PSYCHOLOGICAL ALIGNMENT IN CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS: EVALUATING INFLUENCER MARKETING IMPACT IN THE LUXURY HOSPITALITY SECTOR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2025-0090Ključne reči:
brand attachment, brand personality, celebrity endorsement, luxury hotel, social media influencersApstrakt
In the highly competitive luxury hospitality sector, it is essential to un-
derstand the factors that influence consumers’ intentions to visit. This
study purposes to examine the psychological internal relationships
among celebrity, consumer, and hotel brand. The study also explores
the effectiveness of social media influencers in determining consum-
ers ‘ intentions to visit luxury hotel brands. Brand personality theory
is employed to support personality congruency constructs. This study
utilizes the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model and social me-
dia influencers (SMIs) to theorize for the conceptual framework. Using
a quantitative research design, this research collects several 389 social
media users who actively engage with celebrity influencers endorsing
luxury hotels. The partial least squares structural equation modeling
(PLS-SEM) method is applied to evaluate the relationships among la-
tent variables with second-, and third-order constructs measurement
models. Psychological congruency demonstrates an essential role in
forming a robust construction between consumers, celebrities, and en-
dorsed luxury hotel brands. Consumers, who have an emotional at-
tachment to a hotel brand, tend to positively develop relations on social
media platforms, hence increasing the intentions to visit endorsed hotel
brands. This research advances the knowledge of psychological con-
gruency in the context of luxury branding and social media marketing,
creating an innovative strategy for the interaction between consumer
psychology and influencer endorsements. Practically, the explorations
deliver criminal recommendations for luxury hotel managers to opti-
mize their influencer marketing strategies.
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