Emotional Branding Through Celebrity Endorsements

Emotional branding is an effective way to create a long-lasting relationship with the customers. The recent shift in brand strategy is towards gaining an emotional share of consumers and understanding the symbolic, emotional features that generate socio-psychological associations in their minds. Use of celebrities through celebrity advertising can act as effective tools to develop a strong emotive tie with a consumer, which can overtime, culminate into long-term brand equity and an emotional connect with the brand. In this chapter, we develop an understanding of various aspects of celebrity endorsement and explain how these can be used to connect emotionally with consumers. We also illustrate situations where use of celebrities has had a positive effect on emotional branding and where it has failed miserably.