ABSTRACT
People are eager to purchase a pair of shoes endorsed by Michael Jordan or a candy bar endorsed by Shaq. Firms dish out millions of dollars to athletes each year to lure them to appear in commercials for products and services. These days, athletes are paid by firms to endorse a wide variety of products, but how do the firms know to which athletes consumers will respond? Oftentimes, companies base the decision of which athlete to hire on Q-ratings. Q-ratings are meant to inform firms about the celebrities that groups of people identify with the most, but is this the best way to determine who should endorse a specific product? How and to what extent are Q-ratings an effective way of predicting marketing success among professional athlete endorsers? What other factors could possibly be incorporated in the decision related to determining the perfect athlete endorser? The thesis of this chapter is that, although Q-ratings are a reliable method of determining an athlete’s general popularity, they ignore many important aspects of successful endorsers. This chapter examines the method by which Q-ratings are calculated as well as important attributes of successful endorsers.
