CONCLUSIONS
From the observational research it can be seen that celebrity endorsement is used throughout baking fashion marketing on online grocery website stores in the UK. Therefore, it can be argued that people are influenced by celebrities more than they think, which is what the research has shown in the celebrity endorsement section of the theory.
From the online survey the results showed that most people already considered themselves a baker to a certain extent, and therefore they were more likely to purchase baking products. The majority of respondents were student-aged, and therefore the responses were mostly for purchasing behaviours were out of convenience in price. This goes with the Theory of Planned Behaviour's model, where research has shown that attitudes (student attitudes towards saving money) influence intentions to act more than other influences, although it can be argued that the influence is perceived behavioural control from the environment of the student lifestyle.
After the online survey was made, the trend that this website analyses is The Bake Off effect, which is from the TV show in Britain called The Great British Bake Off, where majority of the responses of the survey were of cookbooks by celebrities on the show. Where the Bake Off effect inspired many bakers in the UK, the second effect that is analysed here, being the Jamie Oliver Effect, influenced and is still influencing many chefs. Interestingly, the use of male celebrities in the Jamie Oliver Effect and the Bake Off Effect has increased the male bakers in the UK by 22% from 2011 to 2012 (Mintel 2012). Therefore, the Jamie Oliver effect is an important one to analyse in terms of how well it was marketed in the fashion marketing industry.
When analysing the use of Jamie Oliver in celebrity endorsement there was a good fit between his personality and the brand of Sainsbury's, where they were both marketing cooking products. However, there were some difficulties, which was easily overcome, when Jamie Oliver was standing up against the sale of battery-farmed chicken in Sainsbury's, which Sainsbury's promptly stopped selling (refer to Jamie Oliver Effect page). In this way, the endorsement was successful because the celebrity was congruent and fit with the brand (refer to celebrity endorsement page).
When analysing the use of social media in the Bake Off effect it is important to understand that this is a new concept, the idea of real-time targeting, and should be a priority in future target marketing in the baking fashion industry (Mason and Nguyen 2015). The hashtag that is used throughout the Bake Off has been proved to be very successful (refer to the Use of Social Media page). They successfully created consumer buzz, which allowed many brands to jump on the band wagon and increase their consumer engagement and profits.
