Celebrity Endorsement—The North–South Divide

Abstract

Celebrity endorsement is an age-old concept and several studies have attempted to bring out an array of perspectives about celebrity endorsement. An umpteen number of studies supported the huge money spent on celebrity endorsers. It is proved that a celebrity endorser has the power to influence the opinions, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of the viewers. However, in the Indian context, in spite of huge industry presence, very limited effort had been made in the past to understand celebrity endorsements. This article aims to bring out the perceived differences in the endorser's credibility between South and North Indian film stars. The study results suggest that there are perceived differences among credibility dimensions between the film stars, with particular importance attached to the attractiveness and expertise dimensions. However, the trustworthiness dimension received the highest importance in credibility evaluations.

Culture and Communication: Effects of Cultural Values and Source Credibility in a Multicultural Society, Nigeria

“…Surprisingly, expertise and attractiveness are perceived contrary to findings from existing studies. Expertise of the endorsers is perceived from their acting domain -professionalismin contrast to the prevalent views in past studies (Petty et al, 1981;Premeaux, 2005) and attractiveness which refers to the beauty and elegance (physical) attribute of a celebrity (Ohanian, 1990;Venkatesakumar, Sathyanarayanan, & Sathish, 2012;D. Yoon & Kim, 2016) is perceived as "ability to pull crowd"; in other word, the celebrity's aura of crowd attraction.…”

Exploring the Relationship Between Celebrity Worship and Brand Equity: The Mediating Role of Self-brand Connection

“…The present research is conducted in North India due to the fact that marketers mostly use celebrities from North Indian movie industry (Bollywood) as compared to South India and consumers are easily able to identify with them (Venkatesakumar et al, 2012). Following Singh and Banerjee (2018), the respondents were asked about their favourite celebrity and the brands endorsed by them.…”