Connecting With Celebrities: How Consumers Appropriate Celebrity Meanings for a Sense of Belonging

TLDR

Consumers with a high need to belong are more likely to seek cues from celebrities and develop parasocial relationships that influence brand connections. The study proposes that consumers appropriate brand symbolism from celebrity endorsements to construct and communicate their self‑concepts. The authors examine how this appropriation of brand symbolism by consumers shapes self‑brand connections. Three studies confirm the proposed relationships, and the third demonstrates that a symbolic match between celebrity and brand images is crucial for low‑need‑to‑belong consumers who do not form parasocial relationships.

Abstract

We propose that consumers appropriate brand symbolism that comes from celebrity endorsements to construct and communicate their self-concepts. We also argue that consumers with high need to belong (NTB) look to celebrities to a greater extent than those who have lower needs to belong, because high-NTB consumers are more likely to look to celebrities for cues about which brands may aid these consumers' attempts to meet their affiliation needs. High-NTB consumers are also prone to develop one-sided (parasocial) relationships with celebrities, and these parasocial relationships mediate the celebrity endorsement effect on self–brand connections. Three studies support these proposed relationships. Furthermore, the third study also manipulates the degree to which the celebrity's image matches that of the brand being advertised, revealing that a symbolic match between the celebrity image and brand image is important for consumers who do not form parasocial relationships with celebrities (i.e., low-NTB consumers).