Celebrity Endorsements in Advertisements and Consumer Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT

We studied consumer perceptions of celebrity endorsements from a cross-cultural perspective. In empirically examining consumer perception of celebrity endorsement, we used Hofstede's cultural dimensions to develop research propositions and examined these propositions through focus group discussions involving consumers from India and the United States. Findings indicated that specific differences and similarities exist in how consumers across India and the United States perceive celebrity endorsements. There is a positive, although moderate, impact of celebrity endorsements on attention and exposure of consumers. Implications for marketers as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Global Issues in Selecting Athlete Endorsers for National Markets: A Macroinvestigation

ABSTRACT

Little advertising research explores the role of culture in selecting celebrity endorsers. The purpose of this study is to explore how the selection process of athlete endorsers is shaped by national contexts. Based on interviews with advertising practitioners in 10 countries, the study reveals similarities in practitioners’ thinking across countries on a variety of matters related to athlete endorsement. It reveals the importance given by practitioners to the “cultural attractiveness” of national athlete endorsers when using them to connect with their national audience and shows that the selection process depends greatly on various cultural pressures linked to sporting traditions of each country. The study also shows how practitioners believe that athlete endorsers should be used mainly to generate brand and advertising awareness principally under pressure from clients’ emotional input.     

LESSONS FROM THE RICH AND FAMOUS: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Celebrity Endorsement in Advertising

Using celebrities to promote products is a popular advertising technique around the world. However, little is known about how the implementation of celebrity endorsement varies according to dominant cultural values. This study content-analyzed television commercials featuring celebrities from two diametrically different countries--the United States and Korea--in terms of two fundamental cultural dimensions: (1) low versus high context, and (2) individualism versus collectivism. Findings of this study suggest that the strategic use and creative executions of celebrity endorsement mirror the respective prevalent cultural orientations in the two countries, although some similarities do exist. Extensive discussion and suggestions for future research are provided.     

The Influence of Cultural Orientation and Communication Style on Consumer Behavior: A Comparative Study of the Arab World and the United States

ABSTRACT

Hall (1976) argued that “Culture is communication and communication is culture” (p. 169). Because cultures are dynamic, they are subject to change due to a variety of influences, and while cultural change is usually slow and takes years or sometimes generations to materialize, the authors believe the new media technologies may shorten this time of change. The purpose of this report is to examine the cultural orientation of the Arab world and the communication styles used there as they relate to advertising persuasion and compare it to that of the United States. The results suggested the some changes in the well-known Arabic culture may be taking place.     

Korean Advertising Practitioners’ Perspectives on Celebrity Endorsement

Practitioners’ perspectives have been neglected to some extent. Research on practitioners’ perspectives is important because it will provide valuable information, especially on how theories have been reflected in practice. The study investigates Korean advertising practitioners’ perspectives on celebrity endorsement in advertising campaigns. By comparing the perspective between advertising practitioners and that from their counterparts on the client side, this study may provide insights into their respective roles in advertising campaigns. This study finding suggests that Korean advertising practitioners consider a celebrity's likeability as the most important criterion when selecting a celebrity endorser. The most important reason why they employ a celebrity endorser is that celebrity endorsement helps generate awareness of the brand. In addition, concerns over celebrity endorsement as well as limitations and suggestions for future research have been discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Meanings of Healthy and Beautiful in Words,Beauty Types,and Products

Abstract

The debate about standardized versus localized advertising strategy is a long-standing one, and fraught with human and organizational complexities that argue for the cultural uniqueness of a national market versus the desire for a unified global image. A key issue is whether the same meaning in a specific advertising message will be transferred across cultures. This study deals with cross-cultural comparisons across five European cities (Madrid, Milan, Paris, London, and Hamburg) and focuses on the perceived differences of the meaning of two words (healthy and beautiful), two beauty types (women' faces), and two products (water and perfume). The results show that it is difficult to achieve sameness of meaning for even international products and beauty types. Suggestions for a conceptual match-up model for advertising components are made and implications are drawn for future practice and research.     

Advertising visuals in global brands’ local websites: a six-country comparison

The visual strategies employed in top global brands’ local advertising websites were compared between two groups of nations: the Western group, consisting of the US, UK and Germany; and the Eastern group, consisting of Japan, Korea and China. The results of a content analysis of 253 web ads show a clear pattern of differences in the role of visuals (literal vs symbolic), the use and role of celebrity models, the use of photographs vs illustrations, and the frequency of product portrayals between two groups. Ads from high-context nations tend to rely on symbolic visuals, celebrity models featured as characters, mixed use of photographs and illustrations, and indirect portrayals of advertised products. Ads from low-context nations are found to be the opposite, reaffirming the association between Hallx2019;s information contextuality and advertising visual strategies. The findings imply that the idea of employing advertising visuals that reflect the communication styles of a particular national market appears to be a promising strategy to effectively reach consumers around the world. With this in mind, multinational advertisers might prefer to implement differentiated ad visual strategies in web advertising for Western and Eastern markets.     

Culture and the Star-Power Strategy: Comparing American and Korean Response to Celebrity-Endorsed Advertising

ABSTRACT

Given the wide interest in celebrity endorsements in advertising, it is surprising that there are no quantitative cross-cultural studies on their effectiveness across target audiences. Previous content-analytic research makes assumptions about effectiveness, but has not examined these assumptions. Our article fills this gap by comparing American versus Korean student samples’ response to celebrity-endorsed ads. We find these cultures diverge in purchase intentions after viewing celebrity-endorsed ads. We also find the emphasis of intuitive moral domains drives purchase intentions. Our discussion focuses on marketing implications as well as outlining future directions for this surprisingly underexplored research area.     

Celebrity ambassador/celebrity endorsement – takes a licking but keeps on ticking

The paper examines the use of advertising and celebrity endorsement in promoting wristwatches from the beginning of the 20th century up until today. It shows a progression from simple informational advertisements stressing the technical, aesthetic and social appeals of the watches to more complex ones appealing to self-image and the use of celebrity endorsement. However, some – albeit not all – luxury wristwatch manufacturers have abandoned their use of celebrity endorsers. We note the need for businesses to undertake advertising aimed at appealing to consumer self-image, often reinforced by celebrity endorsement. The paper explores why the celebrity endorsement of brands may be effective or otherwise. We question, however, the cost-effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, and whether methods such as parasocial advertising through social media sites may offer an alternative. Like the brands they promote, advertising theories also have life cycles and the need to find new theories and update or abandon existing ones continues apace.     

How Much are Health Websites Influenced by Culture? Content Analysis of Online Diet Programs in the United States,the United Kingdom,and Korea

This study investigates the content of diet websites in the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), and Korea from a cross-cultural perspective using two cultural typologies: Hofstede's individualism-collectivism and Hall's low-high context. The results show a balance of the universal features and culture specific characteristics in the websites. Interestingly, the UK was in the middle between the US and Korea in several features even though the UK and the US typically had been generally included in the same cultural group in advertising studies. It was also determined that neither Hofstede's typology nor Hall's high-low context is enough to explain the cultural representations found on the websites. The need for new typologies for explaining or categorizing the cultural characteristics in advertising is suggested.     

Social comparison,imitation of celebrity models and materialism among Chinese youth

Materialism is an important issue, especially among young people, and especially in a Chinese context. Based on a theoretical model of the endorsement of materialistic values among Chinese youth, the objectives were to examine the influence of interpersonal communication on social comparison, and the influence of advertising viewing on imitation of celebrity models. In turn, the study examined how both social comparison and imitation of celebrity models contribute to young people’s endorsement of materialistic values. A mall intercept survey of 631 young people aged 15–24 in Hong Kong revealed that peer communication and susceptibility to peer influence had strong positive relationships to engagement in social comparison. Motivation for viewing advertisements had a strong positive relationship to imitation of celebrity models. In turn, both social     

Magazine Advertising: Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Celebrity Advertising

This study analyzes the differences in celebrity effectiveness in advertisements of different styles as well as the impact of source credibility. This study uses an experimental magazine to test nine fictional advertisements for three products with unreal brands and three advertising styles. The findings show that the advertising styles that generate the greatest effectiveness differ according to the product; the celebrities do not increase effectiveness, but when the respondents recognize the celebrity, effectiveness increases; and credibility influences affective and conative measures. The work also considers how celebrity-product pairings, the existence of negative celebrity information, and the familiarity with the celebrity affect the effectiveness.     

What affects the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement? Impact of interplay among congruence,identification, and attribution

This study draws upon congruence theory, identification theory, and attribution theory as a means of examining how celebrity endorsement works. The study proposes that the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement may be influenced by the following three factors: congruence between a celebrity endorser and endorsed brand/product, identification with a celebrity endorser, and consumers’ attribution styles (i.e., internal vs. external). To test the proposed hypotheses, the study employs a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design. A total of 317 college students participated in the study in return for course credits. The study findings suggest that congruence, identification, and consumers’ attribution styles indeed have impacts on consumers’ attitude toward ad, brand, or purchase intention. The study also finds that there is a relationship between congruence (low vs. high congruence) and attribution styles (internal vs. external). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Celebrity endorsement: How celebrity–brand–user personality congruence affects brand attitude and purchase intention

The present study provides and tests a conceptual framework aimed at comparing the relative effectiveness of celebrity–user, brand–celebrity, and user–brand personality congruence on brand attitude and brand purchase intention (BPI) thereafter. The data collection was done via an online survey of a representative group of consumers (n = 431) located across India. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis with mediation approach. The results indicate that while user–brand and brand–celebrity personality congruence have a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intention, celebrity–user congruence does not. Further, brand attitude is found to be a partial mediator on the relationship between the pair-wise personality congruence on BPI. The findings have major implications for marketers in understanding the significance of personality congruence among celebrity–brand–user in the formation of brand attitude and purchase intention that can be used in positioning and in increasing the advertising effectiveness of brands using celebrity endorsement. The present study is a pioneer in contributing to the celebrity endorsement literature by investigating the relative impact of three pairs of personality congruence: celebrity–brand, brand–user, and celebrity–user, on brand attitude and BPI, thereby supporting the applicability of McCracken's Meaning Transfer Model [McCracken (1989), The Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (3) 310–321) and the Hierarchy-of-effects model (Lavidge and Steiner (1961), Journal of Marketing, 25 (6) 59–62].     

Electronic Word-of-Mouth in Social Networking Sites: A Cross-Cultural Study of the United States and China

ABSTRACT

Understanding electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites (SNSs) is crucial as consumers have potential to reach global audiences quickly and easily. This article presents the first cross-cultural study on eWOM in SNSs by examining social relationship variables between the United States and China. Specifically, social capital, tie strength, trust, and interpersonal influence were examined as potential predictors of eWOM communication in the emerging online social channels. The results suggest that national culture plays a significant factor that affects consumers’ engagement in eWOM in SNSs in the two countries. Theoretical and managerial implications for global Internet marketers were presented and discussed.     

Promoting Niche Tourism Destination Brands

In an exploratory approach, the study examines the relationship between hero and celebrity by reviewing key dimensions of the celebrity/hero debate: shallowness, flawed celebrity/hero, and narrowness of appeal. The cumulative findings of two studies suggest that attitudes toward celebrities in ads are most strongly influenced by attitude toward advertising in general and least by flawed celebrity/hero. The findings also indicate that the more shallow celebrities are perceived to be and the more narrow their appeal, the more negative the attitude. The research findings provide guidance for marketing practitioners as they develop endorsement strategies.     

Vanishing acts

This exploratory cross-cultural study examines the experiences of women in advertising creative departments in Spain and the United States. The study, an exploration of the creative environment and its impact on female creatives, is framed by Hofstede’s dimensional model of national culture (Hofstede 2001; de Mooij & Hofstede 2010) and signalling theory (Spence 1974). Interviews with 35 top female creatives suggest that the challenges women face are rooted in the ‘fraternity culture’ or ‘territorio de chicos’ of creative departments in both countries. The data further suggest that the gender-bound cultural environment of advertising creative departments may be a global phenomenon, one that may adversely affect the creative process and impact women’s upward mobility.     

Engaging fans on microblog: the synthetic influence of parasocial interaction and source characteristics on celebrity endorsement

Brand managers use celebrity microbloggers to endorse their products on microblogs. Previous studies on celebrity endorsement mechanisms concentrated on source factors such as celebrity's characteristics and celebrity—product congruence. This study introduces a new audience factor: the fan–celebrity parasocial interaction (PSI) to explore the celebrity endorsement mechanism within a microblog context. The study hypothesizes that PSI and source factors (credibility, attractiveness, and congruence) significantly influence endorsement effectiveness. The results of an online survey (N = 862) indicate that PSI and celebrity–product congruence are salient antecedents of endorsement effectiveness. PSI serves as a mediator of the effect of source attractiveness on endorsement effectiveness. Source credibility and celebrity–product congruence are mediators between PSI and endorsement effectiveness. The study develops and tests a conceptual model to illustrate the influential mechanism of celebrity endorsement on microblog platforms.     

Gender and Celebrity Scandals: A Cross-Cultural Examination on Celebrity Endorsement

Abstract

This research examines the effects of consumers’ culture and celebrity’s gender role on source credibility and attitude toward brand. Using culture difference theory (individualism and Confucianism) helps to explain why sex scandals can result in a greater negative impact on the response of Chinese customers than US customers. Finally, we provide a celebrity-select suggestion to mitigate the negative damage brought by the endorser’s sex scandal. Specifically, we conducted experiments by using a 2 (sex scandal vs. tax evasion) x2 (Confucianism vs. individualism) x3 (celebrity gender: male vs. female vs. transgender) between-subjects design.