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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M. S.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Jeanne Heitmayer, Florida State University, College of Human Sciences, Dept. of Textiles and Consumer Sciences. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 18, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 76 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Celebrity endorsements are a widely used marketing strategy, through which a popular celebrity is paired with the brand in order to enhance brand meaning in the eyes of consumers. However, endorsement strategies are not without risk, as evidenced by popular media revealing celebrities’ negative behavior. While much research has addressed factors enhancing endorsement effectiveness, limited research exists that examines the effects of negative celebrity information on consumer responses to the endorser and brand. The current research seeks to understand the potential differentiating effects of failure type (functional vs. nonfunctional) on related consumer attitudes and intentions. Three experiments (between subjects factorial design) were conducted to examine the phenomenon of interest. Contrary to expectations, results of the first two experiments suggest an absence of significant differentiating effects of failure type, overall, although various exceptions surfaced. These experiments represent a unique research attempt to disentangle the effects of functional and nonfunctional information on consumer responses to endorsement strategies. In addition, it contributes to the growing research interest in understanding the important effects of negative information on consumer attitudes and intentions.

Thesis advisor: Michael Keith / Athletes have become major celebrities within the mass media in modern society. They appear in a wide variety of mediums and advertising campaigns that may or may not be directly related to sports. Their level of fame and popularity has landed many star athletes with multi-million dollar endorsement contracts with companies who want to associate with the athlete’s image and brand. This work attempts to further understand and analyze the role of celebrity athlete endorsers, how companies select and market their athlete spokespeople, and how audiences consume and react to these endorsements. A look at the history of celebrity athlete endorsements provides a basic understanding of how athletes became involved in advertising. This is followed by a close examination of one of the biggest athlete brands of all time: Michael Jordan. Next, certain factors and attributes are discussed that companies look for in an athlete in terms of the importance and affect that they have. This leads to a theories section that applies different lenses to the interactions between celebrity athletes and consumers in an attempt to better understand the relationship. Through these theories, it becomes clear that companies must make strategic decisions in choosing the athlete, the message, and how to connect with their target audience in a way that communicates trust and credibility. Creating a relationship between the celebrity athlete, the product, and the consumer is vital for long-term endorsement success. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

Little is known about why elected officials choose to get involved in presidential nomination struggles. Recent research argues that elected officials have a collective incentive to nominate an electorally viable and ideologically unifying candidate. Yet, elected officials must balance these collective incentives with their own personal considerations (e.g., reelection motives, policy interests, ambition, ideology) that may either foster or inhibit their ability to act on their collective desire to nominate viable, ideologically unifying candidates. Further, this research then determines the extent to which elected officials are rewarded-or punished- for getting involved during the presidential nomination process. In particular, interparty differences between the Republican and Democratic coalitions predict that Republicans, but not Democrats, will be rewarded for attempting to lead intraparty nomination struggles. Finally, this research links the aggregate-level findings that endorsements from elected officials are important determinants of nomination outcomes to the individual level by arguing that elected officials' endorsements mobilize their constituents to get involved in politics. In particular, as the mobilization process targets those who are already likely to participate in the first place, endorsements during presidential primaries leads to differential participation in politics. In sum, this research provides individual level foundations for the causes and consequences of congressional endorsements in presidential nomination contests.

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The research project explored the value of the personified celebrity endorser to brand endorsement and the effect on the original brand and the personified celebrity endorser. Endorsement has proven to be an effective marketing tool to increase purchase intent and positively influence consumer attitudes towards a brand and, as a result the use of endorsers, particularly celebrities, has grown. However the use of celebrities does have its challenges as aligning the celebrities brand with ones’ own brand can be a risk. Overcoming these challenges usually results in brands using personified endorsers, characters designed to personify the brand, designed to reflect, and share features of, the brand’s personality through endorsement. These characters require large amounts of investment in time and finance, which later are often terminated after a period resulting in sunk costs and loss of the characters’ equity. This loss of equity in turn leads to these personified endorsers losing credibility in the market and subsequently losing economic value when made redundant, particularly if they have celebrity status. While many studies have been done on personified endorsers, few have focused on human personified endorsers. Thus, to understand the potential impact of the personified celebrity endorser’s credibility on consumers and other brands, a quantitative study was undertaken that looked at the source credibility of an original brand (Hansa Pilsener) and a personified celebrity endorser (The Vuyo character). The source credibility was measured across three attributes: attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise. These attributes were measured pre and post respondents being shown fictional stories involving Vuyo endorsing other brands or products. The main finding of the research was that the personified celebrity endorser has his/her own credibility that is separate from the original brand and if the personified celebrity endorser promotes another brand or product, the original brand’s credibility remains unharmed. This suggests that the personified celebrity endorser’s value can be extended to other brands in order to gain further economic value / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Previous studies on celebrity endorsement have focused on merits of the celebrity endorser as the key factors for predicting endorsement effectiveness. This research extends previous research by exploring the effects of the consumer's para-social interaction (PSI) with the celebrity. Based on the Source Credibility Model, the proposed model takes PSI as the core variable and examines its relationship with self-brand connection and ideal congruency. Two studies were conducted using online questionnaires to collect consumers' self-reported data. Study 1 tested a partial model using sports celebrities. Study 2 tested the full model using entertainment celebrities. Study 1 had 605 respondents and study 2 had 387 respondents. The respondents were young, well-educated and included both fans and no-fans of the selected celebrities. The results showed that consumer-celebrity PSI was an essential factor in the endorsement process. The perceived attractiveness of a celebrity was an antecedent to PSI, which in turn allowed the consumer to establish a personal connection with the endorsed brand and resulted in positive brand attitude. Furthermore, the results showed that consumers tend to have stronger PSI with a celebrity when they hold a higher degree of ideal congruity with the celebrity. Finally, results indicated that the context in which the celebrity was shown with the brand had significant effects, with a real-life context yielding stronger effects than an ad endorsement context or a product placement context. In sum, this research extended the source attractiveness model by clarifying the endorsement process to include consumer-celebrity PSI and brand-related responses. It also contributed to the audience-celebrity PSI theory. In addition, this research revealed the potential impact of celebrity-brand associations in real-life contexts on endorsement effectiveness, thus providing new insights for research related to the various forms of celebrity endorsement.