Year: 2016 Volume: 25 Issue: d

Abstract: With the pervasive use of sports celebrities in advertising as well as the fierce competition among luxury brands, finding the appropriate celebrity endorser is a crucial matter for many brands. This study contributes to the sports celebrity endorsement research stream, being one of the first to focus on the high-value yet underexplored Chinese luxury consumer market. Using survey data from 327 respondents, this study investigates the relationship between the attractiveness and credibility (that is, trustworthiness and expertise) of sports celebrities as endorsers of luxury products and purchase intentions and decisions of Chinese consumers. The analysis involved descriptive and non-parametric (Spearman correlation) statistics to determine the relationships’ strength. The results provide insights regarding Chinese luxury consumers’ characteristics and attitudes and empirically confirm a strong, positive and statistically significant association between credibility and attractiveness of sports celebrity endorsers and purchasing behavior. In addition, the knowledge produced regarding Chinese luxury consumer characteristics and attitudes can also be extended to include marketing promotion and luxury brand endorsements by non-sports endorsers.