Innovation in Product Promotions: A Case of Intended Use of Characters in the Chinese Market

Abstract

Four categories of endorsers often used in advertising i.e. celebrities, employees, customer and spokes – characters (Stafford 2002). Not all over the world but also in China, spokes – characters have long been used and considered as a star of their commercials (Bell, 1992). Most of the literature in past focused only on recognition (e.g., Callcott and Phillips,1996; Garretson and Niedrich 2004) and comparisons of the created spokes characters with human spokes – person (e.g. Heiser, Sierra and Torres 2008) and failed to combine created spokes – character credibility with attitude and behavior. This study tries to fill this gap, by investigating the impact of created spokes – character credibility (trustworthiness, attractiveness and expertise) on attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards brand and purchase intention by conducting an experiment. Questionnaires were administered on a sample of 300 respondents. Correlation analysis was significant, and after that multiple regressions was used to test the impact on attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards brand and purchase intention. Implications of advertising strategy, limitations of this research and future research were discussed.

Key words: Created spokes – characters, Credibility, Attitude towards Brand, Attitude towards Advertisement and Purchase Intention.