Research in the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing has investigated the effect of celebrity endorsements on consumer attitudes and purchasing decisions. The work focused on particular well-known brands and the influence of fan identification.
Eduardo Fons, Maria-José Miquel-Romero, Manuel Cuadrado-García, and Juan D. Montoro-Pons of the University of Valencia in Valencia, Spain, surveyed 324 Spanish football league fans. They asked questions to find out about brand recall, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions related to celebrity-endorsed sports brands. The team’s findings challenge the received wisdom that prominent brands significantly benefit from celebrity endorsements. Indeed, the implication is that the glamour has faded somewhat and that fans in this niche are perhaps experiencing celebrity fatigue when it comes to these kinds of so-called influencers.
Since the 1960s, sport has evolved into a major form of mass entertainment. Athletes in many sporting areas, particularly football (soccer) leading players at the big teams have become celebrities. As such, these people can attract not only enormous fees from their clubs but command significant sponsorship from brands hoping to exploit their fame.
Billions of dollars are invested in sponsorships each year, with some two-thirds of that being directed toward sports. Celebrity endorsement as a marketing strategy has for many years been a big part of this especially in attempting to influence younger people with disposable income.
However, the present study suggests that the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements depends on the attributes of both the celebrity and the brand. Celebrities and brands bring unique characteristics to an endorsement relationship, and their compatibility can significantly impact the campaign’s success. The team adds that until this work there was something of a gap in the research literature regarding the differential effects of celebrities and brands in endorsement campaigns, especially when both are already well-known.
The most important finding from the work is that a fan’s identification with a celebrity plays a crucial role in their perception of endorsements. Fans who strongly identify with a celebrity are more likely to recall the endorsed brand and exhibit positive attitudes and purchase intentions towards it. However, for prominent brands, celebrity endorsement does not change this significantly. In other words, celebrity endorsement does not necessarily boost sales of a previously strong and prominent brand. Marketing departments for such brands might save their money and side-step the sports stars.
Fons, E., Miquel-Romero, M-J., Cuadrado-García, M. and Montoro-Pons, J.D. (2024) ‘I like you, but I don’t need you: the diminishing returns of celebrity endorsement for popular brands’, Int. J. Sport Management and Marketing, Vol. 24, Nos. 3/4, pp.244–261.
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