Who endorses whom? Meanings transfer in celebrity endorsement
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421011085767 |
| Date | 21 September 2010 |
| Published date | 21 September 2010 |
| Pages | 452-460 |
| Author | Elina Halonen‐Knight,Leila Hurmerinta |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Who endorses whom? Meanings transfer in
celebrity endorsement
Elina Halonen-Knight
Market Research Consultant, London, UK, and
Leila Hurmerinta
Turku School of Economics, Turku, Finland
Abstract
Purpose – Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular forms of marketing, and this study aims to suggest that celebrity endorsement should be
considered as a brand alliance, where meanings and values can transfer from either partner to the other. Thispaper seeks to report on an exploratory
attempt to identify the processes involved and explore whether celebrity endorsement should be considered a brand alliance.
Design/methodology/approach – After a review of both celebrity endorsement and brand alliance literature, a case of meaning transfer process was
examined. The collaboration between Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was studied as a case, within which a special
episode of negative publicity emerged and was analysed through newspaper articles.
Findings – A model for a reciprocal meaning transfer process is proposed and the existence of a brand-alliance-like relationship in the case is
established.
Originality/value – The paper is the first qualitative study to examine meaning transfer process in a real life celebrity endorsement context. It
indicates the need for managing celebrity endorsement as a brand alliance by suggesting that celebrity endorsement should be considered as an
alliance of equals. A model illustrated and supported by a case study is proposed.
Keywords Product endorsement, Brands, Retailing, Case studies
Paper type Case study
An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
Background
Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular forms of
marketing used to promote a range of consumer products and
services. The use of celebrities for commercial purposes is not
a one-way process, however, as celebrities are becoming
brands in their own right, with their own values existing in the
minds of their audience in a similar way to corporate and
consumer brands (Seno and Lukas, 2007).
Celebrity endorsement research has traditionally focused on
the source characteristics of the endorser as well as the
transfer of meanings between endorser to the endorsed
product or brand. Some studies (Till, 1998; Till and Shimp,
1998) have also investigated the transfer of negative meanings
and associations from the celebrity endorser to the brand.
Apart from this research only two studies (Seno and Lukas,
2007; White et al., 2009) have discussed the idea of meanings
transferring from the brand to the celebrity and the impact of
endorsement on celebrity equity. This view is at odds with the
generally accepted one-way model of value transfer, where the
celebrity receives financial compensation for his goodwill
transferring to the brand. The existence of reciprocal
meanings transfer would also suggest that celebrity
endorsement should be considered as a brand alliance
where meanings and values can transfer from either partner
to the other. If meanings can transfer both ways, selection of
endorsement partners, from both the brand’s and celebrity’s
perspective, as well as the management of endorsement need
to be considered differently. Furthermore, current views on
the importance of this issue are contradictory: while Seno and
Lukas (2007) call for empirical investigation into the
“reciprocal effects in celebrity endorsement”, the
experimental study of White et al. (2009) suggests the effect
of the endorsement on the celebrity is not significant.
Therefore, we argue that further research into the effects is
needed to provide a more comprehensive view of the
phenomena in a real life context.
Research purpose and design
This paper investigates the relationship between celebrity
endorsement and brand alliances and suggests they have a
symbiotic relationship. The purpose of this research is to
identify transfer of meanings and associations to the celebrity
to find out whether celebrity endorsement can be considered a
brand alliance. The research question divides into two sub-
questions:
1 What characteristics do celebrity endorsement and brand
alliances have in common?
2 How are meanings and values transferred between brand
and celebrity?
The context for the study is the growth of celebrity
endorsement in the UK. In particular, the phenomenon is
explored in the context of a collaboration between one of the
largest supermarkets in the UK, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
19/6 (2010) 452–460
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/10610421011085767]
452
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