CELEBRITIES ENDORSEMENT AND CORPORATE PROFITABILITY IN NIGERIA

The study focused on the impact of brand ambassadors on corporate profitability. The specific objective was to examine the relationship between Brand Ambassadors and company profitability. Three hypotheses were formulated to test the theoretical assumptions of the research which included: Corporate profitability does not have any significant relationship with celebrity endorsement and Brand celebrity endorsement does not have any significant effect on consumers’ buying behaviour. The research adopted interpritivism philosophy in an exploratory design and the deductive approach was adopted to interpret findings of the study. AIRTEL Nigeria Calabar branch in Cross River State was used as a case study to buttress source for primary data in the study. The population of the study comprised of 20000 subscribers, management and non management staff of the company in Calabar metropolis. A sample size of 392 respondents of the target audience was drawn using the Tayo Yamane formula. Regression analysis and Z- test statistics techniques were used to ascertain the degree of relationship and extent of significance of the variables in the study. The result revealed that there is a significant relationship between celebrity endorsement and companies’ profitability, secondly, it demonstrated that celebrity endorsement does have significant effect on consumers’ buying behaviour. It was concluded that there is a moral justification of companies’ engagement of brand ambassadors in companies marketing strategies. The researchers therefore, recommend that, companies should consolidate on other persuading marketing options rather than depending absolutely on hiring brand representatives who consequently add up to the general prices of their products