Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of spiritual leaders as celebrity business founders and brand endorsers by investigating the mediating role of perceived value in the impact of normative community pressure and perceived brand credibility on purchase intention.

Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data from two studies in India, one with urban (N = 307) and another with rural (N = 206) consumers of fast moving consumer goods brands being endorsed by popular celebrity business founders. The authors tested all our hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach with SmartPLS software.

Findings Perceived value mediates the positive impact of normative community pressure and perceived brand credibility on purchase intention for the brands endorsed by celebrity business founders, and these mediating effects are stronger for urban (vs rural) consumers.

Research limitations/implications The results from Indian consumers may not be generalizable to other emerging markets with diverse cultural and socio-economic conditions.

Practical implications This research would help international marketers understand the unique branding and marketing strategies used by local players to learn how to successfully target both urban and rural consumers in the emerging markets.

Originality/value This paper extends the celebrity endorsement literature by exploring the role of spiritual leaders as celebrity business founders and brand endorsers, a growing trend in the emerging markets with high cultural and religious diversity (e.g. India and Indonesia).