Evaluation of factors affecting on acceptance of products endorsing athletes from customers' perspective

The aim of this study was to evaluation of factors affecting on acceptance of products endorsing athletes from customers' perspective. This is an applied descriptive study. The population of the study included all the sports store customers in Tabriz city. In this study a total of 350 questionnaires were distributed and finally 334 questionnaires were collected. For data collection athlete endorser effectiveness scale was applied. The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by 15 professors of sport management. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was determined with Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.92). The hypotheses were examined by the structural equation modeling method using Smart PLS 3.00 software. The results indicated that respectively athlete expertise, athlete trustworthiness, athlete attractiveness, athlete likability, athlete similarity and athlete familiarity has a significant and positive impact in accepting the famous athletes in advertising from the customers' perspective. Moreover, results indicated that 93% of criterion variables (acceptance athlete) were explained by the Predictor variables. Therefore, it is concluded that the familiarity of the athletes, athletes' attractiveness, athletes' expertise, athletes' similarity, lovable character and reliability of the athletes should be taken into account by the sports marketing companies in selecting athletes as endorsers.