Rural consumer perception on celebrity endorsed advertisements for non durable products

Kamins (1989) defined a celebrity as an individual who is known to the public for his/her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed. As such, celebrities may include a typical consumer, a product class expert, or a company president. A typical consumer endorser is an ordinary person who is expected to have no special knowledge of the product class endorsed except that they are acquired by the normal use of the product. Marketing is the key functional area of creating revenue for any organization. Rural marketing is the promotion of a product by using strategies to facilitate the flow of goods and services from rural producers to urban consumers and agricultural inputs/consumer goods from urban to rural The purpose of this paper is to examine the overall perceptions of Rural Consumers towards advertising by celebrities, and the influence of celebrity advertising towards customer purchasing behavior. Another aim of the paper is to identify how the demographics like Age, Gender and Education level of rural consumer would be significant impact on their perception about celebrity endorsement in Advertisemts strategies followed by the Brands. The results were interestingly showing that rural consumers are been influenced by the Celebrity Ads and perceive this tactical strategy positively if it is endorsed by they liked Celebrity or favorite Celebrity. This paper carries a study on only selected Non durable products in Fast Moving Consumer Goods i.e Skin Care, Hair Care and Body Cares.