The impact of on-package celebrities endorsement: a comparison between national brands and private labels
(A2019-10109)

AUTHORS

Rita Coelho do Vale, Catolica Lisbon- School of Business and Economics; Pedro Verga Matos, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa

KEYWORDS

Celebrity - Product Congruency ; Brand Familiarity ; Private-Labels

ABSTRACT

This research analyzes the impact of having on-package celebrities endorsement, testing simultaneously for two moderating factors - consumer brand familiarity and celebrity-product congruency. We test this effect on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention, across both national brands (NB) and private labels (PL). Since brand familiarity may breed contempt, we propose that the effect of celebrity endorsement will be higher for low familiar vs high familiar brands. We also propose that this effect will be enhanced the higher the level of congruency between the celebrity and the product category. Our hypotheses were tested across three experimental studies. Findings suggest that for NBs the effect of congruency between celebrity and product categories may be mitigated when consumers are highly familiar with the brand. Opposite results were found when celebrities are endorsing PLs, with findings suggesting a mitigation of product-celebrities congruency effects for low retailer’s brand familiarity.