Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-28-2022

Publication Title

European Journal of Marketing

Volume

56

Issue

3

Pages

869-898

Publisher Name

Emerald

Abstract

Purpose – Although endorsers are thought to be highly effective when they match-up with a product, our current understanding of endorser match-up offers little insight for distinctions between equally attractive and trustworthy endorsers who have equivalent expertise in the product category, yet still diverge in their performance. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to understand how a match between social judgments (i.e., warmth vs. competence) of a celebrity endorser and specific advertising appeals (i.e., symbolic vs. utilitarian) can improve consumer responses to an endorsement.

Design/methodology/approach – A preliminary study empirically distinguishes perceptions of warmth and competence from prevailing celebrity endorser evaluative criteria. Then, we conduct multiple 2 (warmth vs. competence) x 2 (symbolic vs. utilitarian) between-subjects experiments to demonstrate the effect of matching social judgments and advertising messaging, across celebrity genders (i.e., male and female), forms of marketing communications (i.e., print ads and interactive online ads), and types of brands (i.e., well-established and new/unknown).

Findings – Our findings demonstrate that matching celebrity endorser social judgments with the appropriate type of advertising messaging positively influences consumer response to the brand for both male and female endorsers. Additionally, despite a commonly held belief that celebrity endorsements are more effective at changing attitudes than actual behaviors, for interactive online ads we find that the match strategy can motivate consumer response through two different pathways. For well-established brands, the match improves overall brand response predominately through cognitive and behavioral mechanisms. Alternatively, for new or unknown brands, the match initially impacts affective responses, which are subsequently related to consumers shopping a brand’s product category, rating a brand higher in customer recommendations, choosing a brand’s products over top competitors, and paying more for the brand’s offerings.

Originality – The main contribution of this research is the demonstrated support for an alternative and effective application of the match-up hypothesis, based on a fit between the endorser and the advertising messaging itself.

Comments

Author Posting © Emerald Publishing Limited, 2022. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Emerald for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in European Journal of Marketing, Vol.56, Iss.3, March 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EJM-07-2020-0541

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