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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 10, No. 3
Publication Date: March 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/abr.103.11907. Hounkpedji, K. (2022). Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Attitudes Toward Voluntary Blood Donation. Archives of Business
Research, 10(03). 78-91.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Attitudes Toward Voluntary
Blood Donation
Hounkpedji, koffi
Doctoral student in marketing & strategy, Université de Lomé
Faculty of Management and Economic Sciences
ABSTRACT
The use of celebrities to promote voluntary blood donation is a recurrent practice
but no study to our knowledge has addressed the subject. This study showed that
he persuasives characteristics of celebrities commonly considered in the
commercial field are not all adapted to the social context. Indeed, in the context of
solicitation of voluntary blood donation, the study showed that the reliability and
notoriety of the celebrity in addition to the feelings of the audience toward him
must be the determining attributes. In addition, the results revealed that the
reliability and notoriety of the celebrity are the factors that favorably influence the
attitude towards voluntary blood donation.
Keywords: celebrity, voluntary, blood, donation
INTRODUCTION
The use of celebrities in advertising is a phenomenon that is current in both developed and
developing countries (Shenje, 2017). Statistically, about 25% of advertisements broadcast in
the United States feature celebrities (Dash & Sabat, 2012). Even stronger trends are observed
in South Korea and Japan where the figures approach more than 80% (Sharma & Kumar, 2013;
White & al., 2015; Brajesh & Gouranga, 2011). These statistics are symptomatic of the scale of
the global endorsement strategy.
While celebrity endorsement has become an essential practice in professional circles, Bergkvist
& Zhou (2016) highlight a stagnation in research on celebrity endorsement, both theoretically
and methodologically. Although celebrity endorsements for social causes (disease prevention,
solicitation of donations, etc.) are popular, little research has provided a theoretical explanation
of the effectiveness of the phenomenon (Park & Cho, 2015). The few studies that have explored
endorsement for non-profit organizations have addressed areas such as sport and physical
activity promotion (Behnoosh, 2018), HIV prevention (Brown & Basil, 1995), a celebrity’s
experience with the endorsed cause (Park, 2017), the association between a celebrity and a
non-profit organization (Salmones & Herrero, 2013), donations of money and time (Wheeler,
2009).
Despite the association of many celebrities with blood transfusion organizations (e.g.
Christiano Ronaldo, Teddy Riner) with the aim of influencing the attitudes and voluntary blood
donation intention of potential donors, no study to our knowledge has investigated the
phenomenon of celebrity endorsements for the act of voluntary blood donation. It is to
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Hounkpedji, K. (2022). Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Attitudes Toward Voluntary Blood Donation. Archives of Business Research, 10(03). 78-
91.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.103.11907
compensate for this theoretical deficiency that we have formulated the following main
question:
What is the influence of celebrity endorsements on attitudes towards voluntary blood
donation?
The commercial endorsement of celebrities is operationalized in the works by the persuasive
characteristics of celebrities (Hovland & al., 1951; McGuire, 1968; Kahle & Homer, 1985;
Kamins, 1989, 1990; Misra & Beatty, 2012). Thus, factors like celebrity credibility,
attractiveness and congruence have emerged from the literature.
Paradoxically, in the use of celebrities for social causes, the same factors are usually exploited
without checking their validity. This brings us to the following first specific question:
What characteristics of celebrities may influence attitudes towards voluntary blood
donation?
The relationship between attitudes and behavior is one of the most important issues in
consumer behavior (Beatty & Kahle, 1988) and the concept of attitude has played a crucial role
in the progress of social psychology research (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). With regard to blood
donation, the personal attitude is a first condition to give blood and it also acts as a first
indicator of success (Boenigk & Sundermann, 2017). Thus, in order to determine the influence
of the presence of celebrities to promote voluntary blood donation, we will have to answer the
following second specific question:
What impact do celebrity characteristics have on attitudes toward voluntary blood
donation?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Persuasive characteristics of celebrities
Endorsement templates highlighting the persuasive characteristics a celebrity should have to
make an advertisement effective have been widely discussed in the literature. In the following
paragraphs, a synthesis of the different recurring models in the context of the use of celebrities
for promotion especially in the commercial field will be presented. It successively takes into
account the credibility of the famous endorser, the attractiveness of the celebrity, the
congruence, the reason for endorsement and the feelings towards the endorser.
The source credibility model
The source credibility model developed by Hovland and his collaborators in the early 1950s
has its foundations in social psychology research (Hovland & Weiss, 1951; Hovland, Janis &
Kelly, 1974). In the most basic sense, credibility refers to the tendency to believe or trust
someone.
The two important sub-attributes of endorser credibility are reliability and expertise.
Reliability
Reliability in the model refers to the honesty and integrity of a source. It is related to the trust
that the audience has for the honest and objective way in which the source provides the
information (Ohanian, 1991). Endorser trustworthiness simply reflects the fact that potential
endorsers of a brand vary in the degree to which the public will trust what they have to say.
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Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Advertisers capitalize on the value of reliability by selecting endorsers who are widely regarded
as honest, credible and trustworthy. Also, an endorser is more likely to be perceived as
trustworthy when they match the audience in terms of characteristics such as gender and
ethnicity. For example, when a spokesperson has the same affiliation as the target audience,
their perceived reliability is enhanced, which promotes the adoption of more favorable
attitudes towards the endorsed brand (Deshpande & Stayman, 1994).
Expertise
Expertise refers to the knowledge, experience or skills possessed by an endorser in relation to
the endorsed mark (Hovlan & al., 1974). Therefore, athletes are considered experts when it
comes to promoting sports-related products. Models are also perceived as having expertise
Wheeler’s (2009) work in the social field has shown that celebrity expertise positively
influences intention to volunteer.
The source attractiveness model
The second general attribute that contributes to the effectiveness of endorsement is the
attractiveness of the endorser. It goes beyond mere physical attractiveness (although this can
be a very important attribute) and includes certain virtuous characteristics that consumers
may perceive in an endorser: intellectual skills, personality, lifestyle, sporting prowess, etc.
(Erdogan, 1999). For Wheeler (2009) the attraction of fame has a positive impact on the
intention to volunteer.
Congruence between endorser and brand
The congruence between celebrity and brand has been the subject of a number of studies in the
field of celebrity endorsement (Fleck, Korchai, & le Roy, 2012; Garcia de los Salmones,
Dominguez & Herrero, 2013; Kahle & Homer, 1985).
Congruence, also called similarity, adequacy or relevance, has its origins in the brand extension
literature, where it refers to the degree of similarity or consistency between the parent brand
and the brand extension (Aaker & Keller, 1990). In the celebrity endorsement literature,
congruence is seen as the similarity or consistency between the brand and the celebrity and is
specific to particular endorsement situation (Amos, Holmes & Strutton, 2008; Choi & Rifon,
2012; Kirmani & Shiv, 1998).
It may seem logical that the congruence between the celebrity and the endorsed brand has a
positive effect on the image of this brand: the stronger the link, the better the impact on the
brand. More specifically, the more the celebrity/brand couple is perceived as suitable, relevant
or even congruent, the more the response to the advertisement will be positive in terms of
attitude or purchase intention (Kahle & Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1989 and 1990; Lynch & Schuler,
1994; Erdogan & Baker, 2000; Till & Busler, 2000; Batra & Homer, 2004).
Congruence can be, on the one hand, functional, if there is similarity between the functions of
the product and the event or the social cause supported (Gwinner, 1997; Lafferty & al., 2004),
or between the advertised product and fame (example of an association between an energy
drink and a famous athlete). An example in the non-profit field is the case of Micheal J. Fox, a
Parkinson’s sufferer, who supports a Parkinson’s disease charity, an example used in Wheeler’s
(2009) research. On the other hand, there is image congruence when both parties to the alliance