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DOI: 10.1177/1356766707084219 2008; 14; 57 Journal of Vacation Marketing

Vincent P. Magnini, Earl D. Honeycutt and Ashley M. Cross Understanding the use of celebrity endorsers for hospitality firms

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Understanding the use of celebrity endorsersfor hospitality firms

Vincent P. Magnini*, Earl D. Honeycutt and Ashley M. CrossReceived (in revised form): February 2007Anonymously refereed paper

*College of Business and Economics, Longwood University, 201 High Street, Farmville,

Virginia 23909, USA

Tel: (434) 395–2833; E-mail: [email protected]

Vincent P. Magnini, PhD (Old Dominion Univer-

sity) is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Long-

wood University. His research has appeared in

such publications as the Cornell Hotel and Res-

taurant Administration Quarterly, the International

Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Manage-

ment, the International Journal of Hospitality

Management, and the Journal of Services Mar-

keting.

Earl D. Honeycutt, Jr, PhD (University of Geor-

gia) is Professor of Business Administration Mar-

keting at Elon University, NC. He has published

more than 175 articles in such outlets as Cornell

Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly,

Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of

Advertising.

Ashley M. Cross is an undergraduate student

in the Department of Marketing at Longwood

University.

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS: celebrity endorser, credencequalities, experience qualities, hospitalityendorser, hotel endorser

Promotional clutter makes it extremely difficult forhospitality firms to capture the attention of pro-spective buyers with sales messages. One wayfirms attempt to penetrate clutter is by utilizing aneffective celebrity endorser. When the proper celeb-rity endorser is selected to represent a firm, sales

and brand image can be significantly bolstered.Conversely, selecting an inappropriate celebrityendorser severely reduces sales and brand reputa-tion. This research study collected data from aconvenience sample of 213 adults in the USA andfound that trustworthiness, expertise, and genuinesupport are important characteristics for an effectivecelebrity endorser to possess. Further, the findingsconfirm that a match between the celebrity’s andcompany’s image and values and the celebritybeing perceived by the buyer as part of his/herreference group are also statistically significantcharacteristics of an effective endorser.

INTRODUCTIONHospitality firms are finding it increasinglychallenging to penetrate marketplace clutterto gain consumer awareness. This difficultystems from the fact that primetime televisionis 24 per cent promotional content, consu-mer magazines are composed of 50 per centadvertising, and newspapers contain as muchas 64 per cent advertising.1 The averageconsumer is saturated daily with increasingnumbers of promotional messages. For ex-ample, consumers were exposed to approxi-mately 3600 sales messages per day in 1996,an increase from 1500 in 1984.2 The limitedcognitive capacity of a consumer makes itimpossible to comprehend such large num-bers of sales messages.3–4

One method of breaking through thispromotional clutter is to use an effective

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Journal of Vacation MarketingVol. 14 No. 1, 2008, pp. 57–69& SAGE PublicationsLos Angeles, London, New Delhiand Singapore.www.sagepublications.comDOI: 10.1177/1356766707084219



celebrity endorser in advertisements.Research suggests that successful celebrityendorsements can contribute to higher ad-vertisement ratings and product evaluations.5

Evidence also suggests that celebrity endor-sements can have a substantial impact onfinancial returns for the firms that use them.6

Endorsers are more effective when consu-mers believe that celebrities are motivated bya genuine liking of the product rather thanby endorsement earnings.7

Using a celebrity endorser can, however,be a double-edged sword. Selecting an in-appropriate celebrity can have a negativeimpact on immediate sales as well as a lastingblemish on brand image. For example, ac-cording to the findings of a ‘Celebrity Influ-ence Study’ recently conducted in the U.S.by market research firm NPD Group, fa-mous Americans Donald Trump, BritneySpears, Paris Hilton, and Kobe Bryant canactually make consumers want to buy less ofthe products that they are endorsing.8

Therefore, the key question is: what fac-tors determine whether a celebrity endorseris a promotional asset or a liability? Severalempirical studies have analyzed variables thatcontribute to an endorser’s effectiveness,9–11

but this study departs from existing researchin two ways. First, our research tests a morecomprehensive set of variables than previouscelebrity endorser studies; and second, in theliterature review, our article specifically re-lates each of the proposed variables tocharacteristics present in the hospitality in-dustry. That is, this article is the first todiscuss how the following factors influencethe drivers of celebrity endorser effective-ness: (1) the abundance of experience quali-ties and credence qualities in hospitalityencounters; (2) the social and psychologicalrisks associated with hospitality purchase si-tuations; (3) the difficulties associated withthe branding of hospitality offerings; and (4)the impact of affective states of consumers onpurchase encounter satisfaction that exist inhospitality encounters. Therefore, in sum-mary, the contribution of this article is aseries of findings and resulting managerialimplications that guide hospitality operatorsin selecting an effective celebrity endorser.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The effect of celebrity endorsers on

brand positioning and image formationIn recent years, a number of hospitality firmshave employed celebrity endorsers in at-tempts to change or solidify their competi-tive positions and to formulate or reinforcetheir brand’s image in the minds of consu-mers. Listed below are some examples:

• Mandarin Oriental, one of the world’sleading luxury hotel groups, has pub-lished ads that featured such celebrities asVivienne Tam, Kenzo Takada, IsabellaRossellini, Jerry Hall, Lance Armstrong,Michelle Yeoh, Frederick Forsyth, Va-nessa Mae, David Tang, Elle McPherson,Bryan Ferry, and I.M. Pei.

• Hotel brand, Red Roof Inn, presentedAmerican actor and celebrity MartinMull in a series of television commer-cials.

• Hotel brand, Motel 6, has featuredAmerican writer and celebrity Tom Bod-ett in a series of television commercials.

• Australian gold medalist swimmer andcelebrity Ian Thorpe was appointed asthe Australian Holiday Ambassador inJapan in order to endorse Australia as atourism destination.

• German soccer star Franz Beckenbauerwas a paid endorser of South Africa as atourism destination.

Firms employ celebrity endorsers becauseconsumers have a preconceived image of thecelebrity, and this image can often be trans-ferred to the endorsed brand.12 Theoreticalanchoring for this image transfer resides inassociative learning theory (ALT). ALT con-ceptualizes one’s memory as a network com-posed of various nodes joined by associativelinks.13 According to this theory, celebritiesand brands occupy nodes in the memory,which become connected over time throughthe endorsement process. Consequently, at-titudes toward the celebrity are projected totransfer to the endorsed brand through re-peated association.14 Recurring exposure tothese two stimuli triggers simultaneous acti-vation of memory nodes, representing those

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The use of celebrity endorsers for hospitality firms



stimuli, constructing an associative link be-tween the two nodes.15

Due to this memory association, a celeb-rity endorser can potentially make an adver-tisement more effective;16 can enhancemessage recall;17 and can aid in the recogni-tion of brand names.18 Similarly, celebritiescan be employed to reposition brands or tointroduce new brands.19 On the other hand,if the wrong celebrity is selected then noneof these positive outcomes will transpire.20

Now that the theoretical anchoring of theuse of celebrity endorsers has been explained,the literature review discusses individual fac-tors that determine the effectiveness of ce-lebrity endorsements.

TrustworthinessWithin the context of a celebrity endorse-ment, trustworthiness is defined as the hon-esty, integrity, and believability of anendorser as perceived by the target audi-ence.21 From a more pragmatic point ofview, trustworthiness can be described as thelistener’s degree of confidence in, and levelof acceptance of, the speaker and themessage.22 When celebrities make endorse-ments they must possess a high level oftrustworthiness because this directly providesconsumers with the confidence to believethe information communicated by the en-dorser. Trustworthiness also attaches cred-ibility to the delivered message. Stateddifferently, trustworthiness initiates a processcalled internalization in which the promo-tional message influences the consumer’s be-liefs, opinions, attitudes and behavior.23

Consequently, a celebrity endorser that pos-sesses a high level of trustworthiness will bemore likely to favorably change the attitudeof a consumer.24

This need for trustworthiness is germanefor hospitality endorsements due to the factthat transactions in the hospitality sector arehigh in experience qualities. Experiencequalities are attributes that can only be eval-uated during or after consumption.25 Forexample, a hotel’s website may list all prop-erty policies, features, and amenities (and caneven go as far as providing a virtual tour of

the property), but it is not until a consumeractually arrives and transacts at the propertythat many of the features of the hotel can beassessed. The abundance of experience quali-ties in the hospitality sector are a result of thehigh human component involved in a hospi-tality transaction. Due to the existence ofthese experience qualities it is of quintessen-tial importance for a celebrity endorser to betrustworthy when representing a hospitalityfirm. Hence, even if the consumer has notexperienced the hospitality offering, the en-dorser will be perceived as reliable enoughto confidently represent the firm. Basedupon these discussions, we hypothesize that:

H1: The greater the trustworthinessof a celebrity endorser, the greater his/hereffectiveness.

ExpertiseA celebrity selected to participate in anendorsement must have an acceptable levelof expertise to make an effective endorse-ment. Expertise is defined as the extent towhich a communicator is perceived to be asource of valid assertions.26 In the literature,expertise has also been termed ‘authori-tativeness’,27 ‘competence’,28 ‘expertness’,29

or ‘qualification’.30 When a celebrity pos-sesses a high level of expertise s/he is morepersuasive. An increased level of persuasionenables the endorser to have a greater abilityto positively alter the consumers’ attitude.31

More specifically, a consumer’s perceptionof the endorser’s expertise makes the celeb-rity message more powerful; thus, makingthe consumers’ move toward purchase morelikely.32

The importance of expertise is evidentlytrue in the case of a hospitality endorsementbecause, as stated earlier (due to experiencequalities spawned by the high human com-ponent in the hospitality industry), consu-mers do not possess sufficient knowledge tomake an educated judgment about the trans-action results. Due to this lack of knowledge,consumers may need the additional opinionof an expert to push them toward the actionof selecting a specific hospitality provider.

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Magnini, Honeycutt and Cross



The expertise of a celebrity provides theconsumer with a more concrete basis ofknowledge about the offering, which canthen assist in the formation of a positiveattitude regarding the hospitality provider.When a celebrity possesses a high level ofexpertise about a hospitality offering, theendorsement will be more likely result in afavorable action.In addition to experience qualities, cre-

dence qualities abound in the hospitalityindustry. Credence qualities are defined asattributes that a consumer may not be able toevaluate even after purchase and consump-tion due to the amount of knowledgeneeded to understand what the good orservice does.33 For instance, if a hotel guestreceives a mineral spa treatment, even afterpurchase, s/he does not know whether thedetoxifying claims of the spa treatment pro-vider have been realized. Therefore, a celeb-rity endorser who is perceived as an expertwill help the many past consumers, who arerelying on credence qualities, to believe thattheir transactions were in fact worthwhile.Due to the impact of the expert endorserpast consumers will be more likely to spreadpositive word-of-mouth regarding the hos-pitality firm. Hence, we hypothesize that:

H2: The greater the expertise of acelebrity endorser, the greater his/hereffectiveness.

Match of image and valuesCelebrities are most effective when theirimages closely match that of the firm forwhich they endorse.34 This same correlationholds true when considering the celebrity’svalues.35 Advertising through a celebritywhose image and values are highly similar tothe brand results in greater celebrity believ-ability in comparison to scenarios in whichthe celebrity’s image and values and those ofthe brand are dissimilar.36 A well-suited im-age and value match is vital due to the theoryof meaning transfer. According to this theo-ry, there is a typical path for the transfer ofcultural meaning in consumer societies. Thetransfer occurs in three stages: (1) the forma-

tion of celebrity image, (2) the transfer ofmeaning from celebrity to the endorseditem, and (3) transfer from the item to theconsumer.37 Since image and values transferbetween these three levels, congruency be-tween the endorser and the brand is essential.Image and value congruency are vital for

hospitality endorsements. In the case of thehotel industry, hotel firms are currently find-ing it difficult to differentiate themselvesfrom one another.38 In fact, without better-orchestrated branding strategies, many hotelschains are facing the potential risk of becom-ing ‘price-based commodities’.39 Due tothese circumstances, image and value con-gruency is imperative for endorsers of hotelbrands in order to create a clear picture of adifferentiated brand in the mind of potentialconsumers. Next, in the case of the tourismindustry, proper image and value match be-tween the endorser and the tourism destina-tion is critical because tourism destinationimages are extremely vulnerable to unfore-seen situational forces. For example, perhapsone can argue that the image of Aruba wastarnished due to the sad circumstances thatbefell American tourist, Natalie Holloway in2005. Since destination images are highlysusceptible to unforeseeable events, thestrong image and values of an effective celeb-rity endorser can be a significant asset. As aresult, we hypothesize that:

H3: The closer the match of image andvalues of a celebrity endorser and thatwhich they endorse, the greater his/hereffectiveness.

Genuine supportGenuine support can be described as a situa-tion in which it is known that the celebritysupports the item that s/he endorses both offand on camera.40 Genuine support is bene-ficial because it increases the credibility ofthe endorser in the eye of the public. Some-times this genuine support is achieved whenthe celebrity is asked not only to promotethe item, but also is asked to provide inputinto the item’s design and features.41 Thissituation then allows the product to be of

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greater importance to the celebrity, thus in-creasing the possibility that s/he will becomea frequent user of the offering. AmericanBasketball Legend, Magic Johnson, for ex-ample, regularly advises restaurant chain TGIFridays1 regarding their menu choices andtheir restaurant ambience.42

Genuine support is important when se-lecting a hospitality endorsement becausehospitality purchases often involve high le-vels of psychological and social risk.43 Forinstance, social and psychological risks aregreat when selecting a family vacation desti-nation (and the risk could be even greaterwhen planning a honeymoon or anniversaryget away). Likewise, selecting a hotel inwhich to conduct a business meeting, salespresentation, or negotiation session entailselevated levels risk. Thus, the celebrities’willingness to use the service themselvesprovides evidence that the service offerssatisfactory results. When it becomes knownthat a celebrity uses a hospitality service thatthey endorse it instills increased confidencein the consumer that the service is worthy ofreceiving. From this line of reasoning wehypothesize that:

H4: The greater the genuine support ofa celebrity endorser the higher his/hereffectiveness.

Reference groupConsumers often aspire to live like and looklike popular celebrities. Celebrities serve as areference group and they are able to influ-ence consumers when they consider makinga purchase.44 Therefore, to make a celebrityendorsement effective, a corporation shouldselect a celebrity that not only gains theattention of the target audience, but is alsosomeone who the consumer closely relatesto and has a strong desire to emulate.Due to the affect theory of social ex-

change, the importance of this match be-tween the endorser and the audience isevidently important when a hospitality offer-ing is being endorsed. The affect theory ofsocial exchange posits that, in a service set-ting, as the degree of shared responsibility

between the service provider and the custo-mer increases the degree of emotions and thepotential for resulting satisfaction or dissatis-faction also increases.45–46 That is, if the levelof transactional involvement is high (as is thecase in most hospitality-related transactions)the potential for a memorable experience,either positive or negative, is also high. Con-sequently, if the celebrity endorser is part ofthe consumer’s reference group then theconsumer may be inclined to believe that thecelebrity probably interacts similarly with theprovider and, therefore, the provider mustbe suitable. Hence, selecting a celebrity en-dorser that is part of the consumer’s refer-ence group is imperative for a hospitalityfirm offering. From this reasoning we hy-pothesize that:

H5: The greater the strength of a celebrityendorser as a reference group, the greaterhis/her effectiveness.

ExclusivityCertain celebrities choose to endorse multi-ple products, which decreases the effective-ness of their endorsements.47 However,when a celebrity opts to endorse a singleitem they are seen as being more believ-able.48 While it is sometimes difficult, cor-porations electing to use a celebrity endorsershould attempt to select a celebrity that doesnot have an overwhelming number endorse-ment deals. Finding a celebrity that possessesthe appropriate balance of popularity, recog-nition, and selective endorsements is a chal-lenge, yet such ‘due diligence’ will increasethe probability of endorsement success sincethe celebrity will be viewed as being morecredible.This exclusivity is important for a hospi-

tality endorsement because, due to experi-ence qualities, consumers must rely on whatthey are told by the celebrity endorser. Thismeans that the celebrity must be as believableas possible when endorsing a hospitality of-fering and a lack of previous or simultaneousendorsements will assist in this area. There-fore, we hypothesize that:

1




H6: All other things being equal, the few-er endorsements made by a celebrity, thehigher his/her effectiveness.

METHODOLOGYThe survey contained in Appendix A wasemployed to test six research hypotheses.The survey was distributed to a conveniencesample of 402 adults in the USA that resultedin 213 usable responses. The survey wasdistributed via undergraduate business stu-dents at a small university located in themid-Atlantic region of the USA. Studentswere given three hard copies of the surveyand were instructed to have any non-studentAmerican adults complete the surveys duringtheir fall holiday and return them to theirprofessor upon their return to school inexchange for a small amount of course extracredit. The mean age of the respondents was40 years old and 50 per cent were female.As seen in Appendix A, the first set of

survey items asked subjects to identify aneffective celebrity endorser and to respondto the items in reference to that celebrity.The next set of survey items directed respon-dents to recall a celebrity endorser that theyfelt was ineffective and to indicate their levelof agreement to the same set of survey itemsin reference to that celebrity. This approachof asking respondents to identify celebrities isnecessary to test the hypotheses because ex-tant research indicates that an individual’sconsumer characteristics influence percep-tions of endorser effectiveness.49 For exam-ple, if a celebrity is perceived to be part ofthe consumer’s reference group then thiscould enhance perceptions of endorsementeffectiveness.50

The data were analyzed using SPSS 14.0for Windows. Since the hypothesis testingentailed whether the means of the ‘effectiveendorser’ scores differed significantly fromthe means of the ‘ineffective endorser’scores, a paired-samples t-test was con-ducted. The variables in this study weremeasured by asking subjects to indicate theirlevel of agreement on nine point likert-typescales ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to

‘strongly agree’ (9) for the following surveyitems:

Operationalization of the trustworthiness vari-able: ‘This celebrity is trustworthy.’

Operationalization of the expertise variable:‘This celebrity is an expert regarding theitem(s) that s/he was endorsing.’

Operationalization of the image and valuesmatch variable: ‘The image and values of thiscelebrity matched well with the image andvalues of the company(ies) that s/he wasrepresenting.’

Operationalization of the genuine supportervariable: ‘This celebrity was a genuine sup-porter of the item(s) that s/he endorsed.’

Operationalization of the reference group vari-able: In the marketing literature, there existtwo types of positive reference groups: thefirst is termed a membership reference groupin which people feel that they become for-mal members; and the second is called aspira-tional in which people aspire to emulate agroup.51 Since these two distinct dimensionsexist, two questions were used on the surveyto operationalize the reference group con-struct. ‘I could ‘relate to’ this celebrity;’ wasemployed to assess membership effects; and ‘Insome respects, I tried to emulate this celeb-rity’ was used to operationalize aspirationaleffects.

Operationalization of the exclusivity variable:‘This celebrity had (has) a lot of endorsementcontracts with different companies.’

RESULTSMean differences, standard deviations, andresults of the t-test are presented in Table 1.As stated in Hypothesis 1, individuals feltthat the trustworthiness of an effective celeb-rity endorser (M ¼ 6.94, SD ¼ 1.53) wassignificantly greater than the trustworthinessof an ineffective celebrity endorser (M ¼4.30, SD ¼ 1.96). Results of the paired-samples t-test indicate the mean difference tobe statistically significant (t ¼ 17.01, p ,0.001); thus, H1 is supported. Next, H2posits that a celebrity that is perceived to be

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an expert in the endorsed item’s category ismore effective than a celebrity that is notperceived as being an expert. Findings indi-cate that subjects did in fact rate an effectiveendorser higher in the expertise category (M¼ 5.66, SD ¼ 2.50) than an ineffectiveendorser (expertise: M ¼ 3.67, SD ¼ 2.17).Furthermore, as shown in Table 1, results ofthe paired samples t-test confirm that meandifference is statistically significant (t ¼10.20, p , 0.001) and support H2.Hypothesis 3 predicts that a celebrity that

is perceived by the consumer to match theimage and values of the company that s/he isdoing the endorsement is more effective thanone that does not possess this match. Resultsindicate that when respondents were de-scribing an effective endorser the perceivedmatch was higher (M ¼ 6.98, SD ¼ 1.72)than when the subjects were describing anineffective endorser (M ¼ 4.28, SD ¼ 2.08).Moreover, findings of the paired-samplest-test indicate that mean difference was sta-tistically significant (t ¼ 15.74, p , 0.001)and support H3.As predicted by Hypothesis 4, an effective

celebrity endorser will have greater genuinesupport for the endorsed item [as perceivedby the consumer] (M ¼ 7.05, SD ¼ 1.86)than an ineffective celebrity endorser (genu-ine support: M ¼ 4.55, SD ¼ 2.03). Resultsof the paired-samples t-test indicate the mean

difference is statistically significant (t ¼14.83, p , 0.001); thus, H4 is supported.According to these results, genuine supportappears to be an attribute of an effectivecelebrity endorser.Hypothesis 5 posits that the greater the

strength of a celebrity endorser as a referencegroup, the greater his/her effectiveness.Consequently, the hypothesis was tested, inpart, by asking the respondent if they could‘relate to’ their example of an effectivecelebrity endorser (relate: M ¼ 6.06, SD ¼1.97) and whether they could ‘relate to’ theirexample of an ineffective celebrity endorser(relate: M ¼ 3.06, SD ¼ 2.00). Findings ofthe paired-samples t-test indicate the meandifference to be statistically significant (t ¼16.14, p , 0.001); hence H5 is supportedbased upon this measure as the membershipdimension of reference groups appears toinfluence an endorser’s effectiveness. As ex-plained in the previous section, since refer-ence groups also have an aspirationaldimension,52 respondents were also askedwhether they try to emulate the celebritythey selected. Findings indicate that consu-mers are more apt to emulate an effectiveendorser (M ¼ 4.55, SD ¼ 2.37) than toemulate an ineffective endorser (M ¼ 2.39,SD ¼ 1.83). According to the paired-samplest-test, this mean difference is statistically sig-nificant (t ¼ 12.78, p , 0.001); thus this

Table 1: Paired samples t-test results

Paired differences

Std Std Error

95% Confidenceinterval of thedifference

Sig.Mean Deviation Mean Lower Upper t Df (2-tailed)

Pair 1 eff/trust – in/trust 2.643 2.268 0.155 2.337 2.950 17.006 212 0.000Pair 2 eff/expert – in/expert 1.995 2.856 0.196 1.610 2.381 10.197 212 0.000Pair 3 eff/image – in/image 2.704 2.507 0.172 2.366 3.043 15.743 212 0.000Pair 4 eff/genui – in/genui 2.498 2.458 0.168 2.166 2.830 14.828 212 0.000Pair 5 eff/relate – in/relate 3.005 2.717 0.186 2.638 3.372 16.140 212 0.000Pair 6 eff/emula – in/emula 2.160 2.467 0.169 1.826 2.493 12.775 212 0.000Pair 7 eff/lots – in/lots 0.629 3.053 0.209 0.217 1.041 3.008 212 0.003

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serves as the second indicator that H5 issupported.Hypothesis 6 predicts that celebrities that

appear in numerous endorsements will beperceived to be less effective than celebritiesthat have few endorsement deals. Hence,when the respondent was referring to his/her example of an effective endorser, s/hewas asked to state his/her agreement [1 ¼strongly disagree; 7 ¼ strongly agree] withthe following statement: ‘this celebrity had(has) a lot of endorsement contracts withdifferent companies’ and the mean score was5.49 (SD ¼ 2.52). Likewise, when the re-spondent was referring to his/her example ofan ineffective endorser, s/he was asked toreact to the same statement and the meanscore was 4.86 (SD ¼ 2.37). According tothe paired-samples t-test, the mean differ-ence is significant (t ¼ 3.01, p ¼ 0.003), butis not significant in the hypothesized direc-tion; thus H6 was not supported. One possi-ble conjecture as to why this hypothesis issignificant in the opposite direction could bethe pragmatic viewpoint that if a celebrity isan effective endorser then s/he is simplysought after by more companies with endor-sement offers.

DISCUSSIONConsumers are bombarded with thousandsof sales messages each day.53 One way tocapture consumer attention in a clutteredmarketplace is to employ celebrity endorsers.An effective celebrity endorser can bolsterboth sales and brand image while an inap-propriate endorser can quickly have a nega-tive effect. Therefore, this article considers

factors that are unique to hospitality offeringsand details the attributes that are necessaryfor an effective hospitality endorser. From apragmatic perspective, hotel and tourism op-erators may need guidance in understandinghow to identify these necessary character-istics of an endorser; hence, the followingguidelines are provided:

Trustworthiness: Results from this study indi-cate that a celebrity’s trustworthiness is sig-nificantly associated with his/her endorsingeffectiveness. In a general sense, past behav-ior is the best predictor of future actions.Therefore, a celebrity’s track record, assessedthrough the use of available information, canbe an indicator of his/her trustworthiness. Inaddition, Ohanian (1990) developed and va-lidated a survey mechanism that firms canutilize to gauge whether or not consumersfeel that a particular celebrity istrustworthy.54 By employing this mechan-ism, hospitality firms can ask consumers toutilize the semantic differential scales pro-vided in Table 2 to assess a celebrity’s trust-worthiness.

Expertise: Study findings also indicate that acelebrity’s expertise is a driver of his/herendorsing effectiveness. Like trustworthiness,Ohanian (1990) also created and tested a toolfirms can use to assess a celebrity’s expertisefor a particular endorsement.55 The surveyitems that hoteliers and tourism operatorscan employ to measure the public’s percep-tions of a celebrity’s expertise regarding theirhospitality offering is listed in Table 3.

Match of Images and Values: The results of thisstudy clearly demonstrate that a celebrityendorsement is more effective when the

Table 2: The trustworthiness dimension of the celebrity endorser – credibility

scale

Dependable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ UndependableHonest ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ DishonestReliable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ UnreliableSincere ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ InsincereTrustworthy ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Untrustworthy

Source: Ohanian (1990)

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image and values of the endorser match theimage and values of the sponsor company. Inorder to best match the image and values ofthe hospitality brand with the image andvalues of an endorser, practitioners must firstunderstand how consumers perceive theirbrand. A research technique known as per-ceptual mapping can be used to achieve thispurpose. While a detailed description of theperceptual mapping process is outside therealm of this article, perceptual mapping is ameans of collecting customer data andgraphing, in two or more dimensions, thelocation of brands in the customer’s minds.56

After the consumers’ perceptions of thebrand have been elicited, managers can thenattempt to amend or reinforce the image.Next, to assess consumer’s perceptions of acelebrity’s values, managers can use qualita-tive research techniques such as sentencecompletion or word association tools. Oncethe image and values of both brand and ofthe celebrity have been identified it is easierto achieve a match.

Genuine Support: Our findings indicate that acelebrity’s genuine support of the endorseditem significantly contributes to an endorse-ment’s effectiveness. In many circumstances(e.g. tourist destinations, full service, andresort hotels), hospitality firms select an en-dorser who is already a loyal customer andgenuinely supports the service offering. Thismay be difficult for certain hospitality firms(e.g., economy hotels); therefore, as men-tioned earlier, one way to gain genuinesupport from the endorser in such cases is toallow the celebrity to offer input into thedesign of the offering. Such collaborationhelps the celebrity ‘buy into’ the messageconveyed in the endorsement.

Reference Group: Lastly, our results provideevidence that an endorsement is more effec-tive when a consumer perceives a celebrityto be part of his/her reference group. Inorder to achieve the desired match betweenthe firm’s target audience and an endorser,focus groups can be conducted with mem-bers of the target audience. Focus groupsessions should probe consumer perceptionsof themselves as well as their opinions re-garding potential endorsers.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE

RESEARCHA number of important research implicationsemanate from this article. First, the variablesidentified in this research are likely corre-lated and a limitation of this study is thatthese linkages between variables were notexamined. Therefore, future studies shouldemploy a more restrictive methodology likestructural modeling to determine the causalpaths between the constructs. Second, dueto the power of word-of-mouth communi-cations in the hospitality arena, it would beinformative to more closely examine theimpact of celebrity endorsements on theword-of-mouth behaviors of past patrons.For example, does the testimony of a celeb-rity spawn the desire of a patron to also offertestimony? Third, some companies (outsideof the hospitality sector) now utilize ani-mated characters in the role of celebrityendorsers to avoid potential public relationsdilemmas associated with a celebrity’s ‘real-life’ problems. Hence, future research shouldconsider the usefulness of animated endorsersin the hospitality industry.Another area ripe for investigation would

Table 3: The expertise dimension of the celebrity endorser – credibility scale

Expert ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Not an expertExperienced ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ InexperiencedKnowledgeable ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ UnknowledgeableSincere ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ UnqualifiedTrustworthy ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Unskilled

Source: Ohanian (1990)

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be to study how the use of celebrity spokes-persons is perceived in various cultures. Ce-lebrity endorsements, for example, are morecommon in Japan than in other countries.57

Due to the recent globalization of manyhotel brands and the fact that tourist destina-tions can potentially draw guests fromaround the globe, culture’s influence on thepractice of celebrity endorsements is a topicof particular importance for those in thehospitality business.Lastly, another limitation of this study is

that a consumer’s past history with a hotelbrand was not considered in this research. Itis plausible that if a consumer has had a seriesof past transactions with a hospitality provi-der then a celebrity endorsement may be lesseffective because the consumer can baseperceptions of brand image upon his/herown past experiences. This conjectureshould be empirically tested in future workin order to give hospitality operators a betterunderstanding of the use of celebrity endor-sers.

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APPENDIX ASECTION 1: Please think of one celebrity endorser that you feel was EFFECTIVEin positively influencing at least one of your purchase decisions.

IN REFERENCE TO THIS CELEBRITY, please indicate your extent of agreementwith the following statements:

This celebrity is trustworthy.

This celebrity is an expert regarding the item(s) that s/he was endorsing.

The image and values of this celebrity matched well with the image and values of thecompany(ies) that s/he was representing.

This celebrity was a genuine supporter of the item(s) that s/he endorsed.

I could ‘relate to’ this celebrity.

In some respects, I tried to emulate this celebrity.

This celebrity had (has) a lot of endorsement contracts with different companies.

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SECTION 2: Please think of one celebrity endorser that you feel was INEFFECTIVE in

positively influencing at least one of your purchase decisions.

IN REFERENCE TO THIS CELEBRITY, please indicate your extent of agreementwith the following statements:

This celebrity is trustworthy.

This celebrity is an expert regarding the item(s) that s/he was endorsing.

The image and values of this celebrity matched well with the image and values of thecompany(ies) that s/he was representing.

This celebrity was a genuine supporter of the item(s) that s/he endorsed.

I could ‘relate to’ this celebrity.

In some respects, I tried to emulate this celebrity.

This celebrity had (has) a lot of endorsement contracts with different companies.

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endosso celebridades

Business

use of celebrity endorsers

effective endorser

successful celebrity

journal of services

ex endorser

hotel endorser ample

journal ofhospitality

hospitality firmsvincent