Author: S.
Arun Kumar, Assistant Professor, SMOT School of Business, Chennai
Companies
employ celebrities in order to increase the brand awareness, sales and to gain
the trust of their customers. They act as brand ambassadors to propagate the
good will of the brand to the masses. When their favorite stars endorse for a
particular brand, the celebrity fans have a liking towards the brand or would
like to associate with the brands for various reasons. This is the strategy
followed by many companies globally since 1940s and the practice slowly gained
popularity in India after 1980s. In recent years companies started using
‘Celebrity endorsement as a marketing strategy’ to push the products into the
market and to pull the customers.
Money
spent by the companies on Brand Ambassadors
The
companies invest from some lacs to many crores on their brand ambassadors. The
people in the list ranges from TV and film actors, models, sports stars,
entertainers, pop stars, businessmen etc. Depending upon their distinctive
identity; PR coverage; instant credibility and number of fans, the celebrities
are quoted price deals for endorsing the brands. Dhoni was stuck by deal worth
Rs.210 crores (2.1 billion) with Rhiti Sports Management. Amir Khan, Sharuk
Khan, Abishek, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir, Priyanka Chopra are
some of the preferred celebrities in Btown. Their price deals ranges from 5
crores to around 20 crore depending on the tenure.
Personality
Values vs. Brand Attributes
Finding
the right celebrity is a challenge for the marketers while they choose the
brand ambassadors. Though endorser has certain restrictions and agreement with
the company, he or she can endorse any other brand which is not related to the
same brand or its competitor’s brand. In such cases the celebrity endorses to
multiple brands and over a period of time the brand equity also gets diluted
due to poor brand recall. There are many brands that have failed in the market
in spite of the brands being endorsed by well known celebrities. Examples are
Maruti Versa which was endorsed by Amitabh Bachan was a failure product in the
market. The same actor is being roped in for Force ONE and the product is
struggling in the market to sell.
Examples
:
Yamaha
– John Abraham
|
|
Personality Values
|
Brand Attributes
|
Sporty
|
For Youth
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Trendy
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Stylish
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Passion For Bikes
|
Power
|
Reebok-
Bipasha Basu
|
|
Personality Values
|
Brand Attributes
|
Fit
|
For Fitness
|
Healthy
|
Healthy Life
|
Perfect Body Shape
|
Figure Conscious
|
Sports Person
|
Sports Shoe
|
Sony
Vaio- Kareena
|
|
Personality Values
|
Brand Attributes
|
Beautiful
|
Good Models / Colors
|
Slim
|
Slim Finish
|
Light Weight
|
Light Weight
|
Zero Figure
|
Sleek
|
Stylish and trendy
|
Good Designs
|
A
celebrity endorsing too many brands
What
happens a when a particular celebrity endorses for more than one brand?
Customers lose trust in the brands as well as the celebrity. For instance, in
1980s Kapil Dev was endorsing brands like Boost and Palmolive shaving cream.
Customers started gaining trust in those brands due to the valuable
contributions made by the player for the Indian cricket team. The brand
associations of the personality with the brand were more as Kapil Dev was
endorsing to very few products matching his personality. But nowadays celebrities
like MS Dhoni, Sachin, Deepika Padukone etc endorse themselves to more than 7-8
brands. Customers ultimately lose the brand connect and the brands lose their
unique identity. MS Dhoni has endorsed to more than ten brands like Aircel, GE
Money, Pepsi, Ashok Leyland, Orient Fans, Reebok, Siyarams, Cello etc. It
increases the personal identity of the player MS Dhoni as a brand but not the
product or the brand’s identity.
Is
customer still the king or being fooled?
The
companies are ready to pay in millions for their brand ambassadors to pull and
attract customers. When the companies shell out huge money for ads and other
campaigns, these costs are carried along with the price tag of the product. The
burden again falls on the customer. Does the customer get any added benefit from
the Shampoo if Katrina or someone is endorsing? The customer is fooled by
showing convincing ad campaigns with celebrities and the millions spent on
brand ambassadors are being imposed on the customer.
