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

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Abstract

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.

Introduction

Today, consumers are constantly inundated with images of celebrities; not only are celebrities endorsing a multitude of consumer products but they are also found gracing the covers of gossip and fashion magazines. These mass media images can aide in the familiarisation with a celebrity. Celebrities have a unique position in the advertising landscape due to their respective careers, as well as from the constant media attention many receive. A celebrity endorser is someone who enjoys public recognition and who uses that recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement (McCracken, 1989). When celebrities are hired to endorse brands, they are able to draw more attention to the advertisements, break through the clutter of competing brands and can exert greater influence on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. Celebrities have the ability to make people take notice of what they are endorsing and create an immediate identity or persona for a product (Cooper, 1984). It has been stated that the celebrity is more effective when he/she is easy to recognise, likeable and friendly (Miciak and Shanklin, 1994). Therefore, advertising effectiveness can depend on the familiarity of the endorser.

The advertising literature provides ample indication that celebrities have had positive effects on both consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. Many suggest that celebrity endorsers bring credibility to the advertising message, thus making these messages more effective. However, credibility alone cannot explain the positive effects of celebrity endorsers. Researchers have also proposed that one's acceptance of a message relies on the similarity, familiarity and liking of an endorser (McGuire, 1985, Miciak and Shanklin, 1994) and argue that the physical attractiveness of an endorser can also influence the effectiveness of the advertising message (Kamins, 1990, Ohanian, 1991). Past studies have shown that using attractive celebrity endorsers help generate higher purchase intentions (Kahle and Homer, 1985; Till and Busler, 2000, Ohanian, 1991) as well as create positive attitudes toward the advertisement (Kahle and Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1990).

Despite the evidence that celebrity endorsers are viewed as more credible and more attractive than non-celebrity endorsers, advertisers generally accept that the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in advertising can be enhanced by matching the unique qualities of an endorser with that of a product (Lynch and Schuler, 1994). The “match-up” hypothesis contends that the higher the perceived fit between the celebrity's image and the endorsed brand, the more persuasive the celebrity and the advertisement will be (Kahle and Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1990; Till and Busler, 1998). However, while the “match-up” hypothesis has been widely studied and accepted in both industry and academia, the reasons found for a product-endorser match are inconsistent. While some have concluded credibility impacts a significant match, others have stated the physical appearance of the endorser influences a positive match. Therefore, this study only examined the fit between the celebrity endorser and the product in the advertisement, eliminating the measurement of attractiveness and credibility. Examining the congruency between the celebrity and the product is pivotal for the endorsement process.

Section snippets

Purpose and research questions

The purpose of this study was to use the match-up hypothesis to measure the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements. Specifically, does the fit between the celebrity and product generate a positive impact on the attitudes and purchases intentions of millennial consumers? Previous studies have used fictitious celebrities; therefore it is thought that utilising real celebrity endorsements can generate more authentic responses from these consumers. Millennial's are more concerned about brand ethos

Match-up hypothesis

The “match-up” hypothesis suggests that the visual imagery contained in the advertisement conveys information over and above the information contained in explicit verbal arguments (Rossitier and Percy, 1980). Empirically, the idea that the effectiveness of the celebrity endorsement occurs through the match-up hypothesis the more likely the qualities the celebrities’ possess will be passed onto the endorsed product. In practical terms the choice of the celebrity should fit with the associations

Pre-test

A pre-test was conducted to pick the celebrity endorsements to use for this study. Previous researchers have used various methods when selecting celebrity endorsers; therefore this study employed a previously used method. First, an exhaustive search was done to find previous celebrity endorsements of consumer products. Then these endorsements were shown to several undergraduate classes where students rated familiarity and likeability of celebrities endorsing various consumer products on a seven

Demographic analyses

Almost all of the respondents (94%) surveyed were female and 6% were male. Three-fourths (75%) of students surveyed were White, 11.3% were African-American, 9.3% were Hispanic, 3% were Asian, and 1.3% checked the “other” category. An overwhelming majority (98.3%) of the students were single, while 1.3% were married. Forty-one percent of the students had a bachelor's degree, 37.7% had an associate's degree, and 4.3% of the students had a graduate degree. See Table 1.

Initial statistical procedures

Several reliability and

Discussion

While the “match-up” hypothesis has been previously studied, little attention has been given to measuring the influence of an unfamiliar celebrity. The advertising and celebrity culture continues to change, however the idea of aligning the image of a celebrity with a product to create an effective advertisement has not. This study found that the “match-up” hypothesis aided in the formation of positive attitudes toward the advertisement and brand. Specifically, it determined that when the

Limitations and future research

Several theoretical and methodological limitations merit discussion. First, only female celebrities were used. Researching male celebrity endorsements should be explored, as there are many male millennial consumers who could be influenced by celebrities as well. Second, this sample was only made up millennials. Exploring other ages or generational cohorts would be beneficial, as there are wide age ranges of both male and female celebrities that can be found endorsing a multitude of products

Conclusion

The conclusions of this study provide insight into the importance of picking the right celebrity to endorse apparel. Picking the right celebrity endorser is crucial to the success of the advertisement in today's culture because consumers live in a media-saturated and product-cluttered environment. Celebrities are able to attract more attention to the advertisement they appear in when the products they are endorsing are aligned with their own images. While advertising aides in familiarising the

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