Celebrity endorsement practices are referred in many studies in relations to behavioral and cognitive perspectives across the markets and product scopes. The notion of effectiveness of celebrity endorsement is noted as one of the niches in many empirical studies. Meanwhile, multiplicity has been postulated as another investigation area that claims further investigations to determine its influence on the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. Besides, industry significance and empirical gaps found in recent studies note services sector as a significant case to examine the overall effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on endorsed-brand evaluation. Meanwhile, consumer-celebrity emotional bond resulted via celebrity worship motives has also being emphasized as a mechanism that patterns the influence of celebrity endorsement on perceived brand evaluation. Accordingly, this paper focuses to postulate how the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement influences perceived brand evaluation in services sector brands by specifying Sri Lanka as a specific context. Paper referred the source-based factors and multiplicity, which is a context of management –based factors, to determine the overall effectiveness of celebrity endorsement whilst Brand Trust and Brand Love and Brand Attitudes were highlighted as different facets of perceived brand evaluation. It has pointed out the industry significance of the celebrity endorsement practices in Sri Lanka within the services scope by concluding managerial implications. Finally, paper postulates future research directions with reference to the relationship between effectiveness of celebrity endorsement and perceived brand evaluation.
Keywords: Celebrity Worship Motives, Perceived Brand Evaluation, Perceived Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement, Services Brands, Sri Lanka
