Professional Documents
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Advt Desk Project
Advt Desk Project
ENDORSEMENTS ON
OVERALL BRAND
SUBMITTED BY:
ANUSHREE GUPTA
GIRISH GIANCHANDANI
MANISH SEJWAL
SHIVAM SACHDEVA
AMIT TAYAL
PIYUSH NAGPAL
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INTRODUCTION
The modern world of marketing communication has become colorful and inundated
with advertisements, and it is hard to get noticed. It is an uphill task for the designer
of an advertising campaign to differentiate itself from others and attract viewers’
attention.
Similarly every product has an image. The consumer tries to consume a brand which
has the maximum fit with his/her own personality/image. The celebrity endorser fits
in between these two interactions, where he tries to bring the image of the product
closer to the expectation of the consumer, by transferring some of the cultural
meanings residing in his image to the product.
Indians are die-hard movie and sport buffs; and this aspect of the consumers has
invited the concept of “Celebrity Endorsement” to the world of advertisement. The
purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of Celebrity Endorsement in the process of
brand-building by taking appropriate examples from the advertising landscape.
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What is a Brand?
DEFINITION OF CELEBRITIES
Celebrities are people who enjoy specific public recognition by a large number of
certain groups of people. They have some characteristic attributes like attractiveness,
extraordinary lifestyle or special skills that are not commonly observed. Thus, it can
be said that within a society, celebrities generally differ from the common people and
enjoy a high degree of public awareness.
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In this age of intense competition, where capturing a position in the consumers’ mind
space is extremely tough, celebrity endorsements give an extra edge to the companies
for holding the viewers’ attention. Celebrities can catalyze brand acceptance and
provide the enormous momentum that brands require by endorsing the intrinsic value
to the brand.
Like actors (e.g., Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai,, Preity Zinta,
Aamir Khan and Pierce Brosnan).
Sports figures (e.g., Sachin Tendulkar, Sania Mirza, Anna Kournikova, Michael
Schumacher, Tiger Woods, etc),
But also for less obvious groups like businessmen (e.g., Vijay Mallya, Bill Gates) or
politicians.Clebrities appear in public in different ways.
So, in the Coco-Cola advertisement; actor Amir Khan is the celebrity endorser for the
product or brand called Coke, and this process is referred to as Celebrity
Endorsement. Celebrities might endorse as a brand ambassador or a brand face.
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To explain it with the help of an example, we can take the case of Amitabh Bachhan
and Polio Drops Campaign. He connects very well with every segment and every age,
so there was a huge possibility of Mr. AB being able to convince the masses and in
which he has succeeded.
Culture
The celebrities deliver meanings with extra subtlety, depth and power than
anonymous models. Celebrities offer demographic information with special precision
and configurations of range of personality and lifestyle meanings. They evoke the
meanings in their persona with greater vividness and clarity.
Celebrities actually own their meanings because they have created them on the public
stage by dint of intense and repeated performance. They pass these meanings into
advertisements through meaning transfer process. Preity Zinta, for example, is
perceived as a fun-loving, vivacious and modern Indian woman.
Endorsements
The meaning transfer model proposes that the marketing / advertising firm at first
should determine the symbolic properties sought for the product. Thereafter, they
should consult a host of celebrities and their associated meanings. Finally, after
considering budget and availability constraints, the celebrity should be chosen to
represent the appropriate symbolic properties. The chosen celebrity will have some
meanings associated with it which is not sought after for the product. The
advertisement program should take care about keeping the unwanted meanings out of
the evoked set and capture only the salient meanings. The advertisement must be
designed to highlight the essential similarity between the celebrity and the product.
Consumption
Consumers constantly search for the object world which gives them access to
workable ideas of demography, personality, lifestyle and culture. McCracken suggests
that this stage of the model is most complex, as consumers must claim, exchange, care
for and use the consumer goods to appropriate its meanings.
Celebrities play a major role in this stage as they have created their own self, which
makes them exemplary and inspirational figure to the consumers. Consumers try to
emulate the celebrities admired by them and try to find out the meaning in the similar
fashion. Celebrities bring the dramatic roles, fashioning cultural meanings into a
practicable form.
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Besides, while designing an ad campaign, one should also keep in mind that the
overuse of some extremely popular celebrities often tends to confuse consumers and
reduce the utility of celebrity endorsement. Another argument against celebrity
endorsement involves the behavior of the celebrity. The marketing function of a
company should also understand that brands should assume a much greater space than
the celebrities, because their association may be temporary but the brands are
permanent.
•Negative publicity - If the celebrity is strongly associated with the brand then the
occurrence of the negative publicity can spill over the brand.. E.g., Salman Khan lost
his endorsement deal with Thumbs-Up after his infamous incidents like buck-killing
and rash-driving.
•Overexposure - This risk arises when the celebrity chooses to endorse several
different products simultaneously which might leave the consumers confused. E.g.,
Sachin Tendulkar endorses several brands such as MRF, TVS Victor, Pepsi, Fiat,
Boost, etc.
•Overuse - Sometimes the company can use many different celebrities to appeal to
different market segment. But multiplicity of endorser might blur the image.
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•Extinction - The favorable response obtained by a particular brand may weaken over
time if the brand gets significant exposure without the association of the celebrity. If
the celebrity contract is for a considerable period of time, then it can lead to draining
out capital without proper return.
•Financial Risk - The decision for hiring an expensive endorser may not be always
feasible if there is a poor brand fit.
Therefore, for celebrity endorsements to work effectively there are some fundamental
ground rules: -
The Reasons
According to leading management thinker, Dr. Seamus Phan, “Many celebrity
endorsements fail because they identify a celebrity they like in an emotive and un-
researched manner and then try to create advertising to force-fit the celebrity into the
creative concept.” Therefore, the advertisers must associate the celebrity to the
advertisement and not vice versa. Thinking on the similar lines, the advertisers
shouldn’t identify the brand to associate with the celebrity but do vice versa.
The success of celebrity endorsement also depends upon the capacity, knowledge,
experience, and qualification to talk about the product. Failure may be attributed to
improper positioning (Example: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan & Maruti
Versa), negative perception after use of product / service (inferior products),
misapprehension of the meaning of the endorsement, etc.
The Solutions
As discussed, celebrity management is very crucial to avoid the brand-celebrity
disconnect, and subsequently, brand failures. If the consumers have questions in their
minds regarding the quality or performance of the product then even God cannot save
the brand. The obvious solution to the problem of overshadowing is to make sure that
both the advertisement and the celebrity are focused on the brand or product. For
Example: Pepsi while capitalizing on the popularity of cricket and films in India used
several cricketers and film stars in their ads. So when Azharuddin and Jadeja got
embroiled in the match-fixing controversy, Pepsi severed its association only with
these stars, but its relationship with cricket continued.
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FINDINGS
IMPORTANT CELEBRITY ATTRIBUTES
While selecting a celebrity as endorser, the company has to decide the promotional
objective of the brand and how far the celebrity image matches with it. The selection
is in fact a collaboration, from which both the company and the celebrity gains.
The most important attribute for a celebrity endorser is the trustworthiness. The
target audience must trust that a celebrity carries a particular image and it must match
with the product.
The second attribute in order of importance is likeability. The celebrity also must be
accepted as a popular icon by a large cross section of the audience.
Similarity between the target audience and the celebrity is the third important
attribute. A person well-known in a society can have greater impact than a celebrity of
a different world. If the endorser and receiver have similar needs, goals, interests and
lifestyles, the position advocated by the brand communication is better understood
and received. Similarity is also used to create a situation where the consumer feels
empathy for the person shown in the commercial. The bond of similarity between the
endorser and the receiver increases the level of persuasiveness.
- Lack of ideas
- Convincing clients
- To Position their Brand Distinctively: Lux worldwide has positioned itself as the
'soap the filmstars use'. From Leela Chitnis to Aishwarya Rai, all top actresses have
modeled for Lux.
- Celebrity Standing for a Single Brand:Think Zakir Hussain and you are reminded
of 'Wah Taj' Taj Mahal tea. Ditto with A. R. Rahman for Airtel.
Through research and analysis, this paper develops a 14 point model, which can be
used as a blueprint criterion which can be used by brand managers for selecting
celebrities, and capitalizes the celebrity resource through 360 degree brand
communication, since our research proposes it as the foundation brick of the impact of
celebrity endorsement. Our study reveals that the impact of celebrity endorsement is
proportional to the 14 factors discussed in the model.
One of the most successful celebrity endorsement campaigns which reflect the fit
between the brand and the 360 degree advertising fit is Fardeen Khan and Provogue.
Provogue’s positioning in the apparel market is of a young, active, party-going,
attention-grabbing brand and so is Fardeen Khan. The conjunction between the two
has been immensely impactful and brand managers have utilised this endorsement
through 360 degree reinforcement.
Smriti Irani endorsing the WHO recommended ORS Campaign in India. Indian
mothers can associate with Smriti Irani through the facets she projects on screen or in
regular life which helps develop a connect with the target audience since mothers
medicate their children with ORS.
Celebrity Values
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Tabu endorsing Tetra Packed Milk, Shabana Azmi campaigning for AIDS Awareness,
Amitabh Bachchan & Shahrukh Khan campaigning for Pulse Polio or Aishwarya Rai
appearing in the Donate Eyes campaign are few examples, which reflect the transfer
of celebrity values to the brand, creating an impact that generates recall.
Recently, a newspaper report showed how cola firms had gone beyond their
advertising budgets to get the best celebrities. Small firms that use celebrities’
services run greater risks if they invest large amounts. Although nobody is willing to
say exactly how much celebrities get paid, industry sources say Sachin Tendulkar’s
price is believed to be between Rs. 2.0-2.5 crores per endorsement, and musician A.
R. Rehman, who had signed up with AirTel, is believed to have picked up Rs. 1.75
crores. Film-star Hrithik Roshan was rumored to have picked up Rs. 2 crores for the
Fly With Hrithik campaign to push Close-Up, and Shahrukh Khan’s rate seems to be
between Rs. 2.5-3.0 crores. Aishwarya Rai apparently picks up Rs. 1.25 crores for an
endorsement and the Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly is believed to get between
Rs. 90 lakh to Rs. 1.5 crores, while film-star Aamir Khan apparently makes Rs. 1.5
crores per endorsement.
Celebrity-Product Match
Cyrus Broacha is the brand ambassador for MTV since both the celebrity and the
brand are considered as friendly, young, mood-boosting, humorous and outspoken.
MTV’s brand personality overlaps Cyrus Broacha’s image as a brand.
Some more examples of compatible celebrity product match in which celebrity brand
attributes get transferred to the brand and increases the brand equity is of Govinda &
Navratan Tel, Aishwarya Rai & Nakshatra, etc.
The perfect example here is of Salman Khan and the controversy in which he crushed
a man to death with his Pajero when he was driving under the influence of alcohol.
Also, any act on the part of the endorser that gives him a negative image among the
audience and goes on to affect the brands endorsed. The brand, in most instances,
takes a bashing.
Celebrity Popularity
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Celebrity Brand association like Garnier endorsed Tara Sharma & Simone Singh,
Agni Diamonds & Riama Sen don’t get much brand recall, and even if they do, its
difficult to attribute it to the celebrities’ endorsing the brand.On the other hand, HPCL
has had increased popularity and share of voice due to the endorsement of the brand
through Sania Mirza.
Celebrity Availability
In case of various brands, there are situations in which they prefer to go without a
brand face, since there is no brand-fit between the celebrities available and the brand.
Also, due to multiple endorsements by certain celebrities, brands refuse to adopt
celebrity endorsement since they fear dilution of the brand image.
John Abraham endorsing Wrangler and Timex Sunglasses are some examples which
portray the celebrities’ physical attractiveness that helps create an impact.
Celebrity Credibility
The most important aspect and reason for celebrity endorsement is credibility. In a
research carried out among 43 ad agencies and companies, most experts believed that
the most important dimensions of credibility are trustworthiness and prowess or
expertise with regard to the recommended product or service. One of the most
obvious reasons of Amitabh Bachchan endorsing plethora of brands is the credibility
of the celebrity and his recognition across consumers.
To site one of the most successful campaigns in which the celebrity’s credibility has
had an indelible impact on the brand and has saved the brand is of Cadbury’s. After
the worm controversy, Amitabh Bachchan’s credibility infused into the brand through
the campaign, helping it to get back on track. The campaign has won an award for the
same.
Multiple Endorsements
Not many people can remember all the brands that a celebrity endorses and the
chances of losing brand recall increases if the celebrity endorses multiple brands. For
example, in case of Sachin Tendulkar people recall Pepsi, TVS Victor and MRF, but
might not remember brands like Britannia and Fiat. Similarly, for Amitabh Bachchan,
consumers remember ICICI, Pepsi, Parker Pens, Pulse Polio and BPL. They might get
confused in the endorsement of Nerolac or Asian Paints. Thus, for multiple
endorsements where the same celebrity endorses several brands, it boils down to the
strength of the brand and the advertising content.
Various celebrities endorse NGOs and social causes since they believe in the social
message that they need to convey to the audience. One of the most successful
campaigns has been executed by PETA in which celebrities like Shilpa Shetty,
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Amisha Patel, Yana Gupta, Sheetal Malhar, Mahima Choudhary claimed to believe in
PETA’s philosophy, and thereby endorse the brand.
CELEBRITY SELECTION
There are various scientific ways in which the right celebrity is selected for the
product endorsement, which are discussed here after
•Respect: For example - Former Miss World Aishawarya Rai and the Eye donation
campaign.
A celebrity scoring high on all the above attributes can turn out to be a good endorser
for the brand under question.
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• Celebrity credibility,
• Celebrity attractiveness,
• Cost consideration,
• A likelihood-of-getting-into-trouble factor
Selecting the right celebrity does more than increasing sales; it can create linkages
with the celebrities’ appeal, thereby adding new dimension to the brand image.
Research conducted by Katherine Eckel has revealed that “celebrities can get people
to make a better choice but cannot influence people to make a foolish choice”.
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Celebrity Positioning Matrix, which gives the popularity and image details of
a personality in the market
Product Positioning Matrix, which is the direct consequence of the brands
competitive strategy
Area Correlation Matrix, which is the overall measure of match of brand and
celebrity
The two variables can be used to decide on the appropriate celebrity for the brand.
The model also helps in minimizing the cost with optimization of effect.The study is
done in two stages, exploratory research involving personal interviews and focused
group discussion followed by primary data collection and analysis.
Model Development
For the purpose of our study, we divided all companies and brands into twelve
categories mentioned below: -
1. Creator / Innovator: Products or personalities famous for disruptive, architectural,
modular or incremental innovations, e.g., White Goods
2. Caregiver: Personalities or products which give the perceived benefit of security
and care, e.g., Insurance Companies
3. Jester: Personalities or products positioned for fun and frivolous activities, e.g.,
Wafers
4. Magician: Personalities or products which claim to produce results which are
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Variables Developed
Area Correlation Index of Brand and CEI: This we have defined as the weighted
product of corresponding archetypes of brands and celebrities.
Hypothesis
H1: A brand-celebrity area coefficient is positively related to audience brand-
celebrity connection.
The concepts developed can be used by celebrity clients for effective decision
making. The objective of a client can be described as follows: -
The details of the variable in the above-mentioned objectives are described below: -
Costs Associated:
1. Endorsement fees
2. Feature establishing costs
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Risks Associated:
1. Mismatch risk
2. Celebrity feature transition risk
3. Celebrity feature mortality risk
Methodology
Ten celebrities were selected for the purpose. The selection was based on three
distinct focused group discussions done with SEC A, B, C Category of members with
10 members each. The top ten most frequent celebrities recalled or recollected as
brand ambassadors were chosen for the further studies.
Primary survey was conducted to list down the brand against the above-mentioned ten
celebrities. The most frequent reply was recorded. The brands were then subjected to
archetype scoring, and area correlation was calculated. From secondary data, other
endorsees, if existing, were recorded and the process was repeated. For this other
endorsee, the least frequent or non-existing celebrity was selected from the list of CEI
calculation celebrities.
RESULTS
Celebrity Effectiveness Index (CEI)
Thus, the calculation is analogous to CEI but is for companies or products. The
outcome is the direct reflection of company's positioning strategy.
The corresponding cells of brand and celebrity are multiplied to calculate what we
term as Brand-Celebrity Area Correlation.
The following table shows the results of above mentioned ten brands: -
We term the celebrity with maximum recall as successful celebrity and with minimum
recall as failure celebrity.
The test of Hypothesis 1 shows that it is 100% accepted for the case presented. Thus,
we can say that area correlation matrix is a good predictor of success of a campaign.
Moreover, the CEI is also a good predictor of popularity of the celebrity. Brands
generally will have lower CEI than
The following recommendations are made to brand managers and account managers: -
Amitabh Bachhan (AB) was seen endorsing Maruti's Versa Car. The AB factor
worked wonders as far as generating curiosity was concerned but the actual product
couldn't meet the expectations of people, and hence, the endorsement strategy didn't
work. He has been used very effectively by Parker Pens, ICICI Bank and Cadbury's to
name a few.
RECOMMENDATIONS
CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT: THE ISSUES
INVOLVED
There are several factors to consider before resorting to celebrity endorsement. There
is no single formula to win in the world of marketing. A company must analyze the
prospect of endorsement from 360 degrees, prior to product promotion.
Sachin Tendulkar, for example, in 2002 endorsed 12 brands (including Pepsi, Boost,
Colgate Total, Gillette, Britannia Tiger, Fiat Palio, TVS Victor, Fiat Sienna, MRF,
Adidas, Visa Cards and Home Trade). Tripp et al, says that the endorsement of as
many as four products negatively influences the celebrity spokesperson’s credibility
and likeability.
Also, the use of multiple celebrities to endorse a brand may hinder the meaning
transfer process, and thus, lead to confusion among the consumers.