Principle of congruity

A concept derived from psychology and used in the context of marketing communication. This principle may be applied when a company wants to change the attitudes of its consumers by using celebrity endorsers. Suppose a consumer hears a likeable celebrity praise a brand that he or she dislikes, this principle holds that attitude change will take place in the direction of increasing the amount of congruity between the brand and the celebrity. This implies that a company can use the good image of celebrity to reduce some negative feelings toward a brand but in the process it might loose some esteem with respect to that celebrity. Therefore, celebrities should be used with some discretion.