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The study uses the meaning transfer model to integrate celebrity advertising and branding under the broad paradigm of celebrity–brand communication. Specifically, the paper aims to examine the influence of celebrity attributes (authenticity and identification) on brand advocacy and purchase intention through brand personality appeal and brand identification.

The study adopts two scenario-based research designs (involving nonfictitious and fictitious celebrities) for a cross-sectional structural path analysis.

Celebrity authenticity, celebrity identification and celebrity–brand congruency significantly influence brand advocacy and purchase intention, with brand personality appeal and brand identification emerging as effective mediators.

The study highlights how vital brand personality appeal and brand identification are in transferring positive perceptions about a celebrity endorser into brand advocacy and purchase intention. These results will allow marketers to realize the relative influence of celebrity attributes on the partnered brand.

Male celebrities are increasingly being chosen to endorse female cosmetic brands by marketing managers, yet this practice has not received sufficient scholarly attention. This study aims to explore the dynamics of male celebrities endorsing cosmetic brands.

The study employs the netnography approach to collect data from an online community.

The study contributes to the marketing literature by providing a conceptual framework of male celebrities endorsing cosmetic brands, highlighting the key attributes that contribute to the effectiveness of these endorsements, the evolution of relationships between fans, celebrities and brands, the features of this dynamic relationship and the influence of male celebrity endorsements on fans’ purchase decisions.

This research sheds light on an emerging trend in the marketing industry and provides valuable managerial insights for marketers seeking to effectively use male celebrity endorsements to promote female cosmetic brands.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer advocacy, customization and entertainment intentions based on the notion of the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework. In addition, this study aims to examine the mediating and moderating role of customization and entertainment intentions on the proposed relationships. The authors also intend to highlight the comparative effects between male and female young social media consumers on those proposed associations.

In the pursuit of comprehensive and rigorous data collection, this study adopted a quantitative methodology using a meticulously crafted questionnaire. The questionnaire survey was conducted in major cities of Malaysia using the convenience and snowball sampling techniques. A total of 576 responses were collected, even though 549 retorts were used for data analysis. In this investigation, the authors strategically used covariance-based structural equation modeling through the use of AMOS v. 24 as the primary data analysis tool. Augmenting the analytical depth, the authors also conducted a supplementary bootstrap analysis. The additional layers of examination were crucial for appraising the mediating and moderating effects inherent within the model, in which the PROCESS MACRO v.4.20 was used.

The results of this study revealed the significant direct positive effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer customization, entertainment and advocacy intentions. Consumer customization and entertainment intentions also found significant direct affirmative effects on consumer advocacy intention, along with the significant direct positive effects of consumer entertainment intention on consumer customization intention. The results further revealed that consumer customization and entertainment intentions cannot mediate the relationship between celebrity endorsers and advocacy intention. The entertainment intention also declined the mediating effects between celebrity endorsers and consumer customization intention. On the contrary, consumer customization intention significantly and positively, and entertainment intention also significantly but negatively, moderate the association between celebrity endorsers and consumer advocacy intention. This study also illustrates that the effects of those examined relationships differ between male and female young social media consumers.

This study investigates the impact of celebrity endorsers on consumer behavior, focusing on their customization, entertainment and advocacy intentions. It extends current SOR framework, enhances source credibility theory, fills gaps in the literature on social media brand engagement and underscores the significance of customization and entertainment intentions. The findings provide insights for managers aiming to harness consumer brand advocacy through celebrity endorsers effectively.

The academic discourse around celebrity and iconicity has resulted in the same human brand as labeled as an inauthentic and illegitimate celebrity and as a culturally important symbol of legitimate achievement. We address the research question of how are contradictions between celebrity and iconicity resolved in creating and managing a human brand.

Using structuration theory, we analyzed David Bowie’s 50 year career, from 1964 to 2013, totaling 562 documents. Applying Langley’s (1999) stages of data collection of grounding, organizing, and replicating, we develop a process of model of celebrity and iconicity.

We identify three stages of human brand symbolic associations: forming, fixing, and transitioning associations. These represent alternate trajectories that Bowie and Ziggy Stardust followed to become icons. In resolving his trajectories across these stages, Bowie adapts and adopts commercial materials, business practices, and new technologies to converge his symbolic associations into a coherent iconic human brand.

Limitations of this paper lie in focusing on one human brand in a particular industry. Future research is suggested in three areas: (1) the relationship between the proposed model and other human brand activities; (2) to explore how the process is manipulated by other market agents; and (3) whether a human brand’s association shifts can precede culture.

This perspective challenges existing conceptualizations of celebrity and iconicity by framing them as inter-related processes, where celebrity associations are fixed in time, while iconic associations transition across time periods to reflect changing cultural values and concerns.

We explore how marketers can manage brand meaning through the use of celebrity endorsements. We theorize that consumers look to celebrity endorsements for brand symbolism, which they appropriate to construct and communicate their self-concepts by forming self-brand connections (SBC).

This research employs an experimental paradigm, with two empirical studies examining whether marketers can create meaning for their brands through the use of celebrity endorsements.

Study 1 finds that celebrity endorsement enhances SBC when consumers aspire to be like the celebrity, but harms them when consumers do not; furthermore, this effect is more pronounced when the brand image is congruent with the celebrity’s image. The effect is further moderated by the degree to which a brand communicates something about the user, with more symbolic brands having stronger effects than less symbolic brands. Study 2 finds that the effect of celebrity endorsement on SBC is augmented when consumers’ self-esteem is threatened. Consumers self-enhance by building connections to celebrities with favorable images or distancing themselves from those with unfavorable images.

These findings can help marketers’ decisions regarding when and whom to use as a celebrity endorsers by taking into account how consumers use meaning appropriated from celebrities when constructing the self.

Internet celebrities have become key resources for consumers making purchase decisions. An increasing number of internet celebrities have begun to exert their influence by creating self-branded products. This study aims to examine the antecedents of consumer attitudes and purchase intentions towards internet celebrity self-brands by integrating cognitive consistency theory, cue utilisation theory and the literature on brand authenticity and celebrity involvement.

Two sub-samples of different social media brand communities were collected via online surveys of consumers with experience purchasing targeted internet celebrity self-brands. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data.

The results of the two sub-samples provide convergent evidence that brand–consumer congruence, brand authenticity and internet celebrity involvement have positive correlations with consumer attitudes towards internet celebrity self-brands, which then positively correlate with purchase intentions in both psychological (Sub-sample 1) and social (Sub-sample 2) brand communities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to develop a comprehensive model of consumers’ attitudes towards internet celebrity self-brands, which predict purchase intentions. The model is empirically tested in different social media brand communities, and the convergent results show the power of the proposed model. Internet celebrity involvement is proposed as a key driver of brand attitudes, which has received little attention. We conceptualise internet celebrity involvement and develop a scale to measure it. Based on the findings, we propose strategies to improve the marketing effectiveness of internet celebrity self-brands.

This study aims to examine the influence of five sports celebrity personality (SCP) attributes – attractiveness, expertise level, credibility, trustworthiness and character – on consumers' purchase intentions (CPI). It identifies celebrity brand congruence (CBC), endorsed brand celebrity (EBC) and transfer of brand image (TBI) as antecedents of CPI.

The purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data from 838 respondents. This study developed a multidimensional construct for SCP. The covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to examine the relationship between SCP and the endorsed brand. The study used CBC as a mediator and EBC and TBI as partial mediators. The direct and indirect effect of SCP on CPI was investigated using CBC, EBC and TBI as mediators.

This study supports the importance of three antecedents (i.e. CBC, EBC and TBI) on CPI. It finds congruence across SCP and CBC variables, and a positive impact of SCP on EBC and TBI variables. Also, it exhibits a significant direct effect of CBC on EBC and TBI, whereas the direct effect of CBC on CPI is not substantial. The indirect effect of CBC through mediating variables EBC and TBI found to be significant.

This study concludes that sports celebrity endorsement is essential to transfer the positive celebrity image to the endorsed brand image. However, it is not merely sufficient to influence the buyers' purchase conduct; the brand credibility additionally assumes to take a role in changing their behavioral intentions.

This study contributes to the sports marketing literature by its novelty in analyzing the sports celebrity personality at a multidimensional level. It uses SCP's different attributes as one construct and studies its impact on CPI by taking CBC, EBC and TBI as mediators. The results of this study equip sports management professionals with the knowledge to build better long-term relationships with consumers.

This study aimed at investigating negative past experience (NPE), symbolic incongruity and ideological incompatibility on celebrity brand hate (CBH) within the arts marketing sector.

Anchored on the self-congruity theory (SCT), the study is based on two studies with 618 hip-life music (HLM) listeners in Ghana (Study 1 = 340 face-to-face participants; study 2 = 278 online participants), who responded to 20 celebrities they hate. The study validates Hegner et al.'s (2017) product brand hate (BH) model in the arts sector utilizing the structural equal modeling in testing the research hypotheses.

The study found that negative past experience, symbolic incongruity, and ideological incompatibility significantly influences CBH. Furthermore, CBH significantly influences celebrity brand avoidance (CBA) and negative word-of-mouth (NWoM), brand retaliation, private complaint and brand switching. Nevertheless, CBH had no significant influence on CBA in the second study. In all, BH had the strongest effects on NWoM for products in Hegner et al. (2017) model, whereas in our model BH strongly impacts on brand retaliation for celebrities (i.e. people).

The study provided evidence to marketing scholars, celebrity image managers and brand professionals, on critical factors to consider in building and sustaining celebrity brands as viable currencies for economic leveraging within the arts industry.

Though BH has received academic recognition, little is known about the concept of CBH and its outcomes in the arts marketing literature.

This research aims to examine the impact of celebrity credibility on consumer‐based equity of the endorsed brand. The mediating role of brand credibility and the moderating role of the type of branding (parent versus sub‐brand) employed by the endorsed brand on the endorser credibility‐brand equity relationship are also to be examined. The endorser credibility‐brand equity relationship was developed using associative learning principles whereas the brand signalling theory is applied to examine the mediating role of brand credibility.

The conceptual framework was tested using a field experiment. Data were collected using a mall‐intercept approach at a shopping centre from a sample of consumers in a metropolitan Australian city. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

Results suggest endorser credibility has an indirect impact on brand equity when this relationship is mediated by brand credibility. This mediating relationship was moderated by type of branding. However, the “endorser credibility‐brand credibility” and “endorser credibility‐brand equity” relationships did not vary according to the type of branding employed.

In support of past findings, the present study shows that a celebrity endorser should be one who is perceived as credible based on their attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness. Moreover, in this research, even a moderately low credibility endorser proved to be able to build the brand.

The present study is one of the first to empirically examine and confirm the impact of endorser credibility on brand credibility and consumer‐based brand equity.

This paper aims to elucidate instances whereby celebrity endorsements by social media influencers (SMIs) embedded within online consumption communities are perceived as transgressive by their fellow community members. In doing so, this study provides insights into the new challenges and considerations that such community contexts present for celebrity endorsement.

The research team conducted a longitudinal, netnographic study of the YouTube beauty community, involving an initial phase of netnographic immersion followed by an investigative netnography that examined community members’ response to celebrity endorsements by 12 SMIs within the community.

This study identifies five recurring celebrity endorsement transgressions, each violating an established moral responsibility within the community. The paper explores how community members attribute responsibility for transgressive endorsements and identifies consequences for both the SMI and the endorsed brand.

This study focused on a single consumption community, developing a deep understanding of the distinct moral responsibilities that shape the reception of celebrity endorsements within this context.

The paper presents managerial recommendations that will aid both SMIs and brands in implementing celebrity endorsements that avoid communal perceptions of transgression.

The analysis extends prior study on celebrity endorsement by SMIs by explaining when and why SMI endorsements are likely to be perceived as transgressive by the community and providing new insights into community member responses to transgressive SMI endorsements. It also extends wider theories of celebrity endorsement by highlighting the influence of consumption community contexts upon endorsement reception and examining consumer responses to celebrity endorsements perceived as transgressive in and of themselves.