The impact of celebrity endorsements on consumers’ perceptions of the Nike sports brand.

Abstract

Celebrity endorsements are constantly growing and increasing in popularity in marketing campaigns and especially in the marketing of sports brands. The aim of this research is to study celebrity endorsements and to determine the impact it has on consumers’ perceptions of the sports brands and the Nike brand in particular. The sample size consisted of 378 students from UKZN. They completed the questionnaire compromising of 9 sections. The sampling method that was used in this study was the simple random sampling method. A probability sampling technique was used to achieve a higher generalisation of results. Section A of the questionnaire was based on the biographical particulars of respondents. Section B to Section I of the questionnaire pertains to questions dealing with the sub-dimensions of this study. The Validity and Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Factor Analysis and Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha respectively. Descriptive and Inferential statistics was employed to generate the results of the study. The literature study revealed that celebrity endorsements play an important role in the marketing of sports brands, even though the cost of using a celebrity as an endorser is high. It also highlighted the importance of choosing the correct endorser for the brand. If the endorser behaves in a negative manner, this behaviour impacts on the perceptions that consumers have of the brand. Therefore marketers need to select their endorsers correctly. Marketers need to be aware that if a celebrity endorsement does not go according to plan, they need to know how to respond appropriately in order to prevent this from harming the image and perceptions of the brand in the minds of the consumers.