Bachelor Degree Thesis
Sport celebrities endorsement in advertising
-The impact on French consumers
Author: Cindy Roux-
Fougère and Claire Segalen Supervisor: Setayesh
Sattari
Examiner: Sonyia Billore
Date: August, 20
th2014
Abstract
Course/level: 2FE10E, Bachelor Thesis
Authors: Roux-Fougère Cindy and Segalen Claire Tutor: Soniya Billore
Examiner: Setayesh Sattari
Title: Sport celebrities endorsement in advertising - The impact on French consumers
Keywords: Celebrity endorser, consumers’ perception, consumers’ attitude, brand image, advertisement, sport, athlete
Background: People need to associate themselves to a reference group or to someone they admire. Consumers are influenced by these groups or person. Companies have therefore to adapt their promotion strategy to reach consumers by this side.
Research questions: RQ1 - How consumers perceive sport personalities endorsers featured in advertisement?
RQ2 - What is the relation between consumers’ perceptions and their attitudes towards a brand, product or service?
RQ3 - What is the relation between consumers’ attitudes and their purchase intentions towards a product or service?
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the consumers’
perceptions and attitudes towards the use of personalities to endorse companies’ brand, products or services and see if it influence their purchase attitude.
Methodology: The research is based on a cross-sectional design with a qualitative strategy. The data collection is gathered through three focus groups and with secondary data.
Conclusion: The results are that, for French consumers, a product will stay in mind when it is linked to a celebrity. The credibility of the athlete is important to keep a good perception of the brand. The perception of the brand will influence the consumer buying attitude.
Acknowlegements
This thesis allowed the researchers to investigate a central subject in their own studies that are the perceptions and attitudes of consumers. It also allowed the researchers to assimilate the Swedish university system as the thesis has been done at Linnaeus University, in Växjö. Besides the work of the researchers this thesis would not have been feasible without several people who brought a necessary and appreciated help.
The researchers would like to express their deepest gratitude to the participants that offered their valuable time to their focus groups. They provided them with opinions and informations needed to solve the purpose of this thesis. They would further like to send their gratitude to the persons who helped them with academic knowledge and expertise.
First, they would like to thank their tutor Dr. Soniya Billore. She helped the researchers by providing them valuable recommendations and feedbacks during the research. Then, they would like to thank their examiner PhD Setayesh Sattari for her guidance and recommendations. They would like to address a special thanks to their families who made this academic year possible.
The researchers wish the results and findings of their thesis will help future researchers in their studies.
20th of August 2014
Claire Segalen Cindy Roux-Fougère
Celebrity endorser: “any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement”
(McCracken, 1989, p.310).
Contents
1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 1 1.1 Background ______________________________________________________ 1 1.2 Problem Discussion _______________________________________________ 3 1.3 Purpose _________________________________________________________ 5 1.4 Research Questions _______________________________________________ 5 1.5 Delimitations ____________________________________________________ 5 1.6 Outline of the Thesis ______________________________________________ 5 2 Theoritical Review ____________________________________________________ 7 2.1 Companies’ Brand ________________________________________________ 7 2.2 Consumers’ Perception _____________________________________________ 7 2.2.1 Definition ____________________________________________________ 7 2.2.2 The perceptual Process _________________________________________ 8 2.2.3 Visual Perception _____________________________________________ 8 2.2.4 Perceptual Selection ___________________________________________ 9 2.3 Consumers’ Attitude _______________________________________________ 9 2.3.1 Definition ____________________________________________________ 9 2.3.2 Consumers’ Attitude toward Advertisement ________________________ 10 2.3.3 Balance Theory ______________________________________________ 10 2.4 The Image in Advertising __________________________________________ 11 2.5 Creativity in the Promotion: A Celebrity Endorser ______________________ 12 2.5.1 Match-up Hypothesis __________________________________________ 13 3 Methodology ________________________________________________________ 13 3.1 Research strategy ________________________________________________ 14 3.2 Research purpose ________________________________________________ 15 3.3 Research Design _________________________________________________ 15 3.4 Research Approach _______________________________________________ 16 3.5 Data Collection Process ___________________________________________ 17 3.5.1 Data Collection Method _______________________________________ 17 3.5.2 Operationalization ____________________________________________ 19 3.6 Sample Selection ________________________________________________ 21 3.7 Measures of Quality ______________________________________________ 21 4 Empirical Data ______________________________________________________ 23 4.1 Companies’ expectations __________________________________________ 23 4.1.1 Studies’ findings _____________________________________________ 23 4.1.2 Case Study of Pepsi ___________________________________________ 24 4.1.3 Case Study of Adidas __________________________________________ 24 4.2 Focus Group ____________________________________________________ 25 4.2.1 Focus Group 1 _______________________________________________ 26 4.2.2 Focus Group 2 _______________________________________________ 28 4.2.3 Focus Group 3 _______________________________________________ 31
5 Analysis ____________________________________________________________ 35 5.1 Companies’ expectations __________________________________________ 35 5.2 Impact on the Consumer ___________________________________________ 36 5.3 Consumers’ perception ____________________________________________ 37 5.3.1 The First Attraction ___________________________________________ 37 5.3.2 Importance of the Endorser Choice_______________________________ 38 5.4 Consumers’ Attitude ______________________________________________ 40 6 Conclusion _________________________________________________________ 43 6.1 Discussion ______________________________________________________ 43 6.2 Recommendations _______________________________________________ 44 6.3 Limitations _____________________________________________________ 44 References ___________________________________________________________ 45 Appendices ___________________________________________________________ I Appendix 1 - Focus Group email (French) __________________________________ I Appendix 2 - Focus Group email (English) ________________________________ II Appendix 3 - Questionnaire Focus Group (French) _________________________ III Appendix 4 - Questionnaire Focus Group (English) _________________________ V Appendix 5 - Ads Displayed during Focus Groups _________________________ VII Appendix 6 - Adidas Advertising Campaign _____________________________ XIII
1 Introduction
This first chapter will cover the background that lays the foundation of the research study. Then, a problem discussion will highlight the issues that appear in this relationship of the concepts studied. Then, the purpose and the research questions will be defined as well as the delimitations of this study. Finally, an outline will be presented in order to give the global structure of the thesis.
1.1 Background
Solomon et al. (2010) explained that all individuals belong to groups and behave, consciously or not, by observing the actions of those around. This reference group is a real or dreamy person or a group who has influence on “individuals’ evaluations, aspirations or behaviors” (Solomon et al., 2010, p.384). Thus, a reference group has an influence on consumer purchase behavior. Their preferences are then shaped by some positives external people. Consumers’ behavior can be influenced by a desire to please, to be accepted in a group or by the actions of celebrities they have not even met.
According to Wei and Yu (2012), different groups can be identified: aspiration groups, whom consumers want to look like; and dissociative groups, whom consumers want to steer clear of. Consumers construct their own personality according to the brand used, and, therefore they identify with the others who utilize the similar brand. On the other side, consumers perceive themselves as different or the contrary from those who consume the competing brand (Wei & Yu, 2012). An individual needs to dream and to try to reach a specific ideal which could be represented by the celebrity since people have a real need to identify themselves with someone they admire (Solomon et al., 2010). Hence, people associate most of the time a brand to a person.
Therefore it is important for companies to take into consideration this fact and adapt consequently their marketing mix. The promotion is a component of the marketing mix that is often related to marketing communication (Armstrong et al., 2009). Promotion has a key role in determining profitability and market success. The tools that can be employed in the promotional process include: advertising; direct marketing; sales promotion; public relations and publicity; personal selling and sponsorship (Wells et al., 2000). The brand personification is a common technique in marketing. It refers to “the presentation of a personification by a brand; that is, the brand presents a character with
human-like characteristics” (Cohen, 2014, p.1). Consequently, companies’ strategy to slice through this ad clutter is to use celebrity endorsers in their advertisements (Erdogan et al., 2001; Lin, 1993; Solomon, 2011). Advertisements using celebrities represent about 20-25% of all ads (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995; Stephens & Rice, 1998) and 60% of these ads are using sport personality endorsers such as athletes (Carlson & Donovan, 2008). Jones and Schumann (2000) also state that famous and unknown athletes are everywhere. In all the celebrity used, athletes, coaches, and other sports personalities occur to be the most popular celebrity endorsers, especially because their performance is easily accessible (Elberse and Verleun, 2012). Companies are using athletes as endorsers in order to connect the brand with this celebrity image. Jones and Schumann (2000) state that athletes are seen as great models to endorse a brand image, as adults and children tend to memorized well an athlete because of his high skills.
Sport celebrities endorsers are not only viewed as sport performer but they also carry important “societal and cultural norms” (Jones & Schumann, 2000, p.65). There are a lot of well-known sport celebrities who endorsed brands (Bush et al., 2004). This phenomenon started in 1978 with famous football players such as Diego Maradona (Argentinean) or Pelé (Brazilian) who endorsed non-sport brands like Sony in 1978 or Coca-Cola in 1982. One year later, Puma used Diego Maradona in its shoes ad which have been known all around the world. In France, the first football player who endorsed a brand was Michel Platini. The brand Fruité, a fruit beverage, used him to address children in 1978. Later, he endorsed the car brand, Peugeot. Following, other famous athletes appeared in sport or non-sport brand advertisements, mostly football players like Alain Giresse (endorsed Jock, a crêpes brand), Eric Cantona (endorsed brands as Bic, Nike, Renault, Pepsi or l’Oréal). Likewise, companies as ManPower, Danone, Adidas, MacDonald’s, Petrol Hahn, Candia or again Volvic used French football players to endorse their products. More recently, the company H&M chose the famous football player David Beckham to support its brand (vive la pub, 2014). In the French advertisement campaigns, football players are used a lot, but the trend is evolving with the appearance in ads of athletes such as Rafael Nadal (Tennis), David Douillet (Judo) or Laure Manaudou (Swimming). The call for celebrities is a global phenomenon that has been amplified in the last years (Grohmann et al., 2013). Till and Busler (2000) study previously declared (C’est “Till and Busler’s study” non?) that there is a positive relationship between the use of celebrity endorsers and the beneficial attitude toward the
consumers’ purchasing behavior of a brand. However, it seems difficult to find a
“virtuous and honorable model” (Jones & Schumann, 2000, p.65).
It is still more difficult for companies to go through the ad clutter since consumers are exposed to over 1,500 advertising messages every day through different sources such as television, radio or mobile phones (Grede as cited in Koerning & Boyd, 2009). In France the situation is similar as in the rest of the world. In 2012, approximately 498 941 ads have been shown through the six biggest TV channel (Observatoire de la Publicité, 2013). According to Country Economy (2013) the country has a GDP of € 2,059,272 (SEK 18,295,083.89) and GDP per capita of € 31,300 (SEK 278,156.65), France is thus a relatively prosperous country. The French sport sector is becoming bigger those last years. The sports expenditures knew an increase of 42% between 2000 and 2010 and were about € 35.4 billion in 2010. Moreover, 32 million of French people practice sport activities at least once a week; it represents 42% of the total population (French sport ministry, 2013). Sport events are taking a really important dimension in France, indeed, the country hosts big international events as Roland Garros (tennis), le Tour de France (cycling), le Vendée Globe (sailing) and other international world championship (Hunt a home, 2011). Therefore for all the reasons displayed before companies do not hesitate to use sport celebrities to personify a product. Consequently, a lot of studies have already been done on the company perception of using celebrities to endorse its brand.
1.2 Problem Discussion
Throughout the years, marketers have spent huge amount of money to pay these famous athletes to endorse their products (Bush et al., 2004). Moreover, it comes out that using celebrity endorsers help gain and hold consumers’ attention (Atkin & Block, 1983), improve message recall (Friedman & Friedman, 1979) and generate positive word of mouth (Bush et al., 2004). It is also a way to increase purchase likelihood (Friedman &
Friedman, 1979; Kamins, 1989). These previous points appears to be related to the fact that, as seen before, consumers need to relate to a group of reference or to a leader. By using celebrities such as sport personalities, advertisements provide the group of reference or the leader the consumer is looking for (Solomon et al., 2010). Jones and Schumann (2000) specify that sport personalities play different roles. They are not only
seen as sports entertainers they also embody strong values and morals. Thus, they become role models for the consumers.
This marketing strategy, that is the promotion, meets the need of consumers and makes them more likely to purchase the products or services offered (Solomon et al., 2010).
According to Carlson and Donovan (2008) there is a positive relationship between sport personality endorsers and the increase of favorable attitudes toward brands when the consumers feel a connection with the athlete. Roy and Pansari (2014) as well as Eisend and Langner (2010) support the idea that using sport personality endorsers in advertisements is likely to have a positive impact on purchase intention and consumers attitudes. However, pieces of research indicate, that there is not always a connection between the use of celebrities and consumers’ purchase intention (Sukhdial et al., 2002).
The study of Koernig and Boyd (2009) also states that matching athletes with brand do not always make a difference concerning the assessment of the brand, product or ads and have no effect on the purchase behavior. It is illustrated by the partnership between the French bank LCL and the football player Karim Benzema. Recently, the French football player Karim Benzema came up for the LCL bank advertisement. It was the first time a professional athlete accepted to participate in one of this bank commercial.
The company and the athlete were rather happy and satisfied with the result. However, the public opinion has not been the same and fairly unpleasant criticism such as “he is a bad actor”, “this pathetic player reflects well this crook bank” or “he is not a humble person anymore”, have been made towards the football player and the bank (Lyonnais Le Crédit, 2010).
Therefore, as seen throughout the background, a certain number of researches have been made concerning the reasons why companies use sport personality to represent their brand, products or services. These pieces of research also point out the companies’
expectations on the impact it would have on the consumers. However, despite the broad use of athletes as products, services or brands endorsers, there is a relative shortage of research on the perceptions that consumers have of the use of sport personality endorsers and the influence on their attitudes (Bush et al., 2004). Thus, this research paper aims to reduce the lack of information regarding the consumers’ perceptions and their attitudes towards sport personality endorsers. The research intents to explore both perceptions and attitudes as it is two different concepts since perception represents the
way consumers create meanings from their environment (Kardes et al., 2011) and attitude is the way they react to a particular stimulus or meaning (Solomon et al., 2010).
1.3 Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of sport personalities to endorse companies’ brand, products or services and see if it influence their purchase intentions. The research also aims to consider the companies’ expectations of the use of athletes endorsers.
1.4 Research Questions
RQ1: How consumers perceive sport personalities endorsers featured in advertisement?
RQ2: What is the relation between consumers’ perceptions and their attitudes towards a brand, product or service?
RQ3: What is the relation between consumers’ attitudes and their purchase intentions towards a product or service?
1.5 Delimitations
According to the circumstances of the research, it will focus only on one country:
France. Plus, the research study will be oriented towards consumers between 18-35 years old since they are the more likely to answer the research surveys, because they are an easier target to market since they grown up in a consumer oriented society (Brand as cited in Bush et al., 2004). Finally, primary data will concern the consumers’
perceptions and attitudes while secondary data will be about companies’ expectations.
Even though, within the paper the data collected about companies will be deeply used to analyse the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes.
1.6 Outline of the Thesis
The previous chapter presents the background representing the foundations of the research and a discussion of the problem that occurs. The purpose, research questions and delimitations of the study are also displayed. The next chapter will expose the theoretical review on which the research is based and those necessary to support the
research study. Then, in the chapter three, the methodology used to answer the research questions will be described as well as arguments supporting the chosen methods. In the fourth chapter the results and findings of focus groups and other data will be presented.
Finally, in chapters five and six, the collected data of the chapter four will be analyzed by using the theoretical review and the questions of the research study will be answered and some recommendation will be provided.
2 Theoritical Review
This second chapter will be concerned with the theories that are related to our research study. It will focus on the establishment of company branding, the consumers’ attitudes and behavior towards advertising. The aim of collecting theoretical review is to assist the researchers in the analysis of the purpose and research questions.
2.1 Companies’ Brand
A brand name and recognition is really important for a company. Keller (2009) asserted that companies which built a strong brand identity have a stronger business performance. The strengths of a brand will increase the recognition of a company;
indeed according to Fisher et al. (2010) the more the brand is powerful, the more the company is valuable. That is why companies’ managers attach much importance to the design of the branding. Brand building requires a lot of investment, especially in communication. In order to be relevant, a brand image needs to be well perceived from the customers (Berthon et al., 2009). Nicholas Ind et al. (2013) add that the brand is mainly built through needs and desires of the customers and also depending on how much the company knows them. A company therefore has to explore their memories, feelings and emotions. In order to make this investigation feasible, the concept of brand meaning has to be also defined. This notion is delimited with different links such as images, brand name and the recognition of the brand in the memory of the consumer (Berthon et al., 2009). In that case, the brand strategy is to preserve the relationship with the customer through advertising or other communication possibilities.
2.2 Consumers’ Perception
2.2.1 Definition
Perception is a process of “receiving, selecting, and interpreting” stimuli coming from the environment using the five senses (Kardes et al., 2011, p.141). Through perception, individuals define the world they live in and create meanings from their environment.
Different factors influence consumers’ perceptions especially since the perceptual process is unique to each person (Kardes et al., 2011).
2.2.2 The perceptual Process
During the process of perception, people go through different stages of information when stimuli are input and stored. However, people cannot process all information present in the world, and only a small amount of the stimuli are noticed. Moreover, the stimuli entering people consciousness are not processed equitably. The meaning of a stimulus could be understood differently by each consumer. There are three stages: the exposure, the attention and the interpretation. The exposure is the instantaneous reply of the sensory receptors as the eyes, the ears or the nose to the stimuli (Solomon et al., 2010). When the exposure occurs more often, it tends to favor the attitude of an individual towards a product or a brand (Lee & Labroo, 2004). The attention is the degree to which people take into consideration the stimuli during the exposure; and the interpretation relates to the meaning that consumers attribute to sensory stimuli.
Therefore, perception is the manner how these stimuli are selected, organized and interpreted (Solomon et al., 2010).
Figure 1: An overview of the perceptual process. Adapted from Solomon et al., 2010, p.119
2.2.3 Visual Perception
Stimuli are an important aspect to take into account during the process of advertising (Scott cited in Kelly et al., 2002). Visual elements are seriously considered by marketers for an advertisement campaign (Solomon et al., 2010). Miniard et al. (1991) studies support this idea by asserting that an image is playing a significant role in the persuasion process of an individual. An advertisement with a visual will then provide a more positive attitude toward it than toward an ad without visual. Brasel and Gips
(2008, p.32) confirmed that a visual is “a key driver of advertising effectiveness”.
Moreover, in his studies Donohew (1990) found that adolescents are more receptive to image and visual support in ads than adults. Different meanings can be communicated by a distinct visual, and Bloch (1995, p.600) admits that a product´s visual feature “is the most important determinant of consumer choice”. Also, Noseworthy et al. (2011) found that female and male perceptions differ. The researches states that females are better at judging visual features concerning the location, the identity and they notify easily when something is added, while men are better at “mental rotation and spatial navigation tasks” (Noseworthy et al., 2011, p.358).
2.2.4 Perceptual Selection
The society lives nowadays with a lot of diffused information, consequently consumers are often overwhelmed with this information. Further, the consumers’ attention is sorely tested because of the growing number of exposure to different ads. That is why consumers have to be selective about what they pay attention to. Thus, according to Solomon et al. (2010) perceptual selectivity means that consumers care for only a part of stimuli to which they are exposed. They actually pick and choose among stimuli in order to avoid being overwhelmed by advertising clutter. Researches have shown that logos, brand names or pictures will influence the consumer selection in a positive way (Lee & Labroo, 2004).
2.3 Consumers’ Attitude
2.3.1 Definition
Bhatt et al. (2013) studies bring together different definitions of attitude. The concept is firstly defined by Fishbein (1967, p.79) as “a learned predisposition of human being”.
Later, Kotler (2000, p.80) developed attitude by stating it is “an individual personal evaluation, emotional feeling attached and action tendency towards some objects or ideas”. According to Solomon et al. (2010), attitude serves a function for people and it is defined by people’s motivations. Also, anything towards which one has an attitude is called an attitude object. It is possible that individuals have the same attitude towards a product or a brand but for different causes. Solomon et al. (2010) found three components: affect, behavior and cognition. Affect is related with the feelings that a consumer has towards an attitude object. Behavior concerns the consumer’s intentions
to act in a certain manner toward an attitude object. Cognition is the beliefs that a consumer has toward an attitude object. These three components will vary according to the consumer’s motives (Solomon et al., 2010).
2.3.2 Consumers’ Attitude toward Advertisement
According to Solomon et al. (2010) the attitude toward an advertisement is a natural tendency to reply in a favorable or unfavorable way to a distinct advertising stimulus during an exposure. This attitude is also composed of the evaluations of the ad execution itself, the feelings stimulated by the ad and the degree to which the ad acts on the consumer’s stimulation. Thus, the feelings created by an advertisement will have a direct influence on brand attitude. Moreover, an ad can indeed give rise to different emotional reaction which will vary according to each person (Solomon et al., 2010).
Baker and Lutz (2000) thought that the affective factor influences the consumer attitude towards an ad. These feelings can be controlled by the manner the commercial is done or by the consumer’s receptivity to the advertiser’s motives. Three emotional aspects have been recognized by Solomon et al. (2010) in advertisements: pleasure, arousal and intimidation.
The attitude towards a product depends of the degree of involvement with the product.
People are more likely to buy a brand which shows a positive attitude (Priester et al., 2004). One of the level of commitment is the identification. It is a process which happens when attitudes are created in order for people to look like another person or group - as mentioned before with group influences. Indeed, the process of choosing certain products rather than others is strongly connected with the tendency of people to copy the behavior of fascinating celebrity (Solomon et al., 2010).
2.3.3 Balance Theory
The balance theory takes into account relation among three elements and the final structure is named triads. Each triad includes a person and their perceptions, an attitude object and other person or object (Solomon et al., 2010). This perception can be positive or negative. The theory points out that the consumers want these relations among elements to be harmonious or balanced. If not, the perception of one of the element can be changed from the consumer point of view. The balance theory also helps to demonstrate why people are pleased to be compared to product in a positive manner.
This ‘balancing act’ is at the center of celebrity endorsements where companies think that a celebrity reputation will be reproduced on the brand or on a product (Basil &
Herr, 2006).
Figure 2: Balance theory in a Triad. Adapted from Solomon et al., 2010, p.287
2.4 The Image in Advertising
In literary terms, the word image comes from the Greek ikon (Stern et al., 2001). An image turns stimuli created by the real-world or media into mental pictures. This connection permits to imagine a universal and precise meaning of an image (Stern et al., 2001). According to Hite and Bellizzi (1985), people need to simplify their buying decision by creating symbolic representations. That is why, each brand tries to create this useful link to call out the consumer.
The personification is used in marketing when the brand image is described as it was a human being (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990). According to Firat et al. (1995) the fact of using a human to promote a brand will allow the consumer to create their self-image of the brand within the moment.
A brand image is a set of objects, action words or pictures seen as an abstract concept in consumer’s mind. Therefore, it emphasizes the division between perception and reality of the brand (Goss et al., 2007). The concept of brand image is consequently unavoidable for companies. Smith and Yang (2004) studied the theory of creativity in promotion. Indeed, according to them, advertisements must be new, imaginative and different or unique. Also, the divergence aspect must have a sort of relevance.
The divergence means that advertisements must include new, different and original ways of doing it (Smith & Yang, 2004). This can be used in two ways: either in the execution of ads (layout & design) or on the informational elements of ads. According to Smith and Yang (2004), the promotion made with divergence will receive a lot more attention than the one without divergence. Therefore, a well-done advertising campaign properly carried out with divergence will significantly affect the consumers.
When the ad divergent idea is conceived, it must be constructed in a way to make it relevant. Smith and Yang state that to be relevant the ad must be meaningful, suitable and valuable to the public. Actually, the stimuli of the ad have to create a meaningful link to the consumer and “brand-consumer relevance” (Smith & Yang, 2004).
2.5 Creativity in the Promotion: A Celebrity Endorser
Advertising is the major kind of communication between the company and the consumer (Smith & Yang, 2004). Utilizing celebrities as endorsers is a standard marketing practice since a long time. Actually, endorsers can be actors, athletes, business people, entertainers, models or singers (Hsu & McDonald, 2002). Endorsement occurs when an high-profile individual is enrolled to use his/her position for promoting or selling a product or even to improve the image of the product. More often this celebrity is an athlete (Irwin et al., 2002). This use of celebrity in favor of the brand image is a well analyzed technique. Indeed, the expanding popularity of the sport and the attraction of the relationship between fan and athlete have both intensified the sport celebrity endorsement practice. Perceptions of a company and a brand become more positive when the athlete is liked by the consumers. However, perceptions become more negative when the sport celebrity is disliked (Langmeyer & Shank, 1993). Thus, one aspect which is to take into consideration is the endorser credibility. Indeed, consumers are more likely to trust arguments introduced in the ad if the source is believable (Grewal et al., 1994). The level of trustworthiness and expertise for the endorser is also essential. According to Erdogan et al. (2001, p.40) trustworthiness relates to the
‘‘honesty, integrity and believability’’ of the endorser, while expertise refers to his
‘‘knowledge, experience or skills’’ in a specific field. If the endorser is a credible source for the consumer, then he will influence his opinions, beliefs, attitudes or behavior. This process that happens when an individual accepts this influence is called internalization (Erdogan et al., 2001).
2.5.1 Match-up Hypothesis
The match-up hypothesis gives a theoretical framework that helps for the relationship between the endorser-brand match, celebrity credibility and to explain how the vision of the endorser influences consumers’ brand and advertising evaluation. According to a theory from Mowen, Brown and Schulman (1979), when there is a close relationship between the endorser, the brand and the target public, the endorser will be then more effective. Indeed, for example, a good-looking model will be more efficient for a beauty brand because it is in accord with this image. On the contrary, an attractive model would not be more effective than an unattractive model in an ad for computer as they are not linked with beauty. The good-look model is effective because the matchup between the attractive celebrity and the beauty brand gives a high credibility. Moreover, in their studies, Kahle and Homer (1985) conclude that the congruency of the brand image with the attractive endorser led to a positive evaluation. Credibility occurs on the consumer’s perception when expertise, attractiveness and reliability are mixed.
Obviously, the perfect endorser will combine all these characteristics (Parker & Fink, 2012).
On the other hand, companies have to be aware that negative effects could also happen.
When the celebrity is involved in an unwanted event, the company and brand image can be stained (Parker & Fink, 2012). Ideally, the company chooses what meanings the product has to communicate and then decides a celebrity who evokes that meaning (Solomon et al., 2010). They are representing important categories such as status and social class, gender, age and even personality types. Most of the time, the power of celebrity achieves its goals because endorsers act for cultural meanings (McCracken, 1989).
3 Methodology
This chapter will discuss the methodology used in this thesis. It will present the chosen approach of the research study. This chapter will conclude on the reliability and validity matters.
3.1 Research strategy
According to Bryman and Bell (2011, p.26), a research strategy refers to “a general orientation to the conduct of business research”. The first thing to determine is the type of relationship that will exist between theory and research. There are two main relationships between theory and research: the deductive or inductive approach (Bryman
& Bell, 2011). The deductive theory is the most common approach. The hypothesis are deduced from existing theories about a particular subject, then the hypothesis are tested and the results and findings confirm or reject the hypothesis to finally revise the theories. On the contrary the inductive approach assumes that there is no theory already existing about the field of research. Then the results and findings of the research will lead to the creation of theories (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The relationship between theory and research of this study will be deductive since the research questions are based on previous existing theories and these theories will be used to analyze the collected data of the study. Then the results and findings will complete the theories previously used.
Afterwards, the nature of the study must be determined. There are two main methodological approaches used in research study: the quantitative and the qualitative research. The distinctions between the two approaches are not limited to the presence or absence of quantification. It is deeper than that, since it appears that quantitative and qualitative researches have different epistemological foundations, ontological considerations and connection between theory and research. Quantitative research is mainly described as a research focused on the collection of numerical data and the exhibition of the relationship between theory and research as deductive. It is also based on a natural science approach, which is particularly positivism, and an objectivist conception of social reality. In the other hand, qualitative research appears to be more concerned with words rather than numbers. It applies an inductive approach between theory and research and relies on interpretivist epistemological foundations and constructionist ontological considerations (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Therefore, this research study will follow a qualitative approach. It aims to turn what is observed,
reported or recorded into written words (Saunders, 2007). The data collected will be non-quantifiable data, in this case, expectations and perceptions.
3.2 Research purpose
According to Saunders (2007), and Yin (2009), research study can be divided into three different kinds of studies that are: exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. The aim of exploratory studies is to clarify the understanding of a problem. This research method is flexible, unstructured and fall under a qualitative approach (Aaker et al., 2011).
Descriptive studies are used to describe and test opposite explanations. Finally, explanatory studies intend to establish relationship between variables. This research study focuses on the understanding of what are the companies’ expectations when they are using sport personalities’ endorsers and the perceptions and attitudes of consumers towards it. This research study follows a qualitative approach. Thus, this research is mainly exploratory (Yin, 2009).
3.3 Research Design
According to Bryman and Bell (2011, p.40), the research design provides “a framework for the collection and analysis of data”. The choice made in terms of research design for a study display decisions taken concerning different dimensions of the research process.
It embodies the importance of:
● expressing causal connections between variables;
● generalizing to larger groups of individuals than those actually being part of the investigation;
● understanding behavior and the meaning of these specific behavior in the social context;
● having an appreciation over time of social phenomena and their interconnections.
The choice of research study is crucial since it has to suit the research study in order to be able to answer the research questions.
Bryman and Bell put the emphasis on five different research designs:
● Experimental design: this research design aims to elaborate experiments and is mainly used as a yardstick to assess non-experimental research.
● Cross-sectional design: it refers to the collection of data on more than one case and at a single point in time in order to collect data. It is used to detect patterns of association.
● Longitudinal design: it is mostly used to understand how changes occur in an organization. It requires a long period of observation through self-completion questionnaires or structured interview.
● Case study design: the purpose of this research design is the detailed and intensive analysis of a single case.
● Comparative design: it refers to the comparison of two or more contrasting cases.
In the case of the present research study the purpose is to investigate the companies’
expectations and the consumers’ perceptions of the use of sport personality endorsers.
In order to find out the companies’ expectations, a case study design appears to be suitable. Regarding the investigation of consumers’ perceptions a cross-sectional design will be applied. The focus group method meet the cross-sectional design requirements as they collect data on more than one case with participants of different age and gender.
It also try to analyze patterns of association between consumers’ perceptions and attitudes and the use of sport personality endorsers in advertising.
3.4 Research Approach
The research approach is concerned with epistemological and ontological considerations. An epistemological issue “concerns the question of what is (or should be) regarded as acceptable knowledge in a discipline. A particularly central issue in this context is the question of whether or not the social world can and should be studied according to the same principles, procedures, and ethos as the natural sciences”
(Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.15). Bryman and Bell (2011) listed three concepts of epistemological considerations: the concept of positivism that supports the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality and beyond.
Positivism involves elements of both a deductive and an inductive approach. Realism that is close to positivism. The two concepts state that natural and social sciences can and should apply the same type of approach to the collection and to the explanation of data; and that there is an external reality separated from the description people give to it.
Interpretivism refers to the different views of writers who have been critical of the application of the scientific model to the study of the social world. Their point of view is that the subject matter of the social sciences (people and their institutions) is profoundly different from that of the natural sciences (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
Then, according to Bryman and Bell (2011, p.20) the issues of social ontology are concerned “with the nature of social entities. The central point of orientation here is the question of whether social entities can and should be considered objective entities that have a reality external to social actors, or whether they can and should be considered social constructions built up from the perception and actions of social actor”. There are two different ontological concepts to evaluate within a research study: the objectivism refers to an ontological position that states that social phenomena and their meanings have an existence that is independent of social actors. In the contrary, constructionism stresses that social phenomena are build up from perceptions and actions of social actors (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
The present research study is part of a business and management research that attempts to understand the relationship between sport personality endorsers and the expectations and perceptions that companies and consumers have of it. This research assumes that natural sciences and human sciences cannot be studied with the same approach because here what matters is the interpretation of human behavior. Thus, the epistemological foundation on which the thesis will be grounded is the interpretivist concept. Plus, since the purpose is to investigate the perceptions of consumers and the expectations of companies (social actors) in the use of sport personality endorsers (social phenomenon), the ontological ground is the concept of constructionism because the research assumes that the social actors give its meaning to the social phenomenon through the perceptions they have of that phenomena.
3.5 Data Collection Process
3.5.1 Data Collection Method
The data collected in order to bring answers to the research questions of the study will be gathered by both primary and secondary data. Rabianski (2003) defines primary data as information directly collected by the researchers themselves. In the other hand,
secondary data are defined as information gathered from secondary sources that have not been collected straight by the researchers (Rabianski, 2003).
Focus group will be used to gather the data needed to answer the study. It is a method of qualitative data collection (Doody et al., 2013). The focus group method is a type of group interview in which there are several participants, the questions are focused on a narrowed topic and the accent is upon interaction between the group members and the joint construction of meaning. Focus groups are preferably run by two people, one researcher and a moderator who keeps the discussion on tracks (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
The size of a group is usually composed of six to ten members (Morgan as cited in Bryman & Bell, 2011). Moreover, the group composition should ensure a certain balance of similarities and differences among the participants (Rodrigues et al., 2014).
According to Bryman and Bell (2011) it is essential to record the focus group sessions and to partially transcribe them. Thus, the researchers will be able to analyze what the participants say but also the way they say it. The focus group method allows bringing to light levels of understanding that are usually untapped by other data collection methods (Doody et al., 2013).
Doody et al. (2013) state that the data analysis is a crucial step in the research process.
The analysis of the focus group data can be a complex and time consuming process.
There is a large amount of data to process that leads to an eventual misinterpretation.
They describe the main steps of the data analysis of a focus group:
1. Generating rich data
2. Familiarizing oneself with the data 3. Writing memos
4. Indexing
5. Formation of themes
6. Mapping and interpretation (Doody et al., 2013).
Participants to the focus group will be directly contact by the researchers through emails (see Appendix 1). These mails will contain a short explanation of what the focus group will be about and to what extent it will help the research paper. The location and the time of the focus group will be specified. An incentive will be add to encourage people to participate in the focus group (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
Then, secondary data will be collected from secondary sources such as public documents, the Internet or scientific articles. The use of secondary data is cost and time saving, since the data have already been collected, and allows the researchers to reach high-quality information (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Thus, it seems interesting to lead a secondary data research by reading different case studies. Those cases will permit to get acquainted with what type of celebrity company already worked as well as what type of products they endorse for them.
3.5.2 Operationalization
Constructs Questions Theories
Perception
Can you give us a top 3 of ads with celebrity endorsers that you recall?
Brand image/memory
Can you recall any ads with a
sport personality endorser? Brand image/memory
What are you attracted to in the first place? (product, sport personality, brand, colors...)
Perceptual process/visual perception
By which ads are you more attracted? (the one with the athlete or not?)
Perceptual selection
If you like the featured athletes will you enjoy the ad more?
Balance theory/Identification
Do you feel that these athletes are well matched with the brand/product they endorse?
Match-up Hypothesis
Do you think they are credible enough to endorse the brand/product? Why?
Match-up Hypothesis
Who could be a better
replacement? Why? Match-up Hypothesis
Does it change something for you if the match is good or not?
Match-up Hypothesis
If one of those athletes were part of a scandal, would it influences your perception of the brand/product?
Balance theory / Identification
If one of those athletes were part of charities, donation would it influences your perception of the
brand/product?
Balance theory / Identification
If you think about one of these brands you will think about its endorser
automatically? And the other way around?
Brand image
Attitude
Is the fact that an athlete endorse the brand/product influence your attitude toward the brand/product?
Balance theory/brand image/affect
How would you react?
(generate word of mouth…) Behavior
Is the fact that an athlete endorse the brand/product influence your purchase intentions?
Balance theory/affect
If you like the featured athletes will you purchase the product more?
Identification/behavior
Table 1: Operationalization
3.6 Sample Selection
The sample selection represents a key step in the research process because it tells if the research is reliable and valid or not. The sample is selected from the population, which refers to “the universe of units which the sample is selected from” (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.176). Thus, the sample represents the segment of the population that will be investigated. Plus, the size of the sample should be carefully considered and the non- response rate in particular because the sample do not agree all the time to participate in the research (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
In the present case, a non-probability sampling will be used: the convenience sampling.
The non-probability sampling represents a sample that has not been selected randomly.
Thus, some units of the population are more likely to be selected than others. The convenience sampling refers to a sample that is directly available to the researcher because it is accessible (Bryman & Bell, 2011). This sample selection method is the most suitable for this research paper since the researcher are investigating French consumers between 18 and 35 years old and that they are currently in Sweden. Then, the French exchange students currently in the university represent the convenient sample because they constitute a directly accessible sample. The researchers will give the priority to participants already involved in any kind of physical activity. This choice is due to the fact that the researchers want to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of the 42% of the French population engaged in sport activities at least once a week (French sport ministry, 2013). This micro filter will help avoiding unwanted data.
3.7 Measures of Quality
Qualitative research concerns in reliability and validity are adapted from the criteria of the quantitative research (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Several criteria are emphasized by LeCompte and Goetz (1982), then by Kirk and Miller (1986), first concerning the reliability, and then for the validity.
The external reliability refers to the degree to which a study can be replicated. This point is difficult to meet in qualitative research. Thus, to improve it each step must be clearly and in detail stated, to make the replication of the study easier. The questionnaires of the focus group used to collect data from the consumers must be
attached to the thesis. The study could be replicate by investigating the perceptions and attitudes of consumers of another nationality. Then, the internal reliability concerns the question of whether or not, when there are several observers, the researchers agree about what they see and hear (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982; Kirk & Miller, 1986).
Therefore the focus group must be carefully recorded and transcribed. The translation of the discussion on the different questions should be done on the same basis between the researchers. The internal validity tends to know “whether or not there is a good match between researchers’ observation and the theoretical idea they develop” (Bryman &
Bell, 2011, p.395). Finally the external validity is the degree to which results of the study can be generalized across social settings (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982; Kirk &
Miller, 1986). To have a good external validity, the social setting studied must be representative of the population to be able to generalize the conclusion of the study, therefore, the selected sample should be as representative as possible. According to the circumstances of this research study, the external validity will be weaker than the other point because the sample is a non-probability sample, which is less representative than a probability sample. The ecological validity is also challenged since instruments such as focus group tend to disturb the natural habitat of the social settings being studied (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
4 Empirical Data
This chapter will display the empirical data gathered through collected documents on the companies’ expectations of the use of sport personalities endorsers and the information obtained throughout the focus groups lead on the consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards sport personalities in advertisements.
4.1 Companies’ expectations
4.1.1 Studies’ findings
Studies on the companies’ expectations using sport personalities endorsers have already been conducted. Their findings come to several conclusions that might be called general expectations since they have been found within several different studies. Miciak and Shanklin (1994) investigated the reasons why companies are using celebrity endorsers, including sport personality endorsers, by interviewing 43 executives in advertising agencies. Thus, they found out that there are four major expectations from the companies when using celebrity endorsers. The first one is the celebrity credibility; then the match between the celebrity and the audience, companies expect a close match between them in order to lead consumers to believe that they share important values with the celebrity. The third one is the match between celebrity and the product, therefore the celebrity’s values, image, appearance and reputation have to be relevant to the product being endorsed. Finally, the celebrity attractiveness, companies expect from the celebrity endorsers to be likable and friendly for the consumers and not only attractive through their names or faces.
Other researches shows that companies expect to have a chance to go through the ad clutter by featuring sport personality endorsers in their advertisements and thus improving their communication (Erdogan et al., 2001; Solomon, 2007; Lin, 1993;
Koernig & Boyd, 2009). Celebrity with worldwide popularity represents also a way for companies to avoid cultural “road-blocks” such as language, time or risks (Erdogan et al., 2001, p.39). Companies also expect sport personality endorsers to gain and hold consumer attention, enhance message recall and increase the credibility of the ads (Friedman & Friedman, 1979; Bush et al., 2004; Koernig & Boyd, 2009). Celebrities are expected to help improve brand attitude, particularly with sport personality, firms expect that a celebrity’s potential success will be transferred to the company’s name
(Nicolau & Santa-María, 2013); then to boost the purchase likelihood and the brand loyalty (Bush et al., 2004; Friedman & Friedman, 1979); and finally to create an emotional attachment between the sport personality endorser and the consumer to increase the product and brand awareness as well as improve the company’s image (Roy
& Pansari, 2014). Companies want celebrity endorsers to represent a symbolic aspirational reference group (Carlson & Donovan, 2008), embodying strong values and morals and thus becoming role models (Jones & Schumann, 2000). Finally, celebrity endorsers are expected to have a positive effect on purchase intentions and consumers attitudes (Roy & Pansari, 2014).
4.1.2 Case Study of Pepsi
Pepsi is a soft drink brand manufactured by the company PepsiCo. It is world-famous on the beverage market. In 1880, the pharmacist Caleb Bradham is the person who has firstly made this drink before being followed by many varieties of this drink (PepsiCo, 2011). Pepsi is known to aim young consumers for whom celebrities have an important impact. Consequently, pepsi uses target marketing hoping that celebrity fans will be attracted by their model drinking Pepsi. The company knows that using celebrities to represent the brand is risky, however, they continue in keeping with this strategic promotion. A lot of other companies will not survive by doing a similar promotion plan, but Pepsi, the multi-billion dollar company, always succeeded in using high-cost promotion strategies. The company usually used celebrities when they were at the peak of their fame as the football players David Beckham in 2005 or Lionel Messi more recently. Pepsi however does not publish any information about the money spent for its promotion campaigns. According to Pepsi company idea, the fact to endorse a product by an athlete permits to prove the authenticity and the credibility of a product. The desire for an individual to reach the same status as their ideal celebrity is mainly used in Pepsi’s promotion strategy. That means that the company prefers to favor the quality of the celebrity endorsement instead of its price, indeed, the price of the celebrity does not require to be taken into consideration to determine the quality (Jayaswal, 2008).
4.1.3 Case Study of Adidas
Adidas has been launched in Germany in 1949 by Adolf Dassler. Herbert Hainer is the current CEO. The adidas Group includes subsidiaries such as Reebok, TaylorMade- adidas Golf, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Among other promotion methods, the
Adidas Group uses sport personalities to endorse its brand and products (Adidas Group, 2014). It is the marketing strategy they followed for their latest big advertising campaign for the London Olympic Games of 2012. For their ‘above-the-line’ promotion (refers to the traditional methods of advertising) they featured in their advertisements the best UK talent with their products. More precisely they featured sport personalities such as David Beckham (football), Derrick Rose (basketball), Tom Daley (swimming), Idowu Phillips and Jessica Ennis (athletics). In the TV adverts these athletes are sharing their intimate goals, fears and thoughts (see below appendix 3). They also used the social media such as Twitter or YouTube in order to reach the youth audience. It aimed to have a big impact on the consumers as they were radically different from the other ads. Adidas invested a lot of money in those endorsers, thus, they had expectations in return (Business Case Studies, 2014).
They stated the following points as their marketing objective of using sport personalities endorsers:
● Ensure a clear association as Sportswear Partner of London 2012
● Engage and excite the 14-19 year old audience in order to drive brand preference in the UK
● Become the most talked about sports brand in 2012, then increase brand awareness
● Deliver a licensed product ROI (return on investment)
● Creating deeper engagement with consumers (Business Case Studies, 2014)
Adidas aims to be “the leading and most desired sports brand in the world” by answering to the multiple consumers’ need. Their key values are: authentic, passionate, innovative, inspirational, committed and honest. Thus, they want all their partners, including the sport personalities that endorse their brand and products to share and show these values (Adidas Group, 2013, p.79).
4.2 Focus Group
Three focus groups have been conducted by the researchers in order to investigate the research questions of the study. Each focus group gathered 8 people with as many female as male. Thus, 24 French people between 19 and 24 years old have been
questioned through these focus groups. Therefore they fit the delimitations of the study since it is supposed to investigate French consumers between 18 and 35 years old. They all have been approached by mail by the researchers and they all agreed to participate to the focus group.
4.2.1 Focus Group 1
The participants of the first focus group were between 20 and 24 years old. In order to begin the focus group a recall game has been conducted. The aim was to see if the interviewed people recalled any advertisements featuring sport personality endorsers.
All of them could at least name one ad with a sport personality. The advertisements of food brand (Ferrero and Cristaline), car brand (Volvo and Renault), sport brand (Nike and Puma) and care brand (Nivea and Wilkinson) were the one the most cited.
Regarding the athletes, the most named were football players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Zinedine Zidane; tennis players like Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and rugby players. All the participants were asked what kind of sport they were doing and if they admired any sport personality. The most practiced sports were tennis, football, fitness and rugby. For most of the respondents they were not admiring any athletes because they are not close enough to these athletes to be able to relate to them.
For the three people that stated they could admire an athlete it was because of the mentalities they have. They cited football players and tennis players. Then, they were asked about their general feelings regarding the use of sport personality in advertisement. Four of them answered that it is ridiculous for an athlete to be in ads especially if they are endorsing food brand or product. They feel like these athletes are losing their credibility by endorsing those kind of products. However, the other four people stated that it was more attractive and that this way everybody was talking about the ad. Finally, the last introductory question aimed to know if they think that sport personality endorsers are more adequate to endorse sport brands and products. Seven of them think that athletes are more able to endorse sport brand properly than non-sport brand because they are more credible than other celebrities. One of them thinks the aim of the athlete to endorse a brand is not to encourage people to do sport but to buy a product.
The second part of the focus group was conducted using visual supports of a luxury brand, a food brand, a fashion brand and a sport brand featuring athletes of different
sports. They saw four different ads of four different brands with each time a sport endorsers and a random endorser such as models. The first thing asked were what they were attracted in the first place. Among the ads featuring a random person, the thing that was noticed the most with 26% was the product and then equally with 20% the model and some details and finally the brand logo, name and slogan with 17%. For the ads featuring a sport personality, the first thing they noticed each time was the athlete with the large majority of 52%, and then the products with 30%, and equally brand logo and slogan with 9%.
Ad with the athlete Ad without the athlete
The athlete 52% /
The model / 20%
The product 30% 26%
A detail / 20%
The logo 9% 17%
The brand name/slogan 9% 17%
Table 2: Percentages of the first thing perceived on the ad by consumers – Focus Group 1
The second question was aimed to know if the participants preferred the ad with the athletes or not. The results were tight since according to the ad, the athletes were chosen as many times as the other models. Then, more generally the participants were asked if the ad featured an athlete they like if they will enjoy the ad more. For five of them they will have a positive perception of the ad and the brand and for two of them there is an influence of their perception only if it is an athlete they do not like but if it is someone they like it does not matter. For one of them it also depends on the kind of products advertised. Then the participants had to tell if they thought the athlete was well matched with the brand and product they endorsed. For the luxury brand and the food brand, the match was not good for the majority of the respondents because the chosen athletes do not represent the values of the brand or product endorsed (for instance: femininity, junk food). They named athletes that could better endorse these two kinds of brands. They cited Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic for the luxury brand because they represent femininity. On the other hand for the food brand they recommended a male athlete such as André-Pierre Gignac or Sébastien Chabal to endorse the product in an ironic way.
However, for the fashion brand and the sport brand the match was good because the image of the athletes is matching the one of the brand and the product. Thus, the participants said that the match between the brand or product and the athlete is really important. They explained that if there is a wrong match the brand and the athlete lose credibility and it gives them a really negative perception of the brand. They think that the match between sport brand and athlete is better because it is more credible than with other type of brand such as food brand. Moreover they all agreed to say that they have a more positive image of a brand when their ads feature athletes at their peak of success.
For instance when they just won medals or won a contest. Afterwards the participants were asked if the fact that an athlete was part of a scandal if it would influence their perception of the brand or product. They all agree to say that it would have a really negative impact on the brand image but not on the product. One of them will take the company responsible for that bad choice. On the contrary if the athlete was taking part in charities or donation it would not have any impact on the brand image. For one of the respondents it seems normal for an athlete to take part in that kind of events as they are earning a lot of money. For another one it also depends on the athlete, because if it is someone they like it would have a better impact.
Finally, the participants were asked about their attitudes toward the use of sport personality in advertisement. For all of them it has either a positive or a negative effect on their attitude depending on the fact they like or dislike the featured athletes. If they do not like the ad they are likely to generate negative word of mouth. However even if they have a negative attitude it wouldn’t prevent three of the participant to buy the product. The fact that an athlete is endorsing a brand or products make them remember more the ad but do not necessarily influence their purchase intention. At the end, the participants were asked if they link any brand to an athlete automatically or not. Four of them associate more easily an athlete to a brand and two of them associate a brand to an athlete. For the other two it depends on the brand and on the athlete.
4.2.2 Focus Group 2
The participants of the second focus group were between 20 and 23 years old. This focus group followed the same structure than the first one. It began with the recall game. Every participant has been able to give one example of advertisement featuring.
Advertisements of food brand (Ferrero) and skin care product (Nivea, Gillette and
