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COMPARISON BETWEEN ATTRACTIVENESS

AND EXPERTISE OF ATHLETE ENDORSERS

ON CONSUMERS’ PURCHASE INTENTION

BY

NG TSZ SHUN

04008936

AN HONOURS PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF ARTS

IN

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND RECREATION MANAGEMENT (HONOURS)

HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

APRIL 2007

HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

13th APRIL, 2007

We hereby recommend that the Honours Project by Mr. Ng Tsz

Shun entitled “Comparison between attractiveness and

expertise of athlete endorsers on consumers’ purchase

intention” be accepted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in

Physical Education And Recreation Managenment.

Dr. Patrick Lau Dr. Eva Tsai

Chief Advisor Second Reader

Process Grade:

Product Grade:

Overall Grade:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratefulness to my chief advisor,

Dr. Patrick Lau, for his generous and professional guidance

throughout the whole project period. I would also like to show

my special thanks to DR. Eva Tsai for being my second reader.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the participants for their

sincere participation.

Ng Tsz Shun

Department of Physical Education

Hong Kong Baptist University

Date:

Abstract

For years, companies have spent huge sum of money to have

famous athletes as their product endorsers. The present study

attempted to investigate how the two characteristics of an

athlete endorser, attractiveness and expertise, would

influence the intention to purchase the endorsed product of

different groups of consumers. A total of 208 university

students participated in this study, with 104 male and 104

female. Subjects answered questions on their purchase

intention after viewing advertisements of a sports drink

featuring different types of endorsers. Results revealed that

although expertise and attractiveness were both positively

related to purchase intention, expertise was a more

significant factor than attractivenes. Other findings of

varied responses from different types of consumers were also

discussed. It is hoped that information provided from this

study could suggest considerations for sports marketers to

develop a more systematic approach to endorser selection.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER Page

1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Statement of Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Delimitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Hypotheses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Significance of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Introduction to the Use of Endorsers . . . . 14

Source Credibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Source Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Source Attractiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Consumers’ Gender Differences. . . . . . . . 23

Consumers’ Involvement Level to Products . . 25

3. METHOD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Sample of Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

CHAPTER Page

Development of the Questionnaire . . . . . . 27

Development of the Advertisements. . . . . . 30

Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Method of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4. ANALYSIS OF DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Summary of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Recommendations for Further Study. . . . . . 69

REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

APPENDIX

A. Questionnaire (English). . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

B. Stimulus Material (Advertisements)

i. Attractive x Skilled version. . . . . . . . . 80

ii. Attractive x Less Skilled version . . . . . . 81

CHAPTER Page

iii.Less Attractive x Skilled version . . . . . . 82

iv. Less Attractive x Less Skilled version. . . . 83

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE Page

1. Frequency and Percentage Distribution of

Gender of the Subjects(N=208). . . . . . . . . . 37

2a. Mean and Standard Deviation of Subjects’ Age . . 38

2b. Frequency and Percentage of Subjects’ Age. . . . 38

3a. Mean, Median and Standard Deviation of Subjects’

Sports Involvement Level Scores. . . . . . . . . 40

3b. Frequency and Percentage of Subjects’ Sports

Involvement Level Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4. Pearson’s Correlation Test between Endorser

Characteristics and Subjects’ Purchase Intention

(N=208). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5. Independent Samples t-test on Purchase Intention

between High and Low Involvement Subjects. . . . 44


Characteristics and Purchase Intention of

Subjects of High Sports Involvement Level(N=104)

TABLE Page

6. and Low Sports Involvement Level(N=104). . . . . 46

7. Independent Samples t-test on Purchase Intention

between Male and Female Subjects . . . . . . . . 48


Characteristics and Purchase Intention of Male

Subjects (N=104) and Female Subjects (N=104) . . 50

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE Page

1. Bar-chart showing the number of subjects

at different ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2 Bar-chart showing the number of subjects at

different sports involvement level scores . . . 41

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Athlete and celebrity endorsers have been used as

promotional tools to promote a wide variety of products and

services for years. Companies were spending huge amount of

money to have athletes such as Tiger Woods ($70 million/year)

or Michael Jordan ($30 million/year) as their product

endorsers (Isidore, 2003). The reason behind this popularity

of celebrity advertising was that marketers and advertisers

believe messages delivered by these famous people would gain

a higher level of attention and recall for the consumers. And

these athletes in particular can command huge sums to endorsed

products because of their universal popularity and clean

images. Researches have shown that customers would have a more

positive brand attitude towards products that were endorsed

by celebrities (Petty, Cacioppo & Schumann, 1983) and were

more likely to choose those products (Agrawal & Kamakura,

1995). Furthermore, Atkin and Block (1983) found out that

celebrities would gain and hold consumers’ attention towards

a product and can provide expert testimonials for products

that helped contribute to their success.

As the use of athlete endorsers has grown over the years,

there have been a number of studies that have examined under

what conditions endorsers were more appropriate for products

and to explain the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the

endorsers, and the circumstances under which effectiveness

was increased. In determining the major characteristics of

an effective endorser, researchers have focused mainly on

three dimensions of the endorser: attractiveness, expertise

and trustworthiness. All the three characteristics are

related to “source credibility”, a term commonly used to imply

a communicator’s positive characteristics that affect the

receiver’s acceptance of a message (Ohanian, 1991). Many

different theories have also been used to evaluate the

successful use of celebrity endorsers, the “match-up

hypothesis” ( e.g., Kamins 1990) suggested that endorsers were

more effective when there was a “fit” between the endorser

and the endorsed product.

In addition to the “fit” between endorsers and products,

there were obviously other consumer characteristics that

would affect the effectiveness of an athlete endorser. The

gender of consumers is undoubtedly one of these

characteristics. In the study of Boyd and Shank in 2004, sports

involvement of the consumers was also determined as a

significant factor that would affect endorsers’ effectiveness.

People that with a higher sport involvement, that is people

who spent more time on watching sports-related TV programs

and readings, or attending sports events, showed varied

responses in perceiving different types of endorsers and

products than consumers of low sports involvement. This

implied that the effectiveness of the same endorser may alter

when targeted on different types of consumers.

Actually, the most commonly used method for selecting

endorsers by marketers now is the fare quotient ratings, which

measures only the celebrity’s marketable popularity and

recognizability. But in order to avoid the risk of spending

a large sum of money with the selection of an inappropriate

endorser, it is important for marketers and advertisers to

develop a systematic approach to product endorser selection.

In the current study, we examine how the characteristics of

the endorser influence consumers’ intention to purchase a

sports-related product. Furthermore, to understand the

effectiveness of using the same type of endorser on different

target audience, this research also attempted to examine the

role of consumers’ gender and their sports involvement level

in making such purchasing decision.

Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the

physical appearance (i.e., attractiveness) and the skill and

knowledge of the endorser (i.e., expertise) would influence

consumers’ intention to purchase a sports-related product.

Besides, with different types of consumers, effectiveness

varied even with the same endorser. So in the current study,

we also attempted to examine how subjects’ of different gender

and different level of sports involvement would response to

the same endorser and as a result influence the intention to

purchase the sports-related product.

Definition of Terms

The following terms were operationally defined

specifically for this study:

Athlete Endorsers

Athlete endorsers will be defined as the athletes featured

in printed advertisements, radio, or television commercials,

saying that they use or prefer a particular product and praise

the good qualities of the product.

Expertise

Expertise will be defined as the extent to which the

endorsers possess knowledge to support the claims made in the

advertisements (Hovland, Janis, and Kelley, 1953). An expert

athlete would be a skilled one with significant achievements

in his/her own profession, and is recognized by the public.

Sports Involvement

Sports involvement will be defined as the perceived

interest in sports of an individual, or how personally

important sports are to an individual. It is in terms of

cognitive and affective dimension, rather than actual sports

participation. It is the subjects’ self-reported involvement

with sport and is measured by involvement scale developed by

Shank and Beasley (1998).

Delimitations

The delimitations of the present study were listed as

followings:

(1) The selected samples were delimited to the students of

the Hong Kong Baptist University.

(2) All data were distributed and collected by the

researcher in the duration between 5th March 2007 and 16th March

2007.

(3) The questionnaire was mainly designed to determine the

sports involvement level, attitude towards the endorser, and

intention to purchase the product of the subjects.

(4) Convenience sampling was used in this research.

Limitations

There were several limitations that should be considered

when interpreting the results of this research:

(1) It was assumed that all subjects would answer the

questionnaire honestly.

(2) It was assumed that attractiveness and expertise were

the only factors affecting the purchase intention of the

subjects.

(3) The degree of subjects’ understanding of the

questionnaire was uncontrollable.

(4) Generalizability of this research was limited as

fictitious athlete and an unpopular product are used to

control internal validity.

Hypotheses

The hypotheses of this study were as follow:

(1) There would be no significant relationship between

athlete attractiveness and intention to purchasing a

sports-related product.

(2) There would be no significant relationship between

athlete expertise and intention to purchasing a sports-

related product.

(3) There would be no significant difference between the

attractiveness-purchase relationship and the expertise-

purchase relationship.

(4) There would be no significant mean difference in

intention to purchase a sports-related product between

subjects of high sports involvement level and low sports

involvement level.

(5) There would be no significant difference between

attractiveness- purchase relationship and expertise-purchase

relationship among subjects of high sports involvement.



relationship among subjects of low sports involvement.

(7) There would be no significant mean difference in

intention to purchase a sports-related product between male

and female subjects.



relationship among male subjects.



relationship among female subjects.

Significant of the Study

As celebrity endorsement was becoming a more popular

business in the past years, consumers were constantly

overwhelmed by the persuasion of these endorsements before

making their purchase decisions. Since then, whether the

endorsement was making a positive impact on the product or

not was already out of the question. Companies spent billions

of money in celebrity endorsement for their products just as

to compete with their competitors and increase exposure of

their products. And the rational for product endorsement and

the criteria for selecting an appropriate and effective

endorser for different products had became a blur. The

situation also existed in the sport industry as athlete

endorsement could also be applied to sport-related products.

And it would be beneficial for sports marketers to understand

that among so many athletes, which type of them or what

characteristics they possessed would be most effective when

endorsing different products. In the current study, the two

major dimensions of evaluating the effectiveness of an athlete

endorser, attractiveness and expertise, were compared to

reveal the more significant characteristic of an athlete

endorser when endorsing a sports-related product.

It could not be denied that differences existed between

the two genders. One aspect that sports marketers concerned

the most was how the two genders differently processed

promotional messages, so that different gender-specific

marketing strategies could be applied to achieve maximum

promotional effects. In the current study, it also compared

the effect of the two endorser characteristics between male

and female to discover whether the determining factor would

change when perceived by male and female consumers, so that

implications could be provided to sports marketers when they

were to consider an appropriate and more effective endorser

to sell products targeting male or female consumers.

Furthermore, the study also provided sports marketers with

information on picking a suitable athlete endorser when

targeting markets of two different natures, which were whether

the market was a group of sport enthusiasts who were highly

involved with the product, or sports fans whose involvement

level with the product was low. This was to investigate whether

the two groups would perceive information differently and

whether different approaches should be use when approaching

these consumers.

Implications of this study aimed to provide a clearer

picture on athlete endorsement and to provide clear directions

for marketers when considering the most suitable product

endorser for different consumers. Among the numerous use of

endorsement today, it was hoped that findings of this study

could provide information to develop a more systematic

approach to athlete endorser selection, so that products could

be endorsed by the suitable endorser. And for sports marketers,

a minimum investment of money and resources on advertising

their products could have the maximum return and to achieve

their final goal, to maximize product sales.

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Consumers are exposed to millions of advertisements

throughout their lives. Among these overabundant and clutter

sea of advertisements, some were easily being ignored or

forgotten by the viewers. But some of the “better”

advertisements do stand out above the others and the meaning

of it is successfully transferred to the consumers, or even

to entertain them and persuaded them. Existing research has

shown that there are benefits to use spokespersons or

endorsers in advertising. The sex, credibility, and physical

attractiveness of the endorsers will all influence the

persuasiveness of the advertisement when targeting different

markets. Furthermore, consumers’ gender and involvement level

to the product was also determined as a significant factor

that affects the effectiveness of certain advertisement. In

this review of literature, it gives a clearer picture of the

relationship of the four main factors being investigated in

the study: expertise, attractiveness, consumers’ gender and

involvement level with consumers’ purchase intention of the

product. There are six sections in this chapter. The first

section introduces the use of celebrities as product endorsers

and its advantages and disadvantages. The following five

sections summarize the findings of previous researches on the

following categories: (a) source credibility; (b) source

expertise; (c) source attractiveness; (d) gender differences

and (e) consumers’ involvement level to the product.

Celebrity Endorsement

By definition, celebrity refers to individuals who are well

known to the public (Speck, Schumann & Thompson, 1988). One

of the examples was sports figures. These famous athletes with

celebrity status possessed high profile, distinctive

qualities and popular image in the eyes of the public. Some

young consumers were often captivated by these athletes and

imitate their styles and behaviors. In 1989, McCraken defined

celebrity endorsers in advertising 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” (p. 310). This advertising strategy has been

found to induce positive consumer responses. A survey by

O’Mahony and Meenaghan in 1997 revealed that consumers

regarded advertisements featuring celebrity endorsers as

“attention-gaining, entertaining, likeable and impactful.”

The use of celebrity endorsement was relatively more

influential than other types of endorsements in several ways.

The study of Sternthal, Philips and Dholakia in 1978 indicated

that advertisements that featuring celebrities, or brands

that aligned with celebrities, drew more attention from the

public than those advertisements that did not take advantage

of an individual’s celebrity status. Moreover, athletes with

worldwide popularity and recognition could help products or

brands to overcome cultural barriers in global marketing

communications. Additionally, when choosing celebrities with

distinctive images as a brand endorser, it helps to create,

enhance and change the images of a brand (Erdogan, 1999).

Despite all the advantages, celebrity endorsement also

involved some risks. The large sum of money spent in the

endorsement would become unrewarding when the selected

endorser was involved in illegal or unethical behaviors. Till

and Shimp (1998) found out that negative information about

an athlete endorser, like engagement in steroid use of an

athlete in the study, would influence consumers’ perceptions

of both the athlete and the endorsed product. Another concern

was that when some celebrity became associated with multiple

products, the over exposure would reduces the positive effect

of the endorsements and causes the message delivered to be

less effective (Tripp, Jensen & Carlson, 1994). Consumers

might become skeptical about the message carried by the

endorser and think the endorser appeared in the advertisement

for the compensation he or she receives, rather than sincerely

believed in the merit of the products.

Source Credibility

In response to the increasing concern about selection of

endorser, researchers have attempted to theorize the

effectiveness of celebrity endorsement in advertising. This

had been studied by mostly applying the Source Credibility

Model (Hovland et al., 1953). The model identified expertise

and trustworthiness as the two dimensions of source

credibility, as a result influencing the effectiveness of a

message the source delivers. Expertise of an endorser means

that the ability of an endorser to provide accurate

information comes from knowledge, experience, training or

skills the endorser possesses (Erdogan, Baker & Tagg, 2001).

Trustworthiness referred to the consumers’ confidence in the

endorser for carrying messages in an honest manner (Ohanian,

1991). Research on source credibility has shown that in most

situations, a source of higher credibility was more effective

than a less credible source (Sternthal et al., 1978). Ohanian

(1990) also found that a highly credible source could generate

more positive attitudes towards the situation advocated by

the source and encourage more behavioral changes than less

credible sources. Some researchers (e.g., Atkin & Block, 1983)

have found that celebrities in general were viewed as more

credible and as a result they had a greater influence on

attitudes and purchasing intention than non-celebrities. In

1999, Tse revealed that consumers perceive products endorsed

by a highly credible endorser as “more safe” that products

endorsed by a less credible endorser. And both the perceived

expertise and credibility of an endorser would influence

consumers’ product purchase intentions (O’Mahony & Meenaghan

1998). Additionally, Gotleib (1987) found out that source

credibility influenced perceptions of both consumers with

high and low involvement with the products or services. While

many researches have proven the importance and impact of

source credibility in advertising, Ohanian (1991)

specifically partitioned source credibility into three

dimensions: expertise, trustworthiness and physical

attractiveness.

Source Expertise

From the literature, source expertise has been defined as

“the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a source

of valid assertions” (Hovland et al., 1953). Research by

O’Mahony and Meenaghan (1998) found that source expertise

could significantly affect a consumer purchase intention,

that is the more expert the consumers believed the endorser

to be, the more likely the consumers would purchase the product.

Source expertise could also act as the central processing cue

in printed advertisements and possibly other advertising

conditions (Homer & Kahle, 1990). Similar results are also

concluded in the research of Woodside and Davenport (1974)

and Busch and Wilson (1976), that customers’ purchasing

behaviors were positively swayed by the perceived expertise

of the salesperson. Compared with source attractiveness, Till

and Busler (2000) revealed that although physical

attractiveness had an effect on purchase intentions, the

expertise of the source was more important for matching a brand

with the appropriate endorser. This finding is further

supported by the research of Maddux and Rogers (1980) who found

that attractiveness had no main effects on persuasion,

suggesting that under certain condition, the source must also

be perceived as having expertise in order to persuade. From

the definition of celebrities, celebrities were not

considered to possess expertise. But in reality, celebrities

often endorse products that were related to their professional

areas. For example Ronaldinho for Nike soccer boots and Roger

Federer for Wilson Tennis Racquets. These were regarded as

the most persuasive endorsements since these well-known

athletes brought instant credibility to the brands through

the close association between their career in the sport and

the products. Expertise had also been identified as a strong

factor that influences source credibility and purchase

intention (Ohanian, 1991). In the study of Till and Busler

(2000), a fictitious endorser Ted Franklin was created and

described as either a “US Olympic Track and Field athlete”

or a “stage and screen actor”. And he was paired with either

energy bars, considered an expertise-related product, or

expertise-unrelated candy bars. Results showed that the

athlete induced significantly higher brand attitudes than the

actor when endorsing energy bars, but not in endorsing candy

bars.

Source Attractiveness

Celebrities are often chosen as endorsers because of their

attractiveness coming from both their celebrity status and

physical attractiveness (Erdogan 1999). Baker and Churchill

(1977) have revealed that attractive communicators in general

can generate more positive stereotypes and greater purchase

intention in their study using attractiveness or

unattractiveness models paired with coffee or cologne. In the

study of Kamins (1990), it indicated that attractive person

provides a particularly good fit when endorsing a product that

is supposed to enhance attractiveness of the consumers, such

as skin-care lotions. Similar results were also showed in the

study of Till and Busler (1998), which found that the use of

an attractive endorser paired with a product that was

perceived to enhance a use’s attractiveness (e.g., cologne)

was more effective than the use of an attractive endorser

paired with a product that was not perceived as enhancing the

user’s attractiveness (e.g., a ball pen). In fact, research

has also indicated that brand attitude is more positive when

the product is endorsed by an attractive person even if the

product is not related to physical appearance (Till et al.,

2000). However, some other studies demonstrated that

attractiveness did not have a significant effect on perceived

credibility of the source nor persuasion. Caballero, Lumpkin

and Madden (1989) showed grocery shoppers videotapes of a less

or highly attractive model in advertisements of a soft drink

and cheese, but did not find that the attractiveness of the

model affected purchase intention. Similar to the study of

Cabellero and Soloman in 1984, which used a less or highly

attractive model for in-store displays for beer and facial

tissues, no effect of attractiveness on beer sales was found.

But strangely found that the less attractive model actually

increased the sales of facial tissue.

Gender Differences

Studies in consumer behavior have consistently reported

differences between males and females. For marketers and

advertisers, the most important aspect of gender may be

difference in how males and females process promotional

information. Holbrook (1986) found out that when compared to

males, females were more visually oriented and more

intrinsically motivated. From the study of Preetz, Parks and

Spencer (2004), it reported that the odds that male subjects

would be influenced by male endorsers were 2.51 times the odds

they would be influenced by a female endorser. This finding

were supported by Rubel’s (1995) and Veltri and Long’s(1998)

suggestion that male consumers would respond more positively

to male endorsers than to female endorsers. Although they also

reported that female endorsers had more appeal for women than

male endorsers, Preetz et al. (2004) found out that female

subjects did not demonstrate a preference for female endorsers.

Gender preferences were also found in the study of Boyd and

Shank in 2004. Their findings showed that regardless of

product type, subjects rated endorsers of the same gender as

more trustworthy. When the same athlete was used as endorser,

independent of the endorser’s gender, male consumers rated

the athlete as more attractiveness, while female consumers

rated the athlete as more expertise and trustworthy. They also

revealed that female subjects rated endorsers as more expert

when there was a congruence between the endorser and the

products, or when endorser uses the product in their sports.

On the contrary, male subjects rated endorsers as more expert

when there is not an endorser-product match. Despite several

studies have shown effects of gender difference, Ohanian (1991)

stated that gender and age of the subjects had no significant

effect on their purchase intention and also on how they

evaluated the attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise

of the endorsers.

Level of Involvement

Many studies have used the construct of involvement as a

mediator of advertising effectiveness. Mazursky and Schul

(1992) found that the consumers’ level of involvement to the

product moderated the joint effectiveness between the source

credibility and the message quality of the advertisement.

Under a low involvement condition, the source is considered

to be independent to the message, while under high involvement

condition the source was perceived as part of the message.

In other words, the source credibility acted as a peripheral

cue under low involvement while under high involvement, it

was a central cue of the advertisement. It concluded that a

consumer possessed a high level of involvement of a certain

product would process the endorser of the product differently

to a consumer that possessed a low involvement of the product.

Boyd and Shank (2004) found that the effects of endorser gender

and product matching were only significant for low involvement

consumers. It indicated that it might be futile to attempt

to predict the effects of gender or product matching to highly

involved consumers, but it would be beneficial when the target

market had a low involvement to the product.

Chapter 3

METHOD

The method of this study was divided into the following

sections:

(a) Sample of Selection,

(b) Development of the Questionnaire,

(c) Development of the Advertisements,

(d) Procedures, and

(e) Method of Analysis.

Sample of Selection

Subjects in this study were undergraduate students of the

Hong Kong Baptist University. The subjects were all aged above

eighteen. The total sample size was 208, with 104 male and

104 female.

Development of the questionnaire

The questionnaire used in this survey was divided into

three parts. In the first part, the endorser’s expertise and

attractiveness were investigated. In the second part, the

subjects’ intention to purchase the product was asked. In the

third part, the subjects’ sport involvement was studied.

In the first part of the questionnaire, expertise and

attractiveness of the endorser in the advertisement perceived

by the subjects were each measured with the expertise scale

and attractiveness scale developed by Ohanian (1990). The

reliability coefficients for the expertise measure (α=.97)

and the attractiveness measures (α=.96) were both high. Items

from both scales were preceded by the phase “The athlete in

the advertisement is...” and anchored by seven-point

semantic-differential scales. For the expertise scale, the

endpoints of the five items were “Not an expert – an expert,

inexperienced – experienced, unknowledgeable – knowledgeable,

unqualified – qualified, and unskilled – skilled”. For the

attractiveness scale, the endpoints of the five items were

“unattractive – attractive, not classy – classy, ugly –

beautiful, plain – elegant, and not sexy – sexy”.

In the second part, three items from Till and Busler (2000)

were used to measure the intention to purchase the product.

Subjects were being asked the question “How likely is it that

you would consider purchasing the product in this

advertisement?” The items was anchored by seven-point

semantic-differential scales with endpoints “unlikely –

likely, definitely would not – definitely would, and

improbable – probable”. The reliability estimate for the

measure was high (α=.93).

In the third part, the subjects’ self-reported involvement

with sports was studied using an eight-item involvement scale

developed by Shank and Beasley (1998) with the coefficient

alpha α=.93. The involvement scale was preceded by the phase

“To me, sports are...”, and the items were anchored by

seven-point semantic-differential scales. The endpoints of

the eight items were “Boring – exciting, uninteresting -

interesting, worthless - valuable, unappealing - appealing,

useless – useful, not needed – needed, irrelevant – relevant,

and unimportant - important”.

Development of the Advertisements

In previous research (Ohanian, 1991), it is described that

a celebrity endorser with expertise specifically to a product

was significantly more effective than a non-celebrity

endorser. In order to limit this factor, a non-sport specific

product, a sport drink, was chosen as the endorsed product

in the current study. It was believed that a sport drink could

be used by any athlete in any sport, so that there would be

no internal bias or undesired matching effect of the endorser

and the product. The product chosen in this study was an actual

sport drink, called Isostar, but it was not one that is

currently popular or visible on the market today, such as

Gatorade or Pocari.

For the endorser, we created a fictitious female tennis

player, Nicole Diaz. The use of a fictitious endorser is

consistent with the study of Till and Busler in 2000. If a

familiar endorser is used, there will be significant

variations in the subjects’ knowledge and attitude toward that

familiar athlete, and the high with-in group variation will

reduce the power of the study. Furthermore, the use of a

fictitious endorser minimizes the opportunity for unintended

deceptive confusions.

In this study, there are four versions of advertisements,

which featured four different types of endorsers. All

advertisements featured either an attractive and skilled

Nicole Diaz, an attractive and less skilled Nicole Diaz, a

less attractive and skilled Nicole Diaz, or a less attractive

and less skilled Nicole Diaz, were paired with a picture of

the sport drink, Isostar. Consistent with the study of Fink,

Cunningham, and Kensicki (2004), the attractive endorser had

a long blonde hair, a slender face, and light makeup, whereas

for the less attractive endorser, she had a shorter brown hair,

a slightly heavier face, and no makeup. In the skilled

condition, the caption “Nicole Diaz – Champion of the US Open

and Wimbledon Women’s Single in 2004, 2005 and 2006.” was added

below the endorser’s face, while in the less skilled condition,

the above praise was not included in the advertisement. All

versions of the advertisement had a headline and brief line

of copy to visually pair the endorser with the product.

Procedures

Subjects in this study were selected by convenience

sampling inside the university campus and participation was

voluntary. We incorporated a two (attractive vs. less

attractive) times two (skilled vs. less skilled) design to

test the hypotheses. The subjects were given a brief

introduction of the study before one of the four different

versions of the advertisement was randomly distributed to them,

together with a questionnaire. The subjects then have 20

seconds to view the advertisement and completed the

questionnaire at their own rate. The materials were collected

by the experimenter once the questionnaire was completed.

Method of Analysis

All the responses in the questionnaire were coded for further

analysis and were inputted into the Statistical Package for

the Social Science (SPSS program). Pearson Product Moment

Coefficient of Correlation (r) was used to determine the

correlation between attractiveness of the endorser and the

intention to purchase, and also between expertise of the

endorser and the intention to purchase. To define

relatively low and high levels of self perceived sports

involvement, subjects were divided into two equal split halves.

Subjects having sports involvement level scored below the

median score were treated as having a low sports involvement

level and subjects scored above the median score were treated

as having a high level of involvement with sports. Independent

samples t-test was used to compare the mean difference of

intention to purchase between subjects of high level and low

level sports involvement, and between male and female subjects.

To test for significant difference between two dependent

correlations, a t score is calculated to determine if there

is a significant difference between the attractiveness-

purchase correlation and the expertise-purchase correlation

of different groups of subjects (Bruning & Kintz, 1997).

Chapter 4

Analysis of Data

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the

attractiveness and expertise of an endorser would influence

different types of consumers’ purchase intention for a sports

drink. A total number of 208 questionnaires were received.

When analyzing the data collected, independent samples t-test

was used in comparing the mean difference between purchase

intentions of different types of subjects. Pearson’s

correlation test was used in correlating subjects’ perceived

attractiveness and expertise of the endorser with purchase

intention of subjects. The level of significant was set at .05

level. And the above analyses were computed with the aid of

the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). To

determine a significant difference between attractiveness-

purchase correlation and expertise-purchase correlation of

different groups of subjects, a t score was also calculated.

In this chapter, the data analyzed were presented as the

following:

1.) Description of personal data of the subjects, including

age, gender, and the subjects’ self perceived sports

involvement level.

2.) Presentation of results from Pearson’s correlation test

between attractiveness of the endorser and subjects’

purchase intention, and between expertise of the

endorser and subjects’ purchase intention.

3.) Presentation of result from Independent Samples t-test

on purchase intention between subjects of different

sports involvement levels.


of subjects with different sports involvement level

between attractiveness of the endorser and subjects’

purchase intention, and between expertise of the

endorser and subjects’ purchase intention.

5.) Presentation of result from Independent Samples t-test

on purchase intention between male subjects and female

subjects.


of male and female subjects between attractiveness of

the endorser and subjects’ purchase intention, and

between expertise of the endorser and subjects’ purchase

intention.

Results

1.) Descriptive Statistics of Subjects

In this study, 208 questionnaires were collected. Among

all the subjects, 50%(N=104) were male and 50%(N=104) were

female. (see Table 1)

Table 1

Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Gender of the

Subjects (N=208)

Subjects’ gender Frequency Percentage(%)

Male 104 50.0

Female 104 50.0

Total 208 100.0

All the subjects were aged between 17 to 27 years old. The

mean age of the subjects was 21.45 and the standard deviation

was 1.4802 (see Table 2a). Also, the frequency and percentage

distribution of the subjects’ age were presented in Table 2b.

Table 2a

Mean and Standard Deviation of Subjects’ Age (N=208)

Min. Max. Mean SD

Subjects’ Age 17 27 21.45 1.48

Table 2b

Frequency and Percentage of Subjects’ Age

Subjects’ Age Frequency Percentage(%)

17 1 0.5

18 3 1.4

19 12 5.8

20 29 13.9

21 71 34.1

22 50 24.0

23 26 12.5

24 9 4.3

25 5 2.4

26 1 0.5

27 1 0.5

Total 208 100.0

Figure 1. Number of subjects of different ages.

For subjects’ self perceived sports involvement level, the

lowest possible score was 8 and the highest possible score

was 56. The subjects’ mean score was 47.66, with a median of

48.50 and standard deviation of 5.96 (see Table 3a). The

frequency and percentage of the scores were also presented

in Table 3b. Subjects were then divided into two equal split

halves by the median in order to define relatively low and

high levels of self perceived sports involvement level.

Table 3a

Mean, Median and Standard Deviation of Subjects’ Sports

Involvement Level Scores (N=208)

Min. Max. Mean Median SD

Sports Involvement 31 56 47.66 48.50 5.96

Level Scores*

* 8=lowest involvement level to 56=highest involvement level

Table 3b

Frequency and Percentage of Subjects’ Sports Involvement

Level Scores

Sports Involvement Frequency Percentage

Level Scores (%)

31 1 0.5

32 1 0.5

35 1 0.5

36 5 2.4

37 6 2.9

38 6 2.9

39 5 2.4

40 7 3.4

41 7 3.4

42 6 2.9

43 5 2.4

44 11 5.3

45 10 4.8

46 9 4.3

47 10 4.8

48 14 6.7

49 14 6.7

50 13 6.3

51 13 6.3

52 13 6.3

53 14 6.7

54 7 3.4

55 9 4.3

56 21 10.1

Total 208 100

Figure 2. Number of subjects of different sports involvement

level scores.

2.) Correlations between Endorser’s Characteristics and

Purchase Intention

When analyzing correlations between characteristics of

endorser and purchase intention, results from Pearson’s

correlation test showed that attractiveness of the endorser

was positively correlated with the purchase intention of all

subjects (r=0.50, p=.00). Similar to the above result, a

positive correlation was also found between expertise of the

endorser and purchase intention of all subjects (r=.68,

p=0.00). From the results, it could be concluded that when

the endorser was perceived as more attractive or more expert,

subjects would have a higher purchase intention on the product

being endorsed(see Table 4). As reported above, expertise of

the endorser would have a stronger positive correlation than

attractiveness with purchase intention. And from the t score

of the two correlations, (t=3.31, p<0.05), it could be

concluded that the correlation between expertise and purchase

intention was significantly stronger than the correlation

between attractiveness and purchase intention.

Table 4

Pearson’s Correlation Test between Endorser Characteristics

and Subjects’ Purchase Intention (N=208)

Endorser

Characteristics

r p t score

Attractiveness 0.50 0.00* 3.31**

Expertise

0.68 0.00*

*=p<0.05, two tailed

**significant when t >1.96, df=205

3.) Independent Samples t-test on Purchase Intention

From the results of independent samples t-test on purchase

intention between high and low sports involvement level

subjects, there was a significant mean difference between high

involvement subjects’ purchase intention and low involvement

subjects’ purchase intention (t=-2.20, p=0.03). The mean for

high involvement level subjects (SD=4.87) and low involvement

subjects (SD=4.25) were 12.03 and 10.63 respectively.

Furthermore, the mean difference between high and low

involvement subjects was -1.39 (see Table 5). From the result,

it could be concluded that purchase intention of subjects with

a higher sports involvement level were significantly higher

than purchase intention of low sports involvement level

subjects.

Table 5

Independent Samples t-test on Purchase Intention between High

and Low Involvement Subjects

Involvement

Level

N

Mean

SD

Mean

Difference

t

p

High 104 12.03 4.87 -1.39 -2.20 0.03*

Low

104 10.63 4.25



Purchase Intention of Subjects with different Sports

Involvement Level

Results from Pearson’s correlation test showed that

purchase intention of high involvement subjects (N=104) was

positively correlated with attractiveness of the endorser

(r=0.44, p=0.00), and also with expertise of the endorser

(r=0.74, p=0.00). And with a t score of 4.21, the correlation

between expertise and purchase intention was significantly

stronger than the correlation between attractiveness and

purchase intention for subjects having a high level of sports

involvement (t=4.21, p<0.05). Positive correlations were also

found in purchase intention of low involvement subjects (N=104)

with both attractiveness of the endorser (r=0.60, p=0.00) and

expertise of the endorser (r=0.62, p=0.00). But contrary, with

a t score of 0.24, there was no significant difference between

attractiveness- purchase correlation and expertise-purchase

correlation (t=0.24, p>0.05) among subjects of low sports

involvement level (see Table 6). From the results, it could

be concluded that perceived expertise of the endorser was a

significantly stronger determining factor than endorser’s

attractiveness for purchase intention of high sports

involvement subjects.

Although expertise of the endorser was the stronger

determining factor of purchase intention than attractiveness

for both high and low sports involvement level subjects,

subjects with low sports involvement level would have a

stronger positive attractiveness-purchase relationship

(r=0.60, p=0.00) than high involvement subjects(r=0.44,

p=0.00). In contrast, high sports involvement level subjects

would have a stronger positive expertise-purchase

relationship(r=0.74, p=0.00) than low involvement

subjects(r=0.62, p=0.00).

Table 6


and Purchase Intention of Subjects of High Sports Involvement

Level (N=104) and Low Sports Involvement Level (N=104)

Involvement

Level

Endorser

Characteristics

r

p

t score

High Attractiveness 0.44 0.00* 4.21**

Expertise 0.74 0.00*

Low

Attractiveness

0.60

0.00*

0.24**




5.) Independent Samples t-test on Purchase Intention of male

and female subjects

From the results of independent samples t-test on purchase

intention between male and female subjects, there was no

significant mean difference between male subjects’ purchase

intention and female subjects’ purchase intention (t=0.56,

p=0.58). The mean for male subjects (SD=4.72) and female

subjects (SD=4.53) were 11.51 and 11.15 respectively.

Furthermore, the mean difference between male and female

subjects was 0.36 (see Table 7). From the result, it could

be concluded that although purchase intention of male subjects

was higher than purchase intention of female subjects, the

difference between the two was not significant.

Table 7

Independent Samples t-test on Purchase Intention between Male

and Female Subjects

Subject

Gender

N

Mean

SD

Mean

Difference

t

P

Male 104 11.51 4.72 0.36 0.56 0.58

Female 104 11.15 4.52



Purchase Intention of Subjects with different Gender

Results from Pearson’s correlation test showed that

purchase intention of male subjects (N=104) was positively

correlated with attractiveness of the endorser (r=0.48,

p=0.00), and also with expertise of the endorser (r=0.58,

p=0.00). And there was no significant difference between the

attractiveness-purchase correlation and expertise-purchase

correlation (t=1.21, p<0.05) among male subjects. Positive

correlations were also found in purchase intention of female

subjects (N=104) with both attractiveness of the endorser

(r=0.54, p=0.00) and expertise of the endorser (r=0.79,

p=0.00). But contrary to male subjects, with a t score of 4.14,

the correlation between expertise and purchase intention was

significantly stronger than the correlation between

attractiveness and purchase intention for female subjects

(t=4.14, p<0.05) (see table 8). From the results, it could

be concluded that perceived expertise of the endorser was a

significantly stronger determining factor than endorser’s

attractiveness for purchase intention of female subjects, but

the two were similar for male subjects. Furthermore,

expertise of the endorser was the stronger determining factor

for purchase intention than attractiveness of the endorser

for both male and female subjects. And both the

attractiveness-purchase relationship(r=0.54, p=0.00) and

expertise-purchase relationship(r=0.79, p=0.00) for female

subjects were stronger than those of male subjects. In other

words, female subjects’ purchase intention is more positively

correlated to both the endorser’s attractiveness and

expertise than male subjects.

Table 8


and Purchase Intention of Male Subjects (N=104) and Female

Subjects (N=104)

Subjects

Gender

Endorser

Characteristics

r

p

t score

Male Attractiveness 0.48 0.00* 1.21**


Female

Attractiveness

0.54

0.00*

4.14**




Discussion

From the present research, a clearer picture about the

effectiveness of different characteristics of an athlete

endorser on product purchase intention of different types of

consumers was given to provide information and implications

to sports marketers and advertisers when choosing the suitable

product endorser for Hong Kong consumers. This chapter was

divided into four sections so as to further elaborate the

results of the research. The first three sections are the

different degree of effectiveness of the characteristics of

the endorser for a.) general consumers; b.) consumers of

different sports involvement level; and c.) male and female

consumers. The last section is the implications of the present

research.

General Consumers

For all the subjects, results from the present research

showed that when the perceived attractiveness of the athlete

endorser increased, the purchase intention for the product

would also increase. It indicated that there was a positive

correlation between endorser’s attractiveness and product

purchase intention. This result was consistent with the

findings of Petroshius and Crocker (1989) and Till and Busler

(2000), which they all reported that attractive communicators

in general could generate more positive stereotypes and

greater purchase intention in their studies. According to

Kahle and Homer (1985), they suggested the reason behind might

be that attractive endorsers would result in an increase in

the likeability of the product, and also increase the arousal

of consumers, as a result induced a catalytic effect on

information processing of consumers and a more favorable

attitude towards the product. In other words, the more

attractive the endorser was, the higher the purchase intention.

The results of the present research also revealed that,

similar to attractiveness of the endorser, when the perceived

expertise of the endorser was high, subjects purchase

intention for the product would also be high. It indicated

that there was also a positive correlation between expertise

of the endorser and product purchase intention. Similar

findings were also presented in the studies of O’Mahony and

Meenaghan (1997), Woodside and Davenport (1974) and Busch and

Wilson (1976), in which they all concluded that the more expert

the consumers believed the endorser to be, the more likely

the consumers would purchase the product. It might be due to

the reason suggested by Boyd and Shank (2004) that when a

sport-related product was endorsed by an athlete, the

endorser’s credibility was enhanced by the perceived

expertise of the athlete, and consumers would be more

persuaded by a highly credible source than a source perceived

as less credible.

Furthermore, between expertise and attractiveness of the

endorser, results from present research reflected that

expertise of the endorser would be significantly more

important to consumers’ purchase intention of a sport drink

than attractiveness. The correlation between expertise and

purchase intention was significantly stronger than

correlation between attractiveness and purchase intention.

Ohanian (1991) explained this finding by the fact that

nowadays as most endorsers in advertisements were attractive,

consumers were getting used to attractive endorsers and as

a result they had a mind set in which attractiveness of the

endorser was not a determinant factor for making decisions

on product selection. Further, according to previous studies

(Till & Busler, 1998; Maddux & Rogers, 1980), this outcome

was logical. It might because sports drink was perceived by

consumers as a product that facilitates athletes to achieve

a better performance. According to Till and Busler (1998),

a “match-up” effect between the endorser and the endorsed

product was the main driving force to purchase intention.

Attractiveness has little to do with performance itself and

has little impact on improving performance. As a result in

this study, the “match-up” effect between an attractiveness

endorser and the sports drink was weak. On the other hand,

level of expertise has direct positive impact on an athlete’s

performance, which leads to an obvious “match-up” effect

between the expert endorser and the sports drink. To conclude

the above, it might suggest that expertise of the endorser

was more effective than attractiveness in matching the athlete

endorser with the sports drink. Thus, when a sports drink was

endorsed by an expert athlete, consumers’ purchase intention

would be significantly higher than when it was endorsed by

an attractiveness athlete.

Consumers of Different Sports Involvement Level

Consumers’ involvement level with a product was determined

by previous studies as a significant factor affecting

consumers’ purchase intention. In the present research, a

subjects’ sports involvement level was also determined as a

significant factor affecting the intention of a subject to

purchase a sports drink. Results showed that the intention

to purchase a sports drink for subjects with high sports

involvement level was significant higher than the purchase

intention of low sports involvement subjects. The reason might

be that subjects of high sports involvement level would have

a better knowledge or more familiar with various types of

sports drinks than low sports involvement level. As a result

they were more interested and more willing to try different

types of sports drinks, compared with low sports involvement

level subjects who did not even try any kinds of sports drinks

in their daily life.

The characteristics of the endorser also possessed

different degree of effectiveness for different subjects. For

subjects with high sports involvement level, the correlation

between expertise and purchase intention was significantly

stronger than correlation between attractiveness and purchase

intention. But for subjects with low sports involvement level,

there was no significant difference between the expertise-

purchase correlation and attractiveness-purchase correlation.

These findings were consistent with the findings of Mazursky

and Schul in 1992. Mazursky and Schul suggested the reason

behind this phenomenon might be that under a low involvement

condition, the source, or the endorser, was considered to be

independent or peripheral to the message of the advertisement

by low involvement consumers. They regarded expertise and

attractiveness of the endorser as independent to their

purchase intention. This explained why the endorser’s

expertise and attractiveness would have a similar effect on

purchase intention for low sports involvement subjects. But

the researchers also stated that while under high involvement

condition, the source was perceived as the central message

of the advertisement, and high involvement subjects might more

readily see the connection between “expert endorser” and

“sports drink to enhance one’s performance”, and they would

consider the expertise and attractiveness of the endorser

before making their purchase decision. As a result there was

a significant difference between the effects of endorser’s

expertise and the effect of endorser’s attractiveness on

purchase intention of high sports involvement subjects.

Additionally, it was interesting to found out that the

expertise-purchase correlation of high sports involvement

level subjects was stronger than that of low sports

involvement subjects. But on the other hand, the

attractiveness-purchase correlation of low sports

involvement level subjects was stronger than that of high

sports involvement subjects. It suggested that attractiveness

of the endorser would be a more important factor for low sports

involvement level subjects to purchase a product than high

sports involvement level subjects. Implications for this

finding would be discussed in the later chapters.

Male and Female Consumers

From the present research, there was no significant

difference on purchase intention between male and female

subjects. It was consistent with the research findings of

Ohanian in 1991, which revealed that gender of the subjects

had no significant effect on their purchase intention. Present

results also indicated that for male subjects, there was no

significant difference between their expertise-purchase

correlation and attractiveness-purchase correlation. On the

contrary, female subjects showed a significant difference

between the two correlations. Their expertise-purchase

correlation was significantly stronger than their

attractiveness-purchase correlation, which was quiet diverse

from the findings of Holbrook in 1986 concluding that female

subjects were more visually oriented. This phenomenon could

be explained by several previous research findings. Boyd and

Shank (2004) suggested that how consumers’ perceptions to

their own expertise regarding a product would influence their

reliance on an endorser. As male were suggested to be spending

more time in watching sports on television and possibly having

a greater knowledge of sports than female (Gantz & Wenner,

1991), they were possibly socialized to believe male should

know more about sports and therefore see the endorser’s

expertise as less relevant (Boyd & Shank, 2004). As a result

expertise of the endorser was not as significantly important

as it was to female consumers. Another possible reason for

why expertise-purchase correlation was significantly

stronger than the attractiveness-purchase correlation for

female, but not for male, was that female were more likely

than male to gather information about a product than to succumb

to hero-worship (Sutton & Watlingtion, 1994). Darley & Smith

(1993) also supported by suggesting female consumers were more

caution and more objective than male consumers when purchasing

a product, and they were more aware of the fit between the

product and its endorser and would selectively process

relevant information only.

Although the difference between expertise and

attractiveness of the endorser was not statistically

significant for male subjects, results from the present

research revealed that expertise of the endorser was the more

important characteristic than attractiveness to foster both

male and female consumers’ purchase intention. This could also

be explained by previous explanation stating that consumers

perceived expertise was more effective in matching the athlete

endorser with a sport-related product than attractiveness.

Furthermore, in the current study, the expertise-purchase

correlation and attractiveness-purchase intention for female

subjects were both stronger than those of male subjects. This

finding was consistent with the study results of Rubel (1995)

and Veltri and Long (1998) suggesting that subjects would be

more receptive and responded more positively to endorsers of

the same gender, as a fictitious female athlete was used as

the sports drink’s endorser in the current study. A possible

reason for this could be the “pride in gender”. Sutton &

Watlington (1994) suggested that the “Pride in gender” might

manifest itself in a preference for attending sport events

in which contestants were members of one’s own gender. From

the result of this research, it suggested that this “pride”

was also present with regard to a preference for endorsers

of ones’ own gender for female consumers, but further

investigation using male athlete endorsers was needed to see

whether this “pride” also exist among male consumers.

Research Implications

The current research suggested that when using product

endorsers, sports marketers should consider the gender and

involvement level of the target market. It suggested that a

more attractive endorser with same level of expertise would

have a more significant effect among low involvement consumers

than high involvement consumers. The reason might be that when

a consumer does not know much about a product, the first

impression and consideration on whether to purchase the

product or not would be the appearance and attractiveness of

the product. As suggested by Ohanian (1991), the use of

well-known attractive celebrities could only create initial

interest and attention for an advertisement, and such

endorsement would not necessarily result in attitude change

towards the product. But when the target market had a high

involvement level with the product, expertise of the endorser

would be a more important criterion for selecting the suitable

endorser. It was because when consumers had a high involvement

with the product, they possess knowledge about the product

thus having a higher demand for the product. It would require

an endorser with higher persuasiveness, i.e. an expert, to

persuade them rather than just good looking. To conclude, an

expert endorser should be chosen for products that sell to

consumers familiar with the product, but an attractive

endorser would be more effective when marketers wanted to

expand or explore new markets for their products and to first

introduce the product to consumers that were less involved

with it. On the other hand, although results from present

research revealed that purchase intention on a sport product

of male and female would be similar, expertise of the endorser

would have a greater positive effect on female consumers than

male consumers. In contrast with general belief that female

were more concerned about looking and appearance, endorser

of products that target female consumers should also be one

with high level of perceived expertise level to maximize it’s

effectiveness. Additionally, consistent with previous

studies, results of the current research also revealed that

endorsers of the same gender to the consumers would be more

effective than endorsers of opposite gender. This suggested

that when selling a sport-related product to female consumers,

a female athlete that was perceived as highly expert would

have the maximum endorsement effectiveness. For general,

consumers rated expertise of the endorser as more important

than attractiveness in increasing their purchase intention.

If same amount of money is required to employ either an

attractive endorser or an expert endorser for a general sports

product, the expert should be chosen. These implications would

save money and time for marketers to effectively choose a

proper endorser to increase their product sales.

Chapter 5

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Summary of Results

This study was designed to investigate how the physical

appearance (i.e., attractiveness) and the skill and knowledge

(i.e., expertise) of an endorser would influence consumers’

intention to purchase a sports drink. It also attempted to

examine how consumers of different gender and different level

of sports involvement would response to the endorser and as

a result influence the intention to purchase the sports-

related product. There were 104 males and 104 females, a total

sample size of 208 respondents, participated in this study.

Independent samples t-tests were used to test for difference

on purchase intention between subjects of high and low sports

involvement level, and also between male and female subjects.

The results showed that intention to purchase the sports drink

for high sports involvement level subjects was significantly

higher than that of low involvement subjects. But there was

no significant difference between purchase intention of male

subjects and female subjects. Moreover, the Pearson

product–moment coefficient of correlation (r) was used to test

for the relationship of attractiveness and expertise of the

endorser with purchase intention among all subjects, between

subjects of different sports involvement levels, and between

male and female subjects. The results revealed that both

attractiveness and expertise of the endorser have significant

positive relationships with purchase intention of all

subjects, subjects of high and low sports involvement levels,

and male and female subjects. Lastly, a t score is calculated

to determine if there were significant differences between

the attractiveness-purchase correlation and the

expertise-purchase correlation of different groups of

subjects. Results from the study indicated that for all

subjects, the expertise-purchase correlation was

significantly stronger than the attractiveness-purchase

correlation. For male subjects and subjects of low sports

involvement level, there was no significant differences

between their expertise-purchase correlation and their

attractiveness-purchase correlation. But for female subjects

and subjects of high sports involvement level, their

expertise-purchase correlation was significantly stronger

than their attractiveness-purchase correlation.

Conclusions

Based on the results, conclusions were made and showed as

follow:

1. There was a significant positive relationship between

the athlete endorser’s attractiveness and subjects’

intention to purchase a sports-related product.

2. There was a significant positive relationship between

the athlete endorser’s expertise and subjects’

intention to purchase a sports-related product.

3. The expertise-purchase relationship was significantly

stronger than the attractiveness-purchase

relationship among all subjects.

4. Intention to purchase a sports-related product for

subjects of high sports involvement level was

significantly higher than that for subjects of low

sports involvement level.

5. High sports involvement subjects’ expertise-purchase

relationship was significantly stronger than the

attractiveness-purchase relationship.

6. There was no significant difference between expertise-

purchase relationship and attractiveness-purchase

relationship for low sports involvement subjects.

7. There was no significant difference in intention to

purchase a sports-related product between male and

female subjects.

8. There was no significant difference between

attractiveness-purchase relationship and

expertise-purchase relationship among male subjects.

9. Female subjects’ expertise-purchase relationship was

significantly stronger than the attractiveness-

purchase relationship.

Recommendations for Further Studies

1. To avoid variations in the subjects’ knowledge and

attitude toward a familiar athlete endorser, a

fictitious endorser was used in this study. As a result

the study’s generalizability to actual athletes is

limited. Further studies should attempt to repeat this

study with real athletes.

2. As the study examined the intention to purchase a sports

drink only, it would be important to investigate

whether similar results could be obtained for other

sports products, such as sports equipments or apparel.

3. It is recommended that other factors such as subjects’

educational level, or gender and race of the endorsers

should also be compared to give a more detailed analysis

on effectiveness of athlete endorsers.

4. When attempted to find pictures for the fictitious

endorser, pictures that featured athletes engaged in

their own sports were used. It is likely that the

pictures themselves varied enough to create undesired

effects. For making a stronger generalization,

athletes that were in the same poses and in a product

endorsement setting, i.e. using photos showing the

athlete together with the product, should be used.

5. The study only focused on students of the Hong Kong

Baptist University, so the results might not be

generalized to other universities or consumers other

than university students. Further research can extend

to study also secondary school students or people at

work.

6. Qualitative studies such as semi-structured

interviews in further research would enable

researchers to probe answers and enrich the

understanding of the research questions.

In conclusion, despite the imperfections of the current

study, results indicated that expertise and attractiveness

were both positive characteristics for an athlete endorser.

And the effectiveness of the two varies from different

consumers. It is hoped that this study suggested some

considerations for sports marketers and advertisers in

developing a more systematic and effective approach to product

endorsers selection in the future.

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APPENDIX A

Questionnaire of the Study

This is a research about "Effect of Attractiveness and Expertise of a Sports Drink Endorser". Please use about 20 seconds to read the advertisement of the sports drink "IsoStar" on the next page, then answer the questions below. The endorser of the sports drink in the advertisement, Nicole Diaz, is a professional tennis player.

Age: Sex:

A. The athlete in the advertisement is ...

not an expert 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 an expert

not attractive 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 attractive

not classy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 classy

not qualified 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 qualified

unskilled 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 skilled

ugly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 beautiful

unknowledgeable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 knowledgeable

inexperienced 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 experienced

plain 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 elegant

not sexy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 sexy

B. How likely is it that you would consider purchasing the product in this

dvertisement?

unlikely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 likely

definitely would not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 definitely would

improbable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 probable

C. To me, sports are...

boring 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 exciting

not interesting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 interesting

worthless 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 valuable

not appealing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 appealing

useless 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 useful

not needed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 needed

irrelevant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 relevant

not important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 important

THE END, THANK YOU !!

APPENDIX B (i)

Advertisement (Attractive x Skilled)

APPENDIX B (ii)

Advertisement (Attractive x Less Skilled)

APPENDIX B (iii)

Advertisement (Less Attractive x Skilled)

APPENDIX B (i)

Advertisement (Less Attractive x Less Skilled)

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