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Although there is a growing body of literature on how celebrity involvement impacts the effectiveness of destination marketing, the underlying mechanisms of that relationship are still underexplored. Based on the affect transfer and meaning transfer theories, this study aims to examine the impact of celebrity attachment on customer delight toward K-culture and K-culture attachment, affective and cognitive images of Korea, and the intention to visit Korea.

Online survey data were collected from 2,614 US residents, representing various demographic characteristics. For the data analysis, the partial least squares-structural equation modeling was conducted to evaluate the structural model and test the hypotheses.

The results showed that celebrity attachment is positively related to customer delight toward K-culture and K-culture attachment, which, in turn, positively influences affective and cognitive images of Korea. Additionally, K-culture attachment positively influences cognitive and affective images of Korea, which are positively related to the intention to visit Korea.

By using the affect transfer theory and meaning transfer theory, this study provides valuable insights into how consumer’s attachment to celebrities has spillover effects on the decision-making process. This study also adds a new concept, customer delight connected to cultural experience, in the context of destination marketing.

By understanding the importance and influence of people’s intimacy with media characters, practitioners can apply parasocial relationship theory, affect transfer theory and meaning transfer theory to their marketing strategies.

As one of the few empirical studies that examines the impact of celebrity attachment on consumers’ perceptions and behaviors, this study can make significant contributions to the destination marketing literature.

Of the three major streams of research in celebrity endorsements, the “Meaning Transfer Model (MTM)” has received the least attention from researchers. In the present study, the authors aim to investigate the basic components of the “Meaning Transfer Model” proposed by McCracken (1986, 1989) and outcome of the flow of meaning through celebrity endorsements.

The authors used an interpretive approach to address four broad research questions framed after a comprehensive literature review. Eight focus group discussions (FGD) (along with embedded word association techniques) were conducted among audience from heterogeneous demographic backgrounds from India. Content and thematic analysis were carried out on the FGD transcripts and the word association test results to generate findings.

The findings indicate seven themes of celebrity meaning, namely, personality, credibility, physical appearance, feelings, performance, values and cogent power. Most meanings were found to be transferred to a brand via the endorsement. The possibility of reverse meaning transfer and the change of celebrity meanings overtime were also observed.

The major contribution of the present study is the development of a measurable and applicable model of meaning transfer in celebrity endorsements, along with a set of testable propositions.

The findings provide a guiding framework for practitioners who would like to use a celebrity endorsement strategy.

This is one of the first attempts to develop a comprehensive model of meaning transfer in celebrity endorsements that includes sub-constructs of “meaning” and the moderators in the process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effect of brand exposure time and exposure frequency in image transfer. In study 1, H1 and H2 assumed the bidirectional image transfer (i.e. from an event to a brand, from a brand to an event). H3 and H4 were set to examine the moderating effect of brand exposure time and exposure frequency in image transfer upon spreading activation theory, mere exposure effect and three-hit theory.

According to study 1, the result indicated that the amount of image transfer varied based on the exposure time. However, brand exposure frequency did not show statistically significant interactions. Study 2 was performed to complement the H4 of the study 1. In study 2, apart from the number of exposures on a screen (group 1=four times; group 2=eight times), the perceived number of exposures were separately measured (group 1=2.67; group 2=3.96) to see if the number of perceived exposures moderated the amount of image transfer.

The results indicated that there was no group difference in the amount of image transfer. Based on the result of the study, a sponsor brand must be exposed for enough time duration in order to maximize the return on investment regardless of how frequently it is exposed.

The current study examined the image transfer in sport sponsorship. Although previous studies empirically examined the image transfer phenomenon in sport sponsorship, they failed to establish theoretical ground. Thus, this study incorporated the three theories in advertising and examined how we can apply the theories to sport sponsorship. In addition, we examine the image transfer based on video clip which is mainly how people are exposed to sport sponsorship. Next, we examined the moderating effects of exposure duration and exposure frequency, which has never been studied in sport sponsorship context.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether negative meanings consumers attribute to a corporation transfer to the endorser and to examine the moderating effects of corporate-specific and product-specific negative meanings on an endorser’s credibility.

Following a protocol designed by Till and Shimp (1998), two experiments were conducted to examine if meaning transfer exists (experiment 1) and if meaning type moderates reverse meaning transfer (experiment 2). A doubly repeated multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to investigate changes in the endorser’s credibility and attitudes toward the brand.

The results revealed that the negative meanings consumers associated with these corporate crises influence consumer perceptions of the endorser as well as attitude toward the brand.

This finding supports the position that meaning type moderates reverse meaning transfer and may explain variances in the literature on the significance of reverse meaning transfer. Based on these findings, brand crises have a negative effect on the endorser’s credibility.

The results lead the authors to suggest that endorsers as well as marketers should closely scrutinize brand partnerships, as the relationship may positively and negatively influence consumer perceptions of the athlete endorser.

Based on the findings from this study, brand managers need to appreciate differences in brand crisis type by tailoring brand image remediation strategies to fit the type(s) of meaning(s) associated with a specific controversy.

The results from the current study add, significantly, to the literature by being the first to evidence that different meanings associated with different types of brand crises produce different attitudes toward the brand.

Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular forms of marketing, and this study aims to suggest that celebrity endorsement should be considered as a brand alliance, where meanings and values can transfer from either partner to the other. This paper seeks to report on an exploratory attempt to identify the processes involved and explore whether celebrity endorsement should be considered a brand alliance.

After a review of both celebrity endorsement and brand alliance literature, a case of meaning transfer process was examined. The collaboration between Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was studied as a case, within which a special episode of negative publicity emerged and was analysed through newspaper articles.

A model for a reciprocal meaning transfer process is proposed and the existence of a brand‐alliance‐like relationship in the case is established.

The paper is the first qualitative study to examine meaning transfer process in a real life celebrity endorsement context. It indicates the need for managing celebrity endorsement as a brand alliance by suggesting that celebrity endorsement should be considered as an alliance of equals. A model illustrated and supported by a case study is proposed.

Consumers' evaluations of brand extensions have gained considerable attention in the marketing literature. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a brand's perceived global or local origin impacts evaluations of brand extensions and creates transfer effects of brand meaning. The paper conceptually characterizes the transference process and empirically tests the nature and extent of spillover effects of origin associations across multiple parent brands and extensions.

For the empirical testing of the conceptual model of transfer effects of origin associations we undertook a cross‐sectional consumer survey amongst a sample of 267 Norwegian respondents. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the causal relationships between the latent exogenous and endogenous variables in the conceptual model.

The present study indicates that the global and local origin framework, first introduced by Steenkamp et al. in 2003, can explain the occurrence of reciprocal transfer of brand meaning across parent brands and extensions. The paper shows that global and local origin associations operate in a manner very similar to brand associations in the transference of perceptions. It finds that distinct origin associations influence the pre‐brand image and drive the forward effect on the attitude towards the extension as well as the subsequent backward effect upon the post‐brand image of the parent brand.

This paper reveals for the first time that distinct origin associations can initiate spillover effects across parent brands and extensions. This study is therefore an important step towards the generalizability of main brand extension studies to other contexts such as extensions of global brands.

This study examines the effects of congruence and reliability on cause-brand alliance (CBA) program attitudes—exploring how CBA program attitudes and sport entity attitudes affect attitudes toward a sport-related and sport-unrelated brand in a single CBA.

About 240 survey participants answered questions before and after being exposed to information about the NFL Play 60 program. Consistent partial least squares structural equation modeling is utilized to test the hypotheses.

Results suggest both congruence and reliability positively influence CBA program success; and both sport-related and sport-unrelated brands positively affect consumer attitudes when they participate in a CBA with a high-profile sport entity. This occurs directly through CBA program attitudes for a sport-unrelated brand and indirectly through sport entity attitudes for a sport-related brand.

This study extends the CBA literature in sports by showing (1) the role of reliability on CBA program attitudes, (2) the role of sport entity attitudes on other cause partner attitudes and (3) different paths for sport-related versus sport-unrelated brands that are partnered with a premium sport entity to achieve CBA program brand enhancements.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a conceptual framework of attitudinal constructs that influence attitude toward the brand in movie product placements. Advertising literature is replete with studies on factors that influence attitude toward the brand (A_b). However, this topic remains under-explored for product placements.

Our framework showcases several theories to relate attitude and fit constructs to attitudes toward the product placement and attitude toward the brand. We use the structural equation model approach to estimate the conceptual framework.

Several attitudinal movie constructs (attitude toward the actor, the character and the movie) influence attitude toward the product placement, which in turn mediates the relationship between the former attitudinal constructs and attitude toward the brand. Interestingly, only the fit between the actor and placed brand impacted attitude toward the product placement, with no effects found for the fit between the character and the fit between the movie and brand and the attitude toward the product placement.

We focus on explicit attitudes; implicit attitudes need future research attention.

Findings affirm a key role for the actor featured in the placement in directly or indirectly shaping the attitude toward the brand.

This is the first study to apply the structural equation modeling approach to this research area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the practice of celebrity athletes’ product endorsement in the context of social media, guided by meaning transfer model.

The study adopted a content analysis method based on data gathered from the official Twitter account of 17 of the highest-paid athletes over a period of five months.

Results outline the state, involvement level, roles, modes, preferred content types, discernible differences, shared features, and best practices employed in endorsement tweets. A framework of athletes’ product endorsement on Twitter is presented.

The study presented theoretical and practical implications, and limitations and impetus for future research.

The study investigated professional athletes’ use of their own media channel for the purpose of endorsement, presented a framework that illustrates the practice of celebrity athletes’ product endorsement on social media, and identified a best practice and an exemplary reference.

It is not possible for every fan of a sport to watch matches at stadiums because of the capacity and location constraints. Furthermore, although sport fans could not physically attend sporting events during the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations still showed interest in sponsoring such events. To better understand this phenomenon, this study examined the effects of fans' event involvement on event reputation, event commercialization, corporate brand credibility, corporate brand image and purchase intentions of the corporate sponsor brand.

A total of 646 responses were collected from fans of Indian Premier League teams. Confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based structural equation modelling analyses were conducted on the collected data.

Results showed that fans' involvement in televised sporting events had a positive influence on the events' reputation, which, in turn, had a significant impact on their corporate brand credibility and image. Furthermore, the corporate brand credibility and image had a positive impact on the fans' purchasing decisions.

This study provides valuable implications for marketing managers aiming to enhance their understanding of the impact of event sponsorship on corporate brands. In addition, the findings provide insight into how to support the development of effective sponsorship strategies in the future. The results suggest that sponsoring companies should consider maintaining the credibility and image of their brands to achieve the desired outcomes from sponsoring such sporting events.