A summary of the findings are presented in Table 3. Responses centered around five basic themes and although types of responses were similar across versions, there were differences in the magnitude of responses with respect to certain themes. The similarities and differences will be reported in this section. Specific examples include: "A clean cut celebrity who looks clean, refreshed and renewed by a shower Fox," and "Softness and clean bright colors.
I feel someone like Christy Brinkley or maybe a baby could advertise towels. Use of an "average" person was the second theme identified. A celebrity in this category was, on occasion, contrasted to the glamorous, aloof or media conscious celebrity in the following ways: "I would want a female but it's not necessary. Mid 40's, motherly type. Barbara Billingsley 20 years ago is a perfect example," and "I would want a popular woman actress to advertise.
One who plays a mom or grandma. Someone with strong traditional morals. An athletic celebrity was identified as the third theme and respondents in this category indicated that athletes were believed to be good endorsers of bath towels because they are "heavy" towel users.
Some respondents mentioned particular celebrities by name. Twenty-five percent of the respondents mentioned an athletic celebrity as a potential endorser. Typical responses included: "The kind of celebrity I would want to advertise bath towels is a professional athlete. This is someone who showers often and is a person I can admire," and "I don't think glamour can sell towels.
When thinking of towels, I think of athletes. Examples of responses that were categorized in this theme are: "Someone who is good looking," "I chink bath towels should be advertised by a good looking woman wearing nothing but a towel. Perhaps a Sports Illustrated model," and "Good-looking, very feminine. Sexy endorser was the final identified theme and responses in this category indicated clearly that bath towels should be advertised in a sexy situation such as the following: "Associate sex with the bath towels by using Christy Brinkley, Heather Locklear or Paula Abdul.
All three are sexy and I would love to see any of them in a towel. The results of this study suggest that additional work needs to be done on the data collection instrument if we are to continue to use it to investigate the meanings that "adhere" in celebrities.
Some of the responses elicited by the exploratory instrument were disappointing although it is apparent that the "tell us what you think" approach can be successful. We are able to demonstrate that celebrities possess symbolic meanings and we were able to demonstrate that celebrities pass on these symbolic meanings to the products they endorse.
We were also able to demonstrate that unendorsed products tend to have symbolic meanings that are diffuse and undifferentiated compared to the more dimensionalized and unique symbolic meanings of endorsed products.
It was our experience, however, that the abstract nature of symbolic associations may make it difficult for respondents to be sure they are responding appropriately; this was particularly true in the pilot study. There are two possible solutions to this problem: one, the instrument might fare better used with an interview; and two, the use of visual stimuli rather than language might be more effective especially since our data indicate that many associations do depend on what is seen as well as what is heard or read once the meanings of celebrities are established.
It might be easier for respondents to associate visual representations of celebrities and products rather than describe them. This is an approach that has been suggested in private correspondence by McCracken. It was out intention to establish meanings, empirically, before attempting to investigate matches and we turn our attention now to that issue. It appears that celebrities do contain symbolic meanings, these meanings can be articulated and, to some degree, they are consistent and interconnected.
To begin, despite the problems with the instrument, our study was able to verify empirically the meanings that McCracken suggests , p. There was a-not-surprising consistency between the language used to describe associations of Cher and Scandinavia Health Spas and the language used to describe Scandinavian Health Spas alone.
Cher as an endorser of Scandinavian represents at least eight different themes which include her physical appearance, her age, her "personality," and her life style; she is "more than" Cher. She represents attractiveness, fitness, hard work, sex, independence, confidence and "good" middle age.
When Cher endorses Scandinavian Health Spas she brigs these qualities with her and although the advertisement places an emphasis on certain qualities e. Two finding somewhat surprised us: the extent to which respondents mentioned reports of plastic surgery on various part of Cher's body and gender differences in comments on the meanings of the endorsement.
The plastic surgery reports had a direct effect on Cher's endorsement and the product: it discredited her as a credible source for the product and "passed on" the discrediting to the product. This is, most certainly, an unintended symbolic meaning transfer and we wonder if the company is aware of the situation. As an aside, males mentioned the plastic surgery considerably more frequently than females; we are at a loss to explain this difference.
Other gender differences are also interesting. For instance, females were much more likely than males to indicate that Cher's body resulted from hard work it does seem more difficult for women than men to maintain a good body image ; however, only males indicated that Scandinavian was a good place to meet members of the opposite sex perhaps spas fulfill different needs for men and women.
Are these intended or unintended meanings in the endorsement? Regardless, it is apparent that celebrities contain powerful and multi-dimensional meanings that they "deliver" along with their persona McCracken , p. Therefore, despite problems with the instrument, our data supports Stage 1 of McCracken's endorsement process -- individuals charged with detailed and powerful meanings.
What about unendorsed products? Our objective in examining unendorsed products was to determine if the associations for endorsed products Cher and Scandinavian as the representative of this category are different in qualitative and quantitative respects than those of unendorsed products bath towels representing this category. The results indicate that our expectations were correct; a broad and unfocused sample of mostly inanimate attributes were elicited by bath towels -from ordinary and clean to luxurious and comfortable.
Bath towels do not have a celebrity endorser to reduce the thematic dimensions and so they are perceived by some as ordinary, others as athletic, and still others sexy and so on. These associations may tend to create the more human or animated descriptions of endorsed products or product attributes as opposed to the more inanimate descriptions of unendorsed products.
The broad range of attributes elicited by the unendorsed bath towels suggests that an additional pairing study should be conducted. The responses indicated a wider range of celebrity types, from attractive to motherly to sexy, might make suitable endorsers. Bath towels should be paired with a celebrity in each of these categories. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Abstract This article offers a new approach to celebrity endorsement.
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