RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Impact of Celebrity–Product Incongruence on the Effectiveness of Product Endorsement
JF Journal of Advertising Research
JO J Advert Res
FD WARC
SP 433
OP 449
DO 10.2501/S0021849908080446
VO 48
IS 3
A1 Lee, Jung-Gyo
A1 Thorson, Esther
YR 2008
UL http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/48/3/433.abstract
AB 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.