THE RELATIONSHIP OF NONMAINSTREAM BRAND AMBASSADOR QUALITIES TOWARDS PURCHASE DECISION OF MS GLOW FOR MEN

• Main Author: Alan, Matthew
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/66783
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Rising male cosmetic customers create a great potential for skincare companies. However, as a result of rising competition, the cosmetics and personal care industries are becoming more aggressively competitive. Beauty brands must be inventive to attract customers and differentiate themselves. In Indonesia, cosmetics industry promotions often involve brand ambassadors. The issue is that many people don't feel brand ambassadors with a handsome and cool image are enough to generate trust because they assume brand ambassadors are handsome or pretty from the start, not from the skincare they sponsored. In the midst of competition, MS Glow For Men made a breakthrough in August 2021. They launched a new campaign with brand ambassadors that features popular yet anti-mainstream brand ambassadors. This campaign tries to get consumers to purchase their products as a result of their new ambassador. However, MS Glow For Men’s unique brand ambassadors has not been tested for their effectiveness in increasing customers’ purchase decision. It can even be said that their new brand ambassador can be said to be quite risky. This study aims to explore the factors that make “nonmainstream” brand ambassadors attractive for a local man skin care brand and assess the brand ambassador's influence on customers’ purchase decisions for MS Glow For Men products. Two approaches are used in this study; a qualitative approach with semi- structured interviews was conducted to 5 respondents, and 211 respondents performed a quantitative approach with structured questionnaire. Both approaches were conducted to people who had bought MS Glow For Men’s after #semuajugabisa campaign started in August 2021. This research uses manual coding, descriptive statistics, and PLS-SEM for data analysis in generating the data. The results indicate that MS Glow For Men “nonmainstream” brand ambassador does not affect customers’ purchase decision towards MS Glow For Men products, it affects customers’ purchase intention through a number of variable. It is found that brand ambassador’s credibility, attraction, and power has a significant influence towards purchase intention through brand awareness, brand image, and brand trust. This study aims to enhance marketer understanding of how companies could improve purchase decision through brand ambassador strategy.