The following section will provide a reflection upon the reviewed theory and literature, as well as the implications of new research areas social media have opened up. When reflecting on the traditional celebrity branding and social media theory there are several key elements of social media that could be researched in combination with traditional celebrity branding marketing. This can be done in order to see what implications social media has had for celebrity branding today.
5.1 Reevaluating the meaning transfer model
As the meaning transfer model is perhaps the most essential celebrity branding framework, this will be the central point of research. The reflection section of the theory suggested that web 2.0 has changed the possession of power from companies to consumers. The meaning transfer model needs to reevaluated due to this fundamental change in company-consumer relations. The following section will provide a new suggested meaning transfer model, which will be explained and illustrated.
As seen in (figure 3), the traditional meaning transfer model (McCracken, 1989) suggests a linear three stage process. In stage one, culture or society enables individuals to become celebrities. In stage two, the endorsement process, these celebrities then transfer their meaning to the product
(company). Finally, in stage three, the endorsed product or company is then communicated to the consumer through e.g. a TV-commercial. Today, this way of thinking is somewhat obsolete, as social media has provided new communication channels not only for companies, but also for celebrities.
These new communication channels are direct communication channels from company/celebrity to consumer. Because of this, this thesis will be suggesting a reevaluated meaning transfer model.
5.2 The new meaning transfer model
Due to these reflections mentioned above, the proposed new
framework for the meaning transfer model in the age of social media can be seen to the left.
(Figure 5)
The illustrated framework reflects how social media has created new direct communication channels to reach the consumer, which erodes the original linear three stage process. Instead, both the brand and the celebrity is now communicating e.g. a celebrity endorsed campaign, which raises new issues.
The dominant flow of meaning transfer is arguably going the way as illustrated above, due to the celebrity’s bigger reach and following on social media (Appendix 2). In order to research the
implications of this new framework, the following results and analysis will be looking at four celebrity endorsement campaigns on social media. The analysis findings will later be discussed through in-depth interview findings from social media and branding professionals within the music industry.
5.3 Reflections
With the meaning transfer model as the point of departure for the research, this section will be reflecting upon the literature and theory reviewed in the theory section, and how this could have an impact on the reevaluation of the meaning transfer model.
When looking at the theory through a social constructivist lens, it is easily argued that new socially constructed contexts have been created with the inception of social media. Social media today has created conditions of an almost face-to-face social interaction. This makes ground for several intimate relations through a digital interaction. In relation to celebrity branding, this means that personal connections can be made between fans and celebrities more frequently. This interaction is referred to as parasocial relationships, and is arguably one of the central parts of the celebrity endorsement process on social media. The reason why this is particularly important is the fact that people are considering their friends, family and peers to have an increased credibility than previously.
Also, as mentioned earlier, celebrity branding is directly communicated to consumers from both the brand and celebrities’ social media channels, which arguably puts the notion of fit at an even more important state than ever. The TEARS model is in this case still essential in order to assess the overall fit between celebrity and brand. However, with the increased emphasis on social media as the main
tool of communication of the celebrity endorsement, this thesis suggests to not only look at the brand fit in terms of personality, but also the fit between how a company and a celebrity use social media.
Additionally, because of how the endorsement campaign can be communicated directly from
celebrity to consumer, this can arguably facilitate an even higher degree of eclipsing, as the meaning transfer from brand and celebrity may not occur in the sense that the sender of the campaign is the celebrity.
5.4 Hypotheses
With all of the above mentioned reflections, and the theoretical framework in mind, the following hypotheses will be investigated through the results, analysis and discussion of the thesis. The hypotheses are formulated in order to answer Sub-question 3 & 4.
H1: Brand fit generates a higher level of engagement in celebrity endorsed social media campaigns.
H2: Brand fit facilitates less eclipsing on social media.
H3: Companies with less developed SMM creates less engagement on social media.
H4: Celebrities with high amounts of personal posts, have a high level of parasocial relationship.
H5: The higher the level of parasocial relationship, the higher the amount of E-WoM is generated.
Hypothesis 1-3 are made in order to answer sub-question 3, as they should give an answer to the question regarding what impact social media has had on the perceived fit between company and celebrity. Furthermore, hypothesis 3 will give an indication of the effectiveness of the SMM in relation to celebrity endorsement on social media. This should furthermore provide answers as to whether SMM should be implemented into how the perceived fit between celebrity and company is assessed.
Hypotheses 1-5 are all used in order to answer sub-question 4, as they can be applied to answer how social media has challenged traditional celebrity branding theory.