Apr, 2020
When Should a Brand Cut Ties With a Scandalized Endorser?
Communication & Sport
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- Volume
- 8
- Number
- 2
- First page
- 215
- Last page
- 235
- Language
- English
- Publishing type
- Research paper (scientific journal)
- DOI
- 10.1177/2167479519826054
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
It is important for brands to appropriately respond when their athlete endorsers are involved in a scandal. The present study examines how consumer evaluations of endorsed brands are influenced by a brand’s response to an endorser scandal. A 2 (brand response strategy type: maintenance vs. termination) × 2 (endorser scandal type: competence-relevant vs. competence-irrelevant) between-subjects experiment is conducted. Specifically, the authors focus on the perceived appropriateness of the response strategy and consumer attitudes toward an endorsed brand. Subjects were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk ( N = 111). Consumers perceive that terminating an endorsement contract with a scandalized endorser is more appropriate than maintaining the relationship. This is particularly true when celebrity endorsers are involved in competence-relevant scandals. A further analysis provided support for the idea that perceived “appropriateness” mediates the relationship between competence-relevant scandal and consumer attitude toward an endorsed brand. A termination strategy was considered appropriate when scandalized endorsers engaged in competence-relevant scandals, which eventually lead to more favorable consumer evaluations toward an endorsed brand.
- Link information
- ID information
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- DOI : 10.1177/2167479519826054
- ISSN : 2167-4795
- eISSN : 2167-4809