Purpose -This study aims to explore the relative effectiveness of a human celebrity endorser vis-à -vis a fictional celebrity or character endorser on teenage consumers' attitudes. Further, the study also seeks to assess whether the effectiveness varies depending on the nature of the product being endorsed.Design/methodology/approach -Given the purpose of the study, experimental design was used as the research methodology. In an experimental set-up three product categories (low-involvement food/low-involvement non-food/high-involvement) and two endorsers (human celebrity/fictional celebrity) and a control group were deployed in a 3 £ 3 full factorial design on 378 teenagers. Fictitious advertisements were used as stimuli.Findings -The study suggests that, for food and non-food low-involvement product categories, the impact of a human celebrity is more than that of a fictional celebrity. Regarding the purchase intentions of teenagers, it was found that a human celebrity is more effective than a fictional celebrity in food and non-food low-involvement products. In the case of the high-involvement product, the human celebrity was not found to create favorable consumer attitudes.Research limitations/implications -The study results suggest that celebrity endorsements are useful, but the nature of the product also has an influence on success. One limitation of the study was the restriction to print advertisements.Practical implications -A major implication from the findings for the managers is that a human celebrity may not always be the right choice for any product promotion for teenagers. More specifically, for high-involvement products, celebrity endorsement needs to be handled with caution since it may not prove to be successful.Originality/value -The contribution of the study is in addressing an area that has not been very well researched as yet, and in addressing a research question that has not been investigated properly.

This study aims to understand the buying habits and decision behaviours of Indian luxury consumers' in luxury apparel industry through uncovering the factors that influence purchase choices and preferences. Qualitative research was conducted through structured observations and structured in-depth interview with luxury consumers and store managers in Mumbai city. The sample of respondents was based on demographic criteria- gender and age. Data analysis was carried on the basis of the transcripts, notes and observation. The contributions of this research are threefold. First, the combined key drivers of luxury among both gender segments are fit, comfort, quality, exclusive, and sophistication, look good and powerful/influential. Second, consumers' possess different in-store shopping characteristics. Third, the proposed comprehensive model describes the entire consumers' consumption procedure. The paper even theorizes and empirically investigates how intrinsic and extrinsic clues influence consumers' choices and decisions. It also illuminates eight facets of consumers buying tendency. The results provide insights for both luxury apparel firms and store owners. Brand managers can build their product strategy and design decision according to the prevailing gender differences. The study also suggests advantageous findings for the store owners, to amplify consumers shopping experience. The in-store service could be such that it provides consumers' with customized hospitality to gain mutual benefit.

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Purpose – With increasing use of explicit comparative advertisement to get share of consumers’ mind and influence their purchase decision in western context, the same is now used extensively in emerging markets like India. However, there has not been sufficient research to understand the effectiveness of explicit comparative advertisement in low and high-involvement product categories. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand the effectiveness of explicit comparative advertising on consumers’ attitude and purchase intention (PI) towards high and low-involvement products. Design/methodology/approach – The study carried out experimental treatments with 2 × 2 factorial design among 200 Indian young consumers who were in the age group 18-25. The independent variables were product categories and type of advertising (comparative and non-comparative) and dependent variables were consumer attitude and PIs. Findings – It was found that the comparative form of advertisement developed favourable response towards the advertisement, rather than towards the brand or PI. Research limitations/implications – The study found that comparative advertising is effective for high as well as low-involvement product category in changing the consumer’s attitude towards the advertisement. The research has used print media for conducting the experiment. Practical implications – It can be inferred that comparisons should be supplemented with additional information in the form of the unique features and associated emotions and feeling of the product in order to develop favourable attitude towards the brand and PI. Originality/value – Comparative advertising is a growing domain and there has been very little contribution by the researchers specially on high and low-involvement product categories.

The usage of celebrities by the Indian advertising agencies has experienced a phenomenal increase in the last five years. Effective communication between the marketer and the consumers is the need of the hour and celebrity endorsement is a strategy that is perceived as making full use of this opportunity. Most of the countries have adopted this strategy as an effective marketing tool and even India is carving out space for itself in this arena. The present study attempts to meet three objectives: to identify the mode⁄s in which a celebrity is depicted in Indian television commercials to ascertain relationship (if any) between the category of product endorsed and the type of celebrity used to identify the correspondence between product categories and mode of celebrity presence. For the first objective of identifying the nature of celebrity portrayal, four modes given by McCracken (1989) were used: Explicit mode (the celebrity overtly declares the product endorsement) Implicit mode (physical or verbal communication is used by the celebrity) Imperative mode (the celebrity suggests the viewers to use the product) Co-present mode (the celebrity only appears with the product). For the second and third objectives, cross-tabulated frequency distribution method was used. Content analysis of Indian television commercials was done for the period 1995–2007. The criterion used for selection of advertisements was the presence of celebrity in any form in the ad. On this basis, 558 television commercials (TVCs) were selected featuring a total of 56 celebrities. The findings of the study indicated that: Around 64 per cent of the commercials used the implicit mode of celebrity portrayal for different product categories. Usage of film celebrities was more extensive than sports celebrities in major product categories. This was probably because the shelf life of fame for a film celebrity is more than that of the sports celebrity. Male celebrities dominated the product categories like food and beverage, automobiles, and consumer durables. The female celebrities were featured majorly in beauty products. No distinct association was found between the product categories considered and the mode used for celebrity portrayal. The study findings contributed to the academia as well as practitioners. For the academia, the study identified the most dominant mode of celebrity advertising in India and found that there was no correspondence between the mode in which a celebrity was portrayed and the product category endorsed. For the practitioners, the study identified the lesser used modes of celebrity endorsements which could be used as opportunities.