Introduction

According to Ryans (1996), advertising is a channel of communication to entice a specific or

general audience to create a purchase decision on a product or service and deliver information
to its viewers. It is considered as a core element for growth and success of businesses.

Companies or brands have similar objectives for them to grow their businesses. It is to convert
these consumers to purchase their brand and eventually become loyal users who will
repurchase their product. One way to achieve this is to invest in different sales and marketing
efforts and one of them is advertising and promotions.

Related Literature Review

Brand Endorsers
McCracken (1989) defined an endorser as a person who is fond of public recognition and uses
this recognition to promote a specific good or services through an advertising channel. This
definition clearly says that in order for a product to be well promoted, the endorser should have
a connection towards the target audience and the product or service being endorsed. It is also
believed that the characteristics of an endorser mirror the consumers’ perceived product value
(Braunstein‐Minkove, Zhang, & Trail, 2011).

There are four types of endorsers that were defined by different researchers. First one would be
the celebrity endorser, defined to be an endorser that benefits from the publicity that he or she
may benefit from the brand that he or she may be endorsing (Erfgen, Zenker & Sattler, 2015;
McCracken, 1989). Typically, these endorsers are considered to be actors, comedians, athletes,
entertainers, musicians or artists (McCracken, 1989). Second type would be the typical
endorser, who is considered to be not knowledgeable about the industry he or she is endorsing.
These typical endorsers are usually considered to be a real person, not a celebrity or politician
(McCracken, 1989; Fitrianto, Daud & Nailis, 2017). The third type is the professional endorser,
who is considered to be an expert on the product being endorsed. Doctors, dentists, scientists,
and other industry professionals may be considered to fall in this category. Finally, the last type
of endorser is the CEO or the company president. Though it may be considered as a rare type
of advertising since it rarely appears publicly, it can be a good way for a brand to show genuine
commitment to their consumers (Fitrianto, Daud & Nailis, 2017; Schimmelpfennig, 2018).

Other than the type or category, organizations also consider other key factors in selecting
endorsers, one of which is the financial factor, which makes brands more concerned about the
endorser effectiveness (Fitrianto, Daud & Nailis, 2017). Getting celebrity endorsers often cost
more than getting typical endorsers as they can enhance a company’s brand image, perceived
brand quality and product sales due to high public recognition (Chan, Ng, & Luk, 2013; von
Felbert & Breuer, 2020). On the other hand, von Felbert and Breuer (2020) also mentioned that
typical peer endorsement can be considered as a more trustworthy endorser because of their
similarity to consumers.

With the continued patronage of endorsers, organizations are now more inclined to invest in
them as they contribute to the improvement of brand and advertising awareness (Fleck, Michel,
& Zeitoun, 2014). We can deduce the fact through these studies that an endorser offers a
certain attraction or characteristics to a general or specific audience to entice them to avail
certain products and services.
Measuring Endorser Credibility
To measure the effectiveness of a celebrity endorser, Ohanian (1990) crafted the source
credibility model indicating 3 main attributes: Expertise, Trustworthiness, and Attractiveness.
Expertise was defined to be the level of knowledge of an endorser regarding the product or
service that he or she is currently endorsing. For an endorser to be considered as trustworthy,
he or she must be able to possess the qualities of showing honesty, integrity, and believability.
Third quality, attractiveness, is defined as the physical attractiveness of an endorser.