The Impact of Celebrity–Product Incongruence on the Effectiveness of Product Endorsement

ABSTRACT

The present study examines how different degrees of celebrity–product incongruence influence the persuasiveness of celebrity endorsement. Schema-congruity framework provides the theoretical basis for suggesting that a moderate mismatch between a celebrity's image and a product's image would produce more favorable responses to advertisements than either a complete match or an extreme mismatch. This study also looks at how consumer characteristics, namely an individual's own levels of enduring involvement with a product category, moderate schema congruity effects. Two experiments were conducted to test these issues using two types of match-up factors: physical attractiveness and expertise of a celebrity endorser. The results show that celebrity endorsements are evaluated more favorably in terms of purchase intention when there is a moderate mismatch than when there is either a complete match or an extreme mismatch. Such effects are found to be more pronounced among participants with higher product involvement than those with lower product involvement.