In recent years, enterprises emphasize their corporation images, familiarity and attraction via endorsement in the spotlight. Consumers would also be attracted by the preferable endorsers in consumption. According to CNA (Central News Agency) in December 2011, the strategy of Tourism Bureau in using celebrity endorsers of tourism attracts tourists from Japan and South Korea, which brings in almost TWD 65 billions of tourism profit. Hence, the endorser of endorsement can be the effective tool in promotion.
However, previous studies of endorser expertise and attraction related to the brands or products haven’t put the types of activity into considerations. Therefore, this study would like to investigate whether the endorser expertise and attraction has influence on individual attitudes and word-of-mouth (WOM hereafter) or not. Furthermore, this study takes current affairs “Taipei International Flora Exposition” as example and uses it in this academic study.
The subjects are the tourists who have visited Taipei International Flora Exposition. A sample of 766 useful respondents in Taiwan was collected for the final analysis through online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the reliability and validity of the measures, while AMOS was employed to analyze research hypothesis using structural equation modeling. The hypotheses were all supported and are as following. First, endorser expertise and attraction significantly positively affect both customer trust and match-up. Second, both customer trust and match-up positively affect attitude and WOM. Third, attitude is significantly positively related to WOM. Finally, this study reveals several theoretical and managerial implications relating to the antecedents of effectiveness of endorsement and future research directions for practice and academics to take it as reference for marketing strategy makers and academic researchers.
