The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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IJRDM
37,4
308
Received May 2007
Revised November 2007
Accepted February 2008
International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management
Vol. 37 No. 4, 2009
pp. 308-321
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-0552
DOI 10.1108/09590550910948547
Sports celebrity endorsements
in retail products advertising
Karen E. Lear
University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
Rodney C. Runyan
University of Tennessee, Knoxvillie, Tennessee, USA, and
William H. Whitaker
South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend previous research into sport celebrity endorsements
by investigating such endorsements of products ultimately sold by retailers. This is done by updating
previous research involving print media in sporting magazines.
Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis approach is used, examining advertisements
in randomly selected issues of sports illustrated from the most recent full six years of publication.
Findings – Changes in the frequency of advertisements using sports celebrities were found
compared to previous studies. Additionally, it appears that products which are ultimately sold by
retailers are endorsed more frequently by celebrities in certain sports than others.
Originality/value – By including in the investigation the topics of sport played and consumer
products, the paper extends the current literature to explore the advertisers’ use of athlete endorsers
with products directly and indirectly impacting retailers.
Keywords Advertisements, Athletics, Celebrities, Product endorsement, Retail marketing
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
A sports celebrity endorser may be defined as “a famous [athlete or coach] who uses
public recognition to recommend or co-present with a product in an ad” (Stafford et al.,
2003, p. 13). In addition to those actively engaged in their sport, this may include sports
professionals who are retired or deceased (Constanzo and Goodnight, 2005). Because
they are likely to positively influence consumer buying decisions, celebrity
endorsements have long been used by manufacturers and retailers in their efforts to
sell products (Stafford et al., 2003; Erdogen, 1999; Kamins, 1990). Top athletes often
earn more from endorsements than from their athletic contracts (Stone et al., 2003).
However, when a celebrity endorser unexpectedly engages in behaviour which is
unacceptable to the targeted consumer, the positive influence may be reversed and the
celebrity potentially becomes a liability to the sponsor (Stone et al., 2003; Goldman,
1994; Lofton, 1994; Miller, 1993). Stone et al. (2003) conducted a comprehensive content
analysis of such endorsements in a major US sporting magazine called Sports
Illustrated (SI). In answering its primary question, the Stone et al. study concluded that
compared to the 1980s, the proportional use of athletes as endorsers declined during
the 1990s, as advertisers increasingly relied on unknown models instead of celebrity
athletes to promote products.
 The objective of the current study is to extend the Stone et al. study, which covered Sports celebrity
the periods of 1983-1988 and 1993-1998. For each six-year period, the original endorsements
researchers looked at whether the advertisements featured a product, athlete, or other
model (regardless of fame or anonymity). Like the earlier study, this analysis identified
whether the advertisements featured a product, athlete, or other model. The study also
considered whether the endorser was a celebrity but not an athlete, and made a more
fine-grained determination of the product being endorsed. This information is 309
important to retailers in assessing the effectiveness of past promotional activities,
planning future campaigns and cooperative advertising, and avoiding the potentially
negative effects of association with a product endorsed by a celebrity athlete whose
unexpected behaviour may be repugnant to its consumer base. Our study adds to the
extant literature on endorsement research by extending the Stone et al. (2003) study
into the current decade and investigating for the first time the use of athletes as
endorsers of products ultimately sold by retailers.
Many retailers depend largely on brand owners’ advertising campaigns to promote
key products carried in their stores. Manufacturing retailers and brand owners
recognize that effective product launches and ongoing advertising campaigns are
critical to their success, as well. Despite the rapid changes in retail promotion over the
past decade, largely brought on by the internet, experts continue to recognize print
advertising as an important marketing outlet. Among the array of print advertising
options available, celebrity endorsers, including athletes, are widely presumed to be an
effective method of promoting retail merchandise (Constanzo and Goodnight, 2005).
Thus, trends in the use of sports celebrities to endorse retail products in print
advertising are of particular interest to retailers seeking to gain optimum benefits from
their own and their brand partners’ advertising investments.

Literature review
Celebrity endorsers
According to Stone et al. (2003), the salient constructs in endorsement research include
financial implications, selection and avoidance. We discuss these issues briefly as they
are salient to researchers and practitioners alike.
Financial implications. Famous athletes and other celebrities are widely used in
advertising to improve consumers’ product recall and positively influence their brand
choice behaviour (Shimp, 2003; Bowman, 2002). Celebrity athletes bring with their
endorsement, consumer recognition and image awareness of the brands they represent
(Keller, 1998). Such endorsements are a key component in driving the sales of retail
products and enhancing manufacturers’ stock value (Mathur et al., 1997; Agrawal and
Kamakura, 1995). Perhaps, most memorably, when Michael Jordan announced his return
to the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1995 after his first “retirement”, stock
portfolios of the companies he endorsed at that time posted dramatic increases (Mathur
et al., 1997). Although research exists which questions their effectiveness (Constanzo and
Goodnight, 2005; Wells et al., 2000; Farrell et al., 2000), celebrity endorsements have
become a billion dollar industry (Peetz et al., 2004; Kambitsis et al., 2002).
Selection. Effective advertisements tie product benefits, words and images into a
cohesive communication message geared toward the product’s targeted consumer
(Stafford et al., 2003). Celebrity endorsers may serve in the role of spokesperson on
behalf of the company, expert in the product field, or figure to which the consumer base
IJRDM aspires (Seno and Lukas, 2007). Regardless of the endorser’s role, it is imperative that
37,4 the advertisement creates in the consumer an emotional tie to the athlete (Stone et al.,
2003; Keller, 1993). In this way, the positive attributes of the favored athlete are
transferred to the product or brand (Stone et al., 2003; Suegker, 2003; McCracken, 1989).
Marketing professionals admonish also that an athlete endorser must have values that
match those of the company or brand (Cimoroni, 2004). Augmenting other studies
310 which also suggested a differentiation between celebrities and heroes (North et al.,
2005), Shuart (2007) determined that athletes who meet the definition of both sports
hero and celebrity, such as Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, are most likely to
influence purchasing behaviour.
Avoidance. When athletes who have been contracted to promote and endorse retail
products engage in socially unacceptable behaviour, legitimate concerns over consumer
alienation from the product may arise (Till, 2001; Ahluwalia et al., 2000). Despite the
efforts of most professional sports associations to provide to their athletes guidance and
mentorship regarding personal conduct and media appearances (Freifeld, 2004), several
prominent sports figures have lost lucrative product endorsement contracts because of
misconduct (Shuart, 2007; Burton et al., 2000). Accordingly, many advertisers have come
to view celebrity athletes as high-risk endorsers (Alsmadi, 2006), and include in their
contracts clauses which allow the brand to terminate the relationship should the
athlete’s poor judgment lead to moral or legal ramifications (Freifeld, 2004).
However, not all norm-breakers make poor product endorsers (Freifeld, 2004).
For example, Nike used in its advertisements both soccer player Eric Contona after he
had been suspended from a game for entering the stands and attacking a fan, and
basketball player Latrell Sprewell, after he had physically attacked his coach
(Burton et al., 2000). Thus, for some brands, when a celebrity athlete endorser receives
attention – even for obnoxious personal behaviour – the media coverage provides
additional advertisement for the product (Enrico, 1995). This is supported by Shuart
(2007), who found that over time, the public is likely to forget the negative behaviours
of athletes who engage in unlawful or otherwise socially unacceptable behaviour,
remembering only their career highlights.

Benefits to retailers
There is a paucity of research in the literature which directly addresses benefits to
retailers gained through selling products or services endorsed by celebrities or athletes.
We extend the previous study by addressing endorsers’ effects on the entire distribution
channel through the inclusion of retailers. Through reviewing the extant literature, three
constructs emerged as prominent issues affecting retailers and endorsement. These are
financial implications, effects on store image and consumer/retailer relationships.
Financial implications. In a world where it is increasingly difficult to catch
consumers’ attention, celebrity endorsements are viewed as an integral part of an
organization’s overall marketing plan (Temperly and Tangen, 2006). Print
advertisements and in-store events/personal appearances are among the key aspects
in strengthening consumers’ perceived association between the celebrity and the
product endorsed (Seno and Lukas, 2007). Accordingly, when Hanes launched its
premium line of men’s tagless underwear exclusively with US department store chain
May Co. in 2003, it chose Michael Jordan for its massive advertising campaign
(O’Loughlin, 2003). Despite the presumed success of this and other cooperative
advertising campaigns featuring athletes, little research exists to link sports celebrity Sports celebrity
endorsements with measurable economic value specific to retailers, whether the store is endorsements
identified in an ad or not (Byrne et al., 2003; Agrawal and Kamakura, 1995).
Yet some research has indeed found that sport celebrity endorsements drive
merchandise sales (Agrawal and Kamakura, 1995), necessarily benefiting not only
manufacturers, but also the retailers which carry the endorsed brands. In addition to
ongoing advertising campaigns, it appears that strong exposure of the celebrity sport 311
endorser in the months before a product is released can create for retailers significant
pre-sale demand for a new product. For example, months before Reebok launched its
$95 Vero baseball cleat in January 2005, its athlete endorser, Curt Schilling, had a
stellar season which took him to the American League (baseball) Championship.
Retailers reported that even though Schilling was not yet wearing the new cleat,
the publicity had generated streams of purchase inquiries (Aoki, 2004).
Thus, it is not clear from the limited research conducted at the retail level, whether
only some types of endorsements positively affect retail sales. The previous examples
involve athletic equipment and customer interest, but measure neither intention to buy
nor actual sales achieved by retailers due directly to endorsement. Similar campaigns
are mounted annually by Nike when launching a new “Air Jordan”, the exclusive shoe
line endorsed by Michael Jordan. Anecdotal evidence shows that prior to and during
those launches, sales of other footwear (Nike, Adidas, etc.) increase. Consequently,
it appears that if an athlete endorser is sufficiently popular, there are positive effects
for the retailer beyond the product endorsed.
Store image. Because one of the most significant features of any product is the place
where it is sold (Kotler, 1973), retailers consider store image to be a strategic
competitive tool in the marketplace (Reardon et al., 1995). Shoppers tend to seek stores
whose image and merchandise brands are congruent with their own self-image (Hem
and Iversen, 2002; Doyle and Fenwick, 1974). This phenomenon has been dubbed
“image congruity” (Heath and Scott, 1998), and is a positive motivator of consumer
purchasing behaviour (Sirgy et al., 1991). Notably, this relationship is more a matter of
perceived compatibility than actual congruence between the store or product and the
individual’s definite traits (Fournier, 1998). Researchers have documented that whether
national brand or private label, an appropriate match between the athlete endorser and
the brand represented is of paramount importance (McCracken, 1989; Kamins, 1990).
Accordingly, when selecting manufacturers’ brands or planning an endorsement
campaign for private label products, retailers should ensure the celebrity endorser will
reflect the personality and values of the store and its customers (Byrne et al., 2003;
Misra, 1990; Rogers, 1983).
Retailers should be aware of sports celebrity endorsement issues which may negatively
affect store image. The concerns articulated previously regarding unfavorable image
transfer to products by athletes who engage in socially unacceptable behaviour, could
potentially affect consumer perceptions of the stores that carry their endorsed brands.
Marketing experts warn retailers that even absent those problems, the effectiveness of any
celebrity endorsement can be diminished when the consumer’s in-store experience does
not reinforce the positive attributes conveyed by the celebrity endorser (Byrne et al., 2003).
Consumer relationships. From a long-range planning standpoint, sport celebrities
may play an important part in shaping future retail consumers. In receiving messages
from parents, peers, mass media and other outlets, young people undergo a process of
IJRDM socialization in which they learn how to be consumers in the marketplace (Bush et al.,
37,4 2004; Ward, 1974). When featured in mass advertising, celebrity athletes serve
vicariously as role models for these youthful consumers, influencing their lifestyles and
consumption patterns (Bush et al., 2004; Clark et al., 2001; Martin and Bush, 2000).
Because sports heroes are among the wealthiest members of a consumption-driven
society, they serve as aspirational models of the good life (Kellner, 2004). Despite some
312 suggestions that today’s teenagers are skeptical of athlete endorsements (Veltri et al.,
2003), athlete role models have been shown to positively influence teenagers’ brand
loyalty and favorable word-of-mouth communications about a product (Bush et al.,
2004).
The influence of celebrity athletes on youth can be significant – a 2005 study which
measured the effect of celebrity endorsements on political opinion among young adults
showed that endorsement from a well-revered athlete such as hockey-great, Wayne
Gretzky, could sway the subjects toward an otherwise unpopular opinion (Jackson and
Darrow, 2005). Interestingly, recent research shows that female teenagers are even more
influenced by sports celebrities than males in the same age range (Bush et al., 2004).

Research propositions
Since the last year of the Stone et al. study (2003) where they found print endorsements
were declining slightly, dramatic changes have occurred in the retail landscape. Online
retail sales have ballooned into the billions of dollars annually, US department stores
have seen increased consolidation (e.g. Macy’s as a national chain), and former giants
such as Kmart have filed for bankruptcy. The growth in the number of “big box”
retailers such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Kohl’s has also been significant. In addition,
the types and number of media outlets available to advertisers has changed, allowing
advertising messages to reach audiences through such channels as brand websites,
social networks and blogs, satellite radio (e.g. XM, Sirius), hundreds of cable channels
and satellite TV.
Moreover, the financial playing field in sports has virtually exploded in the past 20
years, with professional athletes earning millions to play and serve as endorsers.
Combined with the consolidation of retail outlets and the proliferation of alternate retail
channels (e.g. internet, television shopping, etc.), the use of sports celebrity endorsers
has become more expensive than ever. Even so, due to the increased competitiveness in
the marketplace, marketers may feel compelled to include celebrity and athlete
endorsements in their overall marketing plan (Temperly and Tangen, 2006). Thus, we
propose the following:
P1. Despite the previous decline in sports celebrity endorsers (Stone et al., 2003),
advertisements featuring athletes, as a percentage of total print
advertisements, will increase over the previously reported six-year period.
Stone et al. (2003) noted that there was an important phenomenon occurring during the
last six year period of their study. The researchers found that there were very few
athletes from the NBA and “National Football League” (NFL) featured in
advertisements. They proposed that the current (1993-1998) group of athletes might
not have been as “popular” as athletes from earlier periods, thus enticing marketers to
use retired athletes. The authors also speculated that fears of anti-social behaviour by
young professional athletes might be mitigated by using retired athletes.
 By 2007, the NFL had now become the most popular professional team sports Sports celebrity
league in the USA (Hoover’s Profile, 2007). The NBA has experienced solid growth too, endorsements
but has been plagued by incidents which seem to portray its players as less than
well-behaved. Thus, it may be that since Stone’s et al. (2003) research, the NBA remains
a disfavored pool for endorsers, but the NFL may now be a viable source. Although
there have been widespread reports of steroid abuse in Major League Baseball, these
problems have not been seen as anti-societal behaviours. For many, baseball is still 313
considered the “America’s Pastime”. Therefore, we propose:
P2. Advertisements for products ultimately sold by retailers will contain
professional baseball or football players as endorsers more than professional
athletes who play other sports.
With the difficulties and negative publicity faced by many professional sports leagues
and athletes, many marketers may be wary of using celebrity sports endorsers at all
(Louie et al., 2001; Till, 2001). At the same time, professional athletes may also be wary
of associating their names with certain products or companies. In Stone et al.’s (2003)
study, ads featuring athlete’s as endorsers of alcohol or cigarette products decreased
steadily over time. Smoking has become increasingly less accepted socially, with many
states and municipalities banning smoking in all public places. Since endorsement
contracts can more than double an athlete’s annual earnings and because product
association may affect image perceptions by fans, it is important that athletes choose
carefully the products with which they associate themselves. From this we propose
that:
P3. Advertisements for traditional retail merchandise and food will outnumber
advertisements for cigarettes and alcohol for all groups of celebrity sport
endorsers.

Methodology
A content analysis was conducted in order to obtain the information needed to analyze
the recent use of celebrity sports endorsers in retail advertising. This method has also
proved valuable in understanding such advertising in the past (Stone et al., 2003).
Content analysis has been defined as the systematic, objective, quantitative analysis of
communications content (Kassarjian, 1977). It is a systematic research method for
analyzing textual information in a standardized way to allow evaluators to make
inferences about that information (Weber, 1990), and may be used to analyse images
(Kolbe and Burnett, 1991) and characters depicted in advertising (Neuendorf, 2002).
Considered a scientific tool for research, content analysis provides new insights,
increases understanding of the phenomenon studied and provides meaningful
information for practical actions (Krippendorff, 2004). Among the limitations in using
content analysis, the most notable is the subjectivity involved in coding (Frost and
Wilmshurst, 2000), as the researcher’s ability to draw valid inferences depends on the
reliability of the data and the instrument (Milne and Adler, 1999). To assure reliability,
the researchers followed Kassarjian’s (1977) general guidelines for content analysis.

Sample
Following the methodology of Stone et al. (2003), we chose print advertising as the
medium to study, and SI as the periodical to analyse. For the six-year period,
IJRDM we analysed 12 issues per year (or one per month). SI serves as an appropriate
37,4 periodical upon which to conduct a content analysis of this kind, as our stated focus
was athletic endorsements in print advertising, and SI is considered one of the oldest
and most widely read sports magazines in the USA. Although such advertising now
also appears online, it has only been available online during the past decade, thus
making any comparisons to previous research impossible.
314 Because content analysis requires the onerous task of reviewing numerous
documents, the simple random and interval sampling methods have long been employed
by marketing and consumer researchers to obtain meaningful data (Kassarjian, 1977).
Using a random number generator, we generated 72 random numbers between one and
five. SI publishes one full issue every week (some months have five weeks) as well as
occasional special issues. If the random number for a four-issue month was five, we
chose one of the four on a rotating basis (i.e. one the first occurrence, two the second, etc.).
Thus, for the six-year period, 72 randomly chosen issues were analysed. All
advertisements in each selected issue were counted.

Coding
We then coded advertisements which pictured humans as follows: celebrity athlete,
celebrity (non-athlete), regular model, coach, athletic team, celebrity group, celebrity
athlete group (non-team) and regular group. Because categories of analysis must be
defined so as to enable different analysts to later apply the categories to the same body
of content and replicate the original results (Kassarjian, 1977, p. 9), to provide clarity,
an “athletic team” was defined as two or more members of a professional sports team
(e.g. Manchester United, New York Yankees); a “celebrity group” consisted of two or
more celebrities who are not professional athletes; an “athlete group” included two or
more athletes who were not teammates (and often not even from the same sport); and a
“regular group” was defined as two or more models.
As to merchandise classification, we coded individually the following products
ultimately sold by retailers: cigarettes, alcohol, apparel, food, consumer products and
athletic equipment. For advertisements not meeting those descriptions, we included a
separate category entitled “all other”. We later collapsed for further examination the
following categories into a new code, “traditional retail products”: apparel, food,
consumer products and athletic equipment.

Results
Using SPSS 14.5, the data were analysed to answer the research propositions. For the
six-year period of 2001-2006, we found that there were a comparable number of
advertisements to Stone et al.’s (2003) study. For the Stone et al.’s first period in the
1980s, there were 2,150 total ads, while for the second period in the 1990s there were
2,750 total ads. The current study revealed a total of 2,398 ads for the six-year period,
and along with the individual categories can be found in Table I. Based on our
findings, there does not appear to be any net growth or decline in print advertisements
in the magazine over the past 20 þ years, thus allowing a balanced comparison.
There was, however, a large difference in the number of advertisements featuring
sport celebrities. In the earlier periods, Stone and his co-authors found that athletes
appeared in 5.6 per cent and 5.4 per cent of all ads, respectively. In the current study,
we found that athletes appeared in 9.9 per cent of all ads, or a 56 per cent increase over
1983-1988, and a 54 per cent increase over 1993-1998. If coaches, teams, and groups of Sports celebrity
athletes are included, the difference is even greater – as 14.1 per cent of all ads from the endorsements
current period featured one of those combinations of sports celebrities (Table I).
Therefore, we can accept our P1; there was an increase in the number of
advertisements utilizing sports celebrities as endorsers, compared to the previous
findings from Stone et al. (2003).
Our research also revealed marked increases since the 1993-1998 period in percentage 315
of ads featuring human beings rather than products, and also in sports figures compared
to other people. Although the majority of advertisements during both periods featured
no human being, in the 1990s humans were featured in only 30.3 per cent of all ads,
compared to the 2000s, when the figure jumped to 44 per cent. More specifically,
we found that of the humans featured, the occurrence of athletes almost doubled by the
2000s. During the 1990s, 17.7 per cent of the people featured in ads were athletes; by
the 2000s, 32 per cent of the people in product advertisements were athletes.
Our P2 was that advertisements for products ultimately sold by retailers would
utilize baseball and football players more frequently than they would all other
professional athletes. To examine this proposition, we conducted a x 2 test for
independence. We re-coded ads with baseball and football players as one and all other
athletes as two, whilst advertisements for cigarettes, alcohol, apparel, food, consumer
products and athletic equipment were coded as one and all other advertisements as
two. Table II shows that the x 2 was significant (70.34; p ¼ 0.000), indicating that the
marketers of products ultimately sold by retailers utilize baseball and football athletes
more often in advertisements than they use all other athletes. We can therefore confirm
the P2. Interestingly, we also found that the sport from which a celebrity endorser of
alcohol or cigarettes was most likely to come was auto racing. Although no basketball,

Regular Celebrity Athlete

Year Product Athlete Celebrity Model Coach Team group group group Total

2001 243 38 19 83 0 4 0 1 0 388

2002 245 45 32 146 3 4 0 3 0 479
2003 255 36 16 108 4 14 2 2 9 446
2004 217 53 13 97 3 6 0 0 16 405
2005 168 30 18 91 1 2 0 7 17 334 Table I.
2006 215 35 15 67 6 7 0 1 6 346 Featured in
Total 1,343 237 113 592 17 37 2 14 48 2,398 advertisement – number
Percentage 56 9.9 4.7 24.7 0.8 1.5 0.01 0.6 2.1 * of occurrences in sample

Advertisements Retail goods All others Totals

Athlete
Baseball/football 148 0 148
All other athletes 126 75 201
Totals 274 75 349
Table II.
Notes: x 2 ¼ 70.34; p ¼ 0.000 x 2 test of independence
IJRDM hockey, soccer, or tennis players endorsed these products, alcohol and cigarettes
37,4 represented 18.2 per cent of the retail products represented by auto racers.
In P3, we proposed that there would be a greater number of celebrity sports
endorsements utilized for products which we describe as traditional retail products
(e.g. apparel, food, food retailers, consumer products and athletic equipment), than
those used for cigarette and alcohol advertisements. Table III shows the totals of these
316 two groups of products by each category of sport in the study. Of the advertisements
for products ultimately sold at retail outlets, only 11 per cent featuring sports
celebrities were for cigarettes or alcohol, whilst 89 per cent were for more traditional
retail merchandise. This confirms our P3 regarding celebrity sports endorsements and
retailers.

Conclusions and recommendations

The study of celebrities as endorsers of products has found increased interest from
researchers in the past decade. This is understandable considering the staggering
amounts of money spent by marketers upon endorsements. This research was
conducted to provide retailers, marketers and brand owners’ useful information
regarding trends in the use of sports celebrities to promote retail products in national
print media. Because celebrities in advertising are known to influence brand choice
behaviour and drive retail sales, the researchers believe that many of the findings of
this study may be meaningful to retailers in the context of varied advertising formats.
Stone et al.’s (2003) study was an exploratory look at the frequency with which
marketers use athletes as endorsers of products. That study took the viewpoint that
perhaps a key reason endorsement activity had decreased over a 15-year period was
that marketers were leery of partnering with professional athletes whose behaviour
had become increasingly anti-social. Our study used the same method and medium,
and sought to investigate whether the trend had continued nearly ten years later. It
appears that what may be perceived as the proliferation of bad behaviour by
professional athletes has not abated. Considering the seeming proliferation of bad
behaviour by professional athletes, it may seem that the risk of paying them to endorse
a product might be too high for many marketers.
Yet, we proposed and found that there has been a marked increase in the use of
sports celebrities as endorsers of products. Although content analysis allows the
review of large amounts of information, it does not allow for determining causation.

Sport Cigarettes/alchohol Retail goods Totals

Baseball 1 19 20
Football 7 42 49
Basketball 0 29 29
Hockey 0 1 1
Soccer 0 8 8
Tennis 0 8 8
Golf 2 11 13
Auto racing 4 18 22
Other 8 42 50
Table III. Mixed 0 0 0
Sport and retail products Totals 22 178 200
Accordingly, we cannot provide definitive reasons as to why this change in trend has Sports celebrity
occurred, nor why marketers have increased their use of celebrity endorsers. We can endorsements
speculate as to the reasons and offer some possible explanations. As an initial matter,
the increased frequency of endorsement contracts including a provision which permits
the brand owner to terminate the relationship upon a finding of the athlete’s poor
judgment or legal difficulties, has enabled brands to react promptly to negative
publicity, disassociate with the tarnished celebrity and reduce breach-of-contract 317
lawsuits. More significantly, through endorsement contracts, marketers and retailers
seek to create an advantage over rivals as the retail landscape in the USA has become
increasingly competitive over the past decade, fueled by retail consolidation, growth of
the internet and the proliferation of big box retailers. When retailers partner with
brands that have carefully chosen an appropriate sports celebrity for a long-term
contract, they effectively shut out the competition and gain a sustainable competitive
advantage (Barney, 1991). When Nike signed Tiger Woods to a long-term,
multi-million dollar contract in 1996, they took a high-risk gamble that Woods
would not only become a premiere golfer, but would also not engage in an anti-social
public behaviour. In the past ten years Woods has indeed become the top golfer in the
world, and has brought Nike – through its retail partners – many times more in
revenue than it paid out in fees to Woods. Thus, marketers are constantly seeking that
sports celebrity who will return to them millions in revenue increases through
endorsing their product or business.
The second key reason that endorsement activity has increased may be due to major
changes in the marketplace. Many professional sports leagues are actively “courting”
younger fans, who are often not bothered by bad public behaviour, and may even
reward it. The youthful group of fans being courted by the NBA, NFL and others like
to see their heroes challenging the status quo (Burton et al., 2000). For some marketers,
the risk of bad behaviour is tolerated, while for others, bad behaviour may actually add
to the cache of the brand (Enrico, 1995).
Though the original study by Stone et al. (2003) did not look at retail goods, we
found that nearly 20 per cent of all advertisements using sports celebrity endorsers
were for goods sold in retail stores. Retailers often have little input into whom a
manufacturer chooses to endorse a product. The upside is that when the manufacturer
chooses correctly (e.g. Tiger Woods), the retailer benefits indirectly through increased
demand for the product. When the manufacturer chooses unwisely, the retailer may be
able to drop the product from its assortment and replace it with another. This type of
action directly influences how a manufacturer handles problem situations with
endorsers. But retailers can also engage sports celebrities as endorsers of their retail
brand, as Gap has done in the past with entertainers. Based on the aforementioned,
retailers aiming at youthful consumers or engaged in efforts to influence a future
consumer base may wish to consider using sport celebrities as spokespersons for their
stores, carrying athlete-endorsed products and entering into cooperative advertising
with brands that have secured sport celebrity endorsers.
It is important to note some of the limitations of the current study. Although we
chose SI as the medium through which to conduct our content analysis, we did so
because it was an extension of an earlier study. There are many media outlets today for
marketers to advertise their products and services. It is quite possible that an
investigation of those media would have yielded different results than our study.
IJRDM Additionally, the Stone et al. (2003) study did not break down the types of sports
37,4 celebrity endorsers based on teams, groups or individual athletes. Nor did the study
address different types of product categories. Thus, it is difficult to compare the
findings of the two on those bases. Future studies should look at these items over a
longer period of time. Research regarding the fiscal impact sports celebrity
endorsements have on retailers would provide an important addition to the extant
318 body of research in this area. Other issues germane to the retail industry which
warrant further attention include the effects of athlete endorser’s negative behaviour
on retailers which carry the advertised product, strategies for image recovery in such
instances and effective methods retailers might employ to offset lost sales
opportunities resulting from product launches cancelled by brand owners when a
celebrity endorser’s image plummets.

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Corresponding author
Karen E. Lear can be contacted at: kelear@mailbox.sc.edu

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