An average looking celebrity elicits more of a reaction than an attractive non-celebrity, according to the scientists from Aston University, Birmingham – results that help explain the myriad of celebrity endorsed products released every year in the industry.
Isolating fame from beauty
According to the researchers, this is the first study that attempts to isolate the phenomenon of fame from its natural partner, beauty.
“Given that most celebrities are also considered to be attractive it is not known to what extent celebrity and beauty interact to drive consumer decision-making,” the scientists explained.
The researchers, Carl Senior and Baldeesh Gakhal, prepared fragrance adverts with images of attractive and average celebrities and compared the reactions with those produced when subjects were exposed to attractive and average non celebrities.
In order to assess the response of subjects to the fragrance adverst, Senior and Gakhal measured the individuals’ electrodermal activity (EDA). Otherwise known as the galvanic skin response (GSR) the technique involves measuring the electrical conductivity of a fine sweat generated on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet during emotive responses.
This is called eccrine sweating and measuring it to gauge an individual’s response has a long history in the marketing sciences, according to the researchers.
The results showed that famous faces drive emotional responses in the subjects more than non famous. In addition, the researchers concluded that the interaction between beauty and fame was driven by fame rather than attractiveness.
Fame has a privileged status
In other words, the attractiveness of a celebrity is less important than the fact that they are famous. Fame has a privileged status in the marketer’s portfolio, conclude Senior and Gakhal.
So, do these results justify the significant pay out that companies undertake when getting involved with celebrity brand champions?
Senior and Gakhal seem to think so: “Given the fact that there is often a vast financial outlay required to create a particular brand platform, it would seem that investing celebrities over those people who are merely attractive may return greater dividends.”
However the scientists do highlight that the small sample size (24 female subjects were involved in the study) means that more research is needed to investigate whether advertisements depicting fame, or beauty, are the more effective predictors of consumer behaviour.
Source: Journal of Consumer BehaviourIssue 7, page 331-341Examining the influence of fame in the presence of beauty: an electrodermal ‘neuromarketing’ studyBaldeesh Gakhal and Carl Senior.