Examining the inﬂuence of famein the presence of beauty:an electrodermal ‘neuromarketing’ study

Baldeesh Gakhal and Carl Senior *

School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, UK



The use of famous and/or attractive models in brand marketing is ubiquitous yet littlework, if any, has been carried out examining differences in their efﬁciency in driving subsequent consumer behaviour. Such brand platforms have an emotional selling proposition (ESP) that refers to the unique personality and image attributes that a particularendorsementgenerates.However,celebrityendorsersarealsomorethanlikelyto be considered attractive and thus differences in the ESP (if any) would be very small.Such differences in an emotional response could be measured by a participant’s electro-dermal activity (EDA). This is a psychophysiological response, measurement of which is sensitiveenoughtodetectdifferencesengenderedbyaparticularbrandplatform’sESP.Inthe present study, EDA measurements were recorded from participants who were shownadvertisements containing a target product within four different types of endorsement platforms depicting models who were either famous/non-famous or attractive/averagelooking. The results showed that average looking celebrity endorsers produced a greater EDA response than any of the other conditions including the attractive looking celebrityendorsers. Furthermore, this effect was only revealed from recordings taken from the left hand sideof the participants. Giventhat the right sideof the brainwould orchestrate any EDAresponsesrecordedfromthe subjects’leftside,the currentresultssuggesta dedicated neural response for celebrity endorsed brand platforms. Future work examining therelationship between the speciﬁc EDA signature and consumer preferences is discussed.

2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction

Celebrity branding is a ubiquitous method inmarketing yet little is known of the cognitivemechanisms that mediate the persuasiveeffects that such branding has on consumer behaviour (Pringle, 2004). Beauty is also oftenused by marketers to sell products. However,given that most celebrities are also consideredto be attractive it is not known to whatextent celebrity and beauty interact to driveconsumer decision-making. In light of the vast

Journal of Consumer Behaviour

J. Consumer Behav.

: 331–341 (2008)Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com)

DOI:

10.1002/cb.255*Correspondence to: Carl Senior, School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham,UK.E-mail: c.senior@aston.ac.uk

2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Consumer Behaviour, July–October 2008

DOI: 10.1002/cb

financial outlay that is often associated with identification of an individual to endorse aproduct, it is important to clarify to whatextent fame or beauty contribute to the overalleffectiveness of a particular brand platform.The present study examined a specific ques-tion regarding the relationship of fame andbeauty with consumer behaviour; namely, isthere a difference in the emotive nature of celebrity advertisements compared to thoseadvertisements that depict attractive models who are non-celebrities?The use of celebrity branding is founded ona wide body of research literature that hasexamined its efficacy (see e.g. Pringle, 2004).Early studies comparing the relative influenceof a variety of factors underpinning consumer choice found that the emotional value aconsumer placed in the advertisement wasone of the most effective drivers ofsubsequentconsumer behaviour (Sheth

etal

., 1991). Morespecifically,theabilityto engenderanaffectivestate in the consumer, by direct or indirectassociation, is a better predictor of consumer behaviour compared to the functional value(identification of the functional role for thebrand), conditional value (the perceived valueof choosing a specific brand over an alterna-tive), social value (the ability for association with a social group) and even the epistemic value (the ability to arouse an interest or satisfy a desire for knowledge) of a particular branding. The central tenets of this ‘fiveconsumption value model’ have been sup-ported by a range of empirical studiesexamining consumer choice (e.g. Albrecht

et al

., 2003; Crow

et al

., 2003). Very few studies have examined psychophysiologicaldifferences engendered by the consumption value of a particular brand platform. Thepresent study will explore the psychophysio-logical response to differences in the emo-tional value engendered by models who areeitherattractive/averagelookingorcelebrities/ non-celebrities.However, early studies showing a positiveeffect in consumer behaviour when presented with advertisements depicting attractive cele-brities (Kahle and Homer, 1985) failed to bereplicated in later years (Ohanian, 1991). Theabsence of a replication was probably due tothe disparity between the rating proceduresused to deﬁne which of the models wereattractive. Caballero and Soloman (1984)focussed on the effects of attractive (butnon-celebrity) male and female models andreported the use of average-looking malemodels increased the target sales of beer atthe point of sale. A few months later the samegroup examined whether or not the attrac-tiveness of a non-celebrity model drovesubsequent consumer purchase behaviour ina direct mail order advertisement campaign of a book (which would be appealing to either sex). Here they found that an attractive malemodel resulted in a decrease in purchasebehaviour compared to the control condition, wherenoimagewasused(CaballeroandPride,1984). Taken together these studies can bediscussed in terms of a socialisation effect with average-looking men being perceived as beingsociable (Byrne

et al

., 1968).On the other hand, attractive lookingmodels are considered to have several positivesocial traits such as intelligence and pro-fessionalism (see e.g. Candolin, 2003); thisis known as the ‘what is beautiful isgood’ phenomenon (Thornhill and Gangestad,1999). In light of such positive social attri-butions it clearly makes sense to associate aspeciﬁc product with imagery of attractivepeople. When placed next to a brand product,the attractive model and associated positiveattributions would contribute to the

emo-tional selling proposition

(ESP) of a brandplatform i.e. its overall image attributes(Pringle, 2004). This in turn would increasethe overall emotional value of the targetproduct and increase consumer preference(Sheth

et al

., 1991). While the persuasive inﬂuence of celebrity endorsers has also been attributed to their attractiveness it is unrealistic to assume thatcelebrity attractiveness is the sole driver of consumer preferences (Baker and Churchill,1977; Joseph, 1982; Martin, 1996). For cele-brity endorsements to be effective the con-sumermustbeabletorecognisethesynergistic

2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Consumer Behaviour, July–October 2008

DOI: 10.1002/cb

332 Baldeesh Gakhal and Carl Senior

association between the celebrity and thetarget product (Kamins, 1990). A celebrity associated with outdoor pursuits etc. willdrive consumer behaviour for outdoor relatedproducts (i.e. camping equipment). To further ensure that this ‘match up’ hypothesis issuccessful, the consumer would need agreater number of positive associations with that particular celebrity (Till and Nowak,2000). In addition, the ESP of a celebrity-endorsed brand would also beneﬁt fromthe successful transfer of associated (andpositive) cultural meanings from the cele-brity (McCraken, 1989; Kapferer, 2000). For example, celebrities develop a range of different cultural meanings throughout their careers (e.g. Clint Eastwood

cowboy, wes-tern movies etc.). Brands also have a rangeof cultural meanings (e.g. Earl Grey Tea

Colonial India, Lemon etc.) and for an effectivecelebrity endorsement to occur the two setsof cultural meanings would have to match (Parulekar and Raheja, 2006).

Electrodermal activity (EDA) and neuromarketing

As can be seen above a more elaborate brandESP would impact on consumer preferences.However, it is not known if models who areattractive or famous afford greater or less ESPto any endorsed product. In light of the factthat celebrity and beauty are often showntogether on various brand platforms any differences in the ESP (if they exist) are likely to be very small and would beneﬁt fromexamination with a sensitive technique; onesuch technique is measurement of an individ-ual’s electrodermal activity or EDA.The EDA, also known as the galvanic skinresponse (GSR) or the skin conductanceresponse (SCR) has a long history withinthe marketing sciences. In brief the techniqueinvolves measurement of the electrical con-ductivity of a form of ﬁne sweating, calledeccrine sweating, that is automatically gene-rated during emotive responses, not duringthermoregulatory processes (Boucsein, 1992).Eccrine sweating only occurs on two sites onthe human body these being the palms of thehands(palmersurface)andthesolesofthefeet(plantar surface). These two sites are knowncollectively as the volar surfaces (Kuno, 1956).Early sociobiological theory suggests that wemay have evolved eccrine sweating to protectthe volar surfaces from abrasion and alsoto increase friction, which would improve our ability to grasp any object and facilitate our interaction with the immediate environmentparticularly during a threatening or rewardingevent (Darrow, 1933; Wilcott, 1966). Dueto the relatively unobtrusive nature of thetechnique the measurement of electrodermalactivity allows us to investigate differences inthe emotional responses that guide decision-making during uncertain risk and reward in arelatively ecologically valid manner (Bechara,2001; Damasio, 1994; Naqvi and Bechara,2007).This type of cognition can be described by the ‘somatic marker hypothesis,’ which statesthat stimuli (either internally or externally generated) initiate either a pleasurable or aversive sensation and these ‘somatic markers’serve to guide subsequent decision-makingbehaviour (Damasio, 1996; Bechara

et al

.,2003; Bechara

et al

., 2005). Neuropsychologi-cal studies also show that an area of the braincalled the ventromedial prefrontal cortex(VMPC) plays an important role in therepresentation of social rules and facilitatesthe inﬂuence of somatic markers on thecomputation of such rules (Damasio

et al

.,1994

;

Adolphs, 2002, 2003) while functionalneuroimaging studies of the somatic marker hypothesis show that the VMPC is active whendeciding an advantageous or preferentialchoice (Paulus and Frank, 2003). Further studies also show a functional asymmetry with the right VMPC playing a greater role inemotion based decision-making than the left(Bryden, 1982; Hiscock

et al

., 1995; Bechara

etal

., 2000).There is also evidence supportingthe presence of a right hemisphere advantagein the processing of famous faces (Fairhall andIshai,2007

)

andbeautifulfaces(Winston

etal