Indonesia Conference Directory

INTRODUCTION Celebrity endorsement is the practice of using artists or popular persons to become a spokesperson or an icon of brands that are advertised through various available media. The use of celebrity in advertisement has been a common marketing practice worldwide when celebrities support the advertised brands (Shimp, 2003; 2008). Various studies have been done to investigate the effects of such endorsement, including the effects on brand awareness, brand attitude and purchase intention. However, there is still limited research accomplished to reveal the fundamental and factual depiction of the effect such phenomena of celebrity endorsement in advertisements. Further, there has not been rich research investigating how the celebrity endorsers suit the advertised brands (celebrity match-up). The objective of the current research is threefold. First, exploring the most recalled endorsed-advertisements. Second, investigating the evaluative measures of endorsed advertisement such as ad recall, brand attitude, attitude toward celebrity endorser, and celebrity match-up. Third, exploring the interplay relationships among important concepts within the topic of celebrity endorsement that include the effects of attitude toward celebrity, celebrity match-up, attitude toward the advertisement, brand attitude and purchase intention (Menon, Boone and Rogers, 2001; Holmes and Strutton, 2008; Till and Busler 2013). METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS A mixed method of qualitative and quantitative procedures is conducted in three consecutive studies. Study 1 involves interviewing 80 subjects to explore and collect the most recalled recent advertisements that involve celebrities as the endorsers in Indonesian advertisement practices. The result is the list of 22 most recalled advertisements that in turn will be used as the basis for the next study. Study 2 entails an online survey to gain responses from 329 respondents. The result of this study is to acquire descriptive effect evaluations of the use of celebrity endorsers in the advertisements. In this study, table showing sorted frequencies is presented and accordingly we have the results of which advertisements, celebrities and brands with highest recall, highest attitude and highest celebrity match-up level. Means of the audience evaluation of the measured concepts (such as the level of celebrity attitude, advertising attitude, celebrity match-up and brand attitude) are then presented. Using the same data set, Study 3 investigates the interplay relationships among the explored concepts. All scales to measure the related concepts are adopted from the extant literature after assuring the reliabilities and validities of each measurement. Non-parametric procedures using Kruskall Wallis are performed to test most of the relationships since the classical assumptions are violated. Results show that all explored relationships are significant. More findings and implications are then discussed.