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International Conference on Entrepreneurship (IConEnt-2016) “How Innovation could Improve the Performance and Productivity in Entrepreneurship?” March 17, 2016. Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tangerang – Indonesia

THE INFLUENCE OF BRAND AMBASSADOR ON BRAND IMAGE AND CONSUMER PURCHASING DECISION: A CASE OF TOUS LES JOURS IN INDONESIA Felicia Wang1), Evo Sampetua Hariandja2) 1) 2)

Business School of Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tangerang, Indonesia 1)

e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

2)

Abstract In Indonesia, the arising number of many local or international brands in the market can be seen. One of the major countries that have opened up their way is South Korea, for the example the opening Korean bakery stores of Tous Les Jours in Indonesia. To communicate about the product offerings to the customers, Tous Les Jours use their brand ambassador, Kim Soo Hyun as a tool of promoting their brand. The aim of this research is to see the influence of brand ambassador on brand image and consumer purchasing decision of Tous Les Jours in Indonesia. There are 3 hypotheses that stated in the beginning of research and to prove the hypotheses, 109 questionnaires are distributed to conduct this research. The questionnaires are tested by Smart-PLS 3 and using path analysis. The result of this study will show the influence of brand ambassador on brand image and consumer purchasing behavior of Tous Les in Indonesia and show the effectiveness of Kim Soo Hyun as a brand ambassador. Keywords: Brand ambassador, Brand image, Consumer purchasing decision

1. Introduction In Indonesia, the arising number of many local or international brands in the market can be seen. Indonesia’s consumer-related market opportunities continue to lead growth in the world’s fourth-largest country, and expansion in the retail, health, education, telecom and financial services sector have boomed in the last few years. The Indonesian consumer is ranked as one of the most confident in the world, and 50% of Indonesia’s 253 million citizens are under the age of 30 (export.gov, 2015). By taking a closer look to the business market in Indonesia, many countries have been trying to spread their business and invest in Indonesia. One of the major countries that have opened up their way is South Korea. In the past few years, there are many Korean stores opened up in Indonesia’s malls. According to the data provided from Indonesia Investment

Coordinating Board (BKPM) in Table 1. South Korea is one of the main countries and placed 7th among the countries who invest in Indonesia. Table 1. FDI Inflows by Countries in Indonesia 2014 Main Investing Countries 2014, in % Singapore

20.4

Japan

9.5

Malaysia

6.2

The Netherlands

6.1

UK

5.6

USA

4.5

South Korea Source: BKPM

3.9

With the addition of the intensity of Korean Wave in Indonesia, many companies targeted Indonesian people as the potential buyers for the company. Korean 292


food companies are trying to open their branch stores in Indonesia to expand their market. One of the recent example is the established of Korean bakery shops in Indonesia, Tous Les Jours. Tous Les Jours itself is a very famous bakery shop in Korea by CJ Food Company and has been known to be successfully grabbing the attention of Indonesian customers. According to Indonesian Bakery Association (APEBI) chairman Chris Hardijaya, the increased consumption of freshly baked products was apparent not only by the higher demand for wheat flour in the country but also by the arrival of new players in the business during the past five years. Take an example of the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta, There are numerous of bakery stores open in Indonesia. The most famous application for food guidance in Indonesia, Zomato, has listed the bakery stores by their popularity ranking as shown in Table 2. Table 2. Popularity Rank of Bakeries in Indonesia Rank

Name

Score (1 to 5)

1

Francis Artisan Bakery

4.9

2

BEAU

4.8

3

Union Deli

4.6

4

Auntie Anne’s

4.4

5

Golden Egg Bakery

4.4

6

Sophie Authentique

4.3

7

Exquise Patisserie

4.2

8

Kempi Deli

4.2

9

Rati Rati

4.2

10

Baconerie

4.2

11

Henis

4.2

12

The Harvest

4.2

13

Casadina Kitchen & Bakery

4.1

14

Pand’or

4.1

15

Cizz

4.1

16

Amber Chocolate Bar

4.0

17

Bakerzin

4.0

18

Garcon

4.0

19

Cheese Cake Factory

4.0

20

Tous Les Jours

4.0

Source: Zomato.com

From Table 2 above, Tous Les Jours is placed 20th based on the popularity ranking. Since the competition in Indonesia’s bakery business area is rising up, the company marketers are formulating and implementing different strategies in order attract new customers to keep their business in the Indonesia’s market. To communicate about the product offerings to the customers, marketers need to use unique tools and techniques when compare to their local competitors. Creating very different strategy by using marketing mix is one the major challenge for the present scenario. Hence, the role of advertising has undergone positive ramifications by showcasing new features and attributes of the products to stand out from the crowd. It is well known that brand is company’s product or a service which gives a unique identity and positioning into the minds of the target audience. Through branding, the marketer adds a dimension and value to products to fill the absences from marketplace. Keller (2006:256) stated that the branding has been around for centuries as a means to distinguish the goods of one producer to another. Consumers may evaluate the identical product differently depending on how it is branded. Consumers learn about brands through pas experiences with the product and its marketing program. To create the brand image, a company or marketer may use the advertising to create 293


the awareness. The advertising is not only a medium to create brand awareness but also to give the information or image that a company wants to be perceived by its customer. That is one of the reasons that the company makes a budgeting to advertising expense. Through the increasing competition, the advertising is not only the medium to create the brand image and perceived value. To promote the sales of their product marketers endeavor to endorse it through celebrities evoke closer consumer engagements with the brand under optimal conditions and drives purchases. These celebrities are popularly named as Brand Ambassadors who can be best portrayed as the representative of the organization, institution or corporation that well sketches the product or services being produced by the company or organization. In the modern market, without brand ambassadors it’s somewhat difficult to sell the product. For brand recall, marketer select right person for right product at right place so that the brand can maintain the stability in the competitive world. For this case, Tous Les Jours has appointed Kim Soo Hyun, one of the most famous celebrity in South Korea, as their brand ambassador to represents their brand image. Brand itself is the most valuable asset of any firm and promoting the product through a brand ambassador can enhance brand value or equity which in turn can be leveraged through brand extension. Brand personality also nourishes brands to gain market share, command premium price and insulates from discounting brands. Endorsing brands of the products through a well-known personality has become very prominent these days as they sort out the problem of over communication, provides instant recognition and transfers their goodwill to the brand. In order to pamper the consumer a celebrity is deployed to transmit credibility and aspirational values to a brand in alignment with the product.

There should be certain compatibility between the brand ambassador and the brand personality like celebrity, popularity, availability, physical attractiveness and their profession in consonance with the product. It is indispensable that creativity should underlie while using celebrity endorsement otherwise it may over power and overshadow the brand popularly known as vampire effect. Researches tend to show that the use of brand ambassador has the most positive effect. According to Greenwood (2012:78) and Royan (2004:8) in Putra, Suharyono and Abdilla (2014), brand ambassador was instrumental in helping the smooth marketing activities both locally and globally. Brand ambassadors or celebrity endorsement will help create a stronger emotional connection between a brand/company with the consumer so indirectly would build the image of the product impact on purchasing decisions and product usage. The brand ambassadors will explain the process of the usage of the product and benefits out of it and why customers have to buy this product. The customers perceive the brand as having very superior quality just because it has been endorsed by their favorite personality and based on this customers start that endorsement as one the indicator of the superior quality for any other brand. With the help of the both brand ambassadors and the company credibility plays a very significant role in the attitude of the consumers towards the advertisement and brand recall too. But sometime over popularity of the brand ambassadors may create negative response to the brand. By involving in multiple brand endorsement it may leads to create huge confusion in customers’ minds. The end of using brand ambassador and enhancing brand image will lead to affect the consumer purchasing decision towards the brand. Based on the problems that are formulated above, the 294


objectives of this research are formed as followings: 1) to study the importance of brand ambassador in the promotion of a product, 2) to find out whether brand ambassador constitutes for brand image, 3) to identify whether brand ambassador has any impact in the consumer purchasing decision of a product, 4) to identify the effectiveness of Kim Soo Hyun as the brand ambassador of Tous Les Jours in Indonesia. 2. Literature review 2.1. Brand Ambassador The term brand ambassador, brand endorser or celebrity endorser is commonly used interchangeably with phrases such as brand advocates, advertising spokespeople, customer evangelists and promotional models. Although they are casually used interchangeably in the media, it is important to differentiate between ambassadors who are genuine supporters and devotees of a brand, and ambassadors that are employed and trained by the company. Both paid and earned brand ambassadors provide information about the product, service or idea, to other people, creating widespread word of mouth marketing (Cheyfitz, 2010; Belch & Belch, 2007) in Boswarva (2012). According to Lea – Greenwood (2012) in Putra, Suharyono and Abdilla (2014), there are several indicators of brand ambassador: 1. Transference is when a celebrity supports a brand that is associated with their profession. 2. Congruence (conformity), is a key concept in the brand ambassador which is to ensure that there is a 'match' (suitability) between brand and celebrity. 3. Credibility, is the degree to which consumers see a source (ambassador) has the knowledge, expertise or experience relevant and the source (ambassador) can be trusted to provide objective information and unusual .

4. Appeal, is a non-physically attractive appearance that can support a product or advertisement. 5. Power, is charisma emitted by the source in order to be able to influence consumers so that consumers are influenced to buy or use the product. 2.2. Brand Image Brand image has been studied extensively since the 20th century due to its importance in building brand equity. In the increasingly competitive world marketplace, companies need to have a deeper insight into consumer behavior and educate consumers about the brand in order to develop effective marketing strategies. In the following paragraph, we will discuss the relationship between consumers’ cognition of brand image and consumer behavior. Keller came up with the concept “customer-based brand equity (CBBE)” in 1993, which refers to the various reactions to the branding campaign from consumers who have knowledge of the brand in varying degrees. In other words, brand image and brand awareness are the basis and sources of brand equity. Brand equity is an important tangible asset that has psychological and financial value to the firm. It is the added value endowed to products and services. This value may be reflected in how consumers think, feel and act with the respect to the brand. According to Keller (2006), brand image is the perceptions and beliefs held by consumers, as reflected in the associations held in consumer memory. In this regard, the brand knowledge and brand awareness also should be built and understood before the consumers could respond positively to the branding campaign. For marketers, examining the consistency between the brand image and consumers’ self-concept is very important, because consumers might display various self-concepts in different social context. But 295


whatever the context is, consumers would think better of the brand as long as the brand image is in line with the their self. 2.3. Consumer Purchasing Decision Consumer purchasing decision is a part of consumer behavior. Consumer behavior can be defined as the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires (Belch and Belch, 2007). For many products and services, purchase decisions are the result of a long, detailed process that may include an extensive information search, brand comparisons and evaluations, and other activities. Marketers’ success in influencing purchase behavior depends in large part on how well they understand consumer behavior. Marketers need to know the specific needs customers are attempting to satisfy and how they translate into purchase criteria. According to Peter and Donnelly (2007), the process by which consumers make decision to purchase various products and brands is shown in Figure 1. Need

Alternative

Alternative

Recognition

Search

Evaluation

Post-purchase

Purchase

Evaluation

Decision

Figure 1.Consumer Decision Making Process

The starting point of any purchase decision is a customer need (or problem). Need recognition occurs when an individual senses a difference between what he or she perceives to be the ideal versus then actual state of affairs (Blackwell et al, 2007). The next step is alternative search. Once a need is recognized, the individual then

searches for alternatives for satisfying the need. 2.4. Hypothesis Development Singh (2014) stated brand is the most valuable asset of any firm and promoting the product through a brand ambassador can enhance brand value or equity which in turn can be leveraged through brand extension. Brand personality also nourishes brands to gain market share, command premium price and insulates from discounting brands. Endorsing brands of the products through a well-known personality has become very prominent these days as they sort out the problem of over communication, provides instant recognition and transfers their goodwill to the brand. Roll (2006) defined brand image is the picture of the brand in the minds of customers and stakeholders. It refers to the way customers and stakeholders decode all the signals provided by a given product, brand, company, or even country. The brand image is a result of many external factors of which marketing communications is just one. Similarly every product has an image. The consumer tries to consume a brand which has the maximum fit with his/her own personality/image. The brand ambassador or celebrity endorser fits in between these two interactions, where he tries to bring the image of the product closer to the expectation of the consumer, by transferring some of the cultural meanings residing in his image to the product (Rawtani, 2010). To achieve this effectively, value for the brand has to be created and managers must have the knowledge and expertise to exploit this value by developing profitable brand strategies. Successful celebrity/brand partnerships have resulted in significant gains in income for brand owners. The micro factors such as the need for interactivity, the degree of control exercised by consumers over messages received and increasing media fragmentation render 296


brand ambassador or celebrity endorser a valid strategy. Careful management of brand image that impacts on brand associations stored in consumer memory is critical to a successful strategy. A study of Mukherjee (2009), shows that consumers report higher self-brand connections for brands with images that are consistent with the image of a celebrity that they aspire to be like, particularly in the case when the image of the celebrity and the brand match. Brand ambassadors or celebrity endorsement effects are moderated by brand symbolism, such that brands that communicate something about the user yield stronger effects than brands that do not. In the case of aspirational celebrities, the positive effect of image congruency is stronger for those brands that are perceived to communicate something symbolic about the brand’s user compared to those brands that do not. There has to be an effective media to make the product reach towards the customer. The media here can be termed as the celebrity who endorses the product. People also start associating their status symbol to that of the product that they consume and the celebrity associated with it (Goutam, 2013). Derived from these theories, this paper proposed the hypothesis as follow: H1: Brand ambassador positively related with brand image. Tellis (2004) mentioned trustworthiness in the source credibility theory of why endorsement work, It is stated that trustworthiness is the willingness of the source to make true claims. A source is likely to make an honest claim if it has no vested interest in the outcome or it is not under pressure to slant the evidence. Buyers would consider most advertisers to have a vested interest in stating the claims of their products. Audiences generally know that spokespersons or brand ambassadors are

paid. The effectiveness of the endorsement then depends on whether the audience’s prior perception of the endorser as trustworthy overcomes any perceived bias that arises from the audience’s knowledge of the payment. In fishing, sometimes it’s necessary to use one fish as bait for another. Similarly, companies often use people for catching consumer’s attention. Famous individuals or celebrities are popular bait. Many companies hire celebrities to endorse their product (Blackwell et al., 2007). Their role is to help the customer through the steps of the decision-making process, including problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives and product choice (Solomon, 2006) in Boswarva (2012). The brand ambassadors’ role is to encourage product involvement by suggesting the customer tries, touches, feels and smells the various products, and pick samples which they can take home and try. This coupled with the visceral nature of the environment itself means the customer has the chance to gain familiarity with the products available to purchase. Hence, the familiarity of the brand ambassador will affect the consumer purchasing decision. Consequently, this study implies that: H2: Brand ambassador positively related with consumer purchasing decision. Netemeyer et al. (2004) in Zhang (2014) also approved the dominant impact of brand equity on customer response toward the branding campaign. With the proliferation of brands in the market, consumers make their purchase decisions largely depending on the brand image rather than the product itself. Moreover, when the brand image is consistent with the consumers’ self-concept, the consumers would give a preference to it. According to the self-concept theory, one’s self concept is a collection of perception about him/herself that includes elements 297


such as capabilities, characteristics, shortcomings, appearance and personality. Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) also mentioned that the celebrity endorser of brand ambassador’s credibility is not a substitute for corporate credibility. One study discovered that although the endorser’s credibility strongly impacted the audience’s attitudes toward the ad, the perceived corporate credibility had a strong impact on attitudes toward the advertised brand. Otherwise, the brand image of the brand itself will affect the attitude of the consumer. Based on the statements above, this study implies the following hypothesis: H3: Brand image positively related with consumer purchasing decision. 2.5. Theoretical Framework This study was adapted from previous studies mainly Putra, Suharyono and Abdillah (2014) as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Theoretical Framework

3. Methodology This study will use quantitative method to analyze the data, as this is descriptive study that is the type of quantitative research. In marketing research, quantitative approach is used for validation of facts, estimates, relationships, and predictions (Hair et al., 2004), it is also the supporting reason to use quantitative method as there are several hypotheses to be tested in this study. This

type of study is intended to describe the influence of brand ambassador on brand image and consumer purchasing decision. The variables in this study adopted from Putra, Suharyono and Yusri Abdillah (2014), which are brand ambassador, brand image and consumer purchasing decision, which are applied to one of the famous Korean bakery in Indonesia, Tous Les Jours. Hence, researcher chose Tous Les Jours because it can represents the arising number Korean stores opened in Indonesia lately. The respondent in this study are Indonesian individuals who are the consumers of Tous Les Jours who had already became consumers and done a purchase a product of Tous Les Jours at least once and are the decision maker for the purchased product. The number of samples collected and used in this study is 109, as following Sekaran and Bougie’s (2014) guide in determining sample size that if it is more than 30 and less than 500 samples then it will be considered as appropriate for most research. It is also supported by Hair et al. (2012) that suggested PLS-SEM minimum sample size should be equal to the larger of the following: (1) ten times the largest number of formative indicators used to measure one construct or (2) ten times the largest number of structural paths directed at a particular latent construct in the structural model. In this research, there are 3 paths (hypotheses), therefore, it is fulfilled the condition required in PLS-SEM, which the minimum are 10 times 3 paths = 30 samples. To analyze the relationship between selected factors, structural equation modeling was used. 4. Findings In this study, the questionnaires were distributed to 139 respondents through convenience sampling. For the actual research, there are 100 questionnaires used with complete answers, while 30 of those are used for the pre-test. The respondents‟ 298


profiles are collected from the questionnaires distributed, which are gender, age, occupation, visit frequencies, and the source of store’s information. The profile of respondents will be explained in the Table 3.

estimates should be 0.5 or higher. And also, the value of average variance extracted (AVE) extracted from each indicator should be ≥ 0.5 to suggest adequate convergence. Table 4 shows the factor loading value of the valid indicators from the pre-test study.

Table 3. Respondent’s Profile Category

Gender

Age

Occupation

Frequency of visit

Source of store information

Characteristic Female Male 18-24 25-29 30-39 40 and above Student Private Sector Public Sector Housewife Unemployed 1-3 times in a week 1-3 times in a month Once in a month Less than once in a month Social Media Printed Advertising Word of Mouth Passing by the store Other

Number of Respondent 75 34 95 10 2 2 80

Table 4. Convergent Validity Test %

Variable

68.8% 31.2% 87.2% 9.2% 1.8% 1.8% 73.4%

Brand Ambassador

13

11.9%

Brand Image

10 2 4

9.2% 1.8% 3.7%

3

2.8%

30

27.5%

24

22%

52

47.7%

4

3.7%

4

3.7%

8

7.4%

89

81.5%

4

3.7%

This study was conducting the pre-test with 30 respondents to examine whether the indicators used are valid and reliable through validity test and reliability test. This test is carried out using the Smart-PLS 3 software. From 15 indicators provided in pre-test, all of the indicators are valid and reliable. From 109 questionnaires, convergent and discriminant validity are used to measure validity. The convergent validity is attained when factor loading significance value of each indicator is reached. Hair et al. (2010) stated that the standardized loading

Consumer Purchasing Decision

Indicator BA1 BA2 BA3 BA4 BA5 BI1 BI2 BI3 BI4 BI5 CPD1 CPD2 CPD3 CPD4 CPD5

Factor Loading 0.908 0.868 0.881 0.871 0.863 0.800 0.821 0.778 0.657 0.770 0.852 0.842 0.768 0.751 0.554

AVE

Result Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid Valid

0.772

0.588

0.579

After test the validity of each construct, each construct’s AVE should be higher than its squared correlation with any other construct (Hair et al., 2012). The square root of AVE value of each variable is mentioned in the diagonal line and is greater than the correlation between it and other constructs of Table 5. Table 5. Discriminant Validity Test BA BI CPD

BA 0.879 0.273 0.557

BI

CPD

0.767 0.518

0.761

Sekaran and Bougie (2013) defined reliability as a test of how consistently a measuring instrument measures whatever concept it is measuring. Hair et al. (2010) mentioned that composite reliability (CR) estimate is 0.7 or higher to suggest good reliability. The result of reliability test for actual test of this research is shown in Table 6. The reliability test for the actual test in this research showed that all the variables used are reliable. It can be seen from Table 299


6 that the value of composite reliability for each variable are higher than 0.7. The value of composite reliability for brand ambassador, brand image, and consumer purchasing decision range from 0.871 to 0.944. Thus, all indicators indicating that they are all reliable. Table 6. Reliability Test Variable Brand Ambassador

Brand Image


Indicator BA1 BA2 BA3 BA4 BA5 BI1 BI2 BI3 BI4 BI5 CPD1 CPD2 CPD3 CPD4 CPD5

Composite Reliability

Result

0.944

Reliable

0.876

Reliable

0.871

Reliable

Mean for each indicator will be used to calculate and describe the characteristics of the samples. Mean or average is a measure of central tendency that offers a general picture of the data without unnecessarily overflowing one with each of the observations in a data set (Sekaran and Bougie, 2013). Calculated mean for each indicator is shown in Table 7. Table 7. Descriptive Statistics Indicator N Variable

Brand Ambassador

Brand Image


BA1 BA2 BA3 BA4 BA5 BI1 BI2 BI3 BI4 BI5 CPD1 CPD2 CPD3 CPD4

109

109

109

Mean

3.725 3.725 3.505 3.028 3.257 3.789 4.055 4.156 3.835 3.752 3.183 3.204 3.266 3.872

CPD5

2.560

The mean values shown in Table 7 showed the average answers of the respondents in each indicator. In the variable brand ambassador, indicator BA1 referred as “I can recognize Kim Soo Hyun easily” and indicator BA2 referred as “Kim Soo Hyun has a good reputation” both have the same and highest mean value which is 3.725, indicating most of the respondents answer “agree”. While the indicator BA4 “Kim Soo Hyun makes me easy to recognize Tous Les Jours” possess the lowest mean value 3.028 which indicating most respondents are “not agree nor disagree” In the brand image variable, the indicator BI3 which referred as “Tous Les Jours has high quality of products” possess the highest value mean of 4.156, it indicates most of the respondents are “agree”. On the other hand, indicator BI5 “Tous Les Jours performs as it promises” has the lowest mean value of 3.752 which indicates most of the respondent are answer “agree”. On the last variable, consumer purchasing decision, indicator CPD4 which referred to “I buy Tous Les Jours’ products because of their high quality product” has the highest mean value of 3.872. It is also indicating that majority of the respondents chose “agree”. While indicator CPD5 which referred as “I buy Tous Les Jours’ products because I know Kim Soo Hyun as their brand ambassador” shows the lowest mean value of 2.560, suggests that most of the respondents are answer “not agree nor disagree”. Hypotheses testing are done by checking the value of original sample and T-statistics value of each of the hypothesis developed in this research. The path coefficients between variables can be seen in Table 8 and Figure 3. Hypothesis testing is the most important part in a research and used to take a general conclusion. In this 300


section all ten hypotheses developed in this research will be investigated whether they are supported or not supported. The hypothesis testing in this research used Structural Equation Model (SEM) with Smart-PLS 3 software as tools to test the hypotheses. Table 8. Hypothesis Testing Hypothesis H1 H2 H3

Regres sion BA → BI BA → CPD BI →CPD

Original Sample (O)

T-statistic s > 1.65

Result

0.273

2.716

Supported

0.449

5.202

Supported

0.396

4.085

Supported

Hypothesis 1 that stated about “Brand ambassador positively related with brand image” is supported. The result of hypothesis testing showed that its original sample value is 0.273, which is positive and T-statistics value is 2.716, which is greater than 1.65. Thus, brand ambassador is proved to positively influenced brand image. Hypothesis 1 is significant and accepted. Hypothesis 2 that stated about “Brand ambassador positively related with consumer purchasing decision” is also supported. Seeing that the original sample value is 0.449 and the T-statistics value is 5.202, meaning that original sample value is positive and T-statistics value is greater than 1.65. Hence, brand ambassador is proved to positively influence consumer purchasing decision. Hypothesis 2 is significant and accepted. Hypothesis 3 that stated about “Brand image positively related with consumer purchasing decision” is supported. The hypothesis testing result showed that the original sample value of it is 0.396, which is positive and the T-statistics value is 4.085, which exceed 1.65. So, brand image is proved to positively influence consumer purchasing decision. Hypothesis 3 is significant and accepted.

The value of R square is also necessary to analyze the result, the variance in the dependent variables are accounted for by the independent variables is answered through the R square. Brand image has the R square of 0.075 which indicates that the variable of brand image is 7.5% explained by brand ambassador. While consumer purchasing decision with the R square of 0.455 indicates the variable of perceived commodity uncertainty is 45.5% explained by brand ambassador and brand image. 5. Discussion The hypothesis testing above showed that all of the hypotheses in this study are supported. In this section, the reason of the hypotheses acceptance would be explained. Additionally, the result of descriptive statistics in this research will also be linked to the supported hypotheses. This research was done to investigate the influence of brand ambassador to brand image and consumer purchasing behavior by adopting model from Putra, Suharyono and Abdillah (2014), in which their object of study was korean application, Line, in Asia whereas the object of study for this research is korean bakery, Tous Les Jours, in Indonesia. Hypothesis 1 that stated about “Brand ambassador positively related with brand image” is supported. The result of hypothesis testing showed that its original sample value is 0.273, which is positive and T-statistics value is 2.716, which is greater than 1.65. Thus, brand ambassador is proved to positively influenced brand image. In this condition, it shows that brand ambassador Tous Les Jours, Kim Soo Hyun, is positively impact the brand image of Tous Les Jours. In the variable brand ambassador, indicator BA1 referred as “I can recognize Kim Soo Hyun easily” and indicator BA2 referred as “Kim Soo Hyun has a good reputation” both have the same and highest mean value which is 3.725, indicating most of the respondents are agree 301


that Kim Soo Hyun can be recognized easily and have a good image as a brand ambassador. While, the indicator of brand image, BI3 referred as “Tous Les Jours has high quality of products”, has the highest mean value of 4.156 and indicator BI2 referred as “Tous Les Jours has a good brand image” has the second highest mean value of 4.055 show that Tous Les has a good brand image in Indonesia, with the addition of the fact that Kim Soo Hyun has been agreed by the respondents as a good ambassador, the good brand image of Tous Les Jours also has been positively increasing. A being mention in the study of Mukherjee (2009) which shows that consumers report higher self-brand connections for brands with images that are consistent with the image of a celebrity that they aspire to be like, particularly in the case when the image of the celebrity and the brand match. Brand ambassadors or celebrity endorsement effects are moderated by brand symbolism, such that brands that communicate something about the user yield stronger effects than brands that do not. In the case of aspirational celebrities, the positive effect of image congruency is stronger for those brands that are perceived to communicate something symbolic about the brand’s user compared to those brands that do not. In this case, Kim Soo Hyun can relate his good image to the brand image of Tous Les Jours. We can see that brand ambassador positively related to the brand. Hypothesis 2 that stated about “Brand ambassador positively related with consumer purchasing decision” is supported and proved that brand ambassador has the effects to the consumer purchasing decision. The result of hypothesis testing showed that its original sample value is 0.449, which is positive and T-statistics value is 5.202, which is greater than 1.65. In the variable of brand ambassador, indicator BA1 referred as “I can recognize Kim Soo Hyun easily”

and indicator BA2 referred as “Kim Soo Hyun has a good reputation” both have the same and highest mean value which is 3.725, indicating most of the respondents are agree that Kim Soo Hyun can be recognized easily and have a good image as a brand ambassador. While indicator of consumer purchasing decision, CPD 4 which referred as “I buy Tous Les Jours’ products because of their high quality product”, has the highest mean value of 3.872, it shows that many respondents agree that they buy Tous Les Jours product because they have high quality product. However, the indicator of CPD 5 which referred as “I buy Tous Les Jours’ products because I know Kim Soo Hyun as their brand ambassador” has the lowest mean value of 2.560, shows that the respondents are neither agree nor disagree that they but the products because of the Kim Soo Hyun, the brand ambassador. In this case, we can see that Kim Soo Hyun is not high effectively affecting consumer purchasing decision of Tous Les Jours’ consumers in Indonesia. Therefore, we can see that the brand ambassador of Tous Les Jours, Kim Soo Hyun, positively related to consumer purchasing decision. The relationship of brand image and consumer purchasing decision can be seen in the hypothesis 3. Hypothesis 3 that stated about “Brand image positively related with consumer purchasing decision” is supported and proved that brand image has the effects to the consumer purchasing decision. The result of hypothesis testing showed that its original sample value is 0.396, which is positive and T-statistics value is 4.085, which is greater than 1.65. The indicator of brand image, BI3 referred as “Tous Les Jours has high quality of products”, has the highest mean value of 4.156, shows that respondents are agree that Tous Les Jours has been producing high quality of products. While, in the indicator consumer purchasing decision, CPD 4 which referred as “I buy Tous Les Jours’ products because of their 302


high quality product”, has the highest mean value of 3.872, it shows that many respondents agree that they buy Tous Les Jours product because they have high quality product. These indicators show the brand image of Tous Les Jours positively related to consumer purchasing decision. Therefore, from the respondent’s profile data, we can see that there are more female respondents (68.8%) rather than male respondents (31.2%) in this research. It indicates that female respondents are being more influenced and attracted to visit Tous Les Jours. The additional reason is female are more influenced by trend. Since Tous Les Jours is a bakery stores from Korea, they are more eager to try and visit the store than male customer. However, from the hypotheses above, the respondents chose Tous Les Jours also because of their high quality products which are important for both female and male respondents. In respondent’s profile data, we can also see that the major customers of Tous Les Jours are students (73.4%) and mostly range from 19-24 years old (87.2%). The main reason of this data is because most of Tous Les Jours stores are located inside malls which are easy to access and near with the location of schools and universities. However, the largest percentage of frequency of visit the stores by most of the respondents is less than once in a month and most of the respondent know about the stores by passing by the store (81.5%) rather than know it from other sources such as social media, printed advertising, word of mouth and other. 6. Conclusion This study has a purpose to investigate and answer the hypotheses stated in the first chapter of this study. It investigated the influence of brand ambassador on brand image and consumer purchasing decision. This research also analyzes the effectiveness of Kim Soo Hyun as brand ambassador of

Tous Les Jours in Indonesia. From the result and discussions done in the previous section, some conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, brand ambassador influence brand image and consumer purchasing decision. As we can see in the discussion, all of the 3 hypotheses are supported and has positive impacts toward another variable. In Indonesia, the use of brand ambassador or brand endorser can be seen easily, many companies are use celebrities as a tool or marketing of their brand. Brand ambassador indulges the factors of trustworthiness and attractiveness of the brand to the consumers. Consumers in Indonesia believe that brand ambassador have the influence in encoding the message of the brand to the perception of the brand itself in the consumers’ mind. Secondly, brand ambassador itself is less effective in affecting consumer purchasing decision rather than the brand image of the brand itself. Consumers agree that the brand image of the brand or company is the major key of their purchasing decision. As long as they meet the needs and wants of the consumer, they will be considered to purchase the products or services of that brand regarding who the brand ambassador is. Thirdly, in this study, have shown that the effectiveness of Kim Soo Hyun is low in Indonesia. Many consumers know about the image of Kim Soo Hyun, but in reality, the image of him doesn’t have a major effect to the majority of consumer mind about the Tous Les Jours brand image and consumer purchasing decision. Indonesia may has been influenced by Korean culture, but in this case, Tous Les Jours has been proved to stand up in the market by sustaining their brand image. From the results of hypotheses testing, firstly it can be seen brand ambassador positively influence the company’s brand image and consumer purchasing decision, the use of brand ambassador as a marketing 303


strategy should be increased. With a good image of brand ambassador, it will maintain and attract new potential customer. The marketers need to combine the good image of the brand ambassador and brand image of the company as their marketing strategy to enter and sustain in the market. Since there are so many competitors in Indonesia, the marketers also need to focus on their marketing strategy such as using social media, printed advertising and commercials to presents and advertise the products and the company in Indonesia, not only depends on passing by the store customers and use the Hallyu Wave to spread about the store. The reasons are because most of the respondents of this research are from passing by the store customers and they are rarely know that Tous Les Jours has ever used any other marketing strategy. It is very important for companies to be known in the market. Companies should be able to create a strong position in the market. The marketers and the company need to maintain its high quality products, because it is one of the main reasons why people purchase in their store. The marketers also need to take a look and enhance their service quality, since customers will come back and visit the store for the second time simply because they are satisfied with the brand. The developments of variety products are also need. It is also very important to know the customers of a brand for the marketers and companies. It can help the marketers to reach other market segmentation using promotional tools and evaluate its effectiveness. Additionally, Tous Les Jours is one of the examples of many foreign companies open in Indonesia, the foreign companies’ marketers are needed to introduce the culture of the country of origin to be presented carefully in their store as one of the marketing skills. With cultural differences, it will attract more customers in Indonesia, since the globalization is rising

up and Indonesia’s potential customers are more open to foreign countries. The marketers and the companies also have to be responsible for carry their country’s image to Indonesia. There are several suggestions given to future researchers. Most of the recommendations and suggestions are based on research limitations. Future research should be applied more samples to conduct this research and more diverse occupation to capture better picture for the result of this study. Future research should expand this study to other country other than Indonesia to explore how the differences in culture and economic development will affect the result. Comparative study about this study topic will also be interesting since how people in different countries deal with Kim Soo Hyun as the brand ambassador and see the influence of a brand ambassador on brand image and consumer purchasing behavior in each country, can be obtained. The model may need to be modified for future researches, for instance, by including more variables to be analyzed. Since the additional variable might provide a better insight for the researchers to understand each variable assessed in this study.

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