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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 10, No. 4
Publication Date: April 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/abr.104.12246. Utomo, M. B., & HIdayat, A. (2022). Analysis and Impact of Online Celebrity Brand Equity on Purchase Intention of Fans on Social
Media. Archives of Business Research, 10(04). 140-152.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Analysis and Impact of Online Celebrity Brand Equity on
Purchase Intention of Fans on Social Media
Mohammad Burhan Utomo
Magister Management Program
Faculty of Business and Economics, Universitas Islam Indonesia
Anas Hidayat
Magister Management Program
Faculty of Business and Economics, Universitas Islam Indonesia
ABSTRACT
This research aims to determine the impact of online celebrity brand equity on
purchase intention of fans on social media. The testing used 250 respondents. The
sampling technique used purposive sampling. This research used Structural
Equation Modeling (SEM) Analysis tool which was developed to test research
hypotheses which was processed by using AMOS version 24. The variables used in
this research were brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty, purchase
intention, and perceived quality. The results of the analysis indicated that brand
awareness had positive and significant effect on brand image, brand awareness had
positive and significant effect on brand loyalty, brand image had positive and
significant effect on brand loyalty, brand loyalty had positive and significant effect
on purchase intention, brand loyalty that supported purchase intention will be
stronger with perceived quality.
Keywords: Brand equity, online celebrity, brand loyalty, purchase intention, social media
INTRODUCTION
In today's era, competition in the digital world is so high, we even cannot limit ourselves to the
development of this digitalization. The high interest in the field of entrepreneurship and
creative industries has made ways to find market gaps even more developed. The emergence
of young entrepreneurs and the creative industry will certainly make the competition in the
business world even tighter. Thus, in addition to requiring actors to create good products, they
must also have a marketing strategy in an effective way [23]. In terms of marketing, business
actors in any field actually do not only see market share, but they must be able to see what is
actually the lifestyle of today's society; thus, business actors can create a market share.
Currently digitalization is entering the network 4.0 era, every internet user can become a
creator or distributor of knowledge and information on social media. Even in this fourth era, all
kinds of businesses have indeed prepared themself with various content that is indeed focused
on all digital technology and information. Therefore, currently social media is a place for
business people, both individuals and companies, whose goal is to create communication and
expression, which can cause the phenomenon.
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Utomo, M. B., & HIdayat, A. (2022). Analysis and Impact of Online Celebrity Brand Equity on Purchase Intention of Fans on Social Media. Archives of
Business Research, 10(04). 140-152.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.104.12246
Social media has become a lifestyle in today's society, and it can be said that in this era it seems
impossible for someone from a teenager to an adult if they do not have social media such as
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or maybe as a viewer on a YouTube channel [20]. Based on a
research conducted by "We Are Social", it is stated that there are 202.6 million internet users
in Indonesia. It means that based on the total population of Indonesia with the amount of 272.1
million people, 64% or more than half of the population in this country are internet users [1].
The high number of internet users has now become a spotlight in various business worlds,
especially in business content using celebrity endorsements or online celebrities as a marketing
strategy. Marketing strategy using online celebrity endorsements is one of the most effective
promotional strategies used by marketers to bring awareness to a brand or product in the
market. It connects with people through strong public appeal by mentioning various product
benefits related to the effectiveness of marketing strategies.[21] Consumers are usually
persuaded by messages from credible sources (celebrities) to form opinions about brands.
Many studies have been conducted regarding this celebrity endorser on the support of a
product, some elements are used as literature for example such as trust, expertise, and
attractiveness that have a positive effect on consumer perceptions [2]. [3] found the fact that
from the results of data analysis and discussion concluded that product marketing in the
culinary business through the endorsement strategy on the Instagram social network with the
EPIC model approach has an effective influence on the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
Until now, there has been only limited research exploring the question of how online celebrities
build brand equity. First, because the phenomenon of the influence of online celebrities on
brands or products has only emerged in recent years, thus most of the existing research is
centered on traditional celebrities [3]. In addition, only a few studies have been conducted by
experts whose research focuses on analyzing the drivers of brand equity against celebrities and
such research is still relatively rare, especially in cross-sectional investigations [3].
According to [4], the literature claimed that by buying and using products that are supported
by celebrity endorsements, consumers can feel the meaning in the form of symbols and then
use it to build the concept of self-satisfaction. Thus in this case, the researchers are interested
in conducting research on perceived quality, especially the suitability of the ideal self-brand
and the suitability of the actual self-brand, with online celebrity images that are positively
related to brand equity. On the other hand, it is more natural and more effective for online
celebrities to reach online members through virtual interactivity. As successful online
celebrities reply and interact with their audience and are skilled in operating personal social
media accounts [5]. This paper proposes virtual interactivity as a key determinant of online
celebrity brand equity. Finally, we are also interested in the impact of product interactions (eg
perceived product quality and product type) and online celebrity brand equity (eg brand
loyalty) on customer purchase intentions [18]. Therefore, the main question of this research is
to examine the influence of online celebrities that finally can lead to fans buying.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Sosial Media
Social media is a tool used by influencers to direct their followers on personal accounts. Social
media such as Instagram, for example, allows users to upload photos or short videos as content
and share them on social networking pages. According to [6], Instagram is a photo and video
sharing site. In Instagram media, its features can be in the form of images and descriptions of
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Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 10, Issue 4, April-2022
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
images, making it easier for consumers when they want certain products because they are
interested in a product and want to find information about that product. Not only through
Instagram, YouTube media is now also used as a means for influencers when they want to
review a product they receive as a celebrity endorsement and then upload it for their
subscribers to watch. This is the reason why business people use social media as a tool and a
means of promoting their business.
Celebrity Endorsement / Online Celebrity
Celebrity endorsement or online celebrity is a person or individual who has public recognition,
and uses this recognition as a means of advertising [26]. Celebrity endorsements or online
celebrities, also called social media influencers, are recognized as socially influential individuals
due to their large number of followers [7]. [19] Effectively, online celebrities are used as an
effort to support brands to increase the likelihood of followers' interest in social media and
influence consumer attitudes towards purchase intentions [22].[14] Celebrities in this digital
era can be interpreted as any individual who has influence in cyberspace, so they are often
called as influencers, whether they are now known by various terms such as celebgrams,
content creators, or YouTubers. This social media also allows traditional celebrities to convey
information about themselves directly to consumers at any time [8]. Thus, in this case the
researcher places two general characteristics of online celebrities, the first is that celebrity
endorsements gain online public influence by transferring their celebrity status through
content, and secondly most of the value creation processes carried out by online celebrities are
carried out on the internet (i.e. advertising, e-commerce) [24].
Brand Equity and Online Celebrity
The theory of brand equity was originally proposed by [9], [10], [11] and [12]. [9] said that
operationalizing brand equity is the existence of a set of assets (or liabilities) consisting of
brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality, brand loyalty. However, [12] stated
that “brand equity occurs when consumers feel familiar with the brand and hold some
profitable, strong and unique brand associations in memory", it is a form of general consumer
knowledge of the brand that includes awareness or brand image [17]. [16] In general, brand
equity includes five main dimensions, namely brand image, brand awareness, brand
associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty.
Research Concept Framework
Based on the background, problem formulation, research objectives and hypothesis
development, a conceptual framework for the research can be made as follows: