Attractiveness or expertise? Which is more effective in beauty product endorsement? Moderating role of social distance

Abstract

In the beauty industry, advertisers are increasingly exploring endorsements from social media influencers (SMIs) as a strategy to promote positive consumer responses. For this strategy to be effective, it is important to select appropriate SMIs. Across two experiments, we investigated the moderating role of social distance by comparing an attractive celebrity to an expert SMI (Study 1) and by comparing attractive SMIs to expert SMIs (Study 2). The findings indicate that attractiveness is more effective when the perceived social distance from the endorser is close, whereas expertise is better when the social distance is far. Furthermore, the effects of endorser type on advertising effectiveness were mediated by attractiveness (expertise), which was mediated by the parasocial relationship with the SMI. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings regarding social media advertising strategies.

Keywords:

• SMIs
• attractiveness
• expertise
• social distance
• parasocial relationship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by ‘Dongguk University Research Fund’ awarded to the first author.

Notes on contributors

Yung Kyun Choi

Yung Kyun Choi (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is a Professor in the Department of Advertising & PR at Dongguk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. His primary research area is in interactive advertising campaign and online consumer behavior. His research has appeared in many international journals.

Ruonan Zhang

Ruonan Zhang (M.A., Dongguk University) has received her master’s degree in the Department of Advertising and PR from Dongguk University.

Christine (Eunyoung) Sung

Christine (Eunyoung) Sung (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Montana State University, USA. Her primary research area is digital technology marketing/advertising.