Chen-Yueh Chen, Yi- Hsiu Lin Chia- Lin Hsiao (2012) decided to use classical conditioning to see the correlation celebrity endorsement with sporting events. Marketers and advisors are willing to spend millions of dollars to improve advertising opportunities by linking their products with celebrity athlete endorsements. Researchers have examined the effects of endorser characteristics on the promotion of a sporting event, but neglected to study how endorser and product are linked.
Chen Chen, Yi- Hsiu Lin, Chia- Lin Hsiao (2012) tested whether individuals exposed to the organized paring of a baseball player with a celebrity developed a more favorable attitude towards the event than individuals who were not exposed to the pairing. They hypothesized
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The participants were randomly assigned. 40 participants were assigned to the control group and 40 assigned to the treatment group. The treatment group were exposed to images methodically pairing the event (conditioned stimulus) with the celebrity (unconditioned stimulus) amidst filler images. The control group was exposed to the same images, but without the pairing of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus. To obtain a conditioning effect, five sets of pairings in the treatment condition between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus were conducted. They found that five pairings lead to conditioning effects without the participants becoming bored. Images of the event came before the picture of the celebrity, and the invented products and filler images. The experiment was conducted in university class sessions. At the beginning of the class, participants were told they were participating in a sport marketing study on consumers’ responses to advertisements and were given a booklet with instructions and questions. After reading the booklet, participants viewed the slide presentation. Both the treatment and control groups were exposed five times to the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus. Only the treatment group received the systematic pairing of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned