It Is a Match: The Impact of Congruence between Celebrity Image and Consumer Ideal Self on Endorsement Effectiveness

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.

Would you forgive Kristen Stewart or Tiger Woods or maybe Lance Armstrong? Exploring consumers’ forgiveness of celebrities’ transgressions

“…Due to the fact that celebrities are seen as exemplary and inspirational figures by consumers (Choi & Rifon, 2012), participants reflected on the initial reason why they (and others) admired celebrities which might have led to the 'celebrification' (Driessens, 2012, p. 643) of these individuals in the first place. This was often the celebrity's high standard of achievement (Choi & Rifon, 2012).…”

“…This was often the celebrity's high standard of achievement (Choi & Rifon, 2012). Following a transgression, seeing the celebrity return to what made them famous and successful reminded consumers why they admired the celebrity in the first place (Boon & Lomore, 2001), namely their 'achieved celebrity' status (Rojek, 2001, p. 18).…”

O Conceito de Congruência e o Endosso de Celebridades Esportivas

“…Além disso, são modelos de referência para a sociedade ou grupos sociais (McCracken,1989) e devem ser suficientemente familiares para as pessoas com as quais as marcas desejam se comunicar (Choi & Rifon, 2012; celebridades em peças de comunicação, pois ao se realizar o endosso, o objetivo é diminuis a distância entre os anunciantes e consumidores (Erdogan, Baker, & Tagg, 2001). …”

“…Papéis (Facets): diversas formas de se utilizar celebridades na comunicação de marketing. Till (1998) atenta para os diversos objetivos pretendidos pelas marcas ao firmar acordos com celebridades endossantes, argumentando que o endosso deve ser de longo prazo, possibilitando o devido envolvimento entre marca, produto, celebridade e consumidor (Choi & Rifon, 2012).…”

“…Nesse sentido, o principal objetivo do uso de celebridades é atrair um número maior de consumidores e, adicionalmente, fidelizá-los e incentivá-los a comprar as marcas endossadas (Choi & Rifon, 2012).…”