Matching-up celebrities’ brands with products and social causes
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-03-2017-1439 |
| Published date | 11 March 2019 |
| Pages | 242-255 |
| Date | 11 March 2019 |
| Author | Ana Luisa Santos,Filipa Barros,António Azevedo |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Matching-up celebrities’brands with products
and social causes
Ana Luisa Santos, Filipa Barros and Ant
onio Azevedo
Department of Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Abstract
Purpose –Beyond traditional brand endorsement, many celebrities have in recent years decided to launch their own product lines, which may be
used to promote their own celebrity brand. Which product categories or social causes match a celebrity’s brand personality? This study aims to
investigate the antecedents of celebrity–product degree of fit and willingness to pay (WTP)/make a donation in diff erent scenarios. The manipulation
of the scenarios aims to capture the role of celebrity attributes, perceived personality profiles, product involvement and acceptance of social causes.
Design/methodology/approach –In total, 335 respondents answered an online questionnaire with a factorial plan corresponding to 20 different
matching scenarios: five celebrities/perceived personalities (Emma Watson, Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Natalie Portman and Scarlet
Johansson) four types of branding scenarios (a lipstick for low involvement; a watch for high involvement; an eco-foundation for “high social
acceptance”and vodka for “low social acceptance/controversial”).
Findings –Scarlett Johansson obtained the highest degree of fit, both for launching her own brand of lipstick or a watch. Kim Kardashian had the
best degree of fit for launching her own vodka brand, while Emma Watson’s attributes confirmed that she would be seen as the ideal founder of an
eco-foundation. Significant predictors of WTP/make a donation were assessed by multiple linear regression for each type of product.
Practical implications –The paper provides recommendations that may help guide celebrity brand managers through the celebrity–product
matching process.
Social implications –Celebrity branding in relation to social causes is also discussed in this paper.
Originality/value –This study explores a gap found in the literature as it explores the product match-up hypotheses within a celebrity branding
context and moreover extends this investigation to social causes and products with different degrees of involvement and social accep tance.
Keywords Celebrity branding, Celebrity product match-up, Perceived degree of fit, Big five personality scale, Social causes, Emma Watson,
Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Natalie Portman, Scarlet Johansson
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In 1998, Leonardo DiCaprio created a foundation that carries
his name the “Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation”, with the
mission of protecting the world’s last wild places. Imagine a
scenario in which Emma Watson, nominated in 2014 as a
United Nations (UN) female goodwill ambassador, decided to
launch her own non-governmental organisation (NGO),
“Emma NGO”, to support any type of social cause. How
would the general public receive this news and how much
might they be willing to give (if anything) as a donation to this
NGO? Alternatively, imagine that Emma Watson announces
that she is going to launch a new brand of vodka called Emma.
Would consumers think that this product category fits with
Emma Watson’s perceived personality or her celebrity brand
positioning?
The casting process, which occurs in traditional celebrity
endorsement, has been widely explored in the literature (Choi
et al.,2005;Erdogan, 1999;Erdogan et al.,2001;Knoll and
Matthes, 2017;Silvera and Austad, 2004). Several theories have
been developed which aim to understand the psychological
relationships between the four entities involved (brand, product
category, endorser and consumer/user), using concepts such as
“match-up”,“degree of fit”,“identification”,“appropriateness”,
“similarity”or “congruence”interchangeably.
For example, the product match-up hypothesis, investigated
by Kamins (1990) and Kamins et al. (1989) maintains that
messages conveyed by a celebrity’s image and the product
message should be congruent for effective advertising.
According to Erdogan (1999, p. 302), the “determinant of the
match between celebrity and brand depends on the degree of
perceived ‘fit’between brand (brand name, attributes) and
celebrity image”.
Moreover, within the marketing and advertising industries,
this topic is also popular among practitioners and several
consultancy services help brands choose their best endorser
(Erdogan et al.,2001). For example, E-Poll Market Research
suggests the E-ScoreCelebrity Index (Gergaud and Ginsburgh,
2010), while the website (www.celebritytypes.com) provides
personality profiles of several celebrities according to the
Myers–BriggsType Indicator Test.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
28/2 (2019) 242–255
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-03-2017-1439]
Received 8 March 2017
Revised 7 June 2017
25 August 2017
24 November 2017
5 March 2018
Accepted 13 March 2018
242
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