Research On The Impact Of Portfolio Fit On Advertising Persuasion In Celebrity Endorsement Matrix

In contemporary marketing contexts,brands often spend a lot of money to invite multiple celebrities to endorse them in order to increase their awareness and influence,creating a celebrity endorsement matrix.However,the positive effects of endorsement matrices are not effective in all marketing scenarios,and brands may be negatively affected if they choose’inappropriate’ endorsers to join their endorsement matrix.Existing research on the persuasive effects of celebrity endorsement on advertising has mainly attributed the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement to the degree of attractiveness of the celebrity in relation to the brand.Firstly,in terms of attractiveness,role attraction describes the level of attractiveness displayed by a celebrity when acting as a communication medium and can be subdivided into appearance-attractive,socially-attractive and task-attractive.Therefore,the celebrity endorsement matrix can also be divided into four dimensions: appearance attractiveness,social attractiveness,task attractiveness and mixed attractiveness.The next dimension is match.In the field of celebrity persuasion,match refers to the degree to which a celebrity’s image matches the brand.In the celebrity endorsement matrix,the counterpart to ’fit’ is ’combined brand fit’.Combination brand fit is the consumer’s perception of the appropriateness of the association or relationship between the celebrity’s combined image and the endorsed brand.According to the matching hypothesis and the source effect,when a celebrity aligns with the attractiveness of a product,it tends to bring about consumer approval,credibility and persuasion,and strengthens consumers’ willingness to establish a relationship with the celebrity.Therefore,when the attractiveness of the celebrity endorsement matrix is highly aligned with the brand,the stronger the combined brand fit should also be.Brand positioning clarity is a key factor in determining the extent to which a brand communicates the desired signal,often through a marketing mix strategy.The more consistent the celebrity portfolio brand fit is,the clearer the brand positioning clarity perceived by consumers is likely to be,as consumers’ perceptions of the celebrity will transfer to the brand’s perceptions as a result of image transfer when the brand chooses an attractive celebrity as the medium for communicating its message and creates a matrix of endorsements.The more attractive the celebrity,the stronger the desire to build a relationship with the celebrity,the stronger the prosocial relationship,the higher the attachment and trust of the consumer to the celebrity,and the stronger the persuasive effect of the advertisement.Previous research has shown that fit,brand positioning clarity and prosocial relationships all have an impact on advertising persuasion;research has focused on endorser-brand fit,but less research has been conducted on endorsement matrix-brand fit,especially considering the type of attraction,and there are differences between endorsement matrix and individual endorser-brand fit.There is no research on how all three work together in terms of advertising persuasion.In real-life examples,celebrity endorsements are often presented in the form of endorsement matrices,so it is necessary to study how combined brand fit,brand positioning clarity and quasi-social relationships contribute to advertising persuasion under different attraction types of celebrity endorsement matrices.This study examines the influence of combined brand fit on advertising persuasion,and explores the mediating role of brand positioning clarity and the moderating role of parasympathetic relationships by classifying celebrity endorsement matrices into appearanceappealing,social-appealing and mixed-appealing types.The study uses a scenario-based experimental approach with the addition of product type(non-identity vs.identity)to test the hypotheses through two sets of scenarios.Experiment 1 focuses on the effect of combined brand fit on advertising persuasion and the mediating role and differences in brand positioning clarity across the celebrity endorsement matrix in the context of non-identity product stimuli.Experiment 2,focusing on status symbolic products,again examines the effect of celebrity brand fit on advertising persuasion and the differences in the role of celebrity endorsement matrices,as well as the moderating role of parasympathetic relationships.Through the analysis of the experimental data,the following conclusions were drawn:(1)in the context of multiple endorsements,the combination brand fit has a positive effect on advertising persuasion,i.e.the higher the combination brand fit,the stronger the effect of advertising persuasion;(2)the effect of combination fit on advertising persuasion differs across different celebrity endorsement matrices,and the effect of attractiveness alignment on advertising persuasion is stronger than that of attractiveness mix in the celebrity endorsement matrix under high fit.(2)there are differences in the effect of the celebrity endorsement matrix on advertising persuasion across the different celebrity endorsement matrices,and the effect of attractiveness congruence on advertising persuasion is stronger than attractiveness mix at high fit,specifically: in non-identity symbolic products,appearance attractiveness > social attractiveness > mixed attractiveness;in identity symbolic products,social attractiveness >appearance attractiveness > mixed attractiveness;(3)brand positioning clarity mediates the effect of portfolio fit on advertising persuasion;(4)the moderating effect of quasi-social relationships is significant.In addition,the research model holds across product types,indicating that the findings are well generalisable.As a result,the study makes the following management recommendations:(1)choosing celebrities with consistent appeal and high brand fit to create an endorsement matrix not only enhances brand positioning clarity,but also enhances advertising persuasion;(2)considering the role of product type;non-identity symbolic products can choose celebrities with outward appeal to endorse them,and identity symbolic products choose celebrities with social appeal to(3)Using celebrities who have a high level of quasi-social interaction with their fans can have a stronger persuasive effect.