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This research addresses how the fit between celebrity athlete endorsers and the endorsed products may influence product attitudes. The findings reveal that participants evaluated an endorsed product more favourably when the fit between the celebrity athlete endorser and the endorsed product was congruent (vs incongruent; Experiment 1). Furthermore, participants in the high concept of congruence condition evaluated the endorsed product more favourably than those in the low concept of congruence condition only when the fit between the celebrity athlete endorser and the endorsed product was incongruent (Experiment 2).

This study aims to investigate a randomized 3 (endorser type: celebrity vs CEO vs expert) × 2 (product type: hedonic vs utility) between-respondents factorial experiment to inspect the effects of the endorsers and product types on consumers’ engagement in BRM through brand-relationship variables [i.e. self-brand connection (SBC), perceived product attachment (PPA) and source credibility (SC)]. Marketing in a digital era is witnessing a rising trend of “brand resurrection as revolution” led by consumer power. The successful revitalization of various dead brands provides some new opportunities for companies to engage millennial consumers in brand resurrection movements (BRM) through the right choice of brand endorsers. The new-found love of companies for the revitalization of long-forgotten brands has attracted considerable interest among scholars and marketing practitioners. Despite the brand resurrection’s high practical relevance, little is known in marketing research about how to revive failing brands back to life.

Using source credibility theory (SCT) as a lens, this study conducted two studies (i.e. Study 1, N = 300; Study 2, N = 300) and builds on an analysis of data from Pakistani millennials. The hypotheses were inspected using both structural equation modeling and SPSS’s PROCESS macro.

Through two studies, the authors find that the match between endorser types and product types affects customer motivation to engage in BRM via SBC, PPA and SC (i.e. attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise).[AQ2] The results showed that for utilitarian products, both SBC and PPA mediate the link between endorser types and BRM, but for hedonic products, PPA does not play a role. Similarly, the authors’ results indicate that for hedonic products, attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise mediate the link between endorser types and BRM, but for utilitarian products, trustworthiness does not play a role.

The results of this research will help marketing managers devise effective brand endorsers strategies in reviving failing brands. Specifically, this endeavor highlights that understanding brand advertisements merely in terms of celebrity endorsement restricts the full potential that brand advertisements could have and also that a comprehensive understanding must include expert and chief executive officers (CEO) endorsers. Therefore, one of the central contributions of this research is the introduction of expert and CEO endorsers and the evidence that both celebrity (i.e. celebrity and CEO) and non-celebrity endorsers (i.e. experts) have an impact on consumers’ motivation to engage in BRM.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first endeavors of its kind to empirically explore consumer attitude/motivation behind participation in reviving failing brands. The significance of this work is underscored by the fact that numerous dead brands are being brought back by companies because of consumer–brand co-creation movements.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of celebrity endorser credibility on consumer self-brand connection and endorsed brand equity. A conceptual model is developed, positioning consumer self-brand connections as a partial mediator of the effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity.

A cross-sectional survey of 382 consumers of sports drinks in the USA was conducted to estimate the conceptual model. Stimuli, devised on the basis of a pre-test, involved celebrity–brand pairings in the context of the US non-aseptic sports drinks industry. Structural equation modeling is used as the analytic tool.

The research model is empirically supported. Celebrity endorsements impact endorsed brand equity via two pathways. First, a direct effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity was observed, which is positively moderated by the degree of consumer-perceived endorser–brand congruence. Second, self-brand connection partly mediates the effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity, supporting an indirect mechanism of brand equity enhancement.

Managers can now consider using celebrities as tools to develop meaningful self-concept-related connections with consumers. Additionally, the results of this study support for the use of celebrity endorsers as direct brand equity-enhancing tools.

This study is among pioneering investigations that examine the self-concept repercussions of celebrity endorsements, suggesting that celebrity endorsers possess the ability to engage with consumers at the self-concept level, in turn, impacting endorsed brand equity. Additionally, this paper examines the direct and indirect mechanisms by which celebrities influence consumer-based brand equity of the endorsed brand.

The aim of this paper is to summarize the celebrity endorsement literature to identify trends and challenges related to key research areas. Based on a critical review of existing literature, this paper presents several recommendations regarding potential future directions of celebrity endorsement research in hospitality and tourism.

The paper presents a critical review of literature from both the general marketing and hospitality and tourism fields.

Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in hospitality and tourism celebrity endorsement research, with several new constructs being revealed and tested. However, the extant findings are rather mixed and inconclusive because industry features have not been systematically examined and study contexts and samples have varied widely. To advance the hospitality and tourism celebrity endorsement research, an extended meaning transfer model with six propositions is proposed. Several areas for future research are also discussed.

This paper offers up-to-date findings on celebrity endorsement to practitioners, and the proposed extended meaning transfer model can provide marketers useful guidelines on selecting appropriate endorsers for their products/brands.

In previous studies, scholars mainly used one or more of the three types of celebrity endorser selection models and only examined specific antecedents of effective endorsement. To date, researchers have not yet conceptualized a modified model that captures the unique features of the hospitality and tourism industry and reconciles the mixed findings in the extant literature. This paper proposes an extended meaning transfer model to explain the endorser selection process, provides a good foundational understanding of the extant celebrity endorsement research and makes several recommendations regarding future research directions for hospitality and tourism scholars with implications for practitioners.

The use of celebrity endorsers in advertising is wide‐spread – as much as 20 percent of all advertising use some type of celebrity endorser. Marketers invest significant dollars in securing the promotional support of well‐known individuals. Associative learning principles are presented as a useful framework for understanding how celebrity endorsers can be used more effectively. Principles such as repetition, overshadowing, blocking, belongingness, CS pre‐exposure, association set size, and extinction are introduced and linked to specific managerial suggestions for improving the use of celebrity endorsers.

Substantial literature exists researching effective celebrity endorser characteristics, and a growing body of literature investigates the specifics of professional athlete endorsements. However, there has been little focus on selection from the advertising practitioner's perspective; research that does exist is limited to the United States and British markets. This research among New Zealand advertising agencies found that celebrities/athletes are used primarily to achieve' cut through' and that their use is generally thought to be effective provided there is a tight fit between celebrity/athlete, brand and message. Interestingly, for New Zealand practitioners, the risk of negative publicity and hiring costs were the most important factors in the endorsement decision.

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.

Endorsement of a brand or sports team by a sports celebrity has been thoroughly researched within the context of sports marketing. However, the recent phenomenon of non-sports celebrities owning sports teams has received little research attention. This study uses a survey of Indian respondents in the context of a major sport (cricket) in India to explore the impact of a non-sports celebrity owning and endorsing a sports team on consumer attitudes towards the team and their sponsors. Findings indicate that the level of credibility assigned to the celebrity significantly affects consumer attitudes towards the team and its sponsors. The results suggest that managers of sports teams and their sponsors should consider a celebrity owner as an endorser, as long as that celebrity has high credibility.

Based on congruency theory, this study aims to examine the effects of celebrity endorsement on endorser credibility in Japanese over-the-counter (OTC) drug advertising using multiple celebrity categories. In particular, this research explored brand–endorser congruence and endorser–consumer congruence and their roles in attitude formation.

A 3 (endorser categories: actor/actress, athlete and talent/TV personality) × 2 (endorser’s gender) factorial experimental design with 480 Japanese consumers was used in the study.

In Japanese OTC drug advertising, actors/actresses and athletes were regarded as more credible than talents (TV personalities) by Japanese consumers. Endorser categories also had a significant influence on identification with the endorser through ideal self-congruency. Additionally, endorser credibility mediated the relationship between identification and advertising evaluations. However, it did not mediate the relationship between perceived similarity with the endorser and advertising responses.

Little is known about the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers in OTC drug advertising from a source credibility perspective. This study attempted to shed light on the role of endorser fit in the framework of source credibility in drug advertising that usually places an emphasis on informational cues rather than peripheral cues such as source effects.

The primary question motivating this study is how message characteristics influence the persuasiveness of celebrity athlete endorsements as used in print advertising for a sports drink. In particular, this study examines the extent to which celebrity endorsement of a product influences the effectiveness of advertising under varying degrees of perceived fit between the celebrity and the product image. The findings indicate that the process of integrating endorsement strength with given endorsers and products can substantially enhance the effectiveness of celebrity advertising. It is found that the interactive effect of endorsement strength and celebrity-product match is more pronounced among consumers with high product involvement than among those with low involvement.