Brand equity has emerged as a priority area in the marketing discipline, leading to calls for research identifying strategies for building brand equity. Several researchers have emphasised the importance of brand associations in building brand equity. Celebrity endorsement represents one tool marketers can use 10 develop and maintain appropriate brand associations. Although celebrity endorsement is considered a valuable promotional tool by marketers worldwide, extant research does not offer any empirical evidence showing how celebrity endorsement could be leveraged to build brand equity. The principal objective of the present research was to provide a conceptual framework for explaining the impact of the credibility of the celebrity endorser used on the consumer-based equity of the endorsed brand. The mediating role of the credibility of the endorsed brand on the endorser credibility - brand equity relationship was also examined. Additionally, the type of branding employed by the endorsed brand was considered by examining whether relationships between endorser credibility and brand credibility, and endorser credibility and brand equity vary depending on whether the endorsed brand is a parent brand or a sub-brand. The conceptual framework advanced in this thesis was tested using a questionnaire with an experimental design. Data were collected using a mall-intercept approach at a Brisbane shopping centre yielding a consumer sample. The present research revealed some valuable findings. Endorser credibility did not have a direct impact on consumer-based equity of the endorsed brand. However, endorser credibility had an indirect impact on brand equity when this relationship was mediated by brand credibility. It was also found that endorser credibility has a larger impact on brand credibility when the endorsed brand is a sub-brand. The findings of the present research lead to several implications for marketing theory and practice.