Effects Of Celebrity Endorsement And Internet Celebrity Endorsement On Consumer Purchase Intention

Internet celebrities began to turn from recommending products in social media to product endorsement in multiple platforms.Coupled with the prominent economic effect of Internet celebrity,Internet celebrity endorsement has been highly valued by enterprises.In the meantime,celebrity endorsement is still the best choice for enterprises to promote their products.As Internet celebrities,which are similar to celebrities in terms of popularity,reliability and professionalism,they also have different characteristics from celebrities.Therefore,Internet celebrity endorsement is a new type of advertising endorsement.In addition,due to the short time and rapid development of Internet celebrities,domestic and foreign scholars have made preliminary explorations on Internet celebrities,but the focus of research has not yet focused on the utility of Internet celebrity endorsement.A small amount of research on the impact of Internet celebrities on consumer purchase intention has not separated Internet celebrities from celebrities,online stores and other aggregates.Therefore,there is still a lack of research on the impact of Internet celebrities on consumer purchase intention under the background of the rapid development of Internet celebrity endorsement,which is not conducive to responding to the question of whether the company chooses the Internet celebrity as a spokesperson and Internet celebrity endorsement effect.Besides,the existing theory is difficult to explain the underlying mechanism that consumer purchase intention is influenced by consumers' different personality traits(self-concept)which are activated under the complicated and varied marketing scenarios,that is,they cannot better clarify why celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement can stimulate consumers' different self-concepts and explain how consumers' different self-concepts influence consumer purchase intention.In the meaning while,the academic community attaches great importance to the utility analysis between celebrity endorsement and other types of advertising endorsements,involving celebrity endorsement with entrepreneurial endorsement,expert endorsement,typical consumer endorsement on consumer purchase intention,however,existing research does not focus on the utility analysis between celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement,which is out of touch with the development of marketing practice of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement.Finally,only when celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement are matched with the appropriate type of advertising appeal,can the optimal persuasion effect of advertising endorsement be realized.Therefore,how to match the type of advertising appeal with celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement remains to be further explored.In view of this,it is necessary to deeply explore the influence,mechanism and boundary conditions of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement on consumers'purchase intention.This study starts with the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement,draws on the utility of celebrity endorsements,and combines the characteristics of Internet celebrities.The analogy finds that Internet celebrity endorsement may also has a positive impact on consumers' purchase intention compared with no spokespersons.Secondly,by deeply analyzing different characteristics of celebrities and Internet celebrities,ideal self and real self in self-concept are introduced as intermediary variables.Because consumers mostly regard celebrities as their idols,who have a larger social distance from consumers,a larger social distance will make the consumers treat themselves with an abstract,general and core mental representation,which is easy to stimulate the consumers' ideal self.However,consumers mostly treat Internet celebrities as their friends,who have a smaller social distance from the consumers,and a smaller social distance will make the consumers treat themselves with a concrete,superficial and partial mental representation,which is easy to stimulate the consumers' real self.Meanwhile,the consumers whose different types of self are stipulated are more willing to buy products endorsed by celebrities or Internet celebrities,in order to maintain,enhance and extend the stimulated image or keep consistent with the simulated self.Finally,the celebrity endorsement stimulates the ideal self of the consumer.The consumer in the ideal self state will put the core characteristics of the inner self into the actual consideration,and pursue the return of individual expression,identity and image shaping brought by the product.The symbolic appeal of advertising focuses on expressing a lifestyle,social status and symbolic meaning through products,therefore,matching the symbolic appeal of advertisements with celebrity endorsement can more easily enhance consumers' willingness to buy products endorsed by celebrities.Similarly,Internet celebrity endorsement activates the consumer's real self.The consumers in the real self state aim at action guidance,paying attention to the functional return of the product's instrumentality and practicability.The functional appeal focuses on informing consumers of the main functions,prominent performance and comparative advantages of the product,so the matching of the functional appeal of the advertisement with the endorsement of Internet celebrity endorsement is easier to improve consumers'willingness to buy products endorsed by Internet celebrities.Based on the above discussion,this study proposes the following theoretical hypotheses:(1)compared with no spokesperson,celebrity endorsement increase consumers'purchase intention;(2)Internet celebrity endorsement can also improve consumers'purchase intention;(3)celebrity endorsement stimulates consumers'ideal self,which increases consumers'consumers'purchase intention;(4)Internet celebrity endorsement stimulates consumers'real self,which increases consumers'consumers'purchase intention;(5)compared with the functional appeal of advertisement,in the case of symbolic appeal of advertisement,celebrity endorsement can better stimulate consumers'purchase intention;(6)compared with the symbolic appeal of the advertisement,in the case of the functional appeal of the advertisement,the Internet celebrity endorsement can better stimulate consumers'purchase intention.This study confirmed the experimental stimulus materials based on a preliminary experiment,and then explored the impact of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement on consumers' purchase intention through four scenario experiments.Based on the pre-experiment,we selected the required celebrities and Internet celebrities for the formal experiment.Experiment 1 preliminarily verified that there was no significant difference in the impact of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement on consumers' purchase intention.Experiment 2 verified the mediating mechanism of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement for consumers' purchase intention---ideal self and real self.Experiment 3 further verified the rationality of mediating role between ideal self and real self by means of priming.Experiment 4 verified the impact of appeal types of advertising---symbolic appeals and functional appeals and the interaction between celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement on consumers' purchase intention,and concluded that the symbolic appeals of advertising are more matching with celebrity endorsement,while the functional appeals are more matching with Internet celebrity endorsement.All experiments used different types of products,and in Experiment 3,we replaced female celebrities and Internet female celebrities with male celebrities and male Internet female celebrities.The experimental results indicate that all the hypotheses in this study have been verified.The results obtained in this study made a useful supplement to the existing research and theory.First of all,this study focuses on the analysis of Internet celebrity endorsement for consumers' purchase intention,which not only makes up the blank of the research that consumers'purchase intention is impacted by Internet celebrity endorsement,but also deepens the research content of the Internet celebrity.Secondly,after clarifying the distinguishing dimension of celebrities and Internet celebrities,this study introduces the self-concept---ideal self and real self as intermediary variables to explain the mechanism of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement,which not only discover the mechanism on consumer purchase intention impacted by Internet celebrity endorsement,but also improve the mechanism on consumer purchase intention influenced by celebrity endorsement.Finally,this study explores the applicable scope of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement,introduces the type of advertising appeal--symbolic appeal and functional appeal as moderating variables,clarified matching effectiveness of advertising appeal type with celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement,and further enriches the research framework of the actuating range of celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement.In addition,we provide a dependent path for enterprises to choose celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement,and also provide reference in terms of matching the appeal type of advertising with celebrity endorsement and Internet celebrity endorsement,as well as beneficial enlightenment for enterprises or merchants to stimulate consumers'different self-concepts with the help of scenarios under the premise of the type of spokespersons being determined,so as to improve their purchase intention.In the end,the limitations of this study and several directions for further exploration in the future are also elaborated.