This paper presents a narrative review of celebrity endorsement research. The review identifies six areas of research on celebrity endorsements (celebrity prevalence, campaign management, financial ...effects, celebrity persuasion, non-evaluative meaning transfer, and brand-to-celebrity transfer). A review of the research in each area identifies key findings, conflicting results, and research gaps. In addition, this paper reviews the celebrity endorsement literature with a focus on the psychological processes underlying celebrity endorsement effects that has been put forward in the literature. Based on the review an agenda for future research is offered.
The qualitative research aims to develop an understanding of how consumers view the celebrity as a brand and also to measure and compare the celebrity equities. This research applies associative ...network theory to identify the celebrity association networks residing in the minds of the consumers using Brand Concept Maps (BCMs) methodology. It also measures the celebrity equity by measuring the relative strength, favourability and uniqueness of the associations. Three celebrities from different professions are selected for this study. Data for the construction of BCMs have been obtained from 50 respondents. The associations are shown on BCMs, and their structure has been analysed using general and central characteristics. Celebrity equity is measured using Krishnan (1996, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 13(4), 389–405) methodology. The results reveal that consumers link five categories of associations with a celebrity, namely professional associations, public-image-related associations, social responsibility- and ethics-related associations, lifestyle associations and negative associations. Further, the celebrities are found to have strong brand equities, but their relative equities differ from each other. This study reveals that the managers need to consider a wide range of associations for measuring celebrity equity. It also provides academicians and celebrity managers with a new methodology for measuring celebrity equity.
This study explores Internet celebrities’ personal brand development motivations and their strategies for successful personal branding practices. It divides the motivations of Internet celebrities to ...build their personal brands into internal and external factors as a basic framework to explore the establishment of a personal brand. We collect empirical data on 280 Internet celebrities from Taiwan through online and paper‐based questionnaires and conduct structure equation modeling to examine any causal relationships. Statistical results support the main hypothesis that both internal and external motivations push them to adopt involvement and information sharing as their main activities when building a personal brand. However, only involvement is able to create a successful personal brand, as information sharing alone fails to demonstrate the expected effects. We employ the mixed‐method approach to collect data through qualitative and quantitative sources. In‐depth qualitative interviews of successful Internet celebrities also corroborate the empirical results. This study suggests that future Internet celebrities should focus on involvement activities, rather than just sharing information, if they want to create a successful personal brand.
Social media technologies let people connect by creating and sharing content. We examine the use of Twitter by famous people to conceptualize celebrity as a practice. On Twitter, celebrity is ...practiced through the appearance and performance of ‘backstage’ access. Celebrity practitioners reveal what appears to be personal information to create a sense of intimacy between participant and follower, publicly acknowledge fans, and use language and cultural references to create affiliations with followers. Interactions with other celebrity practitioners and personalities give the impression of candid, uncensored looks at the people behind the personas. But the indeterminate ‘authenticity’ of these performances appeals to some audiences, who enjoy the game playing intrinsic to gossip consumption. While celebrity practice is theoretically open to all, it is not an equalizer or democratizing discourse. Indeed, in order to successfully practice celebrity, fans must recognize the power differentials intrinsic to the relationship.
•The influence of brand characteristics on a consumer passion for a brand is firmly established in the literature. However, social influencing factors (i.e., celebrity endorsement) to the formation ...of brand passion remain largely untapped in tourism and hospitality literature.•The present study contributes to the tourism and hospitality literature by examining the influence of celebrity endorsement on brand passion using data from air travelers.•Among three aspects of celebrity credibility were assessed, celebrity attractiveness had the greatest effect on consumer relatedness need satisfaction.•Consumer relatedness needs satisfaction (which is backed by celebrity attractiveness and expertise) had the strongest effect on airline brand passion among travelers.•It is perspicacious that the tourism and hospitality industry chose a female celebrity endorser over a male celebrity endorser when they aim at targeting male customers, and vice versa.
The influence of brand characteristics on a consumer passion for a brand is firmly established in the literature. However, celebrity endorsers influence to the formation of brand passion remains largely untapped. Using three theoretical lenses- source credibility theory, relationship motivation theory, and congruity theory, the present study examines the influence of celebrity endorsement on brand passion using data from air travelers. To this end, we involved (n = 432) airline passengers to test the hypotheses in the service context. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling techniques were used as methods. When celebrity attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness were assessed, celebrity attractiveness was appeared to have the strongest influence on air travelers’ brand passion via relatedness need satisfaction. The moderation analysis reveals that the effect of celebrity attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness on relatedness needs satisfaction is salient when the celebrity and user having the opposite gender. Finally, implications for policy, research and practice are discussed.
•Human brand authenticity is a significant predictor of brand love.•This predictive power varies according to the type of human brand.•Human brand self-branded product purchase intention reinforces ...brand love.•Openness, honesty, and personal interactions demonstrate human brand authenticity.
The present study compares the impact of perceived human brand authenticity on brand love across six fields—politics, music, movies, sports, business, and social media—using a survey-based quantitative methodology. The results indicate that human brand authenticity is a significant predictor of brand love, although its predictive power varies according to the type of human brand. Authenticity exerts the most influence in the field of politics, followed by music, movies, and sports. In social media and business, human brand authenticity shows no significance toward brand love. Although existing branding scholarship identifies authenticity as a predictor of positive marketing outcomes, the current study’s findings uncover a boundary condition concerning the context in which the human brand performs. In addition, brand love can be materialized through increased purchase intention of human brands’ self-branded products, allowing the human brand to benefit from passive income and brand-building opportunities.
Purpose
Given the growing preference for internet celebrity restaurants, it is crucial to explore how internet celebrity restaurants can maintain customer loyalty. Therefore, this study aims to ...examine the connections between brand cognition emotion value, brand symbol (BS) and brand experience (BE), brand resonance (BR) and revisit intention.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors use a theoretical model to test the relationship between cognition and intention. A total of 366 volunteers were recruited to participate in this research. Hypothesis testing and a moderated mediation model were used to measure the results.
Findings
BR acts as a mediator in the interaction between emotion value, BS, experience and repurchase intention (RI). Surprisingly, the authors also discover that electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) acceptance negatively modifies the relationship between brand cognition and BR. Internet exposure (IE) helps consumers perceive BE and BSs more favorably.
Practical implications
Managers should be aware of how internet celebrity BR is built. Specifically, they can use cultural or emotional elements to maintain relationships with consumers. Furthermore, to lessen the negative consequences of e-WOM, managers should work to maintain positive WOM consistency.
Originality/value
The research advances our knowledge of RI in internet celebrity restaurants settings. This study pioneers an investigation of how brand cognition is related to RI through BR’s mediating effect. It enriches this research perspective of the emerging restaurant literature. By analyzing the boundary impact of internet transmission on resonance, it also advances the literature.
The present study aims to develop a reliable and valid scale that measures the multidimensionality of celebrity images and is generalizable across diverse celebrity professions. A survey has been ...conducted using a sample of 484 respondents to gather data relating to the dimensions of celebrity images of four selected celebrities from two celebrity profession categories, namely, movie stars and sport stars. EFA, CFA and SEM have been used for developing a reliable and valid scale of celebrity images. The scale encompasses seven dimensions of celebrity image: social and ethical responsibility, life and style, professional capabilities, perspective towards celebrity’s profession, orientation towards fans, attractive physique and public image. Marketers can use the scale to identify the dimensions of celebrity images to select appropriate celebrities for their product endorsement. They can also use the identified dimensions of celebrity images to better differentiate, position and extend their brands while designing their marketing strategies related to product positioning, celebrity endorsements and celebrity brand extensions. It would enable researchers and practitioners to bring standardization to celebrity image research in the field of brand endorsements.
ABSTRACT
Using celebrities for promoting products is a popular advertising strategy. The selection of celebrity endorsers is of great concern to advertisers given the large sums of money to secure ...their participation. To date, most academic research on celebrity endorser effectiveness has focused on endorser characteristics (e.g., source credibility) or a match between a product and the endorser (e.g., match‐up hypothesis). The study presented here introduces a new dimension for understanding celebrity endorser effects, the congruence between a consumer's perception of a celebrity's personality characteristics with the consumer's self‐concept. Consumers’ self‐concept is an important influence on purchase decisions (Ericksen, 1997; Graeff, 1996; Sirgy, 1982, 1985), and advertising has been viewed as the most effective tool for creating product images in relation to such self‐concept (Sirgy, 1982). Drawn from the two streams of literature, this study proposes and tests an integrative model of celebrity endorsement by examining congruence effects of consumer self‐concept and celebrity as well as product and celebrity. Results suggest that ideal congruity (congruence between consumers’ ideal self‐image and celebrity image) adds explanatory power to a congruence model of celebrity endorser effects. Implications for advertisers and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of celebrity endorser credibility on consumer self-brand connection and endorsed brand equity. A conceptual model is developed, ...positioning consumer self-brand connections as a partial mediator of the effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity.
Design/methodology/approach
– A cross-sectional survey of 382 consumers of sports drinks in the USA was conducted to estimate the conceptual model. Stimuli, devised on the basis of a pre-test, involved celebrity–brand pairings in the context of the US non-aseptic sports drinks industry. Structural equation modeling is used as the analytic tool.
Findings
– The research model is empirically supported. Celebrity endorsements impact endorsed brand equity via two pathways. First, a direct effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity was observed, which is positively moderated by the degree of consumer-perceived endorser–brand congruence. Second, self-brand connection partly mediates the effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity, supporting an indirect mechanism of brand equity enhancement.
Practical implications
– Managers can now consider using celebrities as tools to develop meaningful self-concept-related connections with consumers. Additionally, the results of this study support for the use of celebrity endorsers as direct brand equity-enhancing tools.
Originality/value
– This study is among pioneering investigations that examine the self-concept repercussions of celebrity endorsements, suggesting that celebrity endorsers possess the ability to engage with consumers at the self-concept level, in turn, impacting endorsed brand equity. Additionally, this paper examines the direct and indirect mechanisms by which celebrities influence consumer-based brand equity of the endorsed brand.
