Celebrity Endorsement & Brand Ambassadors
“A sign of a celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services.”
– Daniel J Boorstin
The crescendo of celebrities endorsing brands has been steadily increasing over the past years. Marketers overtly acknowledge the power of celebrities in influencing consumer-purchasing decisions. It is a ubiquitously accepted fact that celebrity endorsement can bestow special attributes upon a product that it may have lacked otherwise.
Why brands love celebrity endorsements:
Instant Brand Awareness and Recall.
Celebrity values define, and refresh the brand image.
Celebrities add new dimensions to the brand image.
Instant credibility or aspiration PR coverage.
Simply stating, a brand is a differentiated product and endorsements help in identifying a product and making it stand.
A celebrity is used to impart credibility and aspirational values to a brand, but the celebrity needs to match the product. A good brand campaign idea and an intrinsic link between the celebrity and the message are musts for a successful campaign.
Celebrity’s fit with the brand image.
Celebrity—Target audience match
Celebrity associated values.
Costs of acquiring the celebrity.
Celebrity controversy risk.
Celebrity popularity.
Celebrity availability.
Celebrity physical attractiveness.
Celebrity credibility.
Celebrity prior endorsements.
Whether celebrity is a brand user.
Celebrity profession.
Some Global Examples:
Globally, firms have been juxtaposing their brands and themselves with celebrity endorsers. Some successful ongoing global endorsements are as follows:
Celebrity endorsements have been the bedrock of Pepsi’s advertising. Over the years, Pepsi has used and continues to use a number of celebrities for general market and targeted advertising, including Shaquille O’Neal, Mary J. Blige, Wyclef Jean, and Busta Rhymes, who did a targeted campaign for their Mountain Dew product.
George Foreman for Meineke. He has also sold more than 10 million Lean Mean Fat– Reducing Grilling Machines since signing with the manufacturing company.
James Earl Jones for Verizon and CNN.
Nike golf balls, since the company signed Tiger Woods in 1996, have seen a $50 million revenue growth. Nike’s golf line grossed more than $250 million in annual sales. In 2000 he renegotiated a five-year contract estimated at $125 million.
Other successful endorsements like Nike—Michael Jordan, Dunlop—John McEnroe, Adidas—Prince Naseem Hamed, and so on.
Venus Williams, tennis player and Wimbledon champion has signed a five-year $40 million contract with sportswear manufacturer Reebok International Inc.
Advantages of a celebrity endorsing a Brand
Brands have been leveraging celebrity appeal for a long time. Across categories, whether in products or services, more and more brands are banking on the mass appeal of celebrities. As soon as a new face ascends the popularity charts, advertisers queue up to have it splashed all over.
The accruement of celebrity endorsements can be justified by the following advantages that are bestowed on the overall brand:
Establishment of Credibility: Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that brand among the target audience- this is especially true in case of new products. Ensured Attention: Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of advertisements and making the ad and the brand more noticeable.
PR coverage : is another reason for using celebrities. Managers perceive celebrities as topical, which create high PR coverage. A good example of integrated celebrity campaigns is one of the World’s leading pop groups, the Spice Girls, who have not only appeared in advertisements for Pepsi, but also in product launching and PR events. Indeed, celebrity-company marriages are covered by most media from television to newspapers (e.g. The Spice Girls and Pepsi)
Higher degree of recall: People tend to commensurate the personalities of the celebrity with the brand thereby increasing the recall value. Golf champion Tiger Woods has endorsed American Express, Rolex, and Nike. Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is used by T-Mobile and Elizabeth Arden. 007 Pierce Brosnan promotes Omega, BMW, and Noreico.
Associative Benefit: A celebrity’s preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message – because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, the consumer will also benefit.
Psychographic Connect: Celebrities are loved and adored by their fans and advertisers use stars to capitalise on these feelings to sway the fans towards their brand.
Demographic Connect: Different stars appeal differently to various demographic segments (age, gender, class, geography etc.).
Mass Appeal: Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to generate interest among the masses.
The celebrity approach has a few serious risks:
The reputation of the celebrity may derogate after he/she has endorsed the product: Pepsi Cola’s suffered with three tarnished celebrities – Mike Tyson, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Since the behaviour of the celebrities reflects on the brand, celebrity endorsers may at times become liabilities to the brands they endorse.
The vampire effect: This terminology pertains to the issue of a celebrity overshadowing the brand. If there is no congruency between the celebrity and the brand, then the audience will remember the celebrity and not the brand. Examples are the campaigns of Dawn French—Cable Association and Leonard Rossiter—Cinzano. Both of these campaigns were aborted due to celebrities getting in the way of effective communication. Another example could be the Castrol commercial featuring Rahul Dravid.
Inconsistency in the professional popularity of the celebrity: The celebrity may lose his or her popularity due to some lapse in professional performances. The 2003 Cricket World Cup also threw up the Shane Warne incident, which caught Pepsi off guard. With the Australian cricketer testing positive for consuming banned substances and his subsequent withdrawal from the event, bang in the middle of the event, PepsiCo – the presenting sponsor of the World Cup 2003 – found itself on an uneasy wicket
Multi brand endorsements by the same celebrity would lead to overexposure: The novelty of a celebrity endorsement gets diluted if he does too many advertisements. This may be termed as commoditisation of celebrities, who are willing to endorse anything for big bucks.
Celebrities endorsing one brand and using another (competitor): Sainsbury’s encountered a problem with Catherina Zeta Jones, whom the company used for its recipe advertisements, when she was caught shopping in Tesco. A similar case happened with Britney Spears who endorsed one cola brand and was repeatedly caught drinking another brand of cola on tape.
Mismatch between the celebrity and the image of the brand: Celebrities manifest a certain persona for the audience. It is of paramount importance that there is an egalitarian congruency between the persona of the celebrity and the image of the brand. Each celebrity portrays a broad range of meanings, involving a specific personality and lifestyle. Madonna, for example, is perceived as a tough, intense and modern women associated with the lower middle class. The personality of Pierce Brosnan is best characterized as the perfect gentlemen, whereas Jennifer Aniston has the image of the ‘good girl from next door’.
