CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT TOWARDS BRAND SWITCHING BEHAVIOR WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SRI LANKAN MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY IN BADULLA DISTRICT

Abstract

The mobile telecommunication industry has become an extraordinary part of today’s dynamic and modern world. As the market becomes more mature, mobile communication services become more homogeneous and the increasing competition for acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers to maintain and to improve their market share and profitability. On another hand, the mobile telecommunication industry is one of the industries which possess high rates of brand switching. Therefore, all industry players in the telecommunication industry trying to retaining the existing customers and attract new customers to increase their customer base, to achieve these, aims marketers are spending a huge sum of money on celebrity endorsement. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of celebrity endorsement towards brand switching behavior of the mobile telecommunication industry in Badulla district. The researcher has been used to TEARS model measure weather impact celebrity endorsement on customer switching behavior. This research has one independent variable and four dimensions namely celebrity endorsement, trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, and respect. The samples are collected from customers who are using mobile telecommunication services in the Badulla district. 320 questionnaires were used to collect data and those 320 questionnaires divided into 80 for Mobitel, Dialog, Airtel, and Hutch. Here, the researcher adopts Descriptive statistics, Correlation analysis, and Regression analysis to test the research questions. This study found that there is a moderate level of contribution to celebrity endorsement, trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, respect of the celebrity endorser on brand switching behavior of the mobile telecommunication industry. Also, found a strong positive relationship between celebrity endorsement, trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, respect for brand switching behavior of the mobile telecommunication industry. Another finding was celebrity endorsement, trustworthiness, expertise, respect is significantly impact of brands switching behavior of mobile telecommunication industry in Badulla district, also found that there is no significant impact on attractiveness of the endorser for switching behavior of the customer in mobile telecommunication industry.