Background - Celebrity endorsement is not a new phenomenon and it can be seen in advertisements around the world. Since the content of an advertisement easily can be screened out, it is important to target the right consumer. There has to be a fit between the consumer, the endorser and the product. Since gender plays a crucial part when understanding consumer behavior, knowledge about gender differences needs to be taken into account when creating a marketing strategy.      Purpose - Consumers in today’s society are being exposed to an extreme amount of advertisements and other marketing tools. Advertisements in connection to gender are an uncertain and complex issue since the consumer is largely affected by gender differences. Today, the concept of using a celebrity in advertisements is a common tool for marketers in order to efficiently reach out to the right target customer. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to study the relationship between consumer behavior and the use of gender differences as a marketing strategy. Significantly, how celebrity endorsers influence female and male consumers differently in the Swedish sport industry.   Method - This thesis was conducted using an abductive approach together with a mixed methods approach. The data was collected with the use of focus groups and a questionnaire, resulting in a qualitative as well as quantitative approach. The data from the questionnaire complemented the data from the focus groups, which lead to a deeper understanding of the topic.   Findings - The findings of this thesis show that both the gender of the consumer and the gender of the celebrity need to be taken into account when creating a marketing strategy. Further, the authors argue that consumers are filtering information in promotions differently depending on gender, and therefore knowledge of gender differences will influence the effectiveness of a celebrity endorsed promotion. The findings of this thesis strengthen previous literature to some extent, but do also enhance the readers to new insights.

The objective of the diploma thesis was to evaluate the suitability of choosing beach volleyball representatives Kristýna Kolocová and Markéta Sluková as the new faces of the adidas brand women's cosmetics line. Following the introduction of the adidas brand is an account of products portfolio distributed by this brand, description of their communication and characteristics of communication of their main competitor. Secondary research prepared the necessary basis for the primary character. The means of the primary research was a questionnaire, which was distributed to 162 respondents mainly from the University of Economics. The result was a finding, that Kristýna and Markéta are known by approximately half of the subjects and that the absence of the main communication channel, television, was a probable influence on the awareness of the subjects about cooperation with the adidas women's cosmetics brand. The recommendation for future marketing campaigns is more intensive communication via internet and the use of television as the key communication channels.

The concept of vampire effect in advertising appears to be underresearched by marketing specialists. In the race for getting attention of target audience advertisers often use special attention-getting devices. This in turn exposes them to a higher risk of creating a vampire effect when the core message about the brand or a product is eaten up by such devices. Therefore this study provides deepeer insights into the vampire effect occurences. A deductive approach is used. First secondary literature review on preconditions of vampire effect occurrences and various types of vampire effect is covered. Primary data collection and analysis is performed next. This part is narrowed down to researching vampire effect risks when using celebrities as attention-getting device in printed advertisement. Research tools of this study include an eye-tracking device and a survey of 72 students from the University of Economics in Prague. The research concludes that a significantly higher risk of creating a vampire effect exists when using an unrelated attention-getting device. Marketers are advised to use related celebrities if choosing to stick to the attention-getting device approach. However, the concept of "relatedness" should be effectively pre-tested prior to advertising campaign start.

The aim of this master thesis is to find out whether celebrity endorsement is influencing factor on decision-making process when purchasing cosmetics (hair care and skin care) in Czech market. Master thesis is divided into two main parts. Theoretical part describes consumer decision-making process, role of celebrity endorsement and examples how celebrity endorsement is used nowadays by L'Oréal. Practical part then focuses on analysis of consumer behaviour through quantitative (online questionnaire) and qualitative research (focus groups) in order to analyse what consumer thinks about celebrity endorsement and to which extent is Czech beauty shopper influenced by it. Thanks to these analyses I was able to identify the most influencing factors, position celebrity endorsement within this group and create set of recommendations regarding most important tools when promoting skin care and hair care products on Czech market.

Vilken roll spelar offentliga personer i Cancerfondens externa kommunikation på Instagram, och vilka tänkbara identiteter kan detta generera i? Vi har gjort en kvalitativ retorisk undersökning med material insamlat från Cancerfondens Instagram, där specifikt inlägg med offentliga personers medverkan studerats. I analysen diskuteras materialet utifrån tre identitetskategorier som var särskilt utmärkande bland inläggen: Familj, Det vardagliga livet och Det hälsosamma livet. Vi presenterar ett resultat som tyder på att offentliga personer har en central roll i skapandet av relationer till en tänkt publik, vilket i sin tur kan genereras i olika identiteter. Cancerfondens kommunikativa arbete tolkas ha ett genomgående fokus med syfte att skapa en gemenskapskänsla i deras relationer med hjälp av de offentliga personerna. Denna relation tycks styras mer eller mindre av en medieframställd bild av den offentliga personen, som dessutom ska gestalta en “vanlig” människa. Det gör att vi kritiserar hur trovärdig och äkta denna relation faktiskt är.

The trial and verdict of Rakim Mayers, also known as ASAP Rocky, caused major media attention during the summer of 2019. The aim of this bachelor study was to examine how news journalism represented the case “ASAP Rocky” in Swedish tabloids. The research questions examined were: How does journalism portray the story of the victim and perpetrator in the case “ASAP Rocky” ? What are the differences and similarities in how victim and perpetrator are constructed? How does the story develop in Swedish tabloids during the case “ASAP Rocky”?    We used Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) to identify reoccurring discourses in the description of the case “ASAP Rocky”. By examining the characters, victim and perpetrator in Swedish tabloids, we found that there was no idealistic role portrayed in the case. Both the victim and the perpetrator were described as insufficient. One discursive theme was that the victim is inadequate since ASAP Rocky´s status as a celebrity provides him an advantage. This discourse is identified also in texts describing ASAP Rocky as a perpetrator. The study showed that the different discourses concern moral values in various contradictions, such as good - evil, right - wrong and “we” versus “them”.    Our study shows that the discourses we found contributes to the creation of celebrities and the discourse that celebrities are unreachable. The conclusion of this study is that media contributes to the stereotype of celebrities.

Celebrity endorsements have become an increasingly common phenomenon in marketing. Simultaneously the world has been digitalized and social media is now a matter of course rather than an exception. The most active people on digital platforms have been shown to be young people. The aim of this study was to investigate how young consumers' attitudes and trust are affected by celebrity endorsement as a result of the increased use of social media. The study was performed with a qualitative method based on a focus group interview and several individual semi-structured interviews. The results showed critical attitudes towards the strategy where celebrities through social media are seen as ordinary people. The interest in celebrities turned out to be saturated. At the same time, some form of connection was shown to celebrities in order to create trust. The analysis showed an ambiguity in some aspects, however, celebrity endorsers were found to have a major impact on brand recognition which benefit companies marketing and simplify consumers' purchase decisions.

Celebrity humanitarianism has become a notable field of research within Communication for Development. Largely built around case studies of individual celebrities engaging in the development and humanitarian fields, mostly postcolonial and neoliberal critique has been put forth regarding the effects of such engagements. These critiques at times go to the extent of suggesting that celebrity humanitarians might be doing more harm than good by for example shifting the focus away from underlying structures. As the field of study often provides more critique than constructive suggestions, this study is built as a deductive case study aiming to test the extent to which current prominent theoretical frameworks are able to understand celebrity humanitarianism when a celebrity humanitarian is studied as a more comprehensive construct. The focus of the case study is the Barbadian singer Rihanna and her cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty. The dominant theories are challenged with including a business aspect of the celebrity’s ‘ecosystem’ and by examining such aspect through a Corporate Social Responsibility lens.

Background: Social media changed the way of communication between brands and consumers and further enables people to become famous and create their own celebrity brand. Hence, celebrity brands are a new phenomenon, rarely studied by past research but becoming more important in the context of consumer-brand-relationships. Those relationships are similar to interpersonal ones, which are also highly affected by emotions. Negative emotions are perceived to have a higher impact on the relationship and are reflected in consumer behavior, for example, in avoiding the brand. Purpose: Besides the behavioral outcomes of negative emotions toward celebrity brands, the study strives to examine the reasons for negative emotions. Additionally, the purpose of the study is to investigate possible neutralization actions that celebrity brands can undertake to alleviate the negative emotions of consumers. Method: The study followed an exploratory research design. The qualitative data collection was done by conducting semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected based on the criterion of having negative emotions toward a celebrity brand and using social media. In total, 16 interviews were conducted. Conclusion: Negative emotions were either elicited by characteristics or behaviors of the celebrity. Whereas characteristics, e.g. attractiveness, are difficult to influence for celebrities, unfavorable behaviors, e.g. greed and violence, that trigger negative consumer emotions are preventable by the celebrities. The consumers start avoiding, unfollowing, and spreading negative word-of-mouth about the celebrity if they feel negatively toward the brand. To neutralize negative emotions, the celebrity brands are recommended to engage in building authenticity, trust, acceptance, attachment, and adding value to society. However, due to the consumers unfollowing the celebrity, the biggest challenge for celebrity brands is to address neutralization actions in a noticeable way for consumers.

As the digital society, built up by the internet, gradually changes people's lives, online celebrities are emerging in China and have discovered the huge business opportunities of online platforms by establishing their own brands. Many brands created by Chinese online celebrities are increasingly popular among consumers, such as Li Ziqi and Taozi Sister. Responding to the emergence and popularity of Chinese online celebrities and their brands, this study – drawing on the source-credibility model and the stimulus organism response model – will investigate the determinants of Chinese consumers’ purchase intention regarding online-celebrity brand products. Following a survey of 198 valid questionnaires of Chinese consumers, the empirical results show that the attractiveness of online-celebrity brand products and consumers’ affection for online celebrities are important factors in encouraging consumers to purchase online-celebrity brand products. The expertise of online-celebrity brand products, and consumers’ trust in online celebrities, do not significantly influence consumers' purchase intentions. This means that Chinese people's purchase behavior regarding online-celebrity brand products seems to be emotional rather than rational. This study advances understanding of online celebrity and online-celebrity brands, which contributes to the literature on celebrity effects and brands.