EFFECT OF CONGRUENCE BETWEEN BRAND AND CELEBRITY …

1

EFFECT OF CONGRUENCE BETWEEN BRAND AND CELEBRITY ENDORSER

ON CUSTOMER’S PERCEPTION

BY

PANG NGA CHUN

11007427

AN HONOURS PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFULLMENT OF

THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEREE OF

BACHELOR OF ARTS

IN

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND RECREATION MANAGEMENT (HONOURS)

HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

APRIL 2013


APRIL, 2013

2


30th APRIL, 2013

We hereby recommend that the Honours Project by Miss.

Pang Nga Chun entitled “Effect of Congruence between band

and celebrity endorser on customer’s perception” be

accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

the Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Physical Education

And Recreation Management.

______________________ ______________________

Dr. Seungmo Kim Prof. Patrick

Lau

Chief Adviser Second Reader

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this honours project “Effect of

Congruence between band and celebrity endorser on

customer’s perception” represents my own work and had not

been previously submitted to this or other institution

for a degree,

diploma or other qualification. Citations from the other

authors were listed in the references.

Pang Nga Chun

30th April, 2013

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratefulness to my chief

advisor, Dr. Seungmo Kim, for his generous and

professional guidance throughout the whole project

period. I would also like to show my special thanks to

Prof. Patrick Lau for being my second reader.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the participants for

their sincere participation.

_______________________________

Pang Nga Chun

5

Department of Physical

Education

Hong Kong Baptist University

Date: _________________________

ABSTRACT

Over the years sports companies tended to spend huge sum

of money on celebrity endorsements so as to make an

advertisement more noticeable for customers. However, the

selection of an appropriate spokesperson for a product

was essential. The present study was to investigate how

the customer’s perception on matching between athlete and

actor endorser and his endorsed sports-related and

sports-unrelated products and determine the impact of

three characteristics of the endorser with

attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness on

customers’ purchasing intention. A total of 200

participants, were being invited to participate to

questionnaires with four combinations of advertisements.

Results revealed that expertise-athlete endorser was

perfectly matched with sport-related product. Other

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finding showed trustworthiness and attractiveness were

important factor to affect purchasing intention on with

and without sports product respectively. Hopefully, the

result findings would be a useful reference for endorser

selection by marketers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER Page

1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Statement of Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Delimitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Hypotheses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Significance of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

The benefits and effects of Celebrity endorsement . 14

Source credibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Trustworthiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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Source attractiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Similarity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .19

Familiarity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Likeability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Match-up hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Meaning transfer model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3. METHOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Participants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 26

Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Data Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4. ANALYSIS OF DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Research Implications . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 53

5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Summary of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Recommendations for Further Study. . . . . . . . ..59

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REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

APPENDIX

A. Questionnaire (English). . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

B. Stimulus Material (Advertisements) . . . . . . . 73

i. Athlete paired with sports-related product. . . .73

ii. Star/actor paired with sports-related product. . 74

iii. Athlete paired with sports-unrelated products. .75

iv. Star/actor paired with sports-unrelated products.76

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE Page

1. Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Gender

of the Subjects (N=200) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2a. Mean and Standard Deviation of the

Subjects’ Age .33 (N=150) . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2B. Frequency and Percentage of

Subjects’ Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

3. Frequency and Percentage of

Subjects’ Educational status . . . . . . . . . . 35

4. Reliability of all variables by

Cronbach’s Aplha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

5. One Way ANOVA of Mean difference between groups

in Matching (N=200) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

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6. One Way ANOVA of Mean difference among four

advertisements in Matching. . . . . . . . . . . . 37

7. Post Hoc Tests of comparisons Mean difference

between groups in Matching. . . . . . . . . . . .39

8. Homogenous Subsets of comparisons Mean difference

between groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

9. Multiple Progressions of indicating the relationship

between combinations of three predictors and purchasing

intention among four advertisements . . . . . . . 41

10. Means of different variables in purchasing intention

among four advertisements. . . . . . . . . . . .42

11. Indicating the correlations between three

characteristics individually with purchasing

intention in four advertisements. . . . . . . . 43

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE Page

1. Frequency of the subjects of different ages . . . 34

2. Mean Difference among four advertisements . . . . 38

in Matching

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Celebrity endorsement that had become a trend was

considered a useful technique for product marketing and

brand building. (Mukherjee, 2009). Surprisingly, Nike

that had been named the most valuable brand in sports

with value of $15.9 billion shown on the Forbes magazine,

spent $294 million on Endorser compensation according to

Nike’s 2012 10-K report. Although Nike had spent a vast

amount of money on endorsements such as Michael Jordan as

well as Tiger woods, Nike still benefited from celebrity

endorsers. In 2002, Kevin found out that the Nike golf

ball division obtained additional profits of $60 million

benefited from Tiger Woods through the acquisition of 4.5

million customers who switched as additional $1.6 million

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in profit by sponsoring him for 10 years. Actually,

celebrity endorsers could not only have benefit on

increasing profits directly, but also change customer’s

perception on the endorsed product. Cacioppo, Petty and

Schumann, (1983) pointed out that consumers would have

more positive brand attitude towards products which were

endorsed by celebrities. Furthermore, in 2007, Choi and

Rifon stated that celebrities had full of power to exert

on consumers though they were physically and socially

distant from an average customer. However, it was

difficult for the marketer to select a proper celebrity

to be spokesperson of the brand. Because of this, many

researches strived to find out some ideas for making an

effective advertising with a suitable endorser. From

consumer’s point of view, Keller and Kevin (1993)

suggested that an effective advertising should foster a

match or connection between the celebrity endorser and

endorsed brand. Accordingly, Hsu and McDonald (2002)

addressed if the characteristics of celebrity matched

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with the attributes of the product, celebrity endorsement

could be effective; and even leaded to more efficient

advertising suggested by Louie and Obermiller (2002).

Similarly, previous research was strongly suggested the

significance of the match-up hypothesis, or the ‘’fit’’

between the characteristics of endorser and the brand.

Match-up Hypothesis was focus mainly on attractiveness,

expertise and trustworthiness that the three

characteristics were related to source credibility

(Ohanian, 1990., Till & Busler, 1998). Specifically,

Expertise was emphasized on how honest and believable the

celebrity was about what endorser said concerning the

brand. Trustworthiness was emphasized on knowledge and

experience of the celebrity endorser (Belch & Belch,

2003) On the other hand; Source attractiveness was

related to physical attributes included in similarity,

familiarity and likeability (Ohanian, 1991). Based on the

conception of Match-up Hypothesis, in 2000, Busler and

Till had done a study that a fictitious endorser calling

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Ted Franklin was created and described as either a “US

Olympic Track and Field athlete” or a “stage and screen

actor”. Either energy bars that were considered an

expertise-related product, or expertise-unrelated candy

bars were paired with him. Finally, results showed that

brand attitudes were significantly higher than the actor

when the athlete endorsed energy bars instead of

endorsing candy bars. In fact, it was mostly regarded as

the most persuasive endorsements since the well-known

athletes bring instant credibility to the brands by the

close association between their career in the sport and

the products. The finders even gave a relative example on

the belief that Michael Jordon was considered as an

effective celebrity endorser, who had greater influence

on endorsing products related to his athletic deftness

such as Gatorade or Nike, rather than products that were

unrelated to his athletic performance such as WorldCom

Communications. Because of the strong support of Match-up

Hypothesis, I would like to find out the customer’s

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perceptions on sports-related product and sports-

unrelated sport paired with athlete endorser and actor

endorser. Meanwhile, I would like to examine impact of

characteristics of endorsers with attractiveness,

expertise and trustworthiness on the customer’s

purchasing intention of two types of the endorsed

products.

Statement of Problem

The main purpose of the current study was to examine

the effect of congruence between with and without sports

brand and expertise-celebrity and attractive-celebrity

endorser on customer’s perception. A secondary purpose

was to examine the linear relationship between three

source credibility of endorsers and customers’ purchasing

intention.

Definition of Terms

The following terms were defined specifically for

this study:

Effect

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Effect was the result of a particular influence and

that a change that somebody / something caused in

somebody /something else according to Oxford Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary. In this study, we would focus on

the effect of congruence between brand personality and

endorser on customer’s perception

Congruence

In 2010, Achouri and Bouslama specifically listed two

areas of congruence on their research. The congruence

between brand personality and self-image and in the other

fields of marketing included in sponsorship, extending

branding and co-branding as well as advertising.

The notion of congruence always appeared in advertising.

Kamins and Gupta (1994) referred congruence or fit as a

tool of persuasion that had relationship with match up

hypothesis could be measured (Schlecht, 2003). The

researcher found out the importance of congruence for the

spokesperson/product combination that would result in the

perception of believability of the spokesperson though

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the advertiser believability was not affected. On the

other hand, Speed and Thompson (2000) defined congruence

as being the attitude towards related to the sponsor and

the event. It investigated that the customers would have

more responses if the association between the sponsor and

the event was increased. Based on the Match-up

hypothesis, Kamins(1990) confirmed the need for

congruence with the product and advertisement. After

that, the congruence between the endorser and the

endorsed brand could be measured suggested by Busler&

Till (2000).

Brand

According to Tybout and Calkins (2005), a brand was a

set of associations linked to a name, mark or symbol

related to a product or service. Besides, any type of

product or service could be branded. In addition, brand

was changed from a name when people linked it to other

things. Brand could be positive or negation. Therefore,

many companies such as Coca-Cola or even any brands of

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water like Evian and Aquafina were willing to spend money

on brand building in order to maintain a positive

reputation.

Celebrity endorser

Celebrity was defined as people who enjoyed public

recognition by a large share of certain group of people

and uses this recognition to represent a consumer product

by appearing with in an advertisement (McCracken, 1989.,

Schlecht, 2003). A celebrity could be considered as the

source of the message a company seeks to send to their

target audience.

Celebrity endorser was one of effective way to make

message of the advertisement more persuasive (Choi &

Rifon, 2012). According to Belch & Belch (2003), many

companies tended to hire some popular people, movie

stars, entertainers, athletes, pop-stars and even well-

known public figure to pitch their products. What’s more,

it was stated the effects on celebrity endorsement that

could influence consumers’ feelings, attitudes, and even

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purchase behavior, especially beneficial for the product

with low involvement. More specifically, Ohanian (1991),

there was relationship between celebrity endorsers and

purchase intentions; meanwhile, the researcher suggested

that the most effective advertisement was the celebrity

spokespeople with knowledgeable, experienced and

qualified to talk about the product they are endorsing.

Customer

Based on the New Penguin Business Dictionary, it

stated that the word was sometimes used interchangeably

with ‘consumer’, but formally it was reserved for the

designation of those who directly bought from an

organization. Thus, a manufacturer often had just a few

wholesalers, distributors and retailers as customers, in

contrast to the mass of final consumers who bought from

retail stores. ‘Customer’ was used commonly in the

context of business-to-business marketing customer

relationship management.

Perception

http://0-www.credoreference.com.hkbulib.hkbu.edu.hk/book/penguinbus

http://0-www.credoreference.com.hkbulib.hkbu.edu.hk/entry.do?id=6891773



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According to Kanuk and Schiffman (2004), perception

was the process by which an individual selects,

organizes, and interpreted stimuli into a meaningful and

coherented picture of the world. Furthermore, based on

each person’ needs, values, and expectations, how each

person recognized, selected, organized and interpreted

these stimuli were an individual process.’’ Additionally,

Tybout and Calkins (2005) considered that there was high

relationship between brand and perception. People’

perception on a product or service was affected by the

brand. Sometimes, how people perceived something matters

far more than the absolute truth.

McCraken (1989) went on to describe a consumer as a ‘self’

that constantly detracted into their lives the symbolic

properties from consumer products in order to construct

aspects of themselves and the world.

Delimitations

The delimitations of the study were listed as

followings:

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(1) The questionnaire were distributed and collected by

the researcher for a period of two months between

February and April 2013.

(2) The subjects were randomly selected to all aged

between 15 or above.

(3) Total of fifty and two hundreds volunteers were

involved in the primary and secondary surveys

respectively.

(4) The result could only reflect the Hong Kong

customer’ perception of the effect on congruence

between brand and celebrity endorser on customer’s

perception.

Limitations

The Limitations of the study were listed as

followings:

(1) The participants of the study of primary and

secondary study (N=50) and (N=200) was small,

necessitating caution in extrapolation of the data

to a larger population.

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(2) It was assumed that all participants familiar with

the brand of Nike Company.

(3) It was assumed that all subjects would answer the

questionnaire honestly.

(4) Self-designed questionnaire was used which might

affect the validity and reliability of the study.

(5) It was limited to select one sport-related brand,

Nike, to investigate the effect of congruence

between sporty brand and celebrity endorser on

customer’ perception.

Hypotheses

The following hypothesis and questions were set in

the study:

1. As implied by the ‘’match-up’’ hypothesis, expertise-

celebrity endorser would have a significantly positive

match with sports-related product.

2. Physical attractive-celebrity endorser should have a

significantly positive match with attractive-related

products.

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3. There was a positive linear relationship between

customers’ purchasing intention and the

characteristics of the celebrity.

4. Expertise had a significant relationship with

purchasing intention in sports-related product.

5. Attractiveness had a significant relationship with

purchasing intention in sports-unrelated products.

Significance of the study

In this study, it would like to be investigated the

perception of people on mating between sports-related

band and product-related band paired with expertise-

athlete and attractive-actor endorsements based on the

adamant theory of match-up hypothesis. On the one hand,

the impact of celebrity’ characteristics perceived image

on consumers’ intention to purchase the two types of

products would be indicated.

The similar topic of celebrity endorsements was heavily

documented in academic literature, but the reason why the

25

researcher was interested in the topic was that it

enabled us to understand the celebrity endorsement

process from Hong Kong consumers’ point of view. Not much

work has been seen in the Hong Kong light even though the

truth of it was being a trend for celebrity endorsed

products.

Implications of this study aimed at providing a direction

for marketers when considering an effective and

appropriate celebrity for endorsement and exploring other

desirable and preferable celebrates. Besides, how local

customers perceived the association between the sports-

related brand and the athlete or actor / singer celebrity

endorsement would be examined customer’s perception on

matching. More importantly, this findings might provide

a useful information for sports marketers, especially

Nike Company to decide an advertising strategy for

customers in Hong Kong so as to increase their purchasing

intention.

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Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURES

There were six sections in this chapter. The first

section introduced the benefits and effects of using

celebrities as product endorsers. The following five

sections summarized the findings of previous researches

on the following categories:

(a) The benefits and effects of Celebrity endorsement (b)

Source credibility (c) Source attractiveness (d) Match-up

hypothesis (e)Meaning transfer model

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The benefits and effects of Celebrity endorsement

Academic researchers had conducted sufficient

empirical research to express the benefits of product

endorsement. Ohanian (1991) stated that advertising with

using a well-known endorser could achieve a high degree

of attention and recall for consumers, whose purchasing

intention was also affected. Kamins and Gupta (1994) also

agreed the advantages of advertisement endorsed by

celebrity that the attention of consumers to the

advertisement was enhanced and consumers would easily

remember and believe the endorsed advertisement.

Recently, Vyas (2012) specifically listed seven benefits

of celebrity endorsement on the product or brand showing

below:

1)Raising brand or campaign awareness 2) Raising the

brands profile and media coverage 3) Attracting new

audiences 4) Demystifying key messages and issues 5)

Mobilizing public opinion and involvement. 6)

Contributing to brand repositioning in the public

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perception 7) Reinvigorating a long running campaign.

(P.213)

Owing to the assumption of positive impacts of

endorsements, Vyas studied the effectiveness of celebrity

endorsement of various brands among college students and

it was found out that celebrity endorsement increased

recall and preference of product/ service and celebrities

were suitable to endorse not only the high quality and

precious product, but also the low cost and day to day

product suggested by young respondents.

Pringle (2004) showed different data done by Millward

Brown (2003) and mruk research to ensure the

effectiveness of celebrity compared to non-celebrity.

Celebrity could draw customer’ attention, persuade and

communicate customer, whose interest in involvement in

the brand could be generated, and was also used to

develop a brand ’’cue’’ that customer could recognize the

brand easily. Meanwhile, Pringle emphasized selecting the

29

‘right’ celebrity to endorser a product is very

significant that could add values by association.

Source credibility

Source credibility was a term commonly used to imply

that receiver accepted the messages because the sources

were considered as having relevant knowledge, skills,

experience and trust to give without biased and

subjective information. (Ohanian, 1990., Dimed &

Joulyana, 2005). Moreover, source credibility could be

distinguished as low or high credibility. (Hovland, 1952)

Meanwhile, Hovland mainly concluded two factors,

expertness and trustworthiness that leaded to the

perceived credibility in his studies.

Expertise

In 1953, Hovland defined expertise as “the extent to

which a communicator was perceived to be a source of

valid assertions”, (Hovland & Weiss, 1951). Expertise was

a strong factor that influenced source credibility and

purchase intention. (Ohanian, 1991). Erdogan (1999)

30

stated that expertise came from knowledge, experience, or

training the spokesperson possesses in the related field.

In addition, the product that someone was endorsing

should be related to expertise of the source suggested by

Busler and Till, 1998. More specifically, Baker & Erdogan

& Tagg in 2001 defined the meaning of expertise of an

endorser was the ability of an endorser, who provided an

accurate information from knowledge, experience, training

or skills the endorser possesses. Shank in 2004 defines

as consists of knowledge, special experience and skills.

Trustworthiness

Hovland defined trustworthiness as “the degree of

confidence in the communicator’s intent to communicate

the assertions he considers most valid and consists of

honesty, integrity and believability in 1953. Ohanian,

1991 stated that trustworthiness referred to customers’

confidence in the endorser for carrying messages in an

honest manner. More specifically, Erdogan mentioned three

elements, honest, believable and dependable, are the

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value of trustworthiness that helped advertisers to

select endorsers as a standard and referred to the

audience’s confidence in the source for providing

information an objective and honest manner.

Simultaneously, Belch& Belch, 2001 suggested the

trustworthy should be included in the sense of honesty,

ethics and believability.

Source attractiveness

Physical attractiveness was considered an

informational cue that involved three effects,

inescapable, persuasive and subtle. Celebrities were

selected by advertisers mostly based on their physical

appeal and celebrity status stated by Erdogan(1999).

Ohanian (1991) confirmed the contact of source

attractiveness for appreciating the efficacy of pleasant

appearance owing to most societies place a high premium

on physical attractiveness. A study conducted by Homer

and Kahle (1985) disclosed that purchasing behavior would

be affected after seeing an attractive celebrity in a

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magazine advertisement than an unattractive celebrity.

Another study was found out that physically attractive

communicator’s celebrities were more successful at

changing one’ belief compared with the unattractive

counterparts (Churchill & Baker, 1977) and generating

purchase intentions (Kahle& Homer, 1985., Friedman &

Friedman, 1976). What’s more, source attractiveness was

related to three physical attributes included similarity,

familiarity as well as likeability that they were

essential in the individual’s initial judgment of another

person.

Similarity

If consumers feel a sense of similarity with the

person, her/ his message would be more power to affect

the consumer. (Belch & Belch, 2001) More specifically,

Ohhanian (1990) stated that similarity could be measured

when the communicator and receiver had similar need,

goals, interest and lifestyle.

Familiarity

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It was considered as the level of knowledge a

celebrity possesses. A celebrity was need to be analyzed

his/her previous knowledge in the exposure phase if the

celebrity was selected to be an endorser for a company

suggested by Belch & Belch (2001). However, Dimed &

Joulyana (2005) thought that an attribute of familiarity

was difficult and too diffusive for respondents to

evaluate.

Likeability

In general, likeability defined as attractiveness.

According to Belch & Belch, 2001, it could be defined

that one of the characteristics from the celebrity that

was admired or well know in the public eye, however,

balance between the attractiveness of celebrity and

company should be considered so as to avoid overshadowing

the brand itself (Ohanian, 1990).

Match-up hypothesis

In 1973, in order to identify variations in their

effectiveness to the compatibility between the product

34

and the endorser or lack thereof, Kanungo and Pang

investigated various combinations of products and their

male and female endorsers. After that, the idea of

celebrity-product congruence was developed to be known as

the ‘’match-up’’ hypothesis. Match-up Hypothesis was a

significant stage for marketers to choose their

endorsers. Homer and Kahle(1985) stated that using Match-

up Hypothesis for endorser selection fits well with

Social Adaptation theory which implied that the adaptive

importance of the information would determine the impact.

After three years, McCracken (1989) gave some examples to

disguised better matched and mis-mated between endorser

and endorsed products. The idea of endorser / product fit

or congruence had been labeled the ‘’ match-up

hypothesis’’. Subsequently, Kamins (1990) mentioned that

the existence of a meaningful association between

celebrity, audience and product was needed. In 1996,

Bradley indicates that emotional bond between the

endorser and the consumer would be created as the

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celebrity’s stamp of approval, if the fit was right.

Celebrity and product congruence had positive impact on

achieving positive consumer attitudes in the context of

celebrity endorsements shown by empirical studies. (Homer

& Homer, 1985., Kamins, 1990., Till & Busler, 1998). More

specifically, Katyal (2007) examined twelve parameters

that postulate compatibility between brand image and the

celebrity, which are Celebrity popularity, Celebrity

physical attractiveness, Celebrity credibility, Celebrity

prior endorsements, Whether celebrity is a brand user,

Celebrity profession, Celebrity’s fit with the brand

image, Celebrity—Target audience match, Celebrity

associated values, Celebrity—Product match, Celebrity

controversy risk and Costs of acquiring the celebrity.

Meaning transfer model

McCraken (1989) found that the use of celebrity

endorsers stand for an effective way of transferring

meaning to brands as it was believed that the celebrities

encoded unique sets of meanings which were transferable

36

to the endorsed product as considering an endorsement

process and that this cultural meaning residing in the

celebrity was passed on to the product which in turn was

passed on to the consumer. He argued that the personality

and life style of celebrities offered meanings of

deepness and power for celebrities to add value to the

image transfer process, in comparison to non-famous

endorsers.

After McCraken examined the merely theoretical concept of

this meaning transfer model, subsequently, some

researchers tried to apply the theory into the real life.

Three-stage process of meaning transfer explained by

Schlecht (2003) that the processes involved the creation

of the celebrity image, transferred from the celebrity to

the brand and the brand transferred image onto the

consumers. Three-stage process of meaning transfer

illustrated below figure 1:

37

Figure 1: Meaning Movement and the Endorsement Process

Source: McCracken (1989), PP.45

The first stage, the meanings linked with well-known

person moves from the endorser to the product or the

brand, and the celebrity from its public persona gave

this meaning.

In the second stage, the creation of product personality

took place as the endorser to the consumer transferred

the meaning. This was based on the symbolic properties

transported by the endorser.

In the last stage which was known as the consumption

process, the brand meaning was come from the consumer.

The consumers who identified themselves with these

symbolic properties the meanings were transferred to them

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thereby rendering the process of transfer of the meaning

from the celebrity to the consumer complete. It was

beyond question that the consumer’s role in the process

of endorsing brands with well-known people was

significant shown on the final stage (McCraken, 1989).

Summary

Obviously, it was worth using a celebrity to endorse

a brand owing to different advantages from celebrity

endorsement shown by various empirical evidences.

However, according to match-up hypothesis, the

characteristics of celebrity matched with the attributed

of the product in print advertisement that was an

effective way of using endorsement effectively to achieve

higher brand recall. Additionally, based on meaning

transfer model, how consumers will perceive a product was

closely related to their purchasing intention on that.

Attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness were main

source credibility to affect purchasing intention.

Therefore, in order to indicate an effective celebrity

39

who possessed the most appropriate characteristics in

relation to the brand, how customers perceived congruence

or fit between the celebrity and the product or brand and

how customer perceived those three sources influence on

purchasing intention should be examined in this current

study.

Chapter 3

METHOD

The method of this study was divided into the

following sections:

(a) Participants

(b) Procedures

40

(c) Data Collection

(d) Data analysis.

Participants

All participates were selected randomly to do the

test. A total of 50 men and women volunteers to

participate for the first phase of this research. A total

of 200 men and women would be invited to participate in

the second phase of this research. The subjects were all

aged fifteen or above.

Procedures

The survey would be used the self-constructed

questionnaires, which mainly contained two parts:

At the first stage, two celebrity endorsers chosen for

second study were selected by the questionnaire that was

required participants to name five celebrity endorsers

for Nike Company. Fifty participants at 15 or above years

old were utilized in the initial stage. The question

was’’ which five celebrity endorsements you would like to

41

suggest to Nike Company”. Meanwhile, the participants of

demographics, genders and ages, were collected. The

questionnaire was provided in English and Chinese

version.

In the Second part of the questionnaire, apart from

asking the participants of age group, gender as well as

educational background, characteristics of the endorser

in the advertisement perceived by the participants were

each measured with the expertise, trustworthiness or

attractiveness scale developed by Ohanian (1990). The

reliability coefficients for the expertise

trustworthiness, and the attractiveness measure were

high. Two different sets of questionnaires with four

combinations of advertisements shown below were done by

the participants.

1) Athlete celebrity paired with a sports-related product

2) Singer or actor celebrity paired with a sports-related

product

3) Athlete celebrity paired with sports-unrelated product

42

4) Singer or actor paired with sports-unrelated product

According to the measuring developed by Ohanian, items

from those three dimensions source credibility scale were

preceded by the phase “The celebrity in the advertisement

is...” and anchor by seven-point semantic-differential

scales. For the attractiveness scale, the endpoints of

the five items were “unattractive – attractive, not

classy – classy, ugly –beautiful, plain – elegant, and

not sexy – sexy”. For the expertise scale, the endpoints

of the five items were “Not an expert – an expert,

inexperienced – experienced, unknowledgeable –

knowledgeable, unqualified – qualified, and unskilled –

skilled”. For the trustworthiness scale, the endpoints of

the five items were “dependable-undependable, honest-

dishonest, reliable-unreliable, sincere-insincere and

trustworthy-untrustworthy”. Beforehand, customers’

perception on the level of matching would be tested by

question ‘’ Do you think the product is perfectly matched

with the celebrity’’ and anchor by seven-point semantic-

43

differential scales. For the scale, the endpoints of the

two items were “disagree-agree’’. Additionally,

participants were being asked four questions that were

indicated how endorsers’ characteristics affected the

customer’ intention to purchase on the four different

combinations. The scale used by Coyle and Thorson (2001)

that was included in four items: ‘’ It is very likely

that I will buy Nike.’’ ‘’ I will purchase Nike the next

time I need a product’’ ‘’ I will definitely try Nike’’

‘’ suppose that a friend called you last night to get

your advice in his/her search for a product. Would you

recommend him/her to buy a product from Nike?’’ and

anchor by seven-point semantic-differential scales. For

the scale, the endpoints of the two items were “disagree-

agree’’, exception to the last question that the items

was ‘’absolutely not-absolutely’’.

Data Collection

All the responses in the questionnaire were coded for

further analysis and were inputted into the Statistical

44

Package for the Social Science (SPSS program). One-way

ANOVA was used to indicate how customer perceived

matching between the endorser and endorsed product with

different combinations. Simultaneously, Post Hoc Tests

was used to compare mean differences among four

combinations in matching. What’s more, multiple

regression of coefficients was used to examine the

relation strength of the three endorser characteristics

and purchasing intention of the individual combination

perceived by customers.

45

Chapter 4

Analysis of Data

The purpose of this study was to investigate the

effect of congruence between brand and celebrity endorser

on customer’s perception. A secondary purpose is to

determine relationship between Source Credibility and

customers’ purchasing intention. A total number of 200

questionnaires were received. Customer’ perception on

matching between products and celebrity endorsers among

four advertisements, Jeremy Lin with sports-related

product, Leo Ku with sports-related product, Jeremy Lin

with non-sports product and Leo Ku with non-sports

products was analyzed by One way ANOVA . Tukey Post Hoc

test was used in comparing the mean difference among four

advertisements and then Homogeneous Subsets was used to

summary of the major differences among the means.

Additionally, Multiple Regression was used to determine

the impact of three characteristics of endorser that were

46

attraction, expertise and trustworthy on the purchasing

intention and indicate the strength of relationship

between three characteristics and consumer’s purchasing

intention. The level of significant was set at .05 level.

The above analyses were computed with the aid of the

Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The

data of the study was presented as the following:

1. Description of the subject’s personal data included

in gender, age and educational background.

2. Presentation of Reliability of all variables by

Cronbach’s Aplha

3. Presentation of the One Way ANOVA on the customer’s

perception on matching between products and endorsers

among four different advertisements.

4. Presentation of Post Hoc Test and Homogenous Subsets

on comparing the mean difference among four

advertisements.

5. Presentation of Multiple Regression to determine the

impact of attraction, expertise and trustworthy on

47

the purchasing intention

Results

1) Descriptive statistics of the subjects

In the study, a total of 200 questionnaires were

collected at which 55.5% (N=111) of them were female and

44.5% (N=89) of them were Male. (See Table 1)

Table 1

Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Gender of the

Subjects (N=200)

Subjects’ gender Frequency Percentage (%)

All the participants were aged between 15 to 50 years

old. The mean age of the subjects was 1.42 and the

standard deviation was 0.697 (see Table 2a). In addition,

the frequency and percentage distribution of the

subjects’ age were presented in Table 2b and Figure 1.

Male

Female

Total

89

111

200

44.5

55.5

100.0

48

Table 2a

Mean and Standard Deviation of the Subjects’ Age (N=150)

Min. Max. Mean SD

Table 2b

Frequency and Percentage of Subjects’ Age

Subjects’ Age Frequency Percentage (%)

Subjects’ Age 15-15 41-50 15-25 0.697

15-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

Total

134

54

6

6

200

32.4

13.1

1.5

1.5

48.4

49

Figure 1. Frequency of the subjects of different ages.

For the educational status of the participants,

weighted score for achieved educational status were

given, ‘1’ for Primary Education or below, ‘2’ for Junior

Secondary Education, ‘3’ for Senior secondary Education

and ‘4’ for Tertiary Education (degree, master and Ph D

holder).None of the educational status of the

participants was Primary Education or below. The mean

educational status of the subjects was 3.37 and the

standard deviation was 0.829 (see Table 3).

Table 3

Frequency and Percentage of Subjects’ Educational status

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

15-20 21-30 31-40 41-50

134

54

6 6

Frequency of Subject’s Age

Age groups

Fre

qu

ency

50

Subjects’

Educational status

Frequency Percentage

(%)

2) Presentation of Reliability of all variables by

Cronbach’s

Aplha

The reliability of all variables that were included

in three source credibility namely Attractiveness,

Expertise and Trustworthiness as well as Purchasing

Intention had indicated. All these items were over 0.7

valve that indicated that the test was reliable and

consistent. (see Table 4)

Table 4

Reliability of all variables by Cronbach’s Aplha

Junior Secondary School

Senior Secondary

School

Tertiary Education

Total

39

51

109

200

9.4

12.3

26.4

48.4

51

Variable Cronbach’Aplha

Attractiveness .85

Expertise .86

Trustworthiness .88

Purchasing Intention .87

3) One Way ANOVA of customer perceived matching between

products and endorsers with four different

advertisements.

Result from the One Way ANOVA showed that there was

significant mean difference in matching between groups

and within groups among four advertisements: A) Jeremy

Lin with sports-related product, B) Leo Ko with sports-

related product, C) Jeremy Lin with non-sports products

and D) Leo Ko with non-sports products, F(3,796)=55.86,

p=0.00, which rejected the null hypothesis (see Table 5).

Table 5

One Way ANOVA of Mean difference between groups in

Matching (N=200)

52

Source SS df MS F p

p < .05, two-tailed.

Meanwhile, the highest mean of customer’s perception on

matching between product and celebrity was Advertisement

A (M=5.39, SD= 1.41) and the Advertisement C was the

second high (M=4.00, SD=1.60) shown on Table 6 and Figure

2.

Table 6

One Way ANOVA of Mean difference among four

advertisements in Matching

N Mean Std.

Deviation

Std. Error

AD A

Ad B

Ad C

Ad D

Between

Groups

Within

groups

Total

397.15

1839.01

2226.155

3

769

769

129.048

2.310

55.86 .000

53

Figure 2 Mean Difference among four advertisements in

Matching

2) Presentation of Post Hoc Test and Homogenous Subsets on

comparing the mean difference among four

advertisements.

Tukey Post Hoc Test comparisons of the four

advertisements indicated that Advertisement A p=.000.gave

significantly higher match rating than the Advertisement

C (M=1.39, 95% CI [.99, 1.78]), B (M=1.84, 95% CI [1.84,

0

10

Mean difference among four advertisements in Matching

Advertisement A Advertisement B

Advertisement C Advertisement D

Mea

n

1 2 34

Ad A

Ad B

Ad C

Ad D

Total

200

200

200

200

800

5.39

3.56

4.00

3.94

4.22

1.41

1.53

1.60

1.54

1.67

.10

.11

.11

.11

.06

54

2.23]) and D (M=1.46, 95% CI [1.06, 1.84]). Exception of

Advertisement A and C, Advertisement B and D were not

statistically significant at p<.05. (See Table 7)

Table 7

Post Hoc Tests of comparisons Mean difference between

groups in Matching

Tukey

HSD

(I)Group

(J)Group

Mean

Difference

Std. 95%Condifence

In

Error Sig Lower Upper

Bound Bound

A B 1.84 .15 .000 1.44 2.23

C 1.39 .15 .000 .10 1.78

D 1.45 .15 .000 1.06 1.84

B A -1.84 .15 .000 2.23 -1.44

C -.45 .15 .017 -8.41 -.06

D -.39 .15 0.56 -.78 .01

C A -1.39 .15 .000 -1.78 -.10

B .45 .15 .017 .06 .84

55

Advertisement A was extremely difference from other three

advertisements in the matching presented in Table 8.

Table 8

Homogenous Subsets of comparisons Mean difference between

groups

Group N Subset for alpha= .05

1 1 2 3

5) Multiple Regression of determining the impact of

attraction, expertise and trustworthy on the purchasing

intention.

D .07 .15 .974 -.33 .46

D A -1.45 .15 .000 -1.84 -1.06

B .39 .15 .56 -.01 .78

C -.07 .15 .974 -.46 .33

Ad A

Ad B

Ad C

Ad D

Sig.

200

200

200

200

3.55

4.00

.06

4.00

3.94

.97

5.39

1.00

56

Result from Multiple Regression of four

advertisements showed that attraction, expertise and

trustworthy were significant relationship with customer’

purchasing intention. Advertisement C (F=3,196)=82.2,

p=.000 had the highest value of R Square by 50 percentage

of the totally variances could be explained by the model.

The R Square of Advertisement B (F=3,196)=73.7, p=.000

and D (F=3,196)=71.4, p=.000)were 53 and 52 percentage

respectively. The R Square of Advertisement A (F=3,196)=

65.1, p=.000) was 50 percentage that the source

credibility had the least relationship with the

purchasing intention compared to the others.

Nevertheless, the three elements of source credibility

were significant variables to predict customers’

purchasing intention shown on the data collected in four

advertisements. (See table 9)Meanwhile, the mean of three

dimensions with four advertisements was shown in Table

10.

Table 9

57

Multiple Progressions of indicating the relationship

between combinations of three predictors and purchasing

intention among four advertisements

Groups R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error

of the Estimate

Ad A

Ad B

Ad C

Ad D

.71

.73

.75

.72

.50

.53

.56

.52

.50

.52

.55

.52

.93

.97

.98

.98

Table 10

Means of different variables in purchasing intention

among four advertisements

Ad A Mean Ad B Mean Ad C Mean Ad D Mean

Intention

Attractiveness

Expertise

Trustworthy

4.90

4.43

5.41

5.27

3.58

3.63

3.26

3.86

3.97

3.81

4.24

4.42

3.87

3.83

3.74

4.05

The results revealed that the three dimensions in

advertisement A were high relevant predictor of

58

purchasing intention to the sports-related product

(basketball shoes) with the athlete, especially in

expertise, whereas, each dimension in advertisement B was

low relevant to the sports-related product that the mean

ratings were also below Simultaneously, expertise and

trustworthy were relative predictors to affect purchasing

intention shown in advertisement C, and there was only

trustworthy as a relevant predictor to affect

participants, who purchasing the sports-unrelated

products with fashion.

6) Multiple Regression of relationship between purchasing

intention and attraction, expertise and trustworthy

among different advertisements.

Result showed that Trustworthy was relative strongly

strength to change in purchasing intention in

Advertisement A and B. On the other hand, changing the

Attractiveness in Advertisement C and D would

dramatically change in purchasing intention. (See Picture

11) In addition, Comparison of three sources with various

59

groups were presented in Figure 3. Lastly, the linear

relation of three characteristics and purchasing

intention was shown by Figure 4. \

Picture 11

Indicating the correlations between three characteristics

individually with purchasing intention in four

advertisements

Ad A

Unstandardize

d

Coefficients

B Std.Error

standardized

Coefficients

Beta

t

Sig

(constant)

Attractiveness

Expertise

Trustworthiness

.54

.73

.01

.50

.32

.07

.05

.08

.33

.05

.45

1.67

5.25

.20

.595

.094

.000

.841

.000

Trustworthiness and Attractiveness (p=.000) were

significant relation with purchasing intention. However,

Expertise(P=.841) were not significant relation with

purchasing intention.

Ad B Unstandardized

Coefficients

B

standardized

Coefficients

Beta

t

Sig

60

Std.Error

(constant)

Attractiveness

Expertise

Trustworthiness

.11

.30

.27

.40

.25

.08

.09

.07

.27

.23

.35

.44

3.79

3.00

5.44

.66

.000

.003

.000

Attractiveness, Trustworthiness, (p=.000) and

Expertise (p=.003) were significant relation with

purchasing intention.

With sports product in Advertisement A and B,

Trustworthiness had higher relationship with purchasing

intention than the others. Attractiveness was the second

relative strength with purchasing intention, whereas,

Expertise had low correlation.

Ad C Unstandardized

Coefficients

B Std.Error

standardized

Coefficients

Beta

t

Sig

(constant)

Attractiveness

Expertise

Trustworthiness

.30

.39

.28

.22

.24

.06

.08

.06

.34

.27

.25

1.23

5.21

3.54

3.76

.220

.000

.000

.000

61

Three sources were significant relation with purchasing

intention. p=.000.

Ad D Unstandardize

d

Coefficients

B Std.Error

standardized

Coefficients

Beta

t

Sig

(constant)

Attractiveness

Expertise

Trustworthiness

.39

.48

.23

.21

.25

.08

.09

.08

.42

.20

.19

1.34

6.03

2.65

2.52

.183

.000

.009

.012

Attractiveness (p=.000), Expertise (p=.009) and

Trustworthiness (p=.012) were significant relation with

purchasing intention. With non-sports product in

Advertisement C and D, Attractiveness had the more high

relationship with purchasing intention compared to the

other dimensions. Trustworthiness was the second relative

strength with purchasing intention, similarly, Expertise

had the low correlation comparably.

Discussion

From the present research, one of the goal was to

examine customer’s perception on the expertise and

62

attractiveness aspect of the ‘’match-up’’ hypothesis of

celebrity. Both celebrity endorsers (athlete / singer and

actor) were linkage to sports-related product and sports-

unrelated products with fashion design. There were four

combinations: A) Lin Shu Ho, Jeremy with a pair of

basketball shoes, B) Ku Kui Kei, Leo with a pair of

basketball shoes, C) Leo Lin Shu Ho, Jeremy with a pair

of shoes, sun glasses and watch with fashion, D) Ku Kui

Kei, Leo with a pair of shoes, sun glasses and watch with

fashion. The second goal of the research was to

investigate the impact of source credibility on

consumers’ intention to purchase. These findings were the

useful information and implications to provide for the

marketers or advertisers for selecting celebrity

endorsement. This chapter would be divided into three

sections in order to further elaborate the research. The

first section was congruence between the product and

endorser. The second section was the impact of

Attractiveness, Trustworthiness and Expertise on

63

purchasing Intention. The last section was the

implications of the present research.

Congruence between the product and endorser

Result from the present research confirmed a Match-up

hypothesis that predicted expertise endorser was more

effective when promoting sports-related products used to

enhance one’s ability on the sports. Obviously, the

difference in mean values of 5.39 for advertisement A was

greatly larger the value of 3.56 for Advertisement B.

What’s more, advertisement A was found to lead to higher

mean in matching than the other two combinations. There

were mean differences among the four advertisements for

either dependent measure were observed to be significant.

These findings were consistent with predictions of

‘’match-up’’ hypotheses of celebrity selection. It was

suggested that customer’s had different perceptions on

different characteristics of celebrity endorsement so

that should be ‘’fit’’ or match or with the attributes of

64

the product. More specifically, Kahle & Homer, 1985.

Baker & Churchill, 1986 and Kamins, 1990 recommended that

celebrity’s physical attractiveness should be congruent

(match up) with the presence and degree to which the

product advertised enhances at attractiveness. Meanwhile,

Till & Busler (1998) argued that expertise was likely to

be a more appropriate and powerful criterion for matching

products with endorsers even though attractive endorser

was more effective when promoting products used to

enhance one’s attractiveness. Coca-Cola and Pizza Hut

were well-known examples of athlete’s endorsement given

by Till & Busler.

These findings lend statistical also support to the

finding from Till & Busler that Advertisement C (athlete/

products with fashion), had larger mean value than D

(star / products with fashion). It was concluded that

expertise like athlete could make for a fit with the

endorser product related or unrelated to sports product;

however, sports-related products could not fit with

65

someone who was not professional and experienced on the

endorsed product.

The impact of Attractiveness, Trustworthiness and

Expertise on purchasing Intention

Result from the research indicated that each dimension

of source credibility, attractiveness, expertise and

trustworthy was a significant factor explaining the

respondents’ purchasing intention with regard to

purchasing intention measure (Coyle and Thorson, 2001).

However, one dimension of expertise in advertisement A

that was a relative weak to influence to purchasing

intention. These findings would be partially explained.

Although expertise was high in mean for explaining the

respondents’ purchasing intention, Expertise was an

insignificant factor for predicting to the participants’

intentions to purchase the pair of basketball shoes

endorsed by Jeremy Lin in advertisement A. On the other

hand, trustworthy was a factor of relative strength to

impact on purchasing intention. It was possible that

66

untrustworthy or unreliable endorser would lead a

negative impact on customers’ purchasing intention of

endorsed sports-related product even if the endorser was

expertise or attractiveness of the endorsed product.

Namely, Tiger Woods was professional on golf and he was

considered as a handsome athlete with sly smile, silicone

filled chest and bleached blond hair. Nevertheless, Nike

lost approximately $ 1.3 million in profit of his

endorsed products with a loss of 105,000 customers

because of his love affairs scandal. (Kevin,

2010)Simultaneously, attractiveness was another important

predictor affecting to purchasing intention. It was a

true that physically attractive was an effective source

to facilitate attitude change (Petty and Cacioppo, 1980)

and participants were more likely to intend to purchase

the product endorsed by attractive than an unattractive

endorser. (Kahle & Homer, 1985)That’s why expertise and

attractive athlete endorser tended to be popular such as

David Robert Joseph Beckham and Maria Yuryevna Sharapova.

67

The means of three dimensions in another advertisement

with the same sports-related product and Leo, Ku were

ineffectively to present respondents’ purchasing

intention. However, coefficients for three endorser

characteristics on purchasing intention were significant.

Similarly, trustworthiness was a greater factor to

influence purchasing intention compared to the others.

Attractiveness was the second essential influence.

Therefore, whoever expertise athlete or attractive star

endorsed a sports-related product; level of

trustworthiness with individual could not be neglected.

Besides, the impact of Jeremy, Lin’ perceived

advertisement C on consumers’ intention to purchase

showed that expertise and trustworthiness were the

relevant factors to influence purchasing intention. What’

more, coefficients for three endorser characteristics on

purchasing intention were of significance and

attractiveness had high relationship with the purchasing

intention with the product. Truly, Jeremy, Lin was

68

considered as a professional expertise athlete rather

than physically attractive celebrity, because of this,

the mean of expertise perceived by participants was

higher than attractiveness. At the same time, result from

the finding showed that attractiveness was an essential

factor to predict for purchasing intention shown on the

data.

Besides, participant’s perceived only trustworthiness

characteristic of the endorser Ku, Leo of with fashion’

products as a factor for determining to the purchasing

intention. Also, purchasing intention for the product had

significant coefficients for three endorser

characteristics; similarly, attractiveness was higher

than the others. In fact, empirical support for the

importance of physical attractive celebrity for an

attractive-related product that could bring about higher

brand attitude and purchase intentions. (Homer & Kahle,

1985. Kamins, 1990. Till & Busler, 1998. Schleclot, 2003.

Pringle, 2004.)In 1979, Friedman and Friedman suggested

69

using physical attractive celebrities for enhancing

attractiveness of the endorsed product and it could gain

from the dual effects of celebrity status and physical.

More specifically, a research had indicated that

participants were more likely to intend to purchase after

exposure an unattractiveness celebrity done by Homer &

Kahle (1985). Based on the theory, Later, Kamins (1990)

had done a study to find out the purchasing intention of

four combinations by using physically attractive

celebrity (Tome selleck) and unattractive celebrity

(Telly Savalas) to endorse an attractiveness-related

product (luxury car) and unattractiveness-related product

(home computer) respectively. The result showed that use

of physically attractive celebrity was observed higher

mean values in purchase intension.

Research Implications

The current research suggested that sports marketers

should consider matching with the attribute of product

and endorser when using product endorsers as endorsements

70

were more effective when the endorser’s characteristics

were congruent with the endorsed products. For example,

it would be positive impact upon product namely enhancing

attention and recall the endorsed products, consumer’s

product attitude and advertisement evaluation. Till &

Busler urged that expertise as a more important dimension

for driving match-up effect. In fact, the celebrity was

good matches for affective products but can also endorse

functional products within her/his area of expertise. For

instance, Maria Sharapva endorsed not only Nike athletic

products but also Gatorade thirst quencher beverages and

Canon cameras. (Simmers & Damron-Martinez & Haytko,

2009.) Clearly, in this case, sport celebrity Jeremy Lin

could endorse not only basketball shoes, but also

products with fashion perceived as matching between

products and endorser by the participants. Interestingly,

the findings showed that the star celebrity, Ku Leo,

could not match with either the basketball shoes or

fashion’s products. The findings begged questions why

71

some athlete celebrities were able to successfully

endorse a wide range of related or unrelated products. It

could be analyzed by Till & Busler, who thought expertise

was more effective for matching products with celebrities

then attractiveness because the logic bridge between

attractive endorser and product used to enhance one’

attractiveness. Furthermore, in order to simulate the

customer’ purchasing intention, sources credibility with

different types of products were also needed to be

concerned. Ohanian (1991) stated that attractiveness,

expertise and trustworthiness were most closely

associated with intent to purchase endorsed product but

she found out that the perceived expertise of the

celebrities was a significant factor explaining the

respondents’ intentions to purchase. Reversely, an

interesting finding was that trustworthiness and

attractiveness were main endorser characteristics

excepting expertise to predict for purchasing intention

with the two types of products. These findings would be

72

supported by Kahle & Homer, who argued that participants

were more likely to purchase after exposure to an

attractive than unattractive so physical attractiveness

of a celebrity may often be central in attitude-change

contexts. Therefore, expertise was a very essential and

effective factor to increase matching with sporty

endorser and sports-related product, however, the

athlete-endorser was also required to be trustworthiness

and attractiveness at the same time so as to simulate

customer’ purchasing intention.

73

Chapter 5

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Summary of Results

This study was designed to examine the effect of

congruence between brand and celebrity endorser on

customer’s perception. It was conducted that the

expertise-athlete and sports-related product combination

was a more effective fit than the actor and sports-

related product. Meanwhile, the impact of three endorser

characteristics’ perceived on consumers’ purchasing

intention had determined. It concluded that

attractiveness, expertise as well as trustworthiness were

important credible sources to influence on intention to

purchase both sports-related product and non-sports-

74

products; however, attractiveness and trustworthiness had

closely interaction with the purchasing intention.

Conclusions

Based on the results, conclusions were made and

showed as follow:

1. There was a significant positive relationship between

a match between a product and the endorser

characteristics.

2. There was a significant positive relationship between

the match-up dimension of expertise-endorser and

sports-related product.

3. There would be a significant positive relationship

between match-up dimension of expertise-endorser and

non-related product.

4. Source characteristics of expertise, trustworthiness

75

as well as attractiveness were the significant factors

to predict for purchasing intention on sports-related

product.

5. Source characteristics of expertise, trustworthiness

as well as attractiveness were the significant factors

to predict for purchasing intention on sports-

unrelated product.

6. There would be a significant closely relationship

between Source characteristics of trustworthiness and

purchasing intention on sports-related product.

7. There would be a significant closely relationship

between Source characteristics of attractiveness and

purchasing intention on sports-unrelated product.

Recommendations for Further Studies

1. To avoid select the celebrity endorser in a limit

group. In order to indicate customer’ perception on

the congruence between product and endorser with two

types of products in the second study, fifty searches

had been done for endorser selection. However, some

76

participants were tertiary education. As a result,

celebrity selection might be a lack of generalization.

Further studies should attempt to ask different ages

of group or educational backgrounds for the

celebrities.

2. As the study examined the matching and intention to

purchase a sports apparel only, it would be important

to investigate whether similar results could be

obtained for other sports products, such as sports

equipment.

3. The study only mainly focused on students of the

Secondary school and Universities so the results might

not be generalized to other consumers. Further

research can extend to study also people at work and

the elderly.

4. In order to compare the importance of expertise and

attractiveness factor on matching obviously, it was

better to choose an attractiveness-related product

like cosmetic products instead of the fashion’

77

products with sporty brand.

In conclusion, effect on customer’ perception on

congruence between two characteristics of celebrity

endorsers and sports-related product and non-sports

product had indicated. It found out that matching with

endorser’ characteristics and the attribute of product

should be considered as an effective and efficient

advertisement. Meanwhile, source credibility of the

endorser especially trustworthy for sports-related

product and attractiveness for attractive-related

products should not be avoided when marketers was

choosing a celebrity for endorsement. It was hoped that

this study suggested some considerations for sports

marketers and advertisers in developing a more systematic

and effective approach to product endorsers selection in

the future.

78

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APPENDIX A

Questionnaire of the Study

Please take a moment to complete this survey. Your

responses will be kept strictly confidential. Please take

a moment to fill it out. Please indicate your answer by

http://worldlywriter.com/images/portfolio/Proposals/Celebrity_Branding.pdf

http://worldlywriter.com/images/portfolio/Proposals/Celebrity_Branding.pdf

83

circling.

Gender: Male / Female

Age: 15-20 / 20-30 / 31-40 / 41-50 / above 50

Educational Background: Primary education or below/

Junior Secondary education/Senior Secondary

Education/Tertiary education

Please carefully look at the advertising first before you

answer below questions:

Advertisement A

1) Do you think the product is perfectly matched with the

celebity?

Disagree __________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2) The celebrity in the advertisement is

Unattractive_________________________________ Attractive

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Not Classy __________________________________ Classy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ugly __________________________________ Beautiful

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Elegant __________________________________ Plain

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Not Sexy __________________________________ Sexy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Not an Expert________________________________ Expert

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Inexperienced________________________________ Experienced

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Unknowledgeable____________________________

_Knowledgeable

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Unqualified _________________________________ Qualified

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_Education

84

Unskilled _________________________________ Skilled

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Undependable ________________________________ Dependable

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Dishonest _________________________________ Honest

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Unreliable _________________________________ Reliable

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Insincere __________________________________ Sincere

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Untrustworthy_________________________________

Trustworthy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5) It is very likely that I will buy Nike

Disagree __________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6) I will purchase Nike the next time I need the pair of

basketball’s shoes.

Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7) I will definitely try Nike.

Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8) Suppose that a friend called you last night to get your

advice in his/her search for a pair of basketball’s

shoes. Would you recommend him/her to buy basketball’s

shoes from Nike?

Absolutely Not_________________________________

Absolutely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Advertisement B

9) Do you think the product is perfectly matched with the

celebity?

Disagree __________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

85



1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ugly __________________________________ Beautiful

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Elegant __________________________________ Plain

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Not Sexy __________________________________ Sexy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Inexperienced________________________________

Experienced,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Unknowledgeable____________________________

_Knowledgeable

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Untrustworthy_________________________________

Trustworthy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

86


Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


basketball’s shoes.

Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

16) Suppose that a friend called you last night to get

your advice in his/her search for a pair of

basketball’s shoes, Would you recommend him/her to buy

the pair of basketball’s shoes from Nike?

Absolutely Not_________________________________

Absolutely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Advertisement C

17) Do you think the products are perfectly matched with

the celebity?

Disagree __________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ugly __________________________________ Beautiful

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Elegant __________________________________ Plain

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Not Sexy __________________________________ Sexy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7

87

Inexperienced________________________________

Experienced,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Unknowledgeable____________________________ Knowledgeable

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Untrustworthy_________________________________

Trustworthy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


shoes, watch or sun glasses.

Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


your advice in his/her search for a pair of shoes,

watch or sun glasses. Would you recommend him/her to

buy the pair of shoes, watch or sun glasses from Nike?

Absolutely Not_________________________________

Absolutely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

88

Advertisement D

25) Do you think the products are perfectly matched with

the celebity?

Disagree __________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ugly __________________________________ Beautiful

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Elegant __________________________________ Plain

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Not Sexy __________________________________ Sexy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Inexperienced________________________________

Experienced,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Unknowledgeable____________________________ Knowledgeable

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7



1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

89

Untrustworthy_________________________________

Trustworthy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


shoes, watch or sun glasses.

Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Disagree ____________________________________ Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


your advice in his/her search for a pair of shoes,

watch or sun glasses. Would you recommend him/her to

buy the pair of shoes, watch or sun glasses from Nike?

Absolutely Not_________________________________

Absolutely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Thanks You

90

APPENDIX (i)

Athlete paired with sports-unrelated products

91

APPENDIX (ii)

Star/actor paired with sports-unrelated products

92

APPENDIX (iii)

Athlete paired with sports-related product

93

APPENDIX IV

Star/actor paired with sports-related product

94

Advertisement C

Athlete paired with sports-unrelated products

95

Advertisement D

96

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