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By
Vivek Joshi
Supreet Ahluwalia
Senior Lecturers
Department of Business
Manipal University Dubai Campus
Block #7 International Academic City Dubai
United Arab Emirates
The crescendo of celebrities endorsing brands has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years 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 a brand 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 Sachin Tendulkar play an important role for the advertising industry. It is an
established fact that celebrity endorsement can bestow unique features or special attributes upon a
product that it may have lacked otherwise.
In India from late 1970's and early 80's the new trend in advertising started. Brands started being
endorsed by celebrities. Hindi film and TV stars as well as sportspersons were roped in to endorse
prominent brands. Advertisements featuring stars like Late Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Tabassum (Prestige
cookers), Sunil Gavaskar for Dinesh Suiting, Ravi Shastri and Vivian Richards (Vimal), Persis Khambhata
and Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving cream) became common.
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 negative impact. Theory and
practice suggests that the use of stars and their unleashing power in advertising generate a lot of publicity
and attention from the public but the underline questions are, do these stars really help a brand by
increasing its sales? On the other hand, can they really have an Impact on the person's consumption
pattern, thereby changing his brand preference? How an advertisement featuring a celebrity can influence
consumers buying decision and can create an association between a brand and a common man.
To answer these questions, the article will examine the relationship between celebrity endorsements and
brands, and the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer's buying behaviour as well as how
consumer makes brand preferences.
We will apply a wide range of accepted principles of how consumers brand attitudes and preferences can
be influenced, how buyer's behavior can be influenced, how buyer's behavior can be molded. We will use
the principles of credibility of source and attractiveness, the match-up hypothesis, the consumer decision-
making model and the communication model to understand this phenomenon.
Brand- A layman perspective
Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational and cultural image that you can associate with a
company or the product. Few examples will bring home the meaning i.e. Amul - utterly butterly
delicious;Coke – thanda matlab coca-cola; Pepsi – Yeh dil mange more; Kurkure- Masti bole to kurkure
andDaewoo ka India.
These examples convey one message that when people watch advertisement a connect is being created
and result is that people go for experience of buying. People feel by using the brand they will portray
certain traits or characteristics that otherwise they do not have. This generates a certain level of
emotional affiliation and a sense of fulfillment. It is this emotional relationship 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 competition. Advertisements along
with other marketing efforts generate expectations and feelings in a 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 the brand. 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 perceive himself in the reference frame of the celebrity after the brand or the
advertised product has been purchased or consumed by him.
Celebrity
Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition and mostly they are the experts of their respective
fields having wider influence in public life and societal domain. Attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary
life style or special skills, larger than life image and demigod status can be associated with them.
It is safe to deduce that within a corresponding social group celebrities generally differ from the social
norm and enjoy high degree of public awareness.
Celebrities appear in public in different ways. To start, they appear in public when fulfilling their
professional commitments example: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who played cricket in front of an audience in
Twenty-Twenty World Cup. Furthermore, celebrities appear in public by attending 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 all advertisements.
Celebrity 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 lively interest 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 promoting Cadbury
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 to transmit the correct message and
help regenerating the lost trust. The fit between the product and 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 across India. 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 to Videocon electronics on
the other.
According to Advertising research companies both the actors are doing well and the ad spent on both by
the companies is increasing at a phenomenal rate, so does their basket of endorsements. These actors
bring reliability and trust in the brand and above all, they help in increasing 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 the Mind Position'.
The diagram above explains how various traditional factors along with brand preference interact during
purchase decision process and finally results into a consumer's final product choice or ultimate purchase.
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 as well as help in retention of
message in the psyche of the audience. They can also help the company in reducing their expenditure on
Media and other forms of publicity. An example will bring more clarity, When S Kumars, a known textile
brand entered into readymade garments business they used Hrithik Roshan, then the hottest advertising
icon for their launch advertising for TAMARIND, now one of the premium readymade brands. They
reckoned that they have spent 40-50 percent less on media due to sheer impact of using hottest star like
Hrithik. 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 are perceived by
consumers as more entertaining.
Using a celebrity in advertising or for any, other type of communication for brand building is likely to
positively affect consumers' brand preference, brand attitude, brand association and purchase intentions.
To ensure positive results, however, it is critical for advertisers to have a clear understanding of
consumer's reactions and reinforcement of celebrity endorsement. The impact of celebrity endorsement on
any brand as well as on consumer's purchase decision is very critical.
Source Credibility
Central goal of advertising is the convincing of consumers and persuasion to purchase, the ultimate
objective, though not openly spoken, is to some how attract consumers to the market offering of the
company, generating positive attitude, reinforce positive association and ultimately to generate sales, may
be a trial purchase. At later stages, the sponsor may work towards creating a brand loyalty but generating
initial sales or increasing the existing sales is the primary objective. In this respect, the credibility of an
endorser along with advertisement plays an important role in convincing the target audience of the
attractiveness of the company's brand and generates sales. Pursuing a celebrity endorsement strategy
enables advertisers 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 of the
spokesperson. Source attractiveness refers to the endorser's Physical appearance, Personality, Likeability
and Similarity to the receiver, thus to the perceived social value of the source. This behavior mainly goes
back to halo effect, whereby persons who perform well on one dimension example: physical attractiveness
or top professional performance, social status are assumed to excel on other levels as well i.e. happiness
and coolness. This is evident from the 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 for communicating 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
brand they endorse.
Establishing a Perfect Match
Research proves that a spokesperson especially for a service product or organization (ICICI- First Amitabh
Bachchan, now Shahrukh Khan) interacts with 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 is more
effective for products high in psychological or social risk, involving such elements as good taste, self-
image, and opinion of others. Several research studies have examined the congruency between celebrity
endorsers and brands to explain the effectiveness of using famous 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 along with the tagline
'BOND WITH THE BEST' but the James Bond idea did not worked and the company was not happy with the
results.
After the debacle of the first campaign, company introduced a family ad where children are celebrating
there parents silver wedding anniversary and they are out with their father to purchase a suit for him.
Even this commercial did not work and it was taken off the air. As a last resort, company introduced Mr.
Amitabh Bachchan as Reid & Taylor man, a man propagating the brand for special occasion and for very
special people in life. The commercial 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 special people.
Second example that can be quoted is of Vishwanathan Anand, who endorsed NIIT. NIIT adopted a very
smart strategy by roping in Vishwanathan Anand an international chess wizard for their advertising
campaign. As chess is considered to be a game full of strategies and a game for smart people and when
one of the greats of the game is asking people to join NIIT it was suppose to have a positive influence on
the people and actually it had. There was complete congruency and compatibility between the celebrity
endorser, the product and the message.
Contrary to only favorable outcomes, there are several examples where the product, even the entire
campaign collapsed due to heavy weight celebrity as the agency or the ad failed to establish the
relationship between the endorser and the product. Keeping the focus only on success, where the product
and the celebrity were a perfect match, following are few examples:
* Dabur
* Cadbury
Amitabh Bachchan
* Reid and Taylor
* Parker
* Santro
* Videocon
Shahrukh Khan
* Sunfeast
* Pepsi
* Titan
Aamir Khan * Coke
* Toyota Innova
* Nakshatra
Aishwarya Rai
* Lux
* Fanta
Rani Mukherjee
* Nestle Munch
* Whirlpool
Kajol and Ajay Devgan
* Tata Indicom
The campaigns are not only basking with the glory of success stories, but there is considerable number 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 dangerous preposition 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 Bachchan failed 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 cricketing genius.
Among the possible reasons identified by several authors, including overexposure and identification, the
'match-up hypothesis' specifically suggests that the effectiveness depends on 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 the physical
attractiveness of the endorser. Results show that an attractive spokespersons are more effective in terms
of attitude change when prompting brands that enhance one's 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 qualified to 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 understand this
phenomenon Mc Cracken (1989) suggested a comprehensive model known as Meaning Transfer Model.
This three-stage model suggests how the meaning associated with the famous person moves from the
endorser to the product or the brand. Thus, meanings attributed to the celebrity become associated with
the brand in the consumer's mind. Finally, in the consumption process, the customer acquires the brand's
meaning. The third stage of the model explicitly shows the importance of the consumer's role in the
process of endorsing brands with famous persons.
In contrast to anonymous endorsers, celebrities add value to the image transfer process by offering
meanings of extra depth and power, what is complemented by their life style and personalities. 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 the purpose the celebrity should have, the appropriate
set of characteristics and the public should be 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 to transmit 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
in communicating the same easily.
Compatibility of the celebrity's persona with the overall brand image is very important, as a celebrity
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 between the celebrity and the message
are must for a successful campaign.
Certain elements that generate a perfect match or compatibility between the celebrity and brand 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 risks associated 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 gorgeous Aishwarya 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 match between the brand image and the image or
persona of the celebrity endorser.
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 associated with this form of
advertising. The use of celebrity for endorsements create a very favorable impact 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 the complex 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 best possible product. It is the
combination of several factors and elements that work together for the success of a brand and its
acceptance in the minds of consumers as well as for its market offering.
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 about the product and celebrity
endorsements. Majority of the consuming population also knows what is advertising and how it actually
works and this knowledge of consumer makes the task of celebrity endorsement all the more difficult and
challenging for the advertising companies and the sponsors. Indian companies both advertising and
product offering companies have top make an effort to overcome this ever-mounting challenge.
References
* Aaker, David A. (1996), Building Strong Brands. New York, NY: The Free Press.
* Daneshvary, Rennae and R. Keith Schwer (2000), "The Association Endorsement and
* Consumers' Intention to Purchase," Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17 (3), 203-213.
* Friedman, Hershey H. and Linda Friedman (1979), "Endorser Effectiveness by Product Type," Journal of
Advertising Research, 19 (5), 63-71.
* McCracken, Grant (1989), "Who Is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement
Process," Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (3), 310-321.
Vivek Joshi
Supreet Ahluwalia
Senior Lecturers
Department of Business
Manipal University Dubai Campus
Block #7 International Academic City Dubai
United Arab Emirates
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