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Abstract
This study mainly investigated the correlation among consumers' attitude towards brand image, athletes' endorsement, and purchase intention as well as their influences, and investigated the influences of consumers' attitude towards brand image and athletes' endorsement on purchase intention. This study used questionnaire survey to enroll consumers participating in sports and leisure activities as the subjects. This study formally distributed 800 questionnaires. After 77 invalid questionnaires were excluded, there were a total of 723 valid questionnaires, with a return rate of 90.38%.
The research results showed that, consumers' attitude towards brand image indeed has a positive influence on purchase intention; athletes' endorsement has a positive influence on purchase intention; brand image has an intervening effect on purchase intention through the path of athletes' endorsement. Therefore, athletes' endorsement has an intervening effect on path affected by brand image. Based on the above, enterprises build specific brand image, and the brand image as perceived and associated by consumers has positive influence on their purchase intention. Consequently, designing unique brand image, creating product properties with a high sense of value, improving product value, using professional endorsement, and improving consumers' brand identity certainly can help improve enterprises' sustainable operation and competitiveness.
Key Words: Athletes' Endorsement, Brand Image, Purchase Intention, SEM, Taiwan
Introduction
With the coming of era of economic development and commercialization, sports have gradually formed an industry (Yu, 2011). Sports and leisure industry has been changed by current lifestyle, and the development of sports and leisure industry has also led to the prosperous development of sports brands. The development of commodities, ornamentation, and experiences is closely related to sports products. Therefore, products have been constantly created to better meet the needs of consumers. In addition, brand image has also been built and connected with fashion brands to create another new world for sports and leisure industry to increase the desire to purchase of consumers in sports and leisure industry (Chang, Chen & Liu, 2012).
In the 21st century, the era of pursuit of image, to improve product value to attract consumers, both the functionality of products and the evolution of spiritual aspect of consumers should be taken into account. In the era of pursuit of image, in addition to basic functions and aesthetic needs of products, consumers...