Antecedents and consequences of consumers' attribution style: Measuring the impact of negative celebrity information

This study investigates the antecedents and consequences of consumers' attribution styles in the evaluation of negative celebrity information. In its evaluation of negative celebrity information, this study examines the effects of consumers' different attribution styles, level of identification with a celebrity endorser, and level of brand commitment. To test its hypotheses, the study employs a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design. The three factors are attribution style, level of identification with a celebrity endorser, and level of brand commitment. Conducted through the Internet, the experiment recruited a total of 229 students from a southwestern university in the USA. The study found that people making dispositional attributions judged the endorsed brand more negatively than those making situational attributions. Confronted with negative celebrity information, consumers who identified highly with the celebrity were likely to maintain a positive attitude toward a brand and continue purchasing it. In the same conditions, people with high brand commitment showed more positive brand evaluation as well as higher purchase intention than people with low brand commitment. The research findings contribute to a better understanding of the effects of negative celebrity information on consumer attitudes and beliefs.     

Determinants for Effects of Celebrity Negative Information: When to Terminate a Relationship with a Celebrity Endorser in Trouble?

This study examines three factors that influence consumers’ brand evaluation and purchase intention under negative celebrity information. The study is designed to investigate the effects of consumers’ perceived associative strength between celebrity endorser and brand, the role of congruence between a celebrity endorser's negative information and his/her endorsed brand, and the effects of consumers’ level of brand commitment. The study's findings suggest that congruence or “fit” between a celebrity endorser's negative information and an endorsed brand moderates a consumers’ evaluation of brand and purchase intentions. The study finds that a strong associative link between the brand and the celebrity endorser leads to lower brand evaluation as well as lower purchase intention. It also finds that consumers with a higher level of brand commitment are less likely to react negatively to a celebrity's bad publicity than are consumers with a lower level of brand commitment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

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.     

Effects of Negative Brand Information: Measuring Impact of Celebrity Identification and Brand Commitment

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the relationship between negative brand publicity and a celebrity endorser. First, it explores whether identification with a celebrity moderates the relationship between negative brand publicity and evaluation of a celebrity endorser and a brand. Second, it delves into whether consumers’ brand commitment moderates the relationship between negative brand publicity and evaluation of a celebrity endorser and a brand. And the study poses the research question, “Does negative brand information impact consumer evaluation of a celebrity endorser, a brand, and purchase intention?” A 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The two factors are level of identification with a celebrity endorser (low or high identification) and level of brand commitment (low vs. high brand commitment). The study found that negative brand publicity had negative impacts on the celebrity endorser, brand evaluation, and purchase intention.     

Connecting With Celebrities: How Consumers Appropriate Celebrity Meanings for a Sense of Belonging

We propose that consumers appropriate brand symbolism that comes from celebrity endorsements to construct and communicate their self-concepts. We also argue that consumers with high need to belong (NTB) look to celebrities to a greater extent than those who have lower needs to belong, because high-NTB consumers are more likely to look to celebrities for cues about which brands may aid these consumers' attempts to meet their affiliation needs. High-NTB consumers are also prone to develop one-sided (parasocial) relationships with celebrities, and these parasocial relationships mediate the celebrity endorsement effect on self–brand connections. Three studies support these proposed relationships. Furthermore, the third study also manipulates the degree to which the celebrity's image matches that of the brand being advertised, revealing that a symbolic match between the celebrity image and brand image is important for consumers who do not form parasocial relationships with celebrities (i.e., low-NTB consumers).     

Sacred Attributions: Implications for Marketplace Behavior

Prior research in marketing has extensively examined attribution theory and how this influences product evaluations; however, such research has only examined secular attributions to a company, employees, other consumers, or one's self. Thus, through a series of three studies, the research herein examines a new category of attributions—sacred attributions—to determine when consumers make secular versus sacred attributions and how this influences product evaluations. Study 1 shows that religiosity is positively correlated with sacred attributions. Additionally, Study 1 finds that sacred attributions to God are more likely in positive consumption situations, while sacred attributions to Satan are more likely in negative consumption situations. Study 2 finds that God (Satan) attributions lead to positive (negative) product evaluations, and these effects are pervasive, regardless of religious priming. Study 3 increases external validity by using real businesses to show that sacred attributions are greatest for businesses with a sacred value system, although these effects differ based on situational affect. Findings build upon the literature on attribution theory and priming.     

The impact of death on consumer responses to celebrity endorser misbehavior

A well‐established stream of research on celebrity misbehavior suggests that negative information may have an adverse effect on an endorsed brand because of its association with a celebrity considered as blameworthy. However, the present research calls into question the generalizability of these results to fatal misbehaviors (i.e., misbehaviors that lead to the celebrity's death). Indeed, after death, a celebrity may gain spiritual meanings, and consumers may find it more difficult to blame a sacred individual. As such, the current article investigates the impact of a celebrity's death on blame attribution and consumer attitudes in the context of celebrity endorser misbehavior. The results of three experiments uncover that death favors a partial blame attribution transfer from the celebrity endorser to the brand, but only when the misbehavior implies a product related to the brand. In addition, the findings reveal a positive effect of death through celebrity sacredness on brand attitude.     

Does gay-themed advertising haunt your brand?

This study is designed to investigate the effect of gay-themed advertising as well as consumers’ gender, tolerance towards homosexuality (low vs high tolerance) and consumers’ brand commitment (low vs high commitment) on attitude towards ad and attitude towards brand. The study result suggests that people exposed to non-gay-themed ads had more positive attitudes towards the brand than did people exposed to gay-themed ads. The study findings suggest that ads featuring homosexual imagery could lead to negative brand evaluation. The study finds that heterosexual males exposed to such ads had less favourable attitudes towards the advertising and brand as well. The study finds that subjects with high tolerance towards homosexuality have more positive attitudes towards the ad and brand, and have higher purchase intention than do subjects with low tolerance. Furthermore, the results suggest that people with high brand commitment had more favourable attitudes towards ad and brand. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

品牌组合代言溢出效应研究——名人崇拜的调节作用

文章采用心理学实验法,基于拟社会互动关系视角的研究发现：不同水平的名人崇拜对名人多品牌组合代言的消费者评价有正向影响;名人崇拜对品牌代言组合的消费者影响有调节作用,即高崇拜消费者对品牌代言组合的消费者影响不敏感,且保持在一个相对稳定的较高水平;而低崇拜消费者对品牌代言组合的消费者影响大致成倒“U”型曲线结构。文章开拓性地将“名人崇拜”这一社会心理现象与市场中的消费者行为联系起来,揭示了名人崇拜对多品牌组合代言效应的调节作用,为名人多品牌组合代言活动提供了理论依据与实践指导。     

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.     

Celebrity endorsement in the world of luxury fashion – when controversy can be beneficial

ABSTRACT

Can a negatively publicised celebrity endorser ever lead to favourable brand attitudes toward a luxury fashion product (i.e. a perfume)? An online experiment was conducted with a sample of 260 target-relevant female consumers where two factors were manipulated: the brand’s positioning objective (image reinforcement versus revitalisation) and the type of celebrity endorser (naturally versus incidentally controversial). Consumer attitudes towards the luxury fashion brand were generally more positive when the type of celebrity endorser was consistent with the brand’s positioning strategy, that is, when a naturally controversial celebrity endorses a brand with a reinforcement strategy and when an incidentally controversial celebrity endorses a brand with a revitalisation strategy. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by consumers’ appreciation of the celebrity-positioning match-up (i.e. the consistency between the celebrity’s persona and the brand’s strategy) but not by their perceptions of appropriateness (i.e. the traditional match-up hypothesis). Several implications suggested by these findings are developed.     

Eclipsing: When Celebrities Overshadow the Brand

This paper applies Gestalt psychology and associative network theory to examine the effect of eclipsing in celebrity endorsement on consumer attitude towards the endorsed brand. Eclipsing occurs when the celebrity overshadows the endorsed brand by dominating in an advertisement and diminishing the associative link between the celebrity and endorsed brand. Three studies take into account match‐up, celebrity attachment, brand familiarity, and the moderating role of eclipsing, through manipulating two levels of eclipsing in advertising: (1) high eclipsing, when the celebrity is the focus, and (2) low eclipsing, when both the celebrity and brand are emphasized. Consumers who have a weak attachment to the celebrity endorser report a more positive brand attitude when they see the celebrity and endorsed brand both emphasized in an advertisement (low eclipsing) than when the celebrity overshadows and dominates the brand (high eclipsing), irrespective of whether consumers perceive the celebrity and brand to match or mismatch. For consumers with strong celebrity attachment, high eclipsing enhances brand attitude, regardless of whether they perceive the celebrity and brand to either match or mismatch. The findings of these studies have significant implications for advertisers and brand managers in the execution of their advertisements featuring endorsements.     

Can good news be bad? The role of brand communication strategy and brand commitment in the announcement of product improvements

Although product improvements are usually good news, this research reveals that brands can be affected negatively depending on the level of brand commitment and on the type of communication strategy chosen by the brand. More specifically, this research examines how high-commitment consumers react to product improvements, and how these consumers respond to a communication strategy in which a brand admits that the new product version improves upon a previous inferior product (herein referred to as ‘honesty strategy’). Results of an online study reveal that product improvement is perceived more negatively by high- (compared to low-) commitment consumers, and that these consumers react more negatively and attribute manipulative intent when the brand uses an honesty strategy. This research shows that brands need to be cautious in communicating product improvements to consumers, particularly to its most committed ones. An admission that a product improvement significantly enhances the quality of a previous (inferior) product may backfire with committed consumers.     

Getting a no-reply is also a reply: An investigation of unreplied consumer attributions

No-replies are common in everyday life, especially when individuals interact in online platforms. When consumers participate in the marketplace and interact with sellers or other consumers, they may encounter various kinds of outcomes. Sometimes offerings may succeed, while other times they are explicitly declined. But it is also possible that offerings and requests are unreplied where no explicit acceptance or rejection response is given. This paper examines the hypothesis that no-replies lead consumers to stronger behavioral intentions than negative replies, through different casual attributions. Consumers make attributions to infer causal explanations, based on the type of reply they get from others consumers. Across our studies, we evidence the effect of no-reply on several contexts and reveal the mediating role of attributions on the influence of no-replies on behavioral intentions. The results also suggest that no-replies lead people to higher attribution of self-responsibility to the outcome than negative reply, however, company’s apologies for consumer’s no-reply overturn the effect. Finally, considering that individuals do not require much effort for a no-reply and effort is a proxy for interest, it generates worse attributions.     

Consumer scapegoating during a systemic product-harm crisis

Abstract

To determine how consumers respond to betrayal of their trust in brands, we surveyed 2156 consumers in nine metropolitan centres in China following the 2008 melamine contamination crisis. Drawing on psychological drivers of scapegoating and attribution theory, we investigate how early information and the perceived involvement in a multi-brand crisis and attribution factors influence scapegoat effects. The survey results reveal that the first accused brand, Sanlu, took disproportionate blame and was made a scapegoat for an industry-wide crisis. The observer/tension-discharging perspective, the ‘early information’ effect, and the contrasting roles of manufacturers and non-manufacturer parties in the supply chain in causal attributions have the most significant effect in consumer scapegoating. Study of a highly unfortunate ‘real-life experiment’ shows how a food safety scandal spills over and negatively affects attitudes and beliefs about the whole supply chain and about competing brands.     

明星广告热现象的冷思考

借助于具有较高知名度的明星提高企业自身的品牌关注度和知名度,越来越成为我国众多企业不约而同的选择。但在我国,明星广告也出现了一些值得关注的倾向,主要表现为明星多样化、行为盲目化、内容表面化和动机功利化等。根据消费者心理与行为学的有关理论,这些明星广告现象的背后有其特殊动因。     

The Role of Country of Origin in Celebrity Endorsements: Integrating Effects of Brand Familiarity

ABSTRACT

With the advent of globalization and open economies in the developing nations, the consumers in the same are experiencing entry of more and more foreign products. The traditional practice of having country of origin (COO) cues to influence consumer attitudes is being juxtaposed with COO cues of celebrity endorsers to influence consumers. In that context, the present study investigates whether (a) a global celebrity would be more applicable for a brand regardless of its COO (local or global); (b) a global celebrity would have a more favorable impact on the consumer attitudes for a third country (TC) brand; and (c) brand familiarity would moderate the effects of celebrity endorsements on consumer attitudes. Based on a detailed literature review, four hypotheses were developed and tested through two experimental designs using nonstudent participants. The independent variables used in study were celebrity endorser COO and brand COO. Major findings indicate a celebrity–brand COO match to create favorable impact on consumer attitudes. Findings also supported the effectiveness of a global celebrity for a brand that does not share the same COO. Brand familiarity was found to moderate the effect of the endorser on consumer attitudes. The study has implications for academia and practitioners.     

Investigating the Advertising Antecedents to and Consequences of Brand Experience

Brand experience may contribute more to promotional efficacy than concepts such as brand personality/associations/equity/value/attitudes. Yet, little is known about whether managed advertising efforts might evoke more desirable brand experiences and promotional outcomes as a consequence of consumers’ brand experiences. This study examines antecedents and consequences that may be associated with brand experiences. Attitude toward brand name, connectedness to celebrity endorser, message fit, and visual imaging were investigated as antecedents. Brand attitude and brand distinctiveness were examined as consequences. The resulting insights add managerial rigor to advertising processes that currently are often managed more by gut than by reason.     

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.     

Powerlessness following service failure and its implications for service recovery

This research examines whether service failure in hospitality settings reduces situational power and whether feelings of powerlessness have implications for service recovery efforts. Three studies demonstrated that service failure reduced consumers’ situational power, but only among those with high dispositional power motivation (studies 1 and 2). Moreover, those with high dispositional power motivation evinced greater satisfaction with service recovery efforts that involved status-enhancing compensation as opposed to utility-enhancing compensation (study 2), and when status-enhancing compensation was presented in public as opposed to in private (study 3). These findings suggest that consumers with high dispositional power motivation prefer service recovery attempts that counteract the feelings of powerlessness they experience from service failure. Service managers can benefit from these findings by understanding how feelings of power interact with service recovery efforts.