Abstract
Purpose
Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular marketing communication tools that have been used by beverage companies to influence consumers’ behaviour, but little is known about the extent this communication strategy can be impactful and benefit alcoholic beverages like beer and wine. In this context, this study aims to examine whether and how social media celebrity endorsement influences consumers’ beer and wine purchase behaviour. Further, this study examines what are the characteristics of the celebrities that exert greater influence on beer and wine purchase behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the source credibility and source attractiveness theoretical models, and on the match-up theory, a model of consumer purchase behaviour was proposed. Online celebrity endorsement was categorised as promoting either beer or wine, as well as beer and wine brands. Then, this model is empirically analysed through multiple group structural equation modelling on two samples of consumers who read online celebrity’s recommendations in Spain (beer = 280; wine = 277).
Findings
Findings indicate that celebrity’s recommendations exert a different influence pattern on consumer purchase behaviour depending on the product category: congruence is the most relevant variable in beer endorsement, whereas expertise is the most influencing factor in wine celebrity recommendations. Therefore, beer celebrity endorsers should be congruent with the product, whereas wine endorsers should be perceived as experts.
Originality/value
This study extends the literature on celebrity endorsement providing an empirical examination of the social media celebrity characteristics that influence consumer purchase behaviour of beer and wine, reporting interesting differences between these two alcoholic beverages.
Keywords
Citation
Calvo-Porral, C., Rivaroli, S. and Orosa-González, J. (2023), "The influence of social media celebrity endorsement on beer and wine purchase behaviour", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 390-412. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWBR-10-2022-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited
1. Introduction
Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular forms of marketing communication that have been developed by beverage companies with great success. Former First Lady Michell Obama was involved in the “Drink Up” campaign to encourage consumers to replace sugary beverages with water; and the singer Beyoncé Knowles was involved in the “Gol milk?” campaign to encourage the increase of fluid milk intake. Similarly, the Nespresso’s “What else?” advertising campaign featured by the actor George Clooney is another good example of the use of celebrity endorsement by beverage companies. However, little is known about the extent this communication tool can be impactful and benefit alcoholic beverages like beer and wine. In this vein, according to Silva et al. (2017), beer and wine are two of the most important alcoholic beverages, being part of the European life and culture and strongly embedded within social and cultural traditions of many Europeans. Additionally, beer could be considered the most widely consumed beverage worldwide (Gómez-Corona et al., 2016). So, considering the great importance of these two alcoholic beverages, the present study aims to bring some light into the characteristics of celebrities that influence consumer purchase behaviour of beer and wine.
Nowadays, celebrities are increasing their presence in online social media and evidence shows that this communication tool creates awareness and interest for products and brands and influences consumers’ attitudes and purchase behaviour (Zhou et al., 2019), since many consumers are willing to purchase and pay a premium price for the products recommended by their favourite celebrities. In fact, consumers are continuously bombarded with attractive beverage pictures that encourage them to consume and purchase what is shown in these social media (Kusumasondjaja and Tjiptono, 2019). However, to the authors’ knowledge, there is scare research on the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on the purchase behaviour of beer and wine.
This research is grounded on well-established theoretical models. On one hand, this study is based on the source-credibility model (Hovland et al., 1953) which proposes that the influence and acceptance of a source depend on its level of perceived credibility. In addition, the source-attractiveness model (McGuire, 1985) and the match-up theory (Kamins, 1990; Koernig and Boyd, 2009) are also considered for the research hypotheses development. These theoretical frameworks propose that source characteristics such as expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness (Ohanian, 1990) or the match-up (congruence) between the product and the endorser have a direct influence on consumer purchase behaviour (Kamins, 1990). These theories have been widely investigated, but those studies mostly focused on the examination of the effectiveness of celebrity or consumer endorsement individually (Kusumasondjaja and Tjiptono, 2019). In this context, this study contributes to knowledge in marketing in different ways. In the first place, the present study examines the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on consumer purchase behaviour of beer and wine. In the second place, this study compares the characteristics or attributes of celebrities that most influence consumer purchase behaviour of wine and beer. Finally, we set out a future research agenda for celebrity endorsement of other beverage categories, such as spirits or soft drinks. So, the major contribution of the present study is to provide empirical evidence of the influence of the social media celebrity endorsement on beer and wine purchase behaviour.
2. Literature review
2.1 Online celebrity endorsement
Celebrities play an increasingly important role in marketing communication, being the use of celebrities quite frequent today to promote products and brands. There are numerous conceptualizations of what a celebrity is. Friedman and Friedman (1979) refer to celebrity as an individual who is known to the public, such as actors, sports figures, entertainers and others for their achievements in their respective areas. Likewise, McCracken (1989) defined a celebrity endorser as “anyone who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement”. Later, Stafford et al. (2003) conceptualised endorsers as “famous individuals who use public recognition to recommend or co-present a product in an ad”. So, celebrities are individuals who are successful in their professions, who enjoy public recognition and media attention (Belch and Belch, 2018) and use their public recognition to promote a specific brand, product or service through marketing communication (McCracken, 1989).
Celebrity endorsement is one of the most effective communication tools used by marketers to bring awareness for a product or brand in the marketplace, to attract consumers’ attention and transfer positive attributes to products and brands (Chung and Cho, 2017), change consumers’ attitudes and behaviour and influence consumers’ purchase intention (Kamins, 1990; Erdogan, 1999; Knoll and Matthes, 2017; Rundin and Colliander, 2021). Celebrity endorsement has undergone a great transformation because of the emergence of online social media (Jin, 2018), and many celebrities have turned to social media to interact with a large number of consumers (Chung and Cho, 2017). Online social media could be defined as “any online service through which users can create and share a variety of content” (Bolton et al., 2013), including user-generated content, online review sites, virtual game sites, sharing sites or online communities (Okazaki and Taylor, 2013). In fact, online celebrity endorsement through media networks is an important marketing tool for driving consumer purchase intention, since online celebrities deliver product and brand information, provide recommendations and personal comments that influence consumers’ consumption and purchase behaviour (Chung and Cho, 2017). The value of online celebrity’s recommendations is based on the social interactions between individuals and the celebrities they follow, who endorse a product or brand by placing it in a social media post, and who are perceived as impartial, trustworthy experts who provide objective information (Rutter et al., 2021).
Finally, it should be noted the phenomenon of influencers, individuals who have gained their fame by successfully branding themselves as experts on social media platforms, in contrast to celebrities who have achieved public recognition because of their professional talent (Khamis et al., 2017). Social media influencers can capture the attention of a wide audience to deliver product and brand messages (Godey et al., 2016) and influence consumers’ purchase intention (Schimmelpfennig and Hunt, 2020). Accordingly, authors like Schouten et al. (2020) report that influencers are more effective than traditional celebrities in product endorsement because of their higher perceived authenticity (Gräve and Bartsch, 2022).
2.2 Celebrity endorsement of food and beverages
Celebrity endorsement has been widely used for food and beverage products/brands to induce consumer responses and purchase intention (Boyland et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2019). However, the effect of celebrity endorsement of healthy foods is less robust than those for unhealthy foods and beverages (Bragg et al., 2016; Knoll and Matthes, 2017). In fact, research reports that celebrity endorsement has been primarily used to successfully promote highly processed food and beverages to young consumers and children, which negatively influences their diet quality (Boyland et al., 2013; Bragg et al., 2016, 2018). More precisely, celebrity endorsement activates a brain region that associates consumers’ positive impressions of celebrities with the food and beverage products they endorse, leading to purchase behaviour (Hoffman and Tan, 2015). Similarly, online celebrity’s recommendations on food and beverages has a great impact on young consumers’ food selection and decision-making (Xu et al., 2021).
For example, the visual stimuli celebrity-generated content placed on Instagram pages represent a “more natural” way to present beverages (Blight et al., 2017), making it a suitable place for promoting beer and wine. The reason is that the celebrity endorsements reported here appear more natural and authentic, since these recommendations are based on an image posted on Instagram of the celebrity drinking beer or wine in his/her daily life routines. In this context, wineries are currently embracing social media to attract potential consumers and to communicate wine characteristics, personality or wine quality (Bruwer and Alant, 2009).
2.3 Credibility of celebrities
This study is conceptually grounded on the source-credibility model (Hovland et al., 1953), which proposes that the individual’s tendency to accept information from a source depends on the perceived credibility of this source. Accordingly, the endorsement effectiveness depends on the credibility of the endorser who recommends a given product (Ohanian, 1990). The term credibility could be conceptualised as the communicator’s positive characteristics that have a significant impact over the receiver’s degree of accepting the message (Ohanian, 1990). Similarly, the concept of credibility could be understood as the extent to which an individual is perceived as possessing the knowledge and expertise to provide an objective judgement and opinion (Carroll, 2009). So, credibility outlines whether a celebrity statement or recommendation could be recognised as true, honest and unbiased, influencing the effectiveness of the product endorsement (Ohanian, 1990).
Previous studies report that information from credible sources is perceived to be more valid and persuasive than other information, positively influencing consumers’ attitudes and behaviour (Ohanian, 1990; Erdogan, 1999; Chung and Cho, 2017; Tran et al., 2019). Therefore, the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement relies on the use of sources with a high degree of credibility (Erdogan, 1999).
2.3.1 Trustworthiness of celebrities.
Trustworthiness is defined by Erdogan (1999) as the individual’s perception of the endorser’s honesty, integrity and believability; so, trustworthiness addresses the question of whether an individual is believable, honest and objective in the information presented (Ohanian, 1990). Likewise, previous research indicates that a source with high perceived trustworthiness will have a more persuasive effect on consumers, influencing their attitudinal change and behavioural intentions (Ohanian, 1990; Gong and Li, 2017). Therefore, consumers get more easily influenced by celebrities perceived as authentic and to whom they trust. Similarly, prior research reports that the influence of celebrities through social media is due in part to their increased authenticity, as they are perceived as a more authentic source compared to celebrities who appear in traditional advertising (Rutter et al., 2021).
The influence of the celebrity’s trustworthiness on consumers’ purchase intention has been shown in previous research (Erdogan, 1999; Till and Busler, 2000), indicating that celebrities’ ability to influence purchase behaviour hinges on the perceived credibility and genuineness of the endorsement (Rutter et al., 2021). So, the following hypothesis is presented:
The trustworthiness of celebrities positively influences the celebrity credibility on beer and wine products.
2.3.2 Expertise of celebrities.
Expertise could be defined as the extent to which an individual is perceived to be a source of valid assertions about an object, which is referred to knowledge, skills, qualifications or experience possessed by an endorser who is therefore considered to provide accurate information (Ohanian, 1990; Erdogan, 1999; Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018). Therefore, the endorser expertise stems from the ability to provide information because of his/her experience, training and aptitude. Interestingly, the expertise does not depend on whether the endorser is an expert or not but on how individuals perceive the endorser (Ohanian, 1990; Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018). So, it could be stated that celebrity expertise corresponds to the consumers’ assessment and perception of the celebrity’s knowledge and believability of his/her recommendations. Based on the source-credibility model, an endorser who demonstrates expertise is more credible and persuasive than a source that is not (Ohanian, 1990). Accordingly, celebrities who regularly share their daily activities, opinions and recommendations on social media based on their previous experience are more likely to influence consumers’ behaviour (Biswas et al., 2006).
Similarly, the expertise of an endorser has a positive impact on his/her credibility (Hovland et al., 1953) and on the consumers’ purchase intention (Ohanian, 1990; Erdogan, 1999; Till and Busler, 2000). Therefore, we present the following hypothesis:
The expertise of celebrities with beer/wine positively influences the celebrity credibility on beer and wine products.
2.3.3 Attractiveness of celebrities.
The source attractiveness model supports that the effectiveness and credibility of a message depends on the familiarity, likeability and the similarity of the source (McGuire, 1985). More specifically, familiarity refers to the knowledge of the source through exposure, likeability is the affection for the source derived by her/his physical appearance and similarity refers to the perceived resemblance between the endorser and the consumer. According to this model, endorsers who are known to, liked by or similar to the consumer will be attractive and, in turn, credible. Later, Ohanian (1990) reports that the effectiveness of an endorsement depends on the perceived level of his/her attractiveness, referring not only to the physical attractiveness but also to attributes such as intellectual skills, personality properties or lifestyle that consumers perceive in an endorser (Gong and Li, 2017). Finally, it should be noted that the underlying motive to the influence of the endorser attractiveness on his/her credibility is that individuals draw satisfaction from the belief that they are similar to the endorser perceived as attractive (Friedman and Friedman, 1979).
Previous studies have confirmed that consumers prefer physically attractive endorsers over less attractive individuals (Kamins, 1990), and that physical attractiveness of a celebrity has a positive influence on consumers’ attention and evaluation of the recommended products (Kamins, 1990; Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018), as well as on consumers’ purchase intention (Till and Busler, 2000). However, some studies highlight that the physical attractiveness of celebrities only has a positive impact on the evaluation of attractiveness-related products (Kamins, 1990; Biswas et al., 2006). Furthermore, regarding food products that are presented on social media, the attractiveness of the celebrity endorsing the product has a greater impact on consumer responses and behavioural intentions (Kusumasondjaja and Tjiptono, 2019). Finally, the attractiveness of an endorser has a positive influence on his/her credibility (McGuire, 1985; Ohanian, 1990); and accordingly, the following hypothesis is posed:
The attractiveness of celebrities positively influences the celebrity credibility on beer and wine products.
2.3.4 Congruence between the celebrity and the recommended beverage.
Traditionally, the effectiveness of endorsers was thought to be based on the characteristics of celebrities such as trustworthiness, expertise or attractiveness (Ohanian, 1990). However, the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement to influence consumers’ attitudes and behaviours is also influenced by the celebrity and product “match-up” (Koernig and Boyd, 2009). This theoretical model is known as the match-up hypothesis and proposes that there should be congruence or match between the celebrity and the product for an endorsement to be effective (Koernig and Boyd, 2009). So, the effectiveness of celebrity’s recommendations depends on the degree of similarity or congruence between the celebrity and the endorsed product category (Bergkvist and Zhou, 2016; Schimmelpfennig and Hunt, 2020). Furthermore, it can be stated that the endorsement effectiveness is also influenced by the product category or product type, so that a celebrity could be credible for certain products and not that credible for other product categories (McCracken, 1989). Conversely, the lack of congruence could imply that the celebrity has mainly financial motives for endorsing the recommended product, which could produce negative behavioural outcomes (Kamins, 1990).
Additionally, a good endorser-product fit influences consumers’ purchase intention (Till and Busler, 2000). More precisely, the selection of a celebrity endorser based on his/her congruence with the recommended product is an adequate strategy for product categories which are not related to attractiveness or performance (Schimmelpfennig and Hunt, 2020), such as beverages. Thus, the following hypothesis is presented:
The congruence between the celebrity and the recommended beverage positively influences the crebibility of the celebrity on beer and wine products.
2.3.5 Influence of celebrity credibility on purchase behaviour.
Previous studies report the influence of celebrity endorsement on consumers’ purchase behaviour (Erdogan, 1999; Till and Busler, 2000; Lafferty et al., 2002; Winterich et al., 2018; Rutter et al., 2021). On one hand, previous studies have demonstrated that credible sources enhance consumers’ attitude towards the product or brand, have a positive influence on consumers purchase intention (Lafferty et al., 2002), also influencing consumers’ choice and purchase consideration set (Singh and Banerjee, 2018). Likewise, previous studies report the positive influence of celebrity endorsement on consumers’ purchase intentions (Kamins, 1990; Till et al., 2008) and consumers’ willingness to pay a premium price (Winterich, et al., 2018). The underlying reason is that through the purchase of products recommended by their favourite celebrities, consumers try to affirm their relationship with and to aim to demonstrate loyalty to that celebrity (Russell et al., 2004). Similarly, consumers may believe subconsciously that purchasing products endorsed by celebrities and paying a premium price for them will enable them to be more like their favoured celebrities (Tran et al., 2019). Therefore, the following research hypotheses are presented:
The credibility of the celebrities positively influences consumers’ purchase intention of beer and wine products.
The credibility of the celebrities positively influences consumers’ willingness to pay a premium price for beer and wine products.
Based on the source credibility and source attractiveness theoretical models and on the match-up theory, the following conceptual model of consumer purchase behaviour of beer and wine is proposed (Figure 1).
3. Methodology
3.1 Variables and scale development
Research measurement variables were selected based on previous research (Table 1). Trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness of celebrities were measured based on the scale proposed by Ohanian (1990). Similarly, the congruence between the celebrity endorser and the beverages recommended was measured adapting a five-item scale from Dwivedi et al. (2016) and from Speed and Thompson (2000). Likewise, the credibility of celebrities was assessed through a three-item scale adapted from Ohanian (1990) and from Martins et al. (2017). Finally, consumers’ purchase intention was measured using a three-item scale adapted from Sweeney and Soutar (2001) and from Wiedmann et al. (2014), whereas consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium was assessed using a two-item scale adapted from Wiedmann et al. (2014).
3.2 Sampling and fieldwork
This study used real celebrities as visual stimuli presented to the research participants. The research was conducted in April 2022 among consumers residing in Spain, and participants were contacted through email and social media. The visual stimuli presented celebrities consuming beer and wine in a content that was shared by them on their Instagram pages and that intentionally or unintentionally promoted beer or wine. This study focuses on the presentation of beer and wine in social media, regardless the presence of brands in the images shared by celebrities. In addition, the celebrities were selected based on two criteria. On one hand, the selected celebrities should have a public image and enjoy high popularity among, and on the other hand, celebrities should be a local person, since native celebrities induce more positive attitudinal responses (Veen and Song, 2014). Following these criteria, the well-known and popular Spanish chefs Dabiz Muñoz, Jordi Cruz, Samantha Vallejo-Nágera and Martín Berasategui were chosen as celebrities; and two of the selected celebrities were presented recommending both beer and wine simultaneously (see Appendix). All of the celebrities presented as stimuli could be considered as popular celebrities because of their appearance in the popular TV show “Master Chef”.
In this study, we assume that celebrity endorsement of beer and wine could be understood as the endorsement or recommendation of these beverage categories or the recommendation of beer and wine brands. In addition, our study focused on celebrity‐generated content in Instagram. That is, content produced and shared by a celebrity in his/her social media that intentionally or unintentionally promoted beer or wine or either beer and wine brands, whether it was encouraged by the breweries or wineries or not. Likewise, ethical issues do not arise in the present study, since questionnaires were completely anonymous, and all the participants gave their consent to participate in this study for research purposes.
Two questionnaires were prepared: one for beer endorsement and a second one for wine endorsement. Subsequently, a survey was conducted through two online self-administered structured questionnaires on random sampling. The questionnaires consisted of three sections. In the first section an introduction was included to explain the main purpose of the study. Then, because the purpose of the research was to gather information regarding the influence of celebrity endorsement, one “yes/no” pre-screening question was included in the questionnaire design. More precisely, research participants were asked the following question: “Do you ever read/watch celebrity’s recommendations on social media?”. Those participants answering “yes” were then routed to the full questionnaire, whereas those participants who do not read celebrity endorsements were screened out. The second part of the questionnaires was prepared to gather socio-economic and demographic information; and the third part included the questions to measure the participants’ assessment of the variables under research. All responses were collected on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (7). Finally, a total amount of valid 280 questionnaires were obtained for beer recommendations, and 277 valid questionnaires were collected regarding wine recommendations, yielding a sampling error of 5.62% at a confidence level of 95%.
Regarding the sample profile, the 50.2% of the respondents were female, whereas the 49.8% were male. Similarly, the majority of the participants were between 21 and 30 years old (32.8%), followed by participants who are between 31 to 40 years old (30.2%). In terms of education level, 35.4% of participants have university studies and the 28.6% have secondary education. Regarding the household average income level, the 34.8% of the sample reported a monthly household income level of EUR 2,200–2,700/month. Finally, the great majority of the research participants reported a frequency of reading celebrity online recommendations of “several times a week” (25.6%).
4. Results
4.1 Analysis of the measurement model
A confirmatory factor analysis with maximum likelihood was conducted to estimate the measurement model. The measurement model was assessed by examining the indicators’ loadings (λ), constructs’ internal reliability, composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) (Table 2). The results show that all items’ λ were above the minimum recommended value of 0.70 (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988); except for two items – CRED2, CONG1. When these indicators were removed, the results showed an adequate specification of the factorial structure. Additionally, all the constructs exhibited adequate psychometric properties, with the internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha), CR and AVE estimates exceeding the minimum recommended thresholds (Hair et al., 1998). More precisely, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients achieved higher values than 0.70, showing a satisfactory level of internal reliability (Hair et al., 1998); CR values are 0.70 or higher being above the recommended level to ensure internal consistency, and AVE values are above 0.50, indicating that convergent validity is achieved (Hair et al., 1998).
Finally, to evaluate discriminant validity among the constructs, the AVEs were compared to the squared inter-construct correlation estimates of the paired constructs of the model (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Results show that the AVE values were greater than the squared correlations, suggesting discriminant validity (Table 3).
4.2 Analysis of the structural model
The analysis through multigroup structural equation modelling through maximum likelihood estimation was developed using AMOS 18.0 statistical software. The model shows an adequate structural fit with the variables considered for the study. More precisely, the chi-square value (X2 = 886.085) and the significance level of coefficients (p < 0.000) meet the recommended criteria to be considered adequate (Hair et al., 1998). It addition, the fit indices achieve acceptable values (CMIN/DF = 3.234, RMR = 0.088; AGFI = 0.805; GFI = 0.859; RMSEA = 0.063; IFI = 0.952; TLI = 0.950; CFI = 0.952), indicating a good fit of the conceptual model (Hair et al., 1998).
4.3 Relationships among variables
The standardised coefficients, the corresponding t-values and the test of research hypotheses are shown in Table 4.
In the first place, regarding the celebrity endorsement of beer, our findings show that the celebrity congruence or match-up with the product exerts the highest impact on celebrity credibility (β45B = 0.537**), followed by the celebrity expertise (β25B = 0.184**), attractiveness (β35B = 0.149*) and trustworthiness (β15B = 0.118**). Therefore, the celebrity congruence, expertise, attractiveness and trustworthiness is the stepwise order to influence the credibility of celebrities when recommending beer. In other words, the congruence between the celebrity and the beer is the variable with greater influence on the formation of credibility. Similarly, we found empirical evidence to propose a positive significant relationship between celebrity credibility and beer purchase intention (β56B = 0.687**), as well as between celebrity credibility and consumers’ willingness to pay a premium price for beer (β57B = 0.608**), as initially expected. Therefore, all the proposed research hypotheses of beer endorsement could be accepted.
In the second place and regarding the endorsement of wine, our findings highlight a strong positive relationship between the celebrity perceived expertise and his/her credibility when recommending wine (β25W = 0.594**), followed by congruence (β45W = 0.371**) and trustworthiness (β15W = 0.218**) of the celebrity endorser. Hence, research findings suggest that celebrities’ expertise in wine is the variable that exerts the greatest influence in the endorser credibility among consumers. Conversely and contrary to our initial expectations, our findings do not support a significant influence of the celebrity attractiveness on his/her credibility when recommending wine (β35W = 0.053 ns). Therefore, derived from our findings, it seems that wine consumers are not influenced by the attractiveness of wine endorsers in their wine purchase behaviour. Similarly, we found empirical evidence to propose a positive relationship between the credibility of the celebrity endorser and consumers’ wine purchase intention (β56W = 0.675**) and willingness to pay a premium price for wine (β57W = 0.618**). So, our findings suggest that consumers when taking the decision to purchase and to pay a price premium for a bottle of wine are similarly influenced by the credibility of the celebrity endorser. Consequently, all the proposed research hypotheses of wine recommendation could be accepted, except from H3.
5. Discussion
The present research aims to analyse the characteristics of the celebrities that exert greater influence on beer and wine purchase behaviour. Findings show that social media celebrity endorsement influences the purchase intention and willingness to pay a premium price for beer and wine. In fact, our results report that consumers are more likely to purchase and pay premium prices for beer and wine because of celebrity recommendations through social media; thus, reporting the effectiveness of this communication tool to induce consumers’ beverage purchase behaviour. Likewise and regarding the specific characteristics of the celebrities that exert greater influence on beer and wine purchase behaviour, interesting differences were found between the endorsement of beer and wine: congruence is the most relevant variable in beer celebrity endorsement, whereas expertise is the most influencing factor in wine celebrity’s recommendations.
On one hand, regarding the influence of celebrity endorsement on the purchase behaviour of beer, the congruence between the celebrity and beer is the more relevant variable in the formation of credibility. One potential reason would be that consumers who drink beer perceive this beverage as a common product that any celebrity could recommend, as long as he/she is perceived coherent or in line with the product. Interestingly, the attractiveness of the celebrity also shows a slight influence on his/her credibility when recommending beer. On the other hand, our findings suggest that celebrities’ expertise in wine is the variable with greater influence in the endorser credibility among consumers. One possible explanation is that when consumers think about purchasing wine, the wine-related knowledge and skills of the endorser are perceived as crucial to consider him/her as credible. The underlying reason could be that wine is perceived as a high-risk purchase which entails social and functional risks and the recommendation coming from an expert could help the reduction of these risks (Kamins, 1990; Erdogan, 1999). Similarly, our findings may indicate that beer is perceived as a low-risk purchase, because of the low relevance of celebrities’ perceived expertise on the product category. Other potential reason in line with Homer and Kahle (1990) is that the consumers’ perceived expertise about a celebrity endorser is processed as a central cue; thus, implying its suitability in case of high involvement products, which could be the case of wine. Finally, other possible explanation is that consumers’ awareness of wine quality has increased, so that they give greater value to the recommendations that come from an expert.
In addition, research findings indicate that consumers are not influenced by the attractiveness of wine endorsers when purchasing wine. In fact, our research highlights that the attractiveness of a celebrity exerts a slight influence on credibility of beer endorsement, whereas a lack of influence was reported in wine purchase behaviour. This result is in line with the match-up hypothesis (Koernig and Boyd, 2009) supporting that physically attractive endorsers have a positive influence on consumers’ behaviour for attractiveness-related products and beverages do not fall into this product category.
6. Conclusions
There is abundant research on the influence of celebrity endorsement on consumer behaviour; however, to the authors’ knowledge, there is scarce research on the influence of celebrity endorsement of beer and wine on consumer purchase behaviour. In this context, this study empirically examines the influence of online celebrity endorsement of beer and wine; and our findings indicate that social media celebrity endorsement influences both purchase intention and willingness to pay a premium price for beer and wine. Derived from our research, it can be stated that the characteristics of celebrity endorsers influence consumer purchase behaviour of beverages, implying that celebrity endorsers serve as an external information source. More precisely, consumers are more willing to buy wine and pay a premium price for wine when endorsed by celebrities with high level of expertise, whereas consumers are more likely to purchase beer and pay a premium price when endorsed by a celebrity who is congruent with beer; or in other words, when the celebrity “fits” the beer being recommended. So, this study presents the presumption that celebrity’s recommendations will generate favourable consumer purchase intentions because of celebrity congruence with the endorsed beer and because of celebrity expertise in the wine field.
Finally, one major contribution of this research is the empirical evidence of the different pattern of the influence of celebrity’s recommendations of beer and wine on consumer purchase behaviour, since the relevant attributes of celebrity endorsers differ for beer and wine.
6.1 Theoretical and managerial implications
The present research yields two theoretical implications. In the first place, based on the source credibility, source attractiveness theoretical models and on the match-up theory, the present research shows the influence of celebrities through online social media on consumer purchase behaviour of beer and wine. In the second place, unlike previous studies that mainly focused on the analysis of the effectiveness of product and brand endorsement developed by celebrities, experts or consumers, this study empirically examined the influence of celebrity endorsement for alcoholic beverages, comparing two product categories such as beer and wine.
Regarding the research managerial implications, the present study shows that celebrity endorsement is an effective communication tool to influence beverages’ purchase behaviour, also suggesting guidelines for the selection of an effective beverage endorser: beer celebrity endorsers should be congruent with the product, whereas wine endorsers should be perceived as experts. So, on one hand, our results indicate beverage companies the importance of communicating with consumers through online celebrity endorsers, given that this communication will stimulate consumers’ purchase behaviour. On the other hand, beverage companies need to know what kind of celebrity endorsers turn celebrity fans into beverage customers, being congruent celebrities for beer and expert celebrities for wine the most relevant attributes for the endorsement effectiveness and the increase of sales of beer and wine. So, breweries should ensure a close fit between the recommended beer and the celebrity promoting it, whereas wineries should care for the perceived expertise and knowledge of a celebrity when recommending a specific wine.
6.2 Limitations and future research guidance
Finally, this research has limitations representing avenues for future research. In the first place, this research investigated consumers’ response to social media celebrity endorsements, whereas celebrity endorsement of beer and with through traditional media is not investigated; therefore, future studies could examine the influence of celebrity’s recommendations of beverages through traditional media. In the second place, the present study used popular chefs as visual stimuli and celebrities from different areas might have induced different results. Accordingly, further research could incorporate actors, singers or sports players as the visual stimuli for participants. In the third place, the present study does not analyse some relevant consumer-related variables, such as the level of consumer involvement with beer and wine, which may produce different results. Thus, future studies on the topic could analyse the potential different purchase behaviour of consumers depending on their level of beer and wine involvement.
Figures
Figure 1.
Conceptual proposed model
Figure A1.
Figure A2.
Figure A3.
Figure A4.
Figure A5.
Figure A6.
Measurement variables and indicators
| Latent variables | Indicators |
|---|---|
| Trustworthiness Ohanian (1990) | TRUST1: I have confidence in the information/recommendations provided by celebrities regarding beer/wine TRUST2: Celebrities show high level of commitment to the consumers TRUST3: Celebrities have high integrity when recommending beer/wine |
| Expertise Ohanian (1990) |
EXP1: Celebrities recommending beer/wine are experienced in this area EXP2: Celebrities recommending beer/wine are qualified in this area EXP3: Celebrities recommending beer/wine are skilled in this area |
| Attractiveness Ohanian (1990) |
ATR1: The celebrity recommending beer/wine is attractive to me ATR2: I pay more attention towards advertisements/recommendations presented by attractive/beautiful celebrities |
| Congruence Dwivedi et al. (2016), Speed and Thompson (2000) |
CONG1: There is a logical connection between beer/wine and the celebrity CONG2: There is a match-up between beer/wine and the celebrity CONG3: The combination of beer/wine and the celebrity is adequate CONG4: The coherence between celebrities recommending beer/wine and the beverages recommended are connected |
| Credibility Ohanian (1990), Martins et al. (2017) |
CRED1: Celebrities recommending beer/wine seem to be sincere CRED2: Celebrities recommending beer/wine seem to be honest CRED3: Celebrities recommending beer/wine seem to be reliable CRED4: Celebrity food influencers are a good reference for purchasing and consuming beer/wine |
| Purchase intention Sweeney and Soutar (2001), Wiedmann et al. (2014) |
PINT1: I am likely to purchase beer/wine recommended by celebrities PINT2: I would purchase beer/wine recommended by celebrities PINT3: Celebrity recommendations inspire me to purchase the recommended beer/wine |
| Preimum price Wiedmann et al. (2014) |
PREM1: I would be willing to pay a premium price for beverages recommended by celebrities PREM2: Beer/wine recommended by celebrities are worth a higher price than other beverages |
Source: Authors’ own elaboration
Factor loadings and indicators of internal consistency and reliability
| Construct | Items | BEER | WINE | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lambda (λ) | Cronbach’s alpha | CR | AVE | Lambda (λ) | Cronbach’s alpha | CR | AVE | ||
| Trustworthiness | TRUST1 | 0.799 | 0.850 | 0.896 | 0.621 | 0.808 | 0.845 | 0.645 | |
| TRUST2 | 0.795 | 0.810 | 0.857 | ||||||
| TRUST3 | 0.771 | 0.790 | |||||||
| Expertise | EXP1 | 0.796 | 0.838 | 0.837 | 0.631 | 0.820 | 0.850 | 0.671 | |
| EXP2 | 0.808 | 0.800 | 0.859 | ||||||
| EXP3 | 0.778 | 0.838 | |||||||
| Attractiveness | ATTR1 | 0.809 | 0.786 | 0.757 | 0.647 | 0.797 | 0.798 | 0.669 | |
| ATTR2 | 0.799 | 0.838 | 0.801 | ||||||
| Congruence | CONG2 | 0.823 | 0.873 | 0.870 | 0.697 | 0.818 | 0.860 | 0.679 | |
| CONG3 | 0.839 | 0.826 | 0.862 | ||||||
| CONG4 | 0.841 | 0.828 | |||||||
| Credibility | CRED1 | 0.859 | 0.885 | 0.879 | 0.750 | 0.886 | 0.866 | 0.723 | |
| CRED3 | 0.877 | 0.841 | 0.875 | ||||||
| CRED4 | 0.860 | 0.822 | |||||||
| Purchase | PINT1 | 0.890 | 0.924 | 0.921 | 0.812 | 0.861 | 0.904 | 0.781 | |
| intention | PINT2 | 0.830 | 0.891 | 0.908 | |||||
| PINT3 | 0.902 | 0.820 | |||||||
| Premium | PREM1 | 0.894 | 0.889 | 0.887 | 0.801 | 0.871 | 0.873 | 0.779 | |
| price | PREM2 | 0.896 | 0.894 | 0.876 | |||||
Source: Authors’ own elaboration
Discriminant validity and matrix of correlations
| BEER | WINE | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trust | Exp | Attr | Cong | Cred | Pint | Prem | Trust | Exp | Attr | Cong | Cred | Pint. | Prem | |
| Trustworthiness | 0.788 | 0.803 | ||||||||||||
| Expertise | 0.665 | 0.794 | 0.560 | 0.819 | ||||||||||
| Attractiveness | 0.465 | 0.350 | 0.804 | 0.510 | 0.570 | 0.818 | ||||||||
| Congruence | 0.335 | 0.355 | 0.640 | 0.835 | 0.432 | 0.460 | 0.471 | 0.824 | ||||||
| Credibility | 0.515 | 0.450 | 0.612 | 0.546 | 0.866 | 0.504 | 0.531 | 0.570 | 0.580 | 0.850 | ||||
| Purchase intention | 0.312 | 0.410 | 0.315 | 0.309 | 0.335 | 0.901 | 0.412 | 0.515 | 0.410 | 0.502 | 0.461 | 0.884 | ||
| Premium price | 0.330 | 0.310 | 0.145 | 0.140 | 0.205 | 0.215 | 0.895 | 0.332 | 0.305 | 0.216 | 0.165 | 0.315 | 0.210 | 0.883 |
The diagonal values in Italic represent the square root of the average variance extracted of each construct
Source: Authors’ own elaboration
Structural model estimates and hypotheses testing
| Relationships | Beer (n = 280) |
Wine (n = 277) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standardized coefficients | t-value | Hypotheses test | Standardized coefficients | t-value | Hypotheses test | |
| Trustworthiness → Credibility |
Β15B = 0.118** | 2.868 | H1: Supported | Β15W = 0.218** | 3.814 | H1: Supported |
| Expertise → Credibility |
ß25B = 0.184** | 3.380 | H2: Supported | ß25W = 0.594** | 2.759 | H2: Supported |
| Attractiveness → Credibilityß34 = 0.303 ** 2.291H2: Supported |
ß35B = 0.149* | 1.961 | H3: Supported | ß35W = 0.053 ns | 0.166 | H3: No Supported |
| Congruence → Credibility |
ß45B = 0.537** | 5.484 | H4: Supported | ß45W = 0.371** | 2.874 | H4: Supported |
| Credibility → Purchase intention |
ß56B = 0.687** | 6.563 | H5: Supported | ß56W = 0.675** | 6.335 | H5: Supported |
| Credibility → Premium price |
Β57B = 0.608** | 6.462 | H6: Supported | Β57W = 0.618** | 6.135 | H6: Supported |
| R2 (Credibility) = 0.693 R2 (Purchase intention) = 0.673 R2 (Premium price) = 0.517 |
R2 (Credibility) = 0.667 R2 (Purchase intention) = 0.647 R2 (Premium price) = 0.541 |
|||||
Ns = no significant; **significant (p < 0.05); *significant (p < 0.10)
Source: Authors’ own elaboration
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