When is celebrity endorsement effective? Exploring the role of celebrity endorsers in enhancing key brand associations
通过三项实验，研究发现当消费者不了解品牌利益时，名人的赋能、诱人和丰富（3E）联想会转移到品牌；但当消费者知道品牌3E利益低时，只有丰富联想会转移，且消费者提升感是中介机制。
This study examines how a celebrity endorser’s key associations can complement and help improve a brand’s low corresponding associations. By conducting three studies, we find that when consumers have no prior knowledge about the benefits of a brand, a celebrity’s enabling, enticing, and enriching (3E) associations get transferred to the brand. However, when consumers know that a brand has low 3E benefits, only the celebrity endorsers’ enriching associations are transferred to the brand. Thus, from the current study the importance of a celebrity’s enriching benefits is emphasized for both unknown and well-known brands. Furthermore, we theorize and demonstrate consumer elevation as the underlying mechanism whereby the enriching benefits of a celebrity endorser are transferred to a brand. The current findings extend the extant literature on celebrity endorsement management and provide valuable managerial insights for developing effective celebrity endorsement strategies.