Role Of Celebrity Endorsement

2.1 Celebrity Endorsement

2.1.1 Celebrity Endorsement and the Selection of Celebrity Endorser

Celebrity endorsement is a common and widely-used marketing strategy to promote brand awareness, brand recognition, and product sales by using celebrities with well-known reputation and influence (McCracken, 1989). The use of celebrities in marketing campaigns already has a long history and is not a recent phenomenon (Kaikati, 1987). Celebrity endorsements can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. A typical example was the involvement of Queen Victoria with Cadbury's Cocoa (Sherman, 1985). In the past decade, the use of celebrities has rapidly increased (Runyan et al., 2009).

In previous literature, the selection of celebrity endorsers

A common concern is putting the cart before the horse, which means that consumers will concentrate more on the celebrity rather than the brand being endorsed (Rossiter and Percy, 1987). The product must be the core of an advertising, rather than the celebrity (Cooper, 1984). Another issue is that one celebrity is involved in diverse advertising and endorsements for different kinds of brands. Tying in with plenty of brands will reduce the identity, persuasiveness, and credibility of this celebrity. And the relationship between the celebrity and the brand being endorsed will diminish (Mowen and Brown, 1981). Consumers may also recognize that celebrity endorsement depends less on the brand character or product quality, but more on the compensation of the celebrity and the marketing or sales benefit for the company (Tripp et al.,

Those hazards may make consumers have a negative impression on celebrities. That negative impression may be transferred to the product under the Halo effect. According to the research conducted by White, Goddard, and Wilbur (2009), research participants viewed Canton Bounds, athletic shoes products, neutrally in the absence of negative information. Nevertheless, participants viewed the product strongly negatively after knowing that its celebrity endorser’s involvement in illegal drugs (White et al., 2009). Some studies showed that negative information about celebrities does harm to the brand image and reputation, and even reduces consumers’ purchase intention (Till and Shimp, 1998; Edwards and La Ferle, 2009). The influence of the negative celebrity information on brand image and reputation is heavy when that information was exposed before the association has been built between the celebrity and the brand (Till and Shimp, 1998). Moreover, according to Edwards and La Ferle’s research (2009), men and women were equally affected by negative information. In their research, participants of both genders were found to reduce their appreciation for the celebrities and the brands endorsed (Edwards and La Ferle, 2009). From the economic perspective, potential hazards might in some cases offset positive aspects in terms of company stock price behavior