The Persuasiveness of Celebrity Endorsement with Celebrities from the In-Group and Out-Group

Master Thesis Study of the Study ‘Business Communication and Digital Media’

Linda Mai Lien Tran

Tilburg University

Business Communication and Digital Media

Name Linda Mai Lien Tran Student number 521039 University Tilburg University Faculty Faculty of Humanities Study Business Communication and Digital Media Place Tilburg Date June 30, 2011

Name first superior Dr. P.J.F.J. Broeder Name second superior Dr. M.J.W. Stokmans

Preface

Growing up as a Vietnamese in the Netherlands has not always been easy for me. At school, I was faced with the Dutch culture and society where individualism prevailed, while at home humility and obedience was taught through the Confucianism. This conflict of cultures had led to struggles for me while growing up. For years, I have tried to resist against my Asian background. However, during my last year at secondary school, I came to discover the fairness of the Asian culture and I have tried to embrace the Asian part of myself. My interest for the Asian culture has grown during my past four years at Tilburg University. Therefore, I was delighted that I had the opportunity to exploit this interest in my bachelor and master thesis. To follow my heart, I had to leave my elderly home in Deventer to start a new chapter of my life in Tilburg. This chapter has known ups and downs, and I would not be where I am today without the support of my family and friends. Therefore, I would like to thank a few people who have helped me these past few months while conducting my master thesis study. Firstly, I want to thank Dr. Peter Broeder and Dr. Mia Stokmans for their guidance and enthusiasm during my thesis project. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Furthermore, I want to thank everyone who have helped to recruit participants for the study. Especially, I want to thank some friends of mine: Kim, Mina, Lianne and Wendy. Thank you so much for your friendship and your support these past years and, notably, these past months. Last but my least, I want to thank my family who have supported me, and who have worried and prayed with and for me during these past four years. I want to thank my sister Thi Ngoc Bich Tran, who had to deal with my whims and frustrations during my graduation these past two years. No words can describe my gratitude to you all. In particular, I want thank the two most important people in my life for their love and compassion by citing a Vietnamese expression:

Nước bi ển mênh mông không đong đầy tình Mẹ

Mây tr ời lòng l ộng không ph ủ khi công Cha

Loosely translated: The love of a mother is deeper than the ocean. The protection of a father reaches beyond the horizon.

Thank you, mom and dad, for reminding me that a parent’s love is unconditionally and for everything that you have done for me. I cannot thank you enough for all the wise lessons you have taught me and I will cherish it my whole life.

Love you all!

Linda Mai Lien Tran [email protected] Nijmegen, June, 2011

Summary

Consumers are daily faced with TV commercials, newspaper advertisements, online advertisements and other forms of advertisements that try to persuade them to purchase the promoted product. As a marketing strategy, celebrities are used to persuade consumers to purchase the product. Purchasing goods and services has been made easier by the Internet: consumers do not need to leave their homes to purchase products, they can go on the Internet and order the products they want anywhere, anytime. The global connectivity of consumers through the Internet does not only enable consumers to trade with each other, but they are also exposed to each other’s cultures. For instance, a consumer from the Netherlands can go to a Chinese website to buy Chinese products and read information about products, and vice versa. In order to generate profit, most commercial websites contain advertisements. Therefore, a Dutch consumer can also be exposed to Chinese advertisements. But will this consumer be influenced in his/her attitude and purchase intention when a Chinese celebrity is used to promote the product? In this study, it is examined what the effects are of celebrity endorsement with celebrities from the in-group and the out-group. It was expected that the attitude towards the advertisement would be more favourable when the celebrity was from the in-group rather than from the out-group. The same was expected for the purchase intention: the purchase intention of the promoted product was expected to be greater when the product was endorsed by a celebrity from the in-group rather than from the out-group. In order to test these expectations, a questionnaire was spread through the Internet. In total, the questionnaire was filled out by 75 participants, of which 38 participants were of Chinese descent and 37 of Dutch descent. The results show that the attitudes and the purchase intention of the Dutch participants were not influenced by celebrity endorsement. As opposed to the Dutch participants, the attitudes of the Chinese participants were influenced by celebrity endorsement. The attitudes of the Chinese women were influenced by celebrity endorsers in general: their attitude can be influenced by celebrities from the in-group and out-group. Chinese men, however, prefer celebrities from the in-group. Although the attitude towards the advertisement of the Chinese participants were influenced by the celebrity endorsers, celebrity endorsement did not have an effect on their purchase intention. Explanations are given for the results, and limitations of the study and suggestions for future research can be found at the end of the thesis.

Table of Content

Chapter 1 ...... 9

1.1 Introduction ...... 9

1.2 Celebrity Endorsement, Cultural Differences and Consumers’ Attitudes and Behaviour ...... 11

1.2.1 Celebrity Endorsement ...... 11

1.2.2 Cultural Differences ...... 16

1.2.2.1 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions ...... 16

1.2.2.2 Individualistic Culture ...... 18

1.2.2.3 Collectivistic Culture ...... 19

1.2.2.4 Differences in Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures based on Celebrity Endorsement ...... 19

1.2.3 Consumer Attitudes and Persuasion ...... 21

1.2.3.1 Theory of Reasoned Action ...... 21

1.2.3.2 Theory of Planned Behaviour ...... 22

1.3 Perspective ...... 23

Chapter 2 Method ...... 25

2.1 Research Question and Hypotheses ...... 25

2.2 Instruments ...... 26

2.2.1 The Celebrities ...... 26

2.2.2 The Advertisements ...... 27

2.2.3 The Questionnaire ...... 29

2.3 Population ...... 33

2.4 Procedure...... 35

2.5 Perspective ...... 35

Chapter 3 Results ...... 37

3.1 Reliability tests ...... 37

3.1.1 Attitude towards the Source ...... 37

3.1.2 Attitude towards the Message ...... 39

3.1.3 Attitude towards the Product ...... 43

3.2 Female participants ...... 45

3.2.1 Attitude towards the Source ...... 46

3.2.2 Attitude towards the Message ...... 49

3.2.3 Attitude towards the Product ...... 52

3.3 Male participants ...... 53

3.3.1 Attitude towards the Source ...... 53

3.3.2 Attitude towards the Message ...... 56

3.3.3 Attitude towards the Product ...... 59

3.4 Perspective ...... 60

Chapter 4 Conclusion ...... 63

4.1 Influence of Celebrities on Attitude ...... 65

4.2 Influence of Celebrities on Purchase Intention ...... 67

4.3 Discussion ...... 67

4.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research ...... 71

References ...... 73

Appendices ...... 79

Appendix A Selection of celebrities ...... 81

Appendix B Used parts of existing advertisements ...... 83

Appendix C Questionnaire ...... 85

Chapter 1

In this chapter, the problem background will be presented in the introduction. Furthermore, the concept ‘celebrity endorsement’ will be discussed. Afterwards, the Cultural Dimensions of Hofstede (1984) will be reviewed. The dimension of Individualism-Collectivism will be discussed more extensively because of its relevance for this study. Lastly, the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behaviour will be reviewed.

1.1 Introduction The Internet has enabled people to be more connected with each other than ever before. McLuhan (1962) used the term ‘global village’ to indicate that the Internet has exceeded time and location barriers of human communication. As a result, people nowadays are connected with each other on a global level: the Internet has changed the world into a village. Not only has the Internet enabled people to communicate with others on a global level, but it has also enabled consumers to purchase and sell products and services through the Internet. This is known as e-commerce. While in the past, people had to go to physical stores to purchase their products and services, nowadays they can purchase a product from behind their personal computer or notebook. Furthermore, it has become easier to compare prices and products, and to search for specific information of a product or service. The popularity of e-commerce is emphasized by the study results of the Hoofdbedrijfschap in cooperation with the website Thuiswinkel.org. Their report ‘Internetverkopen: Nederlandse detailhandel in internationaal perspectief’ (2010) shows that there has been a strong increase in online shopping in the Netherlands since 2000. In 2000, Denmark had the biggest share of Internet orders in Europe with 87%, followed by Sweden with 85%. The Netherlands had a share of 74%, which was good enough for a fourth place on this list. To persuade consumers to purchase their products, companies spent millions on advertising to promote their products and services. For example, in 2005, the United States of America spent an amount of USD 271.074 million (EUR 200.060 million) on commercial advertising (Galbi, 2008), while the Republic of China had spent EUR 5.5 billion on commercial advertising (Wang, 2008). The importance of advertising is also shown in the annually increase of the amount of money spent on advertising. For example, in 1990, the United States of America had spent USD 129.968 million (EUR 96.087 million) on advertising (Galbi, 2008). In 2000, this amount was increased with 190.4% and in 2007 even

9 with 215.1%! These numbers show that much money is spent on commercial advertising and that marketers keep on spending more money on commercial advertising to persuade consumers to purchase their products and services. A strategy of companies to persuade consumers to purchase their products and services is through celebrity endorsement. When using celebrity endorsement as a marketing strategy, a celebrity is used to promote a product or service as a means to persuade consumers to purchase the promoted product or service. This strategy has gained much popularity among marketers. In her study, Van Eeuwijk (2009) showed that the amount of celebrity endorsement advertisements in 2005 has doubled since 1995. Rajakaski and Simonsson (2006) expect that this trend will continue to grow because of the status of celebrities in society and the fascination of the public with famous people. In many cases, marketers try to choose a person who matches with the target group of the product or service, for example based on the physical characteristics of the target group. This, however, is not always as easy as it seems because the members of the target group can differ from each other (e.g. in age and culture). For instance, there are many different commercials of the same shower gel of Dove. In many European countries, it is seen as ‘normal’ to show a woman who is rubbing her body with a shower gel of Dove. In these commercials, the whole body of the woman is commonly shown. In Arab countries, where the Islam is the religion with the most followers, it would not be effective to show these commercials because they do not match with the norms and values of their culture. Therefore, on the one hand, companies try to choose celebrities who match up with the norms and values of the culture. On the other hand, they also try to choose celebrities who match with their target group in physical appearance. This strategy is mainly used in countries in Asia. For instance, the fast-food-chain MacDonald made a commercial for their McFlurry ice-cream, especially for their South-Korean consumers with actress-model Song Hye Kyo. Although this product is also available and purchasable in other countries, this commercial was only broadcasted in South-Korea to persuade the South-Korean consumers to purchase this product. In conclusion, companies use celebrities to promote their products and services. Although the Internet has connected people from all over the world, marketers still need to create different commercials and advertisements to match up with their target group. With the continuing increase in Internet orders and celebrity endorsement advertisements, it is therefore useful for marketers to have insight in the persuasiveness of celebrities used in advertisements. This study will examine whether it is effective to promote products by using celebrities who do not match in culture with the target group of the promoted products.

1.2 Celebrity Endorsement, Cultural Differences and Consumers’ Attitudes and Behaviour In the following of this chapter, a theoretical framework will be presented. Firstly, the concept of celebrity endorsement will be provided with examples to clarify the subject. Furthermore, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions will be discussed, followed by a brief description of the differences between the individualistic and collectivistic cultures to create a better notion of the differences between the advertisements of these cultures. Lastly, the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) will also be discussed as a conceptual framework of consumer attitudes and persuasion.

1.2.1 Celebrity Endorsement Marketers frequently use famous people in their advertisements to promote products and services. A celebrity endorser can be defined as “any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement” (McCracken, 1989, p. 310). This person can be derived from sports, films, music, cuisine, politics, or any other field (Choi, Lee, & Kim, 2005). According to La Ferle and Choi (2005), people are intrigued by celebrities because of their high status in society due to their wide spread recognition, and the extra qualities and power attached to them through repeated media exposure. Kaikati (1987) and Erdogan (1999) believe that the worldwide recognition and popularity of celebrities transcend national borders. As a result, celebrities can overcome cultural barriers in global marketing communications. Research by Stallen, Smidts, Rijpkema, Smit, Klucharev and Fernández (2010) indicated that the use of celebrities in advertisements has a positive effect on recall. Stallen et al. investigated which part of the brain is activated when looking at a celebrity by placing women in a special scanner. Participants were shown pictures of beautiful famous and unknown women. Next to some of the pictures, images of shoes were shown. This study indicated that the shoes were better remembered when they were coupled with a celebrity, in comparison to shoes coupled with an unknown woman. The brain did not show any activity when the same shoe was coupled with an unknown woman. According to Stallen et al., people transfer the positive feeling they feel to a product when looking at a celebrity. As a result, people remember the products that are coupled with a celebrity better than the products that are coupled with an unknown person. This study supports the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements: products promoted by celebrities are better remembered and recalled than products promoted by unknown people.

Seno and Lukas (2007) suggest that celebrities can serve three roles in advertisements. Firstly, a celebrity can serve the role of an expert. In this case, there is an appeal to the expertise of this celebrity. For example, figure 1 shows an advertisement of the brand Nike for golf clubs. Tiger Woods is seen as an expert in the golf sport. In the advertisement, Tiger Woods’ expertise regarding golf clubs is used by depicting him using the product.

Figure 1 Tiger Woods as a celebrity endorser for Nike golf clubs

A celebrity endorser can also serve the role of a spokesperson who is linked to a product for a long-term period. An example of this role is given in figure 2. American actor George Clooney has been the spokesperson of Nespresso coffee since 2006 and, therefore, he seems to be linked with the product. Up to now, George Clooney has been the only celebrity that has appeared in the commercials and advertisements of this brand. Therefore, he is linked as a spokesperson to a product in a long-term capacity.

Figure 2 George Clooney as a celebrity endorser for Nespresso

Lastly, a celebrity can serve the role of a successful and ambitious figure with no particular knowledge of, or relationship with, the product. An example of this role is shown in figure 3. In this advertisement, American actress Uma Thurman poses with a Louis Vuitton bag. Uma Thurman does not make any statement about the product; she merely holds the bag in her hands. Therefore, there appears to be no relation between the product and the celebrity endorser.

Figure 3 Uma Thurman as a celebrity endorser for Louis Vuitton

Besides the role of the celebrity in the advertisement, McCracken (1989) proposed a distinction of endorsement in four types: explicit, implicit, imperative and co-presentational. When the endorsement is explicit, the celebrity states that he/she endorse the product. An example of this endorsement is shown in figure 4. In this advertisement, American singer/actress Beyoncé states that she uses cosmetics from the brand L’Oreal. The text in the advertisement states that she is endorsing the product by explicitly stating how well the product works for her.

Figure 4 Example of explicit endorsement: Beyoncé for L’Oreal (text in advertisement: “This makeup is so true to my own skin, it actually mimics it.”- Beyoncé)

If the endorsement is implicit, the celebrity states that he/she uses the product without actually saying that he/she uses it. An example of this endorsement is shown in figure 5. In this advertisement, Jennifer Aniston endorses water for the brand Smartwater. Without explicitly stating that she uses the product, the impression is raised that she is using the product that is promoted in the advertisement.

Figure 5 Example of implicit endorsement: Jennifer Aniston for Smartwater (text in advertisement: Purse speculation: we’re not ones to sip and tell, but Jen’s pretty into us (and our vapor- distilled purity))

In case of imperative endorsement, the celebrity tries to communicate that you should use the product. Figure 6 shows an example of this type of celebrity endorsement. In this advertisement, American singer Alicia Keys serves as a spokesperson for the Keep a Child

Alive Foundation. With this advertisement, she tries to raise awareness for children coping with aids in Africa.

Figure 6 Example of imperative endorsement: Alicia Keys for Keep a Child Alive Foundation

Lastly, the endorsement can be co-presentational. In this case, the celebrity merely appears with the product and does not say anything that is related to the usage of the product. For instance, figure 7 shows an advertisement with American actress Brooke Shields. The advertisement promotes towels from the brand Royal Velvet. In this advertisement, Brooke Shields is depicted with her family next to the product. However, there does not seem to be a direct connection between the celebrity and the product. This is typical for the co- presentational type of celebrity endorsement.

Figure 7 Example of co-presentational type of endorsement: Brooke Shields for Royal Velvet

Many researchers have investigated whether consumers prefer a link between the promoted product and the celebrity endorser. This preference is known as the match-up hypothesis. For example, Kamins and Gupta (1994) have investigated whether the physical attractiveness of the celebrity endorser had an influence on the brand attitude and purchase intention of consumers. This study showed that the purchase intention and the brand attitude of consumers were not influenced by the use of an attractive celebrity to promote the product. However, Ohanian (1991) found that celebrity endorser source characteristics (physical attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise) do have an influence on the purchase intention of the endorsed product. From these source characteristics, expertise was closely associated with the intent of consumers to purchase the promoted product. Therefore, the expectation is that celebrity endorsers have a positive influence on attitude and purchase intention.

1.2.2 Cultural Differences Cultures can differ in many ways from each other. One of the most known distinctions between cultures is the distinction of cultures in collectivistic and individualistic ones. In this section, a review of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (1984) will be discussed. This section will also contain critique on the model by other researchers. Furthermore, the collectivistic and individualistic culture will be discussed more extensively. Lastly, the differences between these cultures with regard to celebrity endorsement will be reviewed.

1.2.2.1 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions In order to categorise cultures, Hofstede created five different dimensions. These dimensions are based on existing surveys with regard to employee attitude at IBM subsidiaries in 66 countries. Hofstede examined and modified the results of these surveys into several values. These values can subsequently be divided into dimensions. The following five dimensions are based on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (1984): 1. Large versus small power distance . Power distance is about the perspective groups take with regard to interdependency relations between people. This can be described as the extent to which the lesser powerful members of institutions and organisations (like family, school and corporate) in a society expect and accept the unequal power division. For example, in a society with a large power distance, children are expected to obey their parents, grandparents and teachers. In these societies, power is prioritised over law, and superiors and subordinates are seen as unequal in principle. In societies

with a small power distance, there is a preference for discussion between superiors and subordinates. The emotional bond between them is also relatively weak. 2. Individualism versus collectivism . Cultures differ in the degree in which a member of the culture acts like an individual being with loose ties or an individual who is integrated into a strong, collective in-group. According to Markus and Kitayama (1991), these cultures mainly differ in the social perceptions and social behaviour of individuals, including differences in their definition of the self and the perceived relationships with in-groups and out-groups. Research by Choi, Lee and Kim (2005) showed that independence, self-realisation, freedom and a high level of competition are seen as typical individualistic cultural qualities and that these qualities are more valued in Western countries than in Asian countries. Typical collectivistic cultural characteristic are interdependence, harmony, family security, cooperation and a low level of competition. These characteristics are more valued in Asian countries. 3. Masculinity versus femininity. A culture can be seen as masculine if the social gender roles are obviously distinctive: men are expected to be assertive and harsh, and focused on material success, while women are expected to be modest and tender, and focused on the quality of existence. In a feminine culture, there is no clear distinction between social gender roles of men and women. So, this dimension relates to the expectations of a society of the roles of men and women. 4. Strong versus weak uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which members of a culture feel threaten by unsecure and unfamiliar situations. Uncertainty avoidance deals with reducing ambiguities. Cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance have formal behavioural codes and emphasize the cultural values. For example, in societies with strong uncertainty avoidance, students expect their teachers to be professional and to have an answer to all questions. In societies with weak uncertainty avoidance, however, teachers can openly admit they do not know the answer. 5. Context communication (low versus high). This dimension is developed by Hall (1976) and is seen as a cultural dimension. This dimension involves the distinction between in-groups and out-groups. High context culture use implicit speech to communicate a message to prevent that members of out-groups will understand it. Examples of high context cultures are Japan and China (Shadid, 2007). In contrast, in low context cultures communicative messages are explicit and understandable for everyone, and

not only to members of the in-group. Examples of countries with this culture are the United States of America and West-Europe (Shadid, 2007).

Although Hofstede’s model offers a good framework for analysing cultures, it has been criticised by some researchers. McSweeney (2002) critically reviewed Hofstede’s model by addressing some weaknesses of the model. Firstly, Hofstede claimed that his population was homogeneous. This would imply that employees would share the organizational culture by the same degree. However, since it is impossible to state that every employee would share the same degree of national culture, McSweeney stated that the answers given by the IBM employees cannot be seen as a reflection of the national average. Furthermore, the majority of the employees were marketing and sales employees from the middle class. The average number of surveys was also small for each country. Therefore, McSweeney stated that the answers cannot be seen as representative for each country. Another limitation of Hofstede’s research was the reduction of countries for examination. The research was conducted in 66 countries. However, only 40 countries were used for examination. Lastly, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions do not consider the effects of globalisation on dynamic national cultures (Blokvoort, 2006). Due to travelling and immigration, people are increasingly influenced by other cultures. Epidemics, wars, terrorism and environmental disasters were also mentioned by Blokvoort as reasons for change in a national culture. In this study, the dimension of individualism-collectivism is of importance since it discusses the differences between cultures with regard to the social perceptions and social behaviour of individuals. The difference in definition of the self and the perceived relation to in-groups and out-groups is mainly interesting, since this can have an influence on the attitude and the purchase intention of an individual with regard to a promoted product. Therefore, the following sections will discuss the differences between individualism and collectivism more extensively.

1.2.2.2 Individualistic Culture In individualistic cultures, the self-interest is central and in-group goals are subordinate to the own personal goals. Members of these cultures are seen as individualistic and independent. In contrast to collectivistic cultures, there is little hierarchy and status can be acquired based on one’s performance. Members of individualistic cultures are also more task oriented; work is thought to be more important than relationships. In contrast to collectivistic cultures, critique is seen as useful and it can be given in explicit speech and in public. Lastly, members of these

18 cultures also strive for harmony but the pursuance for harmony is not only restricted to the in- group. Individualists also belong to more groups than collectivists. According to Triandis (1995), this can be explained by the skills that individualists have in entering new groups and in dealing with others in superficial ways. Examples of individualistic cultures are the United States of America, Australia and the Netherlands (Hofstede, 1984).

1.2.2.3 Collectivistic Culture Collectivistic cultures are known by their subordination of the interests of the individual, while the interests of the in-groups (e.g. family and friends) are prioritized. In these cultures, the emphasis is on the communal interests, interdependence, obedience, tradition and prevention of losing face. Mills and Clark (1982) stated that members of these cultures shape their behaviour primarily on the basis of the norms of the in-group and they behave in a communal way. Furthermore, there is a strong sense of hierarchy with status differences between the group members. Status, however, cannot be acquired; one’s status is determined by the amount of ‘proper’ relationships one has. As a result, members of collectivistic cultures are very relationship oriented. The relations that they have, are mostly lifelong. Therefore, collectivists belong to lesser in-groups than individualists because of the obligations that come along with the membership of these groups. Family is mostly seen as the most important in-group. Another characteristic of collectivistic cultures is the use of implicit speech to prevent face loss and to maintain honour and reputation. As a result, critique is mostly not given or only in private. Furthermore, they spent a lot of attention on how something is said; in contrast, individualists spent more attention on the content of a message, that is, what is said. Lastly, collectivists strive for harmony by adjustment to the group norms. Ohbuchi, Fukushima and Tedeschi (1999) found that collectivists are primarily concerned with maintaining relationships with others in conflict situations. Examples of collectivistic cultures are Columbia, Venezuela, Japan and Indonesia (Hofstede, 1984).

1.2.2.4 Differences in Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures based on Celebrity Endorsement Some researchers stated that consumer demands and tastes have become similar on a global scale (Levitt, 1983; Taylor & Johnson, 2002). Due to this similarity, using celebrities with worldwide recognition in advertising is seen as an effective means for overcoming cultural difficulties (Kaikati, 1987; Erdogan, 1999). In contrast, McCracken (1989) suggested that since celebrities represent the symbolic meanings and values of a culture in which they are

19 known, marketers should select celebrities and an advertising strategy that mirror the fundamental cultural orientations of that culture. De Mooij (1997) and Onkvisit & Shaw (1999) suggest that international advertisers cannot use the same advertising technique for different countries since they differ in effects, dependent of the society they operate in. Research has indicated that cultures may vary in the persuasive styles employed by speakers (Burgoon, Dillard, Doran, & Miller, 1982) and that the effectiveness of those styles can also vary (Bronfenbrenner, 1964; Wedge, 1968). Glenn, Witmeyer and Stevenson (1977) showed that Americans, Soviets and members of the Arab culture differ in their preference of persuasive styles. For example, Americans tend to have a preference for a persuasive style based on inductive reasoning, while Soviets tend to prefer a deductive logic style. Members of the Arab culture seem to have a preference for an affective or intuitive style. Research by Han and Shavitt (1994) also showed that cultures differ in the effectiveness of appeals in advertisements. Their research showed that advertisements in the United States of America use more individualistic (and less collectivistic) appeals than Korean advertisements. Furthermore, advertisements in the U.S.A that emphasized the individualistic benefits were more persuasive in overall than the advertisements that emphasized family or in-group benefits (Taylor, Miracle, & Wilson, 1997; Cho, Up, Gentry, Jun, & Kropp, 1999; Choi, et al., 2005). According to these researchers, an advertisement is more persuasive when the advertising message is congruent with the cultural norms of the dominant culture than when the advertisement does not reflect the cultural values of the society wherein the advertisement is broadcast. However, research by Malcontent (2010) contradicts these results. In her study, Malcontent examined the effects of celebrity endorsement in advertising on attitude and persuasion with Chinese and Dutch respondents. Her study suggests that both Dutch and Chinese people are easily persuaded by celebrity endorsement, but that they differ in their perception of the celebrity. According to the Dutch respondents, the celebrity in an advertisement should be credible. Furthermore, the Dutch people felt that celebrity endorsement is useful to promote a product because the use of celebrities in advertisements draws attention to the celebrity, it creates brand awareness and it gives attention to a new product. The Dutch respondents also stated that celebrity endorsement leads to feelings of happiness because celebrities live a life that most people are envious of. Furthermore, being able to relate to the celebrity was also considered as important by the Dutch respondents. In contrast, the Chinese respondents considered the use of celebrities in advertisement as “to give a more direct feeling to the product, better recall of the advertisement or gaining consumer trust” (Malcontent, 2010, p. 56). The majority of the Chinese respondents also

20 linked celebrity endorsement to feelings of happiness created by the advertisement, since consumers can obtain the product that the celebrity possesses. Both Dutch and Chinese respondents stated that the design of the advertisement and the message conveyed through the advertisement were important. In sum, both Dutch and Chinese respondents stated that the role of the celebrity in the advertisement is important, “because it creates feelings of happiness among consumers and they are able to identify themselves with the depicted celebrities in the advertisements” (Malcontent, 2010, p. 59). Based on McCracken (1989), the expectation is that consumers will be more persuaded by advertisements with celebrities from the in-groups than from the out-groups. For the current study, the in-group is defined as the group to which an individual belongs to based on their ethnicity; the out-group is the group to which an individual does not belong on the basis of their ethnicity. Ethnicity can be described as the identification of groups of people based on shared characteristics, like race, culture, language, religion, nationality and physical appearance.

1.2.3 Consumer Attitudes and Persuasion As mentioned earlier, marketers try to persuade consumers to purchase their products and services by using celebrity endorsement. Therefore, it is important to influence the attitude of the consumers towards the product and/or the brand. An attitude can be defined as “a summary evaluation of an object or thought” (Bohner & Wänke, 2002, p. 5). In this study, the attitude object is the celebrity in an advertisement. In order to persuade consumers to purchase the product, marketers must try to achieve a positive attitude towards the product among consumers. Besides achieving a positive attitude toward the product or brand, marketers should also try to persuade consumers to purchase the product or brand. One manner to influence consumers’ behaviour is by influencing their intentions. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) are considered to provide accounts of determinants of intention. In the following of this section, these two theories will be discussed.

1.2.3.1 Theory of Reasoned Action The Theory of Reasoned Action(TRA) is developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) to explain a person’s behavioural intention. The core assumption of the TRA is that the intention to perform a certain behaviour is influenced by one’s attitude towards the behaviour in combination with subjective norms. This, in turn, influences the behaviour. Subjective norms

21 are one’s general perception of what important others, like family and friends, think of a performance of certain behaviour. For example, how your friends think about you buying a Porsche. Figure 8 shows a schematic overview of the TRA.

Figure 8 Conceptual framework of TRA (based on Fishbein & Azjen, 1975)

Own beliefs about Attitude towards consequences of behaviour X behaviour X Intention to perform Behaviour X behaviour X Normative beliefs about Attitude towards consequences of behaviour X behaviour X

Influence Feedback

With regard to celebrity endorsement, this theory holds that one’s intention to purchase a product is influenced by his/her own attitude and the attitude of an admired celebrity towards the product or brand in the advertisement. For example, if a consumer admires George Clooney and he likes Nespresso, than that consumer will probably like Nespresso because his/her idol does.

1.2.3.2 Theory of Planned Behaviour The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is developed by Ajzen (1991) as an extension of the TRA. Ajzen added the construct of perceived behavioural control to the three constructs (beliefs, attitudes and subjective norms) of the TRA. Perceived behavioural control can be seen as a predictor of behavioural intention and behaviour. It refers to a person’s perception of how easily or difficult a certain behaviour can be performed. For example, how easy or difficult it would be to buy a Porsche while you still have a student loan. According to this theory, the more favourable one’s attitude and subjective norms are towards a certain behaviour, the greater the perceived behavioural control and intention to perform the behaviour will be. With regard to celebrity endorsement, this entails that a celebrity endorser is an important predictor of whether a consumer will actually purchase the product. For example, a person sees the advertisement of Alicia Keys for the Keep a Child Alive

Foundation, in which she encourages people to donate money to the foundation. If that person likes Alicia Keys and has the means to donate to the foundation, he/she will probably donate to this charity because his/her idol endorses the foundation.

1.3 Perspective Celebrity endorsement is the use of a celebrity to promote a product or service in an advertisement or a commercial. The celebrity can serve three different roles as a spokesperson. Besides the different roles that a spokesperson can serve in an advertisement or commercial, there are also four types of endorsement. Furthermore, the Cultural Dimensions of Hofstede were briefly discussed. The dimension Individualism-Collectivism has been discussed extensively since it forms the basis for this study. Lastly, two theories concerning consumer attitudes and persuasion, the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, has been discussed. In the following chapter, the research question and method will be reviewed. Furthermore, the participants and the procedure of the study will be discussed.

Chapter 2 Method

In this chapter, the research question and hypotheses will be discussed. To examine the research question, an Internet questionnaire has been conducted among native Dutch and Chinese consumers between the age of 16 and 41. The participants were exposed to two advertisements, and were asked to rate the source, message and product of the advertisement.

2.1 Research Question and Hypotheses Since the Internet exceeds time and location barriers, it is interesting for marketers to examine whether it is still necessary to use celebrities from the in-group to promote products and services in advertisements and commercials. The central research question of this study is: What are the effects of celebrity endorsement in advertisements on attitudes and purchase intention with celebrities from the in-group and the out-group? Based on the literature study, the expectation is that similarity with the celebrity of the advertisement will have a positive effect on attitude towards the advertisements and purchase intention of the product. Figure 9 gives a schematic overview of these expectations.

Figure 9 Hypothesized effects of cultures’ influence on attitude towards an advertisement and purchase intention towards a promoted product

Attitude towards celebrity + from the in-group + Culture Attitude towards Purchase intention the advertisement

Attitude towards celebrity -

from the out-group -

Based on the conceptual framework presented in figure 9, the following hypotheses can be formulated: H1 Attitude toward the advertisement will be more favourable when the product is endorsed by a celebrity from the in-group than from the out-group.

H2 Purchase intention towards the promoted product will be greater when the product is endorsed by a celebrity from the in-group than from the out-group. In order to test these hypotheses, an Internet questionnaire has been conducted. The following section will review the created advertisements and the questionnaire.

2.2 Instruments In order to test whether there are differences between individualists and collectivists with regard to celebrity endorsement, four advertisements were created for the current study. In the following sections, the parts of the advertisements will be discussed separately.

2.2.1 The Celebrities Firstly, the celebrities were chosen on the basis of a set of criteria. The celebrities had to be actors or actresses who have played in a movie that was shown in theatres in Asia and in Europe. The expectation was that the participants would recognize the celebrities from movies or television series better, since there is more advertising for movies and television series than for other types of entertainment with celebrities, like music. Furthermore, the celebrities were chosen from the Forbes Celebrity List 2010. This list exists in the United States of America and in China, making it a representable list for China and for Western cultures. Since the Netherlands does not have an own Forbes Celebrity List, and Americans and Dutch are both of Caucasian descent (therefore, they share great similarities based on physical appearance), it was chosen to use American actors and actresses as Western celebrities in this study instead of Dutch celebrities. Furthermore, it was presumed that the Chinese participants would have a better recognition of the American celebrities than of the Dutch celebrities. Table 1 and 2 in appendix A show the top ten actors and actresses who were on these lists. A third requirement was that the celebrities were between the age of 20 and 40 years. This age limit is set to secure that celebrities would match in age with the expected participants. An additional requirement was set for the Chinese celebrities to secure that the participants could recognize them. The Chinese celebrities had to have played in a Chinese and Western movie in the period of 2000 – 2010. Lastly, for a fair comparison, the chosen celebrities had to match in age. These requirements led to the selection of the following celebrities: for the female celebrities, Angelina Jolie and Shu Qi; for the male celebrities, Robert Pattinson and Jay Chou.

2.2.2 The Advertisements Li, Daugherty, and Biocca (2002) evaluated several products for their research. They judged a digital video camera as appropriate because buyers consider it as a high involvement purchase item. Therefore, consumers will not only base their purchase intention on an advertisement, but they will also carefully consider the technical aspects of the product. For this study, digital cameras have been chosen as the product that would be promoted in the created advertisements. The advertisements did not contain technical specifications of the camera. By doing so, it was possible to control the influence of textual information on the attitude towards the celebrity, the message and the product, and the purchase intention of consumers. So, participants would only form their attitude towards the celebrity and the product, and purchase intention on the basis of the advertisement. In order to create realistic advertisements, advertisements of digital cameras with celebrities were sought. This search led to advertisements of the digital camera from the brands SONY and NIKON. The SONY Cybershot camera is mainly promoted by female celebrity endorsers, like Deepika Padukone (India), Taylor Swift (USA) and Sulli (South Korea). Therefore, it was chosen to use this camera for the advertisements for the female participants. The NIKON Coolpix camera was promoted by male celebrity endorsers like Ashton Kutcher (USA) and Rain/Bi (South Korea). Therefore, this camera was considered as suitable for the male participants. The advertisements used in this study were assembled from pieces from different printed advertisements (see appendix B). The software program PhotoFiltre Studio X (version 10.3.2) was used to create these advertisements. All advertisements had a 320 x 240 format, with a resolution of 72.00 pixels/inch. To cover the editing of the advertisement as good as possible, a dark background was used for all advertisements. To help participants recognize the celebrity in the advertisement, the name of the celebrity is added in the advertisement. The created advertisements for the female participants can be found in figure 10. Figure 11 shows the created advertisements for the male participants.

Figure 10 Advertisements for female participants: Western celebrity (Angelina Jolie) on the left, Asian celebrity (Shu Qi) on the right

Figure 11 Advertisements for male participants: Western celebrity (Robert Pattinson) on the left, Asian celebrity (Jay Chou) on the right

All advertisements only included an image of the celebrity, the name of the celebrity (to stimulate recognition of the celebrity), and the logo of the brand. No further text was added to prevent influence of textual information. Furthermore, to prevent effects of attractiveness of a celebrity on the ratings, participants were only exposed to celebrities from the same gender. All participants were exposed to two advertisements: one with a Western celebrity and one with an Asian celebrity. To prevent order effects, the images were randomized based on the month of birth of the participants. Participants born in the first half of the year (from January until June) were first exposed to an advertisement with a Western celebrity, followed by an advertisement with an Asian celebrity. Participants born in the second half of the year (from July until December) were first exposed to an advertisement with an Asian celebrity, followed by an advertisement with a Western celebrity.

2.2.3 The Questionnaire Through a survey research on the Internet, the attitudes of Dutch and Chinese consumers were assessed with regard to celebrity endorsement with celebrities from the in-group and the out- group. The dependent variables of the study (attitude towards the source, the message and the product) were measured using semantic differential and Likert-type items on four or five point scales. The scales used in this study are created by Broeder and Stokmans (2011). The questionnaire can be found in appendix C. Since the questions in the questionnaire are asked twice, and it differs for the male and female participants and between the participants on month of birth, the appendix only shows the questions of the questionnaire once with the created advertisement of the Western female celebrity. Firstly, the participants were asked to fill out questions about their demographics, like gender, age, and ethnicity. In order to randomize the sequence of the advertisements, the participants were asked to fill out their month of birth. After the question about the demographics, the participants were introduced with the following scenario: It is almost summer and you are searching for a new photo camera. While searching, you have found an advertisement. The advertisement promotes the NIKON Coolpix/SONY Cybershot camera and contains a celebrity. Please take your time to view the advertisement and to answer the related questions. After reading this introduction, the participants were shown the advertisement with the Western or Asian celebrity, dependent of their month of birth. In order to assess their attitude towards the celebrity, several constructs with multiple items have been used. Figure 12 shows the items that were used for the assessment of the attitude towards the source.

Figure 12 Items for assessment attitude towards the source/celebrity (orientation between brackets )

Source

Affective attitude: Cognitive attitude Overall Attractiveness Trustworthiness attitude

Personal Physical Expertise Reliability characteris- appearance tics Not an expert/ Unreliable/ Attractive/ expert (-/+) reliable (-/+) Unfavourable/ unattractive (+/ -) Bad/good (-/+) Experienced/ Realistic/ favourable Ugly/ Negative/ inexperienced unrealistic (+/-) (-/+) good-looking ( - positive (-/+) (+/-) Subjective/ Unlikeable/ /+) Competent/ objective (-/+) likeable (-/+) Exciting/ incompetent Familiar/ Open/ dull (+/ -) (+/-) unfamiliar (+/-) closed (+/-)

The p articipants were asked to indicate their cognitive, affective and overall attitude towards the celebrity on five point scales (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree). The items for the affective attitude were: physic al appearance (attractive/unattractive, ugly/good -looking, exciting/dull) and personal characteristic (unfavourable/favourable, unlikeable/likeable, and open/closed). For the cognitive attitude, the items were: expertise (not an expert/expert, experienced/ inexperienc ed, competent/incompetent) and reliability (unreliable/reliable, realistic/unrealistic, subjective/objective, and familiar/unfamiliar). Lastly, the participants were asked to indicate their overall attitude towards the celebrity on two semantic differential five -point scales: bad/good, and negative/positive. After the assessment of the attitude towards the celebrity, the participants were asked to rate their attitude towards the message on five point scales for several constructs with

30 multiple items. Figure 13 shows the constructs and items that were used for the assessment of the attitude towards the message.

Figure 13 Items for assessment attitude towards the message (orientation between brackets) Message

Overall Function Personal reaction attitude

Hedonistic Positive Negative Utilitarian emotions emotions

Enjoyable/ Informative/not Bad/good (-/+0 irritating (+/-) Amused Angry informative (+/ -) Negative/ Nice/ Happy Bored Necessary/ positive (-/+) unappealing (+/-) Smiling Sad unnecessary (+/ -) Relaxing/ Unaffected Unaffected Worthwhile/ frustrating (+/-) useless (+/ -) Fun/no fun (+/-) Pointless/ Amusing/not useful (-/+) amusing (+/-) Sensible/ stupid (+/ -)

The participants were asked to indicate their attitude on five -point scales (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree) concer ning the extent of hedonistic and utilitarian functions of the message , and the overall attitude towards the message . As shown in figure 13, these constructs contained multiple items. The attitude tow ards the message was also assessed with a question concerning the personal reaction of the participants towards the message. The participants were asked to indicate the extent of their personal reaction to the message on five point scales (1 = not at all; 3 = mildly; and 5 = to a great extent) for the following emotions: angry, bored, sad, unaffected, amused, happy, and smiling. The emotions ‘angry, ‘bored’, ‘sad’ and ‘unaffected’ were categorised as negative emotions. The positive emotions contained the em otions ‘amused’, ‘happy’, ‘smiling’ and

‘unaffected’. Since the emotion ‘unaffected’ can be considered as a neutral emotion, it was added to as well the positive emotions as the negative emotions. Lastly, the attitude towards the product was assessed wit h four constructs. Figure 14 shows the items for the assessment of the attitude towards the product.

Figure 14 Items for assessment attitude towards product

Product

Product Purchase Overall Grade knowledge intention attitude

Statements Activities

Grade advertisement 1. I have more on a scale of 1 to 10 - Use this type of Bad/good ( -/+) knowledge about this product type of product than Negative/ friends - Buy this type of product positive ( -/+) 2. I am familiar with all the features of this - Talk with friends type of product about this type of product 3. I have a lot of experience using this - Give this type of type of product product as a present 4. I used this type of product in all kinds of different situations 5. I would like to know more about this type of product

Firstly, the participants were asked to grade the product in the advertisement on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = lowest grade; 5/6 = average grade; 10 = highest grade). Furthermore, their knowledge about the product was assessed by asking participants to indica te their agreement on five point scales (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree) for five statements. The participants were also asked to indicate how often they would

32 perform several activities with the product (use this type of product, buy this type of product, talk with friends about this type product, give this type product as a present). Lastly, participants were asked to indicate their overall attitude towards the product on two semantic differential scales (bad/good, negative/positive) on five point scales (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree). As mentioned earlier, the questionnaire can be found in appendix C.

2.3 Population For the representation of collectivistic consumers, Chinese consumers have been approached to participate in this study. China scores lower than any other Asian country on the dimension of Individualism-Collectivism (Itim International, 2009). Their score on this dimension is 20, compared to the average of 24. According to Hofstede, this low score “may be attributed, in part, to the high level of emphasis on a Collectivist society by the Communist rule, as compared to one of Individualism” (Itim International, 2009, para. 2). Therefore, Chinese consumers were considered to be the best representative population as collectivistic consumers for this study. As a representation for the individualistic consumers, Dutch consumers were considered as representative. The Netherlands has a score of 80 on the dimension of individualism. With this score, the Netherlands ties with Canada as the fourth highest country on the individualism ranking. The United States of America holds the first place on this ranking list with a score of 91, followed by Australia (90) and the United Kingdom (89). Therefore, the Dutch consumers can be considered as representative as individualistic consumers in this study. A total of 122 participants participated in this study. Of these surveys, 79 surveys were completely filled out and valid. Four participants were of mixed descent; these participants were left out of the analyses. So, in total, 75 surveys were valid for analyses. Of the participants, 50.6% were female (45% Chinese, 55% Dutch) and 49.4% were male (57.1% Chinese, 42.9% Dutch). The average age of the participants was 26.0 years (female: 25.9 years; male: 26.3 years). The average educational degree of the participants was a bachelor’s degree. The majority of the participants were living in the Netherlands at the moment that they filled out the questionnaire (N = 47); the other participants (N=28) lived in China. There was an equal distribution of the language that the participants spoke mostly at home: 48% of the participants spoke Dutch (N female = 22, N male = 14), 49% spoke Chinese (N female = 17; N male

= 20), and 2.7% spoke English (N female = 1; N male = 1).

In order to categorize the participants in ethnic groups, the participants were asked to fill out their country of birth, the country of birth of their parents, and to which ethnic group they think they belong to. For the majority of the participants, their country of birth and the country of birth of their parents determined their perception of ethnicity. Because of the agreement between their own perception and countries of birth of the participant and their parents, the participants have been categorized in groups based on their own perception of ethnicity. The participants have been categorized in the following groups: female-Chinese, female-Dutch, male-Chinese, and male-Dutch. Table 3 shows the frequency the country of birth the participants and their parents, and their own perception of ethnicity

Table 3 Country of birth of participants and their parents, and perception of own ethnic group Country of Country of Birth Country of Birth Ethnic

Birth Father Mother Group

Female The 26 22 22 22 Netherlands

China 14 18 18 18

Male The 21 15 15 15 Netherlands

China 14 20 20 20

In order to prevent effects of sequence, the participants were asked to fill out their month of birth. 45.3% of the participants were born between January and June (N female = 16, N male = 18); these participants were first exposed to the advertisement with a Western celebrity, the second advertisement contained an Asian celebrity. The other participants (N = 43) were born between July and December (N female = 24; N male = 17); they were first exposed to the advertisement with an Asian celebrity, followed by the advertisement with a Western celebrity.

2.4 Procedure The participants were recruited through Facebook and personal contacts of the researcher, who were asked to send an invitation to the questionnaire to friends, family and colleagues of Chinese and Dutch descent. After reading the invitation to the study, participants could participate in the study by clicking on a link, embedded in the e-mail or Facebook message. Furthermore, Chinese students of Tilburg University were personally approached with flyers with an invitation to participate in the study in English and in Chinese. The invitation contained the URL to the questionnaire and the name and e-mail address of the researcher. After clicking on the link or entering the address, the participants were directed to the introduction page of the questionnaire where a short introduction to the study was presented. After reading this information, participants could click on a button that directed them to a page with socio-biological questions (gender, age, ethnicity, etc.). After completing this question page, participants were presented with a scenario to stimulate them to seriously look at the advertisements and answer the questions. Afterwards, participants were shown an advertisement with an Asian or a Western celebrity, dependent of their gender and month of birth. After answering the related questions, the participants were shown another advertisement with a celebrity from the other ethnic group (if the first advertisement contained a Western celebrity, the second advertisement contained an Asian celebrity, and vice versa). After answering all related questions, the participants were directed to the last page of the questionnaire, where they were thanked for their participation in the study and an e-mail address was shown where they could e-mail to if they had questions regarding the study.

2.5 Perspective In this chapter, the research method has been discussed. Participants from Dutch and Chinese descent have been approached to fill out the questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed through the Internet and participants were asked to rate their attitude on four or five point scales. The participants were asked to rate their attitude concerning the following aspects of the advertisements: attitude towards the source, attitude towards the message, and attitude towards the product. Each aspect consisted several constructs to assess the attitude as accurately as possible. In the following chapter, the results of the survey research will be discussed. In order to create an overview, the results will be discussed per gender.

Chapter 3 Results

In this chapter, the results will be discussed per gender to create an overview of the results. Firstly, the internal consistency of the items are calculated and discussed. In this section, the differences in time for the question concerning the grading of the advertisement, product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product will also be discussed. Afterwards, the results of the survey research of the female participants be discussed. The results of the survey research of the male participants will also be reviewed. This chapter will close with a summary with the main findings of the study.

3.1 Reliability tests In order to conduct statistical tests on the constructs, the constructs were tested on internal inconsistencies with Cronbach’s α. A Cronbach’s α of .80 is seen as good, but a Cronbach’s α of .70 is acceptable. Therefore, the level of .70 is taken as a significance level. Furthermore, it was tested whether there were differences in time asked. In the following sections, the reliability tests will be discussed per attitude.

3.1.1 Attitude towards the Source Table 4 shows the Cronbach’s α of the used items for the assessment of the attitude towards the source.

Table 4 Cronbach’s α for attitude towards the source

Sub- Female Male Main construct construct Asian Western Asian Western

Personality .29* -.09* .39* .57* Attractiveness Physical .71 .74 .93 .84 appearance

Trustworthi- Expertise .84 .76 .82 .60* ness Reliability .63* .67* .54* .35*

Overall .81 .85 .91 .65*

*Insignificant Cronbach’s α

As shown in table 4, the Cronbach’s α of the item ‘personality’ has not met the significant Cronbach’s α of .70. The inconsistency can be explained by the item pair ‘unfamiliar/familiar’ for all groups. When this item pair is deleted from the construct, the Cronbach’s α meets the condition of a level of .70. Therefore, this item will be deleted for all groups. Furthermore, table 4 shows that there was internal inconsistency between the items of the construct ‘reliability’. Deleting items from this construct did not lead to internal consistency between the items. Therefore, the items of this construct will be discussed separately. Furthermore, the Cronbach’s α for the item ‘expertise’ of the male Western advertisement was still insignificant after deleting items from the construct. However, the Cronbach’s α for the other three advertisements was significant. Therefore, it has been decided to aggregate the items for this advertisement like for the other advertisements despite the insignificant level for the male Western advertisement. The same will be done for the construct ‘overall’ for the male Western celebrity: the items of this construct will also be aggregated. Table 5 shows the corrected Cronbach’s α after deleting the inconsistent items.

Table 5 Corrected Cronbach’s α after deleting inconsistent items for attitude towards the source Main construct Sub- Female Male construct Asian Western Asian Western

Personality .84 .91 .90 .83 Attractiveness Physical .71 .74 .93 .84 appearance

Trustworthi- Expertise .84 .76 82 .66* ness Reliability .74 .65* .62* .46*

Overall .81 .85 .91 .65* *Insignificant Cronbach’s α

In sum, for the construct ‘personality’, the item pair ‘unfamiliar/familiar’ has been deleted from the construct. The item pairs of the construct ‘reliability’ will be discussed separately, because deleting items from the construct did not lead to a significant Cronbach’s α of .70.

Lastly, the items from the constructs ‘expertise’ and ‘overall’ will be aggregated, despite the insignificant Cronbach’s α for the advertisement with the male Western celebrity, since the Cronbach’s α was strongly significant for the other groups.

3.1.2 Attitude towards the Message The internal consistency of the items for the assessment of the attitude towards the message was also tested. Table 6 shows the Cronbach’s α of these constructs.

Table 6 Cronbach’s α for attitude towards the message Female Male Constructs Asian Western Asian Western Hedonistic .84 .92 .96 .91 Utilitarian .87 .88 .94 .89 Overall .84 .75 .86 .86

As shown in table 6, there was internal consistency for all items of these constructs. Therefore, the items of these constructs can be aggregated. In order to test the attitude towards the message, the participants were also asked to fill out their personal reaction to the message for the following emotions: angry, sad, bored, unaffected, happy, smiling and amused. As shown in figure 13 (see section 2.2.3), these emotions can be categorised into positive and negative emotions. The category of positive emotions contains the emotions ‘happy’, ‘amused’, ‘smiling’, and ‘unaffected’. The negative emotions contained the emotions ‘sad’, ‘bored’, ‘angry’, and ‘unaffected’. The emotion ‘unafected’ belongs to both emotions, since it was considered as a neutral emotion. Table 7 shows the Cronbach’s α for these emotions.

Table 7 Cronbach’s α for personal reaction to the message Female Male Constructs Asian Western Asian Western Positive .53* .25* .30* .25* emotions Negative .72 .63* .54* .54* emotions *Insignificant Cronbach’s α

Table 7 shows that there were internal inconsistencies for the items of the constructs ‘positive emotions’ and ‘negative emotions’. The inconsistency can be explained by the emotion ‘unaffected’. When this item was deleted from the construct, the Cronbach’s α was significant for the positive emotions. However, deleting this item for the ‘negative emotions’ did not lead to a significant Cronbach’s α. Therefore, the items of this construct will be discussed separately. Table 8 shows the corrected Cronbach’s α for the constructs when the emotion ‘unaffected’ was deleted for the positive emotions.

Table 8 Cronbach’s α after deleting inconsistent items for attitude towards the message Female Male Constructs Asian Western Asian Western Positive .87 .86 .93 .81 emotions Negative .71 .53* .64* .57* emotions *Insignificant Cronbach’s α

Since the question concerning the personal reaction to the message was asked twice, a paired samples t-test was conducted to test whether there were differences in time asked. Table 9 shows the means and standard errors for the male and female participants for time 1 and time 2.

Table 9

Personal reaction to the message on t 1 and t 2: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Emotions Female Male T1 T2 T1 T2 Angry 1.53 (.12) 1.43 (.15) 1.69 (.14) 2.09 (.21) Sad 1.75 (.15) 1.68 (.17) 2.00 (.20) 1.97 (.18) Bored 2.95 (.20) 2.50 (.19) 3.49 (.23) 3.03 (.21) Happy 2.83 (.17) 2.90 (.18) 2.29 (.20) 2.63 (.21) Amused 2.40 (.16) 2.63 (.19) 1.89 (.20) 2.63 (.21) Unaffected 3.20 (.20) 3.08 (.20) 3.63 (.23) 3.06 (.22) Smiling 2.63 (.18) 3.03 (.18) 2.20 (.23) 2.69 (.22)

As table 9 shows, the scores for the emotions ‘sad’, ‘bored’, and ‘unaffected’ were higher on time 1 than time 2 for the participants. The scores for the positive emotions (happy, amused, and smiling) were lower at time 1 than time 2. For the female participants, the paired samples t-test was found significant for the emotions boring: on average, the participants found the first advertisement more boring ( M = 2.95, SE = .20) than the second advertisement ( M = 2.50, SE = .19), t(39) = 2.04, p < .05, r = .31. There were no significant differences for the other emotions ( p > .05). A close examination of the answers (see table 10) showed that more female participants were born between July and December ( N = 24) than January and June ( N = 16). This inequality might have led to differences, since the answers of the participants born between July and December might have out weight the answers of the other participants. So, the sequence of the advertisements might have had an effect on the ratings of the participants. Furthermore, when asked the second time, participants might have lost their concentration and wanted to finish the questionnaire as soon as possible. These factors might have had an effect on the answers of the participants.

Table 10 Frequency of answers to emotion ‘bored’ of female participants To a great Not at all mildly extent January – 3 4 5 2 2 June July – 8 4 8 4 0 December

Total 11 8 13 6 2

For the male participants, the paired samples t-test was found significant for the emotions angry, amused and unaffected. On average, the male participants were more angry ( M = 1.69, SE = .14) and less amused ( M = 1.89, SE = .20) the first time than they were the second time (angry: M = 2.09, SE = .21; amused: M = 2.63. SE = .21), t(34) = -2.23, p <.05, r = .36, respectively t(34) = -3.14, p < .005, r = .47. Furthermore, on average, the male participants were less unaffected to the first advertisement ( M = 3.63, SE = 3.06) than to the second advertisement ( M = 3.06, SE = .22), t(34) = 2.83, p < .01, r = .44. There were no differences between the first and second advertisements for the other emotions: sad: t(34) = .16, p = .88; bored: t(34) = 1.71, p = .09; happy: t(34) = -1.79, p =.08; and smiling: t(34) = -1.97, p = .06. A close examination of the data revealed that there was an equal distribution of the participants between the months of birth (NJanuary-June = 18, NJuly-December = 17). Therefore, the differences between answers cannot be explained by the sequence of the advertisements. When examining the answers for the emotion ‘angry’, the data shows that the first advertisement got lower ratings than the second advertisement. The second time the participants were asked about the emotion ‘amused’, they were more amused than the first time. Lastly, the emotion ‘unaffected’ got higher ratings the second time than the first time. Tables 11, 12 and 13 show the frequency of answers to these emotions. In sum, the male participants experienced more anger the second time than the first time, they were less amused the first time than the second time, and they were more unaffected the first time than the second time.

Table 11

Frequency of answers to emotion ‘angry for t 1 and t 2 of male participants (to an (to an To a great Total Not at all Mildly extent) extent) extent T1 18 10 7 0 0 35 T2 18 1 12 3 1 35

Table 12

Frequency of answers to emotion ‘amused’ for t 1 and t 2 of male participants Not at all (to an Mildly (to an To a great Total extent) extent) extent T1 18 8 6 1 2 35 T2 7 11 8 6 3 35

Table 13

Frequency of answers to emotion ‘unaffected’ for t 1 and t 2 of male participants Not at all (to an Mildly (to an To a great Total extent) extent) extent

T1 3 4 9 6 13 35 T2 6 5 11 7 6 35

For an accurate examination, the answers filled out the first time by the participants have been used for analyses.

3.1.3 Attitude towards the Product Participants were asked to fill out twice the grade that they would give to the advertisement, their product knowledge, their purchase intention of the product and their overall attitude towards the product. In this manner, it was possible to compare their answers on both times. In order to compare the answers of time 1 and time 2, a paired samples t-test was conducted. On average, the female participants graded the advertisements lower at time 1 (M = 6.00, SE = .24) than time 2 (M = 6.40, SE = 6.40). However, the paired samples t-test revealed that, on average, there were no significance differences between time 1 and time 2, t(39) = -1.15, p = .26. The male participants also gave the advertisement a higher grade when they saw the

43 advertisement for the second time. However, the paired samples t-test revealed that, on average, there was also no significant difference for the male participants on time 1 ( M = 5.03, SE = .37) and time 2 ( M = 5.75, SE = .35), t(34) = -1.86, p = .07. Since there are no significant differences on grade in time, the answers given at time 1 will be used for analyses because this was the first time that they were exposed to the question. The items for the assessment of product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product have also been tested on internal inconsistency. Table 14 shows the Cronbach’s α for these constructs.

Table 14 Cronbach’s α for the assessment of product knowledge, purchase intention, and overall attitude towards the product Female Male Constructs Asian Western Asian Western Product .84 .76 .72 .79 knowledge Purchase .73 .83 .80 .74 intention Overall attitude .95 .91 .99 .97

Table 14 shows that there was internal consistency between these constructs. Therefore, the items of this construct can be aggregated without internal inconsistencies between the items. Furthermore, several paired samples t-tests have been conducted to examine whether there were differences in time for product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product. Table 15 shows the means and standard errors for these constructs for time 1 and time 2.

Table 15

Product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product at t 1 and t2: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard error between brackets) Female Male Time 1 Time 2 Time 1 Time 2 Product 2.72 (.13) 2.68 (.15) 2.55 (.13) 2.37 (.14) knowledge Purchase 1.74 (.09) 1.76 (.11) 1.66 (.09) 1.71 (.10) intention Overall attitude 3.35 (.12) 3.35 (.15) 3.15 (.19) 3.46 (.16)

Table 15 shows that the product knowledge was slightly higher at time 1 ( M = 2.72, SE = .13) than time 2 ( M = 2.68, SE = .15) for the female participants. There was also a small difference for the male participants in time: the product knowledge was slightly higher at time 1 ( M = 2.55, SE = .13) than time 2 ( M = 2.37, SE .14). However, the dependent T-test revealed that, on average, there were no significant differences for the female participants: t(39) = .54, p = .60. However, on average, there was a significant difference for the male participants on product knowledge, t(34) = 2.55, p < .05, r = .40. As shown in table 15, there were small differences between the mean scores for the purchase intentions for both groups. According to the paired samples t-test, on average, there were no significant difference for both groups, female: t(39) = -.41, p = .68; male: t(34) = - 1.00, p = .32. The same holds for the overall attitude of the participants. Table 14 shows small difference between the groups. However, the paired samples t-test revealed that, on average, there were no significant differences for both groups, female: t(39) = .00, p = 1.00; male: t(34) = -1.70, p = .10. Since there were no significant differences for time 1 and time 2 on product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product, the answers given at time 1 will be used for analyses because this was the first time that the participants were exposed to the questions.

3.2 Female participants In this section, the results of the survey research of the female participants will be discussed. Firstly, the attitudes towards the source will be reviewed, followed by a discussion of the

45 results of the attitude towards the message. Lastly, the attitude towards the product will be reviewed.

3.2.1 Attitude towards the Source Asian Celebrity In order to compare the attitudes of the participants on their attitude towards the source, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Table 16 shows the means and standard errors of the Asian celebrity for the female participants.

Table 16 Attractiveness, trustworthiness, and overall attitude of the Asian celebrity advertisement according to female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Female participants Construct Items Dutch Chinese (N = 22) (N = 18)

Attractiveness 3.18 (.14) 3.45 (.26)

Expertise 3.20 (.17) 3.02 (.25) Reliability

• Familiarity 1.95 (.22) 3.94 (.32) Trustworthiness • Reliability 3.55 (.13) 3.33 (.28)

• Authenticity 3.50 (.18) 3.28 (.31) • Objectivity 3.00 (.20) 2.89 (.28) Overall 3.34 (.11) 3.28 (.27)

As shown in table 16, the ratings of the female participants were equal for most items. There were differences for the items expertise and relability familiarity . The Levene’s test for equality of variances indicated that the variances were equal for the items expertise ( F(1,38) = .59, p

= .45, relabilityfamiliarity (F(1,38) = 1.04, p = .31), and reliability objectivity (F(1,38) = .86, p = .36). However, Levene’s test for equality of variances was found to be violated for the following items: attractiveness ( F(1,38) = 7.05, p < .05); reliability reliability (F(1, 38) = 8.12, p < .01); reliability authenticity (F(1,38) = 8.09, p < .01); and overall ( F(1,38) = 13.83, p < .001). Due to the violation of the assumption of homogeneity, a t statistic not assuming homogeneity of variance was computed for these items.

An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the attitudes of the female participants towards the source. This test was found to be statistically significant for the item reliability familiarity , t(38) = -5.26, p < .001, r = .65. This result indicates that, on average, the Dutch participants (M = 1.95, SE = .22) were less familiar with the Asian celebrity than the Chinese participants ( M = 3.94, SE = .32). There were no significant differences for the other items ( p > .05).

Western Celebrity Table 17 shows the means and the standard errors of the Western celebrity for the female participants.

Table 17 Attractiveness, trustworthiness, and overall attitude of the Western celebrity advertisement according to female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Female participants Construct Items Dutch Chinese (N = 22) (N = 18) Attractiveness 3.88 (.15) 4.13 (.18) Expertise 2.65 (.13) 3.59 (.24) Reliability Trustworthiness • Familiarity 4.00 (.22) 4.28 (.20) • Reliability 3.05 (.19) 3.83 (.20) • Authenticity 2.73 (.23) 3.89 (.28) • Objectivity 2.14 (.15) 2.72 (.29)

Overall 3.57 (.20) 4.17 (.20)

As shown in table 17, the means of the Chinese participants were higher than the means of the Dutch participants for all constructs. In order to compare the attitudes of the participants towards the Western celebrity, an independent samples t-test was conducted. The Levene’s test indicated that the variances were equal for the items attractiveness ( F(1,38) = .28, p = .60), reliability familiarity (F(1,38) = .37, p = .55), relability reliability (F(1,38) = .03, p = .87), reliability authentic (F(1,38) = .01, p = .93), and overall ( F(1,38) = .05, p = .82). However, the

47 variances were not equal for the items expertise ( F(1,38) = 10.26, p < .005) and reliability objectivity (F(1,38) = 5.48, p < .05). Owing to this violation of the assumption, a t statistic not assuming homogeneity of variances was computed.

The test was found statistically significant for the items expertise, reliability reliability , reliability authenticity , and overall. On average, the Dutch participants found the Western celebrity has less expertise ( M = 2.65, SE = .13) than the Chinese participants ( M = 3.59, SE = .24), t(26.89) = -3.43, p < .005, r = .49. Furthermore, the Dutch participants rated the Western celebrity lower on reliability (M = 3.05, SE = .19) and authenticity ( M = 2.73, SE = .23) than the Chinese participants ( M = 3.83, SE = .20; respectively M = 3.89, SE = .28), reliability: t(38) = -2.82, p < .10, r = .42; authenticity: t(38) = -3.25, p < .005, r = .47. Lastly, the Dutch participants ( M = 3.57, SE = .20) rated the Western celebrity lower on overall attitude than the Chinese participants ( M = 4.17, SE = .20), t(38) = -2.13, p < .05, r = .33. There were no significant differences for the other items ( p > .05).

Asian Celebrity versus Western Celebrity In order to compare scores of the advertisements, a paired samples t-test has been conducted. Table 18 shows the means and standard errors of the female participants for the advertisements.

Table 18 Attractiveness, trustworthiness, and overall attitude of the Asian and Western advertisements according to female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Construct Items Female celebrities Asian Western Attractiveness 3.30 (.14) 3.99 (.12)

Expertise 3.12 (.15) 3.08 (.15)

Reliability

• Familiarity 2.85 (.24) 4.13 (.15) Trustworthiness • Reliability 3.45 (.14) 3.40 (.15)

• Authenticity 3.40 (.17) 3.25 (.20)

• Objectivity 2.95 (.16) 2.40 (.16)

Overall 3.31 (.13) 3.84 (.15)

As shown in table 18, there was a great difference between the means of the item reliability familiarity . The means of the other items did not differ much from each other. A paired samples t-test was conducted to compare the means of the advertisements on attitude towards the source. This test was found to be statistically significant for the items attractiveness, reliability familiarity , reliability objectivity ,and overall. On average, the Asian celebrity ( M = 3.30, SE = .14) was less attractive than the Western celebrity ( M = 3.99, SE = .12), t(39) = -4.00, p < .001, r = 54. Furthermore, the Asian celebrity ( M = 2.85, SE = .24) was less familiar than the Western celebrity ( M = 4.13, SE = .15), t(39) = -4.56, p < .001, r = .59. The Asian celebrity ( M = 2.95, SE = .16) was also less objective than the Western celebrity ( M = 2.40, SE = .16), t(39) = 2.49, p < .05, r = .37. Lastly, the overall attitude towards the Asian celebrity (M = 3.31, SE = .13) was significantly lower than the overall attitude towards the Western celebrity ( M = 3.84, SE = .15), t(39) = -2.71, p < .01, r = .40. There were no significant differences for the other items ( p > .05).

3.2.2 Attitude towards the Message Asian celebrity In order to compare the attitudes of the participants towards the message of the advertisements, the participants were asked to rate the advertisements on function of the message, their overall attitude and their personal reaction to the message. Table 19 shows the means and standard errors for the function of the message and the overall attitude towards the message.

Table 19 Hedonistic and utilitarian function of, and overall attitude towards the Asian celebrity advertisement according to female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Dutch Chinese (N = 22) (N = 18) Hedonistic function 2.55 (.13) 2.79 (.22) Utilitarian function 2.40 (.13) 2.82 (.22) Overall attitude 2.86 (.13) 3.03 (.27)

Table 19 shows that there were small differences in the ratings of the function of the message of the advertisement with the Asian celebrity. In order to compare the ratings of the

49 participants, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Levene’s test revealed that the assumption of homogeneity was violated for the hedonistic function ( F(1.38) = 6.03, p < .05) and the overall function ( F(1, 38) = 7.85, p < .01). Due to this violation, a t statistic not assuming homogeneity of variances was computed. An independent t-test revealed that there were no significant differences in attitude towards the hedonistic and utilitarian function of the message and overall attitude towards the message (p > .05).

Western celebrity Table 20 shows the means and standard errors for the function of the message and the overall attitude towards the message for the Western female advertisement.

Table 20 Hedonistic and utilitarian function of, and overall attitude towards the Western celebrity advertisement according to female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Dutch Chinese (N = 22) (N = 18) Hedonistic function 2.82 (.17) 3.60 (.17) Utilitarian function 2.45 (.11) 3.31 (.22) Overall attitude 2.98 (.16) 3.69 (.17)

As table 20 shows, the mean scores of the Chinese participants were higher than the mean scores of the Dutch participants. In order to compare the attitudes of the participants on statistical differences, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Levene’s test showed the assumption of homogeneity was violated for the utilitarian function ( F(1,38) = 12.66, p < .001). Therefore, a t statistic not assuming homogeneity of variances was computed. The independent samples t-test revealed that there were significant differences between the Dutch and Chinese participants. Firstly, the Chinese participants rated the message higher on hedonistic function ( M = 2.82, SE = .17) than the Dutch participants (M = 3.60, SE = .17), t(38) = -3.17, p < .005, r = .46. Furthermore, the Chinese participants (M = 2.45, SE = .11) rated the message higher on utilitarian function than the Dutch participants ( M = 3.31, SE = .22), t(25.99) = -3.54, p <.005, r = .57. Lastly, this also counts for the overall attitude: the overall attitude of the Chinese participants (M = 2.98, SE = .16)

50 was higher than the overall attitude of the Dutch participants (M = 3.69, SE = .17), t(38) = - 3.01, p < .005, r = . 44.

Asian Celebrity versus Western Celebrity In order to compare mean scores of the advertisements on functions of the message and overall attitude towards the message, a paired samples t-test was conducted. Table 21 shows the means and standard errors of the functions.

Table 21 Hedonistic and utilitarian function of, and overall attitude towards the Asian and Western advertisements according to female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Asian Western Hedonistic function 2.66 (.12) 3.17 (.14) Utilitarian function 2.59 (.13) 2.84 (.13) Overall attitude 2.94 (.14) 3.30 (.13)

As table 21 shows, there were differences in means between the Asian and Western advertisements. A paired samples t-test revealed that there were significant differences in hedonistic function and overall attitude between the two advertisements. On average, the Asian advertisement ( M = 2.66, SE = .12) was rated lower on hedonistic function than the Western advertisement ( M = 3.17, SE = .14), t(39) = -4.04, p < .001, r = .54. Furthermore, on average, the Asian advertisement ( M = 2.94, SE = .14) was rated lower on overall attitude than the Western advertisement ( M = 3.30, SE = .13), t(39) = 2.13, p < .05, r = .32. The advertisements did not differ significantly on utilitarian function ( p > .05). In order to compare the personal reactions to the message, an independent samples t- test was conducted. Table 22 shows the means and standard errors of the personal reactions of the participants.

Table 22 Personal reaction to the message of the advertisement of the female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Emotions Female participants Dutch Chinese (N = 22) (N = 18) Positive emotions 2.18 (.14) 3.15 (.23) Negative emotions • Angry 1.45 (.16) 1.61 (.20) • Bored 3.45 (.22) 2.33 (.30) • Sad 1.68 (.15) 1.83 (.27) • Unaffected 3.41 (.28) 2.94 (.27)

As table 22 shows, there was a great difference for the emotion ‘unaffected’ between the participants. There were small differences between the participants on the other emotions. As mentioned earlier, an independent t-test was conducted. Levene’s test revealed that there was a violation of the assumption of homogeneity for the emotion ‘sad’ ( F(1,38) = 9.73, p < .005). Therefore, a t statistic not assuming homogeneity of variances was computed for this emotion. This test was found statistically significant for the positive emotions, and the negative emotion ‘bored’. The Dutch participants ( M = 2.18, SE = .14) experienced less positive emotions than the Chinese participants ( M = 3.15, SE = .23), t(38) = -3.71, p < .001, r = .52. Furthermore, the Dutch participants ( M = 3.45, SE = .22) were more bored than the Chinese participants ( M = 2.33, SE = .30), t(38) = 3.09, p < .005, r = .45. There were no significant differences for the other emotions ( p > .05).

3.2.3 Attitude towards the Product In order to compare the mean scores of the participants towards the product, they were asked to grade the product and to indicate their product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product. Table 23 shows the means and standard errors of the female participants for these items.

Table 23 Attitude towards the product of the female participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 4/5 = completely agree; standard error between brackets) Female participants Dutch Chinese (N = 22) (N = 18) Grade 6.00 (.27) 6.00 (.44) Product knowledge 2.71 (.17) 2.73 (.20) Purchase intention 1.67 (.11) 1.82 (.15) Overall attitude 3.18 (.15) 3.56 (.19)

As shown in table 23, the means of the participants did not show great differences. In order to test whether the differences were significant, independent samples t-tests were conducted. Levene’s test revealed that the assumption of homogeneity was not violated for grade ( F(1,38) = .95, p = .35), product knowledge ( F(1,38) = .04, p = .84), purchase intention ( F(1,38) = 1.15, p = .29) and overall attitude (F(1,38) = .70, p = .41). The independent t-test was not significant for grade ( t(38) = .00, p = 1.00), product knowledge (t(38) = -.10, p = .93), purchase intention ( t(38) = -.82, p = .42), and overall attitude (t(38) = -1.61, p = .12). In conclusion, the female participants did not differ significantly in grade of the advertisements, product knowledge and purchase intention of digital cameras, and their overall attitude towards digital cameras.

3.3 Male participants In this section, the results of the survey research of the male participants will be discussed. Firstly, the attitudes towards the source will be discussed. Furthermore, the results of the attitude towards the message will be reviewed. Lastly, the attitude towards the product will be discussed.

3.3.1 Attitude towards the Source Asian celebrity In order to compare the attitudes of the participants towards the Asian advertisement, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Table 24 shows the means and standard errors of the attitudes towards the source of the Asian advertisement.

Table 24 Attractiveness, trustworthiness, and overall attitude of the Asian celebrity advertisement according to male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Male participants Construct Items Dutch Chinese (N = 15) (N = 20) Attractiveness 2.27 (.24) 3.48 (.27) Expertise 2.27 (.17) 2.95 (.25) Reliability Trustworthiness • Familiarity 1.87 (.34) 3.75 (.29) • Reliability 2.60 (.25) 3.55 (.28) • Authenticity 2.60 (.29) 3.60 (.26) • Objectivity 2.80 (.24) 2.85 (.26) Overall 2.70 (.21) 3.50 (.27)

Table 24 shows that there were differences between the participants on all items. Levene’s test showed no violation of the assumption of homogeneity. The independent samples t-test was statistically significant for all items, except for reliability objectivity (p > .05). The Dutch participants (M = 2.27 , SE =.24 ) found the celebrity less attractive than the Chinese participants (M = 3.48 , SE = .27), t(33) = -3.26, p < .005, r = .49. The Dutch participants (M = 2.27 , SE = .17) also found the celebrity had less expertise than the Chinese participants (M = 3.48 , SE = .27), t(33) = -2.11, p < .005, r = .34. Likewise, the Dutch participants (M = 1.87 ,

SE = .34) also rated the Asian celebrity lower on reliability familiarity than the Chinese participants (M = 3.75 , SE = .29), t(33) = -4.25, p < .001, r = .59. Furthermore, the celebrity was rated lower on reliability reliability by the Dutch participants (M = 2.60 , SE = .25) than by the Chinese participants (M = 3.55 , SE = .28), t(33) = -2.45, p < .05, r = .39. Likewise, the

Dutch participants (M = 2.6 , SE = .29) rated the celebrity lower on reliability authenticity than the Chinese participants (M = 3.60 , SE = .26), t(33) = -2.58, p < .05, r = .41. Lastly, the Dutch participants (M = 2.70 , SE = .21) also rated the celebrity lower on overall attitude than the Chinese participants (M = 3.50 , SE = .27), t(33) = -2.23, p < .05, r = .36. The participants did not differ significantly on reliability objectivity (p > .05).

Western celebrity In order to compare the attitudes of the participants towards the Western celebrity, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Table 25 shows the means and standard errors of the attitude towards the Western celebrity.

Table 25 Attractiveness, trustworthiness, and overall attitude of the Western celebrity advertisement according to male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Construct Items Male participants Dutch Chinese (N = 15) (N = 20) Attractiveness 2.27 (.24) 3.48 (.27) Expertise 2.62 (.21) 2.80 (.17) Reliability Trustworthiness • Familiarity 3.20 (.26) 2.70 (.34) • Reliability 2.60 (.27) 3.15 (.22) • Authenticity 2.87 (.26) 3.05 (.26) • Objectivity 2.80 (.26) 2.90 (.28) Overall 2.73 (.21) 3.23 (.18)

As shown in table 25, there was a great difference for attractiveness, reliability familiarity , reliability reliability , reliability authenticity , and overall attitude. In order to test whether the differences were significant, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Levene’s test showed that the variances were equal. The t-test found a significant difference for attractiveness: the Dutch participants (M = 2.27, SE = .24) found the celebrity less attractive than the Chinese participants (M = 3.48 , SE = .27), t(33) = -3.26, p < .005, r = .49. There were no significant differences between the participants for the other items ( p > .05).

Asian celebrity versus Western celebrity Besides the comparison of attitudes of the participants per advertisement, the attitudes per advertisement has also been compared. A paired samples t-test was conducted to test whether there were significant differences between the attitudes towards the celebrities. Table 26 shows the means and standard errors of the advertisements.

Table 26 Attractiveness, trustworthiness, and overall attitude of the Asian and Western advertisements according to male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Construct Items Male celebrities Asian Western Attractiveness 2.96 (.21) 2.96 (.21) Expertise 2.66 (.17) 2.72 (.13) Reliability • Familiarity 2.94 (.27) 2.91 (.25) Trustworthiness • Reliability 3.14 (.21) 2.91 (.18) • Authenticity 3.17 (.21) 2.97 (.18) • Objectivity 2.83 (.18) 2.86 (.19) Overall 3.16 (.19) 3.01 (.14)

As shown in table 26, there were small differences between the attitudes. The paired samples t-test revealed no significant differences between the attitudes towards the advertisements ( p > .05).

3.3.2 Attitude towards the Message Asian celebrity Table 27 shows the means and standard errors of the attitudes of the participants towards the functions of the message.

Table 27 Hedonistic and utilitarian function of, and overall attitude towards the Asian celebrity advertisement according to male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Dutch Chinese (N = 15) (N = 20) Hedonistic function 2.25 (.20) 3.25 (.29) Utilitarian function 2.01 (.16) 3.06 (.26) Overall attitude 2.40 (.24) 3.40 (.23)

As shown in table 27, there was a great difference in attitudes towards functions of the message and overall attitude towards the message. In order to compare the attitudes, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Levene’s test revealed the variances of hedonistic function ( F(1,32) = 6.25, p < .05) and utilitarian function ( F(1,32) = 4.62, p < .05) were unequal. Due to this violation, a t statistic not assuming homogeneity of variances was computed for these items. This test was found to be statistically significant for the hedonistic and utilitarian functions. The results indicate that the Dutch participants ( M = 2.25, SE = .20) rated the message lower on hedonistic function than the Chinese participants (M = 3.25, SE = .29), t(33) = -2.65, p < .05, r = .42. Furthermore, the Dutch participants ( M = 2.01, SE = .16) rated the message lower on utilitarian function than the Chinese participants ( M = 3.06, SE = .26), t(33) = 3.19, p < .005, r = .49. Lastly, the Dutch participants ( M = 2.40, SE = .24) also rated the message lower on overall function than the Chinese participants ( M = 3.40, SE = .23), t(33) = -3.00, p < .005, r = .46.

Western celebrity Table 28 shows the means and standard errors of the attitudes towards the function of the message.

Table 28 Hedonistic and utilitarian function of, and overall attitude towards the Western celebrity advertisement according to male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Dutch Chinese (N = 15) (N = 20) Hedonistic function 2.49 (.21) 2.77 (.22) Utilitarian function 2.16 (.22) 2.76 (.19) Overall attitude 2.63 (.20) 2.95 (.22)

Table 28 shows small differences between the participants. In order to test whether the difference were significant, an independent t-test was conducted. Levene’s test showed no violation of the assumption of homogeneity ( p > .05). The independent t-test was found to be statistically significant for utilitarian function, t(33) = -2.08, p < .05), r = .34. The results indicate that the Dutch participants ( M = 2.16, SE

= .33) rated the message in the Western advertisement lower on utilitarian function than the Chinese participants ( M = 2.76, SE = .19). There were no significant differences for the hedonistic function ( p > .05) and overall attitude (p > .05).

Asian celebrity versus Western celebrity In order to compare the attitudes towards the message for both advertisements, a paired samples t-test was conducted. Table 29 shows the means and standard errors for the function of the message for both advertisements.

Table 29 Hedonistic and utilitarian function of, and overall attitude towards the Asian and Western advertisements according to male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard error between brackets) Asian Western Hedonistic function 2.82 (.20) 2.65 (.15) Utilitarian function 2.61 (.18) 2.50 (.15) Overall attitude 2.97 (.18) 2.81 (.15)

As shown in table 28, there were small differences in attitude towards the function of the message. The paired samples t-test was not found to be significant for the hedonistic and utilitarian functions and overall attitude (p > .05). In order to assess the attitude towards the message, the participants were also asked to rate their personal reaction to the message for positive and negative emotions. Table 30 shows the means and standard errors of the personal reactions to the message.

Table 30 Personal reaction to the message of the advertisement of the male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = completely agree; standard errors between brackets) Emotions Male participants Dutch Chinese (N = 15) (N = 20) Positive emotions 1.42 (.14) 2.65 (.24) Negative emotions • Angry 1.47 (.17) 1.85 (.20) • Bored 4.27 (.32) 2.90 (.27) • Sad 2.07 (.35) 1.95 (.24) • Unaffected 4.33 (.30) 3.10 (.27)

Table 30 shows there were great differences between the participants for positive emotions. Furthermore, the participants differed greatly on the emotion ‘bored’ and ‘unaffected’. To test whether these differences were significant, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Levene’s test showed the variances were equal for all emotions. This test was found statistically significant for positive emotions, and the negative emotions ‘bored’ and ‘unaffected’. The results indicated that the Dutch participants ( M = 1.42, SE = .14) experienced less positive emotions than the Chinese participants ( M = 2.65, SE = .24), t(33) = 4.09, p < .001, r = .58. Furthermore, the Dutch participants ( M = 4.27, SE = .32) were more bored than the Chinese participants ( M = 2.90, SE = .27), t(33) = 3.29, p < .005, r = .50. Lastly, the Dutch participants ( M = 4.33, SE = .30) were more unaffected by the advertisements than the Chinese participants ( M = 3.10, SE = .27), t(33) = 3.02, p < .005, r = .22. There were no significant differences for the other emotions ( p > .05).

3.3.3 Attitude towards the Product To assess the attitude of the participants towards the product, they were asked to grade the product and to indicate their product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product. Table 31 shows the means and standard errors for grade, product knowledge, purchase intention, and overall attitude.

Table 31 Attitude towards the product of the male participants: means and standard errors (1 = completely disagree, 4/5 = completely agree; standard error between brackets) Male participants Dutch Chinese (N = 15) (N = 20) Grade 4.33 (.52) 5.55 (.50) Product knowledge 2.37 (.21) 2.68 (.16) Purchase intention 1.52 (.12) 1.78 (.11) Overall attitude 3.11 (.25) 3.18 (.27)

As shown in table 31, there was a great difference in grade between the participants. Levene’s test indicated no significant differences in equality of variances. In order to compare the scores, independent samples t-tests has been conducted for all items. This test revealed that there were no significant differences for grade: t(33) = -1.67, p = .11. Furthermore, there was also no significant difference in product knowledge between the participants: t(33) = -1.18, p = .25. Thirdly, the test revealed no significant differences in purchase intention, t(33) = -1.53, p < .14. Lastly, the participants also did not differ statistically significant in overall attitude towards the product, t(33) = -.18, p = .86. In conclusion, there were no statistical differences in attitude towards the product for the male participants.

3.4 Perspective In this chapter, the findings of the survey research were reviewed. Firstly, it was found that the Chinese celebrities were more familiar for the Chinese participants than for the Dutch participants. Furthermore, the Chinese men rated the Asian celebrity higher on attractiveness, expertise, reliability, authenticity and in overall than the Dutch men. With regard to the Western celebrity, the Dutch women rated the celebrity lower on expertise, reliability, authenticity and in overall than the Chinese women. The male participants only differed in attitude towards the attractiveness of the celebrity: the Chinese men found the Western celebrity more attractive than the Dutch men. When the attitudes of the participants towards the celebrities were compared, there were no significant differences in ratings for the men. The women, however, showed significant differences for attractiveness, familiarity,

60 objectivity and in overall: the Western celebrity was rated higher on these items than the Asian celebrity. Furthermore, the results indicated there was no significant difference in function of the message of the Asian advertisement. However, for the Western advertisement, the message was rated higher on hedonistic and utilitarian function by the Chinese women. Furthermore, the Chinese women had a higher overall attitude towards the message than the Dutch women. For the male participants, the Asian celebrity was rated lower on hedonistic and utilitarian function by the Dutch men. Furthermore, the overall attitude towards the message of the Dutch men was lower than the attitude of the Chinese men. With regard to the Western celebrity, the Dutch men rated the message lower on utilitarian function than the Chinese men. In order to assess the attitude towards the message, the participants were also asked to rate the extent of their personal reaction to the message for the following positive emotions (happy, smiling, and amused) and negative emotions (angry, sad, bored, and unaffected). The results indicate that the Dutch participants were more bored than the Chinese participants. Furthermore, the Chinese participants experienced more positive emotions than the Dutch participants. Lastly, the Dutch men were more unaffected by the message than the Chinese men. Lastly, the attitude towards the product was assessed. This attitude was assessed by asking participants to grade the product, to indicate their product knowledge on five point scales for five statements, to indicate their purchase intentions on four points scales for four activities, and to indicate their overall attitude towards the product on five points scales for two item pairs. The results indicate that there were no significant differences in attitude towards the product for the women and men.

Chapter 4 Conclusion

This master’s thesis is a study to celebrity endorsement with Asian and Western celebrities. With the increase of Internet use by people all over the world, consumers are not only faced with advertisements that are only broadcasted in their own country or continent. Nowadays, consumers are also faced with commercials and advertisements broadcasted in other continents, like Asia and North-America, through the Internet. In order to attract the attention of consumers, marketers use celebrities to endorse their products and services. This is known as celebrity endorsement. Research has indicated that the amount of celebrity endorsement has doubled in the period 1995-2005 (Van Eeuwijk, 2009) and the expectation is that this trend will grow because of the status of celebrities in society and the public’s fascination with famous people (Rajakaski & Simonsson, 2006). In the first chapter, the roles of celebrity endorsers and the types of endorsement are discussed. Seno and Lukas (2007) stated that endorsers can serve three roles. Firstly, the celebrity can serve the role of an expert. For example, in the advertisement of Nike for golf clubs, Tiger Woods was used as an endorser since he is a famous professional golfer. Furthermore, the celebrity can serve the role of a spokesperson that is linked to a product in a long-term capacity. For example, American actor George Clooney for the brand Nespresso. Lastly, a celebrity endorser can serve the role of a successful and ambitious figure that has no particular knowledge of or relation with the product. In this case, the celebrity endorses the product but he/she is not an expert of the product and has no relation with the product (e.g. Uma Thurman and Louis Vuitton bags). Besides the roles that a celebrity endorser can serve, McCracken (1989) suggested a distinction in endorsements. An endorsement can be explicit, implicit, imperative or co-presentational. When the endorsement is explicit, the endorser explicitly states he/she uses the product. The endorsement is implicit if no explicit statement is made about the usage of the product by the endorser. When an endorsement is imperative, the endorser tries to communicate that one should use the product. For example, in the advertisement of American singer Alicia Keys for Keep a Child Alive Foundation, she tries to encourage people to donate money to the foundation. Lastly, an endorsement can be co- presentational. In this case, the celebrity merely appears with the product in the advertisements. No statements are made about the use of the product by the endorser. Although celebrity endorsement is seen as an effective means for marketing, there is no consensus about the use of the same celebrity for different countries and cultures.

According to Levitt (1983), and Taylor and Johnson (2002), the demands and tastes of consumers have become similar on a global scale. Therefore, Kaikati (1987) and Erdogan (1999) suggest that celebrity endorsement with celebrities with worldwide recognition is an effective means for overcoming cultural difficulties. However, McCracken (1989), De Mooij (1997), and Onkvisit and Shaw (1999) object to these suggestions. According to McCracken, it would not be effective to use the same celebrity since celebrities represent the symbolic meanings and values of a culture. Furthermore, De Mooij, and Okvisit and Shaw suggest the effects of advertising techniques are dependent of the society in which they operate. For the current study, the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) were used as a framework. According to the TRA, one’s intention to perform a certain behaviour is dependent of the own attitude and the attitudes of important others. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is an extension of the TRA and adds the component perceived behavioural control to the model. This element concerns the perception of a person of how easily or difficult a certain behaviour can be performed. Based on the TRA and the TPB, the expectation was that one’s attitude towards a certain behaviour would be influenced by the attitude of important others. This, in turn, has an influence on the intention to perform the behaviour. The following hypotheses have been formulated: H1 Attitude toward the advertisement will be more favourable when the product is endorsed by a celebrity from the in-group than from the out-group. H2 Purchase intention towards the promoted product will be greater when the product is endorsed by a celebrity from the in-group than from the out-group. In order to test these hypotheses, a questionnaire on the Internet was used to assess the attitude of Chinese and Dutch consumers towards the use of celebrities from the in-group and out-group. Four advertisements have been created to test whether cultures differ in perception of the use of celebrities who share physical similarities with the participants. In order to prevent effects of attraction, participants were only exposed to advertisements with celebrities from the same gender. Based on the Forbes Celebrity List 2010 of the United States of America and China, a top ten of actors and actresses has been composed. Furthermore, a set of criteria was used to select celebrities. This selection led to the choice of the following celebrities: for the female participants, Angelina Jolie was chosen as the Western celebrity, and Shu Qi was chosen as the Asian celebrity. For the male participants, the Western celebrity was represented by Robert Pattinson and the Asian celebrity by Jay Chou.

Based on the research by Li, Daugherty, and Biocca (2002), a digital camera was chosen as the product for the advertisements. In order to create realistic advertisements, advertisements of digital cameras endorsed by celebrities were sought. This search led to the digital cameras from the brands SONY and NIKON. Since the SONY Cybershot cameras were mainly promoted by female celebrity endorsers, this camera was considered to be suitable for the female participants. For the male participants, the NIKON Coolpix camera was used for the advertisements. In order to assess the attitude of the participants towards the celebrities and the advertisements, the participants were asked to indicate their attitude towards the source on five point scales for the items attractiveness, trustworthiness and overall attitude. Furthermore, they were asked to indicate their attitude towards the message on five point scales for the hedonistic and utilitarian function of the message. Their overall attitude towards the message was also assessed. Lastly, to assess the attitude towards the message, the participants were asked to indicate their personal reactions for the following emotions: for the positive emotions, amused, happy, and smiling; for the negative emotions, angry, bored, sad, and unaffected. Finally, to assess the attitude towards the product, the participants were asked to grade the product, to indicate their product knowledge and purchase intention, and their overall attitude towards the product. In the following section, the results of the survey research will be summarised and the hypotheses will be answered. Furthermore, the results will be discussed. Lastly, the limitations and suggestions for future research will be reviewed.

4.1 Influence of Celebrities on Attitude In order to test the first hypothesis, the attitude towards the source was assessed. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the attitudes of the Chinese women towards the Western celebrity were more favourable than the attitudes of the Dutch women. Furthermore, the Chinese women were more familiar with the Asian celebrity than the Dutch women. When the ratings of the celebrities were compared, the Asian celebrity scored lower on attractiveness, objectivity and overall attitude than the Western celebrity. Therefore, the Chinese women have a more favourable attitude towards a celebrity from the out-group than from the in-group. Sharing similarity with the celebrity did not have an effect for the Dutch women. The Chinese men were more favourable towards the Asian celebrity than the Western celebrity. However, when the celebrities were compared to each other, the male celebrities did

65 not show significant differences in ratings on attractiveness, trustworthiness and overall attitude. Furthermore, the participants were asked to answer questions concerning their attitude towards the message and the product. With regard to the advertisement with the Asian celebrity, the women did not show any difference in function of the message. The Dutch men, however, rated the Asian advertisement lower on hedonistic and utilitarian function than the Chinese men. Furthermore, the overall attitude towards the Asian advertisements was lower for the Dutch men than for the Chinese men. With regard to the Western advertisement, the Chinese women rated the message higher on hedonistic and utilitarian function than the Dutch women. Furthermore, their overall attitude towards the message was more favourable than the overall attitude of the Dutch women. For the men, the Dutch men rated the message lower on utilitarian function than the Chinese men. When the advertisements were compared, the women rated the Asian advertisement lower on hedonistic function and overall attitude than the Western advertisement. The men, however, did not show differences in functions of the message and overall attitude. To assess the attitude to the message, the participants were also asked to indicate their personal reaction to the message. In general, the Dutch participants experienced less positive emotions than the Chinese participants. Furthermore, the Dutch participants were more bored than the Chinese participants. The Dutch men were also more unaffected by the message than the Chinese men. In sum, using a celebrity in advertisements seems to have an influence on the attitude of Chinese women in general. The Chinese men showed a more favourable attitude towards the celebrity from the in-group in comparison to the out-group. Using a celebrity in advertisements did not show a significant result for the Dutch participants. Therefore, hypothesis 1 is partially rejected. The difference in attitudes between the women can be explained by the chosen celebrities and chosen pictures of celebrities. The Western celebrity (Angelina Jolie) is a well known celebrity in the Western and Asian world. Furthermore, in 2006, Angelina Jolie ranked on top on the ‘Most beautiful people’ list of People Magazine. In 2009, Vanity Fair readers voted her as the number 1 ‘Most beautiful woman’. Her reputation as a beautiful woman and her efforts for humanity has made her well-known in the Western and Asian world. This might have had an influence on the attitudes of the female participants, since the Asian celebrity is lesser known in the Western world (and maybe even for Asia). Shu Qi has played in many Asian movies and a few Western movies. Therefore, she might have been recognized

66 by the Chinese participants, but not by the Dutch participants. Furthermore, the expression of Shu Qi in the advertisement could have influenced the attitudes of the female participants, since she did not smile (in comparison to Angelina Jolie who did smile). These factors might have had an influence on the attitudes of the female participants towards the celebrities. The Chinese men showed a more favourable attitude towards the Asian celebrity than the Western celebrity. This can be explained by the reputation of the celebrity. Jay Chou is a famous pop and R&B singer-songwriter, rapper, director and actor. Although he is mainly famous in Taiwan, he is also well-known in mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Chou mainly sings in Mandarin. Since he is famous in Asia, he might be well recognized by the Chinese men and, therefore, the attitude towards the Asian celebrity might have been more favourable than for the Western celebrity. Furthermore, Chou has mainly played in action films, which are commonly more liked by men. Robert Pattinson, however, is mainly known for his role as in the Twilight Saga. In general, this series is more liked by women than by men. These factors might have had an influence on the attitudes of the men. Lastly, the Asian celebrities were both of Taiwanese descent, despite their acquaintance in China, the difference in descent between the celebrities and Chinese participants might have influenced the attitudes of the participants.

4.2 Influence of Celebrities on Purchase Intention In order to test hypothesis 2, the attitude towards the product was assessed by asking the participants to grade the product, to indicate their product knowledge and purchase intentions for statements and their overall attitude towards the product on several scales. The results indicated that the advertisements did not differ in grades. Furthermore, the statistical tests indicated that there were no differences in product knowledge and purchase intention. Lastly, there were also no significant differences in overall attitude towards the product. Based on the results, it can be concluded that sharing the ethnicity with the celebrity does not have an effect on the purchase intentions of consumers. Therefore, hypothesis 2 is rejected.

4.3 Discussion The results show that Dutch people are not influenced by celebrity endorsers. However, Chinese people seem to be influenced by celebrity endorsers. In contrast to the expectation, the attitude of the Chinese women was influenced by celebrity endorsement. Unlike the

67 expectation, they also showed a preference for the Western celebrity, the celebrity from the out-group. As opposed to the women, it does matter for Chinese men whether the celebrity endorser is from the same in-group. With regard to the central research question, it can be said that ethnicity of the celebrity endorser does have an influence on the attitudes of Chinese men and women. Celebrity endorsement seems to have an effect on the attitudes of Chinese women in general. Chinese men, however, are more influenced by the ethnicity of the celebrity endorser: it seems that it is more effective for this group of consumers to use a celebrity who matches with them in ethnicity. However, the influence of celebrity endorsement on attitude was not found for the purchase intention of the promoted product. For the Dutch men and women, celebrity endorsement did not have an effect on attitude towards the advertisement and purchase intention of the promoted product, although the attitude towards the celebrity was more favourable when the celebrity was from the in-group. This conclusion matches the findings of McCracken (1989). McCracken suggested that celebrities represent the symbolic meanings and values of the culture they belong to. Therefore, marketers should use celebrities and advertising strategies that match with the fundamental cultural orientations of the culture in which they operate. The findings of this study are also supported by Kamins and Gupta (1994). These researchers investigated the influence of the physical attractiveness of a celebrity on brand attitude and purchase intention. Their research showed that attractiveness of a celebrity did not influence the brand attitude and the purchase intentions of consumers. In contrast, Ohanian (1991) found that physical attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise can have a positive influence on attitude and purchase intentions. Recent research by Barry (in Saner, 2011) indicated that women are more likely to buy a clothing product when the model in the advertisement matches with them in physical appearance. Barry used mocked-up fashion advertisements to examine whether the purchase intentions of women would increase when the model reflected them in their age, size and race. His research indicated that when the model reflected the participants in curves, length and ethnicity, they were more inclined to buy the clothing product. Thus, this research suggests that if the endorser in the advertisement reflects the consumer in ethnicity and physical appearance, people are more inclined to purchase the product. Although research by McCracken (1989) and Barry (2011) suggest that it is important to use celebrities who match in cultural orientation of the country for the marketing strategy to be effective, a study of Van den Heuvel (2011) suggested that cultural values cannot always explain the differences in preferences of ethnic groups. In her study, Van den Heuvel examined the influence of consumer innovativeness and cultural dimension on the preference

68 for wording of online texts and purchase intention of the promoted product. The results indicated that Dutch and American participants did not have a high score on consumer innovativeness. Furthermore, the Dutch participants did not show a preference for wording. In contrast, the American participants showed a preference for texts with the emphasis on innovation, improvement, rapidity and profit. However, the difference between the participants in wording of online text was not significant. These results indicate that the preference of the Americans for wording cannot be explained by cultural values. Furthermore, external factors (e.g. social influence and online behaviour) did not have an effect on the purchase intention of the participants. In sum, this study suggests that cultural values, consumer innovativeness and external factors cannot explain the preference in wording of online promotion texts. The effect of wording on attitudes and purchase intention was also examined in the study of Kwong (2011). In this research, the effect of wording of online product reviews on attitudes and purchase intentions was investigated. Kwong has used the same questionnaire as used in the current study. Furthermore, this study also used a photo camera as the attitude object. However, instead of advertisements, product reviews in concrete or abstract language were evaluated. Furthermore, the product reviews differed in orientation (positive or negative). In order to test whether there are cultural differences in wording, Dutch and Chinese people have been approached to participate in the study. The results show that there were no significant differences between the participants for the attitudes towards the source, the message and the product. However, the purchase intention of Chinese participants was influenced by the wording of the product reviews. The attitudes and the purchase intention of the Dutch participants were not influenced by the wording of the product reviews. Therefore, when designing an advertisement for Chinese consumers, one should consider these cultural differences in preference for wording. An expectation of the current study was that the attitude and purchase intention of the Chinese participants would be influenced by the use of a celebrity endorser from the in-group (in this study considered as an important person). Since the participants would share a similarity based on ethnicity, it was expected that the participants would consider the attitude of the celebrity as important to consider when making a purchase intention. However, the results indicate that only the Chinese men had a favourable attitude towards the celebrity from the in-group. Du Cloux (2011) found the same result in her study. She examined the influence of the opinion of online friends on participation in social media marketing activities for a brand, and whether there are differences between Dutch and Chinese people. The expectation

69 was that Chinese people would be more influenced by their friends because of their collectivistic nature. However, the results indicated that the Chinese participants were not influenced by their friends in their participation intention, although their intention was greater than that of the Dutch participants. As opposed to the Chinese participants, the Dutch participants indicated their intention to participate to social media marketing activities was influenced by the opinions of their friends about these activities. Therefore, this study also shows that the attitude of important persons do not have an influence on the intentions of Chinese people, despite their collectivistic nature. However, a study by Smits (2011) indicated that Chinese people do consider the opinions of their friends. In his study, he examined the influence of Facebook reviews (which are reviews on Facebook through comments and the ‘like’button) on attitudes and purchase intentions of Chinese and Dutch people. This study indicated that there are cultural differences in the influence of Facebook reviews on attitudes and consumer behaviour. The Chinese participants indicated that they appreciate the reviews of online friends more than the Dutch participants. This finding supported the expectation, since Chinese people are considered as collectivistic of nature. Therefore, they would appreciate the opinions of their friends and would consider their opinions when making a purchase intention more than individualists, like Dutch people. However, this was only partially expressed in the corresponding consumer behaviour. The Chinese participants were more inclined to use the ‘like’ button when the brand was positively evaluated by their online friends than the Dutch participants. However, there was no difference in purchase intention between the cultures. Furthermore, the results indicate that the brand attitude did not have an effect on the purchase intention, but it does have an effect on the intention to use the ‘like’ button to express that they like the brand. This effect especially applies to the Dutch participants, and in a lesser extent to the Chinese participant. In sum, Chinese people seem to prefer to emphasize the social element of Facebook reviews. They appreciate the attitudes of their online friends towards brands, expressed through the ‘like’ function of Facebook. For the Dutch people, the brand attitude was found more important. Research by Smeulders (2011) indicated that there are differences in purchase intention for men and women. In her research, Smeulders investigated the preference of American and Dutch consumers in lay-out of web shops. This research indicated that lay-out as a visual presentation strategy has an influence on the purchase intentions of men and women. The results indicated that there were no cultural differences in preference of lay-out. However, there was a significant difference between the male and female participants. The

70 purchase intention of the men was greater when the web shop had a horizontal lay-out and when the lines were clean. The purchase intention of the women, however, was greater when the web shop had a circular lay-out and when the web shop had more curves. Therefore, this research indicates that the lay-out of web shops influences the purchase intentions of men and women. In conclusion, there seems to be no consensus about the influence of important others on the attitude and purchase intention of individualists and collectivists. Furthermore, culture cannot always explain differences in attitudes and purchase intentions. The current study indicated that the use of celebrity endorsement only had an influence on the attitude towards the advertisement for the Chinese participants. Chinese men are more influenced by celebrity endorsement when there is a match in ethnicity between the celebrity and themselves. Chinese women, however, seem to be influenced by celebrity endorsement in general. More research is needed to examine more specifically if the solely use of a celebrity is enough to persuade consumers to change attitudes and to purchase the product or that matching the celebrity endorser with the consumer in ethnicity is needed to persuade consumers to purchase the promoted product.

4.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research Although decisions concerning the study have been made as well considered as possible, the study has a few flaws. Firstly, the survey research was conducted online. Participants might have been distracted by environmental factors (like noise and other persons in the same room) or other activities while filling out the questionnaire (e.g. chatting, listening to music). Furthermore, the quality of the advertisements was not equal for all participants since they filled out the questionnaire on their own personal computer or notebook. Therefore, differences between the qualities of the advertisements exist. Secondly, answers were based on self-report. Therefore, it was not possible to assess whether the answers reflected the attitudes of the participants accurately. Furthermore, the created advertisements were not of professional quality like advertisements created by marketers and designers for magazines and websites. Therefore, participants may have felt that the ads were not realistic. Consequently, they might not have been persuaded by the advertisement. Additionally, the chosen celebrities might not have been representative. The chosen celebrities were picked out of the Forbes Celebrity List 2010. Although this list calculates the ranking of the celebrities on their money, their presence on TV/radio, in press, on the web, social rank and their pay, this list might have not been a good representation of acquaintance of the celebrities by the participants.

Especially the Chinese celebrities might have not been known by the Dutch participants, since they are not well known in the Netherlands. As mentioned earlier, the Asian celebrities were both of Taiwanese descent. The discrepancy in descent between the Asian celebrities and Chinese participants could also have had an effect on the results. Another limitation was the chosen product. The promoted product in the advertisement was a digital camera. Based on the research of Li et al. (2002), it was chosen for this product since these researchers found that cameras are products that require high involvement of the buyer. Because of this high involvement, it was assumed that the participants would carefully consider the advertisement. However, it is possible that the product did not motivate participants to carefully consider the advertisement because of lack of interest in the product. Furthermore, the research of Li et al. was conducted in 2002. The involvement of consumers with digital cameras might have changed in the past years. For future research, it is recommended to conduct a pre-test for products that attract consumers’ attention to ensure that the participants are motivated to consider the advertisement carefully. Another limitation is that the analyses were conducted on a small sample. Therefore, one should be careful when generalizing the results, since they are based on a small sample. For future research, it is recommended to recruit larger samples in order to obtain more reliable results. Lastly, a few questions were asked twice (emotions, product knowledge, purchase intention and overall attitude towards the product). The repetition of questions could have cause irritation to the participants, since they had to answer the same question twice. Therefore, it is recommended to not repeat the same questions if no differences between answers is expected. In conclusion, this study to celebrity endorsement suggests that the attitudes of Chinese consumers can be influenced by celebrity endorsement. Dutch consumers seem to be more resistant to this type of marketing. However, more research is needed to examine whether celebrity endorsement solely is enough to persuade Chinese consumers’ attitude and consumer behaviour, or that matching the celebrity endorser with the consumer in physical appearance and ethnicity is needed in order for the marketing strategy to be effective.

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Appendices

Appendix A Selection of celebrities Appendix B Used items of existing advertisements Appendix C Questionnaire

Appendix A Selection of celebrities

Table 1 Name , age and rank of the Western (left) and Chinese (right) male celebrities on the Forbes Celebrity List Name Age # Name Age # 1 Johnny Depp 47 9 Jackie Chan 57 1

2 Brad Pitt 47 30 Jay Chou* 32 2

3 Tom Hanks 54 41 Andy Lau 49 3

4 Ben Stiller 45 46 Zhao Ben Shan 42 6

5 Robert 24 50 Donnie Yen 47 8 Pattinson* 6 Tom Cruise 48 56 Nicholas Tse* 30 14

7 Adam Sandler 44 57 Aaron Kwok 45 15

8 George 49 58 Sun Hong Lei 40 17 Clooney 9 Leonardo Huang Xiao 36 71 33 19 DiCaprio* Ming 10 Robert Downey Chow Yun Fat 45 73 55 23 Jr. *fulfill the requirements

Table 2 Name , age and rank of the Western (left) and Chinese (right) female celebrities on the Forbes Celebrity List Name Age # Name Age # 1 Sandra Bullock 46 8 Zhang Ziyi* 32 5

2 Angelina Jolie* 35 18 Fan Bing Bing 29 10

Jennifer 3 42 26 Lin Chi-Ling 36 11 Aniston 4 Cameron Diaz* 38 60 Zhou Xun 34 18

5 Sarah Jessica 45 70 Vicki 35 20 Parker Zhao/Zhao Wei 6 Reese 34 75 Li Bing Bing 34 21 Witherspoon* 7 Julia Roberts 43 77 Shu Qi* 35 28

8 Meryl Streep 61 79 Barbie Hsu / 34 33 Da S 9 Drew 36 87 Carina Lau 45 37 Barrymore* 10 Kate Hudson* 31 97 Betty Sun Li 28 47

*fulfill the requirements

Appendix B Used parts of existing advertisements

Appendix C Questionnaire

Celebrity Endorsement with celebrities from the in-group and out-group

Celebrity endorsement is used by many companies to promote products and to persuade consumers to purchase their products. A research project carried out at Tilburg University (Europe, the Netherlands) focuses on celebrities in advertisements.

In this survey you are asked to look at four advertisements with Asian and Western celebrities. Please take your time to view the advertisements.

Subsequently, you are asked to answer some questions about the aspects of advertisement: • the CELEBRITY in the advertisement • the MESSAGE of the advertisement • the PRODUCT in the advertisement

It takes about 10 minutes to fill out the survey.

All answers will be processed anonymously and confidentially.

Thank you for your participation in this survey.

Linda Tran [email protected]

Project Consumers Online (Tilburg University)

There are 66 questions in this survey

Sociobio

1 What is your gender? Please choose only one of the following: Ο Female Ο Male

2 What year are you born? Please choose only one of the following: Ο 1995 Ο 1994 Ο 1993 Ο 1992 Ο 1991 Ο 1990 Ο 1989 Ο 1988 Ο 1987 Ο 1986 Ο 1985 Ο 1984 Ο 1983 Ο 1982 Ο 1981 Ο 1980 Ο 1979 Ο 1978 Ο 1977 Ο 1976 Ο 1975 Ο 1974 Ο 1973 Ο 1972 Ο 1971

3 What month are you born? Please choose only one of the following: Ο January Ο February Ο March Ο April Ο May Ο June Ο July Ο August Ο September Ο October Ο November Ο December

4 What is your highest obtained educational degree? Please choose only one of the following: Ο secondary education or lower Ο junior college graduate Ο bachelor’s degree Ο master’s degree Ο doctor’s degree or higher

5 What is your country of birth? Please choose only one of the following: Ο The Netherlands Ο China Ο Other, namely …

6 What is the country of birth of your father? Please choose only one of the following: Ο The Netherlands Ο China Ο Other, namely …

7 What is the country of birth of your mother? Please choose only one of the following: Ο The Netherlands Ο China Ο Other, namely …

8 What language do you mostly speak at home? Please choose only one of the following: Ο Chinese Ο Dutch Ο English Ο Another language, namely …

9 In which country do you live now? Please choose only one of the following: Ο The Netherlands Ο China Ο Other, namely

10 To what ethnic group do you belong? Please choose only one of the following: Ο Chinese Ο Dutch Ο English Ο Another group, namely …

It is almost summer and you are searching for a new photo camera. While searching, you have found an advertisement. The advertisement promotes the NIKON Coolpix/SONY Cybershot camera and contains a celebrity. Please take your time to view the advertisement and to answer the related questions.

11 How do you feel about the CELEBRITY in this advertisement?

Please choose the appropriate response for each item: familiar ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ unfamiliar bad ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ good not an expert ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ expert experienced ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ inexperienced competent ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ incompetent unreliable ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ reliable realistic ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ unrealistic subjective ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ objective negative ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ positive attractive ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ unattractive ugly ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ good-looking exciting ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ dull unfavourable ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ favourable unlikeable ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ likeable open ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ closed

12 How do you feel about the MESSAGE of this advertisement?

Please choose the appropriate response for each item: bad ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ good enjoyable ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ irritating nice ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ unappealing relaxing ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ frustrating fun ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ no fun amusing ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ not amusing positive ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ negative informative ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ not informative necessary ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ unnecessary worthwhile ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ useless pointless ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ useful sensible ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ stupid

13 To what extent does your personal reaction to the message in the advertisement apply? Please choose the appropriate response for each item:

not at all mildly to a great extent angry ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ sad ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ happy ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ amused ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ unaffected ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ bored ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ smiling ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝

14 Please grade the PRODUCT in this advertisement on a scale of 1 to 10? Please choose only one of the following: Ο 1 Ο 2 Ο 3 Ο 4 Ο 5 Ο 6 Ο 7 Ο 8 Ο 9 Ο 10

15 What do you know about the PRODUCT in this advertisement?

Please choose the appropriate response for each item:

completely disagree don’t agree agree Completely disagree but don’t agree disagree either I have more knowledge about this type of product than ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ type of product than friends I am familiar with all the features of this ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ type of product I have a lot of experience using this ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ type of product I used this type of product in all kinds of ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ different situations I would like to know more about this type ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ of product

16 How often do you do any of the following things with the PRODUCT in this advertisement?

Please choose the appropriate response for each item:

almost never sometimes regularly often Use this type of ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ product Buy this type of ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ product Talk with friends about ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ this type of product Give this type of ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ product as present

17 How often do you feel about the PRODUCT in this advertisement? Please choose the appropriate response for each item: bad ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ good negative ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ positive