The effect of celebrity endorsements on consumers' buying behavior in South West Nigeria

Advertisers engage celebrities to endorse their products. This chapter hinges on the meaning transfer theory of McCracken that says that celebrity image can be transferred to items that users buy. Using the survey method, this work examined if celebrity endorsements affect buying. Copies of the questionnaire were administered on 1,516 residents drawn from urban, suburban, and rural areas of Lagos and Ogun States, Nigeria. The Pearson correlation found positive relationships between celebrity endorsements and buyers' decisions. The tests show that celebrity endorsements influence the purchase decisions of the residents, and these buyers' avoidance of a product is more clearly influenced by celebrity endorsements. People buy products because of the celebrities that endorsed them. However, some respondents, especially those in the rural areas, were not as influenced into buying these products as are those from the urban and sub-urban areas. It is advised that advertisers pursue other avenues to draw patronage from this area