Celebriti Endorsement

8/3/2019 Celebriti Endorsement

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CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

The crescendo of celebrities endorsing brands has been steadily increasing over the past 20years or so. Marketers overtly acknowledge the power of celebrity in influencing buyer's

purchase decision. They have firm believe that likeability or a favorable attitude towards anbrand is created by the use of a celebrity. The crore of rupees spent per year on celebrity

endorsement contracts show that celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Sharukh khan and SachinTendulkar play an important role for the advertising industry. It is an established fact thatcelebrity endorsement can bestow unique features or special attributes upon a product that itmay have lacked otherwise.

In India from late 1970's and early 80's the new trend in advertising started. Brands startedbeing endorsed by celebrities. Hindi film and TV stars as well as sportspersons were roped in toendorse prominent brands. Advertisements featuring stars like Late Jalal Agha (Pan Parag),Tabassum (Prestige cookers), Sunil Gavaskar for Dinesh Suiting, Ravi Shastri and VivianRichards (Vimal), Persis Khambhata and Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving cream) becamecommon.

Though marketers should remember that celebrities are mere living beings like us and if they

can highlight the benefits or advantages of a brand they can also have some uncanny negativeimpact. Theory and practice suggests that the use of stars and their unleashing power inadvertising generate a lot of publicity and attention from the public but the underline questionsare, do these stars really help a brand by increasing its sales? On the other hand, can theyreally have an Impact on the person's consumption pattern, thereby changing his brandpreference? How an advertisement featuring a celebrity can influence consumers buyingdecision and can create an association between a brand and a common man.

To answer these questions, the article will examine the relationship between celebrityendorsements and brands, and the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer's buyingbehaviour as well as how consumer makes brand preferences.

Brand- A layman perspective

Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational and cultural image that you can associatewith a company or the product. Few examples will bring home the meaning i.e. Amul - utterlybutterly delicious; Coke thanda matlab coca-cola; Pepsi Yeh dil mange more; Kurkure-Masti bole to kurkure.

These examples convey one message that when people watch advertisement a connect isbeing created and result is that people go for experience of buying. People feel by using thebrand they will portray certain traits or characteristics that otherwise they do not have. Thisgenerates a certain level of emotional affiliation and a sense of fulfillment. It is this emotionalrelationship with brands that make them so powerful.

Advertisements enforces what exactly the brand stands for and what to expect by its

consumption and above all what factors, features and attributes makes it better from compet

ition. Advertisements along with other marketing efforts generate expectations and feelings ina customer and force them to think when they see or hear the brand name. This Thinking

process and emotional bonding gets more mature and relevant when a celebrity endorses thebrand. The subjective intangible feelings of a customer become objective and tangible in the

form of celebrity and the level of expectations will rise. The customer will start to perceivehimself in the reference frame of the celebrity after the brand or the advertised product hasbeen purchased or consumed by him.

Celebrity

Celebritiesare people who enjoy public recognition and mostly they are the experts of theirrespective fields having wider influence in public life and societal domain. Attributes likeattractiveness, extraordinary life style or special skills, larger than life image and semigodstatus can be associated with them.


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It is safe to deduce that within a corresponding social group celebrities generally differ fromthe social norm and enjoy high degree of public awareness.

Celebrities appear in public in different ways. To start, they appear in public when fulfillingtheir professional commitments example: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who played cricket in front of

an audience in Twenty-Twenty World Cup. Furthermore, celebrities appear in public byattending special celebrity events, example: the movie award nights; special screening; world

premiers of movies or for social causes. These celebrities have universal presence and appeal,they are present everywhere, in news, fashion shows and magazines, tabloids and above alladvertisements.

0Celebrity and a Brand

Star power in India can be gauged by the successful endorsements done by Sharukh Khan(Pepsi, Hyundai Santro, Sunfeast, and Navratan etc.), Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar,Rahul Dravid, Hrithik Roshan and the others. The inevitable question is, if and how the livelyinterest of the public in the rich and famous can be efficiently and effectively used by

companies to promote their brands and consequently to increase their sales revenues.

This fact can be brought out by using certain examples i.e. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan promotingCadbury chocolates after the fiasco of infestation when the image of Cadbury India went very

low in the eyes of people. Soon the company found a perfect fit and a reliable celebrity totransmit the correct message and help regenerating the lost trust. The fit between the productand celebrity is evident as Mr. Bachchan and Cadbury chocolates both have tested troubled

times and still they stand tall and the love and trust they both share with the people all acrossIndia. This is a live example of how a celebrity brought certain attributes to a product like

chocolate.

Actor Sharukh khan has also endorsed diversified products. His endorsement basket is ranging

from Hyundai Santro to Sunfeast biscuits on one hand and from Compaq computers toVideocon electronics on the other.

According to Advertising research companies both the actors are doing well and the ad spenton both by the companies is increasing at a phenomenal rate, so does their basket ofendorsements. These actors bring reliability and trust in the brand and above all, they help inincreasing the sales revenues.

Celebrity endorsements are powerful, has become evident from the above two examples but,why is it so? This power is offered by the following elements, which also creates a 'Top of theMind Position'.

*Instant Awareness, knowledge about the brand and easy recall.

* Values and image of the brand is defined, highlighted and refreshed by the celebrity.

*The celebrity adds new edge and dimension to the brand

*Credibility, trust, association, aspiration and connectivity to brand.

* Belief in efficiency and new appearance that will result in at least trial usage.

Understanding Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behaviour is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy andwhy they buy. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, sociopsychology, anthropologyand economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, bothindividually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such asdemographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people'swants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends,reference groups, and society in general.

The study and knowledge of consumer behavior helps firms and organizations to improve theirmarketing strategies and product offerings. Following are the important issues that havesignificant influence on consumer's psyche and their ability to take decisions:


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The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different

alternatives (e.g., brands, products);

The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g.,culture, family, signs, media);

The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions;

Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influencedecisions and marketing outcome;

How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ intheir level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and

How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketingstrategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

Their Age, Religion, Culture, Income, informal group and Referent Group.

Understanding these issues helps us adapt our strategies by taking the consumer into

consideration.

Consumer Decision-making process

The given process is very complicated though on first sight it does not look so. Process starts

with problem recognition or with an unsatisfied need. Something that a consumer would like tohave or purchase in order to attain satisfaction. This need can be Psychological, attitudinal orPhysiological but yes it should have the capacity to be fulfilled by consuming a particularproduct or service.

To satisfy the given need what all are the components that should be taken into considerationand how we can maximize the satisfaction is the next stage. In this stage, we will cover abilityto purchase, level of involvement, people whose opinion will count and other relevant detailsthat will help us in optimizing satisfaction.

Based upon information search we will generate various alternatives i.e. which brand or

product is affordable for me, where will it be available comfortably and above all in comparisonto other brands or products how better or economical it is.

Evaluation stage will look like cost benefit analysis and based upon maximum value or utilityper rupee spend, we will decide or shortlist the product or brand. This is the decision and

confirmation stage where the consumers prepares himself for the purchase of a particularbrand and give preference to one and only one over and above the others.

Next comes the purchase when the consumer will finally go to the market and look for thebrand or the product, physically verifies it and purchases it.

Last is the post purchase Evaluation in which the customer wants to justify his consumption orpurchase decision. He tries to find out whether his purchase decision was right or not.Companies make lot of effort to tackle this situation successfully and they want the customerto be satisfied with their product.

This stage may result into three situations, first is satisfaction where customer is satisfied andhe got expected results but this does not necessitates the repeat purchase by the consumer.Second is dissonance where the consumer is not satisfied as he got less utility or less thanexpected result from the consumption or product performance. Third is Delight, here the


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consumer gets more than expected satisfaction and utility and this will assure the repeatpurchase and creation of brand loyalty.

Traditional Factors affecting consumer decision making

There are several factors that affect consumer's decision to purchase a brand and a product.These factors though at time are not very much visible but they make an impact and affects

sales of a product or brand up to a great extent. The factors are social, cultural, demographicetc.

Impact of a Brand on consumer purchase decision

Research studies have proven that known products and names are sold more than unknownones. Therefore, a known brand or an optimally exposed brand will find more recognition andbuyers in the market in comparison to completely unknown or unexposed brand. Recognitionof brand and its significance along with the traditional factors plays a very significant role in

consumer decision-making process.

More or less every consumer has a brand preference and given the affordability and societalnorms, each buyer would like to buy and consume one of the highly acceptable, recognizable,and reputed brands.

The above given model explains the important role that a brand plays in three different stages

of consumer's purchase decision making. A consumer start collecting data or information abouthis favourite brand than he keeps his favourite as one of the alternatives and he evaluate his

selected brand against all available options and on finding it suitable or best among all optionsbased upon a qualitative and quantitative evaluation he will ultimately purchase the selected orfavourite brand.

Celebrity and a brand

Surveys suggest that compared to any other types of endorsers, famous people achieve a

higher degree of attention and recall. They increase awareness of a company's advertising aswell as help in retention of message in the psyche of the audience. They can also help thecompany in reducing their expenditure on Media and other forms of publicity. An example willbring more clarity, When S Kumars, a known textile brand entered into readymade garmentsbusiness they used Hrithik Roshan, then the hottest advertising icon for their launchadvertising for TAMARIND, now one of the premium readymade brands. They reckoned thatthey have spent 40-50 percent less on media due to sheer impact of using hottest star likeHrithik. The Ad recall was as high as 70 percent and the campaign can be termed as a great

success.

Celebrities also create positive feelings towards brands, connect user to brand and areperceived by consumers as more entertaining.

Using a celebrity in advertising or for any, other type of communication for brand building is


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likely to positively affect consumers' brand preference, brand attitude, brand association andpurchase intentions. To ensure positive results, however, it is critical for advertisers to have aclear understanding of consumer's reactions and reinforcement of celebrity endorsement. Theimpact of celebrity endorsement on any brand as well as on consumer's purchase decision isvery critical.

Source Credibility

Central goal of advertising is the convincing of consumers and persuasion to purchase, theultimate objective, though not openly spoken, is to some how attract consumers to the marketoffering of the company, generating positive attitude, reinforce positive association andultimately to generate sales, may be a trial purchase. At later stages, the sponsor may worktowards creating a brand loyalty but generating initial sales or increasing the existing sales isthe primary objective. In this respect, the credibility of an endorser along with advertisementplays an important role in convincing the target audience of the attractiveness of the

company's brand and generates sales. Pursuing a celebrity endorsement strategy enablesadvertisers to project a credible image in terms of expertise, persuasiveness, trustworthiness,

and objectiveness.

To create effective messages, celebrity advertisers also have to consider the attractiveness ofthe spokesperson. Source attractiveness refers to the endorser's Physical appearance,

Personality, Likeability and Similarity to the receiver, thus to the perceived socialvalue of thesource. This behavior mainly goes back to halo effect, whereby persons who perform well onone dimension example: physical attractiveness or top professional performance, social statusare assumed to excel on other levels as well i.e. happiness and coolness. This is evident fromthe use of Fardeen Khan, modern, dynamic, outgoing and smart personality for Provogue; he

translates the modernism of the brand well. Titan uses Aamir Khan in his different avatars forcommunicating to the public that their watches are as reliable and passionate as Aamir is for

films. Both Fardeen and Aamir carry the message well and enhance the credibility of the brandthey endorse.

Establishing a Perfect Match

Research proves that a spokesperson especially for a service product or organization interactswith the type of brand being advertised. These stars communicate the value of the product and

transform an ordinary service into a miracle solution for all problems of an ordinary customer.

According to Friedman and Friedman (1979), a famous relative to a 'normal' spokesperson ismore effective for products high in psychological or social risk, involving such elements asgood taste, self-image, and opinion of others. Several research studies have examined the

congruency between celebrity endorsers and brands to explain the effectiveness of usingfamous persons to promote brands.

In India, a brand called Reid & Taylor presented its perfect example when they first launched

their advertising campaign featuring James Bond fame of the time Mr. Pierce Brosnan alongwith the tagline 'BOND WITH THE BEST' but the James Bond idea did not worked and thecompany was not happy with the results.

After the debacle(sudden collapse) of the first campaign, company introduced a family adwhere children are celebrating there parents silver wedding anniversary and they are out withtheir father to purchase a suit for him. Even this commercial did not work and it was taken offthe air. As a last resort, company introduced Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as Reid & Taylor man, aman propagating the brand for special occasion and for very special people in life. Thecommercial from the initial days got good response and did extremely well as people were able

to connect with Mr. Bachchan and the values he was propagating.

For the masses, there was a perfect match of an ideal Indian family man, a star and a good

quality but bit highly priced brand reserved especially for special occasions and for very specialpeople.

Second example that can be quoted is of Vishwanathan Anand, who endorsed NIIT. NIIT


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adopted a very smart strategy by roping in Vishwanathan Anand an international chess wizardfor their advertising campaign. As chess is considered to be a game full of strategies and agame for smart people and when one of the greats of the game is asking people to join NIIT itwas suppose to have a positive influence on the people and actually it had. There wascomplete congruency and compatibility between the celebrity endorser, the product and themessage.

Contrary to only favorable outcomes, there are several examples where the product, even theentire campaign collapsed due to heavy weight celebrity as the agency or the ad failed toestablish the relationship between the endorser and the product. Keeping the focus only onsuccess, where the product and the celebrity were a perfect match, following are fewexamples:

Celebrity Endorser Company / Product

Amitabh Bachchan

* Dabur

* Cadbury* Reid and Taylor

* Parker

Shahrukh Khan

* Santro

* Videocon* Sunfeast

* PepsiJuhi Chawala * KurkureUstad Zakir Hussain * Taj mahal teaAamir Khan

* Titan* Coke

* Toyota InnovaAishwarya Rai

* Nakshatra

* LuxRani Mukherjee

* Fanta

* Nestle MunchKajol and Ajay Devgan

* Whirlpool

* Tata Indicom

The campaigns are not only basking with the glory of success stories, but there is considerablenumber of failures as well. Assuming that a person just have to be famous to represent a

successful brand, however, would be incorrect and may turn out to be a very dangerouspreposition resulting into a big calamity for the entire advertising campaign or the brand.

Very well accepted and attractive super stars like Abhishek Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchanfailed in turning their endorsements into success i.e. Maruti Versa similarly Virendra Sehwag

also failed to deliver Reliance Telecommunication with the master stroke of his cricketinggenius.

Among the possible reasons identified by several authors, including overexposure andidentification, the 'match-up hypothesis' specifically suggests that the effectiveness dependson the existence of a 'fit' between the celebrity spokesperson and endorsed brand.

Empirical work on the congruency of brand with the celebrity often has concentrated on thephysical attractiveness of the endorser. Results show that an attractive spokespersons aremore effective in terms of attitude change when prompting brands that enhance one's


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attractiveness i.e. cosmetics; health drinks or fashion wear.

Primary data states, for celebrity spokespersons to be truly effective, they should be

knowledgeable, experienced, mature, and a bench mark in their respective field and qualifiedto talk about the product.

Transferring the Meaning

After watching an advertisement the consumers try to find the meaning of the advertisement

and associate the same with the endorser and eventually transfer to the brand. To understandthis phenomenon Mc Cracken (1989) suggested a comprehensive model known as MeaningTransfer Model. This three-stage model suggests how the meaning associated with the famousperson moves from the endorser to the product or the brand. Thus, meanings attributed to thecelebrity become associated with the brand in the consumer's mind. Finally, in theconsumption process, the customer acquires the brand's meaning. The third stage of themodel explicitly shows the importance of the consumer's role in the process of endorsingbrands with famous persons.

In contrast to anonymous endorsers, celebrities add value to the image transfer process byoffering meanings of extra depth and power, what is complemented by their life style andpersonalities. Therefore, to transfer the correct meaning to the consumer the company should

select a celebrity that will produce the most favorable response for consumers and for thepurpose the celebrity should have, the appropriate set of characteristics and the public shouldbe able to visualize and comprehend the same. The company should consider the consumer's

needs while developing their communication strategy and selecting an appropriate celebrity totransmit the same, i.e. Kurkure used actress Juhi Chawala with the punch line 'Masti Bole To

Kurkure' and the actress on screen and off-screen personifies the masti and helps the brand incommunicating the same easily.

Compatibility of the celebrity's persona with the overall brand image is very important, as acelebrity imparts credibility and inspirational value to a brand and his or her image should

perfectly match the brand's image. A good brand campaign idea and an intrinsic link betweenthe celebrity and the message are must for a successful campaign.

Certain elements that generate a perfect match or compatibility between the celebrity andbrand image are:

* Celebrity's fit with the brand image along with celebrity-target audience match.

*Celebrity associated values and celebrity-product match.

* Costs of acquiring the celebrity and his or her popularity along with controversy risksassociated with the celebrity

* Credibility, availability and physical attractiveness of celebrity.

The above points can be put to perspective by using two examples, first Kapil Dev's 'Palmolive

da jawaab nahin' and second Nakshatra's brand recall due to its endorser, the gorgeousAishwarya Rai Bachchan. Both brands have edged out and carved out their niche in consumer's

mind due to image and credibility of their endorsers. These were the cases of perfect matchbetween the brand image and the image or persona of the celebrity endorser.


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Conclusion

A brief assessment of the current market situation indicates, that celebrity endorsement

advertising strategy can under the right circumstances indeed justify the high costs associatedwith this form of advertising. The use of celebrity for endorsements create a very favorableimpact on the consumer and it creates a connect which forces a consumer to purchase a

product. However, as several failures show, it is essential for advertisers to be aware of thecomplex processes underlying celebrity endorsement.

It has been proved from the discussion that celebrity endorsements are a powerful and useful

tool that magnifies the effect of a campaign but the word of caution to be followed seriously;celebrities alone do not guarantee success nor does a great advertising campaign or the bestpossible product. It is the combination of several factors and elements that work together forthe success of a brand and its acceptance in the minds of consumers as well as for its marketoffering.

Modern day consumers are well educated and smart, they know celebrities are being paid for

these endorsements and this knowledge makes consumers rather more cynical(skeptical of themotives of others) about the product and celebrity endorsements. Majority of the consuming

population also knows what is advertising and how it actually works and this knowledge ofconsumer makes the task of celebrity endorsement all the more difficult and challenging forthe advertising companies and the sponsors. Indian companies both advertising and productoffering companies have top make an effort to overcome this ever-mounting challenge.

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Celebriti Endorsement