PENGARUH CELEBRITY ENDORSER DAN WORD OF MOUTH TERHADAP KEPUTUSAN PEMBELIAN SMARTPHONE OPPO DENGAN BRAND IMAGE SEBAGAI VARIABEL INTERVENING

The fierce competition in the smartphone business makes every company
have to be more aggressive in marketing their products. Judging from the many
types of smartphones that are similar and the price is also equally affordable and
offers similar benefits, it can threaten the continuity of the product in the company.
Various marketing activities can be carried out to encourage smartphone sales in
Indonesia by using advertisements on TV, brochures, billboards, and even using
public figures as ilkan stars to attract consumers. The purpose of this research is to
find out the influence of celebrity endorsers and word of mouth on the purchase
decision of Oppo smartphones with brand image as mediation. Sampling was done
using simple random sampling. The measurement scale uses the Likert scale. The
data analysis uses validity, reliability, and hypothesis tests, with Partial Least
Square processed using the outer model and inner model. The results showed that
brand image had an effect on the purchase decision, celebrity endorser had no effect
on the purchase decision, word of mouth had an effect on the purchase decision,
celebrity endorser had an effect on the brand image, word of mouth had an effect
on the brand image, and brand image could mediate the celebrity endorser variable
on the purchase decision, while brand image could not mediate the word of mouth
variable on the purchase decision.
Keywords: celebrity endorser, word of mouth, brand image, purchase decision