CONSUMERS PERCEPTION OF THE USE OF ENDORSEMENTS IN ADVERTISING: A STUDY OF IKEJA RESIDENTS

The study evaluated consumers perception of the use of endorsements in advertising with focus on Ikeja Residents. Major objectives were to ascertain the level of exposure of residents of Ikeja LGA to celebrity-endorsed advertisement; investigate how the residents perceive the celebrity endorsement in advertisements of consumer goods and examine the extent to which celebrity endorsement influence residents‟ preference of a particular brand. The study was hinged on the theoretical assumptions of Perceptions and Congruity Theories. Survey method was adopted with Ikeja residents as population of the study. Four hundred respondents were selected through stratified sampling technique, while questionnaire copies were used as data collection instrument. Findings showed that: the level of exposure of Ikeja residents to celebrity endorsed advertisement was high 94.8% of the respondents said they came across advertisement messages frequently; through TV (15.2%); radio (10.6%); billboard (6.4%); newspaper (3.1%) and online (9%). 84.5% of the respondents said that they came across celebrities endorsing products in advertisements. 72.7% of the perceived the use of celebrities in advertisements as attractive and convincing; 94.8% of the respondents said that the use of celebrities makes brand advert more persuasive. Celebrity endorsement influence residents‟ preference of a particular brand to a very high extent. 88.7% of the respondents agreed that when advert is endorsed by a loved a celebrity, consumers will perceive the product as effective. The study concluded that when advertisers employed various celebrities to endorse a brand, it produced appealing aesthetics that may convinced buyers into purchasing the advertised brand. The study recommended that advertisers must employ strategic celebrity personalities and aesthetics elements to make their brand sellable to the market and that celebrity employed must be rightly selected to align with the nature of the
brand.