| In recent years,with the advent of netred economy 3.0 era,Wanghong（Chinese Internet Star）advertising market has developed rapidly.Some people think,as an advertiser,Wanghong’s influence in online marketing is also increasing.The cost of advertising using Wanghong is superior to the price ratio compared to traditional celebrities.However,several problems arose as many foreign companies,including Korea,indiscriminately used Wanghong marketing to enter the Chinese market.As a result,Scholars and industry experts have also studied Wanghong’s marketing effectiveness as an advertising endorser.The study framework consists of three parts.First,through previous literature research and expert in-depth interviews,the limitations of the existing Wanghong research and the attributes of Wanghong as an advertising spokesperson were searched and summarized.Second,according to development of multi-item scale procedure of Churchill（1979）,the “Wanghong advertisement effect measurement model” was developed by synthesizing the characteristics of Wanghong as an advertisement endorser and the variables of advertisement effect measurement.Third,the difference in advertising effect between Wanghong and traditional celebrities by product involvement and advertising appeal type was verified and implications were drawn.Based on the literature review of Wanghong and Wanghong economy,advertising endorsements,the FCB grid model,and qualitative research,Wanghong’s core variables and research framework as advertising endorser are derived.Also,quantitative research is divided into two stages.The first part is a preliminary survey of 70 samples,selecting products and their endorsers based on the results of the preliminary survey.The second part is the main survey,and the survey targets adult men and women aged 20-59 years old in China.A total of 359 samples were collected.Through this empirical study,the main results of this study are as follows.First,discover and subdivide attributes that Wanghong has as a advertising endorser.Through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis,including the measurement variables at the lower level,the five dimensions of trustworthiness（reliable,trustworthy,honest）,expertise（experienced,appropriate,skilled）,physical attractiveness（beautiful,fashionable）,emotional attractiveness（selfconsistent,intimacy）,awareness（fame,influence,people around the cognitive）are derived.In this study,the credibility variables of advertising endorser are made up of 5latent variables and 13 lower-level measurement variables.The scales of each dimension have good reliability and validity.Second,the validation of the research model fit and the advertising effect model hypothesis of the advertising endorser.This study builds an impact model of advertising endorser attributes on advertising attitudes,brand attitudes and purchase intentions.As a result,most fitness indicators in the comprehensive model are consistent with the statistical requirements.Among advertising endorser attributes,trustworthiness,expertise and physical attractiveness have a significant impact on advertising attitude,but emotional attractiveness has no significant impact,and awareness has a negative impact.Third,a comparison of the advertising effect between Wanghong and traditional celebrities.In assessing the attributes of them as advertising endorsers of highinvolvement product-rational advertising,the trustworthiness,expertise and physical attractiveness of the stars is higher on average than Wanghong,However,there is no significant difference in advertising attitude,brand attitude,and purchase intention.The influence of factors in consumer behavior is limited.On the contrary,in the case of low involvement product-emotional advertisements（milk tea drinks）,traditional celebrities score higher than Wang Hong in all attributes,and there is a big difference in advertising attitude,brand attitude,and purchase intention.That said,celebrity endorsers still have a good impact on products with low involvement.The main theoretical contributions of this study are as follows.（1）Exploring and developed the Wanghong attributes as an advertising endorser.In the previous research,three potential variables were the credibility of the advertiser:trustworthiness,expertise and attractiveness.In this study,five potential variables,including trustworthiness,expertise,physical attractiveness,emotional attractiveness and awareness,and 13 measurement variables,were developed.（2）An evaluation model of the advertising effect of Wanghong endorser is developed.This study reconstructs an evaluation model for the advertising effectiveness of the endorsers.Not only five varibles of advertising endorser’s credibility,three variables for measuring advertising effectiveness,such as advertising attitude,brand attitude,and purchase intention,have been added.It is also appropriate for the fitness of the model.Subsequent scholars can refer and apply research and design of different types of advertising guarantors for the Chinese market in the future.（3）There has been a significant difference in the effectiveness of Wanghong and traditional celebrity as advertising endorser.This study compared and analyzed Wang Hong and celebrities by product involvement and advertisement appeal type.According to this empirical study,Wanghong’s effectiveness as an advertising spokesperson is less than that of traditional celebrities.In other words,there will be a bubble in Wanghong’s advertising effectiveness.However,China is short of related research,the findings of this study can give the advertisers some implication or guidance,for example,when selecting the Wanghong,advertiser should take the feature of Wanghong’s followers and its matching to the target consumer to consideration.There are also practical contributions as follows.（1）Make advertisers or marketing managers choose more appropriate advertising endorser and provide accurate judgment criteria.Based on the results of this study,advertisers need to consider factors such as product involvement,type of advertising,advertising target and so on to select the most appropriate endorser for their product.（2）The trustworthiness and expertise of an advertising endorser is critical to advertising effectiveness.In addition,the physical attractiveness has a significant effect on advertising.Suggest that advertisers consider this factor first when choosing an advertising endorser,including Wanghong.Finally,the shortcomings of this study and the direction of subsequent research topics are as follows.Wanghong’s business model and scope of application are increasingly differentiated and specialized in China.Additional research is needed for different types of advertising spokespersons.In subsequent studies,it is necessary to further explore the different types of advertising endorser matching mechanisms and key variables.Re-affirm the impact of emotional attractiveness and awareness on advertising attitude.This study finds that these two latent variables do not have a significant impact on the advertising effect.But there is no clear reason for that.In the next step,therefore,we need to explore the mechanism between these two variables and the advertising effect variables in more depth. |
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