Necro‑Branding and Psychographic Segmentation of Necro‑Celebrities vis‑à‑vis Alive‑Celebrities: a methodological 3‑step text‑analysis of Elvis Presley, the Royal Family, Picasso & Co.

The newly introduced theory and concept of Necro-Branding suggests that celebrities may possess greater value that triggers more emotional bonds from the public after their passing, with marketing potential rooted in themes such as affection and eternality. Yet, it remains uncertain whether celebrities of different living status (i.e. dead vis-à-vis alive) evoke similar psychological responses, and whether thus branding strategies should differ or converge across celebrity types, such as music, movies, sports, Royals, and visual artists. We propose a three-step approach to psychographic segmentation, including visual and empirical results verification, as a foundation for more effective targeting and positioning strategies. This approach is specifically designed for conducting segmentation on text data, using LIWC, a software for analysing word use, with scores of five psychology-related dimensions as criteria. Findings reveal differences and similarities among the 10 celebrities. Results provide insights into optimizing segmentation driven by more effective celebrity brand communication strategies such as psychology-focused storytelling on social media.