Impact of Aspirational Reference Group on Consumer Buying Behaviour –A Structured Model

This paper introduces a Structured Equation Model that describes impact of Aspirational Reference Group on psychological constructs of consumers namely Perception, Attitude, Learning and Familiarity. This paper also explains their impact on consumer buying action. Aspirational Reference Groups always have been major stimulators of consumer purchases. Celebrity Endorsement is a major tool of using aspirational groups as impact creators. Since decades celebrities have been involved in endorsing products and offerings. Corporates are using celebrities as Brand ambassadors to generate more recall value and sales. Especially in India, in recent years celebrity endorsement has become a vital element of advertising strategy. This motivated the Researchers to study impact of Aspirational Group Appeals on psychology of consumers which in turns impacts the consumer buying behaviour.in this study 300 respondents from different demographic profiles were surveyed through a structured questionnaire. The model is created through Partial Least square-Structural Equation Modelling. Findings of this research projected that celebrity endorsers significantly impact the psychological constructs of consumers and also the buying behaviour. Perception is identified as most impacted psychological construct. The study established positive relationship between celebrity endorsements and consumer buying behaviour