The Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Brand Affection and Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Word of Mouth
Keywords:
celebrity endorsement, word of mouth, purchase intentions, brand affectionAbstract
Celebrity endorsement is widely used as an advertising technique. This study examines three dimensions of celebrity endorsement, including trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness, as predictors of positive word of mouth by consumers. It also gauges the impact of word of mouth on purchase intention and brand affection in terms of the role it plays as a mediating construct between celebrity endorsement and consumers’ behavioral outcomes. The study uses a sample of 369 respondents to test a structural equation model. Its results reveal that the fully mediated model is superior to the partially mediated model and that trustworthiness is the most important attribute of celebrity endorsement, yielding positive consumer behavior.
References
Agrawal, J., & Kamakura, W. A. (1995). The economic worth of celebrity
endorsers: An event study analysis. Journal of Marketing, 59(3), 56–62.
Ahmed, N., Farooq, O., & Iqbal, J. (2014). Credibility of celebrity
endorsement and buying intentions: An evidence from students of
Islamabad, Pakistan. International Letters of Social and Humanistic
Sciences, 20, 1–13.
Amos, C., Holmes, G., & Strutton, D. (2008). Exploring the relationship
between celebrity endorser effects and advertising effectiveness: A
quantitative synthesis of effect size. International Journal of
Advertising, 27(2), 209–234.
Anderson, E. W. (1998). Customer satisfaction and word of mouth. Journal
of Service Research, 1(1), 5–17.
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in
practice: A review and recommended two-step approach.
Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423.
Baker, M. J., & Churchill, G. A., Jr. (1977). The impact of physically
attractive models on advertising evaluations. Journal of Marketing
Research, 14(4), 538–555.
Bandura, A. (1967). Behavioral psychotherapy. Scientific American, 216(3),
–86.
Bansal, H. S., & Voyer, P. A. (2000). Word-of-mouth processes within a
services purchase decision context. Journal of Service Research, 3(2),
–177.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable
distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic,
and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.
Bergkvist, L., Hjalmarson, H., & Mägi, A. W. (2016). A new model of how
celebrity endorsements work: Attitude toward the endorsement as
a mediator of celebrity source and endorsement effects.
International Journal of Advertising, 35(2), 171–184.
Biswas, D., Biswas, A., & Das, N. (2006). The differential effects of
celebrity and expert endorsements on consumer risk perceptions:
The role of consumer knowledge, perceived congruency, and
product technology orientation. Journal of Advertising, 35(2), 17–31.
Biswas, S., Hussain, M., & O’Donnell, K. (2009). Celebrity endorsements
in advertisements and consumer perceptions: A cross-cultural
study. Journal of Global Marketing, 22(2), 121–137.
Bush, A. J., Martin, C. A., & Bush, V. D. (2004). Sports celebrity influence
on the behavior of Generation Y. Journal of Advertising Research,
(1), 108–118.
Bush, V. D., Bush, A. J., Clark, P., & Bush, R. P. (2005). Girl power and
word-of-mouth behavior in the flourishing sports market. Journal
of Consumer Marketing, 22(5), 257–264.
Chaudhuri, A., & Holbrook, M. B. (2001). The chain of effects from brand
trust and brand affect to brand performance: The role of brand
loyalty. Journal of Marketing, 65(2), 81–93.
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit
indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation
Modeling, 9(2), 233–255.
Choi, S. M., & Rifon, N. J. (2007). Who is the celebrity in advertising?
Understanding dimensions of celebrity images. Journal of Popular
Culture, 40(2), 304–324.
