Vietnamese Gen Z Consumers' Cognitive Attitude Of Brand Credibility With Respect To Celebrity Endorsement And Social Interactivity
Abstract
With the advancement of technology, the marketing industry has experienced
various major breakthroughs. Using celebrities to promote merchandises, or celebrity
endorsement, has been a must-use strategy adopted by almost every brand/corporation.
Its major impacts have been scientifically and statistically proven in great details in the
result of various campaigns and academic research. To date, the majority of studies on
celebrity endorsements surrounds the relationships between endorsers’ characteristic,
customer attitudes and purchasing intentions while only a few explore the mechanism
of this strategy changing consumer’s beliefs under the effect of social interaction
context in Viet Nam. Moreover, Generation Z community (who are born in 1997-2012)
is an important emerging consumers segments that need to be deeply researched on how
they behave in the market. This research will investigate more thoroughly in the
influences of endorsers’ characteristics together with social interaction attributes on
Vietnamese Gen Z consumers’ cognitive attitude and how cognitive attitude of
consumers can alternate their perspective on brand credibility. In specific, eight
variables including expertise, attractiveness, trustworthiness, homogeneity, tie strength,
social advocacy, cognitive attitude and brand credibility are investigated, in which the
cognitive attitude variable play a mediating role. The study will collect data through an
online questionnaire and analyze data with the utilization of SPSS Amos statistical
software. The results indicate that there are positively direct relationships between six
variables expertise, attractiveness, trustworthiness, homogeneity, tie strength and social
advocacy towards Vietnamese Gen Z consumers’ cognitive attitude as well as this
change in beliefs positively impact the perception of brand credibility. This study aids
practitioners and marketers in theoretical, empirical and managerial aspects along with
recommendation of using celebrity endorsement strategy targeting at Gen Z consumer
in Viet Nam.
Keywords: Celebrity Endorsement, Vietnamese Gen Z consumers, Expertise,
Attractiveness, Trustworthiness, Social Interactivity, Homogeneity, Tie Strength,
Social Advocacy, Cognitive Attitude, Brand Credibility.