Background: Increasingly, celebrities are used as spokespeople for nearly all types of marketing. Endorsements can build positive celebrity-brand associations, resulting in favorable brand, product, or issue knowledge. Focus of the Article: This project examines the impact of celebrity influence in social marketing campaigns. Source and receiver characteristics are used to explore how people react to such persuasive messages from celebrities and how those reactions influence behavior. Research Question: Do race (RQ1) and gender (RQ2) of celebrity influence perceptions of (a) credibility, (b) similarity, and (c) heuristic evaluation? How do these factors influence message evaluation (RQ3)? Perceptions of (a) source credibility and (b) similarity as well as (c) heuristic evaluations will increase positive message evaluations (H1). Such positive message evaluations will increase behavioral intentions (H4). Level of (a) perceived source credibility, (b) perceived similarity, and (c) heuristic evaluation of a message is negatively related to message reactance (H2). The level of psychological reactance to a message source is negatively related to behavioral intent related to the message topic (H3). Importance to the Social Marketing Field: The objective of this study is to better understand how characteristics of celebrities, perceptions of the celebrities, and psychological barriers impact intended behavior change attributed to a social marketing message. Because social marketing seeks behavior change as part of an exchange with the targeted audiences, this study contributes a basic understanding of how attributes of the speaker impact social marketing effectiveness. Methods: An experiment was conducted (N = 798) comparing how persuasive messages from celebrities of different genders and races are perceived. Results: Results indicate that there are significant differences in how persuasive messages from female celebrities are received as compared to messages from male celebrities. Further, race was shown to play a role in feelings of psychological reactance in response to the persuasive messages. Recommendations for Research of Practice: Results suggests marketers should seek out celebrity spokespeople who have the ability to be well-liked by members of the targeted market. The desire to identify with the message source can be a significant enough benefit to inspire behavior change. Having a spokesperson the audience wants to align themselves with is positively correlated with behavioral intentions.

中文翻译：

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如果幼稚的Gambino关心，我关心：名人代言和对社交营销信息的心理反应

背景：越来越多的名人被用作几乎所有类型的营销的代言人。认可可以建立积极的名人品牌协会，从而产生有利的品牌，产品或发行知识。文章重点：该项目研究名人影响力在社会营销活动中的影响。来源和接收者的特征用于探索人们如何对名人的这种有说服力的消息做出反应，以及这些反应如何影响行为。研究问题：名人的种族（RQ1）和性别（RQ2）是否会影响对（a）信誉，（b）相似性和（c）启发式评估的看法？这些因素如何影响邮件评估（RQ3）？（a）来源可信度和（b）相似性以及（c）启发式评估的感知将增加正面信息评估（H1）。这种积极的信息评价将增加行为意图（H4）。（a）感知到的源可信度，（b）感知到的相似性和（c）消息的启发式评估的级别与消息电抗（H2）负相关。对消息源的心理反应程度与与消息主题（H3）有关的行为意图负相关。对社会营销领域的重要性：本研究的目的是更好地了解名人的特征，对名人的感知以及心理障碍如何影响归因于社会营销信息的预期行为变化。由于社交营销寻求行为改变作为与目标受众交流的一部分，因此本研究有助于基本了解说话者的属性如何影响社交营销效果。方法：进行了一项实验（N = 798），比较了如何感知来自不同性别和种族的名人的说服力信息。结果：结果表明，与男性名人的信息相比，女性名人的说服力信息的接收方式存在显着差异。此外，种族被证明在对有说服力的信息作出反应的心理反应感中起作用。对实践研究的建议：结果表明，营销人员应该寻找有能力被目标市场成员所喜爱的名人代言人。识别消息源的愿望可能会产生足够大的好处，从而激发行为改变。拥有发言人，观众想要与自己保持一致与行为意图成正相关。