Celebrity endorsement: How celebrity–brand–user personality congruence affects brand attitude and purchase intention

Abstract

The present study provides and tests a conceptual framework aimed at comparing the relative effectiveness of celebrity–user, brand–celebrity, and user–brand personality congruence on brand attitude and brand purchase intention (BPI) thereafter. The data collection was done via an online survey of a representative group of consumers (n = 431) located across India. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis with mediation approach. The results indicate that while user–brand and brand–celebrity personality congruence have a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intention, celebrity–user congruence does not. Further, brand attitude is found to be a partial mediator on the relationship between the pair-wise personality congruence on BPI. The findings have major implications for marketers in understanding the significance of personality congruence among celebrity–brand–user in the formation of brand attitude and purchase intention that can be used in positioning and in increasing the advertising effectiveness of brands using celebrity endorsement. The present study is a pioneer in contributing to the celebrity endorsement literature by investigating the relative impact of three pairs of personality congruence: celebrity–brand, brand–user, and celebrity–user, on brand attitude and BPI, thereby supporting the applicability of McCracken's Meaning Transfer Model [McCracken (1989), The Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (3) 310–321) and the Hierarchy-of-effects model (Lavidge and Steiner (1961), Journal of Marketing, 25 (6) 59–62].

Keywords::

• celebrity–brand personality congruence
• celebrity–user personality congruence
• brand–user personality congruence
• brand attitude
• brand purchase intention
• India

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Debasis Pradhan

Debasis Pradhan is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Xavier School of Management, XLRI Jamshedpur. His academic interests include congruence research in celebrity endorsement, U&G theory in social media, retail brand equity measurement and impulse buying. His papers and cases have been published in Asian Case Research Journal, International Journal of Rural Management, South Asian Journal of Management, among others. His award-winning business cases have been published by London Business School. His Asia-centric Casebook, published by Cengage Learning Pvt. Ltd., captures the essence of business practices of firms operating in different parts of Asia. He has also presented papers at INFORMS Marketing Science Conferences held at Singapore Management University, University of Michigan, University of Cologne in Germany, Rice University at Houston, and Academy of Management [Philadelphia].

Israel Duraipandian

Israel Duraipandian is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Xavier School of Management, XLRI Jamshedpur, India. He teaches research methods, consumer behavior, and marketing research for the postgraduate and doctoral program students in management. He has authored/co-authored the following books: Data Analysis in Business Research (Sage: New Delhi, 2008) and Marketing Research: A South Asian Perspective (Cengage: New Delhi, 2009). He has presented papers in the national/international conferences. His research works are published/accepted in International Journal of Mobile Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing and The Learning Organization among others.

Dhruv Sethi

Dhruv Sethi is a Senior Associate, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), New Delhi, India. His research interests include celebrity endorsement, social media, and other aspects of marketing communications.