Use Of Celebrities In Advertising

Personal in marketing have used celebrities in commercials, print campaigns and promotions and other seller techniques for years. It has worked in the past because it was executed properly. However, use of celebrities to grab viewer’s attention to eventually make sales depends on proper celebrity casting. The right selection of star to ‘pitch’ the product will mean that the buyers can relate to that person — the person a buyer would want to believe in. It is not as simple as you think it is because in many cases the right celebrity is not always affordable. On the flip side, the right celebrity is not always the most expensive one either. Above all else, the most important resides in considering whether the celebrity you select is right for your campaign and take the process from there.

Additionally, another key factor is in knowing what you want from a celebrity before you begin negotiations. For the same reason, we are insistent on identifying all of the needs before contacting the talent specially when working on behalf of an advertiser, even though it’s not always easy for the advertiser to understand. Recent commercial casted an insurance company and the client thought they were convinced of the markets in which they intended to air the spots thus making it a regional campaign excluding major markets. The talent selected for this was an astronaut, who at a very reasonable amount of money because of the limited area of use. Negotiations once completed made the client realize that they needed to expand into additional regions, including major markets previously omitted. Previous relationship with talent’s agent proved fortunate as we were able to go back and renegotiate without a large financial “penalty” to the advertiser. But this is not always the case. The campaign turned out to be very successful overall. However, they now have exercised an option, which we had pre-negotiated, to continue use of the celebrity into additional markets for an additional term.

In addition, the use of celebrities often runs in clusters. There are series of commercials that you can revert to which utilizes sports personalities, supermodels and sitcom stars, etc. If there is a good idea with an advertiser it will create a frenzy of interest in that type of celebrity for others to follow – and the loop continues, until the next creative idea emerges. But it is vital not to get caught up in this “trend-setting” circus – again by constantly thinking about your product and its buyers in celebrity spokesperson selection.

Celebrities can be seen as a marketing vehicle that will likely to continue in the near future. As long as there are new stars being introduced into our entertainment arenas there will be no shortage of talent to fill the need. Though, doing the selection and positioning right is the biggest challenge but if done correctly it can translate into better response and higher sales volume.

Impact of celebrity Endorsement on overall brand

Endorsements are seen to be on the rise entailing a valid question posed to consumers. Is there a science behind the choice of the endorsers or is it just by the popularity measurement? Which precise reasons lead to impact on brands by using celebrity endorsement?

A thorough study of the paper streamlined a 14 point model which can be referred to as a blueprint criterion by brand managers for capitalizing on the celebrity resource through 360 degree brand communication and can also be used in selection of celebrities. The model was projected as the ‘foundation brick’ on the impact of celebrity endorsement in paper. Our study revealed that 14 factors of the model and the effects of celebrity endorsement are proportional.

Success of a brand is determined through celebrity endorsement which is accumulative of the following 14 attributes. If the below parameters score is higher, the chances of getting close to the desired impact are greater.

The winner stories of celebrity endorsement are promotions which reflect a fine fit between the brand and the 360 degree advertising. And a decent example of one such story is of Fardeen Khan and Provogue. In the apparel market, Provogue’s positioning is of a young, active, party-going, attention-grabbing brand and so is Fardeen Khan. The union between the two has had a massive impact and brand managers have utilized this endorsement through 360 degree dimension as noted earlier.

Moreover, the marketing/advertising firms should identify the symbolic properties of the sought after product first, as also proposed by the transfer model. Thereafter, consultation of host celebrities is appropriate to assure their similar traits with the product. Finally, after sorting out budget and availability constraints, the suitable celebrity has to be chosen as a representation of symbolic brand properties. The chosen celebrity will have some meanings associated with him/her which will not be suitable for the product. Consequently, only salient features excluding unwanted meanings should be captured and taken care of. Also, advertisements should also be structured in way to highlight the essential similarities between celebrity and the product. When it comes to subtlety, depth and power in delivering meanings celebrities are much nuanced compared to anonymous models.

Celebrities also offer demographic information, configurations of range of personality and lifestyle meanings very thoroughly. Their persona evokes meanings with greater clarity.

Furthermore, celebrities through repeated performance on public stage create their personalized meanings which can be passed into advertisements, through ‘meaning transfer process’. For instance Preity Zinta is perceived as a fun-loving, vivacious and modern Indian woman who can be translated into brand campaign with similar characteristics. In conclusion, the fit between celebrity traits and brand positions and its attributes determine the success.

Celebrity endorsements

Marketers need to be aware of the impact of using celebrities in commercials, promotions and print campaigns because it works if done properly. If business are about to make an effective advertisement, it must be attention-grabbing to its consumers and therefore most of them uses celebrities as endorsers. According to the article of Katyal S. (2008), celebrities serves the purpose of getting viewer’s attention; but proper choice of celebrity determines whether it translates into a sale and product image is delivered precisely. Selecting the right star to enhance the image of your product means finding the person to whom your consumers can relate to, meaning the person your consumer wants to believe in. Sometimes the selection of the right star for your product is not that daunting, until you realise that in many cases affordability is in question with the right celebrity.

Essentially due to familiarity with stars, brands are normally endorsed by celebrities who make them enormously attractive to consumers. But anyone who thinks seriously about branding soon realises that there are basically two kinds of strong brands: those that are focused and those that are diversified.

Significance of branding with celebrity endorsements is complicated to estimate in the present cluttered media industry and consumer markets. Electronic media branding including television will be of continuing interest and importance even with its idiosyncrasies in consumer payment and brand definition. There are three explanatory reasons for this; firstly a strong brand identity is crucial to producing audiences in a multichannel environment which is an environment that is becoming more and more crowded as television converts to digital delivery. Perhaps it is the only means of gaining a place in a viewer’s/ user’s channel repertoire. Secondly, brands are important for businesses to expand its markets. Extensions of brand marry an established brand to a new service as a means of establishing immediate market credibility.

Besides that the third aspect explains, branding with the use of celebrities in which it is necessary to leverage corporate assets in order to open new markets. These markets may be related to the present business of a branded entity (e.g., ESPN Magazine, CBS Sportsline website), or if not separate they may be unrelated (e.g., logo apparel and other merchandise, Fox Sports restaurant/bars). With the traditional advertiser supported model of television under increasing pressure, television providers, and especially broadcasters, are constantly looking for new revenue streams to continue enhancing brand image and generate sales extensively.

 All in all, the power of an endorsement by a celebrity depends on the relevance of the celebrity to the product. For example, if Oprah was promoting a book about an issue particularly relevant to women then she is most likely to be effective. A famous chef can endorse a cook book or a famous fitness celebrity can certify an exercise book. If the buyer believes that the celebrity brings an unusual insight or twist, they would be more interested. In the case of skin whitening products, Lucida-ds and [Met] Tathione should carefully assess their endorsers to avoid business campaign failure in terms wrong brand perceptions and ultimate sale drop. Therefore, it is important to consider the conformity of the product and the alignment of both celebrity and brand attribute to be a market winner.