing products | |. 828 | | |Seeing dead celebrities remind me of my childhood. | | |-. 700 | |Credibility of dead celebrities is more than alive celebrities | |. 21 | | |By using the products endorsed by my favorite dead celebrity gives me a sense of pride |. 543 | | | |Like_reading |. 798 | | | |Keep_up |. 674 | | | |Like_discuss |. 74 | | | |Dead celebrities endorsing a product brings about nostalgia | | |. 640 | |Obsessed |. 645 | | | |Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis . | |Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. | |a Rotation converged in 5 iterations. | Component The column contains the rotated factors that have been extracted. Three factors have been extracted. These factors were named according to the characteristics of the variables belonging to corresponding components: 1. Knowledge: This factor deals with the level of knowledge and interest of the respondents about the dead celebrities. It takes into consideration the variables like interest in discussing, reading and keeping up with the information about the dead celebrity as well as the obsession about the dead celebrity. This factor is also related to the association/connectedness of the celebrity with the respondent. 2. Credibility: This factor deals with the credibility of the dead celebrities over the live ones. Here the trust associated with dead celebrity 3. Nostalgia: This factor deals with variables like nostalgia associated with the dead celebrity. Regression Analysis Using the factor scores of all the above factors regression analysis was done to check which all variables affect the dependent variable the most. Dependent Variable How much do you prefer to buy a product endorsed by your favorite dead celebrity? The responses been obtained in a five point Likert scale as Very highly, highly, not sure, low and not at all. Independent Variables The three factors obtained from the factor analysis are labeled as follows: Factor 1- Knowledge. Factor 2 Credibility. Factor 3 Nostalgia. Results Colinearity Statistics Table 4: Colinearity statistics |Model | |Colinearity Statistics | | | |Tolerance |VIF | |1 |(Constant) | | | | |Knowledge |. 607 |1. 647 | | |Credibility |. 30 |1. 205 | | |Nostalgia |. 617 |1. 621 | Looking at the values of tolerance and VIF (which is much smaller than 10) we can say that the data has no multicollinearity. Model Summary Table 5: Model Summary |Model Summary | |Model |R |R Square |Adjusted R Square |Std. Error of the Estimate | |1 |. 658(a) |. 33 |. 418 |. 717 | |a Predictors: (Constant), nostalgia, credibility, knowledge | The R2, here means that the model here explains about 43. 3 % variation in the dependent variable. Coefficients Table 6: Coefficients |Coefficients(a) | |Model | |Unstandardized Coefficients |Standardized Coefficients |t |Sig. Colinearity Statistics | | | Dependent variable = 0. 695(Knowledge) + 0. 047(Credibility) -0. 100(Nostalgia). From amongst the three independent variables, only the Knowledge is significant over the dependent variable, so the equation can be put as: Dependent variable = 0. 695(Knowledge). CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This study produced some valuable knowledge about the nature of attitude formation toward dead celebrities. From this study it can be clearly seen that dead celebrity endorsement may not be a very popular means of communication especially as far mass media is concerned, it may be used only for niche targeting. Moreover it is seen the factor that predominantly explains consumer behavior or purchase decision is based on the knowledge or association of the dead celebrity. Nostalgia and credibility does not play much of an important role. More over talking about the youth (20-30 age group) there is a remendous lack of interest in relation to the dead celebrity, so dead celebrity endorsement for goods and services aimed at youth is certainly not a viable option. Moreover it can be seen that though the connectedness of the dead celebrities with the people is high but there is a serious lack of decision whether dead celebrity endorsed product will be bought by the consumers (as is evident from the responses which are predominantly not sure), so the consumers are not themselves aware about the eff ectiveness of the dead celebrity endorsing the products and services. Hence the market is not mature enough to accept the products endorsed by dead celebrity. However in older age groups especially in the age group of 40-50 most of the respondents were in the opinion that dead celebrity endorsement may actually make them buy those products. So attractiveness of dead celebrity is there for this age group segment. Certain products like Government health projects is a good example where dead celebrities can be used to endorse owing to their high credibility and trust associated with them. Moreover products like Banking and related services can also be endorsed by dead celebrity simply because of their credibility. Certain FMCG goods can also be endorsed using dead celebrity but this has to be kept in mind that only those goods which are aimed at an age group above 30 is preferably endorsed by the dead celebrity , otherwise the connectedness of the dead celebrity with consumers may not be there. The celebrities associated with entertainment world are the most popular amongst the respondents and contribute more than 70% of the total. Where as the celebrities from industrial field contributes a mere 24%. Though for banking and related services these industrial celebrities are much more preferred than celebrities from the entertainment world. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Dead celebrity endorsement can be used in products like government health projects and banking and related services where trust factor is most predominantly needed. 2. The celebrities like Kishore Kumar and Madhubala can be used to endorse products like FMCG where as celebrities like Dhiru Bhai Ambani and J. R. D Tata can be used to endorse products like Government sponsored health projects and banking services where trust becomes very important than the charisma. 3. Products and services associated with middle age group and higher age group people may be endorsed through dead celebrity but never the products aimed at youth. 4. Also before using dead celebrities in advertisements one way of increasing knowledge about the same is through newspaper articles or using such promotional events on specific dates associated with the celebrities can be a very good idea as this will increase the connectedness of the celebrity. . Rather using national celebrities regional celebrities can be a better idea as there is a certain level of high connectedness with such regional celebrities (for example using Rajkumar in Southern India). 6. Before using any dead celebrity the familiarity of the same with the consumers must be properly gauged as most of the respondents in the study were not familiar with the very concept of dead celebrity endorsement. 7. Niche markets may be targeted using dead celebrities rather than mass markets. 8. Dead celebrity endorsement may be a good option for advertisements related to print medium as images of dead celebrities along with their message can be very inspiring. 9. Voices of dead celebrities especially those related to the entertainment world can be used very effectively mainly leveraging on the popularity of such legendary voices. 10. With celebrities endorsing multiple brands , their credibility is decreasing day by day so using dead celebrities in endorsement can be a welcome change though extremely careful approach relating the same has to be taken as the market for such is highly immature. ANNEXURE 1(QUESTIONNAIRE) Age:- 20-30 51-60 31-4061 and above 41-50 Gender: Male Female Which region are you from? East South West Central North 1. Which dead celebrity would you like to see in the advertisements? a) Amrish Purie) Rajkumar b) Madhubala f) Kalpana Chawla c) Kishore Kumarg) Dhirubhai Ambani d) J. R. D. Tatah) Ashok Kumar . Which products would you like to your favorite dead celebrity endorsing? a) Government Health Projects. b) FMCG Products c) Automobiles d) Consumer Electronics e) Health Care products d) Apparels e) Services like banking and insurance. 3. Please answer the following questions based on your preferences: Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Stronglydisagree a. I enjoy discussing about my favorite dead celebrity in my peer group. b. I identify myself with my favorite dead celebrity. c. I do not like reading about my favorite dead celebrity. . I think the dead celebrities are better than the alive ones, for endorsing products e. Seeing dead celebrities remind me of my childhood. f. I am not obsessed by trivia of my favorite dead celebrity. g. I would like to collect memorabilia of my favorite dead celebrity. h. My friends and I donot like to discuss what my favorite dead celebrity has done. i. Keeping up with my favorite dead celebrity in the media is not an entertaining pastime. j. Credibility of dead celebrities is more than alive celebrities. k. Dead celebrities endorsing a product rings about nostalgia in me. l. By using the products endorsed by my favorite dead celebrity gives me a sense of pride. 4. Would you purchase a product endorsed by your favorite dead celebrities? Yes No 5. How much do you prefer to buy a product endorsed by your favorite dead celebrity? Very Highly Highly Not Sure Low Not at all ANNEXURE 2(SCREE PLOT) REFERENCES 1. Ross D. Patty et al(2009), The use of dead celebrity in advertisement and marketing, Journal of Advertising; Winter 2009; 38, 4; ABI/INFORM Global, pg. 7. 2. Robert D. Evans, Jr et al (200 9), Elvis: Dead and Loving It The Influence of Attraction, Nostalgia, and Risk in Dead Celebrity Attitude Formation, Journal of Management and Marketing Research. 3. Robert E Carr(1997), Why are dead athletes better than live ones? , Sporting Goods Business; Mar 24, 1997; 30, 5; ABI/INFORM Global, pg. 66. 4. McCracken, G. (1989), who is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process. Journal of Consumer Research, December 1989, 310-32. 5. McGuire, William J. 1985) Attitudes and Attitude changes, Handbook of Social Psychology, Eds. Gardner Linzey and Elliot Aronson, vol. 2, NY: Random House, pp. 233-346. 6. Roozen et al(2009), The Relative Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement for Beauty, High- and Low Involvement Product Print Advertisements. 7. Supriyo Patra (2009), Celebrity Endorsement in India–Emerging Trends and Challenges, Journal of Marketing Communication. 8. Susan MacDougall(2005), Hobbies, Obsessions And Dead Celebrity Worship. 9. https:/ /www. commercialalert. org/ 10. www. forbes. com 11. ww. wikipedia. org 12. https://tvtropes. org/ 13. www. thehindu. com. 14. www. ebscohost. com [1] www. forbes. com/deadcelebs . [Dead Celebrity Endorsement] [2010] SUBMITTED BY: (SECTION A) AANSHIKA KHANDELWAL 09BSHYD0007 ANUKRITI KALTA 09BSHYD0142 AMAN AQEEL 09BSHYD0064 BHAVYA JHA 09BSHYD0217 MANMEET SINGHGANDHI 09BSHYD0430 MAINAK MISRA 09BSHYD0420 INDUJITA BOSE 09BSHYD0323 SUBHOJIT KHAN 09BSHYD0859