european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
The empirical finding regarding measuring consumer response to celebrity endorsements in
advertisement shows that celebrity makes advertisements more believable (Kamins et al., 1989) it also
enhance message recall (Friedman and Friedman, 1979), create a positive attitude toward the brand
(Kamins et al., 1989) and celebrity endorsements are believed to generate more positive response
toward choosing the endorsed brand/product (Freiden, 1984, Kahle and Homer, 1985, Ohanian; 1991,
Kamins et at., 1989, Atkin and Block, 1983).
Empirical evidence regarding how consumer reacts to multiple celebrities in a single
advertisement is scant, leaving a gap in an important research area. In advertising practices it is
common to note that certain products or brands uses same celebrity for long period of time while some
times marketers relay on multiple celebrities in an advertising campaign (Hus and McDonald, 2002).
Literature Review
According to the attribution theory by Kelly 1967, the significance and importance to an event is
assigned by the people on the bases of two type of behavior either their own behavior or the behavior
of others. When we talk about with the reference to the celebrity advertising there are two types of
attributes, the internal attribution in which consumer believes that the endorser recommend the product
due to the good characteristics of the product, or the external attribution in which the consumer
believes that the endorser is recommending the product because they are paid for it (Hus & McDonald,
2002). The attribution theory suggests that the small fee paid to endorser has an impact on the
consumer perception (Silvera & Austad, 2004). But the empirical evidence regarding this suggests that
the celebrities are effective endorsers as they are trustworthy, reliable, credible, effective and likable
endorsers (e.g Freiden, 1984, Ohanion 1991). The consumers also believe that the celebrities like the
product which they endorse regardless of the high fees they charge for it.
Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann (1983) have proposed the Elaboration Likelihood theory in
which they have discussed the two process model of response to the advertising stimuli. In this model
they have discussed two conditions, the first condition for the high involvement products under this
condition attitude change travels through central route, in which evaluation is on the bases of the
quality of the argument. The second condition is for the low involvement products under this condition
attitude change travels through a peripheral route, in which simple cues, objects or celebrity play
important role in the evaluation process. The results of this research supported this theory, as for the
low involvement products celebrities in an ad plays more important role to effect consumer perception
compare to the argument in the ad. Similarly for high involvement products celebrities are not as
important as the argument in the ad which can influence the consumer attitudes. Chaiken (1980) has
given a similar theory.
The social adaptation theory (Kahle, 1984; Kahle & Timmer, 1983; Kahle & Homer, 1985)
implies that the importance of the information will determine its impact on the consumer attitudes. For
example if we take print media ad as stimulus and the ad is for the low involvement product the viewer
will glance at the ad for a second or two and than moves to the next page or source so the information
form that source in that second or two will have an impact in the consumer mind, which may include
only the name of the product or the endorser or the graphic. Similarly for the high involvement product
advertisement the consumer may spend a considerable amount of time reading the copy; the argument
in that copy strong or weak plays an important role (Kahle & Homer, 1985).
The difference in Elaboration Likelihood theory and Social Adaptation theory is that in EL
theory the information scanning is the same way for the both high and low involvement products
however in SA theory the information process end very quickly for the low involvement products.
(Khale & Homer, 1985). Both theories have more points on which they agree than the points on which
they disagree, both agree that information or the argument is important for the high involvement
product decisions, both agree that the information scanning is different for high and low involvement
products (ibid).
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