Brand Ambassador Impact On Brand Equity Research

Promoting brand equity is a challenging task in the complicated and various environment, and using brand endorsor appropriately is one of the most effective ways. However, the theories concerning that are still in a mass compared with the advanced practice, especially in the aspects of the demanding charictoristics of the endorsor and the running systems. To some extent, the theory is largely lagging behind the practice.This dissertation involves two problems: one is the effecting system of brand endorsor to brand equity, and the other is the reliability of the endorsor. This dissertation, is about to integrate the customer-based brand equity theory and the consumer-brand relationship theory from the perspectives of brand association and brand relationship and discuss the effecting system of the endorsor's source credibility to brand equity. Firstly, since coustomer-based brand association is the most importand part of brand equity,a free brand association experiment based on eight brands in four types of products is carried out with two indications,including the mention frequency of the endorsor and the contribution of them to the brand association,both of which demonstrate their contribution to the brand equity in the perspective of brand association.Secondly, a three-factor-model concerning the reliability of the endorsor is approved by standardized scale developing procedure. It also involves the exploratory factor analysis based on six sectors through various methods. The three factors mentioned above are: fame, relevance to the product and reliability. Then, the reliability and validity of the model is tested and approved with confirmatory factor analysis.Finally, this dissertation discusses the effecting system of the endorsor to the brand. It analyzes the antecedents and consequences of brand relationship through putting the brand relationship into brand value chain. A structure model among endorsor,brand relationship and the market output of the brand equity has been build up by integrating three factors of the reliability of the endorsor,and three indications of the quality of the brand relationship. Then, the model and its path is tested with valid data,after that,some competing models are tested.Goodness-of-fit indexes of assuming model are tested good.The following conclusions are made in the research:1. the endorsor has an influence on the brand equity; 2.the charictoristics of the endorser can be described by a three-factor-model;3.the fame of the endorsor has an indirect effect on the reliability of the brand throughthe reliability of themselves ,its direct effects are affected by other variances;4.the reliability of the spokesperson has a direct effect on the reliability of the brand;5.the relevance between the spokesperson and the product has a direct effect on therelationship of the brand;6.brand emotion is the up end of brand relationship;7.the price premium is the result of symbol value and brand emotion.Repurchaseintention is influenced by brand trust;The innovation of this dissertation can be seen from the following aspects:1 .It demonstrates the use of brand endorsor to promotion brand equity from twodifferent perspective;2.It builds up and tests a localizational source credibility model of brand endorser;3.It puts forward the model for the cause of the brand relationship, approves therelationship of the structure between endorsor,brand relationship and the productmarket output of brand equity;4. It indicates the process of the forming of brand relationship.