Limita&ons

Only drug consump/on taken

Sample of par/cipants – not really involved in fashion

Hypothesis 1

Brand’s
Posi,oning
Objec,ve
Brand
AEtude

Type of
Celebrity
Endorser

Control Variables: Brand Familiarity, Involvement in Fashion

Hypothesis 1a

Reinforcement
Posi/oning
Strategy
Brand
AEtude

Type of
Celebrity
Endorser

Hypothesis 1b

Revitaliza/on
Posi/oning
Strategy
Brand
AEtude

Type of
Celebrity
Endorser

Control Variables: Brand Familiarity, Involvement in Fashion

Hypothesis 2

\ Brand’s
Posi/oning
Objec/ve
Brand
AEtude

Type of
Celebrity
Endorser

Celebrity
Posi/oning
Match-up

Slide 7

Now we’d like to present Hypothesis 2.

Hypothesis 2 builds on Hypothesis 1 and it introduces an important media/ng variable,

which explains how the brand’s posi/oning objec/ve and the type of celebrity endorser
chosen affect the brand aEtude. This media/ng variable is the celebrity posi/oning match-
up, in other words how well the “scandalous” image of the endorser aligns with that of the
brand.

It is important to mention that in addition to the celebrity-positioning match up, the

participants were also tested for the traditional match-up. The "traditional match-up" in this
context refers to the idea that a celebrity endorser should have characteristics that align
with those of the brand they are endorsing. In other words, the celebrity should "match up"
with the brand in a way that makes sense and creates a positive association in the minds of
consumers.

Slide 11

Consumers’ percep/on of the celebrity-posi/oning match-up was measured by presen/ng a

statement, which the par/cipants of the ques/onnaire had to agree or disagree with. The
statement was ‘First and foremost BrandX wants to be differen/ated with a celebrity that
the brand finds truly inspiring.’
Then the consumers percep/on of the tradi/onal match-up was tested using two
statements:

‘[celebrity name] is an unlikely endorser of BrandX’ and ‘I have no difficulty imagining

[celebrity name] as an endorser of BrandX.

As the previous analysis showed, the difference between an incidentally scandalous celebrity
and a naturally scandalous celebrity was not significant with a revitalisa/on strategy (H1b).
However, with a reinforcement strategy, the results show that an endorsement by a naturally
scandalous celebrity yielded a stronger celebrity-posi/oning match-up (t = 1.64, p = .10),
which, in turn, had a posi/ve and significant impact on aEtude towards the brand.

Overall, this analysis provided evidence in support of Hypothesis 2. In the case where there
was a significant effect on aEtude towards the brand, so in the case of reinforcement
strategy with a naturally scandalous endorser, this analysis was mediated by the percep/ons
of a celebrity-posi/oning match-up instead of by the tradi/onal match-up.

We also note that the type of celebrity did not have a direct effect on aEtude towards the
endorsed brand (effect = .23, 95% CI = −.14 to .60), which highlights the key role played by
celebrity-posi/oning match-up as the process underlying this effect.

Vanille comment:

Need to men/on revitaliza/on

Conclusion

The results show that, when a brand’s strategic objec/ve is to reinforce a currently
controversial image, it is beker off choosing an endorser who is herself inherently
controversial instead of an endorser whose uncharacteris/c controversy originates from
being linked to a conten/ous event. Symmetrically, if the brand’s objec/ve is to change its
image from conven/onal to controversial, it is beker off signing-up a celebrity endorser
whose image is not fundamentally controversial (e.g. it is based on a single incident);
however, in this par/cular case, the results are not as sta/s/cally reliable as those in the
other case.

Interes/ngly, consumers’ aEtudinal responses towards the brand did not vary when a
naturally controversial celebrity was employed either by a brand targe/ng revitalizing its
image or reinforcing it.

Whilst the media/ng role of the perceived celebrity-posi/oning match-up was sta/s/cally
significant with a reinforcement strategy, the same media/on effect was not found with
revitalisa/on.

As we saw in Hypothesis 1, the consumer’s aEtude towards the brand are generally more
favorable when the celebrity endorser’s persona matches the brand’s posi/oning strategy.
So in this case, choosing incidentally Scandalous celebri/es is bad for a reinforcement
strategy, but good for a revitaliza/on strategy.