Effect of celebrity athlete endorsement on sporting goods consumers’ brand passion and loyalty

Although findings of prior studies have provided insights into brand–consumer relationships, there is a scarcity of investigation into the effect of an athlete endorser’s credibility on consumers’ brand passion and brand loyalty. Thus, we investigated the effects of an athlete endorser’s attractiveness and expertise on both brand passion and brand loyalty of sporting goods consumers. Participants in our study were 178 Korean golf product consumers. Results revealed that athlete endorser attractiveness and expertise were both significant determinants of brand passion among golf product consumers. Results also confirmed that brand passion positively affected brand loyalty. Lastly, brand passion had significant positive mediating roles between athlete endorser attractiveness and expertise and brand loyalty. The study has contributed to advancing previous research on brand–consumer relationships by examining the effects of endorser source attractiveness and expertise on brand passion and brand loyalty among sporting goods consumers.