Marketers are interested in attracting more consumers and stimulating the target audience’s positive reactions toward the definite brand. That is why marketers use all the methods to form the customers’ purchasing behaviour. The usage of celebrities in product marketing is discussed as one of the most effective ways to contribute to increasing the consumers’ interest in the brand. From this point, it is significant to analyse the peculiarities of using sporting celebrities as endorsers in advertisements and the effects of these endorsements on the customer’s purchasing intentions and on the brand’s progress. The currency of the question and the necessity of the discussion depending on the range of endorsements on the screens and in magazines and on the popularity of this type of advertisements with the public. To answer the question about the impact of using a sporting celebrity in product marketing on the corporate brand, it is necessary to focus on examining the researchers’ investigations in the field. The researches on celebrity endorsements and sport celebrity advertisements were chosen for examining the aspects of the question.
The usage of celebrities in product marketing can be discussed as effective for stimulating the brand performance and image because celebrity endorsers attract the customers’ attention to the advertisement and help to distinguish it among the others, increasing the communicative ability. However, the result of using an endorser can be opposite when this celebrity endorses many different products (Erdogan, Baker, & Tagg, 2001). The positive results of using sporting celebrities as endorsers for the definite product, service and corporate brand are based on the effective choice of a celebrity for promoting the product which is realised according to certain criteria.
The Usage of Sport Celebrities in Product Marketing: The Problematic Questions of the Century’s Beginning
The first researches in the field of customers’ attitude to brands in its connection with celebrity endorsers were focused on the most general questions in order to investigate the effectiveness of using celebrities, including sport celebrities, in promoting definite products and brands. The most important issues were associated with the problem of choosing a celebrity who could contribute to product marketing and with the question of determining the criteria according to which it could be possible to choose the endorser effectively. Till and Busler compared the importance of such criteria as the celebrity’s attractiveness and expertise. The researchers concluded that the factor of attractiveness was not as significant as the factor of expertise. Moreover, the authors stated that it was rather appropriate to use athlete endorsers to promote products associated with such notion as ‘energy’ and ‘power’ because of the customers’ developed associations (Till & Busler, 2000).
The issue of endorsers’ expertise is closely connected with the question of their credibility. Goldsmith, Lafferty, and Newell studied celebrities’ credibility in its correlation with corporate credibility and the impact of these factors on customers’ purchasing intentions (Goldsmith, Lafferty, & Newell, 2000). To achieve the high results in promoting products, it is necessary to support the corporate credibility with the endorsers’ credibility and expertise in order to stimulate the increase of the customers’ interest in a product or service. The results of Fink, Cunningham, and Kensicki’s research developed the idea that the factor of celebrities’ expertise and credibility is more significant than the endorsers’ attractiveness. The researchers’ discussion was based on the study concerning the effectiveness of using sport celebrities for selling tickets to the sport events (Fink, Cunningham, & Kensicki, 2004). It is possible to conclude that the target audience is more interested in a definite product or a brand when the sport celebrities used for advertising are real experts in their field. Their attractiveness cannot be discussed as the key factor for choosing them to promote the product effectively.
Furthermore, to use sport celebrities effectively in advertising the products, it is necessary for a brand to concentrate on the correlation between the celebrity’s attractiveness for consumers and the brand’s performance. Using Keller’s model of brand equity, Gladden & Funk examine the process with references to athletes’ successes and brand associations. Thus, to provide effective product marketing, it is important to pay attention to the athletes’ status, their sport successes, and the popularity of the image (Gladden & Funk, 2002).
To have the opportunity to control all the market alternations and changes in the customers’ attitude to brands, the researchers also concentrated on examining all the categories of customers, paying attention to gender and age differences. Thus, Boyd and Shank investigated the correlation between the gender of sport celebrities and consumers. It was found that there was a direct connection between the endorser’s gender and the gender of the potential consumers. Thus, women are inclined to purchase the products endorsed by female athletes, and men are more interested in products when they are advertised by male athletes (Boyd & Shank, 2004). The effectiveness of positively influencing the corporate brand depends on this correlation with references to the notions of credibility and congruence. The factor of age is also important. Alan Bush, Craig Martin, and Victoria Bush focused on investigating the peculiarities of teenagers’ attitudes to sport celebrity endorsements. Teenagers are the significant category of the target audience in relation to the products associated with the sport activities. In this case, the usage of sport celebrities is effective for increasing the brand image among teenagers when popular and successful athletes are chosen as endorsers (Bush, Martin, & Bush, 2004).
Nowadays, sport celebrities are used to endorse all the kinds of products and service in spite of their relation to sport activities or sport equipment. That is why it is necessary to examine the effectiveness of using athletes in product marketing. Stone, Joseph, and Jones examined the effectiveness of using sport celebrities in advertising and concluded that the choice of athletes, as well as the other celebrities, depended on their credibility and star status (Stone, Joseph, & Jones, 2003). However, the effects of using athletes in advertisements are higher when they endorse products associated with the sport activities. Advertisements with sport celebrities can influence the customers’ purchasing behaviour and contribute to increasing the popularity of the brand. Thus, the researches of the first part of the century were connected with questions of the endorsers and brands’ credibility, celebrities’ attractiveness and expertise, the dependence between age, gender and the choice of athletes for endorsements.
The Contemporary Tendencies in Using Sport Celebrities for Endorsing Products and Services
Having discussed the general aspects of the process of using sport celebrities in product marketing and the impact on the corporate brands’ performance and image, the researchers began to develop the details of the issue. According to the previous studies, the effectiveness of using celebrities in advertising depends on a range of criteria such as celebrities’ expertise, credibility, and attractiveness. However, it is necessary to pay attention to the difference between using any celebrity and a sport celebrity for product promotion. Charbonneau and Garland presented the results of the research according to which the consumers’ interest in products and brands increased with references to the image of a celebrity. From this point, successful athletes are good choices for endorsing definite products and attracting the target audience because of the associations with the success, high sport results, achievements, and status of a ‘star’ (Charbonneau & Garland, 2005a).
The researchers developed their hypothesis in the following investigation in which they focused on criteria for marketers’ choice of a celebrity in detail. Thus, such aspects as the brand’s needs and components of the strategy, the expectations of the brand marketers and customers, the peculiarities of the target audience were determined because of their significance for successful product promoting (Charbonneau & Garland, 2005b). Marketers of corporate brands choose the athlete celebrities with references to their fit to the brand’s needs, and the factor of negative publicity is one of the most influential for affecting the image of a brand which uses this or that athlete in product marketing.
Today, the role of celebrity endorsers’ attractiveness, expertise, and credibility in product marketing and positively affecting the brand is studied with references to such notions as congruence and match. To promote the product or service effectively, marketers were inclined to concentrate on the sport celebrity image and credibility. However, the results of the researches supported the fact that the concept of congruence or match between the sport celebrity and the product endorsed is more significant for affecting the consumers’ purchasing intentions and attitude to the brand. In spite of the fact Costanzo and Goodnight state that there is no direct correlation between the match of celebrity endorser and the endorsed brand and the consumers’ purchasing behaviour, the further investigations in the field emphasise the importance of this component (Costanzo & Goodnight, 2005). The findings of Kim and Na can be used for accentuating the idea that to attract the potential consumer, it is necessary to guarantee the congruent fit between the sporting celebrity and the product or service presented (Kim & Na, 2007).
Moreover, the congruent pairing of an athlete endorser and the product promoted is the necessary condition for positively influencing the corporate brand (Simmers, Damron-Martinez, & Haytko, 2009). Consumers pay attention to the character of products endorsed by athletes, and they are inclined to search for a match or congruent fit between the endorser and a brand in order to support their vision of credibility. From this point, the use of athletes as endorsers is more effective for promoting sport brands with references to the generally high level of advertisements’ effectiveness in which celebrities endorse definite products or brands (Koernig & Boyd, 2009). Furthermore, it is important to pay attention to the image of the sport celebrity used because ‘heroic’ athletes can be discussed as the most successful choice for attracting consumers to the brand, for forming their purchasing intentions and affecting the brand image (Shuart, 2007). Advertisements with celebrity endorsers are more popular with the public and oriented to attracting the target audience. If Boyd and Shank concentrated on the effects of male and female endorsements on the consumers according to their gender, Premeaux developed the investigation with references to the fact of frequency of positive reactions to the brand, depending on the consumers’ gender. Thus, men are more interested in the advertisements which present celebrities as endorsers, and they discuss these advertisements as more credible (Premeaux, 2005).
In their research, Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer, and Exler discuss such an important question as the correlation between the brand image and fan loyalty. The authors pay attention to Keller’s model of the brand equity which is discussed as the basis for the brand-image model (Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer, & Exler, 2008). Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer, and Exler’s conclusions can be compared with Gladden and Funk’s results of the investigation based on Keller’s model. Thus, the concept of fan loyalty is significant for effective product marketing because fans are inclined to match their favourite sport figures with the products they endorse, and this focus on the celebrities’ choice contributes to the high brand performance.
The Issues for the Further Investigations
According to the contemporary trends in investigating the question of the correlation between the usage of sport celebrities in product marketing and the process’s effects on the brand, the main issues associated with the problems of sport celebrities’ endorsements are credibility or expertise and congruence. That is why, one of the most controversial questions of effective promoting products with the help of using athlete endorsers is the problem of the celebrities’ usage of a product or service in the real life and the athlete’s interest in it. This question requires its further investigation because it is associated not only with the issue of congruence but also with the influential factor of the sport celebrities’ credibility and the aspect of liability.
In their research, Silvera and Austad state that the factor of celebrities’ credibility and their active usage of the endorsed product can be discussed as the factor which predicts the effectiveness of using endorser in advertisements (Silvera & Austad, 2004). Thus, customers are interested in celebrities’ liking the product they endorse, and this aspect can guarantee the positive effect on the definite corporate brand because of influencing the consumers’ purchasing behaviour. Moorman pays attention to the fact that this question was opened because of the effects of scandals in relation to breaking the principles of liability and celebrities’ not following the points of the contracts according to which they should promote the product (Moorman, 2006). Corporate brands are affected negatively when athlete celebrities do not use the products they endorse or they are observed while using the other brands.
Moreover, today it is rather difficult to guarantee that a popular athlete will be interested in endorsing and promoting only one product. Thus, the marketers are inclined to attract the most successful athletes in order to promote their products. The positive results for a brand depend on the image of a sport celebrity and the factor of the congruent fit. This aspect explains the situation of using a lot of sport celebrity endorsers in promoting different sport products. Nevertheless, the image of successful athletes can be effectively used in product marketing which is not directly connected with the field of sport. This fact provokes the situation when one athlete is associated with promoting a lot of different products which can be connected or not with the sphere of sport. From this point, sport brands can gain more benefits from using an athlete in product marketing than those corporate brands which develop within other market sectors.
In his research, Bailey proposed the discussion of such a factor as scepticism in analysing the impacts of celebrity endorsements on the target audience. The study was based on examining the reactions of the young generation of consumers. However, the results are interesting from the point of such an aspect as the image of a celebrity. It is important to note that the range of the consumers’ reactions to the product promoted can be various, depending on the peculiarities of the celebrity’s image, his or her associations with scandals and provocative situations (Bailey, 2007). This question requires its further discussion in detail and contributes to revealing more factors which are connected with the positive impact of sport celebrity endorsements on the corporate brand.
Conclusion
The main idea of the discussed researches is to determine those criteria which can be considered as the most important for choosing a celebrity or athlete effectively and promote the product with a lot of benefits. It was supported by the investigations’ findings that the factor of celebrities’ attractiveness is rather insignificant for choosing the endorser because the endorser’s attractiveness is the general requirement for all the advertisements. The sport celebrities’ credibility and expertise are more significant for attracting more consumers and forming their purchasing behaviour. Moreover, these factors influence the development of the corporate brand positively, contributing to forming its image.
Nevertheless, the aspects of sport celebrities’ attractiveness, credibility, and expertise are not as influential as the factor of congruence. It was stated that in spite of their age category consumers pay attention to the match between the celebrity endorser and the promoted product or service. Thus, it is more effective for sport brands to invite sport celebrities to endorse the product or service. Moreover, it is also necessary to focus on the question of gender because consumers are inclined to react to the advertisements with the endorsers with references to their gender. The problem which requires its further investigation is the impact of celebrities’ personal image on product marketing and brands.
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