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.