It has been very rightly pointed out that India is a country that breathes in Bollywood and breathes out cricket, a phenomenon well known and well used by the media planners of the Companies who has found that the quickest way to script a successful advertizing campaign is by roping in an actor or a sportsperson. With ever increasing competition as an aftermath of globalization, the ways in which companies used to do business has changed radically. This is an epoch of new beginnings which has changed the very paradigm of advertizing, now is the era of tough competition, a time when virtually each company is trying to endure the tough market environment by creating sustainable competitive advantage strategies.

One method to gain an advantage in a business competition is through strategic use of advertising. There has been a paradigm shift from viewing advertising as a mere tool for communications to a tool for gaining competitive advantage by creating differentiation. In addition there has been a distinct trend to integrate marketing communications elements—advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and marketing public relations. This trend of integration is making the competition even tougher for the companies. The companies on the other hand are making all possible moves to gain the mind share and heart share of the customers. Therefore the use of celebrities in advertising has become a fairly common practice for major firms; all in the hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing and corporate communication attempts by establishing emotional connect with the consumers. The celebrity endorser remains a much loved choice among advertising agencies. Celebrities presumably have the ability to hold viewers' attention and penetrate the clutter of the multitude of advertising spots that compete for audience attention. Today, around 20% of all commercials screened in United States ( Bradley 1996) and Great Britain ( Erdogan et al 2001) include some sort of celebrity endorsements and 10% of advertising expenditure goes toward celebrity endorsers ( Bradley, 1996 ). A recent estimate indicates that the use of celebrity endorsers in the United States has increased from a little over 15% to about 25% of advertisements between 1979 and 1997 (Stephens and Rice, 1998). In India Celebrity endorsement is worth more that Rs 250 crore and growing. Charges per ad for stars like the Big B and King Khan range anywhere between Rs 7.5 crore to Rs 2.5 crore respectively. ( CNN-IBN, 2007) A research report by Adex India, brought out by TAM, says there has been 49 per cent growth in celebrity advertising volume in 2007 compared to 2006. Since 2003, celebrity endorsement volume on television has increased by more than six times. Expectedly, the advertising money spent on celebrities has gone up, too. In 2001, only 25 per cent of advertising money went into well-known pockets a growth of almost 60 per cent, (Percept Talent Management, 2008) On an average, companies are spending 0.7 per cent of their annual brand sales volume on celebrity endorsements and a whopping 35 per cent on media buying.

But off late there has been a decline in the celebrity endorsements in the West but in India it is still a much favored strategy as it is believed that celebrity endorsement ensures high recall. A Celebrity Endorsement Survey conducted by India Market Research Bureau and public relations firm IPAN, states that 86 per cent Indians remember advertisements owing to the celebrities that endorse them. Since 2003, celebrity endorsement volume on television has gone up by more than six times. An another study by AdEx India said there was a 49 per cent growth in celebrity endorsement ad volumes on TV during 2007 compared to 2006. Bollywood, with an 81 per cent share of the audio-visual media endorsement pie, outperformed other areas in terms of star-power. Cricket came second with a 14 per cent share. Conversely, star endorsement alone is less likely to influence the buying decision as the same survey indicates that 78 per cent Indian consumers consider quality as the most important factor while buying a product and only 3 percent said it was celebrity endorsements. Contrary to this study there are many others which have not only proved that celebrities endorsing a company or brand can greatly increase consumers' awareness of an advertisement, capture their attention, make the advertisements more memorable and also influence purchase decisions. Therefore the goal of this article is to reconcile theory and observation by empirically testing the extent to which celebrity endorsement strategy works. This study examines the impact of the product endorsements by celebrities on consumers' attitude and buying intentions. The subjects' perceptions towards endorsers' credibility, trustworthiness, expertise and likeability are studied to gain insights about the risks and rewards associated with endorsement strategy.

Celebrity endorsements as a promotional strategy to communicate product attributes are a phenomenon which is not new ( Kamins, 1990). The annual survey reports of Forbes magazine reveal that many celebrities earn much more money from their endorsement contracts than from their usual area of expertise (Lane, 1994). The extensive and importunate use of celebrities in advertising suggests that they are worth the costs associated with hiring them ( Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995). There are countless influences that affect consumers and consequently their brand consumption and one of the most intriguing is through the celebrity endorsement process. It is believed that a celebrity is the mouthpieces for a brand in communicating messages to target audiences rather more effectively than any other voice because of the ability to establish an emotional connect with the consumers. The personalities of celebrities are very strong and they can rapidly change perceptions of a brand and it thus makes celebrity endorsement as an unparallel strategy for gaining competitive environment.

The word 'celebrity' has its roots in Latin which means “an individual who is known by the public for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed” ( Friedman and Friedman 1979) The first 'celebrities' in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome were leaders, religious elders, soldiers, poets, artists, sportsmen and philosophers. They were the ones whose actions had a direct bearing on the lives of everyone within their political and geographical boundaries. With the exception of a small number of select artists, writers and religious leaders, the primary celebrities from the 1500s to the 1800s were kings, queens and other governmental leaders, who exercised strict control over the public dissemination of their images and personal information.

Celebrities have been used as brand endorsers for more than 50 years. The Old Poland Company, successfully used a testimonial about the company by Rev. J.K. Chase of Rummney, New Hampshire, in an advertisement which was published in 1864 ( Kaikati 1987). Piccalo (2005) has traced the history of celebrity endorsements to the 1800's, when Queen Victoria's laundress was used to endorse Greenfield Patent Starch and Mark Twain's face appeared on a bag of flour and two different kinds of cigar boxes. In the 1930's Johnny Weissmuller appeared on the Wheaties box. In the 1940's people took note that Ronald Reagan and Lucille Ball endorsed cigarettes (The Big New Celebrity Boom, 1978; Piccalo, 2005).

The 1980's served as the pinnacle of celebrity endorsements, including Michael Jackson's $50-million dollar deal with Pepsi, Bill Cosby's $1.5 million for endorsing Coca-Cola and Jell-O pudding pops, and James Garner and Mariette Hartley's $3 million for promoting Polaroid (Piccalo, 2005; Sherman, 1985). The 1990's saw Michael Jordan's net worth at $10 billion for his multitude of endorsements, and Oprah Winfrey became more than just a talk show host; she was endorsing everything from books to cars on her show (Harrington, 1998; Piccalo, 2005). However, it was only in the twentieth century that the celebrity phenomenon truly permeated society, media, and culture ('Mahony & Meenaghan, 1997). The use of celebrities as part of marketing communications strategy became a fairly common practice for major firms making celebrity endorsement is an omnipresent characteristic of modern marketing ( McCracken 1989).

The consumers of today live in a media saturated and product cluttered environment and there a number of competing brands advertised in the same product category which increases the likelihood that the target brand and its advertised attributes will be either confused with other product information or simply passed over (Keller, Heckler, & Houston, 1998). Overlapping themes might become confusing to the consumer, resulting in the consumers forming weak associations with the product and the advertisement (Keller et. al., 1998). This is where the celebrities come to the rescue of the advertisers. Friedman and Friedman in his classic work noted that endorsers can be of many types, including the typical consumer, the product class expert and the celebrity. He concluded that it is useful for a promoter to use an endorser for his product, rather than employ a comparable advertisement without an endorsement because the endorser affected somewhat higher taste expectations, intent-to-purchase and believability. Also, advertisements using a celebrity spokesperson led to higher ratings of the ad, attitude toward the product, and purchase intention for products involving image or taste, and led to better ad and brand name recall regardless of the product. In the same vein Atkin and Block (1983); Petty et al. (1983) and Ohanian (1991) suggest that celebrity endorsers produced more positive attitudes towards advertising and greater purchase intentions than a noncelebrity endorser. They increased awareness of a company's advertising, create positive feelings towards brands and are perceived by consumers as more entertaining (Solomon 2002).

A lot of studies have been conducted in this area which only substitutes the notion that getting a product endorsed by a celebrity does in all certainty enhance recall leading to purchase. Marketing has sought to use the varied meanings personified by celebrities to assist the achievement of certain advertising objectives (O'Mahony & Meenaghan, 1997). The celebrity endorser remains a favorite among advertising agencies ( Kamins, 1990 ). Celebrities presumably have the ability to hold viewers' attention and penetrate the clutter of the multitude of advertising spots that compete for audience attention.

McCracken (1989) argues that celebrities are different from the anonymous person, because celebrities deliver meanings of extra refinement, profundity, and authority. The writer puts forward that celebrities offer a range of personality and lifestyle meanings that the anonymous person cannot provide. He contends that even the most heavily stereotyped celebrity represents not a single meaning, but an interconnected set of meanings and the results generally indicate that a celebrity is more effective than a non-celebrity.

However, the effectiveness of the celebrity endorser depends, partly, upon the meanings he or she brings to the endorsement process. Kaikati (1987 in Erdogan 1999) believes that celebrities with world-wide popularity can help companies break through many such roadblocks like time, space, language, relationships, power, risk, masculinity, femininity and many others (Mooij 1994; Hofstede 1984). Research suggests that the type of endorser may interact with the type of product endorsed and found that celebrity endorsers are more appropriate where products involve high social and psychological risk ( Atkin and Block 1983; Friedman and Friedman 1979; Kamins 1989; Kamins et al. 1989).

In similar line Packard (1991) believes that celebrity endorsement strategy works when selling products and services as status symbols since celebrities are individuals of indisputably high status. In a study by Woodside and Taylor (1978), consumers related higher quality products with more heavily advertised products and purchase intentions were also associated with higher quality nationally, advertised products. They found that advertising may influence the perception of quality in consumers' minds, which in turn may affect their purchase behavior.

The use of celebrity spokespersons help advertisers to stand out from the crowd and get attention ( Kaikati 1987). A central goal of advertising is the persuasion of customers, i.e., the active attempt to change or modify consumers' attitude towards brands. Specific image, high profile and familiarity of a celebrity endorser make the advertisement distinctive and thus improve the communicative ability ( Atkin and Block 1983; Sherman 1985 ). Research has also found an impact of celebrity image on perceived brand image ( Walker et al 1992) which helps the marketer to re-position an existing brand or design or introduce the new brand ( Kaikati 1987). The use of a celebrity endorser has also been found to generate a positive impact on the economic return of the firm ( Agrawal and Kamakura 1995; Mathur et al. 1997).

In addition, many scholars have attempted to construct models addressing these considerations to aid in selecting celebrity endorsers. Erdogan (1999) identified four models namely the Source Credibility Model by Hovland et al. (1953), the Match-up Hypothesis by Forkan (1980) and Kamins (1989, 1990), the Source Attractiveness Model by McGuire (1985), and the Meaning Transfer Model by McCracken (1989). Research conducted by social psychologists over the past 30 years demonstrates that a source perceived as highly credible is more persuasive than a low credibility sender ( Aaker et al. 1992 ; Erdogan 1999; Hass 1981 in Atkin and Block 1983 ). Ohanian (1991) investigated the relationship of attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise to intention to purchase and found that only the perceived expertise of a celebrity was a significant factor in generating more intentions to buy the brand. The author suggests that for a celebrity spokespersons to be truly effective, they should be knowledgeable, experienced and qualified to talk about the product. Till and Busler (1998) showed that an endorser's expertise is more important than physical attractiveness in affecting attitude toward an endorsed brand. Further, researchers have identified three components as making up the credibility construct: knowledge or expertise, trustworthiness, and appearance or attractiveness ( Baker and Churchill, 1977; Joseph, 1982; Kahle and Homer, 1985; Maddox and Rogers, 1980). Source Attractiveness Model is based on four dimensions that is; familiarity, likeability, similarity and attractiveness. The celebrity's stamp of approval can bring added value to a brand's equity and can create an emotional bond only if the fit is right ( Bradley, 1996).

Corporations invest significant amounts of money to align themselves and their products with big name celebrities in the belief for two reasons, first that they will draw attention to the endorsed products/services and second transfer image values to these products/services by virtue of their celebrity profile and engaging attributes ( Erdogan 1999 ; Ohanian 1991; Mahony and Meenaghan 1998). Moreover, Newsom et al. (2000) believe that celebrities can increase recognition and their presence almost guarantees publicity. Findings by Agrawal and Kamakura (1995) and Mathur et al. (1997) emphasized the effectiveness of use of celebrity endorsement.

In India there has been a tremendous increase in the number of celebrity endorsements. The celebrity endorsement industry today is estimated to be a 150cr to 200 cr industry and growing (G. Muruganantham and S Kaliyamoorthy, 2006) Seventy five thousand Brands are competing in Indian market from consumers (Jyothi K Tamizh and C Samudhra Rajkumar, 2005) to gain acceptance. In India we see a spurt in the celebrity endorsement of Brands however there is very little empirical evidence to show how celebrity endorsements affect consumers' attitude and buying behavior. This study therefore is an attempt to study the effects of Celebrity endorsements on Consumers.

There were two specific objectives of the present study:

1. To find out how consumers respond to the product a celebrity endorses.
2. Whether the emotional connection between a celebrity and a fan can be encashed by marketers by way of influencing the purchase decisions.

For conducting the present study the sampling method was Stratified Random Sampling which was chosen after critical review of literature. The Sample Size was 350, drawn equally from school goers and college students. School and College Students were made respondents of the Study because according to research worldwide it is estimated that they have the most spending power, and spend an estimated $153 billion a year on everything from computers to apparel (Brand, 2000). This group of individuals is very trend conscious, knowledgeable in accessing the media, as well as advertising and they have grown up in a consumer orientated society and are individuals are big spenders, trendsetters, receptive to new products and have tremendous potential for being lifelong customers. They also are constantly searching for their independence, and are easily influenced from celebrities. (Bush et. al., 2004).

Young consumers have the indirect purchasing power of their parents, which makes them a very lucrative consumer segment. The children's direct influence in parental purchases was estimated to be around $ 188 billion dollars in 1997, up from $132 billion in 1990, $50 billion in 1984 and $20 billion in the mid-70s. Therefore globally the marketers spend huge sums of money at advertising campaigns alone. According to estimates $ 2 billion is roughly spent on advertising to young consumers every year.

Secondary data played an important part for this study. The literature review comprised of academic work and other published sources related to the theories in consumer behavior, celebrity endorsement, and advertising.

This research was conducted using a questionnaire designed to understand consumer's views on endorsements by celebrities, measuring their attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness. For the study, a questionnaire containing 22 statements was specially constructed. The Questionnaire consisted of a five point Likert scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree", with the middle of the scale identified by the response alternative "neither agree nor disagree". A preliminary survey was carried out through a questionnaire consisting of both open ended and closed ended questions to get the initial feedback on the issues concerned. The instrument was then prepared. The validity of the scales used in the questionnaire was measured through face and content validity. Face validity which is the extent to which a measurement scale seems to measure what it is supposed to was determined by the judgment of the researcher, who compiled the questionnaire with various scales, which logically appeared to accurately reflect what they were supposed to measure. Content validity was measured by firstly defining what exactly was needed to be measured. The key components were identified and opinions were sought from experts on whether certain items should be included or even excluded. Statisticians were approached to assess the scale and items selected in this study.

The reliability of the scales was assessed through the adaptation of the research of Cooper and Schindler (2006). The internal consistency of reliability when items in the measurement scale all coincided with the same underlying construct was measured by using Cronbach's alpha and corrected item to total correlations. The Alpha value was .913 which can be said to be an indicator of good reliability of the instrument. The ability to connect emotionally to customers was measured using 11 items namely attractiveness, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, sincerity, dependability, expertise, qualified, experience, knowledge and skill, the Cronbach's alpha of which was .845, similarly risk was measured using 7 items, the Cronbach's alpha of which was .857. The effect on purchase decision was measured using 4 items, the Cronbach's alpha of which was .741. The Questionnaire thus prepared was administered on a sample of 350. Out of a total of 350 questionnaires that was circulated only 287 completely filled usable questionnaires were received. The data was analyzed using SPSS 14.0.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics Results of the variables

The Analysis of Respondents showed that school students' response was 43% and college students' 57, totaling to 82% response rate. As evident from the table above the response rate was high which can be attributed to the fact that the distribution was personalized and the willingness of the recipients to cooperate. It is also seen that students are generally motivated and take active interest in filling up questionnaires. A look at the demographic Profile of the Respondents shows that the Respondents were from age group of 10 to 25. 58% of respondents were males and 42%females. The monthly household incomes of most respondents were in the range of Rs. 11,000 to Rs. 30000 respectively.

The descriptive analysis was carried out as shown in Table 1. Mean was calculated to find out how the maximum number of respondents responded to each item. It indicates the level of significance. The mean and standard deviations are the most widely utilized statistical tools which is used to determine the central tendency (typical score) and variability (spread) of interval data. It gives a basic idea as to how the employees responded on the scale, i.e. towards the satisfaction side or dissatisfaction side.

The Null hypotheses was formed and were tested using TTests. For Hypothesis 1 stating 'No relationship will be found between the perception of a celebrity's ability to form an emotional connect with the consumers and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study”, the Ttest results are shown below in Table 2.

Table 2. T-Test for perception of a celebrity's ability to form an emotional connect with the consumers

All calculated value is more than the Table value: 1.645, therefore Null Hypothesis is rejected. Relationship will be found between the perception of a celebrity's ability to form an emotional connect with the consumers and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study”.

For Hypothesis 2 stating No relationship will be found ' between the perception of risk of celebrity endorser and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study', the t-test results are shown in Table 3 as follows; All calculated value is more than the Table value: 1.645, therefore Null Hypothesis is rejected. Relationship will be found between the perception of risk of celebrity endorser and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study'.

Table 3. T-Test for perception of risk of celebrity endorser and celebrity endorsements.

For Hypothesis 3 stating No relationship will be found between the purchase intentions and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study', the T-test results are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. T-Test for purchase intention and of celebrity endorsement

All calculated value is more than the Table value: 1.645, therefore Null Hypothesis is rejected. Relationship will be found between the purchase intentions and celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study’.

This study examined the impact of the product endorsements by celebrities on consumers' attitude and buying intentions. The primary research questions related to the effect of celebrity endorsements on consumers.

The findings related to the subjects' perceptions towards celebrity endorsers' ability to connect with consumers. The results indicate that there exists a positive view about celebrity endorsements among respondents of the study. Also, there is a relationship found between the perceptions of celebrity endorsers and purchase intentions of consumer among groups on the basis of educational qualification. That is to say that both the children and adults are equally affected by celebrity endorsers. The risks associated with celebrity endorsements are studied but the results indicate that the rewards outweigh the risk. In short the findings indicated that celebrity endorsements generated higher purchase intentions, positive attitudes toward the ad and positive attitudes toward the brand.

The present study is constrained by inherent certain limitations. The sample was restricted to one geographical area so maybe it will not be suitable for all geographical regions. More robust statistical methods could be used to analyze the data. Constraints of Time and Money and Seriousness and knowledge level of respondents were another limitation. The final limitation was deficiency of previous research related to celebrity endorsement in India. Thus, future research may be needed to support this study.

The sole aim of the advertisers is to make their product distinct and so valuable that the consumer becomes a repeat buyer. Since, the consumers of today live in a media saturated and product cluttered environment, advertisers must be careful not to confuse the consumer. The greater the number of competing brands advertised in a product category, the greater the likelihood that the target brand and its advertised attributes will be either confused with other product information or simply passed over. When multiple brands are advertised in a specific product category, overlapping themes might become confusing to the consumer, resulting in the consumers forming weak associations with the product and the advertisement (Keller et. al., 1998). Therefore the challenge before the advertisers is to make their advertisement different from the others. One of the most popular forms of advertising strategy is to use celebrity endorsers.

This study examined the impact of the celebrity endorsements consumers' attitude and buying intentions. The primary research questions related to the effect of celebrity endorsements on consumers. The findings related subjects' perceptions towards endorsers' credibility, trustworthiness, expertise and likeability showed that there exists a positive view about celebrity endorsements among respondents irrespective.

The empirical contribution of the study is that it provides empirical evidence with respect to celebrity endorsement strategy. An applied contribution of this study is that it is beneficial for the companies who want to utilize celebrity endorsements for their products and devise their advertising strategy accordingly. The implication is that advertisers need to be cautious when using celebrity advertising as there are risks associated with celebrity endorsements. This could certainly be true of those celebrities who are seen as endorsing many types of products across a wide spectrum. The study has implications for future research, in future; effect of celebrity to specific product categories can be studied. Also the sample could be drawn from different geographical regions. Effect of Uniqueness of a celebrity can be studied by comparing a Celebrity endorsing single product versus one endorsing multiple products. Further research should measuring a celebrity advertisement versus a non-celebrity advertisement within the same brand. This would be important because it would show how effective or ineffective celebrity endorsements are. Research should also include measuring celebrities before they are selected to appear in an advertisement. This can help make the advertisement as effective as possible.