The impact of a celebrity endorser's credibility on consumer self-brand connection and brand evaluation

Celebrity endorsements are a popular marketing communication's strategy globally. Yet, there is limited understanding of how celebrity endorsements influence consumers' self-brand connections as well as brand evaluation of an endorsed brand. Emergent research reveals support for an indirect mechanism by which endorser credibility facilitates consumer outcomes. The present research has two objectives. The first is to assess the impact of endorser credibility on consumers' self-brand connection, an emergent concept that captures the consumer tendency to integrate a brand into their self-concept. Celebrities represent aspirational reference groups for consumers, and an investigation of how celebrities shape consumers' self-brand connections and subsequent brand evaluations adds novelty to the branding literature. The second objective is to examine a possible mediating role of self-brand connection towards generating endorsed brand evaluation. We develop a conceptual model and estimate it using data generated from consumers of telecom brands. The model achieves acceptable fit to the data, supporting most of the hypotheses. Self-brand connection is offered as an outcome of endorser credibility as well as a mediator of the influence of endorser credibility on brand evaluation. The findings have useful implications for brand managers contemplating the use of celebrity endorsements. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.