Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Of
Customer Perception
on
Celebrity Endorsement
Submitted By
FOR THE
BACHELOR OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION (BBA)
PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH
SESSION-2008-2010
D.A.V COLLEGE
CHANDIGARH
APPROVED BY AICTE AND AFFLIATED TO
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PANJAB UNIVERSITY,
CHANDIGARH
Declaration
“BACHELOR OF BUSINESSS
ADMINISTRATION”
To
PANJAB UNIVERSITY,
CHANDIGARH
Is of my Original work and not submitted for the award of any other Degree,
Diploma, Fellowship, or other similar title or prizes
Panjab university
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chandigarh
Preface
Theoretical knowledge just provides the base and it’s not sufficient to produce a
good Manager that’s why the practical knowledge is needed.
Therefore the Research Project is an essential requirement for the student of BBA.
This research project not only helps the students to utilize his skills properly and
learn field realities but also provides a chance to the organization to find out talent
among the building Managers in the very beginning.
In accordance with the requirement of BBA course I have done my research project
on the topic “Customer Perception on Celebrity Endorsement”..
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Acknowledgeme
nt
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What Lies Ahead
Chapter-1 Introduction to Celebrity Endorsement
What is Advertising
History of Advertising
Types of Advertising
Criticism of Advertising
Scope of the Topic
Impact of Celebrity Endorsement On Brands
Chapter-6 Findings
Chapter-7 Conclusion
Chapter-8 Annexure
Chapter- 9 Bibliography
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Executive Summary
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INTRODUCTION
The motive behind total branding may be decocted as an attempt to amalgamate diverse
activities to win customer preference. Apropos to this context, the topic “Role of celebrity
endorsement on overall brand”, is a significant one. 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.
Today 'Celebrity Endorsement' has attracted immense debate on whether it really contributes to
the brand building process or whether it is just another lazy tool to make the brand more visible
in the minds of the consumers. Although it has been observed that the presence of a well-known
personality helps in solving the problem of over-communication that is becoming more
prominent these days, there are few undesirable impacts of this practice on the brand. The
theories like 'Source Credibility Theory, Source Attractiveness Theory and Meaning Transfer
Theory' provide a basis on which the methodology of celebrity endorsement works and also
explains how the process of the celebrity endorsement influences the minds of the consumers.
Firms invest huge amounts as advertising expenditure for hiring the right celebrity. However
there lies uncertainty with respect to the returns that the company might be able to garner for the
brand. On the other hand, the over popularity of the celebrity sometimes overshadows the brand.
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If the celebrity is involved in multiple endorsements, it tends to create confusion among
consumers and hence negatively affects the perception of the advertisement and the brand.
Hence, to say clearly whether the practice of celebrity endorsement impacts positively or
negatively to the brand still remains a debate.
History
Celebrities are involved in endorsing activities since late nineteenth century. The advent of
celebrity endorsements in advertising in India began when Hindi film and TV stars as well as
sportspersons began encroaching on a territory that was, until then, the exclusive domain of
models. One of the first sports endorsements in India was when Farokh Engineer became the first
Indian cricketer to model for Bryl cream. The Indian cricket team now earns roughly Rs. 100
crore through endorsements. There was a spurt of advertising, featuring stars like Tabassum
(Prestige Pressure Cookers), Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving Cream) and
Sunil Gavaskar (Dinesh Suitings).
If I may take the liberty of rephrasing Aristotle’s quote on anger, “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.”
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“A sign of a celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his
services.” - Daniel J Boorstin
If the world were full of all wise men and all wise women; we would have never heard of a term
called "advertisement". And then good products would have found the right customers and
grown to prosperity. Firms would have worked out a mathematical formula to sell and succeed.
But the buying process isn't rational; and so is this world.
Today, the business firms are trying out different ways in advertisement to increase their sales.
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.
Indian firms have been juxtaposing their brands with celebrity endorsers in the hope that
celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing and/or corporate communication attempts.
Today, use of celebrities as part of marketing communication strategy is fairly common practice
for major firms in supporting corporate or brand imagery.
What is a Brand?
Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, once said, "Our most valuable assets are our
intangible assets." The intangible asset he was referring to is a brand. The Dictionary of Business
& Management defines a brand as: a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of
them, intended to identify goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate
them from those of competitor.
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Definition of Celebrity
It can be said that within a corresponding social group, celebrities generally differ from the
social norm and enjoy a high degree of public awareness. Today's celebrities are larger figures
from movies (Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan), television (Larry King, Smriti Irani) and
sports (Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Schumacher).
The charisma of the celebrities almost always entices people and their words are worshipped by
a lot of people. Their influence also goes on the political front, where they are invited for
political endorsement. The business firms, thus, resort to celebrity endorsement to perk up brand
recall and product sales. This has now become a trend and is being perceived as a strategic
means of brand building exercise.
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WHAT IS ADVERTISING
Organizations that spend money on advertising promoting items other than a consumer product
or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental
agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service
announcement.
HISTORY OF ADVERTISING
Egyptians upapyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. commercial and political campaign
displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia Lost and found advertising
on papyrus was common in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Wall or rock painting for
commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient advertising form, which is present
to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. The tradition of wall painting can
be traced back to Indian rock art paintings that date back to 4000 BC. History tells us that Out-
of-home advertising and billboards are the oldest forms of advertising.
As the towns and cities of the Middle Ages began to grow, and the general populace was unable
to read, signs that today would say cobbler, miller, tailor or blacksmith would use an image
associated with their trade such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a horse shoe, a candle
or even a bag of flour. Fruits and vegetables were sold in the city square from the backs of carts
and wagons and their proprietors used street callers (town criers) to announce their whereabouts
for the convenience of the customers.
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As education became an apparent need and reading, as well as printing, developed advertising
expanded to include handbills. In the 17th century advertisements started to appear in weekly
newspapers in England. These early print advertisements were used mainly to promote books
and newspapers, which became increasingly affordable with advances in the printing press; and
medicines, which were increasingly sought after as disease ravaged Europe. However, false
advertising and so-called "quack" advertisements became a problem, which ushered in the
regulation of advertising content.
As the economy expanded during the 19th century, advertising grew alongside. In the United
States, the success of this advertising format eventually led to the growth of mail-order
advertising.
In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its pages,
allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability and the formula
was soon copied by all titles. Around 1840, Volney Palmer established a predecessor to
advertising agencies in Boston. Around the same time, in France, Charles-Louis Havas extended
the services of his news agency, Havas to include advertisement brokerage, making it the first
French group to organize. At first, agencies were brokers for advertisement space in newspapers.
N. W. Ayer & Son was the first full-service agency to assume responsibility for advertising
content. N.W. Ayer opened in 1869, and was located in Philadelphia.
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At the turn of the century, there were few career choices for women in business; however,
advertising was one of the few. Since women were responsible for most of the purchasing done
in their household, advertisers and agencies recognized the value of women's insight during the
creative process. In fact, the first American advertising to use a sexual sell was created by a
woman – for a soap product. Although tame by today's standards, the advertisement featured a
couple with the message "The skin you love to touch".In the early 1920s, the first radio stations
were established by radio equipment manufacturers and retailers who offered programs in order
to sell more radios to consumers. As time passed, many non-profit organizations followed suit in
setting up their own radio stations, and included: schools, clubs and civic groups When the
practice of sponsoring programs was popularised, each individual radio program was usually
sponsored by a single business in exchange for a brief mention of the business' name at the
beginning and end of the sponsored shows. However, radio station owners soon realised they
could earn more money by selling sponsorship rights in small time allocations to multiple
businesses throughout their radio station's broadcasts, rather than selling the sponsorship rights to
single businesses per show.
TYPES OF ADVERTISING
Virtually any medium can be used for advertising. Commercial advertising media can include
wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio,
cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web
popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers,
sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes ("logojets"), in-flight advertisements on
seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens,
musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers,doors of
bathroom stalls,stickers on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the
opening section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and
supermarket receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a
medium is advertising.
1 Television
Main articles: Television advertisement and Music in advertising
The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format,
as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV
events. The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most
prominent advertising event on television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot
during this game has reached US$3 million (as of 2009).
The majority of television commercials feature a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the
product.
Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through computer
graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank backdropsor used to replace local billboards
that are not relevant to the remote broadcast audience. More controversially, virtual billboards
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may be inserted into the backgroundwhere none exist in real-life. Virtual product placement is
also possible.
2 Infomercials
Main article: Infomercial
3 Radio advertising
Radio advertisements are broadcasted as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna
and a thus to a receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for
airing the commercials. While radio has the obvious limitation of being restricted to sound,
proponents of radio advertising often cite this as an advantage.
4 Press advertising
5 Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the
expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online
advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in text ,
Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks
and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.
6 Billboard advertising
Billboards are large structures located in public places which display advertisements to passing
pedestrians and motorists. Most often, they are located on main roads with a large amount of
passing motor and pedestrian traffic; however, they can be placed in any location with large
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amounts of viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or office
buildings, and in stadiums.
The RedEye newspaper advertised to its target market at North Avenue Beach with
a sailboat billboard on Lake Michigan.
Mobile billboards are generally vehicle mounted billboards or digital screens. These can be on
dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along routes preselected by clients,
they can also be specially-equipped cargo trucks or, in some cases, large banners strewn from
planes. The billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and others employing spotlights.
Some billboard displays are static, while others change; for example, continuously or
periodically rotating among a set of advertisements.
Mobile displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout the world,
including:
• Target advertising
• One-day, and long-term campaigns
• Conventions
• Sporting events
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• Store openings and similar promotional events
• Big advertisements from smaller companies
• Others
8 In-store advertising
9 Covert advertising
Main article: Product placement
Covert advertising, also known as guerrilla advertising, is when a product or brand is embedded
in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other
of a definite brand, as in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John
Anderton owns a phone with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch
engraved with the Bulgari logo. Another example of advertising in film is in I, Robot, where
main character played by Will Smith mentions his Converse shoes several times, calling them
"classics," because the film is set far in the future. I, Robot and Spaceballs also showcase
futuristic cars with the Audi and Mercedes-Benz logos clearly displayed on the front of the
vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie The Matrix Reloaded, which as a result
contained many scenes in which Cadillac cars were used. Similarly, product placement for
Omega Watches, Ford, VAIO, BMW and Aston Martin cars are featured in recent James Bond
films, most notably Casino Royale. In "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer", the main
transport vehicle shows a large Dodge logo on the front. Blade Runner includes some of the most
obvious product placement; the whole film stops to show a Coca-Cola billboard.
10 Celebrities
Main article: Celebrity branding
This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain
recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers often
advertise their products, for example, when celebrities share their favorite products or wear
clothes by specific brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns
such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general products.
The use of celebrities to endorse a brand can have its downsides, however. One mistake by a
celebrity can be detrimental to the public relations of a brand. For example, following his
performance of eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, swimmer
Michael Phelps' contract with Kellogg's was terminated, as Kellogg's did not want to associate
with him after he was photographed smoking marijuana.
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11 Media and advertising approaches
Increasingly, other media are overtaking many of the "traditional" media such as television, radio
and newspaper because of a shift toward consumer's usage of the Internet for news and music as
well as devices like digital video recorders (DVRs) such as TiVo.
Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising
space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the
website receives.
Digital signage is poised to become a major mass media because of its ability to reach larger
audiences for less money. Digital signage also offer the unique ability to see the target audience
where they are reached by the medium. Technology advances has also made it possible to control
the message on digital signage with much precision, enabling the messages to be relevant to the
target audience at any given time and location which in turn, gets more response from the
advertising. Digital signage is being successfully employed in supermarkets. Another successful
use of digital signage is in hospitality locations such as restaurants. and malls.
E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known
as "e-mail spam". Spam has been a problem for email users for many years.
Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of booster
rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal
advertising (see mind control), and the pervasiveness of mass messages (see propaganda).
Unpaid advertising (also called "publicity advertising"), can provide good exposure at minimal
cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat
of equating a brand with a common noun (in the United States, "Xerox" = "photocopier",
"Kleenex" = tissue, "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly, "Hoover" = vacuum cleaner, "Nintendo" (often
used by those exposed to many video games) = video games, and "Band-Aid" = adhesive
bandage) — these can be seen as the pinnacle of any advertising campaign. However, some
companies oppose the use of their brand name to label an object. Equating a brand with a
common noun also risks turning that brand into a genericized trademark - turning it into a
generic term which means that its legal protection as a trademark is lost.
As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid downloadable
content appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time until mobile
advertising followed, also first launched in Finland in 2000. By 2007 the value of mobile
advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers such as Admob delivered billions of mobile
ads.
More advanced mobile ads include banner ads, coupons, Multimedia Messaging Service picture
and video messages, advergames and various engagement marketing campaigns. A particular
feature driving mobile ads is the 2D Barcode, which replaces the need to do any typing of web
addresses, and uses the camera feature of modern phones to gain immediate access to web
content. 83 percent of Japanese mobile phone users already are active users of 2D barcodes.
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A new form of advertising that is growing rapidly is social network advertising. It is online
advertising with a focus on social networking sites. This is a relatively immature market, but it
has shown a lot of promise as advertisers are able to take advantage of the demographic
information the user has provided to the social networking site. Friendertising is a more precise
advertising term in which people are able to direct advertisements toward others directly using
social network service.
From time to time, The CW Television Network airs short programming breaks called "Content
Wraps," to advertise one company's product during an entire commercial break. The CW
pioneered "content wraps" and some products featured were Herbal Essences, Crest, Guitar Hero
II, CoverGirl, and recently Toyota.
CRITICISM OF ADVERTISING
1 Hyper-commercialism and the commercial tidal wave
Criticism of advertising is closely linked with criticism of media and often interchangeable. They
can refer to its audio-visual aspects (e. g. cluttering of public spaces and airwaves),
environmental aspects (e. g. pollution, oversize packaging, increasing consumption), political
aspects (e. g. media dependency, free speech, censorship), financial aspects (costs),
ethical/moral/social aspects (e. g. sub-conscious influencing, invasion of privacy, increasing
consumption and waste, target groups, certain products, honesty) and, of course, a mix thereof.
Some aspects can be subdivided further and some can cover more than one category.
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dramatically. Ads are not only placed in breaks but e. g. also into baseball telecasts during the
game itself. They flood the internet, a market growing in leaps and bounds.
Other growing markets are ‘’product placements’’ in entertainment programming and in movies
where it has become standard practice and ‘’virtual advertising’’ where products get placed
retroactively into rerun shows. Product billboards are virtually inserted into Major League
Baseball broadcasts and in the same manner, virtual street banners or logos are projected on an
entry canopy or sidewalks, for example during the arrival of celebrities at the 2001 Grammy
awards. Advertising precedes the showing of films at cinemas including lavish ‘film shorts’
produced by companies such as Microsoft or DaimlerChrysler. “The largest advertising agencies
have begun working aggressively to co-produce programming in conjunction with the largest
media firms” creating Infomercials resembling entertainment programming.
Opponents equate the growing amount of advertising with a “tidal wave” and restrictions with
“damming” the flood. Kalle Lasn, one of the most outspoken critics of advertising on the
international stage, considers advertising “the most prevalent and toxic of the mental pollutants.
From the moment your radio alarm sounds in the morning to the wee hours of late-night TV
microjolts of commercial pollution flood into your brain at the rate of around 3,000 marketing
messages per day. Every day an estimated twelve billion display ads, 3 million radio
commercials and more than 200,000 television commercials are dumped into North America’s
collective unconscious”. In the course of his life the average American watches three years of
advertising on television.
More recent developments are video games incorporating products into their content, special
commercial patient channels in hospitals and public figures sporting temporary tattoos. A
method unrecognisable as advertising is so-called ‘’guerrilla marketing’’ which is spreading
‘buzz’ about a new product in target audiences. Cash-strapped U.S. cities do not shrink back
from offering police cars for advertising. A trend, especially in Germany, is companies buying
the names of sports stadiums. The Hamburg soccer Volkspark stadium first became the AOL
Arena and then the HSH Nordbank Arena. The Stuttgart Neckarstadion became the Mercedes-
Benz Arena, the Dortmund Westfalenstadion now is the Signal Iduna Park. The former
SkyDome in Toronto was renamed Rogers Centre. Other recent developments are, for example,
that whole subway stations in Berlin are redesigned into product halls and exclusively leased to a
company. Düsseldorf even has ‘multi-sensorial’ adventure transit stops equipped with
loudspeakers and systems that spread the smell of a detergent. Swatch used beamers to project
messages on the Berlin TV-tower and Victory column, which was fined because it was done
without a permit. The illegality was part of the scheme and added promotion.
It’s standard business management knowledge that advertising is a pillar, if not “the” pillar of the
growth-orientated free capitalist economy. “Advertising is part of the bone marrow of corporate
capitalism.” “Contemporary capitalism could not function and global production networks could
not exist as they do without advertising.
For communication scientist and media economist Manfred Knoche at the University of
Salzburg, Austria, advertising isn’t just simply a ‘necessary evil’ but a ‘necessary elixir of life’
for the media business, the economy and capitalism as a whole. Advertising and mass media
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economic interests create ideology. Knoche describes advertising for products and brands as ‘the
producer’s weapons in the competition for customers’ and trade advertising, e. g. by the
automotive industry, as a means to collectively represent their interests against other groups,
such as the train companies. In his view editorial articles and programmes in the media,
promoting consumption in general, provide a ‘cost free’ service to producers and sponsoring for
a ‘much used means of payment’ in advertising. Christopher Lasch argues that advertising leads
to an overall increase in consumption in society; "Advertising serves not so much to advertise
products as to promote consumption as a way of life."
For Georg Franck at Vienna University of Technology advertising is part of what he calls
“mental capitalism”, taking up a term (mental) which has been used by groups concerned with
the mental environment, such as Adbusters. Franck blends the “Economy of Attention” with
Christopher Lasch’s culture of narcissm into the mental capitalism: In his essay „Advertising at
the Edge of the Apocalypse“, Sut Jhally writes: “20. century advertising is the most powerful and
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sustained system of propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural effects, unless
quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we know it.
Advertising has developed into a billion-dollar business on which many depend. In 2006 391
billion US dollars were spent worldwide for advertising. In Germany, for example, the
advertising industry contributes 1.5% of the gross national income; the figures for other
developed countries are similar. Thus, advertising and growth are directly and causally linked.
As far as a growth based economy can be blamed for the harmful human lifestyle (affluent
society) advertising has to be considered in this aspect concerning its negative impact, because
its main purpose is to raise consumption. “The industry is accused of being one of the engines
powering a convoluted economic mass production system which promotes consumption.”
Attention and attentiveness have become a new commodity for which a market developed. “The
amount of attention that is absorbed by the media and redistributed in the competition for quotas
and reach is not identical with the amount of attention, that is available in society. The total
amount circulating in society is made up of the attention exchanged among the people
themselves and the attention given to media information. Only the latter is homogenised by
quantitative measuring and only the latter takes on the character of an anonymous currency.”
According to Franck, any surface of presentation that can guarantee a certain degree of
attentiveness works as magnet for attention, e. g. media which are actually meant for information
and entertainment, culture and the arts, public space etc. It is this attraction which is sold to the
advertising business. The German Advertising Association stated that in 2007 30.78 billion
Euros were spent on advertising in Germany 26% in newspapers, 21% on television, 15% by
mail and 15% in magazines. In 2002 there were 360.000 people employed in the advertising
business. The internet revenues for advertising doubled to almost 1 billion Euros from 2006 to
2007, giving it the highest growth rates.
Spiegel-Online reported that in the US in 2008 for the first time more money was spent for
advertising on internet (105.3 billion US dollars) than on television (98.5 billion US dollars). The
largest amount in 2008 was still spent in the print media (147 billion US dollars). For that same
year, Welt-Online reported that the US pharmaceutical industry spent almost double the amount
on advertising (57.7 billion dollars) than it did on research (31.5 billion dollars). But Marc-André
Gagnon und Joel Lexchin of York University, Toronto, estimate that the actual expenses for
advertising are higher yet, because not all entries are recorded by the research institutions. Not
included are indirect advertising campaigns such as sales, rebates and price reductions. Few
consumers are aware of the fact that they are the ones paying for every cent spent for public
relations, advertisements, rebates, packaging etc. since they ordinarily get included in the price
calculation.
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4 Influencing and conditioning
The most important element of advertising is not information but suggestion more or less making
use of associations, emotions (appeal to emotion) and drives dormant in the sub-conscience of
people, such as sex drive, herd instinct, of desires, such as happiness, health, fitness, appearance,
self-esteem, reputation, belonging, social status, identity, adventure, distraction, reward, of fears
(appeal to fear), such as illness, weaknesses, loneliness, need, uncertainty, security or of
prejudices, learned opinions and comforts. “All human needs, relationships, and fears – the
deepest recesses of the human psyche – become mere means for the expansion of the commodity
universe under the force of modern marketing. With the rise to prominence of modern marketing,
commercialism – the translation of human relations into commodity relations – although a
phenomenon intrinsic to capitalism, has expanded exponentially.” ’Cause-related marketing’ in
which advertisers link their product to some worthy social cause has boomed over the past
decade.
Advertising exploits the model role of celebrities or popular figures and makes deliberate use of
humour as well as of associations with colour, tunes, certain names and terms. Altogether, these
are factors of how one perceives himself and one’s self-worth. In his description of ‘mental
capitalism’ Franck says, “the promise of consumption making someone irresistible is the ideal
way of objects and symbols into a person’s subjective experience. Evidently, in a society in
which revenue of attention moves to the fore, consumption is drawn by one’s self-esteem. As a
result, consumption becomes ‘work’ on a person’s attraction. From the subjective point of view,
this ‘work’ opens fields of unexpected dimensions for advertising. Advertising takes on the role
of a life councillor in matters of attraction. (…) The cult around one’s own attraction is what
Christopher Lasch described as ‘Culture of Narcissism’.
For advertising critics another serious problem is that “the long standing notion of separation
between advertising and editorial/creative sides of media is rapidly crumbling” and advertising is
increasingly hard to tell apart from news, information or entertainment. The boundaries between
advertising and programming are becoming blurred. According to the media firms all this
commercial involvement has no influence over actual media content, but, as McChesney puts it,
“this claim fails to pass even the most basic giggle test, it is so preposterous.”
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Advertising draws “heavily on psychological theories about how to create subjects, enabling
advertising and marketing to take on a ‘more clearly psychological tinge’ (Miller and Rose,
1997, cited in Thrift, 1999, p.67). Increasingly, the emphasis in advertising has switched from
providing ‘factual’ information to the symbolic connotations of commodities, since the crucial
cultural premise of advertising is that the material object being sold is never in itself enough.
Even those commodities providing for the most mundane necessities of daily life must be
imbued with symbolic qualities and culturally endowed meanings via the ‘magic system
(Williams, 1980) of advertising. In this way and by altering the context in which advertisements
appear, things ‘can be made to mean "just about anything"’ (McFall, 2002, p.162) and the ‘same’
things can be endowed with different intended meanings for different individuals and groups of
people, thereby offering mass produced visions of individualism.
Before advertising is done, market research institutions need to know and describe the target
group to exactly plan and implement the advertising campaign and to achieve the best possible
results. A whole array of sciences directly deal with advertising and marketing or is used to
improve its effects. Focus groups, psychologists and cultural anthropologists are ‘’’de rigueur’’’
in marketing research”. Vast amounts of data on persons and their shopping habits are collected,
accumulated, aggregated and analysed with the aid of credit cards, bonus cards, raffles and
internet surveying. With increasing accuracy this supplies a picture of behaviour, wishes and
weaknesses of certain sections of a population with which advertisement can be employed more
selectively and effectively. The efficiency of advertising is improved through advertising
research. Universities, of course supported by business and in co-operation with other disciplines
(s. above), mainly Psychiatry, Anthropology, Neurology and behavioural sciences, are constantly
in search for ever more refined, sophisticated, subtle and crafty methods to make advertising
more effective. “Neuromarketing is a controversial new field of marketing which uses medical
technologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) -- not to heal, but to sell
products. Advertising and marketing firms have long used the insights and research methods of
psychology in order to sell products, of course. But today these practices are reaching epidemic
levels, and with a complicity on the part of the psychological profession that exceeds that of the
past. The result is an enormous advertising and marketing onslaught that comprises, arguably,
the largest single psychological project ever undertaken. Yet, this great undertaking remains
largely ignored by the American Psychological Association Robert McChesney calls it "the
greatest concerted attempt at psychological manipulation in all of human history.
Almost all mass media are advertising media and many of them are exclusively advertising
media and, with the exception of public service broadcasting are privately owned. Their income
is predominantly generated through advertising; in the case of newspapers and magazines from
50 to 80%. Public service broadcasting in some countries can also heavily depend on advertising
as a source of income (up to 40%). In the view of critics no media that spreads advertisements
can be independent and the higher the proportion of advertising, the higher the dependency. This
dependency has “distinct implications for the nature of media content…. In the business press,
the media are often referred to in exactly the way they present themselves in their candid
moments: as a branch of the advertising industry.
23
In addition, the private media are increasingly subject to mergers and concentration with
property situations often becoming entangled and opaque. This development, which Henry A.
Giroux calls an “ongoing threat to democratic culture” by itself should suffice to sound all
alarms in a democracy. Five or six advertising agencies dominate this 400 billion U.S. dollar
global industry.
“Journalists have long faced pressure to shape stories to suit advertisers and owners …. the vast
majority of TV station executives found their news departments ‘cooperative’ in shaping the
news to assist in ‘non-traditional revenue development. Negative and undesired reporting can be
prevented or influenced when advertisers threaten to cancel orders or simply when there is a
danger of such a cancellation. Media dependency and such a threat becomes very real when there
is only one dominant or very few large advertisers. The influence of advertisers is not only in
regard to news or information on their own products or services but expands to articles or shows
not directly linked to them. In order to secure their advertising revenues the media has to create
the best possible ‘advertising environment’. Another problem considered censorship by critics is
the refusal of media to accept advertisements that are not in their interest. A striking example of
this is the refusal of TV stations to broadcast ads by Adbusters. Groups try to place
advertisements and are refused by networks
It is principally the viewing rates which decide upon the programme in the private radio and
television business. “Their business is to absorb as much attention as possible. The viewing rate
measures the attention the media trades for the information offered. The service of this attraction
is sold to the advertising business and the viewing rates determine the price that can be
demanded for advertising.
“Advertising companies determining the contents of shows has been part of daily life in the USA
since 1933. Procter & Gamble (P&G) …. offered a radio station a history-making trade (today
know as “bartering”): the company would produce an own show for “free” and save the radio
station the high expenses for producing contents. Therefore the company would want its
commercials spread and, of course, its products placed in the show. Thus, the series ‘Ma Perkins’
was created, which P&G skilfully used to promote Oxydol, the leading detergent brand in those
years and the Soap opera was born …
While critics basically worry about the subtle influence of the economy on the media, there are
also examples of blunt exertion of influence. The US company Chrysler, before it merged with
Daimler Benz had its agency, PentaCom, send out a letter to numerous magazines, demanding
them to send, an overview of all the topics before the next issue is published to “avoid potential
conflict”. Chrysler most of all wanted to know, if there would be articles with “sexual, political
or social” content or which could be seen as “provocative or offensive”. PentaCom executive
David Martin said: “Our reasoning is, that anyone looking at a 22.000 $ product would want it
surrounded by positive things. There is nothing positive about an article on child pornography. In
another example, the USA Network held top-level‚ off-the-record meetings with advertisers in
2000 to let them tell the network what type of programming content they wanted in order for
USA to get their advertising. Television shows are created to accommodate the needs for
advertising, e.g. splitting them up in suitable sections. Their dramaturgy is typically designed to
end in suspense or leave an unanswered question in order to keep the viewer attached.
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The movie system, at one time outside the direct influence of the broader marketing system, is
now fully integrated into it through the strategies of licensing, tie-ins and product placements.
The prime function of many Hollywood films today is to aid in the selling of the immense
collection of commodities The press called the 2002 Bond film ‘Die Another Day’ featuring 24
major promotional partners an ‘ad-venture’ and noted that James Bond “now has been ‘licensed
to sell’” As it has become standard practise to place products in motion pictures, it “has self-
evident implications for what types of films will attract product placements and what types of
films will therefore be more likely to get made
Advertising and information are increasingly hard to distinguish from each other. “The borders
between advertising and media …. become more and more blurred…. What August Fischer,
chairman of the board of Axel Springer publishing company considers to be a ‘proven
partnership between the media and advertising business’ critics regard as nothing but the
infiltration of journalistic duties and freedoms”. According to RTL-executive Helmut Thoma
“private stations shall not and cannot serve any mission but only the goal of the company which
is the ‘acceptance by the advertising business and the viewer’. The setting of priorities in this
order actually says everything about the ‘design of the programmes’ by private television.”
Patrick Le Lay, former managing director of TF1, a private French television channel with a
market share of 25 to 35%, said: "There are many ways to talk about television. But from the
business point of view, let’s be realistic: basically, the job of TF1 is, e. g. to help Coca Cola sell
its product. (…) For an advertising message to be perceived the brain of the viewer must be at
our disposal. The job of our programmes is to make it available, that is to say, to distract it, to
relax it and get it ready between two messages. It is disposable human brain time that we sell to
Coca Cola.
Because of these dependencies a widespread and fundamental public debate about advertising
and its influence on information and freedom of speech is difficult to obtain, at least through the
usual media channels; otherwise these would saw off the branch they are sitting on. “The notion
that the commercial basis of media, journalism, and communication could have troubling
implications for democracy is excluded from the range of legitimate debate” just as “capitalism
is off-limits as a topic of legitimate debate in US political culture
An early critic of the structural basis of US journalism was Upton Sinclair with his novel The
Brass Check in which he stresses the influence of owners, advertisers, public relations, and
economic interests on the media. In his book “Our Master's Voice – Advertising” the social
ecologist James Rorty (1890–1973) wrote: "The gargoyle’s mouth is a loudspeaker, powered by
the vested interest of a two-billion dollar industry, and back of that the vested interests of
business as a whole, of industry, of finance. It is never silent, it drowns out all other voices, and
it suffers no rebuke, for it is not the voice of America? That is its claim and to some extent it is a
just claim...
It has taught us how to live, what to be afraid of, what to be proud of, how to be beautiful, how to
be loved, how to be envied, how to be successful.. Is it any wonder that the American population
tends increasingly to speak, think, feel in terms of this jabberwocky? That the stimuli of art,
science, religion are progressively expelled to the periphery of American life to become marginal
values, cultivated by marginal people on marginal time?
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6 The commercialisation of culture and sports
Performances, exhibitions, shows, concerts, conventions and most other events can hardly take
place without sponsoring. The increasing lack arts and culture they buy the service of attraction.
Artists are graded and paid according to their art’s value for commercial purposes. Corporations
promote renown artists, therefore getting exclusive rights in global advertising campaigns.
Broadway shows, like ‘La Bohème’ featured commercial props in its set.
Competitive sports have become unthinkable without sponsoring and there is a mutual
dependency. High income with advertising is only possible with a comparable number of
spectators or viewers. On the other hand, the poor performance of a team or a sportsman results
in less advertising revenues. Jürgen Hüther and Hans-Jörg Stiehler talk about a ‘Sports/Media
Complex which is a complicated mix of media, agencies, managers, sports promoters,
advertising etc. with partially common and partially diverging interests but in any case with
common commercial interests. The media presumably is at centre stage because it can supply the
other parties involved with a rare commodity, namely (potential) public attention. In sports “the
media are able to generate enormous sales in both circulation and advertising.
Not the sale of tickets but transmission rights, sponsoring and merchandising in the meantime
make up the largest part of sports association’s and sports club’s revenues with the IOC
(International Olympic Committee) taking the lead. The influence of the media brought many
changes in sports including the admittance of new ‘trend sports’ into the Olympic Games, the
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alteration of competition distances, changes of rules, animation of spectators, changes of sports
facilities, the cult of sports heroes who quickly establish themselves in the advertising and
entertaining business because of their media value and last but not least, the naming and
renaming of sport stadiums after big companies. “In sports adjustment into the logic of the media
can contribute to the erosion of values such as equal chances or fairness, to excessive demands
on athletes through public pressure and multiple exploitation or to deceit (doping, manipulation
of results …). It is in the very interest of the media and sports to counter this danger because
media sports can only work as long as sport exists.
Simply stating, a brand is a differentiated product and helps in identifying your product and
making it stand out due to its name, design, style, symbol, color combination, or usually a mix of
all these.
27
• It helps in to improve goodwill & image of the
company & its products.
The celebrity does not have the power to improve or debilitate the efficiency and features of the
core product. Thus, we are gradually approaching an evident proposition claiming,
“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.”
An appropriately used celebrity can prove to be a massively powerful tool that magnifies the
effects of a campaign. But the aura of cautiousness should always be there. The fact to be
emphasised is that celebrities alone do not guarantee success, as consumers nowadays
understand advertising. They know what advertising is and how it works. People realize that
celebrities are being paid a lot of money for endorsements and this knowledge makes them
cynical about celebrity endorsements.
28
Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on Brands
This paper studies the impact of celebrity endorsements on brands. While the magnitude of the
impact of celebrity endorsement remains under the purview of gray spectacles, the paper
establishes reasoning to the impact of celebrity endorsements on brands.
The study delves into the learning of impact regions of celebrity endorsement and how they
occur.
This paper rifles through the concept of celebrity endorsement and provides insights on what it is
and how the increasing number of endorsements throw a valid question to the consumers. Is
there a science behind the choice of these endorsers or is it just by the popularity measurement?
What are the reasons which lead to impact of celebrity endorsement on brands?
Through research and analysis, this paper emerges with a 14-point model which can be used as a
blue-print criteria and can be used by brand managers for selecting celebrities, and capitalizes the
29
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. .
Introduction
Businesses have long sought to distract and attract the attention of potential customers that live
in a world of ever-increasing commercial bombardment. Everyday consumers are exposed to
thousands of voices and images in magazines, newspapers, and on billboards, websites, radio and
television. Every brand attempts to steal at least a fraction of an unsuspecting person's time to
inform him or her of the amazing and different attributes of the product at hand. Because of the
constant media saturation that most people experience daily, they eventually become numb to the
standard marketing techniques. The challenge of the marketer is to find a hook that will hold the
subject's attention.
Celebrities appear in public in different ways. First, they appear in public when fulfilling their
profession, e.g., Vishwanathan Anand, who plays chess in front of an audience. Furthermore,
celebrities appear in public by attending special celebrity events, e.g., award ceremonies,
inaugurations or world premieres of movies. In addition, they are present in news, fashion
magazines, and tabloids, which provide second source information on events and the 'private life'
of celebrities through mass-media channels (e.g., Smriti Irani being regularly featured in various
publications). Last but not least, celebrities act as spokes-people in advertising to promote
products and services, which is referred to celebrity endorsement.
Celebrity Endorsement'
Friedman and Friedman (1979) found empirical evidence that, in the promotion of products high
in psychological and/or social risk, use of celebrity endorser would lead to greater believability, a
more favorable evaluation of the product and advertisement, and a significantly more positive
purchase intention.
A Brand Ambassador would be one who is not only a spokesperson for the brand or is just
appearing as a testimonial for the brand's benefits. He/she is an integral part of the brand persona
and helps to build an emotionale, which goes beyond just appearing on TV commercials
30
He takes up the cause of a Brand Champion and is associated with every aspect related with the
brand. What is more, there is a significant difference between making just an endorsement for
say, a shampoo or an automobile, and being that brand's alter ego. Both parties take the latter far
more seriously to the deal. So a brand ambassador would be involved in press releases, he/she
would be actively participating in any sales promotion, sporting the Brand all the while. For
example, Fardeen Khan is the brand ambassador for Provogue while he remains a brand face for
Lux Body Wash.
On the other hand, a Brand Face would be the current celebrity who is just used as a tool to
increase brand recall and is only appearing in the advertisement. It is usually seen that a brand
face is a temporary contract and is very short term at times. An example would be Sona Chandi
Chawanpryash using Sourav Ganguly for a while in its commercials. Brand faces are easily
forgotten and fades away with the campaign's end.
Markets in which advertising coordinates consumer purchases, celebrity endorsements are more
likely chosen for products that have either of the following: -
The use of testimonials by advertisers dates back to the 19th century when medicines were
patented. Firms have been juxtaposing their brands and themselves with celebrity endorsers (e.g.,
athletes, actors) in the hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing
The increasing number of endorsements throws a valid question to the consumers. Is there a
science behind the choice of these endorsers or is it just by the popularity measurement? What
are the reasons which lead to impact of celebrity endorsement on brands?
Through research and analysis, this paper develops a 14 point model, which can be used as a
blueprint criteria 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.
31
The success of a brand through celebrity endorsement is a cumulative of the following 14
attributes. Greater the score of the below parameters, greater are the chances of getting close to
the desired impact.
Marketers now seek to adopt 360 degree brand stewardship in which the brand sees no limits on
the number of contact points possible with a target consumer. Advertising ideas, thus, revolve
around this approach, and the celebrity endorsement decisions are made through these startegic
motives.
One of the most successful celebrity endorsement campaign which reflects 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 conjuction between the two has been immensely impactful and brand
managers have utilised this endorsement through 360 degree reinforcement. Provogue Lounge
and extensive phased insertions in print in selective publications reaching out to their target
audience has made it as one of the highest recalled celebrity endorsement.
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Similarly, Richard Gere's recent endorsement for VISA in India has gained acclaim due to its
innovativeness and consumer connect. Brand marketers say that research reveals that Richard
Gere was the most popular face across the Asia Pacific region, and would also fit into the
persona of the brand meeting their communication objective to enhance VISA's brand leadership
and consumer preference, and the motive to continue the "All it Takes" empowerment platform
featuring international celebrities.
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. The
inserial placement of the campaign in "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" has won it an award
from PR Week.
Similarly, Irfan Pathan endorsing Hero Cycles has gained the brand immense recall and
embarked through the positve association between the consumer and the brand.
Celebrity Values
Celebrity branding is all about the transfer of the value from the person to the product he
endorses or stands for. There are two concerns here. The first is how long this could last. Can the
person maintain his popularity (i.e., his performance or status ranking)?
The lifecycle of celebrity popularity varies a lot. The second concern is his private life - personal
integrity. If he is implicated in any kind of scandal, that would ruin the brand. "Who would want
to use Michael Jackson to brand their product?" (brandchannel.com)
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.
Consequently, companies must have deep pockets to be able to afford the best available
celebrities. 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 crore per endorsement, and musician A. R. Rehman, who had signed up with AirTel, is
believed to have picked up Rs. 1.75 crore. Film-star Hrithik Roshan was rumored to have picked
up Rs. 2 crore for the Fly With Hrithik campaign to push Close-Up, and Shahrukh Khan's rate
seems to be between Rs. 2.5-3.0 crore. Aishwarya Rai apparently picks up Rs. 1.25 crore for an
33
endorsement and the Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly is believed to get between Rs. 90
lakh to Rs. 1.5 crore, while film-star Aamir Khan apparently makes Rs. 1.5 crore per
endorsement.
R. Madhavan endorsing Pepsi in southern India or Sachin Tendulkar endorsing in India are few
examples of how celebrities are chosen to reach out to target audiences for brands in regional
markets.
Another interesting example would be of Steve Waugh campaigning for Tourism Australia in
India since he was one of the popular celebrities from Australia and could carry the messge of
Australia as a tourist destination. Other celebrities like Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman from
Australia can be prospective endorsers for Brand Australia but not in the region of India.
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, humourous 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 Mallaika Arora & Freshizza from
Pizza Hut, Govinda & Navratan Tel, Sanjay Dutt & Elf Oil, Sunny Deol & Lux Undergarments,
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
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.
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Celebrity Physical Attractiveness
Bipasha Basu' physical attractiveness and her connect with the brand makes Levis Strauss's
campaign through celebrity in India, 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 (Miciak and Shanklin, 2002). 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
The case of multiple endorsements, both in terms of a single brand hiring multiple celebrities and
that of a single celebrity endorsing multiple brands, is often debated. At times, consumers do get
confused about the brand endorsed when a single celebrity endorses numerous brands. The recall
then gets reduced and reduces the popularity of the brand. 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.
One of the strongest platforms to discuss this is through NGOs. 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, Amisha Patel, Yana Gupta, Sheetal Malhar, Mahima Choudhary
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On the other hand, while some would understand that Amitabh Bachchan would have never used
Navratan Tel, the target audience that the brands wants to reach out to will be ready to believe
that he used the oil and his endorsement thereby creates an impact.
Having a congruent image between the brand and celebrity does not guarantee any positive effect
on consumers' brand preferences. The fundamental question is - what a brand image really does
to consumers? Baran and Blasko explained, "Since most products aren't special, most advertising
does all that so-called image stuff... There's no information about the product, there's only
information about the kind of people who might be inclined to use the product." (p.13). This
view is echoed by Feldwick (1991) who has suggested that the subjective experience of using a
brand can be different from the subjective experience of using an identical product without the
brand reassurance. In the case of using celebrity advertising to build brand image, the effects are
examined with a social psychological framework.
Decades ago, John Dewey (1910) conceptualised decision-process behavior as problem solving -
thoughtful, reasoned action focused on need satisfaction. As Ajzen and Fishbein (1980, p.5) put
it, "Human beings are usually quite rational and make systematic use of the information available
to them... People consider the implications of their actions before they decide to engage or not to
engage in a given behavior." A lot of marketing research has shown that consumer decision
follows the sequence of need recognition, search for information, alternative evaluation,
purchase, and then outcome. The sequence can have major variations, however, from one
situation to the next in terms of the extent to which each of these steps is followed.
There are two types of decision-making processes defined. They include Extended Problem
Solving and Limited Problem Solving (Engel, Warshaw, Kinnear, 1991). In extended problem
solving, thinking leads to feeling, which leads to action. The very nature of the decision often
necessitates collection of information that is processed and stored. Various product attributes are
weighed and evaluated.
In limited problem solving, consumers will simplify the process by sharply reducing the number
and variety of information sources and alternatives considered. The two problem solving
processes above suggest that brand images have a relatively insignificant impact on the
consumer's purchase decision if the product/service involves extended problem solving. On the
contrary, the brand images of product/service that involves limited problem solving will have a
more significant impact on the consumer's purchase decision.
smoked glass, and book entire restaurants for an undisturbed meal. For most of us, life rarely
holds such pleasures. But as our power to distribute images expands, the ranks of the highly
visible in society are growing rapidly, and those who understand the transformation process
utilize it to enhance their opportunities.
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Facts
Through analysis and research, this paper brings forth the following insights: -
Celebrity endorsements do work in the Indian scenario. The level and the magnitude of the
effect vary with the celebrity and the product category but most endorsements have a favourable
impact.
It is not just the financial gains from the endorsements that matter to the celebrity. They also
look for the fit with the brand and what the endorsement might do to their image.
More than the bad performance in the professional field, it is the association of the celebrity
with a controversy or ill-behaviour that causes negative impact to the endorsements. During the
match fixing scandal in India, the commercials featuring Ajay Jadeja and Mohammed
Azharuddin were all taken off air so that they did not have a negative effect on the brand.
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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. Witness the spectacular rise of Sania Mirza and Irfan Pathan in endorsements in a matter of
a few months. The accruement of celebrity endorsements can be justified by the following
advantages that are bestowed on the overall brand:
38
endorsed American Express, Rolex, and Nike. Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• It healps in increasing the sales of the product.
• It increase the good will of the company.
• It provides information about the product.
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Disadvantages of a celebrity endorsing a brand:
The celebrity approach has a few serious risks:
1. The reputation of the celebrity may derogate after he/she has endorsed the product:
Pepsi Cola's suffered with three tarnished celebrities - Mike Tyson, Madonna, and
Michael Jackson. Since the behaviour of the celebrities reflects on the brand, celebrity
endorsers may at times become liabilities to the brands they endorse.
2. Inconsistency in the professional popularity of the celebrity: The celebrity may lose his
or her popularity due to some lapse in professional performances. For example, when
Tendulkar went through a prolonged lean patch recently, the inevitable question that
cropped up in corporate circles - is he actually worth it? The 2003 Cricket World Cup
also threw up the Shane Warne incident, which caught Pepsi off guard. With the
Australian cricketer testing positive for consuming banned substances and his subsequent
withdrawal from the event, bang in the middle of the event, PepsiCo - the presenting
sponsor of the World Cup 2003 - found itself on an uneasy wicket
3. Multi brand endorsements by the same celebrity would lead to overexposure: The
novelty of a celebrity endorsement gets diluted if he does too many advertisements. This
may be termed as commoditisation of celebrities, who are willing to endorse anything for
big bucks. Example, MRF was among the early sponsors of Tendulkar with its logo
emblazoned on his bat. But now Tendulkar endorses a myriad brands and the novelty of
the Tendulkar-MRF campaign has scaled down.
4. Celebrities endorsing one brand and using another (competitor): Sainsbury’s
encountered a problem with Catherina Zeta Jones, whom the company used for its recipe
advertisements, when she was caught shopping in Tesco. A similar case happened with
Britney Spears who endorsed one cola brand and was repeatedly caught drinking another
brand of cola on tape.
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5. Mismatch between the celebrity and the image of the brand: Celebrities manifest a
certain persona for the audience. It is of paramount importance that there is an egalitarian
congruency between the persona of the celebrity and the image of the brand. Each
celebrity portrays a broad range of meanings, involving a specific personality and
lifestyle. Madonna, for example, is perceived as a tough, intense and modern women
associated with the lower middle class. The personality of Pierce Brosnan is best
characterized as the perfect gentlemen, whereas Jennifer Aniston has the image of the
‘good girl from next door’.
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OBJECTIVES
42
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study based on survey through pre-designed questionnaires suffers from the basic limitation
of the possibility of difference between what is recorded and what is the truth, no matter how
carefully the questionnaire has been designed and field investigation has been conducted. This is
because the persons may not deliberately report their true responses and even if they want to do
so, there are bound to be differences owing to problems in the communication process. In
addition there are some limitations, which are as follows:
Data collection error may be there due to wrong response from respondents as some time
they are not right person who takes actual decisions.
Due to cost and human element is involved, project area was limited.
Some people do not want to give right information due to some constraints.
Some time people do not have time to fulfill questionnaire, so they give only few
information.
As per knowledge data was collected and analyzed, error may be there.
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There can be analytical, interpretation and statistical error in final report.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
RESEARCH DESIGN.
DATA COLLECTION .
Both primary and secondary has been collected for meeting the
objectives of research.
* PRIMARY DATA
* SECONDARY DATA
SAMPLE SIZE.
SAMPLING AREA.
Ludhiana
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Sample Design:
Keeping in view the time and resources available for the study, it was decided to restrict the
sample to 100 respondents. The respondents are also selected depending upon the
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE.
All the respondents who were easily accessible and willing to share
the infor-
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ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION.
( RECEPT OF INFORMATION ABOUT CELEBRITY
ENDORSEMENT )
Do you follow the brand of a product when you
purchase the product?
Yes 87%
No 10%
None 3%
0 0
0
3
10
yes
no
none
87
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In surveyed city most of the people buy branded
clothes so the analysis is 87% persons from the given
sample justify that they follow the brand while purchasing
the product & 10% of population said that they want only
the product not the brand & 3% population ignore the
brand name. Because people think that branded clothes
are have some standard & quality.
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Product celebrity endorser 8%
Sales
8%
10%
1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
23% 59%
4th Qtr
49
I go only for those products which are endorsed by
famous people. They are quality products without any
doubt”. Mark any One.
Sales
0
12
10
1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
78
4th Qtr
50
“When I see my favorite actor endorsing a product, I
tend to compare it with my current product. mark any
one.
Sales
13
12
1st Qtr
56 2nd Qtr
24 3rd Qtr
4th qtr
51
Do you associate the celebrity directly with the quality
and the performance of the product? Mark One.
Sales
0
11
1st Qtr
19
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
70
52
Do you switch to another product if u see your favorite
actor endorsing that product? mark One
Sales
0
20
44
1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
36
53
“I do not buy some products just because they are
endorsed by people whom I don’t like”. Mark one.
Strongly agree 1%
Somewhat agree 3%
Somewhat disagree 64 %
Strongly Disagree 32%
Sales
1
3
32 1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
4th Qtr
64
54
If celebrities is endorsing a product, I can have trust
on the product without looking for further information
about it. Mark any one
Sales
9
1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
16 42
3rd Qtr
4th Qtr
33
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respondents are agree with this statement that they
have very much trust in their favorite actor.9%
respondents are disagree with this statement.
NO 56%
No comment 4%
Sales
0
4
40 1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
56
Sales
00
25
1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
75
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FINDINGS
• In survey it is find that most of people follow brand while purchasing the product,
they believe in quality and comfort.
• While purchasing a product first things comes in their mind is product quality of
product.
• Celebrities directly does not associate with performance or quality of product. They
are doing advertisements because they are paid for them
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• The most people switch to another product because their favorite actor endorsing
that brand.
• Maximum people thought that if very famous actor attached with a company
product is a good quality.
• By the involvement of players for product launch it will effect the performance by
diverting their minds and time devotion toward practice.
CONCLUSION
Despite the obvious economic advantage of using relatively unknown personalities as endorsers
in advertising campaigns, the choice of celebrities to fulfill that role has become common
practice for brands competing in today's cluttered media environment. There are several reasons
for such extensive use of celebrities. Because of their high profile, celebrities may help
advertisements stand out from the surrounding clutter, thus improving their communicative
ability. Celebrities may also generate extensive PR leverage for brands. For example, when
Revlon launched the "Won't kiss off test" for its Colorstay lipsticks in 1994 with Cindy Crawford
kissing reporters, the campaign featured on almost every major news channel and equally widely
in the press. A brief assessment of the current market situation indicates, that celebrity
59
endorsement advertising strategies can, under the right circumstances, indeed justify the high
costs associated with this form of advertising.
But it would be presumptuous to consider celebrity endorsement as a panacea for all barricades.
Celebrity endorsement if used effectively, makes the brand stand out, galvanizes brand recall and
facilitates instant awareness. To achieve this, the marketer needs to be really disciplined in
choice of a celebrity. Hence the right use of celebrity can escalate the Unique Selling Proposition
of a brand to new heights; but a cursory orientation of a celebrity with a brand may prove to be
claustrophobic for the brand. A celebrity is a means to an end, and not an end in himself/herself.
ANNEXURE
QUESTIONNAIRE
This questionnaire is designed to have valuable feedback from you to
have your valuable opinion. The collected data will be used for a
research project to analyses and evaluate the “ celebrity endorsement
”. we ensure that your information will kept confidential and will not
be used for any other purpose. So kindly answer the questions.
Thanking you
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Barinder pal singh
Name:________________________________Age:______________
Occupation------------------------
Q.1. Do you follow the BRAND or the CELEBRITY in your purchasing
decision?
YES { } , NO{ }
Q.2 What comes to your mind first when you go to buy a product?
Mark your choice with a YES.
Product quality_____________________ Product
design_____________________________
Product Advertisement______________
Product celebrity endorser__________________
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Strongly agree_____________________
Somewhat agree_____________________________
Somewhat disagree______________
Strongly Disagree__________________
Q.5. Do you associate the celebrity directly with the quality and the
performance of the product? Mark One.
Yes, everytime_____________
Not realy_______________
No, Never__________________
Q.7“I do not buy some products just because they are endorsed by
people whom I don’t like”. Mark one.
Strongly agree_____________________
Somewhat agree_____________________________
Somewhat disagree________________
Strongly Disagree___________________________
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one
Strongly agree_____________________
Somewhat agree_____________________________
Somewhat disagree________________
Strongly Disagree___________________________
Yes { } , no { }, no comment { }.
YES { } , NO { }.
BIBLIOGRAPHY :
• www.chillibreeze.com
• www.coolavenues.com
• www.en.wikipedia.org
• www.frankwbaker.com
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• www.rediff.com
• www.celebrityendorsement.com
• www.genesiscreations.biz
• www.marketingprofs.com
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