Necro-branding: Elvis Presley as a necro-celebrity

Abstract

ABSTRACT A myriad of investigations has examined the life and works of Elvis Presley from music, entertainment, and cultural perspectives. There is little doubt about his remarkable longevity and marketability. Yet, surprisingly, there has been little scholarly work attempting to explain the entertainer’s impact on a global scale, specifically from a branding perspective. Drawing from the emerging stream of research on necro-marketing, we introduce the novel concept of ‘necro-branding’ and associated, ‘necro-celebrity’, into the literature. We develop insights into consumer comments of 13,000 Elvis Presley YouTube videos via sentiment and lexical analyses. Key themes emerging from that investigation provide insights into that new concept of necro-branding. In particular, religion, musical talent, American culture, ceremonial and ritualistic elements, affect capturing, and mystical aura ‘the eternal’ resulted from our analysis. While these themes relate specifically to Elvis Presley, we argue, they would also be directly applicable to other famous dead celebrities, or as we now coin the term, necro-celebrities. Finally, theory stemming from our analysis presents a framework to explain a fan and other stakeholders (Elvis Presley Enterprises EPE, family, impersonators, festival organisers, Graceland) co-created Elvis brand that may have equal applicability to other necro-celebrities, just with different context.