The Role of Social Identity and Spokesperson in Influencing Consumer Involvement, Information Seeking, and Purchase Intention

Limited research has examined how racially diverse spokespersons in advertising may influence advertising effectiveness in an experimental setting. An online experiment (N = 330) was conducted via a 3 (spokesperson race) x 2 (product type) between-subject design with random assignment. Results showed that spokespersons' race had a significant effect on all variables, but product type only affected purchase intention. Path modeling results suggested that participants' social identity influenced perceived spokesperson credibility and perceived similarity to the spokesperson predicted spokesperson credibility and attractiveness, which in turn explained consumer involvement. As consumer involvement also facilitated information seeking, both variables were significant predictors of purchase intention.