ScholarWorks@UNO

Do celebrity endorsements have the same effect on shoe sales that scarcity would have on the popularity of shoes?

Our purpose in this study was to determine if it is feasible to use big name celebrities to endorse particular shoes for a marketing campaign. There is stiff competition in the shoe business, a companies marketing campaign could be the difference in making the company an industry leader or an industry casualty. By having a high demand celebrity for a marketing campaign, if done correctly, a company can overcome these problems. By doing this, our goal would recognize whether the increase in popularity is great enough to justify using such a huge celebrity to market the product. We would also see if limiting quantities and selling shoes as limited edition has an effect on the popularity and desirability of a shoe thus limiting shelf life and thus over supply of the shoes. We decided to use the UNO student body when we started our research by giving out one of the four different questionnaires to 80 students. Each questionnaire had an ad that pictured LeBron James or Kevin Durant, two ads showed each athlete accomplishments and the other two ads showed their accomplishment with a “Limited edition” tag to show scarcity. Included inside was a questionnaire to understand the consumers’ thoughts. Our findings were that big names celebrities have an effect on the popularity of a shoe. Therefore, spending money on these celebrities so that they can endorse a shoe is reasonable and will provide a better marketing campaign, which will lead to a competitive advantage in the shoe business.