The Impact Of Celebrity Endorser-brand Personality Congruence On Consumer Brand Engagement

In an era of consumption upgrades and rapid changes in the consumer market,celebrity endorsement is still the popularization method that companies praise and compete to use.At present,the development of new media allows companies to use different social media to publish news related to celebrity endorsers and promotional materials such as posters,text-graphics,and videos.They aim to attract consumers to interact with the brand on the topic of the endorsers and to promote the celebrity endorsement in the second transmission etc.Under such circumstances,the concept of consumer brand engagement has received attention.Consumer brand engagement refers to consumers’ positive cognition,emotions and behavioral willingness about specific brand in the interactions with the brand.Enterprises want to facilitate consumer brand engagement and consumers more willing to spend time and energy interacting with brands to enhance their competitiveness and maintain a good relationship with consumers.At present,when enterprises choose brand celebrity endorsers,they will consider whether celebrities are popular idols,whether their popularity and attractiveness are high enough,while ignoring celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence.When brands announce some celebrity endorsers whose personality does not match their brand personality,consumers will have negative emotions and behaviors.Therefore,it is practical to understand deeply about celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence.Celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence can promote consumers to have a positive cognition,emotions and behaviors of the brand,that is,consumer brand engagement,and thus promote consumers to form a positive attitude towards the brand and improve the brand performance.Based on the match-up hypothesis and social identity theory,this study explores the impact of celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence on consumer brand engagement,as well as its internal mechanism and boundary.This paper demonstrates the research problem through the experimental method.The experimental results show that:(1)Whether it is a hedonic product or a practical product,compared with the celebrity endorser-brand personality incongruence,the celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence can promote consumer brand engagement;(2)For the hedonic products,compared to the consumers in the group of celebrity endorser-brand personality incongruence,the ones in the group of celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence demonstrate higher brand identification;while for the practical products,the brand identification of the consumers in the two groups is not significantly different;(3)In addition,brand identification plays a mediating role in the relationship between celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence and consumer brand engagement.Specifically,for hedonic products,compared to celebrity endorser-brand personality incongruence,the celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence can improve consumers’ brand identification,and thus improve consumer brand engagement.Through empirical research,this paper verifies the impact of celebrity endorser-brand personality congruence on consumer brand engagement,as well as its internal mechanism and boundary condition,thus enriching the relevant research on celebrity endorser-brand congruence and consumer brand engagement.It also provides guidance for enterprises on how to choose the right celebrity endorser in brand marketing practices.