Celebrity endorsement is a historical method using in advertising. It refers to a form that using famous people as the endorser of a brand or advertising campaign, in order to promote product or service. Brand and company take advantage of the famous people to increase their popularity and customer interest. Nowadays, social media as the most popular communication platform today and celebrities have increasingly effect on the social media. For example, Justin Bieber has 34 million followers on Twitter, Oprah Winfery has 17 million fans, but unfortunately, even the most popular brand such as Starbucks has only 3 million Twitter followers, which is much less than those celebrities. So it is popular for a brand to use celebrity endorsement in an advertisement. According to MarketWatch in 2006, nearly 1/4 advertisement is using celebrity endorsement to advertise their products or service. And Soat (2014) predicted that the marketing companies would spend 1/5 their budgets on social media by the year 2019. Social network marketing enable companies to realize diverse marketing strategies. As well as decrease the budget effectively and communicate with target audience “face to face”. Therefore, there is no doubt that advertiser tends to use celebrity endorsement on social media to gain more consumers and arose audience attentions. Moreover, besides the high exposure and awareness of celebrity endorsement on social media, it can also help a brand to build brand equity and maintain brand competitive position.
In order to discover to what extent celebrity endorsement can effect target audience on social media platform, this essay is going to focus on the main theory that popularly used in marketing and communication analyze, and the factor that influences the brand which is cause by celebrity ads on social media. Moreover, the research is going to find the research gap in this topic and fill the blank.
Theory and concept:
24/7 service: 24/7 service is a service that often using in commerce and industry, which can provide service everyday and anytime. On social media platform, there is a large potential ability to raise public’s attention. David Reibstein, the professor of marketing at Wharton says, “All it takes is one person to snap a picture of that celebrity [at an inopportune moment], and that exposure becomes part of the 24/7 [news] cycle.” The environment we talk about is indeed the 24/7 cycle. And the news cycle would generate when celebrity making news.
the source credibility and attractiveness model：Most of the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement are based on the source credibility and attractiveness model, which is a model that belongs to social psychology theory. Tellis (2004) analyze that the model concludes the message effectiveness to the familiarity, the similarity and the likeability of the recipient. Familiarity is public’s knowledge about the source though their experience before, similarity is the common ground between public and source, and like ability is the degree that public like the outlook and behavior of the source. Recent researchers have seen the attraction of celebrity as an important dimension of celebrity credibility, and use the source credibility and attractiveness model to discuss the effect.
The celebrity endorser match-up hypothesis:
After highlighting the celebrity as the source in the celebrity endorsement, a suitable celebrity is also important to discuss. Because there is no direct link between a high credibility celebrity and the positive communication effect. It is also connect to whether the celebrity is match-up with the brand product, and whether match the target customers’ consumption characteristics. Forkan and Hawkins (1980)propose the celebrity endorser match-up hypothesis in their research that：in an effective advertisement, the image of the endorsing celebrity and brand, as well as the message they transmit should match-up. That in order to create a positive influence on consumer’s interest, and persuade them to purchase product.
To help brand build brand equity:
The brand equity is defined as a brand’s assets and liabilities, added by a brand name or symbol to a product or service. ( David A. Aaker, 1991 Managing Brand Equity). Brand equity is basic as what consumers think about a brand, brand can increase audience awareness by using celebrities in their advertising, and extends brand awareness. Celebrity endorsement on social media helps brand to build brand equity. Seno and Lukas (2007) argued that using celebrity endorsers create equity for both endorsed brand and the endorsing celebrity. Customers would transfer their favorable impression from the endorsing celebrity to the brand. For example, Donna Kim, who is a famous beauty blogger on the Internet, has endorsed the hosiery of Duane Reader pharmacy in 2013. She posted images and created a hashtag on Twitter and Tumblr. And contributed to 19.4 million impressions on social media and make a 28 % sales growth in Duane Reade. Soat (2014) built a conceptual framework to help research how celebrity advertisement gain equity for both endorsed brand and the celebrity. In Dean (1999)’s research also determine that the quality and uniqueness product can be created from a successful celebrity endorsement.
To maintaining brand competitive position:
Using celebrities to endorse products or service can help the brand to reinforce the market position. According to Hamish (2004), there is a larger extent of effective for a brand to maintain competitive by using of celebrities, especially in the situation that other competitor brand that has change the dynamic in the market. Because the 24/7 service, which is one of the most convenience parts of the social network, audience can be advertised by the celebrity or brand homepage they follow all the time, and that enable the brand to get touch with target audience frequently. Moreover, empirical evidence shows that audience can gain a strongly recall for not only an endorsed brand but also the advertisement by celebrity endorsement. (Atkin and Block, 1983) As public today tend to gain much more news and information on social media, online endorsement should be highly regarded. There are countless being advertised to purchasers constantly, so it is necessary for a brand to figure out how a product or brand can be remembered. On the off chance that a client sees a notice including his or her most loved superstar endorsing a specific product, then his or her odds of recalling it will be significantly expanded.
Risks and attentions of using celebrity endorsement:
Some researchers argue that there are many risks for a brand to using celebrity advertising online. According to Soat 2014, Nowadays, an increasing brand tend to encourage celebrities to interact with their fans on social media. Because of the main feature of social media is communication and fast spread speed, celebrity endorsement is a 360°proposition, and that is likely to cause mistakes and risks. An article in Wharton University, 2013, fond that over 60% teenagers in America follow the brand which their favorite celebrity is endorsing, also, that a big name devotee is four times more inclined to take after a brand than the normal U.S. grown-up on the web. Therefore, it is important for the brand to choice the procreate stars for advertisement. Hamish (2004) argued that the campaign relationship is actually a triangular relationship between (seen as image1) the brand, celebrity, and customers. This three personality need to be get together in the campaign.