Endorser attributes, customer experience, and brand advocacy in the Vietnamese personal care market
-
Author(s)Thuy Duong PhamLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9932-1829
,
Huong Thi Lan LeLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1446-7280
,
Hai Ninh NguyenLink to ORCID Index: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1658-531X
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.22(1).2026.03
-
Article InfoVolume 22 2026, Issue #1, pp. 27-39
- 26 Views
-
4 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Type of the article: Research Article
Abstract
As influencer marketing intensifies within the hyper-competitive personal care industry, selecting the optimal brand endorser ranging from high-profile celebrities to niche social media influencers has become a critical strategy for fostering sustainable consumer loyalty. Grounded in the Source Credibility Model and Match-Up Hypothesis, this study empirically investigates the impact of four key endorser attributes (attractiveness, trustworthiness, popularity, and brand-endorser congruency) on brand advocacy, while examining the mediating mechanism of customer experience. Primary data were collected from April to June 2025 through a mixed-mode survey targeting consumers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City who had recently purchased endorsed personal care products. Using a convenience sampling method across major shopping centers and relevant online beauty communities, the study analyzed 231 valid responses via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that brand-endorser congruency exerts a direct positive influence on brand advocacy (β = 0.284, p < 0.01). Conversely, attractiveness (β = 0.198, p < 0.01), trustworthiness (β = 0.224, p < 0.001), and popularity (β = 0.173, p < 0.05) impact advocacy solely through the mediation of customer experience. The structural model demonstrates substantial explanatory power, accounting for 61.2% of the variance in brand advocacy. These findings imply that in the Vietnamese market, the strategic alignment between the endorser’s persona and the brand’s image is more decisive for advocacy than fame or physical appeal alone, underscoring the necessity of creating meaningful customer experiences over superficial endorsements to transform passive followers into active brand advocates.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)M31, M37
-
References48
-
Tables14
-
Figures2
-
- Figure 1. Proposed research model
- Figure 2. Structural model assessment result
-
- Table 1. Demographical analysis
- Table 2. Consistency Reliability and convergent validity
- Table 3. HTMT
- Table 4. Structural model result
- Table 5. Multicollinearity testing
- Table 6. Effect size (f²)
- Table 7. Bootstrapping result
- Table 8. Mediation analysis results
- Table A1. Attractiveness – A
- Table A2. Trustworthiness – T
- Table A3. Endorser-Brand Congruency – EBC
- Table A4. Popularity – P
- Table A5. Customer Experience with Endorser – CE
- Table A6. Brand Advocacy – BA
-
- Alharbi, A., Dwivedi, Y. K., Rana, N. P., & Algharabat, R. (2022). When corporate social advocacy meets controversial celebrity: The role of consumer–brand congruence and consumer–celebrity congruenceю Journal of Business Research, 138, 249-261.
- B&Company. (2024). Beauty and Personal Care Market in Vietnam and the Participation of Japanese Brands.
- Bai, S., Zhang, W., & Yu, D. (2024). Uncovering effects of virtual endorser’s attractiveness on consumer behaviors from the perspective of national culture. Current Psychology, 43(34), 27534-27547.
- Bain & Company. (2023). The future of beauty in Asia: Digital and personalization trends.
- Barari, M. M., Eisend, M., & Jain, S. P. (2025). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of social media influencers: Mechanisms and moderation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1-21.
- Becker, J. M., Ringle, C. M., Sarstedt, M., & Völckner, F. (2015). How collinearity affects mixture regression results, Marketing Letters, 26(4), 643-659.
- Christodoulides, G., Cadogan, J. W., & Veloutsou, C. (2015). Consumer-based brand equity measurement: lessons learned from an international study. International Marketing Review, 32(3/4), 307-328.
- Dataeportal (2025). Digital 2025: Vietnam.
- De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2017). Marketing through Instagram influencers: The impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising, 36(5), 798-828.
- Djafarova, E., & Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities’ Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 1-7.
- Egbert, J., & Plonsky, L. (2021). Bootstrapping techniques. In A practical handbook of corpus linguistics (593-610). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
- Euromonitor International. (2023). Vietnam Personal Care Market Report 2023.
- Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50.
- Foroudi, P., Jin, Z., Gupta, S., Foroudi, M. M., & Kitchen, P. J. (2018). Perceptional components of brand equity: Configuring the symmetrical and asymmetrical paths to brand loyalty and brand purchase intention, Journal of Business Research, 89, 462-474.
- Geisser, S. (1974). A predictive approach to the random effect model. Biometrika, 61(1), 101-107.
- Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2017). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
- Harrigan, P., Evers, U., Miles, M. P., & Daly, T. (2017). Customer engagement with brands in social media platforms: Configurations, dynamics, and key success factors. Journal of Business Research, 79, 153-165.
- Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115-135.
- Impact. (2024). E-commerce Influencer Marketing in Southeast Asia.
- Irawan, A., & Cheng, J. M. S. (2025). Elevating Customer Brand Advocacy through Owned Social Media Content. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 20(1), 10.
- Jin, S.-A. A., Muqaddam, A., & Ryu, E. (2019). Instafamous and social media influencer marketing, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 37(5), 567-579.
- Kalam, T., Goi, C. L., & Tiong, T. H. (2024). The effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer advocacy behavior through customization and entertainment intention. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 41(1), 33-52.
- Kamins, M. A. (1990). An investigation into the “match-up” hypothesis in celebrity advertising: When beauty may be only skin deep, Journal of Advertising, 19(1), 4-13.
- Kesner, P. (2023). The Power of Influencer Marketing in the Beauty industry.
- Khan, R. U., Salamzadeh, Y., Iqbal, Q., & Yang, S. (2022). The impact of customer relationship management and company reputation on customer loyalty: The mediating role of customer satisfaction. Journal of Relationship Marketing, 21(1), 1-26.
- Kim, D., & Wang, Z. (2024). Social media influencer vs. virtual influencer: The mediating role of source credibility and authenticity in advertising effectiveness within AI influencer marketing. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 2(2), 100100.
- Le, D. (2023). Why are Global Cosmetics Brands Flocking to the Vietnam Cosmetics Market?
- Leban, M., & Voyer, B. G. (2020). Social media influencers versus traditional influencers: Roles and consequences for traditional marketing campaigns. In Influencer marketing (pp. 26-42). Routledge.
- Lee, J., Walter, N., Hayes, J. L., & Golan, G. J. (2024). Do influencers influence? A meta-analytic comparison of celebrities and social media influencers effects. Social Media+ Society, 10(3),
- Lou, C., & Yuan, S. (2019). Influencer marketing: How message value and credibility affect consumer trust. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58-73.
- Lourenco, C. E., Correa Ferreira, J., & Martins dos Santos, V. (2024). Humanizing brands in social media: The impact of anthropomorphism on brand identification, engagement, and advocacy. Journal of Marketing Communications, 1-22.
- Luong, T. T. H., Luu, M. P. T., & Nguyen, H. N. (2023). How online KOL endorsement on TikTok affects customer brand association and recall: Evidence from Vietnam’s F&B sector. The International Journal of Business Management and Technology, 7(2), 336-344.
- McGuire, W. J. (1985). The nature of attitudes and attitude change. Handbook of Social Psychology, 2(3), 233-346.
- Ohanian, R. (1990). Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers’ perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Journal of Advertising, 19(3), 39-52.
- Putri, R., & Roostika, R. (2021). The role of celebrity endorser toward brand attitude and purchase intention: A study from Indonesia. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, 10(8), 68-75.
- Rusnaini, S., Ariyanto, M., Jessika, S., Pratiwi, W., & Marlina, E. (2024). The Customer Experience Revolution: Building Brand Loyalty in the Age of Digital Disruption. Enigma in Economics, 2(1), 69-80.
- Schimmelpfennig, C., & Hunt, J. B. (2020). Fifty years of celebrity endorser research: Support for a comprehensive celebrity endorsement strategy framework. Psychology & Marketing, 37(3), 488-505.
- Schouten, A. P., Janssen, L., & Verspaget, M. (2021). Celebrity vs. Influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and Product-Endorser fit. In Leveraged marketing communications (pp. 208-231). Routledge.
- Shimp, T. A. (2000). Advertising, Promotion & Supplemental Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications (674 p.). Dryden Press.
- Simon, F., & Cambefort, M. (2025). Do endorsers contribute to the social standing of brands? Exploring social judgments about celebrities versus influencers. Journal of Business Research, 200, 115671.
- Statista. (2023). Vietnam Personal Care Market Size and Forecast.
- Sviderska, S. Y., & Kukhta, P. V. (2023). Trends in the Global and Ukrainian Markets of Cosmetics Products. Business Inform, 9, 311-318.
- Sweeney, J. C., Payne, A., & Frow, P. (2020). Customer advocacy: A distinctive form of word of mouth. Journal of Service Research, 23(1), 139-155.
- Verma, S., Kapoor, D., & Gupta, R. (2024). Role of influencer–follower congruence in influencing followers’ food choices and brand advocacy: mediating role of perceived trust. British Food Journal, 126(12), 4055-4071.
- Vietnam Briefing. (2023). The Rise of E-commerce in Vietnam’s Beauty Industry.
- Wibowo, A., Chen, S.-C., Wiangin, U., Ma, Y., & Ruangkanjanases, A. (2021). Customer behavior as an outcome of social media marketing: The role of social media marketing activity and customer experience, Sustainability, 13(1), 189.
- Zaidun, N. A., Muda, M., & Hashim, N. H. (2021). The relationship between customer brand engagement and brand loyalty for local car brands in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(6), 648-668.
- Zhang, H. (2024). The Influence of Social Media Marketing and Customer Experience on Consumer Purchase Intentions: A Case Study of Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Company. Human Behavior, Development & Society, 25(3). 45.
-
Turning a commodity into an experience: the “sweetest spot” in the coffee shop
Murilo Branco ,
Diana Kobakova
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.14(4).2018.04
Innovative Marketing Volume 14, 2018 issue #4 pp. 46-55 Views: 2542 Downloads: 1580 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯCommodities are products with low economic value, but when related to experience, they can turn into profitable businesses. In the present work, the authors seek to understand consumer behavior in the coffee industry, guided by the following research question: How can customer experience affect price perception? To answer this question, the researchers conducted an analysis using the four realms of experience from Pine and Gilmore (1999, 2011) – entertainment, education, esthetics, and escapist – and how they behave according to different kinds of customer experience, as well as their relation to price perception. To understand this, the authors conducted qualitative research with 40 consumers in two important coffee companies: Starbucks and Costa Coffee. The coffee shops analyzed are located in the city of Marbella, Spain. The results of this research show that customers are aware of the price discrepancy, but still frequenting coffee shops for different experiences according to their interests. This work is groundbreaking because of the analysis of the four realms of experience and its correlation with the price perception. The authors also introduced to the customer experience field the analysis of the four realms in the coffee shop industry. Finally, from the research results, the authors suggest various managerial practices that can improve customer experience and the perception of prices.
-
Impact of digital transformation on the organization’s financial performance: A case of Jordanian commercial banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange
Nahed Habis Alrawashedh ,
Mohammad Fawzi Shubita
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/bbs.19(1).2024.11
Banks and Bank Systems Volume 19, 2024 Issue #1 pp. 126-134 Views: 2508 Downloads: 751 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯDigital transformation refers to strategic activities undertaken by organizations to improve and simplify their process and even alter their business models with abreast to enhance firm performance. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the impact of digital transformation on organizational performance among the Jordanian commercial banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. The descriptive research design was used in this quantitative study. Primary data were collected to achieve the objectives of the study. The target population was employees (managers and non-managers) of Jordanian commercial banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. The sample size was selected using Krejcie and Morgan rule; after data cleaning procedures, the final sample of 282 respondents was used for final analysis. The study employed regression analysis to arrive at the results. The results confirm that digital transformation has a significant positive effect on customer experience and IT innovation. These results were significant at a 1% level. The results also confirm that digital transformation has a significant positive effect on firm performance, with a significance level of 1%. Moreover, the significant positive impact of customer experience and IT innovation was confirmed. Therefore, the significant positive impact of digital transformation on firm performance was found viz-a-viz direct as well as indirect route.
-
Unlocking the potential of loyalty programs in reference to customer experience with digital wallets
Vidushi Vatsa ,
Bhawna Agarwal ,
Ruchika Gupta
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.19(1).2023.20
Innovative Marketing Volume 19, 2023 Issue #1 pp. 233-243 Views: 1891 Downloads: 824 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯThe emergence of digital technology has fundamentally transformed how businesses generate value for their customers. One of the critical components of this paradigm shift in digital transformation is improving customer experience, which benefits both consumers and organizations.
This study aims to evaluate customer experience and its influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the digital wallet domain. It also analyzes the moderating role of loyalty programs. This study was conducted in the Indian context since, alongside advancements in technology and a focus on digitalization, there has been a substantial increase in the acceptance of cashless payment options. The data from 349 respondents using the snowball sampling technique were collected through Google Forms, and SmartPLS 4.0 was used for analysis.
The results showed that loyalty and satisfaction are significantly influenced in the digital wallet domain if organizations work on factors affecting customer experience. The results also proved that loyalty programs moderate the relationship between customer experience and customer satisfaction.
This analysis successfully unlocked the potential of loyalty programs and established that loyalty programs do not moderate customer loyalty. However, organizations must note that poorly designed loyalty programs are just like any other sale promotion scheme, which adds up to the promotional expense without achieving the overall long-term objective of sustaining loyal consumers.
