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Abstract

The telecom industry has explored numerous media channels to expand their customer base. Endorsement of celebrities is one of such channels. The paper examined the influences of celebrity endorsement on customer buying behaviour in the Nigeria telecommunication industry. The attributes of celebrity used in the study include: trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness. To achieve this, hypotheses were drawn in relation to the selected attributes on consumer buying behaviours of telecom products in Benin City and Auchi metropolis in Edo State, Nigeria. A sample size of 374 customers was selected using the judgmental sampling techniques. Structured questionnaire were used as the instrument of data collection while data collected were analyzed using OLS multiple regression estimation techniques. The results show that: trustworthiness of celebrity has positive effects on behaviour of consumers; also, celebrity expertise has positive effects on buying behaviour of consumers (coefficient 0.681 & significance of 0.000), the study therefore concludes that, endorsement of celebrities are veritable strategy for achieving product acceptance among the consumers of telecommunication products.  The celebrities used for endorsing telecomm products have both influential and preferential impact on consumers’ purchase of telecom products. The study therefore recommends that, Telecom firms should always endeavour to produce quality products that will foster trust and believability to both the fans and their customers.
Keywords: Endorsement, Celebrity, Buying Behaviour, Customers, Product.