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.

Ikoniska auktoriteter är personer som tillskrivs sådan betydelse att de kommit att symbolisera delar eller aspekter av samhällslivet eller epoker i historien och som kan sägas ha haft ett betydande inflytande på samhället och kulturen. I studien undersöktesom ikoniska auktoriter påverkar oss mer eller annorlunda än andra källor. I ett experiment fick högskolestudenter uppdelade i fyra grupper läsa en text under hög elaboration om en psykologisk teori där variablerna ikonisk auktoritet och personligrelevans manipulerades. Deltagarna ombads sedan skatta vilken trovärdighet de ansåg att teorin hade. Studien ställde upp två hypoteser: att hög ikonisk aukto-ritet skulle öka den skattade trovärdigheten och personlig relevans minska den. Resultatet gav inte stöd åt någon av hypoteserna men en interaktionseffekt visade att texten vid låg personlig relevans uppfattades som mer trovärdig av de deltagare som exponerades för låg ikonisk auktoritet än de deltagare som exponerades för hög ikonisk auktoritet. Det föreslås att interaktionen beror på en backlash-effekt.

With great growth of the use of internet ,the communication based on computer-mediated system or so called electronic word-of-mouth becomes more important. In these ways to exchange information, forward mail is unique and powerful especially. In this research, we would like to know what factors make people to decide to forward a e-mail or not, and what kind of roles these factors play in the process to make decision. Three factors were discussed in this research, including¡Gmessage framing, source credibility and product involvement, and the theory of reasoned action was applied to explain the behavior of forwarding e-mail. Through ANOVA and regression analysis to analyze 472 effective samples, the findings are outlined below¡G 1. E-mail users hold better attitude to forward negative message, and have more intention to forward it. 2. E-mail users hold better attitude to forward the message which has high source credibility, and have more intention to forward it. 3. The effect of subjective norm on intention to forward the email is greater than the effect of attitude.

<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>

In the context of developing effective PSAs to help increase the number of young adults who quit smoking or don’t start, this study took cultural orientation into account and assessed the persuasive effect of high and low source credibility. This present study showed that, in terms of attitude toward the ad message, people who were exposed to a commercial brand actually had a more positive attitude than those who saw the video that had CCTV as its producer. However, no significant differences were found in the other four constructs, including attitude toward antismoking, smoking-related social norms and subjective norms, smoking-related anticipated regret and intentions to quit or not start smoking.

Recommendations on breastfeeding in the United States suggest that infants should be exclusively breastfed for six months with continued breastfeeding in conjunction with complementary foods for at least one year. However, only 22.30% of women are exclusively breastfeeding when their infant reaches the age of six months, which indicates the existence of barriers hindering prolonged breastfeeding. In this study, I consider the factors related to information-seeking behavior that may influence breastfeeding rates. Specifically, I focus on the relationship between the sources a woman selects to receive information about breastfeeding and her level of breastfeeding self-efficacy, which has been shown to be a significant predictor of breastfeeding success. A sample of 222 breastfeeding women was recruited for participation in this study. Participants completed a mixed-methods survey, and the results of the survey were analyzed using applied thematic analysis, correlation, and regression analysis. Women who participated in this study used non-expert online information sources most frequently when searching for information related to breastfeeding. Criteria women used most frequently when choosing an information source included source affordances (e.g., convenience and quickness), information characteristics (e.g., variety of information and information quality), and source characteristics (e.g., source expertise). Hypotheses for this study posited a relationship between source characteristics (i.e., expertise, trustworthiness, goodwill, and social support) and breastfeeding self-efficacy; all hypotheses were supported, and expertise, trustworthiness, goodwill, and social support were found to have a significant positive relationship with breastfeeding self-efficacy. Source expertise was found to be the strongest predictor of breastfeeding self-efficacy among those that were measured for this study; however, it is not an individual significant predictor when modeled alongside the remaining source characteristics. Implications of this study stress the importance of access to quality information related to breastfeeding and continued research on the development of breastfeeding self-efficacy in various demographic populations and over the span of a breastfeeding relationship.

This article investigates the antecedents and consequences of source credibility within the context of the relatively new but growing phenomenon of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) endorsers. The study results indicate that source credibility is a central determinant of a CEO endorsers’ ability to effect desired outcome states. Results also indicate that the effect of message source credibility on purchase intentions, though strong, is not direct because beliefs about critical product attributes mediate the effect of a message source’s credibility on behavioural intentions. The results of the study also indicate that models of source credibility derived from the celebrity endorser literature do not generalize to the CEO endorser context. Specifically, the attractiveness and expertise of the message source had no significant impact on receivers’ perceptions of credibility.

Influencer marketing has made its way to the forefront of online marketing due to the rapid expansion and usage of social media platforms. Despite the increased adoption of influencer marketing, the effect of sponsorship disclosure on source credibility remains under-researched in academia. This study aimed to address this research gap in two parts. Firstly, by evaluating the characteristics and significance of social media influencers. Secondly, by investigating the effect of sponsorship disclosure on consumers perception of source credibility and the likelihood to recommend organic hair care products. The selected social media platform for this study was Instagram, due to its growing popularity and increased usage by influencers. The hair care retail business as a proven multi-billion dollar industry, set itself as a valuable industry for the purposes of this study. The research methodology involved the collection of primary data from existing literature on influencer marketing strategies and social media influencers. Ohanian's Source Credibility model was found to be of relevance to the research objectives, therefore, it was used a theoretical framework for the study. Secondary data was collected by exploring the relationships between sponsorship disclosure, source credibility and electronic word-of-mouth marketing. Quantitative data was collected through a structured questionnaire which was issued online to University of Cape Town students. To ensure that the research contributed to existing academic literature, the target population chosen for the study was the Generation Z. The data collected was analysed using inferential statistical methods in order to test the hypotheses. A structural equation model was used to analyse the relationship between variables and the results indicated that all hypotheses were found to be supported, depicting that sponsorship disclosure has an impact on perceived source credibility. Additionally, the results indicated that respondents were more likely to participate in word-of-mouth recommendations for products endorsed by influencers that they regarded to be credible. The overall research findings provide valuable insights on consumer perception towards the credibility of social media influencers. This information can be used in marketing practice to aid marketers to develop appropriate strategies for sponsored influencer marketing campaigns. Furthermore, this study contributes to academia by adding empirical data to the existing body of literature on influencer marketing.

Non-professional investors often rely on information obtained from social media to make investment decisions. Extant literature has not examined the most effective strategy for the target company to counter the rumors so that investors will be more willing to continue investing in the target firm. Drawing on source credibility theory and the moral intensity model, I propose that the most effective strategy would vary given different agents who are selected to counter the rumor. After conducting a 2 x 3 (counter-rumor source x counter-rumor strategy) experiment with 272 non-professional investors recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, my study shows that when an internal agent (e.g., the CEO) acts as a counter-rumor source, shareholders are more willing to invest in the company when the internal agent utilizes a denial strategy rather than a reassociation or a questioning strategy. In contrast, when an external agent (e.g., a famous food blogger) serves as the counter-rumor source, the external agent can also use a questioning strategy in addition to a denial strategy to motivate shareholders to be more willing to invest in the company; however, the external agent still needs to avoid from engaging a reassociation strategy. Moderated serial-mediation analysis shows that the persuasiveness of the counter-rumor information and investors' perceived rumor intensity serially mediate the effect of counter-rumor source on investors' willingness to invest, and this effect is conditioned on the different strategy used to counter the rumor. Overall, the main effect of counter-rumor source suggests that external agents are perceived as more persuasive, which leads investors to perceive less rumor intensity, making them more willing to invest in the target company. The results of my paper can thus inform companies' social media policy.

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