The Impact of Celebrity Endorsement in Mobile Telecommunication Industry of Sri Lanka: With Reference to The Undergraduates in Government Universities

Abstract

Mobile Telecommunication Industry is a fast growing industry that acquires more consumers to their respective service providers day by day. Most of the mobile telecommunication service providers tend to endorse their service by a celebrity or celebrities. Celebrity is a personality who is known to the public for his or her accomplishments in the areas. Celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising used by all most all well-known products and services to enhance their profitability. This research aims to analyze undergraduates’ behaviour in using telecommunication services in relation to celebrity endorsement for advertising. The research study emphasized on the undergraduates’ category of the society as it represents the young generation with the layers of the society. Primary data was collect through structured questionnaire regarding the factors considered about the celebrity concerned such as trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, similarity, and respect in contrast other contributing factors of the mobile telecommunication such as network coverage, rates per minute, and other additional features in choosing telecommunication service provider. Undergraduates in government universities in a particular time are identified as the population of the research while the internal undergraduates belong to University of Kelaniya are the target population of which the sample was two hundred (200) undergraduates. The sample selected by stratified random sampling technique included to probability sampling methods while identifying the different faculties as strata. Hypotheses were constructed in order to gain the objectives of the research. Therefore Descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analysis of data. The findings of the research conclude that there is no significant relationship between celebrity endorsement and undergraduates’ behaviour in consuming mobile telecommunication services and there is no difference in buying intention among the undergraduates in different faculties. Therefore celebrity endorsement is a non-effective aspect in terms of telecommunication advertising with reference to the undergraduates in Sri Lanka.