Multiple endorsers and multiple endorsements: The influence of message repetition, source congruence and involvement on brand attitudes Dan Hamilton Rice a, ⁎ , Katie Kelting b , Richard J. Lutz c a Louisiana State University, Department of Marketing, 3127 Patrick F. Taylor Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA b University of Arkansas, Sam M. Walton College of Business, Department of Marketing, 302 Business Building, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 72701, USA c University of Florida, Warrington College of Business Administration, Department of Marketing, PO Box 117155, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA Received 14 December 2009; received in revised form 2 May 2011; accepted 8 June 2011 Available online 7 July 2011 Abstract This paper investigates the effects of source congruence on brand attitudes in two situations: multiple brand endorsements by one celebrity and multiple celebrity endorsers of one brand. Under low involvement conditions, brand attitudes become more negative as a celebrity endorses multiple brands and more favorable with multiple endorsers. In high involvement conditions, strong source congruence overrides the negative effect of multiple brands, and the positive effect of multiple endorsers is found only with strong congruence. We interpret these results as suggestive of a frequency knowledge cue that dominates under low involvement but is non-diagnostic in high involvement scenarios. © 2011 Society for Consumer Psychology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Celebrity endorsement; Brand attitude; Persuasive argument; Advertising; Involvement; Source congruence The use of celebrity endorsements in advertising is on the rise (Money, Shimp, & Sakano, 2006; White, 2004). Moreover, it is common today for a single brand to use multiple celebrity endorsers in its advertisements to identify with more potential customers. Rolex, for example, uses “seven tennis pros, 24 golfers, four equestrians, three yachtsmen, one skier, two race car drivers, and a polo player,” to endorse its brand (Binkley, 2007). Surprisingly little research has examined whether using multiple celebrity endorsers to advertise a single brand (hereafter multiple celebrity endorsers) is an effective strategy, relative to using a single celebrity to endorse the brand. It is also customary for a single celebrity to endorse multiple brands (hereafter multiple brand endorsements). For example, in 2009, Peyton Manning endorsed eight brands: Mastercard, Nerf, Oreo, Wheaties, Reebok, Gatorade, Sony and DirecTV (Albergotti, 2009). The industry practice of requiring exclusiv- ity clauses and paying premiums for “exclusive” endorsers (ReedSmith, 2006) suggests that an exclusive endorser might be more beneficial to a brand than an endorser who is already tied to multiple brands. However, very little research has investi- gated the potential diminution of an endorser's effectiveness as the number of brands endorsed increases (for exceptions see Mowen & Brown, 1981; Tripp, Jensen, & Carlson, 1994). In the consumer psychology literature, the context of a single celebrity endorsing a single brand has been studied most often; from that research, we know that source characteristics, specifically the familiarity, likability, expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness of the celebrity endorser, positively affect consumer response to celebrity advertising (Kahle & Homer, 1985; Ohanian, 1991; Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). Additionally, the degree of “match-up” or congruence between a brand and a celebrity in regard to source characteristics also affects consumer response to celebrity advertising (Forkan, 1980; Hawkins, Best, & Coney, 1983; Kahle & Homer, 1985; Kamins, 1990; Kamins & Gupta, 1994). McCracken (1989) theorized that source congruence could include cultural meanings of the celebrity; subsequent work by Kirmani & Shiv (1998) showed that “the degree of match between accessible endorser associations and attributes associated with the brand” (p. 26) (i.e., source congruence) does indeed affect ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: danrice@lsu.edu (D.H. Rice), kkelting@walton.uark.edu (K. Kelting), richard.lutz@warrington.ufl.edu (R.J. Lutz). 1057-7408/$ - see front matter © 2011 Society for Consumer Psychology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2011.06.002 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Consumer Psychology 22 (2012) 249 – 259