www.ijcrt.org © 2018 IJCRT | Volume 6, Issue 2 April 2018 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT1892972 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 826 SPOKES-CHARACTERS AS BRAND ENDORSERS: META-ANALYSIS OF RISK AND OPPORTUNITIES 1 Gouri Malhotra, 2 Dr. Mehak Jonjua, 3 Amaresh Jha 1 PhD. Research Scholar, 2 Assistant Professor, 3 Assistant Professor 1 Amity School of communication, 1 Amity University, Noida, India ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract : Spokes character requirement has developed its growth in popularity because spoke characters are not likely to embarrass their sponsors with unacceptable off stage conduct in a manner which contrarily influencing the negative picture of the sponsor brand. Nowadays advertiser has more prominent control over the development of spokes-characters by giving them characteristics that are both powerful and harmonious and with the alluring qualities of the endorsed product. The main purpose of this research is to look at consumer view regarding spokes-characters in the area of advertisement and, how consumer views impact the use of spokes-characters to create a perception of advertisements and brands that ultimately influences their Buying intention. The meta-analysis concluded that appeal and skill of the spokes-character has substantive influence on attitude of the consumer toward the advertisements. The second finding was that the spoke-characters play a crucial role in trust-building towards the brand. Thus, both attitude toward advertisements and attitude toward brand positively influence buying intention. KEYWORDS: Skills, Appearance, Buying intention, brand endorsements _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ I. INTRODUCTION This study addresses the problem of brand endorsement risk and opportunities associated with using spokes-characters. Throughout the year's advertisers have utilized numerous ways to promote advertisement and to increase buyer‘s interest in their commercials. One of the popular techniques among all has been the concept of brand endorsement. As per the Joghee & Kabiraj, 2013 endorsers can be divided into four categories namely celebrities, employees, spokes-characters, and customers. Celebrity endorsement is most commonly used by marketers. Unfortunately, companies that hire a celebrity always have the risk of the brand image being influenced by celebrity's professional and personal life which cannot be controlled and will more often negatively influence the brand endorsed (Erdogan, 1999). Additionally, challenges faced by companies are that consumers will focus their attention on the celebrity and might fail to notice the brand being promoted. Consequently, the consumer's interest lacks in assessing merits of the product (Um, 2008) thus watering out the image and associations that are between the celebrity and the brand being endorsed (Temperley, & Tangen, 2006). Additionally, celebrity endorsement can be very costly (Prasad, 2013) because a celebrity might hold out for a large fee at contract renewal time or withdraw, and celebrity campaigns can sometimes be expensive flops (Kotler & Keller, 2009). Therefore, companies are constantly looking for more powerful showcasing correspondence procedures to convince customers and strategies to get through the cluttered competitive environment. As a result, there has been an increase in the use of created animated spokes-characters as endorsers due to technological developments in animation (Kim, 2012) and spokes- characters have proved to increase the impact of advertising campaigns (Kyung, Kwon & Sung, 2011). II. The Objective of the study: 1. To know the impact of spokes-characters solely to promote the brands. 2. To know the positive influence of spokes-characters towards the commercial. 3. To explore how the attitude toward advertisement and attitude toward brand individually influences the buying intention. III. Research Question: 1. What impact does spokes-characters have on consumer's perspective towards brands and commercials? 2. How effective is the outlook of spokes-character in influencing the buying intention of the consumer?