Celebrity Endorsements and Beyond: New Avenues for Celebrity Branding Astrid Keel Auburn University Rajan Nataraajan Auburn University ABSTRACT The authors assess the extant research in the area of celebrity endorsement and point out the need for continuing research in celebrity marketing. Suggestions for future research are made in a wide breadth of areas, spanning from celebrity endorsements to novel areas of celebrity branding. The authors propose three celebrity-branding strategies and discuss the factors that may influence their effectiveness. Other areas for future research in celebrity marketing that are discussed include ethical marketing to vulnerable consumers and social marketing. The authors conclude with suggestions regarding theories and methods that can be used for future research in celebrity marketing. C  2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Celebrities have long been used to sell products, dat- ing back to the second half of the nineteenth century, when Pope Leo XIII and Thomas Edison endorsed Vin Mariani, a potent mix of Bordeaux wine and cocaine (Feldman, 2007). The fascination with celebrities has only increased in recent times. Indeed, it has been noted that the media frenzy surrounding celebrities is reflected in the advertising arena, where 25% of all ad- vertising features a celebrity (Shimp, 2003), which is an increase from the late 1970s, when 17% of advertise- ments featured celebrities (Howard, 1979). One of the reasons provided for the increase in celebrity endorse- ments is that celebrities can help advertisements stand out (Erdogan, 1999) and enter new markets (Blecken, 2009; Sherman, 1985). Companies using celebrities to endorse their brands are not the only ones to benefit from the partnership, as endorsements are very lucra- tive sources of income for celebrities. For example, it is estimated that Tiger Woods earned approximately $23 to $30 million from endorsements per year prior to his infidelity scandal (Rovell, 2010). Because celebri- ties cost endorsed companies a substantial amount of money, academic research has focused its efforts on examining how celebrity endorsements affect perfor- mance measures such as advertising attitudes, brand recall, and purchase intent. However, endorsements are not the only marketing activity that celebrities perform: in recent years, there has been an increase in celebrity-branded products, such as perfumes and clothing lines. We begin with a literature review sum- marizing current research in celebrity endorsements, and then explain and develop several areas for future research in celebrity marketing. LITERATURE REVIEW To our knowledge, the majority of research on celebrity marketing has focused on endorsements. The litera- ture on celebrity endorsements has examined (1) the impact of celebrity endorsements on (a) various attitu- dinal measures, including advertising attitude, brand attitude, brand recall, and purchase intent, and (b) fi- nancial measures, such as stock market performance, and (2) which celebrity characteristics yield better ad- vertising endorsement performance. In the following section, we concentrate on a brief review of the salient points related to celebrity endorsements. We summa- rize the findings from research that examines (1) the impact of celebrity endorsements on various perfor- mance measures, (2) which celebrity and product char- acteristics enable better endorsements, and (3) the dis- advantages of celebrity endorsements. For an extensive and in-depth literature review, please refer to Erdogan (1999). Impact of Celebrity Endorsements Past research has examined whether or not celebrity endorsers are more effective at improving advertising attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchase intent than Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 29(9): 690–703 (September 2012) View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mar C  2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/mar.20555 690