在營銷實踐中,多位代言人同時出現在一則廣告中的組合代言廣告日益增多,卻很少有研究關注。本文探究了組合代言中代言人關系類型(合作型組合代言vs.沖突型組合代言)對廣告效果的影響。研究發現,相對于合作型組合代言,沖突型組合代言會產生更好的廣告效果;這種作用是通過消費者感知到的廣告生動性所中介的;消費者的情感強度可以調節這種作用,對于情感強度較高的消費者,沖突型組合代言能產生更好的廣告效果,而對于情感強度較低的消費者沒有顯著影響;此外,代言人之間的差異程度也可以起到調節作用,即當消費者對組合代言中代言人們的評價相差較小時,沖突型組合代言能提升廣告效果,當對代言人們的評價相差較大時,則沒有顯著的促進作用。文章還對這些發現的理論貢獻、營銷啟示和未來研究方向進行了討論。

Marketing practice has recently seen an increasing number of ads featuring more than one celebrity endorser in one ad. Although many studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of endorsement, little research attention has been given to group endorsement and hardly any studies have focused on the relationships between endorsers(cooperative vs. conflicting) in one ad. Building on the studies about advertising effectiveness and conflict, the current research proposes that the conflicting group endorsement brought stronger advertising effectiveness than the cooperative one. The mediating effect of consumers’ perceived vividness of the ad and the moderating effects of consumers’ affect intensity and the degree of discrepancy between endorsers were also examined.Two pretests and three main experiments were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Following the methods in previous studies, three products matching up with the two endorsers used in this study were screened in Pretest 1. The validity of the manipulation of endorsers’ relationship types were verified in Pretest 2. In Experiment 1, a one factor(endorsers’ relationship type: cooperative vs. conflicting) between subjects design with 99 participants was adopted to examine the effect of endorsers’ relationship types on advertising effectiveness and the mediating effect of consumers’ perceived vividness. The descriptions of product, endorsers and their relationship types verified in the pretests were used and advertising effectiveness and perceived vividness were measured by established scales. Following a similar procedure, a 2(endorsers’ relationship type: cooperative vs. conflicting) × 2(affect intensity: high and low) between subjects design with 91 participants was adopted to examine the moderating effect of consumers’ affect intensity in Experiment 2. The participants’ affect intensity were measured by established scales and divided into two groups by the median. In Experiment 3, a 2(endorsers’ relationship type: cooperative vs. conflicting) × 2(degree of the discrepancy between endorsers: high and low) between subjects design with 102 participants was adopted to examine the moderating effect of the degree of discrepancy between endorsers. The participants were asked to rate the two endorsers based on three attributes and they were further divided into two groups by the median of the absolute value of the difference. The results revealed that, compared to the cooperative group endorsement, the conflicting group endorsement had positive impact on advertising effectiveness. This effect was mediated by consumers’ perceived vividness of the ad. Furthermore, consumers’ affect intensity moderated this effect. For consumers with higher affect intensity, the conflicting group endorsement promoted advertising effectiveness, but this effect did not happen for the consumers with lower affect intensity. The degree of discrepancy between endorsers also moderated this effect. When the discrepancy of consumers’ evaluations of the endorsers in the group endorsement was small, the conflicting group endorsement had a positive effect on advertising effectiveness, but this effect did not happen when the discrepancy is large. The current research provided empirical evidence to the influence of endorsers’ relationship types in group endorsement on advertising effectiveness and its underlying process. This study expanded the research of advertising effectiveness from the perspective of endorsers’ relationship type. The results reflected the positive role of conflict and verified the effect of vividness, and also highlighted the importance of consumers’ and endorsers’ properties. Moreover, these findings provided meaningful marketing implications for practical ad design and helped a brand to choose proper endorsers in group endorsement.