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DETERMINING ADVERTISEMENTS EFFICIENCY: CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT VERSUS NON-CELEBRITY MODELS

Behnam Forouhandeh Hadi Nejatian Kulandayan Ramanathan Behrad Forouhandeh

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study and compare the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements versus non-celebrity endorsements based on both advertising models and celebrity endorsement models. This research provides great amount of evidences to retailers based upon the celebrity endorsement models and its comparison with non celebrity endorsement models to encourage them to employ celebrity endorsements strategy in their ads rather than other endorsement strategy like non celebrity endorsement. Moreover, the findings will be based on using some adverting models such as AIDA which presents profound knowledge inside the customers mind in which is established upon the celebrity endorsement models. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical conceptual review and analysis focuses on adverting models, comparison of celebrity endorsement strategies against non celebrity endorsement strategies. The analysis is discussed and applied to the celebrity endorsement adoption strategy based on commercial efficiency. Findings The paper argues that in order to successfully communicate with the audience, retailers and advertisers need to increase the efficiency of their advertisements via adoption of the celebrity endorsement strategy rather than a non celebrity endorsement strategy.

Research limitations/implications this research work is a conceptual study and the proposed method of advertisement suggested based on the other scholars research work. Therefore,

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further research with detailed empirical analysis from various contexts is necessary to further improve the usefulness of the proposed research work.

Originality/value This paper introduces a new way for adopting an advertisement strategy from a new perspective. This research work should be a useful approach for both academic researcher and practitioners.

Keywords: Advertising, Celebrities, Attitude, Endorsement

Paper type Conceptual paper

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1.

Introduction:

One of the most significant matters which are being considered by firms and enterprises especially the multinational corporations is grasping how consumers all around the globe make a response to global marketing activities (Ferle & Choi, 2005). In a manner that corresponds with truth, there are plenty of tensions and pressures that impose on the advertisers for achieving to the firms financial objectives (Ferle & Choi, 2005). Paying attention to the financial attainment point by advertisers plays a significant role via constructing the international brands that consumers can recognize based on the global scale (Ferle & Choi, 2005). Consequently, by appearance of the mass media and internet, advertisers tried to take such an advantage to use different strategies such as endorsement advertisement to promote and enhance brands equity (Lin, 1993, La Ferla, 2001). Based on the Liu, Huang and Minghua research work (2007), one of the most effective ways of advertising is using an endorser to promote a brand. Scientific works and investigations reveal that a prominent endorser strategy can assist the customers to recall both product and brand (Friedman & Friedman, 1979). In addition to the above statement, not only it has constructive influence in terms of consumers apprehension toward the accredited brand but also, it would doubtlessly have plenty of impacts on customers attitude toward another brands product (Kamins, 1989; Petty & Schumann, 1983). Moreover, this type of advertisement strategy has lots of positive effects on customer buying behavior and preference toward the endorsed brand (Bower & Landreth, 2001; Kamins, 1989; Lafferty, Goldsmith & Newell, 2002). In accordance with Liu, Huang and Minghua (2007), endorsers composed of four types as follow: celebrity, CEO, expert and typical consumer. All of the stated characters as the endorsers are sound reasoning to consumers based on their own ways such as product type and involvement (Freiden, 1984; Petty et al., 1983). Presently, endorsement of celebrities in advertisement has become one of the most influential ways of merchandise advertisement. Looking quickly through the TV ads, online programs and some of the online social networks advertisements like facebook; consumers will encounter plenty of endorsed advertisements ranging from celebrities to experts and typical consumers.
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Tyra Banks for retailer Victorias Secret to Garth Brooks for Wal-Mart and LeAnn Rimes for JC Penny to Trading Spaces Paige Davis for Home Depot are some of the examples (White, Goddard & Wilbur, 2009). In an approximate manner, 25 percent of the mass media commercials contain some of the most well-known endorsers that advertise some brands (Erdogan, Baker & Tagg, 2001). Statistically speaking, ten parts in every hundred of the firms and enterprises budget are being employed as the payment to the celebrity endorsers (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995). To sum it up, firms and enterprise that located in USA spent large amount of their financial resources, about two to three billion dollars on celebrity advertising (White, Goddard & Wilbur, 2009).

2. How Advertising Works: Models of advertising Marketing mix includes of four components as below: product, place, price and promotion that the last one contains variety of methods to reach to the present and future customers (Glowa, 2002). Statistic reveals that an American family turn on the television for six hours a day that it pictures 30,000 TV advertisements in a year (Ogilvy, 1985). Thus, this point indicates that an advertisement is an important tool since it is the primary communication tool that retailers have with their potential customer (Witt, 1999). Glowa believes that commercial program works since they try to create an effectual demand and desire in the audience mind by watching, reading or listening to them. One of the critical factors that lead a retailer to be successful in marketing campaign is finding out about the psychology of the buyers as Gary Austin Witt (1999, p. 3) mentioned in his book as follow: If you dont capture the buyers mind, you wont capture his or her money. In this essence, the effectiveness concept in advertisement stems from the liaison that exists between brand and customer in terms of awareness, intention and so on. In this regard, majority of the promoters perpetually make an effort to explain and model how commercial advertisement works and in order to reach to their target they strive to select the meaningful communication objectives (Bovee, Courtland, Thill, Dovel & Wood, 1995).

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In the era of the intensity rivalry, a good commercial campaign cant make a low quality level product successful however; a poor advertising campaign can ruin a high quality product (Witt, 1999). The models that presented below shows the learning process that needs to be taken by consumers via some sequential and non sequential manner to come to the purchasing process. AIDA hierarchical model and learn-feel-do model show how advertisement grab customers attention at the first stage and lead him or her to the last stage which is purchasing intention. For example, in the learn-feel-do model, at the initial step customer learns from the commercial and at the next step there would be some feelings that would be create in the customer mind as a question and at the final stage customer tries to take some actions such as purchasing intention (Bovee et al., 1995). There is also another influential model named as AIDA that in an original manner known as DAGMAR, an acronym for Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Results by Colley (1984). This model was constructed around four levels of communication that results as follow: awareness, comprehension, conviction, and action (Glowa, 2002). This model also used in the hypermedia with different procession name as below: Attention or Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action (Kleindl, 2003). The AIDA procedure shows that at the initial level the attention of the target receiver should be gained, in the next step the interest that created in goods or services, desire generated and ultimately some action taken from the targeted consumer (Kleindl, 2003). Figure 1: AIDA hierarchical model Hansen, Source: Glowa, 2002

Awareness

Interest

Desire

Action

The AIDA procedure is based upon the attitude models that means the consumer initially think about an object (cognition), then expand his or her feelings (affect) and eventually become involved in some form of behavior (conation) (Li & Leckenby, 2004). Meanwhile, there have been plenty of models that proposed by different researchers to modify the old models. To
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exemplify, Robertson (1971), tried to alter the learn-feel-do sequential model to the hierarchy of effects class of models, increasing its flexibility and identifying the learning factor as a significant point. This model proposes that consumers have the capability to acquire knowledge from their former experience and shift from the first level which is awareness to the last pattern which is named as the purchasing behavior.

Figure 2: non-standard sequences Robertsons model, source: Robertson, T. S. (1971)

Awareness

Interest

Desire

Action

As far as stated by Mehta and Fitzwilson (2001), the group of people who find the advertisement more favorable based on their attitude will have more recall of that specific brand. As a result, some of the ads have direct influence on the customers that lead them to take purchasing action while some of the advertisement influence indirectly on customers purchase intention through attitude toward brand and brand recall (Mehta & Fitzwilson, 2001) Studies and researches show that there is a strong positive relationship between attitudes toward brand that accordingly will influence on the customer purchasing intention (Batra & Ray, 1986). Advertisement efficiency mostly rely on the consumers interest in advertisement as well as their attitude toward ads itself (Mehta & Fitzwilson, 2001) As a result, All the above models show the process of advertisement influence on customers from first level till last one which is named as taking action or purchasing intention. However, these models can be start at any point by the consumers as stated earlier.
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3. Celebrity Endorser versus Non-Celebrity Endorsers in terms of Advertisement efficiency Day after day, customers are obliged to deal with plenty of commercials and advertising messages. Historically speaking, in the late of 1980s, 20 percent of the TV advertisement in USA were celebrity endorsement based (Motavalli, 1988). However, this number changed from 20 percent to 25 percent by 1997 (Shimp, 1997). Retailers applying advertisement strategy due to some reasons such as: conveying their message to the consumers and touching their emotions via their impressing message (Yeshin, Yoo & Kim, 2005). Studies conducted by Misra and Beatty (1990) reveals that the advertisement congruity and congruity of the celebrity that employed in that commercial programs with the product will have significant effect on recall power of customers toward both brand and product. There are different attitudes that can be shaped toward an advertisement. Some of the feelings in this regard can be named as liking it or being satisfied by it. Theoretically speaking, the more an advertisement being liked, the more acceptive the patron is to the sales message it holds within (Petrovici & Marinov, 2007). Its up to the retailers to choose either a celebrity or a created presenter as the indicator of their products (Tom et al, 1992). Celebrity endorser has plenty of advantages that a non celebrity character doesnt have. For example, celebrity endorsers have the ability to create lots of constructive attitudes regarding to the commercial and superior purchasing tendency that typical endorser do not have (Atkin & Block, 1983). Moreover, celebrities have profound influence on the profitability of the endorsed goods. For instance, the first year of contract between Michael Jackson and Pepsi Co increased Pepsi Co sales for 1 percent that stands for millions of dollars (Gabor, Jeannye & Wienner, 1987). Marketers try to apply celebrities in their commercials since they believe employment of celebrities will assist customers to recall that endorsed brand in the purchasing situation
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(Ranjbarian, Shekarchizade & Momeni, 2010). Employing celebrities in advertisement will create the chance and opportunity to have plenty of positive impacts on customers attitude and their buying intentions as well (Ranjbarian et al, 2010). Thus, established upon the Erdogan research work (1999), celebrity endorsed products are more influential than the non celebrity endorsed goods regarding to some aspects such as increasing attitudes towards advertising and endorsed brand, strengthening customers intentions to buy, and so on. Furthermore, there are some other advantages that celebrity endorsement delivers to the retailers. To exemplify, Celebrity has the power to heighten the believability of the commercials (Kamins, Brand, Hoeke & Moe, 1989). Moreover, celebrity endorsement assist customers to remember brands message (Friedman & Friedman, 1979). In addition to the earlier statements, celebrity endorsement enhances the process of brand recognition for customers and will have constructive influence on the goods, especially the ones that have lesser purchasing involvement (Petty et al, 1983; Till, Haas & Priluck, 2006). All in all, celebrity endorsers have the potential to increase the possibility of customer to select the brand that was endorsed by them (Ohanian, 1991).

3.1 Models on Celebrity Endorsement Strategy: As a matter of fact, there are different models for selecting an endorser that describe the characteristics of an endorser from different perspective. Here are some of them that explained in brief in order to better understanding the marvelous role that a celebrity endorser can play while a non celebrity cannot. The models can be described as below: 1- Source Credibility Model and 2- Source Attractiveness Model

3.1.1 Source Credibility Model This model referred as the efficiency of an endorser mostly relies on some factors like expertism of the endorser as well as his or her trustworthiness level (Lafferty et al, 2002). As far as stated above, Source Credibility Model has two dimensions as follow: 1-Source expertise and 2-Source trustworthiness Source expertise is the extent to which a person is perceived as a source of valid
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assertion (Roozen, 2008). Sincerity, faithfulness and reliability of the source to the audience can be named as the Source trustworthiness (Khatri, 2006). In this model, all the information from a credible source like a celebrity will generate significant impact on attitudes, opinions and behavior by way of process called internalization (Belch & Belch, 1993). Internalization happens when receiver have a desire to take the source of effects regarding to his or her attitude and value since he or she believes that the celebrity has the capability to solve the problem (Erdogan, 1999). As far as presented above, this model will influence on different aspects of customers attitude such as his or her desire. Consequently it will increase the efficiency of the ads based on some models such as AIDA. Based on the AIDA model of advertising, the next level after Desire named as an Action. Thus, celebrity enhances this process by his or her tremendous influence over customer feeling that leads the patron to move from desire stage to the action one. Therefore, this is one of the qualities that can be found mostly in celebrities than non celebrities. So, based on this model, advertising models and the comparison of the celebrity endorsement versus typical speaker, we can conclude that celebrities are the best source of commercial adverting.

3.1.2 Source Attractiveness Model This concept can be defined as how the physically attractiveness, likeability and similarity of the endorser are related to the receiver that leads to the perceived social values of the sources (Solomon, 2002). Physical attractiveness of celebrity endorser contains some inherent and distinctive characteristics like having the power to attract, being delightful to look at, and appearing charming and elegant (Ranjbarian et al, 2010). These qualities will induce some positive attitudinal and behavioral reactions from consumers (Ohanian, 1991). Cohen and Golden defined a process that called as the identification which means, a celebrity endorser physical attractiveness demonstrates the efficiency of persuasive

communication. Based on this process, customers have great amount of tendency and desire to
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accept the information that coming from an attractive celebrity since they wanted to be identified with such a celebrity endorser. (Cohen & Golden, 1972). So, clients desire and feeling are affected due to qualities of the celebrities such as their beauties and charming looks. Established upon some advertising models like AIDA and CAB (Cognition, Affect and Behavior), celebrity attractiveness will have plenty of effects on audiences desire and feeling. As a result, celebrity attractiveness enhances this process by his or her marvelous influence over customer feeling that leads the client to shift from desire and feeling stage to the action one. Therefore, celebrities with some qualities such as attractiveness are better source for doing commercial ads than the non celebrities. Moreover, based on some advertising models like AIDA or Cognition, Affect and Behavior model (CAB), this attractiveness will have a constructive influence on the desire and feeling (affect) of the audience. However, there is not such an influence on the audience by non celebrity characters.

4. Conclusion and future research avenues: Based on this researchers observation in advertisement area, majority of the scholars paid plenty of attention to the endorsement effectiveness in either televisions or internet. However, lack of attention in applying the most efficient endorser based on the advertising models is one of the major problems. For instance, most of the advertisers prefer to choose typical consumer or non celebrity for their advertisement rather than celebrity due to some reasons such as financial burden or absence of their knowledge for selecting an appropriate endorser. A comparison between efficiency of celebrity and non-celebrity endorsed advertisements reveals that endorsed ads are more influential than non-celebrity endorsed ads (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995). In addition, advertisement effectiveness mostly depends on the consumers interest in advertisement as well as their attitude toward ads itself (Mehta & Fitzwilson, 2001). According to Erdogan (1999), celebrity endorsement has a significant effect in creating desirable result like attitudes towards advertising and endorsed brand, intentions to purchase, and in fact actual sales. Additionally, based upon some advertising models like AIDA and CAB, consumers initially think about an object (cognition), then expand their feelings (affect) and eventually become
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involved in some form of behavior (conation) (Li & Leckenby, 2004). Those people who find the commercial more favorable based on their attitude will have additional recall of that specific brand (Mehta & Fitzwilson, 2001). Customers have plenty of desires to take the source of effects which is a celebrity, based upon his or her attitude in order to solve their issue (Erdogan, 1999). Therefore, we can find an attuned relationship between celebrity endorsement and some models of advertisement such as AIDA and CAB. However, in a converse manner there is no compatibility between non celebrity endorsement and advertisement models due to their lack of influence on customers attitude and desire. Thus, Celebrities are better source for advertisement than non celebrities due to their influential power on desire and feeling (affect) of the audience. All in all, the aim of this research is to provide plenty of proofs and evidences to encourage retailers and advertisers to employ celebrity endorsements strategy in their ads rather than non celebrity endorsement. Generally speaking, there is no perfect research as academic investigation. Further research with detailed quantitative proofs from various contexts would improve the usefulness of the proposed research work.

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