A study on celebrity equity.

Abstract

In this study, we adopted and applied Aaker’s Brand Equity Model [Aaker, 1991] to develop a measure of celebrity success. We investigate the extent to which factors such as loyalty to celebrity, awareness of celebrity, celebrity authenticity and celebrity associations have an impact on the success of celebrities. This success is measured by two dimensions: (1) purchase intention of the celebrity’s next album and (2) purchase intention of his endorsed product.

We first used a focus group interview to gain a better understanding of our target respondents’ preferences and perceptions in regard to celebrities in the Mandarin music industry and used the insights we obtained to develop our survey questionnaire. An online self-administered survey was then conducted and we obtained a total of 172 usable responses for the analysis.

Our findings showed that there is a significant relationship between loyalty to celebrity and the success of celebrity in terms of consumers’ purchase intention of the celebrity’s next album. Following that, we discuss the managerial implications of our results as well as ways on how relevant stakeholders can leverage on our findings.