Celebrity Endorsement in Social Media

This research aims at exploring in-depth the phenomenon of celebrity endorsement on social media and determining the benefits and drawbacks that it brings, what effects it can have on customer loyalty and brand image, challenges it faces and causes, and how the trustworthiness of the celebrity perceived by consumers influences the outcomes of the endorsement. To achieve this objective, detailed interviews with the social media influencers will be conducted, as well as their followers in order to understand their ideas concerning social media celebrity endorsement. This research focuses only on the social media endorsement as opposed to the traditional celebrity endorsement.

Social media platforms have become the most popular communication medium used in the 21st century. In 2017, there were about 0.97 billion social media users globally; the number is projected to reach 3.02 billion by 2021 (Statista 2018). With this trend, social media is a new form of marketing communications that can be used by brands to reach their target audience effectively. In the past few years, activity on social media platforms has increased considerably with more people joining these networks following the spread of smartphones and Internet technology (Cashmore 2014; Kapitan & Silvera 2016). Brands are seeking ways of keeping up with the increased demand for on-the-spot news, as well as providing clients with convenient access to their online stores (Keller 2016). A spot check reveals that the majority of the leading brands have developed and launched applications to increase the level of engagement and awareness of the clientele.

The consumer awareness of companies’ products/services they use is increasing; hence, people desire to increase their trust in chosen brands. At the same time, companies have to build customer loyalty and trust to survive in an extremely competitive market (Muda et al. 2014). With this idea in mind, the social media presence and activity are among the main strategies that companies can use to improve the consumer trust and loyalty and communicate with their target market (Dwivedi, Johnson & McDonald 2015; Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). Social media platforms make it easy for companies to increase the reach of their marketing messages and make them more targeted, and thus effective. These platforms allow businesses to develop an accurate profile of individuals visiting their page and purchasing their products. At the same time, it is difficult for companies to find new potential customers (Apejoye 2013). Usually, firms try to attract new customers by engaging in the marketing campaign an influential individual, in most cases, a celebrity that shares the values of the company and is ready to promote it.

Celebrity endorsement is a marketing approach that businesses have used for a long time for attracting new customers that are interested in what they are offering. Nowadays, people are increasingly becoming aware of what they purchase and seek to trust the brand and its values. This trend poses a challenge to companies that are forced to find novel ways of approaching new customers (Chung & Cho 2017). In this respect, the integration of celebrity endorsement with social media marketing is an effective strategy, with which companies can demonstrate their brand values, boost awareness, and attract the attention of people to their brand, as well as products and services they offer (Dwivedi, Johnson & McDonald 2015). A look at various social media platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, shows numerous instances of celebrities endorsing various types of products either on their personal profiles or pages of the brand (Hung 2014). The influence of celebrities on social media is much larger as compared to traditional media. Ranging from such artists as Lady Gaga to such professional athletes as Cristiano Ronaldo, the lives of these celebrities are often in the spotlight; this fact explains why they regularly receive endorsement deals (Keller 2016). Companies know that associating their brand with an influential person enhances the awareness of their brand. Evidence suggests that celebrity endorsement on social media is more effective than the traditional endorsement because it evokes more awareness, interest, and attention (Mishra, Roy & Bailey 2015; Muda et al. 2014). It is also well targeted since every celebrity and his/her followers occupy a particular niche. Because of the value of celebrity endorsement on social media, companies are spending billions of dollars on these campaigns. For instance, Nike spent about $10 billion in 2016 to get its products endorsed by a number of celebrities, including LeBron James, on different social media platforms (Kunkel, Walker & Hodge 2018). Essentially, social media endorsement is taking the traditional notion of celebrity endorsement to new heights.

Just like any other form of the mass marketing communication, celebrity endorsement on social media needs cautious planning and execution in order to ensure that the message is consistent and appealing to the target audience in order to evoke the desired interest and awareness rather than backlash (Cashmore 2014; Tuten & Solomon 2014). There have been cases involving celebrities receiving backlash from their followers and larger social media fraternity due to the inappropriate behaviour or failure to represent values of the brand (Kapitan & Silvera 2016). Consequently, it is essential to explore in-depth the concept of celebrity endorsement on social media to understand the attitude of celebrities and their followers regarding this new marketing communication strategy.

1.2 Aims and Objectives

The main aim of this research is to explore in-depth the phenomenon of celebrity endorsement on social media and determine the benefits and drawbacks of social celebrity endorsement, how this form of marketing can influence customer loyalty and brand image, the challenges of using social celebrity endorsement, and how the perceived trustworthiness of the celebrity among consumers influences the outcomes of the endorsement. To achieve this objective, detailed interviews will be conducted with the social media influencers and their followers in order to obtain their views on the social media celebrity endorsement. This research will focus only on the social media endorsement as opposed to the traditional celebrity endorsement. It is so because of the increased use of social media by companies in their marketing campaigns (Cashmore 2014). It is evident by the increase in content posted by companies in social media platforms coupled with the decrease in content posted in traditional media, including print and radio (Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). Social media campaigns are considerably cheaper as compared to the traditional media. In addition, this research limits its scope and focuses on celebrities from the Middle East although their followers are located in various regions across the globe. The overarching aim is to develop a detailed understanding of celebrity endorsement on social media, including what makes it work, its benefits and drawback, how it influences the brand image and customer loyalty, and the role played by the trustworthiness of the celebrity in determining the outcomes of the endorsement.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Emerging Marketing Communication Trends

The use of conventional marketing communications, including television, radio, and print media advertisements, has been gradually losing momentum following the emergence of digital communications. The past decade has witnessed a dramatic shift towards digital media platforms, which has resulted in a paradigm shift in marketing communications (Tuten & Solomon 2014). In the current world, consumers are more empowered due to the vast availability of information than they used to be in the past (Cashmore 2014). Previously, marketing was a one-way communication with marketers having control of all marketing communications. Nevertheless, it is no longer the case since marketers do not have control over marketing communications because consumers can create and spread their own content via social media (Hung 2014; Kapitan & Silvera 2016). Social media platforms have offered new opportunities for businesses to engage their target audience. However, the increasing information overload on social media makes companies look for innovative ways to attract the attention of customers beyond just online presence.

Online presence is an important tool for businesses that wish to compete in the modern market. Having a website alone is not sufficient. Instead, companies should integrate social media into their online marketing strategies in order to engage with their customers (Chung & Cho 2017). In this era of social media, the effectiveness of marketing is measured using such metrics as the brand’s mentions, comments, followers and likes among others (Kapitan & Silvera 2016). As a result, the presence in social media platforms is of key importance. In addition, the importance of producing the right content capable of capturing the attention of followers has been emphasized in using social media marketing (Kunkel, Walker & Hodge 2018; Tuten & Solomon 2014). Without valuable and meaningful content, brands risk losing their followers on social media and their reputation.

The significance of social media marketing stems from the rapid development of social media use across the globe. There is agreement among analysts that social media is an enduring trend that is here to last; hence, businesses must be prepared to this shift to the digital world and understand the associated implications for them to be able to remain competitive (Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). Consumers rarely take businesses seriously, especially if they do not have a presence in social media. In fact, more consumers prefer to communicate with their brands and make inquiries using social media than the traditional approach, involving making calls to customer service agents (Brown 2016). These trends simply serve to indicate the value of social media in contemporary marketing (Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017; Kapitan & Silvera 2016). Additionally, with the increased popularity of the mobile Internet, social media activity is increasing. This fact presents a unique opportunity for companies to engage with their consumers.

The underlying inference from these trends is that the marketing world is undergoing a tremendous change today. The conventional marketing approach makes emphasis on the 4Ps of the marketing mix: price, place, product, and promotion (Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). However, in the current era, the effectiveness of the 4Ps of the marketing mix is reducing considerably. Conventionally, marketing is to be controlled tightly in order to be effective; nevertheless, the complexities associated with the modern business environment make it difficult to implement a tightly controlled marketing approach (Tuten & Solomon 2014). Because of the increase in the information overload and consumers being empowered, companies are no longer in a favourable position in terms of the power balance. Under the present state of affairs, companies have limited control over their brand messages (Brown 2016). It is so because consumers are playing an active role in creating the meanings and brand messages; thus, they are now partners in the marketing process rather than mere recipients of marketing messages as it used to be in the past (Shank & Lyberger 2015). Consumers are becoming increasingly involved in influencing the meanings related to brand and products/services without having to depend on the information that companies spread. The modern marketing environment also requires marketers to adopt a long-term perspective that will focus on developing meaningful relationships rather than earning short-term profits (Brown 2016). As a result, according to the general commonplace truth, marketers should make use of interactive marketing approaches and engage consumers in the process of shaping the meanings of a brand. One of such approaches uses social media; it is explained in the following subsection.

2.2 Social Media

Daily, millions of people across the globe use the Internet for various reasons, including entertaining, information sharing, communicating with others, searching for information, education, and marketing (Chung & Cho 2017). One of the notable Internet technologies is social media, which has been instrumental in democratizing the content found on the Web and changing the role of users in the spread of information (Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). In particular, social media allows users to engage in the content creation. Furthermore, social media platforms have increased accessibility to information, thus facilitating conversations and creating online communities. All these features increase the connectivity of users. Social media platforms have also changed the role of the Internet users from just passive to active users; this change has contributed to the information democratization (Kapitan & Silvera 2016). Unlike the traditional media, social media is changing the manner, in which users share, discover, and read information (Dwivedi, Johnson & McDonald 2015). Nowadays, people do not need to be experts to post any information on the Internet. The general implication of this trend is that businesses are increasingly losing the control that they used to have over their marketing communication channels.

Due to the information sharing ability of social media platforms, businesses use them for marketing purposes. This trend is evident by businesses investing substantial resources in social media advertising that indicates the significance of this marketing strategy (Dwivedi, Johnson & McDonald 2015). The use of social media for marketing is recommended when the objective of marketing is developing long-term relationships with prospective and existing customers (Brown 2016). In addition, social media is effective in facilitating the word-of-mouth marketing, which develops on the basis of comments, reviews, and sharing of content by users on social media. In addition, by using hashtags, social media platforms facilitate the connectivity of users interested in a particular brand. There are several social media strategies that can be used for effective marketing, including blogging, vlogging, and viral marketing (Chung & Cho 2017). A recent social media strategy that is being used by businesses is celebrity endorsement.

2.3 Celebrity Endorsement

Celebrity endorsement exists in two broad forms: unpaid and paid. Unpaid celebrity endorsement occurs when a celebrity uses a product/service and takes a picture of him/herself with this product/service and posts on social media. As a result, they might result in some of his/her followers using the product (Apejoye 2013). In its turn, paid endorsement entails paying a celebrity for the promotion of the products/services under a given brand. In the current competitive marketplace, the brand’s image and credibility are important considerations in gaining a competitive advantage in the market (Kapitan & Silvera 2016; Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). Therefore, when choosing a celebrity to promote the brand, the image of the celebrity and his/her credibility are important. Companies use celebrities to endorse their products on social media with the aim of increasing the reach of people viewing its posts and increasing the brand awareness and recognition (Dwivedi, Johnson & McDonald 2015; Tuten & Solomon 2014). It is so because celebrity influencers have a broader network and every person in their network also has his/her own network, thus providing to a broader reach. If a celebrity endorses a product on social media, his/her followers will view the post and will be influenced to purchase the endorsed the product and spread the word to their friends about the same product (Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). The effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on social media is increasing with consumers ignoring commercials and billboards and preferring to conduct their own research of the brand. Keller (2016) explains that consumers no longer place their trust on a pretty face that they see on the billboard; instead, they are more interested in hearing honest views and opinions regarding brands. This fact underscores the significant role played by user ratings and reviews in shaping the opinions of consumers. It is so because such reviews are not sponsored; thus, this fact ensures the higher levels of honesty and trustworthiness of information (Chung & Cho 2017). Most reviews on social media platforms are not paid; hence, users have the freedom to post negative reviews if they did not like the post-purchase experience (Kapitan & Silvera 2016). For the case of celebrity endorsement, consumers rely on the trust that they have in their celebrities to shape their attitude to brands.

2.3.1 Definition of Celebrity Endorsement

Celebrity endorsement refers to a type of advertisement that involves the use of a celebrity or an influential person for promoting a brand, product, or service. Traditional celebrity endorsement was performed on conventional media platforms, including print and television; however, the endorsement has evolved to include the use of social media (Chung & Cho 2017; Keller 2016). Celebrity endorsement is akin to influencer marketing that entails finding a person who is an expert in their field, has followers or a fan base, is respected, and shares the same values as the company has, and using this influential person for the purposes of promoting the brand. As a rule, influencers are extremely active on social media platforms and play the role of niche promoters and brand advocates (Kapitan & Silvera 2016). Although celebrity endorsement and influencer marketing are based on the same fundamental concept of using an individual with the massive following for promotional purposes, there is a difference between the concepts in the sense that influencers are not necessarily celebrities (Khamis, Ang & Welling 2017). Instead, influencers are specialists and experts with a particular form of following on social media, for example, YouTube beauty gurus and mommy blogs. It is also imperative to differentiate between celebrity endorsement and sponsorship. In sponsorship, a company pays for the advertisement. In the case of endorsement, the celebrity is either paid or unpaid to support the brand and its products (Hung 2014). From the perspective of customers, celebrity endorsement is viewed as being more authentic as compared to celebrity endorsement.