Celebrity endorsements in the clothing industry have the power to inspire, enlighten and educate. Arguably clothing brands aim to do the same for their consumers but with clothes!

Consumers rather not be faced with hard core clothing advertising however the feature of a celebrity you’re familiar with in the exact same clothes can do just that without you realising.

Subtle advertising can help retain loyal customers across multiple channel experiences and potentially services (figure 1). This leverage helps to cut through the confusion that can come with advertising by creating brand narratives, while allowing channel-specific optimization to take place. Ultimately, celebrity endorsed clothing lines are always worth investing in if you have the right person.

Spry, Pappu, and Bettina Cornwell (2011) argued endorser credibility has an indirect impact on brand equity when this relationship is mediated by brand credibility. This mediating relationship was moderated by type of branding. It’s no secret brands love endorsements and because of this consumers buy into celebrity.

Stringfellow, (2017) in an era of consumer capitalism, where consumers voice their marketing experiences, in both positive and negative ways, across social channels online. More than ever it is important to keep existing customers happy at all costs.

Escalas and Bettman (2015) argued celebrity endorsed clothing lines enhance customer retention as consumers aspire to be like the celebrity in question. However the collaboration doesn’t really do much when the customers do not. For this reason the collaboration is only are successful when the brand image is compatible with that of the celebrity’s. Example of this would be (TOMMYXGiGi) (GiGi Hadid for Tommy Hilfiger) that aimed to retain its 18-25 demographic after a 2.6% decline from that age group in 2015 (figure 2). For season 2 of the collaboration the promotional video that can be found on YouTube features Gigi and friends near a beach, skateboarding/dancing having fun to a catchy beat. Gigi being a young 21 year old she fits right in the middle of the target demographic, displaying how hip and trendy the clothing brand is. Link to video can be found here ( TOMMYXGIGI Spring 2017 | Season 2 of Gigi Hadid & Tommy Hilfiger’s Co-designed Collection https://youtu.be/rE3_luJsx_Y).

In March 2014 fast fashion retailer Missguided teamed up with Nicole Scherzinger to create Nicole x Missguided (figure 3). Sales soared 35 per cent month-on-month following the first launch of the collection. Owner of Missguided Nitin Passi noticed Nicole had worn three different items at different times which were medium or slow sellers and every time she wore them they sold out. Many customers that repeatedly checkout on Missguided without signing up, created accounts to keep updated with the collaboration line. Missguided saw an 12.4% increase in customer retention, this was measured by the number of orders made using a customer login 6 months after the release of Nicole x Missguided.

If you put a face to a name, the more likely you’ll remember it, and marketers know the same goes with partnering celebrities to their brands. For this reason Ahmad and Buttle, (2002) argued that the selection of the right celebrity can not only help a brand become memorable but can also help with the retention of customers as this provides them with exclusive access to such lines before they’re released to the public. Consumers love to feel important.

Figure 1: Rihanna for River Island- product (left) Usain Bolt for Virgin Media- service (right)

Figure 2: TOMMYXGiGi

Figure 3: Nicole x MISSGUIDED