Bachelor Degree Thesis

Sport celebrities endorsement in

advertising

-The impact on French consumers

Author: Cindy Roux-

Fougère and Claire Segalen

Supervisor: Setayesh

Sattari

Examiner: Sonyia Billore

Date: August, 20th 2014

Subject: Marketing

Level: Bachelor Thesis

Course code: 2FE10E

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Abstract

Course/level: 2FE10E, Bachelor Thesis

Authors: Roux-Fougère Cindy and Segalen Claire

Tutor: Soniya Billore

Examiner: Setayesh Sattari

Title: Sport celebrities endorsement in advertising

- The impact on French consumers

Keywords: Celebrity endorser, consumers’ perception, consumers’ attitude,

brand image, advertisement, sport, athlete

Background: People need to associate themselves to a reference group or to

someone they admire. Consumers are influenced by these

groups or person. Companies have therefore to adapt their

promotion strategy to reach consumers by this side.

Research questions: RQ1 - How consumers perceive sport personalities endorsers

featured in advertisement?

RQ2 - What is the relation between consumers’ perceptions and

their attitudes towards a brand, product or service?

RQ3 - What is the relation between consumers’ attitudes and

their purchase intentions towards a product or service?

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the consumers’

perceptions and attitudes towards the use of personalities to

endorse companies’ brand, products or services and see if it

influence their purchase attitude.

Methodology: The research is based on a cross-sectional design with a

qualitative strategy. The data collection is gathered through

three focus groups and with secondary data.

Conclusion: The results are that, for French consumers, a product will stay in

mind when it is linked to a celebrity. The credibility of the

athlete is important to keep a good perception of the brand. The

perception of the brand will influence the consumer buying

attitude.

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Acknowlegements

This thesis allowed the researchers to investigate a central subject in their own

studies that are the perceptions and attitudes of consumers. It also allowed the

researchers to assimilate the Swedish university system as the thesis has been done at

Linnaeus University, in Växjö. Besides the work of the researchers this thesis would not

have been feasible without several people who brought a necessary and appreciated

help.

The researchers would like to express their deepest gratitude to the participants that

offered their valuable time to their focus groups. They provided them with opinions and

informations needed to solve the purpose of this thesis. They would further like to send

their gratitude to the persons who helped them with academic knowledge and expertise.

First, they would like to thank their tutor Dr. Soniya Billore. She helped the researchers

by providing them valuable recommendations and feedbacks during the research. Then,

they would like to thank their examiner PhD Setayesh Sattari for her guidance and

recommendations. They would like to address a special thanks to their families who

made this academic year possible.

The researchers wish the results and findings of their thesis will help future researchers

in their studies.

20th

of August 2014

Claire Segalen Cindy Roux-Fougère

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Celebrity endorser: “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).

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Contents

1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 1 1.1 Background ______________________________________________________ 1 1.2 Problem Discussion _______________________________________________ 3

1.3 Purpose _________________________________________________________ 5 1.4 Research Questions _______________________________________________ 5 1.5 Delimitations ____________________________________________________ 5 1.6 Outline of the Thesis ______________________________________________ 5

2 Theoritical Review ____________________________________________________ 7 2.1 Companies’ Brand ________________________________________________ 7

2.2 Consumers’ Perception _____________________________________________ 7

2.2.1 Definition ____________________________________________________ 7

2.2.2 The perceptual Process _________________________________________ 8

2.2.3 Visual Perception _____________________________________________ 8

2.2.4 Perceptual Selection ___________________________________________ 9

2.3 Consumers’ Attitude _______________________________________________ 9

2.3.1 Definition ____________________________________________________ 9

2.3.2 Consumers’ Attitude toward Advertisement ________________________ 10

2.3.3 Balance Theory ______________________________________________ 10

2.4 The Image in Advertising __________________________________________ 11

2.5 Creativity in the Promotion: A Celebrity Endorser ______________________ 12 2.5.1 Match-up Hypothesis __________________________________________ 13

3 Methodology ________________________________________________________ 13 3.1 Research strategy ________________________________________________ 14 3.2 Research purpose ________________________________________________ 15

3.3 Research Design _________________________________________________ 15 3.4 Research Approach _______________________________________________ 16

3.5 Data Collection Process ___________________________________________ 17 3.5.1 Data Collection Method _______________________________________ 17

3.5.2 Operationalization ____________________________________________ 19

3.6 Sample Selection ________________________________________________ 21 3.7 Measures of Quality ______________________________________________ 21

4 Empirical Data ______________________________________________________ 23 4.1 Companies’ expectations __________________________________________ 23

4.1.1 Studies’ findings _____________________________________________ 23

4.1.2 Case Study of Pepsi ___________________________________________ 24

4.1.3 Case Study of Adidas __________________________________________ 24

4.2 Focus Group ____________________________________________________ 25 4.2.1 Focus Group 1 _______________________________________________ 26

4.2.2 Focus Group 2 _______________________________________________ 28

4.2.3 Focus Group 3 _______________________________________________ 31

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5 Analysis ____________________________________________________________ 35 5.1 Companies’ expectations __________________________________________ 35 5.2 Impact on the Consumer ___________________________________________ 36

5.3 Consumers’ perception ____________________________________________ 37 5.3.1 The First Attraction ___________________________________________ 37

5.3.2 Importance of the Endorser Choice_______________________________ 38

5.4 Consumers’ Attitude ______________________________________________ 40

6 Conclusion _________________________________________________________ 43 6.1 Discussion ______________________________________________________ 43

6.2 Recommendations _______________________________________________ 44 6.3 Limitations _____________________________________________________ 44

References ___________________________________________________________ 45

Appendices ___________________________________________________________ I Appendix 1 - Focus Group email (French) __________________________________ I Appendix 2 - Focus Group email (English) ________________________________ II Appendix 3 - Questionnaire Focus Group (French) _________________________ III

Appendix 4 - Questionnaire Focus Group (English) _________________________ V Appendix 5 - Ads Displayed during Focus Groups _________________________ VII

Appendix 6 - Adidas Advertising Campaign _____________________________ XIII

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1 Introduction

This first chapter will cover the background that lays the foundation of the research

study. Then, a problem discussion will highlight the issues that appear in this

relationship of the concepts studied. Then, the purpose and the research questions will

be defined as well as the delimitations of this study. Finally, an outline will be presented

in order to give the global structure of the thesis.

1.1 Background

Solomon et al. (2010) explained that all individuals belong to groups and behave,

consciously or not, by observing the actions of those around. This reference group is a

real or dreamy person or a group who has influence on “individuals’ evaluations,

aspirations or behaviors” (Solomon et al., 2010, p.384). Thus, a reference group has an

influence on consumer purchase behavior. Their preferences are then shaped by some

positives external people. Consumers’ behavior can be influenced by a desire to please,

to be accepted in a group or by the actions of celebrities they have not even met.

According to Wei and Yu (2012), different groups can be identified: aspiration groups,

whom consumers want to look like; and dissociative groups, whom consumers want to

steer clear of. Consumers construct their own personality according to the brand used,

and, therefore they identify with the others who utilize the similar brand. On the other

side, consumers perceive themselves as different or the contrary from those who

consume the competing brand (Wei & Yu, 2012). An individual needs to dream and to

try to reach a specific ideal which could be represented by the celebrity since people

have a real need to identify themselves with someone they admire (Solomon et al.,

2010). Hence, people associate most of the time a brand to a person.

Therefore it is important for companies to take into consideration this fact and adapt

consequently their marketing mix. The promotion is a component of the marketing mix

that is often related to marketing communication (Armstrong et al., 2009). Promotion

has a key role in determining profitability and market success. The tools that can be

employed in the promotional process include: advertising; direct marketing; sales

promotion; public relations and publicity; personal selling and sponsorship (Wells et al.,

2000). The brand personification is a common technique in marketing. It refers to “the

presentation of a personification by a brand; that is, the brand presents a character with

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human-like characteristics” (Cohen, 2014, p.1). Consequently, companies’ strategy to

slice through this ad clutter is to use celebrity endorsers in their advertisements

(Erdogan et al., 2001; Lin, 1993; Solomon, 2011). Advertisements using celebrities

represent about 20-25% of all ads (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995; Stephens & Rice,

1998) and 60% of these ads are using sport personality endorsers such as athletes

(Carlson & Donovan, 2008). Jones and Schumann (2000) also state that famous and

unknown athletes are everywhere. In all the celebrity used, athletes, coaches, and other

sports personalities occur to be the most popular celebrity endorsers, especially because

their performance is easily accessible (Elberse and Verleun, 2012). Companies are using

athletes as endorsers in order to connect the brand with this celebrity image. Jones and

Schumann (2000) state that athletes are seen as great models to endorse a brand image,

as adults and children tend to memorized well an athlete because of his high skills.

Sport celebrities endorsers are not only viewed as sport performer but they also carry

important “societal and cultural norms” (Jones & Schumann, 2000, p.65). There are a

lot of well-known sport celebrities who endorsed brands (Bush et al., 2004). This

phenomenon started in 1978 with famous football players such as Diego Maradona

(Argentinean) or Pelé (Brazilian) who endorsed non-sport brands like Sony in 1978 or

Coca-Cola in 1982. One year later, Puma used Diego Maradona in its shoes ad which

have been known all around the world. In France, the first football player who endorsed

a brand was Michel Platini. The brand Fruité, a fruit beverage, used him to address

children in 1978. Later, he endorsed the car brand, Peugeot. Following, other famous

athletes appeared in sport or non-sport brand advertisements, mostly football players

like Alain Giresse (endorsed Jock, a crêpes brand), Eric Cantona (endorsed brands as

Bic, Nike, Renault, Pepsi or l’Oréal). Likewise, companies as ManPower, Danone,

Adidas, MacDonald’s, Petrol Hahn, Candia or again Volvic used French football

players to endorse their products. More recently, the company H&M chose the famous

football player David Beckham to support its brand (vive la pub, 2014). In the French

advertisement campaigns, football players are used a lot, but the trend is evolving with

the appearance in ads of athletes such as Rafael Nadal (Tennis), David Douillet (Judo)

or Laure Manaudou (Swimming). The call for celebrities is a global phenomenon that

has been amplified in the last years (Grohmann et al., 2013). Till and Busler (2000)

study previously declared (C’est “Till and Busler’s study” non?) that there is a positive

relationship between the use of celebrity endorsers and the beneficial attitude toward the

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consumers’ purchasing behavior of a brand. However, it seems difficult to find a

“virtuous and honorable model” (Jones & Schumann, 2000, p.65).

It is still more difficult for companies to go through the ad clutter since consumers are

exposed to over 1,500 advertising messages every day through different sources such as

television, radio or mobile phones (Grede as cited in Koerning & Boyd, 2009). In

France the situation is similar as in the rest of the world. In 2012, approximately 498

941 ads have been shown through the six biggest TV channel (Observatoire de la

Publicité, 2013). According to Country Economy (2013) the country has a GDP of €

2,059,272 (SEK 18,295,083.89) and GDP per capita of € 31,300 (SEK 278,156.65),

France is thus a relatively prosperous country. The French sport sector is becoming

bigger those last years. The sports expenditures knew an increase of 42% between 2000

and 2010 and were about € 35.4 billion in 2010. Moreover, 32 million of French people

practice sport activities at least once a week; it represents 42% of the total population

(French sport ministry, 2013). Sport events are taking a really important dimension in

France, indeed, the country hosts big international events as Roland Garros (tennis), le

Tour de France (cycling), le Vendée Globe (sailing) and other international world

championship (Hunt a home, 2011). Therefore for all the reasons displayed before

companies do not hesitate to use sport celebrities to personify a product. Consequently,

a lot of studies have already been done on the company perception of using celebrities

to endorse its brand.

1.2 Problem Discussion

Throughout the years, marketers have spent huge amount of money to pay these famous

athletes to endorse their products (Bush et al., 2004). Moreover, it comes out that using

celebrity endorsers help gain and hold consumers’ attention (Atkin & Block, 1983),

improve message recall (Friedman & Friedman, 1979) and generate positive word of

mouth (Bush et al., 2004). It is also a way to increase purchase likelihood (Friedman &

Friedman, 1979; Kamins, 1989). These previous points appears to be related to the fact

that, as seen before, consumers need to relate to a group of reference or to a leader. By

using celebrities such as sport personalities, advertisements provide the group of

reference or the leader the consumer is looking for (Solomon et al., 2010). Jones and

Schumann (2000) specify that sport personalities play different roles. They are not only

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seen as sports entertainers they also embody strong values and morals. Thus, they

become role models for the consumers.

This marketing strategy, that is the promotion, meets the need of consumers and makes

them more likely to purchase the products or services offered (Solomon et al., 2010).

According to Carlson and Donovan (2008) there is a positive relationship between sport

personality endorsers and the increase of favorable attitudes toward brands when the

consumers feel a connection with the athlete. Roy and Pansari (2014) as well as Eisend

and Langner (2010) support the idea that using sport personality endorsers in

advertisements is likely to have a positive impact on purchase intention and consumers

attitudes. However, pieces of research indicate, that there is not always a connection

between the use of celebrities and consumers’ purchase intention (Sukhdial et al., 2002).

The study of Koernig and Boyd (2009) also states that matching athletes with brand do

not always make a difference concerning the assessment of the brand, product or ads

and have no effect on the purchase behavior. It is illustrated by the partnership between

the French bank LCL and the football player Karim Benzema. Recently, the French

football player Karim Benzema came up for the LCL bank advertisement. It was the

first time a professional athlete accepted to participate in one of this bank commercial.

The company and the athlete were rather happy and satisfied with the result. However,

the public opinion has not been the same and fairly unpleasant criticism such as “he is a

bad actor”, “this pathetic player reflects well this crook bank” or “he is not a humble

person anymore”, have been made towards the football player and the bank (Lyonnais

Le Crédit, 2010).

Therefore, as seen throughout the background, a certain number of researches have been

made concerning the reasons why companies use sport personality to represent their

brand, products or services. These pieces of research also point out the companies’

expectations on the impact it would have on the consumers. However, despite the broad

use of athletes as products, services or brands endorsers, there is a relative shortage of

research on the perceptions that consumers have of the use of sport personality

endorsers and the influence on their attitudes (Bush et al., 2004). Thus, this research

paper aims to reduce the lack of information regarding the consumers’ perceptions and

their attitudes towards sport personality endorsers. The research intents to explore both

perceptions and attitudes as it is two different concepts since perception represents the

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way consumers create meanings from their environment (Kardes et al., 2011) and

attitude is the way they react to a particular stimulus or meaning (Solomon et al., 2010).

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards

the use of sport personalities to endorse companies’ brand, products or services and see

if it influence their purchase intentions. The research also aims to consider the

companies’ expectations of the use of athletes endorsers.

1.4 Research Questions

RQ1: How consumers perceive sport personalities endorsers featured in advertisement?

RQ2: What is the relation between consumers’ perceptions and their attitudes towards a

brand, product or service?

RQ3: What is the relation between consumers’ attitudes and their purchase intentions

towards a product or service?

1.5 Delimitations

According to the circumstances of the research, it will focus only on one country:

France. Plus, the research study will be oriented towards consumers between 18-35

years old since they are the more likely to answer the research surveys, because they are

an easier target to market since they grown up in a consumer oriented society (Brand as

cited in Bush et al., 2004). Finally, primary data will concern the consumers’

perceptions and attitudes while secondary data will be about companies’ expectations.

Even though, within the paper the data collected about companies will be deeply used to

analyse the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes.

1.6 Outline of the Thesis

The previous chapter presents the background representing the foundations of the

research and a discussion of the problem that occurs. The purpose, research questions

and delimitations of the study are also displayed. The next chapter will expose the

theoretical review on which the research is based and those necessary to support the

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research study. Then, in the chapter three, the methodology used to answer the research

questions will be described as well as arguments supporting the chosen methods. In the

fourth chapter the results and findings of focus groups and other data will be presented.

Finally, in chapters five and six, the collected data of the chapter four will be analyzed

by using the theoretical review and the questions of the research study will be answered

and some recommendation will be provided.

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2 Theoritical Review

This second chapter will be concerned with the theories that are related to our research

study. It will focus on the establishment of company branding, the consumers’ attitudes

and behavior towards advertising. The aim of collecting theoretical review is to assist

the researchers in the analysis of the purpose and research questions.

2.1 Companies’ Brand

A brand name and recognition is really important for a company. Keller (2009) asserted

that companies which built a strong brand identity have a stronger business

performance. The strengths of a brand will increase the recognition of a company;

indeed according to Fisher et al. (2010) the more the brand is powerful, the more the

company is valuable. That is why companies’ managers attach much importance to the

design of the branding. Brand building requires a lot of investment, especially in

communication. In order to be relevant, a brand image needs to be well perceived from

the customers (Berthon et al., 2009). Nicholas Ind et al. (2013) add that the brand is

mainly built through needs and desires of the customers and also depending on how

much the company knows them. A company therefore has to explore their memories,

feelings and emotions. In order to make this investigation feasible, the concept of brand

meaning has to be also defined. This notion is delimited with different links such as

images, brand name and the recognition of the brand in the memory of the consumer

(Berthon et al., 2009). In that case, the brand strategy is to preserve the relationship with

the customer through advertising or other communication possibilities.

2.2 Consumers’ Perception 2.2.1 Definition

Perception is a process of “receiving, selecting, and interpreting” stimuli coming from

the environment using the five senses (Kardes et al., 2011, p.141). Through perception,

individuals define the world they live in and create meanings from their environment.

Different factors influence consumers’ perceptions especially since the perceptual

process is unique to each person (Kardes et al., 2011).

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2.2.2 The perceptual Process

During the process of perception, people go through different stages of information

when stimuli are input and stored. However, people cannot process all information

present in the world, and only a small amount of the stimuli are noticed. Moreover, the

stimuli entering people consciousness are not processed equitably. The meaning of a

stimulus could be understood differently by each consumer. There are three stages: the

exposure, the attention and the interpretation. The exposure is the instantaneous reply of

the sensory receptors as the eyes, the ears or the nose to the stimuli (Solomon et al.,

2010). When the exposure occurs more often, it tends to favor the attitude of an

individual towards a product or a brand (Lee & Labroo, 2004). The attention is the

degree to which people take into consideration the stimuli during the exposure; and the

interpretation relates to the meaning that consumers attribute to sensory stimuli.

Therefore, perception is the manner how these stimuli are selected, organized and

interpreted (Solomon et al., 2010).

Figure 1: An overview of the perceptual process. Adapted from Solomon et al., 2010,

p.119

2.2.3 Visual Perception

Stimuli are an important aspect to take into account during the process of advertising

(Scott cited in Kelly et al., 2002). Visual elements are seriously considered by marketers

for an advertisement campaign (Solomon et al., 2010). Miniard et al. (1991) studies

support this idea by asserting that an image is playing a significant role in the

persuasion process of an individual. An advertisement with a visual will then provide a

more positive attitude toward it than toward an ad without visual. Brasel and Gips

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(2008, p.32) confirmed that a visual is “a key driver of advertising effectiveness”.

Moreover, in his studies Donohew (1990) found that adolescents are more receptive to

image and visual support in ads than adults. Different meanings can be communicated

by a distinct visual, and Bloch (1995, p.600) admits that a product´s visual feature “is

the most important determinant of consumer choice”. Also, Noseworthy et al. (2011)

found that female and male perceptions differ. The researches states that females are

better at judging visual features concerning the location, the identity and they notify

easily when something is added, while men are better at “mental rotation and spatial

navigation tasks” (Noseworthy et al., 2011, p.358).

2.2.4 Perceptual Selection

The society lives nowadays with a lot of diffused information, consequently consumers

are often overwhelmed with this information. Further, the consumers’ attention is sorely

tested because of the growing number of exposure to different ads. That is why

consumers have to be selective about what they pay attention to. Thus, according to

Solomon et al. (2010) perceptual selectivity means that consumers care for only a part

of stimuli to which they are exposed. They actually pick and choose among stimuli in

order to avoid being overwhelmed by advertising clutter. Researches have shown that

logos, brand names or pictures will influence the consumer selection in a positive way

(Lee & Labroo, 2004).

2.3 Consumers’ Attitude 2.3.1 Definition

Bhatt et al. (2013) studies bring together different definitions of attitude. The concept is

firstly defined by Fishbein (1967, p.79) as “a learned predisposition of human being”.

Later, Kotler (2000, p.80) developed attitude by stating it is “an individual personal

evaluation, emotional feeling attached and action tendency towards some objects or

ideas”. According to Solomon et al. (2010), attitude serves a function for people and it

is defined by people’s motivations. Also, anything towards which one has an attitude is

called an attitude object. It is possible that individuals have the same attitude towards a

product or a brand but for different causes. Solomon et al. (2010) found three

components: affect, behavior and cognition. Affect is related with the feelings that a

consumer has towards an attitude object. Behavior concerns the consumer’s intentions

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to act in a certain manner toward an attitude object. Cognition is the beliefs that a

consumer has toward an attitude object. These three components will vary according to

the consumer’s motives (Solomon et al., 2010).

2.3.2 Consumers’ Attitude toward Advertisement

According to Solomon et al. (2010) the attitude toward an advertisement is a natural

tendency to reply in a favorable or unfavorable way to a distinct advertising stimulus

during an exposure. This attitude is also composed of the evaluations of the ad

execution itself, the feelings stimulated by the ad and the degree to which the ad acts on

the consumer’s stimulation. Thus, the feelings created by an advertisement will have a

direct influence on brand attitude. Moreover, an ad can indeed give rise to different

emotional reaction which will vary according to each person (Solomon et al., 2010).

Baker and Lutz (2000) thought that the affective factor influences the consumer attitude

towards an ad. These feelings can be controlled by the manner the commercial is done

or by the consumer’s receptivity to the advertiser’s motives. Three emotional aspects

have been recognized by Solomon et al. (2010) in advertisements: pleasure, arousal and

intimidation.

The attitude towards a product depends of the degree of involvement with the product.

People are more likely to buy a brand which shows a positive attitude (Priester et al.,

2004). One of the level of commitment is the identification. It is a process which

happens when attitudes are created in order for people to look like another person or

group - as mentioned before with group influences. Indeed, the process of choosing

certain products rather than others is strongly connected with the tendency of people to

copy the behavior of fascinating celebrity (Solomon et al., 2010).

2.3.3 Balance Theory

The balance theory takes into account relation among three elements and the final

structure is named triads. Each triad includes a person and their perceptions, an attitude

object and other person or object (Solomon et al., 2010). This perception can be positive

or negative. The theory points out that the consumers want these relations among

elements to be harmonious or balanced. If not, the perception of one of the element can

be changed from the consumer point of view. The balance theory also helps to

demonstrate why people are pleased to be compared to product in a positive manner.

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This ‘balancing act’ is at the center of celebrity endorsements where companies think

that a celebrity reputation will be reproduced on the brand or on a product (Basil &

Herr, 2006).

Figure 2: Balance theory in a Triad. Adapted from Solomon et al., 2010, p.287

2.4 The Image in Advertising

In literary terms, the word image comes from the Greek ikon (Stern et al., 2001). An

image turns stimuli created by the real-world or media into mental pictures. This

connection permits to imagine a universal and precise meaning of an image (Stern et al.,

2001). According to Hite and Bellizzi (1985), people need to simplify their buying

decision by creating symbolic representations. That is why, each brand tries to create

this useful link to call out the consumer.

The personification is used in marketing when the brand image is described as it was a

human being (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990). According to Firat et al. (1995) the fact of

using a human to promote a brand will allow the consumer to create their self-image of

the brand within the moment.

A brand image is a set of objects, action words or pictures seen as an abstract concept in

consumer’s mind. Therefore, it emphasizes the division between perception and reality

of the brand (Goss et al., 2007). The concept of brand image is consequently

unavoidable for companies. Smith and Yang (2004) studied the theory of creativity in

promotion. Indeed, according to them, advertisements must be new, imaginative and

different or unique. Also, the divergence aspect must have a sort of relevance.

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The divergence means that advertisements must include new, different and original

ways of doing it (Smith & Yang, 2004). This can be used in two ways: either in the

execution of ads (layout & design) or on the informational elements of ads. According

to Smith and Yang (2004), the promotion made with divergence will receive a lot more

attention than the one without divergence. Therefore, a well-done advertising campaign

properly carried out with divergence will significantly affect the consumers.

When the ad divergent idea is conceived, it must be constructed in a way to make it

relevant. Smith and Yang state that to be relevant the ad must be meaningful, suitable

and valuable to the public. Actually, the stimuli of the ad have to create a meaningful

link to the consumer and “brand-consumer relevance” (Smith & Yang, 2004).

2.5 Creativity in the Promotion: A Celebrity Endorser

Advertising is the major kind of communication between the company and the

consumer (Smith & Yang, 2004). Utilizing celebrities as endorsers is a standard

marketing practice since a long time. Actually, endorsers can be actors, athletes,

business people, entertainers, models or singers (Hsu & McDonald, 2002). Endorsement

occurs when an high-profile individual is enrolled to use his/her position for promoting

or selling a product or even to improve the image of the product. More often this

celebrity is an athlete (Irwin et al., 2002). This use of celebrity in favor of the brand

image is a well analyzed technique. Indeed, the expanding popularity of the sport and

the attraction of the relationship between fan and athlete have both intensified the sport

celebrity endorsement practice. Perceptions of a company and a brand become more

positive when the athlete is liked by the consumers. However, perceptions become more

negative when the sport celebrity is disliked (Langmeyer & Shank, 1993). Thus, one

aspect which is to take into consideration is the endorser credibility. Indeed, consumers

are more likely to trust arguments introduced in the ad if the source is believable

(Grewal et al., 1994). The level of trustworthiness and expertise for the endorser is also

essential. According to Erdogan et al. (2001, p.40) trustworthiness relates to the

‘‘honesty, integrity and believability’’ of the endorser, while expertise refers to his

‘‘knowledge, experience or skills’’ in a specific field. If the endorser is a credible source

for the consumer, then he will influence his opinions, beliefs, attitudes or behavior. This

process that happens when an individual accepts this influence is called internalization

(Erdogan et al., 2001).

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2.5.1 Match-up Hypothesis

The match-up hypothesis gives a theoretical framework that helps for the relationship

between the endorser-brand match, celebrity credibility and to explain how the vision of

the endorser influences consumers’ brand and advertising evaluation. According to a

theory from Mowen, Brown and Schulman (1979), when there is a close relationship

between the endorser, the brand and the target public, the endorser will be then more

effective. Indeed, for example, a good-looking model will be more efficient for a beauty

brand because it is in accord with this image. On the contrary, an attractive model

would not be more effective than an unattractive model in an ad for computer as they

are not linked with beauty. The good-look model is effective because the matchup

between the attractive celebrity and the beauty brand gives a high credibility. Moreover,

in their studies, Kahle and Homer (1985) conclude that the congruency of the brand

image with the attractive endorser led to a positive evaluation. Credibility occurs on the

consumer’s perception when expertise, attractiveness and reliability are mixed.

Obviously, the perfect endorser will combine all these characteristics (Parker & Fink,

2012).

On the other hand, companies have to be aware that negative effects could also happen.

When the celebrity is involved in an unwanted event, the company and brand image can

be stained (Parker & Fink, 2012). Ideally, the company chooses what meanings the

product has to communicate and then decides a celebrity who evokes that meaning

(Solomon et al., 2010). They are representing important categories such as status and

social class, gender, age and even personality types. Most of the time, the power of

celebrity achieves its goals because endorsers act for cultural meanings (McCracken,

1989).

3 Methodology

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This chapter will discuss the methodology used in this thesis. It will present the chosen

approach of the research study. This chapter will conclude on the reliability and

validity matters.

3.1 Research strategy

According to Bryman and Bell (2011, p.26), a research strategy refers to “a general

orientation to the conduct of business research”. The first thing to determine is the type

of relationship that will exist between theory and research. There are two main

relationships between theory and research: the deductive or inductive approach (Bryman

& Bell, 2011). The deductive theory is the most common approach. The hypothesis are

deduced from existing theories about a particular subject, then the hypothesis are tested

and the results and findings confirm or reject the hypothesis to finally revise the

theories. On the contrary the inductive approach assumes that there is no theory already

existing about the field of research. Then the results and findings of the research will

lead to the creation of theories (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The relationship between theory

and research of this study will be deductive since the research questions are based on

previous existing theories and these theories will be used to analyze the collected data of

the study. Then the results and findings will complete the theories previously used.

Afterwards, the nature of the study must be determined. There are two main

methodological approaches used in research study: the quantitative and the qualitative

research. The distinctions between the two approaches are not limited to the presence or

absence of quantification. It is deeper than that, since it appears that quantitative and

qualitative researches have different epistemological foundations, ontological

considerations and connection between theory and research. Quantitative research is

mainly described as a research focused on the collection of numerical data and the

exhibition of the relationship between theory and research as deductive. It is also based

on a natural science approach, which is particularly positivism, and an objectivist

conception of social reality. In the other hand, qualitative research appears to be more

concerned with words rather than numbers. It applies an inductive approach between

theory and research and relies on interpretivist epistemological foundations and

constructionist ontological considerations (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Therefore, this

research study will follow a qualitative approach. It aims to turn what is observed,

15

reported or recorded into written words (Saunders, 2007). The data collected will be

non-quantifiable data, in this case, expectations and perceptions.

3.2 Research purpose

According to Saunders (2007), and Yin (2009), research study can be divided into three

different kinds of studies that are: exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. The aim of

exploratory studies is to clarify the understanding of a problem. This research method is

flexible, unstructured and fall under a qualitative approach (Aaker et al., 2011).

Descriptive studies are used to describe and test opposite explanations. Finally,

explanatory studies intend to establish relationship between variables. This research

study focuses on the understanding of what are the companies’ expectations when they

are using sport personalities’ endorsers and the perceptions and attitudes of consumers

towards it. This research study follows a qualitative approach. Thus, this research is

mainly exploratory (Yin, 2009).

3.3 Research Design

According to Bryman and Bell (2011, p.40), the research design provides “a framework

for the collection and analysis of data”. The choice made in terms of research design for

a study display decisions taken concerning different dimensions of the research process.

It embodies the importance of:

● expressing causal connections between variables;

● generalizing to larger groups of individuals than those actually being part of the

investigation;

● understanding behavior and the meaning of these specific behavior in the social

context;

● having an appreciation over time of social phenomena and their

interconnections.

The choice of research study is crucial since it has to suit the research study in order to

be able to answer the research questions.

Bryman and Bell put the emphasis on five different research designs:

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● Experimental design: this research design aims to elaborate experiments and is

mainly used as a yardstick to assess non-experimental research.

● Cross-sectional design: it refers to the collection of data on more than one case

and at a single point in time in order to collect data. It is used to detect patterns

of association.

● Longitudinal design: it is mostly used to understand how changes occur in an

organization. It requires a long period of observation through self-completion

questionnaires or structured interview.

● Case study design: the purpose of this research design is the detailed and

intensive analysis of a single case.

● Comparative design: it refers to the comparison of two or more contrasting

cases.

In the case of the present research study the purpose is to investigate the companies’

expectations and the consumers’ perceptions of the use of sport personality endorsers.

In order to find out the companies’ expectations, a case study design appears to be

suitable. Regarding the investigation of consumers’ perceptions a cross-sectional design

will be applied. The focus group method meet the cross-sectional design requirements

as they collect data on more than one case with participants of different age and gender.

It also try to analyze patterns of association between consumers’ perceptions and

attitudes and the use of sport personality endorsers in advertising.

3.4 Research Approach

The research approach is concerned with epistemological and ontological

considerations. An epistemological issue “concerns the question of what is (or should

be) regarded as acceptable knowledge in a discipline. A particularly central issue in this

context is the question of whether or not the social world can and should be studied

according to the same principles, procedures, and ethos as the natural sciences”

(Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.15). Bryman and Bell (2011) listed three concepts of

epistemological considerations: the concept of positivism that supports the application

of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality and beyond.

Positivism involves elements of both a deductive and an inductive approach. Realism

that is close to positivism. The two concepts state that natural and social sciences can

and should apply the same type of approach to the collection and to the explanation of

data; and that there is an external reality separated from the description people give to it.

17

Interpretivism refers to the different views of writers who have been critical of the

application of the scientific model to the study of the social world. Their point of view

is that the subject matter of the social sciences (people and their institutions) is

profoundly different from that of the natural sciences (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

Then, according to Bryman and Bell (2011, p.20) the issues of social ontology are

concerned “with the nature of social entities. The central point of orientation here is the

question of whether social entities can and should be considered objective entities that

have a reality external to social actors, or whether they can and should be considered

social constructions built up from the perception and actions of social actor”. There are

two different ontological concepts to evaluate within a research study: the objectivism

refers to an ontological position that states that social phenomena and their meanings

have an existence that is independent of social actors. In the contrary, constructionism

stresses that social phenomena are build up from perceptions and actions of social actors

(Bryman & Bell, 2011).

The present research study is part of a business and management research that attempts

to understand the relationship between sport personality endorsers and the expectations

and perceptions that companies and consumers have of it. This research assumes that

natural sciences and human sciences cannot be studied with the same approach because

here what matters is the interpretation of human behavior. Thus, the epistemological

foundation on which the thesis will be grounded is the interpretivist concept. Plus, since

the purpose is to investigate the perceptions of consumers and the expectations of

companies (social actors) in the use of sport personality endorsers (social phenomenon),

the ontological ground is the concept of constructionism because the research assumes

that the social actors give its meaning to the social phenomenon through the perceptions

they have of that phenomena.

3.5 Data Collection Process 3.5.1 Data Collection Method

The data collected in order to bring answers to the research questions of the study will

be gathered by both primary and secondary data. Rabianski (2003) defines primary data

as information directly collected by the researchers themselves. In the other hand,

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secondary data are defined as information gathered from secondary sources that have

not been collected straight by the researchers (Rabianski, 2003).

Focus group will be used to gather the data needed to answer the study. It is a method

of qualitative data collection (Doody et al., 2013). The focus group method is a type of

group interview in which there are several participants, the questions are focused on a

narrowed topic and the accent is upon interaction between the group members and the

joint construction of meaning. Focus groups are preferably run by two people, one

researcher and a moderator who keeps the discussion on tracks (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

The size of a group is usually composed of six to ten members (Morgan as cited in

Bryman & Bell, 2011). Moreover, the group composition should ensure a certain

balance of similarities and differences among the participants (Rodrigues et al., 2014).

According to Bryman and Bell (2011) it is essential to record the focus group sessions

and to partially transcribe them. Thus, the researchers will be able to analyze what the

participants say but also the way they say it. The focus group method allows bringing to

light levels of understanding that are usually untapped by other data collection methods

(Doody et al., 2013).

Doody et al. (2013) state that the data analysis is a crucial step in the research process.

The analysis of the focus group data can be a complex and time consuming process.

There is a large amount of data to process that leads to an eventual misinterpretation.

They describe the main steps of the data analysis of a focus group:

1. Generating rich data

2. Familiarizing oneself with the data

3. Writing memos

4. Indexing

5. Formation of themes

6. Mapping and interpretation (Doody et al., 2013).

Participants to the focus group will be directly contact by the researchers through emails

(see Appendix 1). These mails will contain a short explanation of what the focus group

will be about and to what extent it will help the research paper. The location and the

time of the focus group will be specified. An incentive will be add to encourage people

to participate in the focus group (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

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Then, secondary data will be collected from secondary sources such as public

documents, the Internet or scientific articles. The use of secondary data is cost and time

saving, since the data have already been collected, and allows the researchers to reach

high-quality information (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Thus, it seems interesting to lead a

secondary data research by reading different case studies. Those cases will permit to get

acquainted with what type of celebrity company already worked as well as what type of

products they endorse for them.

3.5.2 Operationalization

Constructs Questions

Theories

Perception

Can you give us a top 3 of ads

with celebrity endorsers that

you recall?

Brand image/memory

Can you recall any ads with a

sport personality endorser?

Brand image/memory

What are you attracted to in

the first place? (product, sport

personality, brand, colors...)

Perceptual process/visual

perception

By which ads are you more

attracted? (the one with the

athlete or not?)

Perceptual selection

If you like the featured

athletes will you enjoy the ad

more?

Balance theory/Identification

Do you feel that these athletes

are well matched with the

brand/product they endorse?

Match-up Hypothesis

Do you think they are

credible enough to endorse

the brand/product? Why?

Match-up Hypothesis

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Who could be a better

replacement? Why?

Match-up Hypothesis

Does it change something for

you if the match is good or

not?

Match-up Hypothesis

If one of those athletes were

part of a scandal, would it

influences your perception of

the brand/product?

Balance theory /

Identification

If one of those athletes were

part of charities, donation

would it influences your

perception of the

brand/product?

Balance theory /

Identification

If you think about one of

these brands you will think

about its endorser

automatically? And the other

way around?

Brand image

Attitude

Is the fact that an athlete

endorse the brand/product

influence your attitude toward

the brand/product?

Balance theory/brand

image/affect

How would you react?

(generate word of mouth…)

Behavior

Is the fact that an athlete

endorse the brand/product

influence your purchase

intentions?

Balance theory/affect

If you like the featured

athletes will you purchase the

product more?

Identification/behavior

Table 1: Operationalization

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3.6 Sample Selection

The sample selection represents a key step in the research process because it tells if the

research is reliable and valid or not. The sample is selected from the population, which

refers to “the universe of units which the sample is selected from” (Bryman & Bell,

2011, p.176). Thus, the sample represents the segment of the population that will be

investigated. Plus, the size of the sample should be carefully considered and the non-

response rate in particular because the sample do not agree all the time to participate in

the research (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

In the present case, a non-probability sampling will be used: the convenience sampling.

The non-probability sampling represents a sample that has not been selected randomly.

Thus, some units of the population are more likely to be selected than others. The

convenience sampling refers to a sample that is directly available to the researcher

because it is accessible (Bryman & Bell, 2011). This sample selection method is the

most suitable for this research paper since the researcher are investigating French

consumers between 18 and 35 years old and that they are currently in Sweden. Then, the

French exchange students currently in the university represent the convenient sample

because they constitute a directly accessible sample. The researchers will give the

priority to participants already involved in any kind of physical activity. This choice is

due to the fact that the researchers want to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of

the 42% of the French population engaged in sport activities at least once a week

(French sport ministry, 2013). This micro filter will help avoiding unwanted data.

3.7 Measures of Quality

Qualitative research concerns in reliability and validity are adapted from the criteria of

the quantitative research (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Several criteria are emphasized by

LeCompte and Goetz (1982), then by Kirk and Miller (1986), first concerning the

reliability, and then for the validity.

The external reliability refers to the degree to which a study can be replicated. This

point is difficult to meet in qualitative research. Thus, to improve it each step must be

clearly and in detail stated, to make the replication of the study easier. The

questionnaires of the focus group used to collect data from the consumers must be

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attached to the thesis. The study could be replicate by investigating the perceptions and

attitudes of consumers of another nationality. Then, the internal reliability concerns the

question of whether or not, when there are several observers, the researchers agree

about what they see and hear (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982; Kirk & Miller, 1986).

Therefore the focus group must be carefully recorded and transcribed. The translation of

the discussion on the different questions should be done on the same basis between the

researchers. The internal validity tends to know “whether or not there is a good match

between researchers’ observation and the theoretical idea they develop” (Bryman &

Bell, 2011, p.395). Finally the external validity is the degree to which results of the

study can be generalized across social settings (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982; Kirk &

Miller, 1986). To have a good external validity, the social setting studied must be

representative of the population to be able to generalize the conclusion of the study,

therefore, the selected sample should be as representative as possible. According to the

circumstances of this research study, the external validity will be weaker than the other

point because the sample is a non-probability sample, which is less representative than a

probability sample. The ecological validity is also challenged since instruments such as

focus group tend to disturb the natural habitat of the social settings being studied

(Bryman & Bell, 2011).

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4 Empirical Data

This chapter will display the empirical data gathered through collected documents on

the companies’ expectations of the use of sport personalities endorsers and the

information obtained throughout the focus groups lead on the consumers’ perceptions

and attitudes towards sport personalities in advertisements.

4.1 Companies’ expectations 4.1.1 Studies’ findings

Studies on the companies’ expectations using sport personalities endorsers have already

been conducted. Their findings come to several conclusions that might be called general

expectations since they have been found within several different studies. Miciak and

Shanklin (1994) investigated the reasons why companies are using celebrity endorsers,

including sport personality endorsers, by interviewing 43 executives in advertising

agencies. Thus, they found out that there are four major expectations from the

companies when using celebrity endorsers. The first one is the celebrity credibility; then

the match between the celebrity and the audience, companies expect a close match

between them in order to lead consumers to believe that they share important values

with the celebrity. The third one is the match between celebrity and the product,

therefore the celebrity’s values, image, appearance and reputation have to be relevant to

the product being endorsed. Finally, the celebrity attractiveness, companies expect from

the celebrity endorsers to be likable and friendly for the consumers and not only

attractive through their names or faces.

Other researches shows that companies expect to have a chance to go through the ad

clutter by featuring sport personality endorsers in their advertisements and thus

improving their communication (Erdogan et al., 2001; Solomon, 2007; Lin, 1993;

Koernig & Boyd, 2009). Celebrity with worldwide popularity represents also a way for

companies to avoid cultural “road-blocks” such as language, time or risks (Erdogan et

al., 2001, p.39). Companies also expect sport personality endorsers to gain and hold

consumer attention, enhance message recall and increase the credibility of the ads

(Friedman & Friedman, 1979; Bush et al., 2004; Koernig & Boyd, 2009). Celebrities

are expected to help improve brand attitude, particularly with sport personality, firms

expect that a celebrity’s potential success will be transferred to the company’s name

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(Nicolau & Santa-María, 2013); then to boost the purchase likelihood and the brand

loyalty (Bush et al., 2004; Friedman & Friedman, 1979); and finally to create an

emotional attachment between the sport personality endorser and the consumer to

increase the product and brand awareness as well as improve the company’s image (Roy

& Pansari, 2014). Companies want celebrity endorsers to represent a symbolic

aspirational reference group (Carlson & Donovan, 2008), embodying strong values and

morals and thus becoming role models (Jones & Schumann, 2000). Finally, celebrity

endorsers are expected to have a positive effect on purchase intentions and consumers

attitudes (Roy & Pansari, 2014).

4.1.2 Case Study of Pepsi

Pepsi is a soft drink brand manufactured by the company PepsiCo. It is world-famous

on the beverage market. In 1880, the pharmacist Caleb Bradham is the person who has

firstly made this drink before being followed by many varieties of this drink (PepsiCo,

2011). Pepsi is known to aim young consumers for whom celebrities have an important

impact. Consequently, pepsi uses target marketing hoping that celebrity fans will be

attracted by their model drinking Pepsi. The company knows that using celebrities to

represent the brand is risky, however, they continue in keeping with this strategic

promotion. A lot of other companies will not survive by doing a similar promotion plan,

but Pepsi, the multi-billion dollar company, always succeeded in using high-cost

promotion strategies. The company usually used celebrities when they were at the peak

of their fame as the football players David Beckham in 2005 or Lionel Messi more

recently. Pepsi however does not publish any information about the money spent for its

promotion campaigns. According to Pepsi company idea, the fact to endorse a product

by an athlete permits to prove the authenticity and the credibility of a product. The

desire for an individual to reach the same status as their ideal celebrity is mainly used in

Pepsi’s promotion strategy. That means that the company prefers to favor the quality of

the celebrity endorsement instead of its price, indeed, the price of the celebrity does not

require to be taken into consideration to determine the quality (Jayaswal, 2008).

4.1.3 Case Study of Adidas

Adidas has been launched in Germany in 1949 by Adolf Dassler. Herbert Hainer is the

current CEO. The adidas Group includes subsidiaries such as Reebok, TaylorMade-

adidas Golf, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Among other promotion methods, the

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Adidas Group uses sport personalities to endorse its brand and products (Adidas Group,

2014). It is the marketing strategy they followed for their latest big advertising

campaign for the London Olympic Games of 2012. For their ‘above-the-line’ promotion

(refers to the traditional methods of advertising) they featured in their advertisements

the best UK talent with their products. More precisely they featured sport personalities

such as David Beckham (football), Derrick Rose (basketball), Tom Daley (swimming),

Idowu Phillips and Jessica Ennis (athletics). In the TV adverts these athletes are sharing

their intimate goals, fears and thoughts (see below appendix 3). They also used the

social media such as Twitter or YouTube in order to reach the youth audience. It aimed

to have a big impact on the consumers as they were radically different from the other

ads. Adidas invested a lot of money in those endorsers, thus, they had expectations in

return (Business Case Studies, 2014).

They stated the following points as their marketing objective of using sport personalities

endorsers:

● Ensure a clear association as Sportswear Partner of London 2012

● Engage and excite the 14-19 year old audience in order to drive brand preference

in the UK

● Become the most talked about sports brand in 2012, then increase brand

awareness

● Deliver a licensed product ROI (return on investment)

● Creating deeper engagement with consumers (Business Case Studies, 2014)

Adidas aims to be “the leading and most desired sports brand in the world” by

answering to the multiple consumers’ need. Their key values are: authentic, passionate,

innovative, inspirational, committed and honest. Thus, they want all their partners,

including the sport personalities that endorse their brand and products to share and show

these values (Adidas Group, 2013, p.79).

4.2 Focus Group

Three focus groups have been conducted by the researchers in order to investigate the

research questions of the study. Each focus group gathered 8 people with as many

female as male. Thus, 24 French people between 19 and 24 years old have been

26

questioned through these focus groups. Therefore they fit the delimitations of the study

since it is supposed to investigate French consumers between 18 and 35 years old. They

all have been approached by mail by the researchers and they all agreed to participate to

the focus group.

4.2.1 Focus Group 1

The participants of the first focus group were between 20 and 24 years old. In order to

begin the focus group a recall game has been conducted. The aim was to see if the

interviewed people recalled any advertisements featuring sport personality endorsers.

All of them could at least name one ad with a sport personality. The advertisements of

food brand (Ferrero and Cristaline), car brand (Volvo and Renault), sport brand (Nike

and Puma) and care brand (Nivea and Wilkinson) were the one the most cited.

Regarding the athletes, the most named were football players such as Zlatan

Ibrahimovic and Zinedine Zidane; tennis players like Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried

Tsonga and rugby players. All the participants were asked what kind of sport they were

doing and if they admired any sport personality. The most practiced sports were tennis,

football, fitness and rugby. For most of the respondents they were not admiring any

athletes because they are not close enough to these athletes to be able to relate to them.

For the three people that stated they could admire an athlete it was because of the

mentalities they have. They cited football players and tennis players. Then, they were

asked about their general feelings regarding the use of sport personality in

advertisement. Four of them answered that it is ridiculous for an athlete to be in ads

especially if they are endorsing food brand or product. They feel like these athletes are

losing their credibility by endorsing those kind of products. However, the other four

people stated that it was more attractive and that this way everybody was talking about

the ad. Finally, the last introductory question aimed to know if they think that sport

personality endorsers are more adequate to endorse sport brands and products. Seven of

them think that athletes are more able to endorse sport brand properly than non-sport

brand because they are more credible than other celebrities. One of them thinks the aim

of the athlete to endorse a brand is not to encourage people to do sport but to buy a

product.

The second part of the focus group was conducted using visual supports of a luxury

brand, a food brand, a fashion brand and a sport brand featuring athletes of different

27

sports. They saw four different ads of four different brands with each time a sport

endorsers and a random endorser such as models. The first thing asked were what they

were attracted in the first place. Among the ads featuring a random person, the thing

that was noticed the most with 26% was the product and then equally with 20% the

model and some details and finally the brand logo, name and slogan with 17%. For the

ads featuring a sport personality, the first thing they noticed each time was the athlete

with the large majority of 52%, and then the products with 30%, and equally brand logo

and slogan with 9%.

Ad with the athlete Ad without the athlete

The athlete 52% /

The model / 20%

The product 30% 26%

A detail / 20%

The logo 9% 17%

The brand name/slogan 9% 17%

Table 2: Percentages of the first thing perceived on the ad by consumers – Focus

Group 1

The second question was aimed to know if the participants preferred the ad with the

athletes or not. The results were tight since according to the ad, the athletes were chosen

as many times as the other models. Then, more generally the participants were asked if

the ad featured an athlete they like if they will enjoy the ad more. For five of them they

will have a positive perception of the ad and the brand and for two of them there is an

influence of their perception only if it is an athlete they do not like but if it is someone

they like it does not matter. For one of them it also depends on the kind of products

advertised. Then the participants had to tell if they thought the athlete was well matched

with the brand and product they endorsed. For the luxury brand and the food brand, the

match was not good for the majority of the respondents because the chosen athletes do

not represent the values of the brand or product endorsed (for instance: femininity, junk

food). They named athletes that could better endorse these two kinds of brands. They

cited Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic for the luxury brand because they represent

femininity. On the other hand for the food brand they recommended a male athlete such

as André-Pierre Gignac or Sébastien Chabal to endorse the product in an ironic way.

28

However, for the fashion brand and the sport brand the match was good because the

image of the athletes is matching the one of the brand and the product. Thus, the

participants said that the match between the brand or product and the athlete is really

important. They explained that if there is a wrong match the brand and the athlete lose

credibility and it gives them a really negative perception of the brand. They think that

the match between sport brand and athlete is better because it is more credible than with

other type of brand such as food brand. Moreover they all agreed to say that they have a

more positive image of a brand when their ads feature athletes at their peak of success.

For instance when they just won medals or won a contest. Afterwards the participants

were asked if the fact that an athlete was part of a scandal if it would influence their

perception of the brand or product. They all agree to say that it would have a really

negative impact on the brand image but not on the product. One of them will take the

company responsible for that bad choice. On the contrary if the athlete was taking part

in charities or donation it would not have any impact on the brand image. For one of the

respondents it seems normal for an athlete to take part in that kind of events as they are

earning a lot of money. For another one it also depends on the athlete, because if it is

someone they like it would have a better impact.

Finally, the participants were asked about their attitudes toward the use of sport

personality in advertisement. For all of them it has either a positive or a negative effect

on their attitude depending on the fact they like or dislike the featured athletes. If they

do not like the ad they are likely to generate negative word of mouth. However even if

they have a negative attitude it wouldn’t prevent three of the participant to buy the

product. The fact that an athlete is endorsing a brand or products make them remember

more the ad but do not necessarily influence their purchase intention. At the end, the

participants were asked if they link any brand to an athlete automatically or not. Four of

them associate more easily an athlete to a brand and two of them associate a brand to an

athlete. For the other two it depends on the brand and on the athlete.

4.2.2 Focus Group 2

The participants of the second focus group were between 20 and 23 years old. This

focus group followed the same structure than the first one. It began with the recall

game. Every participant has been able to give one example of advertisement featuring.

Advertisements of food brand (Ferrero) and skin care product (Nivea, Gillette and

29

Cadum) were the most cited. Regarding the athletes named, it was mostly tennis players

such as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Roger Federer, football player like David Beckham and

Franck Ribéry and the swimmers Laure and Florent Manaudou. Then, all the

participants stated the type of sport they are doing. The most practiced sports are

athletics, handball and dance. Only three participants are admiring athletes and two of

them are more admiring entire teams than only one athlete. In that case it was the

French handball team because of their ability to win all the time and to remain humble.

The other person who was admiring an athlete is admiring Roger Federer because she

thinks that he is a really good player and has an amazing personality. The other

participants do not admire or idealize any athlete in particular. Then, they were asked

about their general feelings regarding the use of sport personality in advertisement. In

general they all think that it is a way of selling a product for the brand and to earn

money for the athlete endorser. It does not make sense for three of them to use athletes

to endorse non-sport brand. And for two of them it is ridiculous in most cases.

The second part of the focus group is about examples of ads. Among the ads shown

featuring a random model 30% of the time details were noticed first such as the smile of

the model. Then they noticed at 23% the product and the model, at 12% the brand name,

at 9% the brand logo and finally with only 3% the slogan. With the ads featuring

athletes the thing the participants noticed first at 43% is the athlete. Then they noticed at

21% the product and the brand logo; the brand name at 12% and finally the slogan at

3% again.

Ad with the athlete Ad without the athlete

The athlete 43% /

The model / 23%

The product 21% 23%

A detail / 30%

The logo 21% 12%

The brand name 12% 9%

The slogan 3% 3%

Table 3: Percentages of the first thing perceived on the ad by consumers – Focus

Group 2

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The next question permits to say that in general the participants preferred the ads with

the models, they choose those ads 17 times and 15 times the ad featuring the athletes.

After that the participants have been asked if they thought the athletes were well

matched with the brand and product they endorsed. They all agree to say that the only

good match is between the rugby team and Adidas because it makes sense to them since

it is related. For the other one the match is not adequate because the link between athlete

and brand or product is unclear or inexistent. There is a lack of credibility because the

product or brand those athletes endorse are not related to sport. They explained that for

them to endorse a burger it would be better to choose someone that is unknown of the

audience to make them feel like it could be themselves. Then for the luxury brand a

model seems to be more appropriate for them or at least a feminine athlete. In a more

general way the participants were asked if they liked the athlete featured in an ad they

will enjoy more the ad. They all agree to say they would have a positive perception of

the ad but it wouldn’t automatically influence their attitude or purchase intentions. One

of them stated that if it is an athlete he likes he would remember more the ad and maybe

associate the athlete to the product. They also explained that it does not matter if the

match between athlete and brand is good or not because in most cases they still would

buy the products. They have almost the same reaction regarding the fact that an athlete

is part of a scandal. It would not really influence their perception. For two of them if it

falls under private circumstances it does not matter but if it is a public scandal it could

influence their perceptions and attitudes in a negative way. Finally if the athlete were

part of charities or make donation it would only influence their perception of the athlete

not the one of the brand image. Regarding their attitudes, the fact that an athlete endorse

a brand or a product influence mostly all the participants in a negative way. They would

talk about a bad ad more than a good one. Two of them are annoyed by the fact that

athletes endorse non-sport brand because they feel like it is only about money. Three

participants could be influence in their purchase intention when an athlete endorse a

sport brand because they trust them thus they trust the product. In general they are more

influenced by an athlete endorsing a sport brand than a non-sport brand. Finally half of

the participants associate more easily brand to athlete for instance H&M with David

Beckham, Gillette with Roger Federer and Kinder Bueno with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The

rest of them tend to associate athletes with a brand.

31

4.2.3 Focus Group 3

For the last focus group people from 19 to 21 years old have been interviewed. The

researchers kept the same structure as the previous ones to run this focus group. It began

with the brand recall game and in the majority, the respondents answered food and drink

brands as Pepsi with famous football players or Kinder with the tennis player Jo-

Wilfried Tsonga. They also discussed about the brands Nike, H&M and Wilkinson

associated with Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and Sebastien Loeb during this

recall game. In this third focus group, the more practiced sport was the football, indeed

half of them practice football. The other mentioned sports were the basketball, the

handball and the dance. Consequently, most of them admire football players like the

Spanish one Fernando Torres or the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo because “they are

classy”. Three of them do not admire any personality. When asking about the general

feelings about the use of athletes in ads, they replied that for them it changes the image

of a brand as well as the image of the personality. One of them added that the choice of

the athlete is really important as it can influence strongly the brand image. A respondent

said that it is good for a brand because using famous people in an ad has an impact on a

large amount of people. Finally, one participant does not think that using an athlete to

endorse a brand is a good thing because the money always goes in the same place and,

according to her, it is bad for the brand image.

For the second part of the focus group, the moderators showed the chosen ads. The first

question was what they notice at first sight on each ad of the same brand: the one with

the personality and the one without the personality. Concerning the ads with the

personality, most of the time (54%) the participants first noticed the athletes. Then, 30%

of them saw the product and 16% paid attention to the logo of the brand first. On the

other side, when they saw the ads with a random model the answers were more

homogeneous. The respondents did not notice something in particular on these ads but

they said they saw it as a whole. Indeed, 35% saw first the model, 29% of the

participants noticed some details on the ad, 26% of them saw the logo of the brand first

and 10% said they saw the product first.

32

Ad with the athlete Ad without the athlete

The athlete 54% /

The model / 35%

The product 30% 10%

A detail / 29%

The logo/Brand 16% 26%

Table 4: Percentages of the first thing perceived on the ad by consumers – Focus

Group 3

Then the moderators asked to the participants which ads they prefer between the one

with the athlete and the one without him. Including all the chosen ads, 22 times the

answers were in favor of the ad with the random model and 9 times for the ad with the

athlete. They added that in most of the cases it is because the athlete image does not fit

with the brand image. For example, most of them said that Tony Parker was a bad

choice for the burger brand Quick because they do not see the link between him and the

product. For the question concerning the match between the athlete and the brand, the

participants maintained that if the match is good for them it will not change positively

their opinion toward the brand, however, if the match does not work, it will change their

opinion negatively. One of them said that using a famous athlete will have a bigger

impact on people if it is used by brands like H&M or Lancel than by Quick. One of the

participants said she agree the link because this athlete is known and liked by young

people and that is what the brand wants to link to. For this example, people said they

would replace Tony Parker by another athlete like Sebastien Chabal or Teddy Riner.

They also have the same opinion concerning the match between Laure Manaudou and

Lancel, indeed, most of them said she is not feminine enough to endorse Lancel brand.

They would have chosen someone as Maria Sharapova. One of them was not agree and

specified that Laure Manaudou is a champion which represents the top level, so for him

she is a good choice to link with a luxury brand. For the match between David Beckham

and the brand H&M, the participants agreed. They discussed about characteristics like

‘classy’ which can be linked perfectly with the brand. Finally, they talked about the

match between Adidas and the French rugby team. For them it is a good match as it is

more attractive to see a national team rather than a foreigner athlete for a French ad. A

participant added that it is better to feature an entire team than a single player according

33

to the values which are linked. When the moderators broached the subject of the athlete

links to a scandal, one of them said it would have influence his brand image. The others

assured that it does not change anything if an athlete is implicated in a scandal. A girl

specified that for her it depends and she said that she has some clothes buying habits in

H&M for example and she will not change that if David Beckham, who endorsed the

brand, is part of a scandal. On the contrary, if an athlete takes part of a charity or

donation, they affirmed that it would be really positive for the athlete image. Some of

them added it depends because when they think about an athlete they do not necessarily

think about the brand, therefore one of them said he would have a positive perception of

the player but not necessarily of the brand. A girl also added that the first thing she

thinks about is the product, if she wants it or not, but she does not think about the fact

that the personality who endorsed the brand is giving money to a charity or not. After

that, the moderators asked them if they were more likely to think directly to the

personality when they were thinking to the brand. Here again, they replied that it

depends of the brand. One of them said, regarding the brand Lancel, he does not think

directly about Laure Manaudou, however, regarding Adidas, when he sees the Rugby

team he is more likely to think to the brand. One girl said if she sees a logo of the brand

H&M she will obviously think about David Beckham. For the brand Kinder Bueno, the

opinions are all the same, when they see the tennis man Jo-Wilfried Tsonga they all

think about the brand and the other way around - because this brand, and especially this

ad with the tennis man, is really famous has added one of them.

In the third part the moderators centered the focus group on the attitude of the

participants toward the brand or product endorsed by an athlete. The majority of them

assured that it does not influence them. After reflection, some of them admitted that it

helps a brand to be known, but they maintained that it will not influence them to buy the

product. A boy said that even if an athlete gives him a positive image of the brand it

does not necessarily make him want to buy it. They however think that kids are more

likely to be influenced as there is a trend effect. For example, if his favorite player has a

certain brand of football shoes, a kid would like this same pair of shoes. Then, the

moderators asked them what their reaction toward an ad is. Again, the one with Jo-

Wilfried Tsonga was discussed a lot and the participants said they all talked about it

when it came out because for them it was really ridiculous. One girl added that each

time she sees a new ad with a famous athlete she inevitably talks about it with her

34

friends. Boys also talked a lot about David Beckham ad, indeed, they think that this

football player has a really big impact on everybody. On one side he reaches men

because he is a model for most of them concerning the sport and the fashion; while

among girls he is seen as a good-looking man. At the end, concerning the attitude

toward a brand, one of the respondent said that if an athlete who he does not like

endorsed a brand, he will not like the brand anymore, he took the example of one

football player playing in the Paris Saint-Germain team which he hates, and he will

necessarily link the player characteristics with the brand. Another participant reacted

saying that it is not the same for him and even if a football player who he does not like

endorsed a brand, it will not change his attitude toward the brand. The others

participants agreed this last opinion and added that if they have some habits concerning

a brand they will not change them because of the athlete endorser.

35

5 Analysis

This chapter includes the analysis of the collected data link with the literature review.

With this analysis part, the goal is to answer the previous research questions.

5.1 Companies’ expectations

The investigation has shown that when a company which decides to launch an

advertising campaign, including a sport celebrity endorser, it has some expectations.

Those expectations differed according to the company, however, like some authors

(Miciak & Shanklin, 1994; Bush et al., 2004 and Roy & Pansari, 2014) stated, major

expectations remain. Indeed, the concepts previously discussed will be used here. These

concepts are about the endorser credibility, the match between the celebrity and the

audience, the match between the celebrity and the product, and the celebrity

attractiveness. The importance of the athlete worldwide popularity and the fact that he

creates emotional feelings toward consumers are also debated. In order to illustrate and

verify these principles, the actual research takes into consideration two real cases. The

first one deals with the communication strategy of the company Adidas and the second

one with the strategy of the company called Pepsi. Both of them are using famous sport

personalities in their communication strategy.

For the Pepsi Company the researchers found out that the brand strategy is rather to

reach a young audience. The company intention is to use sport celebrities seen as

models for this young audience. For example, they recently used Lionel Messi, the best

football player in Europe - he is the only one who won four time the FIFA Ballon d’or;

the European player of the year award (FIFA, 2014) - in their ad. The idea is that the

consumer can identify himself with the personality. When studying this promotion

marketing case, it has been found that every company cannot permit themselves to

spend as much money as Pepsi does. This is indeed a huge company which always

succeeds in using high-cost promotion strategies even if their plans are risky most of the

time. If Pepsi Company is taking all these risks, it is to prove the credibility of the

brand, therefore they prefer to choose high quality for an athlete endorser rather than

stopping their strategy because of his high price. Their main expectation is in

consequences to remain in consumers’ memory by using such remarkable celebrity.

36

Concerning the second case study, the Adidas brand, wants to link its brand image with

the best athlete that exists. That is why the company chose to feature only talented

athletes such as David Beckham. In that case for them the match between the audience

and the personality is the most important. Also, because the company is always

choosing the best athlete, they trust the celebrity attractiveness. By doing that they are

trying to link the image of their products with an image of the best quality. One of the

company objective is also to increase the brand awareness. They rely on endorsement of

such sport celebrities to have a bigger impact on consumers. The company wants to

convey their values, which are notably passionate, authentic and honest, through these

athletes. That is the reason why they are looking for celebrities who represent the same

values.

5.2 Impact on the Consumer

The memory

The following part will analyze how a brand image is actually impacting consumers.

According to the operalization table some questions have been asked to the selected

people sample in order to know if the brand image is impacting consumers’ memory or

not. Each time the focus group conducted by the researchers started with a recall game

which aimed to go through consumers’ knowledge and memory about brands endorsed

by athletes. First, during focus groups, moderators asked the participants to cite some

ads they remember, without specifying with any celebrity or not. It has been noticed

that most of the time ads with sport celebrities are cited. All of the participants could at

least name one brand endorsed with a sport celebrity. The People tend to cite sport

celebrity according to the sport they practice. During one focus group indeed half of the

participants were playing football, so during this recall game most of them remembered

ads featuring football players. People also discussed a lot during each focus group about

a specific ad: the one with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for Kinder Bueno. People seem to

remember very well this ad. When they are asked why, they replied that it is because it

is so ridiculous and they laugh about this ad.

The recognition

Previously some facts have been exposed which demonstrate that companies look for

creating a strong link between their brand and the athlete. They want to link their brand

identity to some values represented by a celebrity, therefore link the athlete with the

37

brand. However, when studying this aspect of the brand recognition, the researchers

noticed that consumers are aware of the link which exists and they associate easily an

athlete to a brand but rarely the contrary. That means that when consumers see a brand

they do not connect necessarily to this famous athlete who is endorsing the brand. They

are doing the link only on one side.

5.3 Consumers’ perception 5.3.1 The First Attraction

As seen in the theory part, the perceptual process is conducted differently by

individuals. The difference often occurs during the stage of the interpretation. People

actually relate what they have seen according to their personal feelings. The meaning of

an ad can consequently differ in accordance with this interpretation. The study

demonstrates that most of the French consumers first noticed the athlete when they are

looking at an ad featuring one of them. Thus, the sport celebrity catches inevitably

customers’ eye. On the other hand, when people encounter an ad without any famous

athlete, they are more likely to see the ad poster as a whole. The answers were more

scattered, indeed they did not note any particular part of the ad. French consumers

noticed the unknown model, the product or a random detail on the ad poster. The

researchers have seen that these answers concerning the ad with a random model were

specific to each individual. Indeed, the participants often answered according to their

background and feelings. To illustrate that, a discussion which occurred in the second

focus group could be taken up. One of the participant was practicing rugby and he is the

only who has noticed firstly the rugby team on the Adidas poster. When they have been

asked which one of the ad they prefer between the one with the random model or the

one with the famous athlete, the results were tight. It totally depends of the ad, the brand

and the personality. Also they have been asked on four chosen ads. The interesting

results were the following discussion and their arguments. The result is that most of the

time consumers prefer the ad when it includes the celebrity who they already like as an

athlete. Plus, when it is an athlete they do not like they will be more likely to prefer the

ad with the unknown model. The second reason they do not like the ad made up with

the athlete, it is because of their opinion concerning the match between the brand and

the chosen athlete.

38

5.3.2 Importance of the Endorser Choice

Properly matched endorser effect

Here again the moderators asked specific questions during the focus groups in order to

explore if the match between a brand and the endorser is really impacting the consumer

on the advertisement perception. The word which came up the most during these

interviews is ‘credibility’. By talking about credibility they were referring to the fact

that the endorser possess or not some expertise and knowledge on the product he is

endorsing. According to the ads showed during the focus groups, the French

participants had different opinions for these diverse ad posters. For the luxury brand and

the food brand, the match was not good for the majority because the values represented

by the celebrity do not match the values of the brand or product endorsed. French

consumers are more likely to appreciate, concerning a luxury brand, an athlete who

represents grace and especially femininity if it is a female product. The celebrity has

also to be at a top level when endorsing the brand, indeed the luxury sector is linked

with the best product quality. For a daily product like food, consumers will prefer an

ordinary model, like that they are more likely to identify themselves to the athlete. They

also link more easily a common person to a product they use every day as the values

endorsed are closer to theirs. Plus, it is delicate to connect junk food and an athlete as

this kind of food is known to be unhealthy which is contradictory to athletes’ values.

For the chosen fashion and sport brand the match could be done in different ways. The

most important thing for the French consumers is that the product is related one way or

another to the athlete. It works for David Beckham, a former model, who endorsed a

cloth brand; as for the French rugby team who endorsed Adidas, the sport brand. There

is here a close relationship between the endorser and the brand. The match is

consequently an important aspect that companies have to think about when they choose

to endorse their brand by an athlete. It influences the consumers’ perceptions.

Balance Theory

The principle of the balance theory studies the relation between three elements. The

goal is to understand how a third element can influence the perception of one element

on the second one. For the present case the balance theory will help the researchers to

analyze the French consumers’ perceptions. The three elements will be consequently the

consumer, the brand image and the athlete. The researchers wanted to find out if

suddenly the consumer’s perception towards an athlete changes, the brand image will

39

also change. In order to do so, it has been asked to the French participants what will

happen if the concerning athlete was part of a scandal or, on the contrary, was part of a

charity organization. Generally, the French consumers’ opinion is that if a celebrity is

involved in a scandal, especially a public one, the athlete image will decrease, thereafter

it is likely that it will also impact the brand image. Consequently the relationship could

be illustrated in the following way.

Figure 3: Balance theory when the athlete is part of a scandal

They however assured that some scandals will not affect the product image or the

product quality. This is mainly due to their buying habits, and they will continue to buy

the product even if it is linked with an athlete scandal. Then, if it concerns a product that

consumers are used to buy the illustration of the relationship would be the following

one.

Figure 4: Balance theory when the athlete is part of a scandal but the consumer

continues to follow his buying habits

40

On the other hand, if the athlete is taking part in any charities, it can improve a lot the

athlete popularity, and it will have consequently an influence on the brand image, even

if it will be lower on the brand than on the athlete. In charity case the link between the

athlete and the brand is less pointed out by consumers. Finally this relationship could be

illustrated that way.

Figure 5: Balance theory when the athlete is taking part in a charity

5.4 Consumers’ Attitude

The attitude toward an ad is the favorable or unfavorable reply let to the consumer after

the exposure. What the researchers noticed is that the level of the attitude toward a

brand will depend on the level of involvement between the consumer and the brand or

product. Consumers will be more likely to have feelings or any reactions if they identify

themselves with the brand. Identification is indeed one of the most important factors

which influence the consumer’s attitude. According to the theory framework attitude is

composed of three components: affect, behavior and cognition.

Affect

As a reminder, according to Solomon et al. (2010), the affect is related to the feelings

that will influence the consumer’s attitude. The background of each consumer

influenced most of the time their feelings. Some of the questions asked during the focus

groups helped to understand what kind of feelings a consumer can have towards an

athlete. Two cases called the researchers to mind. The first one was a girl talking about

a tennis player, indeed she greatly likes him and she was saying that she will agree on

41

everything he could do. The reason is that she is playing tennis and admires him a lot.

The other case was a boy who is fond of the football player named Cristiano Ronaldo.

He also admires him because he is a football player as well, but especially because of

the values he sees through him as the class or the tenacity. So the sport which is

practiced by the consumer and their feelings toward an athlete are strongly linked.

Concerning the sport celebrity, the feeling the most present is the admiration and this

feeling is one of the component of the attitude.

Behavior

What has been noticed by the authors is that consumers are more likely to have

reactions when they have a bad perception of the athlete. When they do not like the ad

for any reason it will be more probable that they spread a negative word of mouth. The

most relevant example is the Kinder Bueno ad endorsed by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga which

everybody knows because a lot of consumers made fun of this ad with their friends or

family, they think it is ridiculous. However, consumers do not talk as much when they

have rather a good perception of an ad. Also, they can discuss about an ad and spread it

when it just comes up and especially when it is a well-known athlete. For most of the

French consumers it has been the case with the ad of H&M and David Beckham,

indeed, this athlete is also a model and therefore he can reach mal consumers as well as

female ones.

One interesting topic which has been also broached is concerning kids’ behaviors. The

participants of the focus groups were generally between 18 and 24 years old so they are

not kids any more, but they talked about the reaction of their little brothers or sisters

could have. They seem to be more influenced by an advertisement which is endorsed by

an athlete they love. Among kids the fact to have for example shoes like the famous

athlete is a really fashion trend and it is well-seen. Most of them are looking for the

resemblance with the well-seen athlete.

Cognition

What will be discussed here are the values and beliefs that consumers have concerning

an athlete. What can interfere here is also the knowledge which the consumer has on a

specific sport or the particular athlete. The knowledge aspect is how much the consumer

knows about the subject. It has been noticed that French consumers are generally more

42

knowledgeable about a sport they are practicing or they are very fond of. One of the

subjects which have been discussed for a long time during one of the focus group was

the case of the famous French football player Zinedine Zidane. He is still nowadays

perceived as an admiring athlete, however, people who are following the French

football world know that he has done a mistake during the football world cup in 2006.

The debate was therefore about the fact he can still be an admiring person or not. The

results are the following, people who are more invest in football and have more

knowledge about it, have changed their mind concerning this player, and maybe if they

see him endorsing any brand, it will not be the same signification anymore. On the other

hand, people who do not really know about this event are still admiring this famous

player and will probably have a very positive perception seeing him in an ad. The belief

about an object is therefore influencing the attitude. Also, their technical knowledge

about a sport will influence their attitude toward sport brand advertising.

43

6 Conclusion

In this final chapter the most important results are brought up. The aim of this part is to

answer the purpose of the study. Some managerial recommendations as well as

limitations encountered by the authors will be discussed.

6.1 Discussion

This study’s aim was to explore the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the

use of sport personalities. The empirical investigation revealed results which are

consistent with companies’ expectation concerning advertising. The athlete can be seen

as a third part in a company strategy in order to influence the consumer. Companies

have therefore some specific goals by using this practice. The main successful point is

the fact that people remember better an ad, and consequently a product, when it is

linked to an athlete. It is especially the case when the sport is related to the one

practiced by the consumer. Also, French consumers have a better memory of the ad

when they think that the link between the brand image and the athlete is ridiculous. The

consumers will be able to remember easily what they see on the ad poster first, and

therefore, when there is an athlete on the ad, people will notice him first. On the

contrary, when there is not any famous athlete on the ad poster, consumers will notice

any other details. Another important aspect which can be pointed out is how does the

athlete know or he is linked with the product, his expertise. The credibility of the athlete

toward the product and the brand is an imperative aspect to increase positively the

consumers’ perception of the product or the brand. So the match between the athlete and

the brand image is essential as it will have a real influence on the consumers’

perception. However, in some cases, the presence of a sport celebrity in an ad does not

influence the consumer, indeed when the consumer has any buying habits toward a

brand, he will not change it only because the brand is linked to an athlete he likes or

does not like. Thereafter the consumer’s attitude is influenced by his feelings and his

beliefs from what comes out the behavior. The feeling toward an athlete is mainly

linked with the fact that the consumer practices a sport or not. The beliefs are linked

with the knowledge that the consumer has about the concerning athlete. Finally, the

consumer will differently behave according to the fact he perceives positively or

negatively the athlete.

44

6.2 Recommendations

The authors have seen through this study that using celebrity in marketing

communication could be really useful for a company. The athlete image will stay longer

in consumers’ mind than a random model. Therefore it could be appropriate to use this

strategy if the company wants to introduce a new brand, polishing or repositioning an

existing brand. It also has been noticed that French consumers associate more easily an

athlete to a brand and rarely the contrary. Companies can try to make the opposite

happens to make their advertising campaign more valuable. Another managerial

recommendation could be advised to a luxury brand. French consumers have been

unanimous and affirm that the athlete has to be really credible to endorse a luxury

brand. According to them the athlete has to represent values as grace, femininity, if it is

a female athlete and to be at her/his top level during the promoting campaign. The

authors could also give advices concerning the athlete image. The choice of the endorser

is really important for the company. If during a advertising campaign the concerning

athlete is part of a public scandal, it is better to break rapidly the contract in order to not

be linked with this athlete and the scandal anymore. The last recommendation which

could be given will concern food brands. During this study, it appeared obvious for the

authors that using an athlete in a food brand advertising campaign is less well perceived

with the French customers. They qualified this strategy as ridiculous or not well-

matched.

6.3 Limitations

The authors of this paper came across a limitation concerning the collected data. Most

of the existing studies on the topic are quite old or based on relatively old previous

studies, which limited the data found to these researches.

45

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I

Appendices

Appendix 1 - Focus Group email (French)

Bonjour,

Nous sommes deux étudiantes de Linnaeus University, Cindy et Claire, nous sommes

en train de rédiger notre thèse. Elle porte sur le sport et le marketing et plus

précisemment les perceptions et attitudes des consommateurs francais vis à vis de

l’utilisation de sportifs dans les publicités.

Nous aurions besoin de votre aide dans le but de collecter vos opinions sur ce sujet.

Nous aimerions organiser des Focus Groups, qui sont des groupes de discussions. Cela

ne durerait pas plus d’une heure et nous serait d’une grande aide! Il s’agit d’une

discussion décontractée autour d’un encas que nous vous offrons. Nous recherchons des

francais(es) pratiquent une activité sportive régulière. Si vous acceptez de participer a

un de nos focus group, nous aimerions savoir qu’elle date vous conviendrais le mieux:

- Lundi après-midi

- Mardi après-midi

- Jeudi après-midi

Nous prendrons en compte vos préférences pour essayer de satisfaire tout le monde au

mieux.

Merci pour vos réponses, ce sera d’une grande aide pour nous.

Cindy & Claire

II

Appendix 2 - Focus Group email (English)

Hello,

We are two students of Linnaeus University, Cindy and Claire, and we are currently

writing our thesis. It is concerned with sports and marketing and more precisely the

perceptions and attitudes of French consumers towards the use of sport personality

endorsers in advertisement.

We would need your help to collect your opinions on that matter. We would like to

organise a Focus Group, that is a group of discussion. It would not last more than one

hour and would help us a lot! It is a relax discussion around a snack that would be

offered to you. We are looking for French men and women that have a regular sport

activity. If you agree to participate to one of our focus group we also like to know what

time would suit you the most between:

- Monday afternoon

- Tuesday afternoon

- Thursday afternoon

We will take into account your preference as much as we can to please everybody.

Thank you for your answers, it will be a great help for us in our work.

Cindy & Claire

III

Appendix 3 - Questionnaire Focus Group (French)

Jeu:

1. Pouvez-vous nous citer 3 publicités avec des célébrités dont vous vous

souvenez?

=> Combien avec des personnalités sportives? Sinon:

2. Vous souvenez vous d’une publicité avec une personnalité sportive?

Questions sur la perception:

1. Quel type de sport pratiquez-vous?

2. Admirez-vous une personnalité sportive? Pourquoi?

3. Que pensez vous en général de l’utilisation des personnalités sportives dans les

publicités?

⇒ Présentation des publicités choisies: Lancel avec Laure Manaudou, H&M avec

David Beckham, Quick avec Tony Parker et Adidas avec des joueurs de l’équipe de

France de rugby.

4. Qu’est ce qui vous attire au premier regard dans cette publicité? (produit,

personnalité sportive, marque, couleurs...)

5. Quelles publicités vous plaît le plus? (celle avec la célébrité ou non?)

6. Si vous appréciez cette célébrité, est-ce que la publicité vous plaira plus?

7. Pensez vous que ces athlètes correspondent bien à la marque ou au produit qu’ils

représentent?

8. Pensez vous qu’ils sont assez crédible pour représenter cette marque ou produit?

Pourquoi?

9. Qui pourrait les remplacer d’après vous? Pourquoi?

10. Est-ce que le fait qu’il y ait une bonne correspondance change quelque chose

pour vous?

11. Si un de ces athlètes créaient un scandale, est-ce que cela aurait une influence

sur votre perception de la marque, du produit?

12. Si un de ces athlès participaient à des oeuvres de charité ou donation, est-ce que

cela aurait une influence sur votre perception de la marque, du produit?

13. Lorsque vous pensez à l’une de ces marques, pensez vous directement à la

personnalité qui la représente? Et dans le sens contraire?

IV

Questions sur l’attitude:

14. Lorsqu’une personnalité sportive représente une marque ou un produit, cela

influence-t-il votre attitude envers la marque et le produit?

15. Quelle serait votre réaction? (en parler à des amis…)

16. Est ce que cela influence pour acheter ce produit?

17. Si vous appréciez cette personnalité, seriez vous plus enclin à acheter ce

produit?

Avez vous d’autres remarques ou questions supplémentaires?

V

Appendix 4 - Questionnaire Focus Group (English)

Recall game:

1. Can you give us a top 3 of ads with celebrity endorsers that you recall?

⇒ how many with sport personality endorsers? if none then:

2. Can you recall any ads with a sport personality endorser?

Questionnaire

1. What kind of sport are you doing?

2. Do you idealize any sport personality? Why?

3. How do you feel in general about the use of sport personality in ads?

⇒ Showing several ads: Lancel with Laure Manaudou, H&M with David Beckham,

Quick with Tony Parker and Adidas with players of the French rugby team.

Perceptions’ questions

4. What are you attracted to in the first place? (product, sport personality, brand,

colors...)

5. By which ads are you more attracted? (the one with the athlete or not?)

6. If you like the featured athletes will you enjoy the ad more?

7. Do you feel that these athletes are well matched with the brand/product they

endorse?

8. Do you think they are credible enough to endorse the brand/product? Why?

9. Who could be a better replacement? Why?

10. Does it change something for you if the match is good or not?

11. If one of those athletes were part of a scandal, would it influences your

perception of the brand/product?

12. If one of those athletes were part of charities, donation would it influences your

perception of the brand/product?

13. If you think about one of these brands you will think about its endorser

automatically? And the other way around?

Attitudes’ questions

14. Is the fact that an athlete endorse the brand/product influence your attitude

toward the brand/product?

VI

15. How would you react? (generate word of mouth…)

16. Is the fact that an athlete endorse the brand/product influence your purchase

intentions?

17. If you like the featured athletes will you purchase the product more?

Do you have any other suggestions or questions?

VII

Appendix 5 - Ads Displayed during Focus Groups

Lancel (2008)

VIII

Lancel (2011)

IX

Quick (2011)

“Us, it’s the taste”

Quick (2012)

“My French Burger”

X

H&M (2012)

XI

H&M (2012)

Adidas (2011)

XII

Adidas (2013)

XIII

Appendix 6 - Adidas Advertising Campaign

Adidas (2012)

Adidas (2012)

XIV

Adidas 2012