A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Award of Degree of Masters of Business Administration in Corporate
Management (MBA-CM) of Mzumbe University
The study was conducted to assess the impact of celebrity endorsement on
customers’ perception using TIGO Company as its case study. Four objectives that
guided the study were, assessing the reasons for TIGO Company using celebrity
endorsement, the relationship between the celebrity endorsement and brand equity at
TIGO company, customers’ perception and opinion on celebrity endorsement at
TIGO and the drawbacks / challenges of using celebrity endorsement on TIGO
brand image. This study was a descriptive as it explains the causal relationship
between celebrity endorsement and customer perception. From the population 170
people were selected and interviewed to collect data for analysis. Purposive
sampling and convenient techniques were used. Tools used in data collection were
questioners the study in analysis of its data was guided by descriptive model. The
study came up with general conclusions that TIGO Company uses celebrities in its
adverts to create awareness and control the perception of the people on its goods and
services, to make their products and services more popular among the people and
create a reputable company image to enjoy the social capital. Celebrity endorsement
and brand image have a positive relationship and also all of their dimensions
positively correlated hence the firm uses card staking technique to check the
credibility and the fame of the celebrities to the service being offered. Also the study
has revealed most of customers are influenced and like adverts with celebrities in
them and the message is easily transmitted to them. Apparently the most challenging
factor in using celebrities is that the cost is high compared to other forms of
advertising. It is recommended that various elements should be considered when
choosing the mode of advertising if to use a celebrity or not by looking on the type
of message they want to deliver. The nature of customers, the race of the customers
but also a keen analysis has to be done to whether the analysis will have positive
impact to the company as it is a costly investment.