Abstract The use of celebrity endorsement strategy is nowadays more frequently used by marketers in order to increase their sales and thereby extend their market shares. Many celebrities are used in various marketing campaigns and in most cases; the use of celebrities as endorsers is seen from mainly positive aspects. This made the authors curious whether the negative aspects, that also exists when using celebrities as endorsers, affects consumers in their purchasing decisions when a celebrity gets associated with negative publicity. Another cause of interest is which factors of a certain celebrity are most important and crucial in consumers’ perceptions, in the case of negative publicity. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study which factors consumers find important for a company to consider when a celebrity gets negative publicity, to maintain successful brand recognition. Literature review: The use of previous studies within the field of celebrity endorsement clarifies many important aspects when it comes to celebrity endorsement and this chapter is elaborated from 4 different perspectives; Company, Celebrity, Brand and Consumer. Based on previous studies, the authors identified 6 crucial attributes when using celebrities as endorsers and this can also be seen as a pre-study that the research process has been based upon. Furthermore, the 6 attributes are chosen from the three first mentioned perspectives in order to be able to fulfil the purpose. Hence, this thesis is conducted from a consumer’s point of view. Method: A quantitative method is used in this thesis since the authors want to base the results on collected data that is expressed in numbers and also to generate a general apprehension in this phenomenon. Moreover, the combinations containing the 6 attributes are used in the conjoint experiment. Conclusions: It was proven in this study that consumers do get affected by celebrities as endorser, when the attributes from the literature review are in a combination. But, the consumers’ perception of the attributes differs in different cases. However, the main finding was that there are two crucial attributes, trustworthiness and expertise that companies should take into account when using celebrities in their advertising campaign.

Most of previous studies done on publicity were mainly focused on the positive and negative publicity. However, for the job applicants, while it is important to consider positive and negative publicity when making career choices, it is also important to note that there are other variables of publicity that should be considered when making these decisions. According to previous studies, publicity might play an important role in helping the job seekers to choose which company to work for. Based on these studies, a study was conducted to determine whether or not publicity has an impact on the attractiveness of an organization to the job seekers. Moreover, in this study, I also tried to explore the effects of publicity¡¦s impressiveness (which can be categorized into timeliness and coverage) and publicity¡¦s relatedness (which can be categorized into the level of concern and familiarity) on the organization¡¦s attractiveness to the potential job seekers. In this study, a scenario-based experiment was conducted mainly on 240 Business graduate students; those who were enrolled in part-time master program were excluded from this study. The results of the experiment indicated that publicity has significant impact on the attractiveness of the organization to the job seekers. The results of the study also supported that the publicity¡¦s impressiveness (both the timeliness and coverage) can influence, to a certain extent, the attractiveness of the organization. Moreover, with regards to publicity¡¦s relatedness (categorized into the level of concern and familiarity), the results have revealed that the level of concern does have a significant influence on the attractiveness of the organization to the job seekers whereas familiarity doesn¡¦t.

<p>Abstract</p><p>The use of celebrity endorsement strategy is nowadays more frequently used by marketers in order to increase their sales and thereby extend their market shares. Many celebrities are used in various marketing campaigns and in most cases; the use of celebrities as endorsers is seen from mainly positive aspects. This made the authors curious whether the negative aspects, that also exists when using celebrities as endorsers, affects consumers in their purchasing decisions when a celebrity gets associated with negative publicity. Another cause of interest is which factors of a certain celebrity are most important and crucial in consumers’ perceptions, in the case of negative publicity.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study which factors consumers find important for a company to consider when a celebrity gets negative publicity, to maintain successful brand recognition.</p><p>Literature review: The use of previous studies within the field of celebrity endorsement clarifies many important aspects when it comes to celebrity endorsement and this chapter is elaborated from 4 different perspectives; Company, Celebrity, Brand and Consumer. Based on previous studies, the authors identified 6 crucial attributes when using celebrities as endorsers and this can also be seen as a pre-study that the research process has been based upon. Furthermore, the 6 attributes are chosen from the three first mentioned perspectives in order to be able to fulfil the purpose. Hence, this thesis is conducted from a consumer’s point of view.</p><p>Method: A quantitative method is used in this thesis since the authors want to base the results on collected data that is expressed in numbers and also to generate a general apprehension in this phenomenon. Moreover, the combinations containing the 6 attributes are used in the conjoint experiment.</p><p>Conclusions: It was proven in this study that consumers do get affected by celebrities as endorser, when the attributes from the literature review are in a combination. But, the consumers’ perception of the attributes differs in different cases. However, the main finding was that there are two crucial attributes, trustworthiness and expertise that companies should take into account when using celebrities in their advertising campaign.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2002. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 175 p.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Kathleen M. McGraw, Dept. of Political Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-175).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-181).

For over a century Florida's Tampa Bay area has been extolled for its abundant seashores and moderate climate. The success of early twentieth-century St. Petersburg as a tourist destination was due to a consistent method of self-promotion highlighting the natural and physical features of peninsular Pinellas County. Warmed by balmy Tampa Bay breezes, St. Petersburg had been dubbed the "Health City." This tiny 1890 coastal town of less than three hundred inhabitants, now blessed with a slogan, new train tracks, and a railway pier, was an ideal setting for tourism. By 1902, boosters declared St. Petersburg a city second to none. Over the next half-century -- from the Building Boom to the Baby Boom -- St. Petersburg exploded. Ranked twenty-seventh nationally in 1940, prewar Sunshine State was the South's least-populated state, but boosters like John Lodwick, "Tin-Canners," and World War II brought many changes, few of which escaped St. Petersburg. This thesis examines elements of St. Petersburg that almost every historian has emphasized, but few have seriously analyzed: boosterism and tourism. More than almost any other Florida city, St. Petersburg relied upon an endlessly repeated message in postcards, newspapers editorials, print advertisements, and radio/television commercials.The city marketed itself as the nation's playground, a southern garden of perpetual well-being. That St. Petersburg was the first American city to hire a public relations director and the first to initiate a successful advertising budget speaks to the magnitude of this message. In the late 1940s, while northern newspaper subscribers were teased with wintertime ads sending "Warm Wishes from Sunny St. Pete," a series of city-funded films were released. These quasi-documentaries, shown in countless lodges and auditoriums, portrayed the "Sunshine City" as the city of fun and sun. Without reserve, the films marketed St. Petersburg as the ideal destination for the nation's soon-to-be senior citizens.Through analysis of news media coupled with interviews, personal memoirs, and interdisciplinary studies, this thesis explores a recurring marketing theme and more importantly, places it within the context of Florida's tourism history and the city's goal of Selling St. Petersburg.

With the increasing call for accountability of significant marketing communication spending, quantifying and measuring the contribution of marketing communication to market performance is increasingly a requirement for sustainability in all management practices. In addition, the resource-based view (RBV) suggests that a firm's marketing communication creates intangible market-based assets and that these assets strengthen a firm's market and financial performance. Recent developments of the market-based assets theory focus on corporate reputation as an intangible market-based asset, suggesting that a favorable reputation is an intangible asset that increases a firm's performance. This study examined the effect of advertising and publicity on corporate reputation and market performance and hypothesized that a firm's advertising and publicity generated favorable corporate reputations and high levels of sales revenues in certain firms. Hypotheses were tested by a time-series analysis using the panel data of 18 companies over a 21-year period from 1985 to 2005. The results indicated that advertising and publicity have significant effects on corporate reputation for certain companies. Other variables, such as a firm's dividend yield to investors, market value, diversification, and profitability were significantly related to assessments of corporate reputation for certain companies, but the direction of the relationship varied from company to company. For example, as expected, low dividend yields induce high assessments of corporate reputation for certain companies. A firm's current market value also affects assessments of a firm's reputation. More diversified companies yield lower corporate reputations for certain companies. Regarding the relationship between marketing communication and sales revenues, advertising and publicity have significant effects on sales revenues for some companies. A firm's R&D expenditures, the focus of the firm, and firm size also showed a significant positive relevance to sales revenues for certain companies. / text

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess whether the extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes change when the consumers are exposed to negative publicity of the brand, and when exposed to a company’s response to negative publicity, differ depending on the consumers’ degree of brand loyalty and depending on how positive the consumers’ initial brand attitudes are. Design/methodology/approach: The study had a deductive research approach with a single cross-sectional descriptive and exploratory design. Archival analysis was used to collect relevant theories and to conduct the preparatory data collection through data mining, both in which secondary data was gathered. Survey was used when collecting qualitative primary data in the preparatory data collection through focus groups, and when collecting primary data in the main data collection through a questionnaire. The main data was further analyzed through a one-way ANOVA within a non-parametric Levene’s test. Findings: The extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes changed when consumers were exposed to negative publicity of the brand differed depending on if the consumers’ initial brand attitudes were positive or negative. Consumers with negative brand attitudes had a smaller attitude change compared to consumers with positive brand attitudes, opposed to what was assumed in the current study. The extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes changed when consumers were exposed to negative publicity of the brand did not statistically differ depending on the consumers’ degree of brand loyalty. Neither did the extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes changed when the consumers were exposed to a company’s response to negative publicity differ depending on how positive the consumers’ brand attitudes were, nor on the consumers’ degree of loyalty toward the brand. Research limitations/suggestions for future research: The information concerning the negative event and the company’s response strategy was very concentrated in the questionnaire. In real life, consumers would have had different perceptions of both the event and the response since some parts require consumers to actively search for information. Hence, suggestion for future research is to measure the attitude changes where the consumers have gained information in a natural course. Implications: The new perspective brought forth through the study could be useful for brand managers to bear in mind when setting up strategies on how to manage a negative publicity situation such as the Apple/Foxconn case.

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral); Freie Universität Berlin, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-313).

Thesis (M. Min.)--Trinity Western Seminary, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 263-267).