Login | Register

The effect of celebrity on brand attachment: social media celebrity or well-known celebrity?

Title:

The effect of celebrity on brand attachment: social media celebrity or well-known celebrity?

Tang, Ting (2016) The effect of celebrity on brand attachment: social media celebrity or well-known celebrity? Masters thesis, Concordia University.

[thumbnail of TingTang.pdf]
Preview
Text (application/pdf)
TingTang.pdf - Accepted Version
2MB

Abstract

Previous academic research has focused on the effect of the celebrity on brands by examining their characteristics and their congruence with brands. The aim of this paper is to reveal the effect of psychological distance on self-concept and how it determines brand attachment. We additionally compare two types of celebrities to reveal the different consequence. We suggest that actual self-congruence (vs. ideal self-congruence) increases psychological proximity, leading to higher consumer-celebrity attachment and brand attachment. In particular, we argue that social media celebrities (vs. well-known celebrity) can decrease psychological distance with consumers and boost brand attachment. We detected participants’ familiarity with the celebrities and assigned them to different conditions to examine their self-concept, psychological distance, attachment to celebrities and brand attachment. Findings show that consumers’ actual self-congruence and ideal self-congruence negatively influences psychological distance. The less the psychological distance between celebrities and consumers, the higher the consumer-celebrity attachment and brand attachment. Furthermore, consumers perceive higher actual self-congruence and lower psychological distance with social media celebrities. Social media celebrities also present significant difference with well-known celebrities in emotional brand attachment. In terms of managerial implication, companies should highlight celebrity’s actual self and ideal self in order to diminish their psychological distance between consumers and celebrities. Moreover, if the brand advocates the actual self-image of target customers, partnering with social media celebrities would be a superior choice. This strategy would not only generate higher emotional attachment than using main stream celebrities, it would also save the brand on costly endorsement fees.

Divisions:Concordia University > John Molson School of Business > Marketing
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Tang, Ting
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M. Sc.
Program:Administration (Marketing option)
Date:3 November 2016
Thesis Supervisor(s):Grohmann, Bianca
ID Code:981971
Deposited By: TING TANG
Deposited On:09 Jun 2017 15:44
Last Modified:18 Jan 2018 17:54
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads per month over past year

Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
- Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
Back to top Back to top