Celebrities as Product Endorsers in a National and International Context.

Celebrity endorsement is a widespread communication strategy. In an age of ad clutter and the decreasing effectiveness of advertising in general, it enables companies to attract more attention towards their products, and image transfer ultimately creates a positive effect on sales. However, celebrity endorsements incur considerable costs, and the budgets for reimbursing top celebrities often lie in the region of several million euros. This research investigates the circumstances under which advertising campaigns using less expensive celebrities might also be successful. The basic idea behind the approach proposes that when promoting a national brand, a national celebrity might be a promising option. Theoretical support for this idea comes from the concept of psychological distance intensified by ethnocentrism. Two dimensions of psychological distance are deemed relevant here: the spatial distance (homeland vs foreign country) and the social distance (consumers might feel psychologically closer to individuals, i.e. celebrities, who are similar to them in some ways, i.e. a shared cultural heritage). Such proximity might be effective in particular for national brands. The paper reports results from a comprehensive empirical study conducted in two different European countries and adopts a real-world advertising campaign (with an international celebrity endorsing an international brand) to investigate the proposed alternatives (i.e. an international celebrity endorsing a national brand; a national celebrity endorsing an international or a national brand). As the main takeaways, empirical evidence in terms of the perceived fit between brand and celebrity and attitude towards the ad provides a first support for the benefits of pairing a national brand with a national celebrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]