Toward an Understanding of Athlete Endorsement

Abstract

The use of famous athletes in advertisement by companies for promoting products is especially widespread. These athletes are not the only “endorsers”, rather, people who make agreements with companies and promote products in advertisements are also called endorsers. It is said that companies use many athletes as endorsers because they expect to accomplish a number of marketing objectives, such as capturing consumers' attention, building a positive image of a product, and increasing consumers' purchase intentions. However, a focus on the concept of endorsement by athletes alone has not been clarified yet. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and clarify athlete endorsement from several points of view. To do so, this paper will first examine the definition of “athlete endorsement”, and then review how athletes influence consumers' purchase behaviors as endorsers. Finally, it will consider the unique features of athlete endorsement towards the end of the paper.