Impact of celebrity advertising on purchase intention of University Students: The moderating role of celebrity advertising risk

The study sought to assess the impact advertising on purchase intention of university students, after controlling the moderating effect celebrity advertising risk. The study was conducted in University of Cape Coast. Descriptive survey design was used to survey 392 university students out of a total regular student population of 19389. The sample was selected systematically and issued with questionnaires through self-administration. A 100% return rate was recorded. An internal consistency of 0.806 was recorded for the instrument. Data analysis was done through SPSS (version 22.0) configured with process macro (v2.16.3). Regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses H1, H2, H3 and H4. Pearson `product-moment correlation was conducted to test H5 and H6. It was found that celebrity advertising role significantly predict positive variance in purchase intention for telecommunication products that are promoted through celebrity advertising. Same was the case of celebrity advertising. Celebrity advertising risk moderates the predictive relationship between celebrity advertising role and purchase intention but does not moderate the predictive relation between celebrity personality characteristics and purchase intention. It is also concluded that there is a statistically positive correlations between celebrity advertising role and customers’ purchase intentions and between celebrity personality characteristics and customers’ purchase intention. Personality audit of celebrities needs to be carried out before contracting these celebrities to promote brands of telecommunication network providers in order to avoid or reduce celebrity. Also, businesses and marketers must utilize celebrity advertising to augment other marketing communication mixes to get their brands patronized.