Assessing Celebrity Endorsement Effects in China A Consumer-Celebrity Relational Approach

December 2011 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH 6 INTRODUCTION The growing popularity of using sports and entertainment celebrities in brand advertising is evident in the marketplace. In both the United States and China, celebrity endorsement is a key executional strategy that continues to grow in popularity (Chan, Hung, Tse, and Tse, 2008). In the United States, one of four advertisements uses celebrities to gain brand awareness and preference (Stephens and Rice, 1998). In China, 40 percent of youth-product advertisement features at least one celebrity (Chan, 2008), making the effect of this executional tactic on young people a particularly important issue to advertisers in China. The literature on endorser effects is rich, providing insights into the efficacy of endorser effects, the underlying processes, and the conditions under which endorser effects may be strengthened. The dominant explanation in these studies assumes the value-transfer approach that focuses on how celebrities promote brand awareness and brand purchase through