Celebrity influence on word of mouth: the interplay of power states and power expectations

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of celebrity endorsers to stimulate word of mouth in marketing practice, surprisingly little academic research investigates factors that influence consumers to spread word of mouth about celebrity-endorsed brands. In accord with compensatory consumer behavior research on consumer power states, we find that consumers in low-power states report stronger intentions to spread word of mouth about a brand that is celebrity-, compared to model-, endorsed, and that consumers in low-power states report stronger intentions to spread word of mouth about celebrity-endorsed brands than consumers in high-power states. However, consumers in high-power states can be encouraged to spread word of mouth about celebrity-endorsed brands when the endorsement message communicates high-power expectations, because such messages are easier to process. Consumers in high-power states seek to conform to expectations of how powerful people behave, and spread word of mouth in order to self-verify their power state. Consumers in low-power states are attuned to status cues that facilitate perceptions of the brand as possessing referent power, and spread word of mouth in order to remedy the aversive nature of feeling powerless.