Priming effect of celebrities on consumer response toward endorsed brands: an experimental investigation

Purpose Moving beyond the concept of congruence between celebrity image and brand image, this study explores a new domain in which to investigate the match-up hypothesis. Specifically, this study aims to understand the extent to which consumers engage in more indulgent behavior when participants are primed with a celebrity with a certain perceived lifestyle. Design/methodology/approach Two independent experiments were undertaken to observe consumer reactions to advertisements using celebrities as priming stimulus. Experiment 1 featured a 2 (perceived celebrity lifestyle) × 3 (celebrity persuasion style) between-subjects design, while a follow-up study featured a 2 (celebrity’s on-screen portrayal) × 3 (celebrity persuasion style) between-subjects factorial design. Findings Results support the proposition that celebrities cause priming effects such that consumers’ attitude and willingness to spend (WTS) on the endorsed brand depends on their perception of the celebrity’s lifestyle. Participants exposed to a perceived high-flamboyant-lifestyle celebrity had a more positive attitude toward the endorsed brand and were more willing to spend money when the celebrity used a “spend money” persuasion style than when the celebrity used a “save money” persuasion style in endorsements. Findings of a follow-up study suggest that exposure to a celebrity playing a flamboyant character on-screen was seen to be associated with a positive attitude toward the brand and increased WTS, than exposure to a celebrity playing a less flamboyant character on-screen. Originality/value Although effects of person primes are evidenced in the literature, previous studies are silent on the impact of presenting celebrities as priming stimulus. This study extends the idea of priming using a social category that has not been explored before, namely, celebrities and explores the effect that celebrity priming has on activating specific consumer response behavior.

Use of the Implicit Association Test for the Measurement of Tinnitus-Related Distress

Purpose A priming stimulus activates and increases an association with the target stimulus. The goal of this research was to investigate whether current tinnitus measures are susceptible to increased error due to priming and, if so, to examine the feasibility of using the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) for an alternative measurement of tinnitus-related distress. Method Participants completed 2 tinnitus-related questionnaires and the IAT online. Results Although participants with tinnitus did not view sound-related words as significantly more negative and IAT scores did not predict scores on the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (Newman, Jacobson, & Spitzer, 1996), priming did affect negative implicit attitudes toward sound-related words. Conclusions On the basis of these results, it is suggested that current tinnitus measures may be susceptible to priming error and that future studies should continue to pursue how the IAT can be utilized in the measure of tinnitus-related distress. Moreover, researchers should develop overt-behavioral measurements that can assess the validity of a tinnitus IAT.

Qualitatively Different Effects of Undetected and Unidentified Auditory Primes

The suggestion that semantic activation can occur without conscious identification of the priming stimulus is still controversial. Many studies supporting such a contention, especially those where primes were auditorially presented, suffer from methodological shortcomings, frequently with regard to threshold measurement. In the study reported here 24 subjects underwent a considerably more rigorous thresholding procedure than has been usual, prior to engaging in a forced-choice sentence completion task. The results show that semantic priming operates when subjects were unable to detect the presence of primes and that phonological (but not semantic) priming operates when the primes were invariably detected but never correctly identified. The relevance of these qualitatively different effects of primes, as a function of the level at which they are presented, in discussed in the light of recent accounts of unconscious processing.