Measuring Celebrity Equity: Unearthing the Consumer Knowledge Structure Associations

Abstract

The qualitative research aims to develop an understanding of how consumers view the celebrity as a brand and also to measure and compare the celebrity equities. This research applies associative network theory to identify the celebrity association networks residing in the minds of the consumers using Brand Concept Maps (BCMs) methodology. It also measures the celebrity equity by measuring the relative strength, favourability and uniqueness of the associations. Three celebrities from different professions are selected for this study. Data for the construction of BCMs have been obtained from 50 respondents. The associations are shown on BCMs, and their structure has been analysed using general and central characteristics. Celebrity equity is measured using Krishnan (1996, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 13(4), 389–405) methodology. The results reveal that consumers link five categories of associations with a celebrity, namely professional associations, public-image-related associations, social responsibility- and ethics-related associations, lifestyle associations and negative associations. Further, the celebrities are found to have strong brand equities, but their relative equities differ from each other. This study reveals that the managers need to consider a wide range of associations for measuring celebrity equity. It also provides academicians and celebrity managers with a new methodology for measuring celebrity equity.