Impact of Antecedents of Celebrity-Product Congruence on Value Transfer and Purchase Intention: Moderating Effect of Cognitive Strength and Over-endorsement

ABSTRACT This research explores the effect of celebrity components – entertainment, attractiveness, intense attachment, and celebrity-product congruence – on consumers’ value transfer and their purchase intention. Further, the research focuses on understanding the situation of multiple endorsements and ascertains the over-endorsement effects on consumer buying intention. Besides these, the study also evaluates the moderating effect of cognitive strength on shoppers’ purchase intentions. Highly recognized and lesser-recognized brands were used to demonstrate the presence of over-endorsement impact on shoppers’ purchase intentions. Data were collected using the survey instrument from 267 respondents. Two-step structural equation modeling was carried out for analyzing the data. The findings suggest that celebrity components play a vital role in influencing consumers’ buying intention and over-endorsement negatively influences shoppers’ purchase intentions. This research provides new knowledge about celebrity endorsement among consumers who have a different familiarity with these brands. The present study thus contributes to the existing literature by examining how the relationship between consumer and celebrity is influenced by various celebrity components along with the moderating effects of cognitive strength and over-endorsement.