Abstract: The Chinese market has become a focus of global competition. Many foreign firms seek local celebrities to endorse products or brands in order to enhance brand power and competitiveness in the market. In contrast, some Chinese firms turn to foreign celebrity endorsement to increase the firm’s image and prestige. Interesting questions emerge from this market change: do advertising effects of celebrity endorsement vary according to the nationality of the celebrity endorser (Chinese versus foreign)? Does the fit between endorser nationality and product nationality moderate advertising effects? Do consumers perceive differences regarding attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness of celebrities of different nationalities (Chinese versus foreign) in regard to endorsement of products with foreign symbols and products with Chinese symbols? These questions attract great interest from both academics and practitioners.
Stimuli based on the extant literature were confirmed using focus groups and finally a pilot test. For ease of comparison, we chose products that have national symbols (Chinese vs. foreign) and functional characters. We selected celebrity endorsers from KU Ma online surveys and star ranking charts on popular websites in China. Ten celebrities comprising a mixture of Chinese males, Chinese females, foreign males and foreign females were initially selected. These candidates were then rated for general appeal on 7-point Likert scales; the highest scorers were finally selected to be celebrities examined in this study.
This study adopted an experimental design approach, using 3 national product symbols (Chinese symbols, foreign symbols, no distinctive symbols) ´ 2 product types (utility, entertainment) ´ 2 celebrity types (Chinese, foreign). Twelve sets of questionnaires incorporating 7-point Likert scales were generated. Four hundred and forty questionnaires were completed by students from 3 universities in Beijing.
Regression analyses confirmed the positive influence on consumer purchasing intentions of endorser characteristics such as attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise. ANOVA results indicated the fit between celebrity nationality and product nationality has a moderating role in the relationship between endorser characteristics and advertising effects. Specifically, the impact of endorser attractiveness on consumer attitudes was higher when endorser nationality and product nationality were congruent than when incongruent. Endorser trustworthiness exerted more impact on consumer attitudes when nationality was congruent while endorser expertise exerted more impact on consumer purchasing intentions when nationality was incongruent. In relation to advertising effectiveness, foreign celebrities proved more attractive than Chinese celebrities for endorsement of products with Chinese symbols. However, foreign celebrities were seen as less trustworthy and having less expertise than Chinese celebrities in regard to endorsement of products bearing Chinese symbols. In contrast, in the endorsement of products with foreign symbols, foreign celebrities received higher scores in all three aspects, attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise than Chinese celebrities. Foreign celebrities also achieved higher performance scores regarding consumer attitudes and purchasing intentions for products with no distinctive national symbols.
Overall, this study has implications for both Chinese and foreign firms in choosing celebrities for product endorsement. Besides endorser characteristics such as attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise, congruence between endorser nationality and product nationality should be carefully evaluated.

Key words: endorser characteristics, advertising effect, endorser nationality, product nationality, fit