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

TLDR

This study pioneers the examination of three personality congruence pairs—celebrity–brand, brand–user, and celebrity–user—in celebrity endorsement, extending McCracken’s Meaning Transfer Model and the Hierarchy‑of‑Effects framework. The authors test a conceptual framework that compares the relative effectiveness of these congruence pairs on brand attitude and purchase intention. Data were collected via an online survey of 431 Indian consumers and analyzed with regression and mediation techniques. Results show that user–brand and brand–celebrity congruence significantly influence brand attitude and purchase intention, while celebrity–user congruence does not, with brand attitude partially mediating the effect on 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].