Celebrity Endorsement A Strategic Promotion Perspe
Celebrity Endorsement A Strategic Promotion Perspe
Celebrity Endorsement A Strategic Promotion Perspe
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ABSTRACT
The celebrity endorser is a panacea for all benefits and make brands .It serves as an
marketing woes. It is today a frequently aid to expedite recall and influence
used approach in marketing for all brand purchase. But can also be a nightmare
building exercises. The star appeal unless accompanied by a powerful idea,
however needs to be perfectly blended effective and impeccable positioning
intelligently and strategically to reap the
Introduction
Strategic Positioning and effective communication are the two most
important “mantras” guiding brand success in today’s competitive
marketing environment. Corporate are ensuring all possible efforts to
promote their brands and to grab the customer’s mind share. The impetus
is on attracting the customer’s attention and developing positive
associations not just to influence recall but also to induce trial and
eventually effect purchase decisions.
In a market where advertising plays a vital role in coordinating
consumer purchases, it becomes pertinent for companies to induct all
possible measures to influence motivate and inculcate desire to purchase,
in the customer through an effective advertising campaign. Theory and
practice proves that the use of superstars in advertising generates lot of
publicity and attention. (Ohanian,1991).
The billion of dollars spent on celebrity endorsement contracts show
that celebrities like LIZ Hurley, Britney spears and Tiger woods play an
important role in the advertising industry. (DaneShvary and
Who is a celebrity ?
Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition by a large share
of a certain group of people whereas attributes like attractiveness,
extraordinary lifestyle are just examples and specific common
characteristics cannot be observed though it can be said that within a
corresponding social group celebrities generally differ from the social norm
and enjoy a high degree of public awareness (Schlecht, 2003).(Anonymous,
Business Standard, Dec,2003)This is true for classic forms of celebrities
like actors (ex Sharukh khan, Amitabh Bachhan), models ( John Abraham,
Malaika Arora, Diya Mirza) Sports athletes (ex. Sachin Tendulkar, Sania
Mirza) entertainers (Barkha Dutt, Shekhar Suman) And Pop Stars (Mika,
Dailer Mehndi) but also for less obvious groups like businessmen (ex
Dirubhai Ambani) or politicians (Laloo Prasad Yadav) Besides these there
are fictional celebrities like Ronald McDonald, Fido dido, gattu, Amul
Girl, Pillsbury doughboy and the like. Celebrities appear in public in
different ways. First, they appear in public when fulfilling their profession
ex Sachin Tendulkar is loved by millions for his wonderful performance
in the cricket fields. Further more, celebrities appear in public by attending
special celebrity events ex. filmfare star awards, Videocon screen awards
etc. In addition they are present in News, Fashion magazines and tabloids,
which provide second source of information on events and private life of
celebrities through mass media channels. Last but not the least celebrities
act as spokes people in advertising to promote products and
services.(Kambitsis et al, 2002, Tom et.al. , 1992)
A firm that decides to employ a celebrity to promote its products or
services has a choice of using the celebrity as :
Testimonial: If the celebrity has personally used a product or service
and is in a position to attest its quality ,then he or she may give a testimonial
citing its benefits. For instance Aishwarya Rai endorses Lux by testifying
the quality of the product as it forms a part of her consumption basket.
Endorsement: celebrities often lend their names to ads for product or
services for which they may or may not be the experts For instance Sachin
Tendulkar has been endorsing the Palio brand of Fiat.
Actor: A Celebrity may be asked to present a product or service as a
part of character enactment rather than personal testimonial or
endorsement. For instance Sweta Tiwari of “Prerna fame” (Kasuati Zindagi
ki ) enacts as a housewife for Nirma’s ad campaign. It has nothing to do
with her on screen or off-screen image In fact she just enacts the character
and expectations of a normal housewife from a detergent bar.
Spokesperson: A celebrity who represents a brand or company over
an extended periods of time often in print and TV ads as well as in personal
appearances is usually called a company’s spokesperson. (Schiffman and
Kanuk,1997)The reason for using celebrities a spokesperson goes back to
their huge potential influences. Compared to other endorsers, types,
famous people achieve a higher degree of attention and recall. They
increase awareness of a company’s advertising create positive feelings
towards brands and are perceived by consumers as more entertaining
(Solomon, 2002) Using a celebrity in advertising is therefore likely to
positively affect consumer’s brand attitude and purchase intentions.
Why Endorsements?
Celebrity Endorsements act as a credible means of “money burning”.
This is because this is a world of products for which the value a consumer
obtains from purchasing any given variety. This could be for reasons of
social standing-People want to wear the “right” clothes, drink the “right”
beverages and use the “right” fragrances. Specifically a consumer that
observes messages for two different firm’s products, one product’s message
containing a celebrity endorsed and the other not, believes the celebrity
endorsed product will have more purchases and so be of higher
value.(Clark & Horstman, 2003)
Celebrity endorsement is more likely to be observed for those products
having a high price-production cost margin and on a large customer base.
In short, celebrity endorsements are more typical for nationally marketed
products then for local or niche market products and for products such as
running shoes, soft drinks and the like for which the price cost margins
are apparently large.
Promoter of certain products require co-ordination over multiple
customer groups - different age, income, education groups or groups in
different location. Example, Credit Card. With a product of this sort a
common set of advertising messages communicated to all custom is a more
effective and coordinates mechanism than messages targeted at separate
customer groups with common messages.A customer in one group
receiving a message knows that customer in other groups are also receiving
the message. The challenge with common message is of significant audience
reach in the various customer groups at low cost. Because the celebrity is
recognizable globally, it is a low cost way to achieve cross group co-
ordination (Clark & Horstman, 2003)
Literature Review: On the concept and application of celebrity
endorsement Agarwal and kamakura (1995) cite industry sources who
estimate that approximately 20% of all television commercials feature
famous people. Certain sets of products feature celebrity endorsements
more often. (Agarwal & Kamakura, Study) .They studied all endorsement
contracts over the period 1980-1992. In their sample 60% of the
endorsement deals involve soft drink companies and athletic shoes
manufacturers. They also provide an event study that examines abnormal
stock returns on the day that a company announces the signing of a
celebrity for product and endorsement purpose.
How celebrity endorsements affect consumer purchase decision is
studied extensively by marketing and social psychology researches. Various
hypothesis have been put forward including celebrity endorsement have
recall of the product, (ii) celebrities have credibility on expertise that makes
the product more desirable or enhances perceptions of quality (iii) the
celebrity endorsers image is transferred to the product so that those who
use the product are associated with the image. Experiments suggest that
in certain situations, celebrity endorsement can enhance recall and
consume assessment of the products. (Clark & Horstman, 2003)
Consumntion
Product Consumer
Stage 3
First, the meaning associated with the famous persons makes them
the endorser to the product or brand. Thus, the meanings attributed to
the celebrity become associated with the brand in the consumers. Secondly,
in the consumption process, the customer acquires the brands meaning.
The third stage of the model explicitly shows the importance of the
consumer’s role in the process of endorsing brands.
This can be well explained through an example. Aishwarya Rai as a
celebrity has acquired a cultural meaning of beauty, elegance, attitude,
sophistication and charisma. This meaning is then transferred to Nakshatra
Diamonds endorsed by Aishwarya as Apsara or the beauty par excellence.
The fit is indeed impeccable.
Source: Top 10 celebrity endorsers, riding the wave, Prachi Raturi (2005), Brunch Hindustan Times
Magazine.
The concerns of all marketing today is that whether this special form
of celebrity endorsement affects consumers brand attitudes? Madhurkar
Sabnavis, Country Manager- Discovery O & M points out that multiple
endorsements affect the endorser creditability as people known that a
celebrity is paid to sell the product. The endorsement of as many as four
products negatively influence the celebrity spokesperson’s creditability
(expertise trustworthiness) and likeability. Reasons may be found in the
lack of distinctiveness, with one famous person enduring several products
instead of concentrating on and representing one specific brand. (Trippiet
at, 1994) On the other hand, research has suggested that celebrity endorsed
has potential positive effect like transfer of positive brand images and
shaping of consumer’s response when more than four products are
endorsed.
Selecting the best endorser : Brand Endorsement is a way to get the
brand noticed amidst the clutter that is there in the market place. Synergy
is therefore required between brand and celebrity. The celebrity actually
helps in accelerating the brand image formulation process. At the same
time advertisement argue that celebrities come with loads of liabilities that
are hard to ignore.
The decision of selecting the best endorser is thus a pertinent issue
fixed by marketers & adventures for their brand promotion. Advertisers
point out to the 3Cs that enjoy mass adulation in Indian sub continental,
Cricket, Cinema and Curry. In fact Mr. Jaydeep Dasgupta, Associate
branch Director-Mumbai, Mudra feels that branding plays a key role in
creating a celebrity aura. Today Cricketer and Film stars are groomed to
be brand themselves and hence are marketed well. In other words, the
celebrity himself/herself should be a strong brand and the attributes of
the celebrity brand should match the attribute of the product brand being
highlighted.
To help select a celebrity endorser, many companies and their
advertising agencies rely on Q ratings that are commercially available
from a New York based firm known as marketing, evaluates Inc.(Belch &
Belch). This firm annually determines a familiarity and likeability rating
of top male & female personalities (and carton characters) based on a
mail questioners survey of the television viewer. The basic rating called a
Q rating, is obtained by dividing the number who rated as “one of my
favorites” by those who indicated that they were “totally familiar” with
the personality. The survey is widely used by marketers and agencies to
select celebrity endorsers and is used by T.V. Network and Hollywood
producers to cast their shows & movies.
Risks
a) Celebrity overshadows the brand: In certain cases where the celebrity
values category benefit and brand values are not closely linked. There
are chances that the celebrity is remembered more than a brand.
Cyber media research study reveals that 80% of the respondents
approached for research remembered the celebrity but could not
recall the brand being endorsed.
b) Necessary Evil: Marketing have felt that once the brand rides the
back of celebrity it becomes difficult to promote it without the star as
it becomes difficult to separate the role of message and the role of
the celebrity in selling the brand. The celebrity activity becomes an
addiction and the task to find substitute becomes more and more
difficult.
c) Celebrity creditability a question mark for the competent customer: Today’s
marketing endorsement has to deal with a competitive and
knowledgeable customer who has begun to voice his opinion about
their perception about endorsing a brand. Celebrity is said to befool
the public as he is paid to sell and communicate good things about
the brand. Hence the question of creditability of the celebrity being
chosen to protect the brand is becoming pertinent.
d) Conflicting Image: A mix match between the image of the credibility
and the product can damage both. Unless there is a synergy between
Returns
a) Build Awareness: A new brand can benefit greatly if a celebrity
endorses it. It can attract the customers attention and inquisitiveness
to see what product is being endorsed. Research has shown
consumers have a higher level of message recall for products that
are endorsed by celebrities.
b) Connects Emotionally: some celebrities like Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh
Bachan command great adoration among people. Such celebrities
can positively influence their fans etc. a great extents and hence
tend to even connect with the brand emotionally because of their
star enduring it.
c) Quick Connect: The communication process tends to hasten up due
to the more presence of a celebrity. This is because the star carrying
the message tends to click with the customer more. Because of
likeability, recall attractiveness and creditability thereby helping the
company to clearly and quickly pass on the message to the target
customers.
d) Means of Brand different ion: using a celebrity is a source of brand
differentiation. In a category where a brands is suing a celebrity the
first that picks one up could use it differently itself in the market the
same was done by Boost in the malted beverage category.
e) Source of Imitation and hence inducing increased product usage: celebrities
actually tend to become models or idols for the target audience who
tend to start using the product just because the celebrity name is
attached with it. For instance, Lux has been used by many as it is a
beauty soap recommended by the beauty queen, Aishwarya Rai.
f) Better Brand Image: the use of celebrities could also bring in positive
image among the masses for brand. The credibility and authenticity
attached with Amitabh Bachan has inculcated trust for ICICI, Nerolac
Paints and many others.
Conclusion
An assessment of current market situation indicated that celebrity
endorsement and advertising strategies if correctly blended in terms of
marrying the strengths of the brands with the celebrity’s quality indeed
justify the high cost associated with this form of advertising. However,
advertising needs to be aware of the complex processing underlying
celebrity processing endorsement by gaining clarity on described concepts
of celebrity source creditability and attractiveness, match-up hypothesis,
multiple product endorsement etc. Marketer has to decide how far the
benefits outweigh the risks associated. Advertisers agree that celebrity
endorsement does not itself guarantee sales. It can create a buzz and make
a consumer feel better about the product, which in turn has to come to
expectation of customers as a real star by delivering the promise. There
have been instances where the endorsement or real consumers has started
working better than celebrity endorsers. In fact much research needs to
be done on customer testimonials, which tend to induce better creditability
and helps in carving the competent, rational, knowledgeable customer of
today who is said to be the real hero.
References
Ohanian, Roobina (1991), “The Impact of Celebrity spokespersons” Perceived Image
on Consumers’ Intention to purchase, “Journal of advertising Research, 31(1),
46-53.
Daneshvary, Rennal and R.Keith Schwer (2000) “The Association endorsement and
Consumers Intention to purchase,” Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(3), 203-
213.
Clark, Robert C. and Horstman, Ignatius J. (2003) Celebrity Endorsents (www.bu.edu/
e.con/seminar/micro/pdffav) celebendorse.bu.pdf
“Is celebrity advertising effective Business Standards” Dec 05, 2003
(Christina, Schlecht) New York Jun 17,2003www.global <http://www.global>
brands.org/research/working/celebrity-brarely.pdf