Measuring the influence of the incongruence between product and celebrity endorsement on customer purchase intention: An Applied study on Fast Moving Consumers' Goods

Abstract

The use of celebrity in advertising is one of many brands' topical strategies. According to (McCracken 1989), using a well-known endorser will increase the consumer’s buying behavior. The good celebrity/product fit can do wonders for the company, and if not, the company may be in undesired conditions. In this paper we will discuss the influence of the celebrity/product mismatch on the customer perception. The previous literature on celebrity endorsements shows that if there is a match-up between the celebrity and the brand, advertising effectiveness is enhanced. On contrary, another studies illustrated that selecting an endorser with a less match with the brand might be more useful for established brands. Load of literature indicate that brand-incongruous celebrities support longer ad viewing times, greater brand attitudes, and greater buying intentions. Building on the schema congruity, this study shows that choosing a brand-incongruous endorser increases the purchase intention. In this study, six types of fictional ads were randomly distributed to the participants, one for each participant. They were asked to view just one ad. in which an athlete endorses a product and then complete the questionnaire on hand. All the pairings were fictive, but real brands and real celebrities were used to increase the ecological validity of this study. To assess the overall fit between brand and celebrity, 2 x 3 (2 celebrities x 3 incongruence levels). 1. Research problem The pilot study and the research background show that the celebrity-product mismatch differently influence the consumer purchase intention. Therefore, there is an ambiguity for the influence of the three different levels of incongruence (extreme incongruence- moderate match- extreme congruence) on the purchase intention.