A Study on the Consumption Behavior and Psychological Motivation of Fans’ Celebrity Endorsement --Based on the Perspective of Parasocial Relationships

Abstract

With the emergence and popularization of social media, the influence of celebrities, especially entertainment stars, has penetrated every aspect of daily life, and the fan culture derived from the phenomenon of “star chasing” has increasingly penetrated ordinary people. Compared with the market in Western Europe, consumers are also more rational, but in China’s social media platforms, advertisements and other content endorsed by celebrities occupy a large part of each platform. By using the Likert scale, the research conducted an online questionnaire survey to analyze whether the three major factors of relationship identification, emotional needs, and fan support had a positive correlation with netizens’ purchase of celebrity endorsements. The results showed that “Relationship Identity (RI)” “Emotional needs (EN)” and “Entertainment support from fans (ESFF)” are positively correlated with each other. Thus, relationship identity, emotional needs, and entertainment support all had a positive effect on fans’ purchase intentions, celebrity endorsement ads could be targeted to platforms where fans congregate, and celebrities who endorsed products could establish an emotional bond with their fans during the endorsement.