Celebrity Endorsement

VIEWERS PERCEPTION ON CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT IN ADVERTISEMENT – AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

M.NANDINI PRIYA

Introduction 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. But everything is not hunky-dory; celebrities are after all mere mortals made of flesh and blood like us. If a celebrity can aggrandize the merits of a brand, he or she can also exacerbate the image of a brand. “Any brand can get a celebrity. That is easy. But getting a celebrity consistent with the right brand, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way... that is not easy.” “The health of a brand can definitely be improved up to some extent by celebrity endorsement. But one has to remember that endorsing a celebrity is a means to an end and not an end in itself.” Celebrity endorsements are impelled by virtue of the following motives: • • • • • •

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. Lack of ideas. Convincing clients.

Certain parameters that postulate compatibility between the celebrity and brand image are: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Celebrity’s fit with the brand image. Celebrity—Target audience match Celebrity associated values. Costs of acquiring the celebrity. Celebrity—Product matches. Celebrity controversy risk. Celebrity popularity. Celebrity availability. Celebrity physical attractiveness. Celebrity credibility. Celebrity prior endorsements. Whether celebrity is a brand user.

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Celebrity profession.

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: •

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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. We had the Shah Rukh-Santro campaign. At launch, Shah Rukh Khan endorsed Santro and this ensured that brand awareness was created in a market, which did not even know the brand. 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 ZetaJones 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. Mitigating a tarnished image: Cadbury India wanted to restore the consumer's confidence in its chocolate brands following the high-pitch worm’s controversy; so the company appointed Amitabh Bachchan for the job. Last year, when the even more controversial pesticide issue shook up Coca-Cola and PepsiCo and resulted in much negative press, both soft drink majors put out high-profile damage control ad films featuring their best and most expensive celebrities. While Aamir Khan led the Coke fightback as an ingenious and fastidious Bengali who finally gets convinced of the product's `purity,' PepsiCo brought Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar together once again in a television commercial which drew references to the `safety' of the product indirectly. 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.

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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. Rejuvenating a stagnant brand: With the objective of infusing fresh life into the stagnant chyawanprash category and staving off competition from various brands, Dabur India roped in Bachchan for an estimated Rs 8 crore. Celebrity endorsement can sometimes compensate for lack of innovative ideas.

Amitabh Bachchan has been a household name for three decades now. He is known as the man with the Midas touch. And people have long loved to ape his style and his deep voice. No wonder advertisement agencies have been vying with one another to cash in on his megastar status. Today, the star is one of the hottest advertising mascots and probably the most highly paid model for commercials. So far, Bachchan has endorsed brands like BPL, ICICI, Parker Pens, Maruti Versa, Pepsi, Reid & Taylor, Nerolac Paints, and Dabur. He was also a prominent part of a recent AIDS campaign. Even at 61, Bachchan makes more from his endorsements than the stars of today like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Recently, he beat Aamir, who had bagged the biggest endorsement for Coke, with a whopping Rs 10 crore contract with ICICI.

Nerolac While Amitabh begin smile, staring down from bill boards is effective, television ads showing people shaking hands with him and then looking down at their hands to see them painted are even more powerful.

Pepsi One of the Pepsi ads, which featured the Big B and a boy, was Bachchan's idea. The series also saw cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar share screen space with Amitabh. The closest Bachchan ever got to cricket in films was when he played narrator to Aamir Khan's Oscar-nominated film Lagaan, which had an hour-long climax where the actors played cricket. Rakesh Mehra, who directed the cola ads, also directed Bachchan in his previous BPL ads and the film Aks, co-starring Manoj Bajpai, Raveena Tandon and Nandita Das.

Parker Pens Amitabh Bachchan was actually roped in as brand ambassador by Parker to promote Waterman, its French pen brand. Who can forget the ad in a restaurant in which the Big B cannot get enough of writing with a Parker and proceeds to sign the bills of all the diners? Or the one in which he goes on signing the autograph book of a teenaged girl (Genelia D'Souza)? The idea for this one was, incidentally, AB's. Mansoor Khan (Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Josh) directed these ads. Bachchan was reportedly paid Rs 5 crore for this series.

Maruti Versa This was the first, and so far only, ad to feature the father-son duo of Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan. The ad had the Big B relaxing in the backseat as son Abhishek drives the car. Both like the car for different reasons and launch on a witty conversation about it. The two will soon be seen together in films too, like Rajkumar Santoshi's Ranveer, which will be launched on Big B's birthday, and Rakesh Mehra's next.

Dabur The Dabur ads, which have still not been aired on television, boast of direction by Arjun Sablok (Na Tum Jaano Na Hum), cinematography by Kiran Deohans (Aks, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham), and sets by Sharmista Roy (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, K3G, Koi... Mil Gaya). Adman Prasun Joshi (author of the Thanda Matlab Coca-Colacatchline) has scripted and supervised them. The two-year deal will see Bachchan as the brand ambassador for Dabur's healthcare products. According to the contract, Bachchan is required to shoot for the ads for seven days a year, eight hours per day. He has been reportedly paid Rs 8 crore.

Reid & Taylor Amitabh displaced none other than 'James Bond' Pierce Brosnan for this product. Reid & Taylor is the first clothing brand AB has endorsed. The action-packed ad showcases him as the Indian James Bond. Bachchan had recently stated that his endorsements were necessary to pay off the large debts incurred by his production house ABCL. Apparently, the money he earns from his ads goes to the company.

Objectives •

To study the insight of Celebrity Endorsement in Advertisement.

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To identify the degree of recall of the advertisement consisting the Celebrity Endorsement.

Limitations •

There will be consumers who purchase the products without viewing any Celebrity Endorsement advertisement.

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Customers regret to purchase the product due to the abhorrence towards the Celebrity of that particular product.

Methodology The aim of the study can be proficient by conducting a efficient market research. The marketing research process that will be adopted in the current study consists of the following stages:Defining the problem and the research objective: The research objective states what information is needed to solve the problem. The aim of the research is to obtain the insight of the respondents regarding Celebrity Endorsement in advertisement.

Developing the research plan: Once the problem is identified, the next step is to prepare a plan for getting the information needed for the research. There is a need to gather large amount of information before making a conclusion.

Collection and Sources of data: Market research requires two kinds of data, i.e., primary data and secondary data. Well-structured questionnaires will be prepared for the respondents. There will be door-to-door surveys. The questionnaires will contain open-ended questions will be more useful wherein the main objective is to get an insight into how people think. Secondary data will be collected from various journals, books and web sites. Sampling Plan:Sampling Units: The customers will be stratified sampling random sampling which includes Teenagers, Adults and Senior Citizen. Sample Size: Door-to-door surveys will be conducted for 100 respondents. Analyze the collected information: This involves converting raw data into useful information. It involves tabulation of data were it is converted into bar chart for easy understanding.