Classical conditioning and celebrity endorsers: An examination of belongingness and resistance to extinction

Three studies attempt to better explain how celebrities are used effectively as conditioned stimuli in the associative learning process. Study 1 establishes that direct affect transfer can occur using celebrities via conditioning. Study 2 suggests that celebrity conditioning will be more effective when there is an appropriate fit (belongingness) between the celebrity and the product endorsed—also known as the match‐up hypothesis. Finally, Study 3 examines whether attitudes toward brands paired with celebrities are resistant to efforts to extinguish them using extinction procedures. The findings suggest that conditioning with celebrities yields brand attitudes that are robust and enduring. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

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.     

Consumers’ Reactions to a Celebrity Endorser Scandal

This research examined the impact of a widely publicized celebrity scandal on consumers’ attitudes toward the involved celebrities and the products they endorsed. Special attention is placed on the interplay between consumers’ perceptions of the celebrities’ responsibilities for the events that occurred, their affective reactions to both the events and the celebrities, and their consequent reactions to the products that the celebrities endorsed. The use of a real celebrity scandal permitted the effects of several variables to be identified that are normally not taken into account, including individuals’ a priori liking for the celebrities, perceptions of the scandal's impact on both the involved celebrities and the society, individuals’ own involvement in scandal‐related activities. These and other effects were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Two parallel analyses, one for each celebrity, fit the model well and provided insight into the processes that potentially mediate the effects of a celebrity scandal on product evaluations.     

Celebrity Endorsements

Abstract

Advertising professionals rely on the assumption that using a celebrity to endorse a brand will result in an increase in consumer recall of the brand. Advertisers believe that using a celebrity endorser will foster, in the mind of the consumer, a match or connection between the celebrity endorser and the endorsed brand. The results presented in this study, however, found that a celebrity recognized in a magazine advertisement did not increase consumer recall of the brand endorsed by the celebrity for both professional athlete celebrities and other entertainment celebrities who are not professional athletes. Furthermore, subjects in this study did not correctly identify the brand when previously exposed to the full magazine advertisement, even when the celebrity's face cued the subject for recall. The results of this study raise questions relative to using celebrity endorsements to enhance brand recall.     

Investigating the marketing impact of consumers’ connectedness to celebrity endorsers

Consumers enjoy following famous media personalities, discovering details about their habits, food preferences, or designer brands that they wear. Consumers model their consumption behaviors based on their favorite celebrities’ preferences. Marketers are aware of such celebrity admiration and frequently use celebrities as part of marketing communication strategies. Grounded in parasocial relationship and social connectedness theories, this study tests a model of connectedness to the celebrity, attitude toward the celebrity, receptivity toward the celebrity‐endorsed message, and purchase intentions of the celebrity‐endorsed market offering. These relationships were investigated using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate an individual's level of connectedness to their favorite celebrity is positively linked with both their receptivity toward the celebrity‐endorsed message and purchase intentions of the celebrity‐endorsed market offering. On the theoretical side, the integration of parasocial relationship and social connectedness theories explain the processes through which celebrity endorsements impact consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. On the practical side, the findings suggest marketers should carefully choose the best celebrity endorsers for advertisements after considering how constituents from within their key target markets are likely to connect with the chosen celebrity. However, beyond consumers’ connectedness to the celebrity, the findings also suggest that receptivity toward the celebrity‐endorsed message is an essential link to purchase intentions of the endorsed offering.     

An exploration of celebrity business ventures and their appeal to fans and non-fans

Recently, an increasing number of celebrities have launched their own businesses. Although celebrity entrepreneurs may expect their credibility to enhance customers’ purchase intentions, this study does not find this effect. Instead, it finds that customers’ purchase intentions rely mainly on customers’ attitudes toward the celebrity's venture brand. Customers’ perceived congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity's business significantly affects their brand attitudes. Additionally, this study finds that a celebrity's credibility can only increase fans’ positive attitudes toward the celebrity's venture brand; therefore, being a celebrity entrepreneur is riskier than being a brand endorser in terms of consumer attitude.     

The effects of match-ups on the consumer attitudes toward internet celebrities and their live streaming contents in the context of product endorsement

Streaming media platform opens new ways for celebrity endorsement. Based on the researches related to celebrity endorsement and match-up hypothesis, this study explores the influences of various matches on the consumer attitudes within the context of live streaming shopping with internet celebrities in China. Results suggest that product-source fit affects the perceived source attractiveness and trustworthiness, while product-content fit affects utilitarian and hedonic attitude toward the content. Source trustworthiness, hedonic attitude and self-product fit increased the intention to buy. This study develops and tests an integrative model of internet celebrity endorsement by investigating congruence effects on live streaming viewers.     

Celebrity endorsements: Influence of a product-endorser match on Millennials attitudes and purchase intentions

The buying power of millennial consumers is ever growing. They are social consumers, sharing all aspects of their experiences on social media. One advertising technique that may sway millennial consumers is using a celebrity endorser. The purpose of this study was to investigate if the presence of a congruent product-endorser match helped influence purchase intent of millennial consumers and aide in favourable attitudes toward the advertisement. Millennials evaluated an unfamiliar celebrity endorsement where they indicated they had little intent to purchase the product endorsed by the unfamiliar celebrity, but the unfamiliar celebrity did lead to favourable evaluations of the advertisement.     

Does Celebrity Image Congruence Influences Brand Attitude and Purchase Intention?

We examine whether image congruence (IC) of celebrities have significant effect on purchase intention (PI) and whether attitude towards brand and attitude towards advertisement mediate the relationships in a developing country, based on sample data from India. The data was collected using a Likert Scale of 1 to 7. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test the recursive model incorporating endorser-brand IC, advertising effectiveness (AE), attitude toward advertisement (ATA), attitude towards brand (ATB), and purchase intention (PI). It was found that the celebrity image congruence (IC) has a negative significant effect on ATB and positive significant effect on ATA whereas advertising effectiveness (AE) had significant effect on both attitude towards brand and attitude towards advertisement. Finally AE and ATA both had significant positive effect on PI. Drawing on research on moral reasoning associated with celebrity endorsement, we provide strong theoretical as well as empirical evidence that celebrity (endorser-brand) IC is not a strong predictor of PI in a developing country. Spending huge resources on endorsers for IC does not always provide the desired benefits in countries like India. Findings would be useful for both multinational firms engaged in international marketing as well as local firms.     

Idolizing “My Love from the Star”: Idol attachment and fanaticism of luxury brands

This study examines the influence of idol attachment and consumer fanaticism on consumers’ attitude toward celebrity product placement of luxury fashion brands in Korean television dramas. A 2 × 2 research design was used to examine two different product categories (fashion apparel vs. fashion accessories) and two celebrities (Kim Soo Hyun vs. Jun Ji‐Hyun). Respondents were screened and limited to those who were aware of the Korean television drama My Love from the Star. The findings show that the gender of celebrity and the category of product placement have differential impacts on viewers or fans’ attitudes and intention toward the product placement.     

Examining the Impact of Brand Transgressions on Consumers' Perceptions of Celebrity Endorsers

Prior research has extensively explored the impact of celebrities' transgressions on the brands that they endorse. However, little research exists examining the impact of brand transgressions on consumers' perceptions of the celebrities that endorse these products. This research addresses this oversight and finds that transgressions committed by a brand negatively impact consumers' attitudes toward the endorsing celebrity. Moreover, we find this effect is sequentially mediated by perceptions of responsibility and moral reputation. Finally, we identify two response strategies that a celebrity can employ to mitigate the negative effects of the brand's transgression on the celebrity's reputation. However, the effectiveness of these strategies may be dependent upon perceptions of endorser expertise.     

Reverse Transfer Effect of Celebrity-Product Congruence on the Celebrity's Perceived Credibility

In contrast with traditional celebrity endorsement research, this study examines the effect of celebrity advertisement on the celebrity himself/herself, that is, a reverse transfer effect, in terms of the celebrity's perceived attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise. Online questionnaires were conducted for sport and film celebrities using an identical 2 (Korean vs. non-Korean) X 3 (very congruent, moderately incongruent, very incongruent) design. The results show that a celebrity's perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness were significantly decreased when the celebrity-product congruence was low, whereas no significant effects were found when the congruence level was high. Theoretical and managerial implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

Exploring the impact of affect on the effectiveness of comparative versus non-comparative advertisements

Affect is important in advertising, but it has not attracted sufficient attention in the research of comparative advertising. Two studies were conducted to explore how affect influences the effectiveness of comparative versus non-comparative advertisements. Study 1 focused on context-induced affect and showed that participants with positive affect expressed more favourable attitudes toward a comparative advertisement than a non-comparative advertisement. Study 2 addressed the coexistence of context- and ad-induced affects. Results showed that in the condition of positive context-induced affect, participants liked a comparative advertisement more than a non-comparative advertisement when ad-induced affect was positive. However, they evaluated both types of advertisement similarly in a negative manner when ad-induced affect was negative. In the condition of negative context-induced affect, participants expressed more favourable attitudes toward the advertisement eliciting positive affect than the one eliciting negative affect (regardless of ad type). These studies provided theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future research.     

Exploring the relationship between celebrity endorser effects and advertising effectiveness

This study provides a quantitative summary of the relationship between celebrity endorser source effects and effectiveness in advertising. The Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test is used to identify the most influential celebrity endorser source effects on effectiveness. The role of celebrity/product fit, interaction effects, sample type, study setting, and country of study are also included as moderators. Results suggest negative celebrity information can be extremely detrimental to an advertising campaign. The source credibility model composed of celebrity trustworthiness, celebrity expertise, and celebrity attractiveness appears to capture the three most influential source effects on purchase intentions, brand attitudes and attitudes towards the advertisement.     

名人代言广告的风险分析与规避

现代商业社会中,企业利用名人的知名度和号召力进行品牌推广和产品广告宣传的做法十分普遍。名人效果利用的好,能成为企业发展的助推器;同样,如果处理不好代言广告宣传活动中可能发生的风险,效果则会大打折扣,甚至有反效果。本文将结合实例,具体分析名人代言广告活动中存在的风险,以及风险的防范与规避。     

More Isn't Always Better: Exploring the Influence of Familiarity When Using Multiple Celebrity Endorsers

Marketers continually employ celebrity endorsers as a promotional tactic to enhance brand awareness and increase sales. Frequently, companies will use multiple celebrities to endorse the same product, but feature them individually across a series of concurrent advertisements. While this tactic is often used in practice, its effectiveness has not been thoroughly examined within the academic literature. Our research investigates the value of using multiple concurrent endorsers and the moderating role that celebrity familiarity has on attitudes toward the brand and purchase intentions. Results suggest that using multiple endorsers concurrently is not always the best approach.     

Should We Hire David Beckham to Endorse our Brand? Contextual Interference and Consumer Memory for Brands in a Celebrity's Endorsement Portfolio

Imagine that you are browsing through a magazine, and you see one of your favorite celebrities in an advertisement. Then, a bit further into the magazine you see that same celebrity in an ad for a different product. A few hours later, you think of the celebrity again and try to remember the products s/he was endorsing, but what will you actually recall? This paper examines consumer memory for celebrity advertising under conditions where a single celebrity advertises for more than one brand. Using contextual interference as the theoretical lens, the current research posits and demonstrates how brands in a celebrity's “endorsement portfolio” compete with one another when consumers use the celebrity as retrieval cue for information that was contained in the ads. The findings of the laboratory experiment reveal that brands sharing either a high or low match with the celebrity win the battle during retrieval and inhibit consumers’ ability to accurately recall ad information for brands sharing a more moderate match with the celebrity. The theoretical practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Public Information and Consumer Skepticism Effects on Celebrity Endorsements: Studies among Young Consumers

This article reports on a survey and an experimental study that were conducted to determine the extent to which public information about celebrity endorsers influences consumers' attitudes and perceptions, and whether this was moderated by an individual difference factor, consumer skepticism. Participants in the survey were more likely to recall and discuss negative events involving male sports celebrities; thought that these negative events had little or no effect on their perceptions of brands or companies associated with embattled celebrities; and focused discussion on the case of Kobe Bryant, when they were asked to discuss a specific case of a controversy involving a celebrity endorser. The experimental study revealed significant main and interaction effects of nature of information about a celebrity and consumer skepticism. It revealed that consumer skepticism has its greatest impact when information is neutral. The experimental study established that advertisers have to take into account the level of consumer skepticism when they use celebrities in their advertisements to target different groups of consumers.     

Exploring Brand Personality–Celebrity Endorser Personality Congruence in Celebrity Endorsements in the Indian Context

The objective of the research reported in this paper was to develop and test a model of brand personality–celebrity endorser personality congruence and its impact on consumers’ attitudes and intentions. In particular, the study drew on social adaptation and attribution theories to develop hypotheses related to the impact of this congruence on consumers’ perceptions of endorser credibility and suitability, and the subsequent impact of these perceptions on consumers’ attitudes and intentions. The study was motivated by recent attention being paid to the importance of personality in choosing celebrities for product endorsements and the fact that the brand personality–celebrity endorser personality congruence has not been explored before. The model was tested based on data obtained from a sample of participants in India. Results from path analyses indicated a positive and significant impact of personality‐based congruence on endorser credibility and suitability, which, in turn, positively and significantly impacted ad believability. Ad believability in turn significantly impacted attitude toward the ad, which had a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Research and managerial implications are discussed, as are directions for future research.     

Who Benefits from Multiple Brand Celebrity Endorsements? An Experimental Investigation

Advertisers commonly use celebrity endorsers to increase the effectiveness of advertising in persuading consumers. In many cases, these celebrities endorse more than one brand. Little is known, however, about the benefit to brands from these multiple endorsements by the same celebrity. This research applies classical conditioning theory to an exploration of multiple brand endorsements by a single celebrity, and examines how brand concept consistency between endorsed brands affects consumers’ evaluations of the endorsed brand. The findings, over two separate studies, indicate that exact and high concept consistency between endorsed brands positively influences consumers’ attitude toward these brands.