Friday Research: Why You Could Sell Gaga's Socks And Buy A Car

When Will You Use This?  

Planning and managing celebrity endorsement programs and auctions.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Is it possible that belief in contagion (that a person’s immaterial qualities can be transferred to an object through physical contact) can influence the sale of celebrity memorabilia?

Current research* examines data from three high-profile estate auctions. Researchers find that people’s expectations about the amount of physical contact between the object and the celebrity predicts the final bids for items that belongs to famous individuals.

Moreover, contagion beliefs could be the reason behind this: when asked to bid on a sweater owned by a well-liked celebrity, participants were willing to pay substantially less if it was sterilized before they received it. On the other hand, sterilization increased the amount people would pay for a sweater owned by a disliked celebrity.

 

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks  

 

Researchers confirm that physical contact have a real-world effect on how much people pay for celebrity objects. So if you once happened to dress Lady Gaga or Cheryl Cole, or have any other brand's object that belonged to/was touched by/been in photo shoot with a celebrity, keep in mind: people would pay incredibly high prices to obtain them. It could help build brand recognition and visibility as well.


*Newman, G. & Bloom, P., “Physical Contact Influences How Much People Pay at Celebrity Auctions,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (forthcoming)..{Thanks for the material}
 
P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with "celebrity-oriented" marketing? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

P.P.S. Need some help on crafting your marketing message? Let's do this together.