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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of four types of cause-related marketing (CRM) strategies on consumer responses to a fashion brand and to assess the relative effectiveness of each.

An experiment was conducted with young adult consumers (n=344) and undergraduates (n=415). Using a between-subject design, each participant was randomly assigned to one of four CRM scenarios and completed a questionnaire.

Across all CRM conditions, the effect of CRM strategy on consumer responses (e.g. perceived brand distinctiveness/credibility/attractiveness, customer–brand identification, brand attitude, customer loyalty) was significant. The effect of corporate social responsibility image on perceived brand distinctiveness was strongest for cause-related event marketing, followed by cause-related experiential marketing, transaction-based CRM and sponsorship-linked marketing.

By providing information about the relative effectiveness of four types of CRM strategies, this research aids fashion marketers in their selection of the CRM strategy that generates the best performance. Adding an event component to their CRM activity would increase the effect of CRM strategies on consumer responses.

This research contributes to the extant literature on CRM by identifying types of CRM strategies, their relative effectiveness, and key variables (e.g., C–B identification) that explain the impact of CRM strategies on consumer responses.

This study aims to investigate the influencers’ credibility dimensions (i.e. attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise) on purchase intention (PI) through the mediating role of cognitive and affective online engagement among the aesthetic dermatology consumers in Jordan.

The population of this study entails all followers of aesthetic dermatology clinics on their Instagram accounts. However, only three influencers from the aesthetic dermatology industry were selected and approved the request of sharing the survey instrument on their official platforms. Overall, 600 surveys were distributed, but only 384 were completed fully, constituting a 64% response rate.

The data analysis revealed an excellent fit for the data and indicated an impact of attractiveness and expertise on online engagement and PI. Moreover, a mediating influence was also found for online engagement on the path between influencer credibility and PI.

This study has a limitation of collecting the data from only three influencers; consequently, collecting data from the followers of more than four influencers would get more generalizable results. Second, considering further, examining the mediating role of other variables such as electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) and loyalty programs could also provide further insights onto the nature of the factors affecting the PI. In addition, future studies should examine the differences of using more than one social media platform.

The main findings of this study have a number of managerial implications for marketing management that hint at liking the influencers who are highly trusted owing to their extensive expertise in the area they are marketing rather than only depending on their physical attractiveness. The Jordanian culture does not focus only on the image shared by the social media as the reviews can either support or decline the influence of even the celebrity. Significantly, a set of managerial implications come from the current research.

Two major areas are the most important; these are the trustworthy issue and the EWOM. The marketers should encourage their customers to openly talk about their experiences as they have an imperative role in liking influencers in a way that improves their PI. The second implication is related to social media platforms management that marketing managers should resolve any negative EWOM caused and to enhance followers’ satisfaction levels of the services. The increase in satisfaction positively affects PI, and the service makes the influencer role become more effective.

This study was able to add a value to the current understanding of the main antecedents of customer engagement by looking at these dimensions of perceived credibility. Another contribution was captured in this study by successfully validating the meditating impact of customer engagement between influencers’ credibility dimensions and PI, especially in the absence of the studies that have addressed such relationship.

This paper aims to clarify the persuasion mechanism of chief executive officers (CEOs) and employees as endorsers of brand advertising and helps discern consumer attitudes toward internal endorsement.

The exploratory character of the present research required a qualitative approach combining focus groups and face-to-face interviews considered as both meaningful and complementary.

The findings suggest that while the celebrity endorsement ensures familiarity and likability, internal endorsement supports credibility and congruity with an important role of storytelling. Moreover, employee endorsements induce an internalization process based on the real-self, while the endorser CEO induces admiration grounded in the ideal self. More fundamentally, the study reveals how the internal endorsement modifies the meaning transfer model and involves a process of meaning translation, which affects the corporate brand image rather than the product brand image.

The present paper reveals that CEOs and employees can be strong levers for gilding the corporate brand image compared to the celebrities who enhance the product brand image. Moreover, the authors show that the CEO is a character who can be admired without the threat of upward comparison at the opposite of celebrities. Finally, this research highlights the specific role of employees bringing authenticity because of their anchorage in real life.

Young consumers are increasingly using online reviews and celebrity influence to make purchase decisions. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the influence of online customer reviews, celebrity influencer’s attractiveness, celebrity influencer’s credibility on female millennials’ purchase intention of beauty products.

To validate the research questions and hypotheses, data were obtained from young female consumers using an electronic self-administered survey questionnaire that was close ended. A total of 203 valid responses were obtained from which data were analysed by making use of structural equation modelling Mplus and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 28.

The obtained results showed that the seven hypotheses of the study were positive. However, two hypotheses were negative, namely, celebrity influencer attractiveness did not have a significant influence on the attitude of consumers; and brand loyalty was not significantly correlating with young female consumers’ purchase intention of beauty products.

Given that millennials are known to be active users of social media and often consult online peer product reviews, marketers and practitioners of beauty industry should improve the effectiveness and usability of beauty influencers and online reviews to attract female millennial consumers.

This research contributes to understanding young female consumers’ attitudes towards purchasing beauty products, especially the combined influence of group influence (online reviews) and media influence (celebrity beauty influencers) on such attitudes.

Brand managers frequently use well-known celebrities to position their brands and capture consumers’ attention to improve the brand’s market share. The attachment of a celebrity with a brand creates a human image for a brand and helps in personifying its image. The consumer perceives the brand as an individual and relates his personality, as well as the personality of the celebrity with that of the brand. It becomes pertinent for marketers to understand how brand-celebrity personality congruence and brand-consumer personality congruence affect the brand reputation, uniqueness and purchase intentions. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between the two personality congruence aspects – brand & celebrity personalities and brand & consumer personalities, and their impact on the reputation of the brand and its uniqueness. Further, the paper aims to examine the impact of the brand reputation and brand uniqueness on purchase intentions.

The present study uses Aaker’s five-factor personality scale to study the personality congruence effects on brand reputation, brand uniqueness and purchase intentions. The literature review was carried out to categorize factors related to celebrity personality, brand personality and consumer personality. The data for this study was collected through questionnaires from 1,235 respondents. In the first step, congruencies between celebrity, brand and consumer personality were determined. This was followed by a two-stage structural equation modelling for assessing the model fit and testing the hypotheses.

From the study results, it is observed that brand-celebrity congruency influences brand reputation and brand uniqueness. However, brand-consumer congruency had an effect only on brand reputation and not on brand uniqueness. Both brand reputation and uniqueness have favourable impact on consumers purchase intentions.

This study contributes to the existing literature on celebrity endorsement by extending the discussion with personality-based congruence. The research deciphered two aspects of identification, i.e. consumer-brand personality congruence and brand-celebrity congruence. The paper hypothesized the favourable association between brand personality and consumer personality congruence and brand uniqueness. However, it was observed that brand personality-consumer personality identification had an insignificant influence on brand uniqueness. This is contrary to the findings of some studies in the literature. Further investigation of this relationship in the future may add a new dimension to the identification context.

Marketers worldwide consider athlete endorsement a highly effective promotional tool. However, little is known about consumers' responses towards athlete endorsement in global markets - particularly the bi-directional image transfer mechanism. This study examines the image match between athlete endorsers and products using a three-dimensional visual map and comparing image perceptions towards athlete endorsements among respondent groups from Japan, Korea and the United States during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The results show that image perceptions of selected athlete endorsers, endorsed products and their match are significantly different in these markets.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if the star power of an athletic endorser influenced consumers’ consumption of the advertised product. Specifically, does the amount of star power an athlete is thought to have impact consumers’ direct consumption of the advertised product and media consumption of the athlete? Moreover, the components of star power, along with congruency measures, were examined to determine which components of star power influenced both direct and media consumption.

Four advertisements were created that used an athlete with high star power and an athlete with low star power. Respondents viewed two of the advertisements, but did not know which athlete had high star power or low star power. They were asked to answer a questionnaire that contained questions pertaining to the components of star power (source attractiveness, source credibility, professional trustworthiness, likeable personality and character style), congruency of the athlete and product, direct consumption of the advertised product and media consumption of the athlete.

Results indicated that overall star power increased the direct consumption of the advertised product and the media consumption of the athlete, however not each component was found to be significant. Character style was the only component that was consistently significant across all four advertisements. The congruency between the athlete and product was also found to be significant across all four advertisements.

First, this study only looked at two athletes; others may generate different results. Second, the products used in the study were fashion related; other categories of products may also generate different relationships. Third, only two brands were used. It was also assumed that the respondents knew the athlete in the advertisement. Finally, the questions used to measure direct consumption did not distinguish between buying the brand in the store or online.

This study has the potential to contribute theoretically by analyzing how and which components of star power affect consumption of endorsed products, as well as which components influence consumers. Moreover, adding a congruency measure will aide in strengthening the measurement of endorser effectiveness. The justification of the present study lies in the need to determine how the dimensions of star power an athlete possesses contribute to the consumption behaviors of consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the practice of casting celebrity performers in London West End theatres. The paper uses the literature on celebrity to explore the impact that casting a celebrity has on the London theatre audience.

The pervasiveness of celebrity culture forms the background and starting point for this research. In the first phase, theatre managers, directors and producers were interviewed to explore their views on the practice of celebrity casting. In the second phase, an audience survey was conducted. The approach taken is exploratory and is intended to illuminate the conditions under which a successful celebrity-focused strategy can be constructed.

A distinction between fame and celebrity was drawn by both theatre professionals and audiences, with celebrity status being seen as something that is created by media exposure and being in the public eye. This is in contrast to fame, which is earned by being famous for something, or some achievement. Theatre audiences are more likely to be attracted by celebrities who have theatrical expertise and not by someone known simply through film, television or the all-pervasive gossip columns. Celebrities with a background in theatre and film were seen to strongly draw audiences to the theatre, as opposed to those with a background in reality TV shows, search-for-a-star shows or for being half of a famous couple.

The paper is focused on the theatre and makes an original contribution to the current discussion of the power wielded by celebrities. It is the first empirical research on this aspect of the theatre business. Its contribution lies in understanding audience members’ interpretation and understanding of celebrity to ascertain the extent to which they perceive celebrities as credible to perform theatre. This is based on a differentiation between their mediated fame and expertise. It is helpful and useful information for producers when deciding whether or not to cast a celebrity and to which audiences that the celebrity might appeal.

This study aims to examine the effectiveness (ad attitude, brand attitude and purchase intention) of celebrity endorsement in the form of explicit vs embedded advertising in the context of different new media (digital and social media).

An online experiment was conducted using a 2 (digital media vs social media) × 2 (explicit vs embedded celebrity endorsement) between-subjects design. Participants (n = 137) were exposed to a fictitious piece of online branded content using celebrity endorsement. Four experimental treatments were generated as the authors manipulated the new media and the explicitness of the celebrity endorsement in the ad piece.

The main result highlights that using social media (vs digital media) enhances celebrity endorsement's indirect influence on purchase intention via the serial mediating role of ad attitude and brand attitude, regardless of the explicitness of the message. In terms of the message format, no differences were observed.

The differential power of using celebrities across different new media to promote brands suggests the importance of interactivity in the context of celebrity endorsement. Additionally, the absence of differences in terms of message formats would show that the presence of the celebrity per se has a powerful effect.

Firms using new media to deliver their brand communication, including celebrity endorsements, can better understand the different capabilities of social media and digital media.

In the context in which empirical research equates new media with social media, this study provides an examination of celebrity endorsement assuming the complexity of the celebrity endorsement ion the current scenario: different types of new media and different types of message formats.

Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar la efectividad (en términos de actitud a la pieza publicitaria, actitud hacia la marca e intención de compra) del celebrity endorsement en la forma de publicidad explícita versus incrustada en el contexto de diferentes tipos de nuevos medios (medios digitales y redes sociales).

Se llevó a cabo un experimento en línea utilizando un diseño between-subjects de 2 (medios digitales vs. redes sociales) × 2 (apoyo explícito vs. incrustado de celebridades). Los participantes (n = 137) fueron expuestos a una pieza online ficticia de contenido de marca en línea que utilizaba celebrity endorsement. Se generaron cuatro tratamientos experimentales, en los cuales los autores manipularon el uso de nuevos medios y el nivel de explicitación del celebrity endorsement en la pieza publicitaria.

Los resultados principales ponen de manifiesto que el uso de las redes sociales (vs. medios digitales) mejora la influencia indirecta del celebrity endorsement en la intención de compra a través del rol de mediación en serie de la actitud hacia la pieza publicitaria y la actitud hacia la marca, independientemente del nivel de explicitación del mensaje. En cuanto al formato del mensaje, no se observaron diferencias.

El poder diferencial del uso de celebridades en diferentes tipos de medios nuevos para promocionar marcas sugiere la importancia de la interactividad en el contexto del celebrity endorsement. Además, la ausencia de diferencias a nivel del formato del mensaje muestra que la presencia de la celebridad per se tiene un efecto relevante.

Según los resultados de los autores, las empresas que utilizan nuevos medios para su comunicación de marca, incluyendo celebrity endorsements, pueden comprender mejor las diferentes capacidades de las redes sociales y los medios digitales.

En un contexto donde la investigación empírica equipara los nuevos medios con las redes sociales, este estudio proporciona un examen del celebrity endorsement considerando la complejidad de la técnica en el actual escenario: diferentes tipos de nuevos medios y diferentes tipos de formatos de mensajes.