Abstract:
This study explores how source attractiveness, source credibility, celebrity-product
congruence, and an advertisement affect the consumers’ attitude towards a clothing brand
and their purchase intentions. It also aims to find out if using foreign celebrities to
endorse a Philippine clothing brand is, indeed, effective, as is perceived by most brands.
One theoretical framework that is used is the Meaning Transfer Theory. It shows the
movement of cultural meaning into the consumer societies through celebrity endorsers.
There are three stages that explain the transfer of meaning: the celebrity, the celebrity to
the product, and the product to the consumer. Another theoretical framework is the
Source Attributes Theory, which identifies three attributes that influence the receiver’s
attitude towards the message and the source: attractiveness, credibility, and power.
The conceptual framework is an integration of the two aforementioned theoretical
frameworks, but is tailor-fitted to the study. The research is the most focused on the last
stage of the Meaning Transfer Theory, where the Source Attributes Theory is found.
However, instead of the source power, the celebrity-product congruence is measured, as
literature says that it, too, is an attribute. The intervening variable that is used is the
advertisement of Adam Levine.
Data is collected from 175 respondents through a reliable survey questionnaire, which
contains 39 items that are grouped into six: source attractiveness, source credibility,
celebrity-product congruence, advertisement, consumers’ attitude towards the brand, and
their purchase intentions. The mean and standard deviation of each group of survey items
are computed to scale the answers of the respondents. Moreover, each of the results of the
first four variables is tested of its correlation with each of the results of the last two
variables using Pearson’s r in SPSS.
Findings show that only celebrity-product congruence and the advertisement have a strong,
positive, and significant relationship with the consumers’ attitude and intent to purchase.
Even then, the advertisement must meet several requirements for the consumers to find it
likeable. When the data is tested according to sex, almost the same results come out from
the male respondents, as findings show that only the advertisement influence their attitude
and purchase intentions. For the female respondents, both the celebrity-product congruence
and the advertisement influence them significantly. Moreover, the celebrity endorser’s
attractiveness and credibility do not contribute the most in affecting the consumers,
whether as a whole or according to sex. The celebrity endorser’s being foreign does not
have a significant effect, too, contrary to a well-believed hypothesis. Overall, effectiveness
is found in using foreign celebrity endorsers if and when there are strong celebrity-product
congruence and a likeable advertisement, regardless of the consumers’ sex.
