The Effect of Celebrity Physical Attractiveness and Trustworthiness on Consumer Purchase Intentions: A Study on Nigerian Consumers

Celebrities are individuals who are popular in public arena because of their physical attractiveness and trustworthiness. To take advantage of these components, marketers use celebrities for product promotion to create awareness and enhance the credibility of their advertisement. However, the use of celebrities to endorse consumer products by the Nigerian telecommunication industry led to huge cost of acquiring physically attractive endorsers and lack of celebrity trust because customers perceived that the celebrities were paid to feature in the brand and not necessarily, they believed in the brand. This study, therefore, examined the effect of celebrity physical attractiveness and trustworthiness on consumer purchase intentions of selected telecommunication in Nigeria. Survey design was employed and a target population of 519 students was used in the study. Random sampling technique was adopted to select the sample size and a well-structured questionnaire was adopted for the study. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the constructs ranged between 0.71 and 0.85. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Structural equation modeling).<br><br>Findings from the study reveal that celebrity physical attractiveness had positive effect on consumer purchase intention of selected telecommunications companies in Nigeria (P=0.000&lt;0.05; R<sup>2</sup>= 0.533). Celebrity trustworthiness had positive and significant effect on consumer purchase intention of selected telecommunication companies in Nigeria (P=0.000&lt;0.05; R<sup>2</sup>= 0.314). The study concludes that celebrity endorsement components were jointly important in explaining the changes in the consumer purchase intentions of selected telecommunications companies in Nigeria. The study recommends that telecommunications companies should focus on the recruitment of physical attractiveness and trustworthiness whose images align with theirs for endorsement purpose.


Introduction
The engagement of celebrities has become an essential marketing strategy for global organizations and a means of drawing customer's attention and creating brand awareness of products (Carroll, 2009). Nike alone, in 2003 spent over one billion dollars on celebrity promotions, this figure includes a seven years endorsement deal worth ninety million dollars with NBA professional LeBron James (CNN Money, 2003). In contemporary times, families are merely exposed to the electronic advertisements of television and radios due to their tight schedule or none interest in television or radio. Though, Rafique and Zafar (2012) believed that the beauty of a celebrity does not go unnoticed irrespective of the sector he or she operates, hence, they create brand awareness due to their public admiration, uncommon lifestyle, charisma and fame. In the Nigerian society, companies or firms spend huge amount of money every year on advertising that is aimed at enhancing the productivity of the goods and services of the organization in the target market (Ike, 2016). The use of celebrities by telecommunication firms for adverts in Nigeria has led to an increase in the percentage share of gross domestic products (GDP) of telecommunications sector from 0.06 % in 1999 to 3.5% in 2011 (Nwana, 2014) and about 12.50% in the third quarter of 2013 (National Bureau of Statistics, 2014). The total number of subscribers has increased rapidly over the past decade; at the end of 2005 there were 19,519,154 subscribers, but by the end of 2015 there were 151,017,244, which is equivalent to an increase of 13,149,809 every year. However, celebrities are famous people who are well-known to the public and attributes such as physical attractiveness and trustworthiness are common features that can be observed. Celebrity physical attractiveness is a superior authority compared with any message of presentation (Ohanian, 1991). Celebrity's physical attractiveness yields immense social judgment and satisfaction. It is a means to create brand awareness to the target market in the advertising media. Physical attractiveness of the celebrity is an instrument to influence behavior (Menon et al., 2001).
Moreover, consumers of products are much influenced by the celebrities when they trust that endorsers have real likeness for the product other than material gain. According to Goldsmith et al. (2000) consumers believe that celebrities are a trustworthy source of communicating information. It is trustworthiness of a celebrity that also reduces the impact of grapevine or negative news. Erdogan (1999) opined that the trustworthiness and expertise of a celebrity endorser is not directly derived from an individual source but from variety of sources with good perception and outcome on intent to buy. In the same vein, Keller (1993) posited that brand equity provides enabling environment for the consumer to be familiar with the brand and recall some beneficial, favorable and distinctive elements of the brand. Thus, there is a measurable impact of brand information on consumers' feedback from brand promotion. Winters (1991) also affirmed brand equity as added value to the brand mix and suggested that brand equity enhances the value added to a brand and consumers' perception and alliance to specific brand names.

Statement of the problem
The Nigerian telecommunication sector is faced with a huge cost of acquiring physically attractive endorsers referred to the endorser's physical appearance, personality, likeability, similarity (Ohanian, 2015) and it was discovered that firms in the telecommunications sector in Nigeria suffered low patronage because customers failed to get the benefits showcased as seen in the adverts (Maylafiya, 2014). They expect to be able to act exactly like the celebrity that was used in such advert but eventually this was not always the case. This situation led to misalignment between the brand and the celebrity (Ateke et al., 2015). Therefore, the customers focused on the celebrities without thinking of how the brand fitted their individual personalities which is a problem area to be addressed in order to discouraged the vampire or overshadow effect. Also, there is lack of celebrity trust because customers perceived that these celebrities were just paid to feature in the brand and not necessarily because they believed or have faith in the brand (Babu & Latha, 2014). It was therefore worrisome to note that some of the celebrities in the Nigerian telecommunications industry do not even use the products they endorsed thereby creating a "credibility gap" in the sector occasioned by the credibility gap.

Objectives of the Study
i. To determine the effect of celebrity physical attractiveness on consumer purchase intention in Nigeria, ii. To examine the effect of celebrity trustworthiness on consumer purchase intention in Nigeria.
How does celebrity physical attractiveness affect consumer purchase intention in Nigeria? ii.
What is the effect of celebrity trustworthiness on consumer purchase intention in Nigeria? Patzer (1985) noted that celebrity physical attractiveness is a fact which includes outcomes that are savvy, convincing, and unavoidable. Patzer championed the employment of physically attractive endorsers in place of non-attractive endorsers. He added that people attempt to enhance their physical attractiveness in order to respond confidently to the celebrity endorsers who appeared like them. Most times individuals often believe that good looking persons are clever and therefore distinguished themselves in their various field of endeavor. This assertion is also known as the halo effect. Marketers prefer attractive celebrity promoters in order to gain endorsers prestige and physical attractiveness (Singer, 1983). Communication delivered by physically attractive celebrities can effectively achieve greater attention and remembrance which explains why advertisers frequently use celebrities as spokespeople (Kotler & Keller, 2006) Langmeyer and Shank (1994) observed that celebrity physical attractiveness could be all encompassing, including not only the physical appearance or body beauty, but expression such as sportsmanship, charisma, elegance, and brilliance. According to Ohanian (1991), physical attractiveness is a superior authority compared to any message of introduction. Celebrity's physical attractiveness yields immense social judgment and satisfaction. It is a means to create awareness to the target market in the advertising media. Also, the whole range of products which are associated with an individual's physical attractiveness, for instance, body creams, beauty soaps, hair linings and creams are all influenced by the celebrity's physical attractiveness. Celebrity physically attractiveness is also essential for the philosophy of match up principle at the entry point of the celebrity endorser (Kamins, 1990).

Celebrity Physical Attractiveness
Physical attractiveness of the celebrity is an instrument to influence behavior (Menon et al., 2001). The physical attractiveness of the celebrity endorser might be the influencing power in the attempt to redirect the customer's conduct (Homer & Kahle, 1985). The advertising strategy based on the physical attractiveness of the celebrity, most times yields positive results on the consumers. Generally, physical attractive celebrities are better preferred in products promotions compared to the unattractive celebrities (Till & Busler, 1998). The buying publics show affection for physical attractive celebrities and hence prefer them to the unattractive ones (Miciak & Shanklin, 1994). Endorsement promotes the remembrance of the product and encourages the recollection of the brand (Cacioppo & Petty, 1980). Celebrity physical attractiveness is an essential factor employed by consumers in order to make selective judgments about the products. Till and Busler (2000) state that physically attractive models used in marketing promotions have resulted in a more friendly behaviour towards the advertisement. Physical attractiveness plays a major role in buyer's disposition towards brands and their purchasing intentions. Attractive celebrities are commonly known to be more likeable and acceptable in the eyes of the public, but they also must be familiar to the target market. The more the receiver knows that the source is familiar and similar to him or her in terms of behaviour, disposition, attitude, background, social status or lifestyle, the more likely the receiver will be persuaded by the celebrity message (Ohanian, 1990). Physical attractiveness also has been underscored to generally influence communicator performance in the endorsement process (Chaiken, 1979). Shimp (2003) concluded that attractiveness is beyond physical attraction. He noted that the various attributes the target audience could take away from the endorsement process could include knowledge, skills, personal qualities, psychographic features and sportsmanship. When buyers identify some special traits in the celebrity they appreciate, such as charisma through identification, this means that there are possibility that the buyers could adopt the promoters behaviour, disposition and lifestyle if they find the celebrity physically attractive. Shimp (2003) added that attractiveness may be divided into three elements; physical attractiveness, respect and similarity.

Celebrity Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness refers to the unbiased, uprightness and acceptability of an endorser (Erdogan et al., 2001). Consumers have a general believe that celebrities are trustworthy source of communicating information (Goldsmith et al., 2000). It is a general principle that a person we trust is a source to easily convince us to believe in unseen thing, that person is more acceptable than any other in the community.
In addition if such person is also an expert in the discipline for which he/she is championing is more effective. It is supported to the extent to which the recipient sees the source as having useful knowledge, skills, or experience and the source to give honest, objective information (Belch & Belch, 2004). Trustworthiness could be found in the ambience of the celebrity endorsement as uprightness, sincerity, and acceptability of the celebrity by the buyers. This evokes the feeling of conviction and embrace of the celebrity and the communications delivery of the endorser by the buyers. This in future assists to nurture buyer's stance, mindset, viewpoint and buying behavior (Erdogan et al., 2001;Ohanian, 1991)). Trustworthiness is enclosed in the credibility source framework which agrees that the degree of consent to a message is a function of the believability of the originator of the message. Celebrity with overwhelming expertise in a marketing campaign is more reliable and acceptable (Huang & Sarigollu., 2014). Erdogan (1999) believed that the credibility of a celebrity endorser is not directly derived from an individual source but from variety of sources with good perception and outcome on intent to buy. It is trustworthiness of a celebrity that also reduces the impact of rumors or negative news. Brand equity models are regarded trustworthiness of a product as an essential feature in assessing the powers of a brand. Shimp (2003) noted that the first common feature of credibility refers to the propensity to believe or trust someone. When a celebrity is seen as credible the behaviour of the target market appears to align with a behavioural process called internalization. This process occurs when the buyer accepts the celebrity position on an issue as his or her own. Two essential sub characteristics of celebrity credibility are trustworthiness and expertise. Trustworthiness simply means seen as acceptable, reliable and someone that can be trusted. The endorser earns the trust through his or her achievement in his or her championing field, the trustworthiness of a celebrity place the target audience view point on the endorsers' motivation.
The source trustworthiness could be measured by the degree of dependability, honesty, reliability, sincerity and trustworthiness (Ohanian, 1990). Atkins and Block (1983) asserted that an endorser is seen to be more skilful and trustworthy. Advertisements showing trusted celebrities are rated more favourable compared with similar version of the same campaign without reliable endorsers. Trustworthiness is closely associated with how open-minded and honest the source of the message is perceived by the consumers, friends are more trusted than unknown persons, and celebrities who are not paid to promote a brand are seen to be more trustworthy than those who are compensated to endorse the product (Kotler, 2006)

Consumers' Purchase Intentions
The first phase in defining a marketing communication plan is to establish, examine and understand the target audience and its purchase intentions (Smith & Taylor, 2004). There are three main questions that must be answered before any marketing campaign can be carried out, these includes; who is the buyer? (Target market), why do they buy a specific product? How, when and where do they make purchase? (Smith, 2004). The commitment to make purchase is a type of resolution which studies consumer psychology and their quest to buy a specific brand of commodity. Factors like planning to purchase a product and expecting to buy the product facilitates the range of the intentions to purchase (Porter, 1974).
Purchase intentions refers to plan to buy something in future for use but prior to a cognitive process which works behind several factors such as consumers' viewpoint about the brand or the individual initiator. In purchase intention methodology, the principal attention is the attitude towards the individual Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3421933 initiator. Brand purchase intention could be seen as self-instructions to buy the products or to make buying related decisions (Kotler & Keller, 2006). Porter (1974) also explained that customers' intention to buy a product is not totally by his own product desire, but by his disposition which is associated with the various product alternatives of a chosen brand. Brands are seen as valuable asset of any organization and therefore awareness of that organization is created through the use of a brand ambassador to enhance brand equity and value which is an added advantage through brand loyalty (Padamsee, 2009). Although brand image equally nurtures brands to gain market shares, command premium price and prevents it from discounting. Endorsing brands of any products through a well-known celebrity has become necessary as they sort out the issues of over communication, provides instant recognition and transfers their goodwill to the brand. In the same vein, consumer purchase intentions could be seen as captured by Ajzen and Fisbein (1977). Intention refers to an intuitive prospect for a person to be involved in certain behavior. Dodds et al. (1991) described purchase intentions as the consumers' preparedness to buy a particular product. Shamdasani et al. (2001) explained that purchase intentions are the likelihood of consumers' procuring an item of trade or the level to which he or she makes product suggestions. Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) categorized purchase intentions as the commitment process consumer's display in their quest for advice, purchase, assessment, use and getting rid of a product in order to meet their satisfaction level. Blackwell et al. (2006) saw purchase intentions as the individual's involvement in the procurement and usage of commercial products, comprising the different settlement procedures before buying. Kotler (2003) believed that consumer's promotional conduct represents emotional judgement, psychological feelings and alignments that prolong the likes or dislikes directed to a product or the overall passion displayed in an advertisement. The extent of time and energy that a consumer is ready to sacrifice for any particular buying is a function of the degree of expenditure, the level of buying and the associated risk involved (Smith & Taylor, 2004). Porter (1974) further stressed that consumers purchase behavior is a function of the existing competition in the trade. For example, Wang et al. (2004) observed that Chinese nationals who could afford costly foreign made clothing brand were willing to accept modern clothing styles abroad and requested for more internationally made products because of their change in behavior and increased purchasing power compared to local competition. Based on the situation, buyers must rely merely on external features of the products (Rajagopal, 2006).
Authority of the buyer depends on saving commitment which demands the customer to prudently find earnings view of present and future expenditures. To achieve this, buyers should align their consumption pattern in the past for the specific brand, for example, brand loyalty or continuous patronage of the product at the initial point of commitment to product purchase (Williams, 2002). Kendall and Sproles (1986) observed that a buyer's commitment process is an intellectual processes describing a buyer's method of making choices. Promotional offers such as coupons or two-for-one offers enhance buyers' commitment to make purchase decisions. Though, many buyers do not possess known category need and may not be available when exposure to the advertisement is placed thereby reducing the chances of forming intentions to buy (Kotler, 2006). Assael (1992) also noted that customers are inclined to partake in cognitive dissonance in the process of making intricate product consideration as a result of great uncertain discernment in the purchase behavior. There may be unforeseen dangers involved in the processes of making product considerations, for instance high risk could cause financial loss, extremely demonstrative products may result in psycho-social loss and inadequate product information may increase uncertainty.

Sources Attractiveness Model
McGuire (1985) Source Valence Model which gave rise to Source Attractiveness Model focused on McCracken (1989) findings in the field of social psychology. The model focused on four main areas which are; familiarity, likeability, similarity, and attractiveness (McCracken, 1989). The model believed that the success of the message is based on the customer's familiarity, likability, similarity, and attractiveness to the celebrity in the advertisement (Ohanian, 1990). This theory explained the message acceptance in two ways: Identification and Conditioning. Identification is when the buyer or the target audience of the communication begins to identify with the source's attractiveness, and hence tends to accept his/her opinions, beliefs, habits, attitudes. Conditioning is when the attractiveness of the source is supposed to pass on to the brand after regular association of the source with the brand. Kelman (1961) contended, that with source attractiveness model that celebrity campaign leads to favourable customers behaviour through identification process, in which buyers establish an identity related to the endorser.Therefore, when message receivers are familiar with the source, like the source, and find familiarity between the source and themselves, the messages become more effective (McGuire, 1985).
Businesses use celebrities because they possess two essential elements: they enjoy the celebrity status and buyers often find them physically attractive. Buyers look forward to marketing promotion where physically attractive celebrities are used to create brand awareness (Baker & Churchill, 1997). The buying behavior of consumers can be altered positively with the use of physically attractive celebrities (Baker et al., 1977). The visible elements of advertisement produce a sense of attractiveness and grow a positive attitude towards purchase intention (Clow et al., 2006). Marketers select physical attractive celebrities to create brand awareness and attain celebrity repute (Singer, 1983). The essence of brand awareness creation is to enhance good customers' feedback (Milosavljevic & Cerf, 2008) and is acknowledged by conventional sales theories such as AIDA model (attention/interest/desire/action) and hierarchy of effects model.
Furthermore, customers might devote greater attention watching a particular advertisement features for various purposes, it is credible to observe that sometimes customers devote more attention watching components they admire while neglecting those they detest through a process of selective attention (Milosavljevic & Cerf, 2008). However, advertisers prefer beautiful celebrities because of their dual characteristics status and appeal (Singer, 1983). Advertisers always recruits celebrities who are physically attractive in contemporary advertisements or television commercials. The success of physical attractiveness as an effective instrument to create brand awareness in advertising has been under serious debate, with celebrity endorsements gaining vast attention, the source attractiveness model remains a compulsory tool for marketing professionals (McGuire, 1985).
On the contrary, Goldsmith et al. (2000) argued that celebrity source attractiveness was not applicable to organizational credibility. Individuals who displayed these traits might be used in business advertising, however, attractiveness in this sense and its value in guiding the selection of celebrity endorsers to appeal to business customers' remains problematic. However, this model would help explain the impact of celebrity physical attractiveness on consumer purchase intentions as it relates to the study. Howland et al. (1953) proposed the source credibility model. The model showed a celebrity's affirmative attributes which could influence the customer's acceptance of the message (Ohanian, 1991). This model is built upon the study of social psychology. The source credibility representation believed that the success of advertising campaign relies on the degree of expertise and trustworthiness of the celebrity (Hovland, 1953;Ohanian 1991). Kelman (1961) further noted that the interchange of ideas using an acceptable source (Celebrity) has the power to sway trusts, judgments, perspectives and behaviors through a procedure known as initialization. Internalization takes place when source influences the receiver and is accepted in line with their personal judgment and believes system (Erdogan, 1999).

Sources Credibility Model
There are two elements of credibility which are expertise and trustworthiness. These elements lead to the perceived credibility of the communicator and it is important for celebrity to be a successful endorser. Similar to Ohanian (1991), Belch and Belch (2004) stated that credibility is the extent to which the receiver sees the source as having essential knowledge, skill, experience and trust. Expertise is known as the communicators' knowledge, skills and experience while the trustworthy element depicts the communicators' sincerity, morality, and believability in the endorsement process. Moreover, expertise and trustworthy sources are more effective and influence beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and conducts through internalization process (Belch & Belch, 2004). Trustworthiness is the listener's level of conviction, and degree of agreement with the speaker on his or her campaign (Ohanian, 1991). Trustworthiness of a celebrity advocate is important and dependent on the primary market. Advertisers make use of these set of values by recruiting endorsers that are trustworthy, honest, believable and reliable (Shimp 2000). It is strenuous to influence youngsters since they know that celebrities endorse products for money, on the other hand source has to be expert and credible in terms of morality, believability and sincerity (Baxter et al., 2014). Thus, due to these criticisms, source credibility model lose its scope when it comes to successful implementation. More so, if the customers see the celebrity endorser as trustworthy and expert on products promotion, then there are good chances that the would-be customers may end up becoming real buyers (Till & Bulser, 1998;Friedman & Friedman, 1979;Goldsmith et al., 2000).
Trustworthiness could be achieved through celebrities who share something in common with the brand, however, in some instances, celebrities who are promoting brands do not really use the brands they are promoting thereby creating credibility gap. The celebrities in the above case lack credibility by not using the brands they promote. Goldsmith et al. (2000) argued that source credibility was not applicable to celebrity trustworthiness. Celebrities who displays these traits might be used in business advertising to appeal to customers but remains problematic. However, this model gives a compelling explanation of the celebrity endorsement sub variables of trustworthiness and expertise and its effects on consumer purchase intentions as it relates to the study.

Methodology
The research design that was adopted for this study is survey design. Survey research was used because the design involved one time observation of independent and non-manipulated variables. The researchers adopted Survey design due to its clarity in the area of quantitative research and data collection. It enabled the researchers to obtain a wider view of issues bordering on celebrity endorsement and consumer purchase intentions in the cause of the study as opposed to narrow views. Following numerous benefits of survey research design,

Research Population, Sample Size, and Sampling technique
Nigeria is made of three geopolitical zones which are West, East and North. The population of this study comprised of students from the University of Lagos (Western Zone), Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (Eastern Zone) and University of Abuja (Northern Zone) which were randomly selected to represent the three geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Also, the three universities have the population breakdown as follows; University of Lagos 45,000 students, Nmamdi Azikiwe University 61,000 students and University of Abuja 1500 students. The total population is 107,500. These universities are Federal Government of Nigeria Institutions and were chosen to represent geographical spread of Nigeria. The sample size is 399 based on the population of the three universities was calculated using the Taro Yamani formula of 1967.
There was an inclusion of 30% of the sample to take care of non-response rates occurrence. Hence, 30% of 399 =119.7+399 =518.7≅519 and the figures of the samples above were approximated because the samples represent students who are human in nature, and human beings cannot be infraction but in whole numbers. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The justification for this was that the study focused only on students of selected universities in Nigeria who were divided into geopolitical zones and were separated into various campuses. The researcher was particular in giving out the questionnaire at random to only students who were found in their various campuses in the selected universities at the time of distributing the questionnaire. Each student was chosen entirely by chance and each student had equal chance of being included in the sample. Before the selection was made, the proportion of students to be chosen from each university based on the sample size was calculated as shown in Table 1 below.

Method of Data Analysis
Data collected through structured questionnaire was analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) using Amos graphic tool to the effect of independent variables on dependent variables. Amos graphics tool was used to run a structural equation to test the effect of Celebrity Physical Attraction and celebrity trustworthiness on consumer purchase intentions in the Nigerian Telecommunications sector. Fig. 1 shows the graphic generated from SPSS Amos. It shows the path dependences of the consumer purchases intention on physical attractiveness and celebrity trustworthiness. From the figure we can see that the effect of physical attractiveness on consumer purchase intention is given as 0.53 which implies that physical attractiveness has a 53% effect on consumer purchase intention. Also the model shows that celebrity trustworthiness has a 31% effect on consumer purchase intention. The implication of this analysis is that 53% of the changes in consumer purchase intention can be explained by physical attractiveness. While 31% of changes in consumer purchase intention can be explained by celebrity trustworthiness.
The covariance between physical attractiveness and celebrity trustworthiness is given as 0.63 which implies that a 63% relationship exists between the two variables.  Table 2 demonstrates the results of the regression weights where the level of significance is one percent. Table 3 and Table 4 also show the results the correlations and covariance between two independent variables; namely PHYATTR and CELEBTWTHY.  In addition, our survey indicates that there was positive correlation of 0.635 between two independent variables. From the regression weights we can see that the value of the effect of physical attractiveness on consumer purchase intention. The regression estimate is significant at 0.000 with a standardized regression weight of 0.533 and the estimate for the effect of celebrity trustworthiness on consumer purchase intention is significant.

Conclusion and recommendation
This paper has explored the relationship between celebrity endorsement practices and consumer purchase intentions of selected telecommunications companies in Nigeria. Based on the above analysis and discussion, a number of important conclusions can be drawn from the study.
The study has revealed that Marketers and advertising specialists prefer physical attractive celebrities in products promotions compared to the unattractive celebrities. Findings from the study revealed that celebrity physical attractiveness has a positive significant effect on consumer purchase intention of selected telecommunications companies in Nigeria. This means that physical attractiveness has positive effect on consumer purchase intentions.
Advertisers recruit trustworthy endorsers to ensure the success of their advertising campaign. When a celebrity is seen as credible the behaviour of the target market would align with that of the celebrity. Advertisers select trusted celebrities to maintain market relevance and ensure the success of their marketing campaign. Findings of the study on the effect of celebrity trust on consumer purchase intentions showed a significant and positive relationship between the two variables. This means that there is a positive effect of celebrity trustworthiness on consumer purchase intentions of selected telecommunications companies in Nigeria. The result showed that as celebrity trustworthiness increases so do consumers purchase intentions of telecommunications companies.
First, celebrity physical attractiveness is an influencing power in the attempt to redirect the customer's conduct. The study recommended the recruitment of physically attractive endorsers. It is, therefore, recommended that the process be objective. The role of the celebrity in the communication mix must be defined and strictly adhered to during the campaign process. There is also need to have an interview panel that is professional and not biased in the selection of the celebrity. For this reason, telecommunications companies should look for better ways of vetting the panel and in case they should use consultancy firms for this purpose, then such firms should have proven track record of integrity. Lastly, telecommunications companies should have clearly defined policies on the selection of celebrity for endorsement purpose.
Second, the study recommended the use of trusted celebrities for endorsement purpose in order to avoid celebrity scandals. Telecommunications companies should, therefore, ensure that trusted hands are selected for the marketing campaign. For this reason, appropriate machinery should be put in place to vet the background of the celebrity to ensure that is devoid of scandals and multiple endorsements in the past. This could be achieved if the telecommunications companies have existing selection policy on ground to screen out celebrities that do not meet up with the laid down requirement of the company.