Attractiveness or expertise? Which is more effective in beauty product endorsement? Moderating role of social distance

Abstract

In the beauty industry, advertisers are increasingly exploring endorsements from social media influencers (SMIs) as a strategy to promote positive consumer responses. For this strategy to be effective, it is important to select appropriate SMIs. Across two experiments, we investigated the moderating role of social distance by comparing an attractive celebrity to an expert SMI (Study 1) and by comparing attractive SMIs to expert SMIs (Study 2). The findings indicate that attractiveness is more effective when the perceived social distance from the endorser is close, whereas expertise is better when the social distance is far. Furthermore, the effects of endorser type on advertising effectiveness were mediated by attractiveness (expertise), which was mediated by the parasocial relationship with the SMI. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings regarding social media advertising strategies.