The Moderating Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on the Relationship between the Consumers Perceptions of Brand, and their Attitudes toward its Extensions

A survey was conducted on 220 students in the major Syrian universities in August 2016in order to examine the moderating impact of celebrity endorsement on the relation between parent brand equity, trust, perceived quality and customers attitudes toward brand extensions. One hundred and ten students were asked to evaluate a chosen brand in terms of its equity, quality, and trust, then they were exposed to three ads offactitious extensions (low, medium, and high fit between the parent brand and the extensions) thereafter, their attitudes to the extensions were measured. The previous scenario was repeated with the endorsement of selected celebrities. Testing the moderating impact shows when the fit was low and moderate, the use of credible celebrities as endorsers has increased the impact of parent brand trust, perceived quality, and equity in customers attitude toward extensions. The current research may represent one of the first efforts in marketing literature to explain the moderating impact of endorsement.