Hello Kitty livery is just a glimpse of Hello Kitty experiential package: The effects of celebrity-themed aircraft on purchase intention

Purpose - Celebrity-themed aircraft campaigns have become a popular tactic that airlines adopt as part of their experiential marketing efforts. The campaign aims at differentiating their airline from competitors through delivering and/or reforming consumers' flying experience. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach - Based on data collected from Taiwan, this study investigated the influence of four antecedents - attitude toward celebrity-themed aircrafts, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and celebrity worship - on purchase intention. Findings - The results revealed significant positive relationships between all four antecedents and purchase intention. Furthermore, celebrity worship changed the relationships between attitude, subjective norms, as well as perceived behavioral control and intentions. Originality/value - This study investigates the potential role of marketing program of airlines with a fictional celebrity-themed aircraft that offer immersive flying experience to consumers. The experience starts on the outside where consumers can see the aircraft painted with celebrity-themed livery, and on the inside where the consumers get to experience many celebrity-related products, services, and spirit. According to the results, airlines can influence consumer purchase intention of the airlines services by offering consumers more celebrity related services, including celebrity-themed aircraft, customized products, and limited-amount souvenirs for their patronage. The results also demonstrate that celebrity worship has a significantly moderating effect on consumers' perception on purchase intention. The results can vary depending on the intensity of celebrity worship.