The Impact of Celebrity Expertise on Advertising Effectiveness: The Mediating Role of Celebrity Brand Fit

Abstract

The studies in the field of marketing have shown that characteristics of the source will influence persuasiveness of the advertisement. This study evaluates the effect of celebrity expertise on advertising effectiveness. Research participants (N = 109) were selected based on area sampling method. The respondents completed a questionnaire that measured the respondent’s perception of celebrity’s expertise, celebrity brand fit, attitude towards advertisement, attitude towards brand and purchase intention. Path analysis was used to evaluate the hypothesis. The study found that celebrity expertise has got a very significant influence on purchase intention indicating that the practitioner should focus on celebrity’s field of expertise before deciding on the endorsement. The study also found that influence of celebrity brand fit on purchase intention is mediated by the attitude towards advertisement and attitude towards the brand.

Keywords

Celebrity Endorsement Celebrity Brand Fit Attitude Towards Advertising Attitude Towards Brand Purchase Intention

Introduction

According to Federal Trade Commission, endorsements are advertising messages which reflect findings or experience of someone other than the sponsor. It can be in the form of verbal statements, demonstrations or depictions of the name, signature, likeness or other identifying personal characteristics of an individual or the name or seal of an organization (quoted from Consuelo & Roobina, 1992). Most of the endorsement advertisement includes celebrities, consumer, company professionals and experts (Friedman, Termini & Washington, 1976). The studies have shown that celebrity endorser is effective for low technical oriented product and products with high psychological and social risks (Biswas, Biswas & Das, 2006; Friedman & Friedman, 1979). On an overall, the celebrity endorsement is considered to create more recall of advertisement than any other endorsement strategy (Friedman & Friedman, 1979).

Celebrity endorsers are an important feature of modern marketing, and their use continues to grow. According to Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) proposed by Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann (1983), the effectiveness of advertisement happens in two ways, that is peripheral route and central route. According to this theory, the attitude change that occurs via peripheral route does not occur because of an individual personally considering the pros and cons of an issue but because the attitude issue or object is associated with positive or negative cues or because the person makes a simple inference about the merits of the advocated position based on various simple cues in the persuasion contest. According to Consuelo and Roobina (1992), Celebrities Endorser is intended to provide the consumer with a shortcut by allowing the consumer to avoid the time-consuming task of comparing product attributes. Accordingly, it is assumed that consumers are encouraged to rely on the celebrity’s expertise or experience in making the right choice, versus engaging in elaborate attribute-based product evaluation. For this, the consumer uses the characteristics of celebrity to form a valid assertion of the product.

According to Mccracken (1989) ‘the effectiveness of the endorser depends on the meanings he or she brings to the endorsement processes’. According to him, celebrity draws powerful meanings from the roles they assume in their television, movie, military, athletic and other careers. Most literature in the field of communication and marketing have evaluated how source personality and lifestyle meaning influence a persuasive communication. Source expertise in the field product class endorsed is one of the most important celebrity characteristics that influence communication effectiveness. This study evaluates the impact of celebrity expertise on social advertisement effectiveness.

Literature Review

Erdogan (1999) defined expertise as ‘the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertions and refers to the knowledge, experience or skills possessed by an endorser’. According to Horai, Naccari and Fatoullah (1974), expertise derives from an actor’s ability to provide information to others because of his experience, education or competence; it constitutes the denotative qualifications of a person. Erdogan (1999) suggests that the perception of target audience about the endorser’s expertise is considered more important than the real expertise of endorser. The influence of source expertise on decision-making was the prime concern for Woodside and Davenport (1974) and found that perceived expertise of the salesperson produced a greater proportion of purchases than the perceived similarity of the salesperson. Subsequent studies have found many intervening variables that contribute to the expertise influence on persuasion. In this regard, Homer and Kahle (1990) and Mills and Harvey (1972) have identified the level of involvement and timing of source identification as the intervening variable which might increase the influence of expertise. In addition, the studies have shown that repressors (DeBono Kenneth & Snyder, 1992) and dogmatic person (DeBono & Klein, 1993) rely on the expertise of source for forming their opinion about a message. According to Pornpitakpan and Francis (2000) the influence of source expertise differs according to culture. They found that source expertise has a greater impact on persuasion in the Eastern culture than in the Western culture, whereas argument strength has more influence in the Western than in the Eastern culture. Overall, the effectiveness of source expertise is based on different aspects like the timing of source identification, the level of involvement, the personality of the receiver, and culture.

In 1953, Hovland and Weiss (1953) evaluated the impact of credibility on opinion change. They considered the expertise of the source as a part of credibility and found that credibility influenced opinion towards message communicated. All the studies after this considered expertise as a part of source credibility and found a positive impact of credibility on communication effectiveness. Later, Ohanian (1990) developed a scale for measuring perceived expertise of the celebrity which became the basic scale for measuring expertise in the subsequent studies. Further studies have validated this scale in Western (Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999) as well as Eastern cultures (Ferle & Choi, 2005; Pornpitakpan, 2003) and found a very positive impact on source credibility in creating purchase intention in both cultures. All these studies considered source credibility as a combination of attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness. In an effect synthesis study conducted by Amos, Holmes and Strutton (2008) it was found that expertise has more impact than credibility which includes source attractiveness and trustworthiness. The study evaluated 32 studies which included 27 journal articles, 2 unpublished studies and 3 unpublished dissertations. He also suggested that each construct of celebrity credibility, that is trustworthiness, attractiveness and expertise, should be investigated separately.

According to Mills and Harvey (1972), the influence of expert model on purchase intention can be explained using Kelman’s social process theory. According to this theory, the process of social influence occurs in three ways: identification, internalization and compliance. Kamins et al. (1989) suggested that identification and internalization are particularly applicable to the study of celebrity endorsements. The influence of expertise on purchase intention is explained by internalization (Kelman, 1961). This process is said to occur when individuals conform to the attitudes or behaviour of others because these actions or beliefs are perceived to be credible and are congruent with one’s value system. It is the content of the induced behaviour which is said to be rewarding to the individual. According to this, the expertise of the celebrity will make the viewer infer that celebrity endorsed the product from their experience. So the customer, who views the advertisement, will think that product is worth the endorsement. So they purchase the product to satisfy their need.

The expertise of the celebrity in the field of the product will help in creating an association. For instance, a sports personality is considered as an expert for endorsing sports product. Till and Busler (1998) compared the effect of attractiveness and expertise in creating celebrity product fit and evaluated the effect of this variable on both brand attitude and purchase intention. The study suggested that expertise creates better association than attractiveness.

In the study titled ‘The Effect of Verbal and Visual Components of Advertisements on Brand Attitudes and Attitude toward the Advertisement’, Mitchell (1986) suggested that the visual effect of advertisements will influence attitude towards advertisements. According to him, ‘It is possible to create different brand attitudes toward products with the same product attribute beliefs using advertisements.’ The findings of the study indicate that role of visual effects of an advertisement influence the brand attitudes. In a further extension to this, Lichtlé (2007) evaluated the effect of colour on advertising effectiveness. The study found that individuals with high optimal stimulation levels are stimulated more by colour combination of the advertisement. In this study, the celebrity expertise formed the advertising cognition used by the consumer for forming attitude.

Petty et al. (1983) postulate two basic routes by which a persuasive communication can influence its audience: central processing, wherein message content is the primary influence, and peripheral processing, in which the audience is affected more by the source of the message or contextual factors than by actual message content. According to the researcher, in the central route of persuasion, the attitude change is based on diligent consideration of information that a person feels central to the true merits of issue or product. In the peripheral route, attitude change is caused because of the presence of simple and positive and negative cues or because of the invocation of simple decision rules which obviate the need for thinking about issue-relevant argument. The study found that in a high involvement condition both argument strength and attractiveness of the endorser had equal effect. The researcher attributed this finding to the nature of product used as the stimuli in the study. According to the researcher, the product was an attractiveness-enhancing product so the attractiveness of the celebrity acted like ‘persuasive visual testimony’ of product effectiveness. In a further extension to the Petty et al. (1983) study, Andrews and Shimp (1990) evaluated ELM model by considering the cognitive response of the respondents. The study very closely followed Petty et al. (1983) methodology to evaluate the hypothesis. The findings of the study support ELM predictions. In case of cognitive response, the study found that in both low involvement and high involvement condition respondents processed more of source-oriented thoughts. In the case of attitude change, when study findings were in line with the ELM predictions, it was predicted that the respondents would process source argument more in a low involvement condition.

Gresham and Shimp (1985) evaluated the effect of advertisement on the brand. The study found that only very few advertisements showed any relationship between attitude towards advertising and attitude towards the brand. It showed that in most of the cases there exists an independent relation between attitude towards advertisement and purchase intention. MacKenzie, Lutz and Belch (1983) evaluated the attitude towards advertisement as a mediator of advertising effectiveness. In this study, the researchers evaluated four different models explaining the effect of attitude towards advertisement on purchase intention. The first model explains that advertising cognitions will first influence attitude towards advertisement, then attitude towards advertisement will affect attitude towards the endorsed brand and endorsed brand will affect purchase intention. The second model explains that advertising cognitions will affect attitude towards advertisement and advertisement will affect attitude towards brand and brand cognitions which will influence purchase intention. The third model suggests that the advertisement cognitions will influence attitude towards advertisements and advertisements will influence brand attitude and brand attitude will influence advertisement attitude and purchase intention indicating a reverse relationship between brand and advertisement. In the fourth model, researchers suggest that advertisement attitude and brand attitude have a direct effect on purchase intention. The study procedure used cross-validation procedures. The four competing explanation models were compared on various goodness-of-fit indices for phase one and then double cross-validated with the data from phase two. The study found that the second model explaining a positive effect of attitude towards advertisement on both brand attitude and cognition is the most appropriate model for explaining the effectiveness of advertising. Spears and Singh (2004) evaluated the effect of attitude towards advertisement and brand on purchase intention. Dual mediation model postulated by MacKenzie et al. (1983) was the basis for the formulation of hypothesis for the study. According to the dual mediation model, the effect of attitude towards advertisement on purchase intention is mediated by the attitude towards the brand. The findings of the study supported dual mediation hypothesis indicating a mediating role of brand attitude on advertising effectiveness.

Figure 1.

Sources: Lafferty, Goldsmith, and Newell (2002); MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch (1986); Thomas and Johnson (2016a, 2016b); Till and Busler (2000).

In celebrity endorsement perspective, the concept of expertise means the knowledge of the celebrity in the field of product class endorsed. The present study evaluates the impact of celebrity in jewellery advertisement. Jewellery products represent fashion products, so the ability of celebrity in bringing in new fashion and new trends to the society was considered as the expertise of the celebrity about jewellery endorsements (Figure 1).

From the literature review, it can be hypothesized that:

H1: The celebrity expertise will have a positive and direct effect on celebrity brand fit.

H2: The celebrity expertise will have a positive and direct effect on attitude towards advertisement (AtAd).

H3: The celebrity expertise will have a positive and direct effect on Int.

H4: The celebrity brand fit will have a positive and direct effect on AtAd.

H5: The celebrity brand fit will have a positive and direct effect on attitude towards brand (AtB).

H6: The celebrity brand fit will have a positive and direct effect on Int.

H7: The AtAd will have a positive and direct effect on AtB.

H8: The AtAd will have a positive and direct effect on Int.

H9: The AtB will have a positive and direct effect on Int.

Research Methodology

Nowadays, customers are bombarded with a large number of advertisements and choice of swapping through channels. In a real situation, the customers are supposed to form their opinion from advertisements they see and remember. Considering these factors, the researchers decided to adopt field survey method which will provide a maximum realistic response. The study used area sampling technique for selection of samples. The area selected for the study was P D Hills, Kottayam.

The stimuli for the study were selected based on the recall test conducted among 61 postgraduate students of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. Each of the respondents was asked to recall all celebrity jeweller combination that comes to his/her mind. From the combination recalled the celebrity/jeweller combination which got highest recall was selected as the stimuli for the study. Respondents recalled 35 combinations in which Manju Warier and Kalyan Jeweller Combination was the highest recalled combination. So this combination was selected as the stimuli for the study.

The questionnaire used for data collection contained two sections: one for measuring demographics of respondents and the other for perception of the respondent about celebrity, brand and advertisement. The perception of respondents about the expertise of the celebrity was measured using a five-item scale developed by Ohanian and validated among Asians by Pornpitakpan (2003) and Ferle and Choi (2005). The perception of respondents about celebrity brand fit was measured using four semantic differential scale items like consistent/inconsistent, very appropriate/very inappropriate, and so on. Attitude towards advertisement was measured using five semantic differential scale item, likeable/unlikable, informational/not informational, interesting/not interesting, persuasive/not persuasive and attention grabbing/not attention grabbing. Attitude towards brand was measured in nine items like trustworthy/untrustworthy cheap/costly and so on. The purchase intention of respondents about celebrity brand fit was measured using four items selected from Spears and Singh (2004). A total 120 questionnaires were distributed and collected back. From this, 11 questionnaires were rejected due to incomplete answers and 109 fully filled questionnaires were processed for analysis. Path analysis method was used to test the hypothesis formulated in the study.

Analysis and Findings

The age of respondents ranged from 18 to 67 years, and there were almost equal responses from both male (47) and female (62) gender. This indicates that a wide range of population is represented in the study. All the respondents were well aware of the advertisement and were able to recall it (Table 1). The perception of respondent about celebrities expertise ranged between 7 and 25 and the mean score was above 15 indicating that celebrity has a medium knowledge about the new trends and fashion. The consumer’s attitude towards advertisement ranged between 5 and 25 and the mean score was 18 indicating a very positive attitude towards advertisement. The consumer’s attitude towards brand ranged between 14 and 45 with a mean score of 31 indicating a positive attitude towards the brand. The consumer’s intention to purchase the product ranged from 4 to 20 with a mean score of 12 indicating a positive intention. Overall, the scores of data varied considerably indicating a varied opinion among respondents which is good for further testing of hypothesis.

Table 1.

Descriptive Analysis

	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
AtAd	5	25	18.0183	3.67923
Celebrity brand fit	4	20	13.4037	3.27199
Expertise	7	25	15.6697	3.825
Atb	14	45	31.7156	5.78486
Int	4	20	12.1651	3.92408

Source: Survey.

Model Testing

From the literature review, a model was developed and path analysis was used for testing the model. According to the model, expertise is hypothesized to influence celebrity brand fit, AtAd, and Int directly and Atb indirectly. The path analysis showed an X² value of .417 (p = 0.518), GFI of 0.998, an AGFI of 0.977, a normed fit index of 0.998, a comparative fit index of 1.000. The model’s fit as indicated by these indices was deemed satisfactory; thus, it provides a good basis for testing the hypothesized paths.

Hypothesis one predicts that the expertise of the celebrity will positively influence celebrity brand fit. Specifically, it assumes that the perceived expertise of the celebrity will influence the consumer perception about celebrity brand fit. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is 0.484 with a critical ratio of 7.142 (p < 0.05) indicating a positive relationship between source expertise and celebrity brand fit. This finding is in accordance with findings of Till and Busler (1998).

Hypothesis two suggests that celebrity expertise will have a positive and direct effect on AtAd. Specifically, it predicted that when consumer perception about celebrity expertise is positive, it influences attitude towards advertisement. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is 0.431 with a critical ratio of 5.212 (p < 0.05) indicating a positive and direct relationship. This finding is in line with our hypothesis that the presence of expert celebrity will influence attitude towards advertisement.

Table 2.

Model Testing

Hypothesized Path			Estimate	C.R.	p
Celebrity brand fit	←	Expertise	0.484	7.142	0.000
AtAd	←	Expertise	0.431	5.212	0.000
Int	←	Expertise	0.274	3.215	0.001
AtAd	←	Celebrity brand fit	0.352	3.644	0.000
Atb	←	Celebrity brand fit	0.283	1.771	0.077
Int	←	Celebrity brand fit	–0.118	–1.234	0.217
Atb	←	AtAd	0.83	5.838	0.000
Int	←	AtAd	0.218	2.198	0.028
Int	←	Atb	0.342	6.376	***
	X ²				0.417
	p				0.518
	GFI				0.998
	AGFI				0.977
	NFI				0.998
	CFI				1.000

Source: Survey.

Hypothesize three indicates a positive and direct relationship between celebrity expertise and purchase intention. Specifically, it indicated that when consumer perception about celebrity expertise increases purchase intention will also increase. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is 0.274 with a critical ratio of 3.215 (p < 0.05) indicating a good positive relationship. This finding is in line with social process theory suggested by Kelman (1961) and replicate the findings of Pornpitakpan (2004) which indicated a direct influence of all credibility variable on purchase intention.

Hypothesis four predicts a positive and direct relationship between celebrity brand fit and AtAd. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is 0.352 with a critical ratio of 3.644 (p < 0.05) indicating a positive relationship between celebrity brand fit and AtAd. It means when the advertisement contains a highly congruent celebrity then the viewers will have a positive attitude towards advertisement. This finding is in accordance with the finding of Asha (2011) who suggested that celebrity’s congruence influenced AtAd.

Hypothesis five predicts a positive and direct effect of celebrity brand fit and AtB. Specifically, it suggested that when the respondents perceive high celebrity brand congruence then AtB will be high. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is 0.283 with a critical ratio of 1.771 (p > 0.05) indicating no significant relationship between celebrity brand fit and AtB. This finding indicates that there is no direct relationship between celebrity brand fit and AtB.

Hypothesis six suggests a positive and direct effect of celebrity brand fit on Int. It suggested that when a highly congruent celebrity is used the purchase intention of the respondents will be high. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is –0.118 with a critical ratio of –1.234 (p > 0.05) indicating no significant direct influence of celebrity brand fit on Int. These findings indicate that AtAd and AtB mediate the influence of celebrity-brand congruence on Int.

Hypothesis seven predicts a positive and direct effect of AtAd on AtB. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is 0.83 with a critical ratio of 5.838 (p < 0.05) indicating a positive influence of AtAd on AtB. These findings are in line with earlier studies of MacKenzie et al. (1983) and Spears and Singh (2004) which indicated a direct relationship between AtAd and AtB.

Hypothesis eight predicts a positive and direct effect between AtAd and Int. Specifically, it suggested that when the respondents have a high positive attitude towards the advertisement, then the intention to purchase the product will also be higher. As it can be seen from Table 2, the estimated value for this hypothesis is 0.218 with a critical ratio of 2.198 (p < 0.05) indicating a positive influence of AtAd on AtB. This finding is in accordance with the earlier findings of Lafferty, Goldsmith and Newell (2002) and Petty et al. (1983). According to Lafferty et al. (2002) when the celebrity is an expert his expertise will make the respondents feel the product is providing some advantage to them which might directly cause them to purchase their product.

Table 3.

Total Effect

	Expertise	Celebrity Brand Fit	AtAd	AtB
Celebrity brand fit	0.484	0.000	0.000	0.000
AtAd	0.602	0.352	0.000	0.000
AtB	0.637	0.576	0.830	0.000
Int	0.565	0.155	0.501	0.342

Source: Survey.

Hypothesis nine predicts a positive and direct impact of AtB on Int. Specifically, it suggests that when the respondents have positive AtB, then they will have a high intention to purchase the product. This hypothesis was accepted with an estimated value of 0.342 and a critical ratio of 6.376 (p < 0.05) indicating a direct relationship between AtB and Int.

From the evaluation of the model, it was found that expertise of the celebrity has got direct as well as mediated effect on purchase intention. The model also shows that celebrity expertise has got a mediated effect on attitude towards advertisement. The effect of celebrity brand fit on Int was mediated by AtAd and AtB. As it can be seen from Table 3, celebrity expertise (0.565) had the highest impact on Int followed by AtAd (0.501), AtB (0.342) and celebrity brand fit (0.155). The celebrity expertise exercised the highest impact on the brand (0.637) followed by advertisement (0.602), intention (0.565) and celebrity brand fit (0.484).

Discussion

The present study evaluated the role of celebrity expertise in advertising effectiveness. Specifically, it studied how celebrity expertise influenced purchase intention of the respondent. The researcher used social process theory of Kelman (1961) specifically, internalization process. The finding of the study suggested that celebrity expertise influenced purchase intention directly as well as indirectly through advertisement and brand attitudes.

It was a hypothesis in the study that celebrity expertise will positively influence celebrity brand fit. According to Till and Busler (1998), expertise will influence match between celebrity and the product. The findings of the study also supported this hypothesis. The earlier study by Asha (2011) in the field of jewellery marketing also suggested that celebrity match will influence advertising which was found to be true in the study. The study found that celebrity brand fit influenced attitude towards advertisement. The study failed to find a direct relationship between celebrity brand fit and purchase intention. This finding indicates that the impact of celebrity brand fit on intention is mediated by the attitude towards brand as well as attitude towards advertisement.

The study hypothesized the influence of attitude towards advertisement and brand on purchase intention based on ELM model and dual mediation model which suggested that attitude towards advertisement influences purchase intention through attitude towards the brand. In addition to this, it was also hypothesized that attitude towards advertisement would directly influence purchase intention. This hypothesis was found to be statistically significant in the population. This finding is a valid confirmation that the model is acceptable in Kerala.

Implication of the Study

The study found that celebrity expertise has got a very significant influence on purchase intention indicating that the practitioner should focus on celebrity’s field of expertise before deciding on the endorsement. The study found that match between celebrity and product influenced attitude towards advertisement and brand. This finding indicates that when the marketers choose a celebrity for the jewellery products, they should consider a celebrity who has got experience in bringing new trends and who can fit well with the brand.

The literature in the field of celebrity endorsement considers jewellery product as product high in psychological and social risks. So, the findings of the study can be applied to other products high in psychological and social risks. Some studies also consider jewellery as an attractiveness-enhancing product so these findings can be applied to that product category also. Both this generalization should be made with caution since the study does not evaluate these aspects.

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