Congruence Between Energy Drink Brands and Endorsers: the effect of congruence on influencer credibility, brand attitudes, and consumer willingness to purchase

Abstract

Objectives

The main objective of the study was to investigate whether the congruence between an energy drink brand and an influencer affected the effectiveness of the marketing strategy of an energy drink brand. Moreover, the study investigated how the perceived congruence between the energy drink brand and an endorser affected influencer credibility, consumer attitudes towards the promoted products, and willingness to purchase.

Summary

Social media influencer marketing has become a popular phenomenon among energy drink brands as it has been discovered a very effective way to promote products. However, to make the marketing strategy the most effective, brands need to work with congruent influencers having similar characteristics and mindset as the endorsed brand.

Conclusions

It was found that a highly congruent influencer brand fit scenario led to higher influencer credibility as well as consumer attitudes towards the brand. Despite high credibility of an influencer was expected to indicate better purchase intentions among customers, there was no significant evidence that the highly fitting scenario led to better purchase intentions among the respondents.