TEARS Model – Celebrity attributes

The TEARS model is a consideration tool for picking the right celebrity endorser. When looking at fit it is important to evaluate the attributes of the celebrity, and the role they play in finding the right

demonstrated that two general attributes, credibility and attractiveness, contribute to an endorser’s effectiveness, and that each consists of more distinct sub-attributes” (Shimp, 2007:304). These attributes are trustworthiness and expertise, which are dimensions of credibility. Physical attractiveness, respect, and similarity are components to the general concept of attractiveness (Shimp, 2007:304).

3.3.1 Credibility: The process of internalization

In it most basic sense, credibility is the assessment of whether a celebrity can be considered believable and trustworthy. When an endorser is perceived credible the audience’s attitude is changed. Shimp (2007) explains this through a process called internalization. It occurs when the receiver accepts the endorser’s beliefs as their own. This attitude is kept if the endorser is forgotten or even changes position.

Two important sub-attributes to credibility are:

- Trustworthiness - Expertise.

Trustworthiness refers to the honesty, integrity, and believability of a celebrity.

Though expertise and trustworthiness are not mutually exclusive, often a particular celebrity is

perceived as highly trustworthy but not a direct expert (Shimp, 2007:304). Celebrity trustworthiness is a reflection of how much faith the audience members has in what the celebrity endorser has to say.

The audience’s perception of the celebrity’s trustworthiness lies in how the audiences see the endorsement motivation. If consumers believe that the celebrity is motivated by only gaining something for themselves, then the celebrity will be less persuasive than someone who is perceived to sincerely believe in the product (Shimp, 2007:304).

Celebrities earn the audience’s trust through their professional lives, whether it being from movies, sports or television. Another source of the audience’s attitude towards the celebrity comes from how

the celebrity’s personal life is being portrayed by the public media (Shimp, 2007:304). Therefore, the media has a huge influence on how trustworthy a celebrity is perceived by the consumer. As this thesis is founded on a social constructivist view, this an essential part of how the social reality is created, and how the attributes of a celebrity are perceived. The media, and to some extent the celebrity, are able to convey what image they like to emphasize through e.g. social media. This happens through the articulation of the celebrity in public domain, which is contributing to and influencing the socially constructed reality of the celebrity’s brand and image.

It is celebrities who are regarded trustworthy, by being honest, believable and dependable whom advertisers choose for endorsements. However, when consumers are faced with celebrity

endorsement, they are fully aware that they are being paid for it. That is why consumers to some extent question the celebrity’s motivation for endorsing the brand. This is why there has to be a natural fit between the celebrity and the endorsed company, which lead to expertise. Expertise refers to the knowledge, experience or skills possessed by a celebrity that can be related to the product, and hereby fit with the endorsed company. This also correlates with the celebrity being objective as they, through their expertise within the subject, must believe it is a good product they endorse. Expertise is a perceived phenomenon rather than an absolute, meaning that a celebrity might not be an expert in a given field. It all comes down to whether or not the consumer believes the celebrity to be an expert.

A celebrity who is perceived an expert is more persuasive in changing consumer opinion within the area of expertise (Shimp, 2007:304).

3.3.2 Attractiveness: The process of identification

The second general attribute of a celebrity is attractiveness, and means more than just physical attractiveness, even though that could be an important attribute. Attractiveness refers to all characteristics that consumers perceive in a celebrity “intellectual skills, personality properties, lifestyle characteristics, athletic prowess, and so on.” (Shimp, 2007:305). When consumers find something in a celebrity that they find attractive, then persuasion happens through identification.

Identification is when consumers find a celebrity to be attractive, and through this attraction they identify with the celebrity. Through this identification they tend to adapt the celebrity’s attitude, behaviors, interests or preferences. The TEARS model has broken the general concept of

attractiveness into three sub-attributes:

- Physical attractiveness - Respect

- Similarity

Physical attractiveness refers to the physical appearance of a celebrity, which in most endorsement relationships is a key consideration. In many instances it is seen that it is not always the best players in sports who have the best endorsement deals as they might not be viewed as physical attractive as other players. Because of this, they might not be as useful as others for endorsing a company. The reasoning for this is also found in other research, which has shown that physically attractive endorsers produce more favorable evaluations of ads than less attractive communicators (Shimp, 2007:305).

Physical attractiveness might vary from cultures. Though it is argued that consumers from the same culture look for the same features when considering physical attractiveness (Shimp, 2007:305).

Respect is the second attribute of attractiveness. Respect is how much a celebrity is admired or even esteemed because of their personal qualities and accomplishments. Physical attractiveness might be considered the “form” of attractiveness, and respect the “function”. Sometimes function trumps form because people respect them so much that their looks do not matter. Celebrities are respected for their acting skills, athletic accomplishments, their personalities and even stands on important societal issues, whether it being the environment, political issues etc. Celebrities who are respected are generally also liked, and it this likeability factor that is able enhance a company’s brand equity when a respected and liked celebrity endorse a product or company. For this likeability to transfer from the celebrity to the company brand, there must be some resemblance of characteristics between the celebrity and the company.

Similarity is the last attribute of attractiveness, and represents how much a celebrity matches a given audience in terms of: age, gender, ethnicity and so on. Similarity is an important attribute due to the mere fact that people tend to prefer people who share common features and traits with them. As Shimp says: “birds of a feather flock together” (Shimp, 2007:306).

This is also a version of fit, as the celebrity and the endorsed company’s target audience in some cases must match (Shimp, 2007:306). There is evidence that a similarity fit between audience and celebrity is important if the target audience has different tastes and preferences when looking at attributes.

Because people have very different opinions when it comes to the likes of restaurants, movies and clothes, a celebrity who is similar to the audience are expected to have a higher chance of influencing the audience’s choice of product (Shimp, 2007:306). However, when it comes to the audience

members’ preference being very similar, such as it is with services such as cleaning or plumping, then the fit between the celebrity and audience similarity is not that important. Here it is the celebrity’s experience or expertise within the given product category that appears to have the highest influence on the audience’s attitude and choices (Shimp, 2007:306).

This process of perceived attractiveness can be achieved via any one of these sub-attributes and does not require that a celebrity has all of them simultaneously. however, it goes without saying that a celebrity who do possess all of the sub-attributes of attractiveness would have a high endorsement potential. The TEARS model is a tool to examine how appropriate a given celebrity is for a specific company. The model provides directions to some of the key attributes when creating a fit between the company and the celebrity.