Celebrity Value

Have you considered hiring a local celebrity to help promote your insurance organization? Would it be worth the cost and effort? Would it help consumers to remember your name? Some researchers think so but only if the celebrity is a really good or really bad fit with your product.

Katie Kelting, a marketing researcher at the University of Arkansas, found that when consumers are shown two ads featuring the same celebrity, they are more likely to forget information when the celebrity is endorsing a product that is only moderately associated with the celebrity’s fame. When a product is either a really good or really bad fit with the reason for the celebrity’s fame, consumers are more likely to remember the information.

An example of a moderate fit would be the professional basketball player LeBron James featured in a State Farm Insurance advertisement. As an industry or product, insurance does not fit the nature of James’ celebrity. It’s a product that neither enhances his celebrity nor detracts from it.

On the other hand, the study showed that consumers experience a relatively high level of recall when a celebrity endorses a product that is highly matched with the celebrity’s expertise or image, such as James selling basketball shoes or a sports drink.

But what happens when there is a low fit or match, such as LeBron James starring in a fast-food commercial? James is one of the world’s premiere athletes. This would be a low match because of the perception that one does not reach peak physical condition by eating frequently at McDonald’s.

“The same thing happens with high and low matches,” said Kelting, assistant professor of marketing in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. “A low match is just weird enough for people to remember. It may not make sense to them, and they may not feel particularly good about it, but they will remember it, more so than LeBron James endorsing an insurance company.”

The importance of the findings is that most studies examining celebrity advertising have focused on consumer attitudes to gauge effectiveness, Kelting said. But attitude and memory do not always predict effectiveness the same way.

“Our findings demonstrate that marketers should think hard, or at least be strategic, about using celebrities to sell their products,” Kelting said. “They shouldn’t expect consumer memory to be accurate, especially when the famous face endorses other brands. If consumers like a celebrity ad featuring LeBron James when they see it but cannot remember which brand of insurance he endorsed when they are later in the market for car insurance, then what was the point of hiring LeBron James in the first place?”

The researchers’ study was published in Psychology and Marketing.