There’s the realm of celebrity endorsements. A match between the nature of the product or service and the acknowledged expertise of the celebrity is helpful. Researchers at University of Cergy-Pontoise, BEM Bordeaux Management School, and market research firm CSA, all in France, say a close match is as important as the degree of likeability of the celebrity in influencing consumer behavior.
A set of more recent studies, at University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University, supports this conclusion. The researchers were interested in the effects on memory for an endorsement of the celebrity praising a number of different types of products. Study participants were shown such ads and then later asked to recall from memory what products had been endorsed by a named celebrity. Sure enough, the product types which had a good fit with the expertise and/or personality of the endorser were substantially more likely to be remembered by the participants than those with only a moderate fit.
But that wasn’t the whole story. Good fit trumped moderate fit. And so did poor fit. When the match between the product type and the expertise and/or personality of the celebrity seemed incongruous, the endorsement was remembered better than with a fair fit.
Consumer psychologists explain this as a desire to resolve incongruities. Incongruity tickles us cognitively and emotionally, so we want to scratch. This can be used in the store as well as in advertising. According to research findings from University of Houston and Boston College, when a customer concludes that there’s an aesthetic mismatch between a purchase and their belongings surrounding it, the customer will consider returning the product, and this return visit can be turned into making a sale.
We’ve heard the stories about a woman who starts out buying a pair of shoes, then decides she has to get a dress to fit with the shoes, and next a new hairdo to fit with the dress. The researchers found that an urge for congruity arises strongly with designer product lines, luxury branded items, and unusual consumer goods.
When consumers conclude that an item doesn’t fit in and the distinctive design had been behind the decision to buy, consumers want to purchase additional items to buffer the incongruity.
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Select Celebrity Endorsers Who Fit
Resolve Incongruity via Additional Sales
Shock Consumers, But Morally
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