Celebrity Endorsement in India

PROJECT ON CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT
CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT
IN
INDIA
Table of contents
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S. No. Name
Page
1 Introduction to the topic 6
2 Relationship between a Celebrity & a Brand 10
3 Is celebrity advertising effective? 16
4 Literature review 23
5 The argument for Celebrity Endorsement 34
6 The argument against Celebrity Endorsement 37
7 Brand, Celebrities & Consumer 40
8 Measuring a Celebrity Endorsement 53
9 Research Objective and Methodology 59
10 Survey results 61
11 Findings 71
12 Summary and managerial implications 76
13 Conclusion 73
14 Appendix 1 & 2 80
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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The project is to study and analyze the impact of celebrity endorsement on a common
consumer. It is a sincere effort to understand the consumer perception for celebrity
endorsement, to learn and understand its effectiveness and to know the benefits and
drawbacks associated with celebrity endorsement. This project report suggests how a
celebrity can help a consumer in identification of a product. It also includes details about
the consumer’s views about the use of celebrities in brand promotion by an organization.
A survey was conducted to know the consumer’s perception and their thinking about the
celebrity endorsements. A questionnaire has been drafted for the same, to understand the
psyche of the cell phone customers to know their needs, expectations and their attitude
toward a cell phone brand ambassador. On the basis of analysis of the result collected
from the survey, we have drawn certain conclusions, which are clearly mentioned in
detail in the later part of this project report. In a nutshell, this project report will act as a
useful tool for any management in selecting a suitable celebrity to endorse their product,
according to the consumer’s likings.
Introduction
CELEBRITY BRANDING AND ITS EFFECT ON CONSUMERS
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It is a known fact that the best endorsements achieve an eclectic balance between the
product (brand) and the celebrity. Giving a brand a 'face' is more than just a marketing
strategy to increase sales or gain market share, it is a decision that can change the future
of the brand forever.
Choice of the celebrity, hence, is of utmost importance and is usually done based on
many different parameters - appeal, looks, popularity or even just a fantasy figure to
endorse a brand.
In today's highly competitive markets, big brands are at logger-heads when it comes to
products, each having a similar product to that of a rival. Where does one brand gain that
quintessential advantage - advertising, service, promise of trust, or even the all important
price factors? Advertising seems to be the best platform where brands prefer to compete
on - right from hiring the best advertising agencies to getting the biggest celebrities.
What would be the formula to success then? Well, a good creative agency, a large
enough promotional budget and a huge star to endorse your brand would definitely
ensure in the minds of a brand management team a feeling of security, success and a
triumph over the competitors brand.
The general belief among advertisers is that brand communication messages delivered by
celebrities and famous personalities generate a higher appeal, attention and recall than
those executed by non-celebrities. The quick message-reach and impact are all too
essential in today's highly competitive environment.
The different models applied by brands to achieve the full potential of such
endorsements, highlight the need for a convergence between the theoretical and
pragmatic approaches of brand building and effective advertising. The importance of a
celebrity-brand match and the various roles played by them as brand-associates show the
momentum this strategy has gained in the last decade or so. We put forward certain ideas
like 'positioning by association', 'diminishing celebrity utility' and the Multiplier Effect
which show the triangular relationship between the brand, the consumer and the
celebrity.
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India is a country where people are star-struck by film stars, cricketers, politicians, and
even criminals. Why? Populations of 1 billion and ticking, everyday people need
something or someone to look up to. A sense of security, admiration, comfort,
familiarity, and above all, someone they aspire to be at some hidden level in their lives.
And clever marketers leverage this very celebrity appeal and are successfully carrying
out their jobs by giving the bottom lines of all the brands what they want - profit, market
share and even recall. But how much star power is too much? "Does Amitabh really use
Tide," asked a 6 year old to her mother. Her mother laughs and says, "No way, just a
gimmick." What does that do to the brand?
Now, despite the potential benefits derived from celebrity endorsements, they increase a
marketer's risk manifolds and should be treated with full attention and aptitude. A brand
should be cautious when employing celebrities to ensure promise believability and
delivery of the intended effect. The growing importance of mythical characters as
celebrities and their sway over the target segments are ample proof of public demand for
icons to look up to. As the celebrities traverse from a mere commercial presence to public
welfare message endorsements, a whole new dimension is added to this process and helps
us in achieving a holistic view of the impact which celebrities generate in every sphere
and segment through their well-versed endorsements.
At the end of the day, do any stakeholders in a company (employees, contractors,

customers, shareholders, communities the company supports with jobs) benefit from a
celebrity endorsement?
Does anyone buy a product because a Bollywood or TV actor/actress stands up and reads
a script in somewhat convincing manner? Are their distinctions in how consumers
perceive these types of endorsements and respond to them?
What happens when a celebrity endorser gets involved in a public scandal, or worse,
dies? Will the product lose consumer support or perish?
The most important thing to remember is that putting a celebrity in an ad is not an idea in
itself. Unfortunately, this is how most celebrities are being used in Indian advertising,
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where they just become a prop. Ideally, there should be an idea that makes the celebrity
relevant to the product and the consumer. A celebrity's presence in the ad should be
contextual.
Celebrity endorsement cannot guarantee fool-proof success. The celebrity endorsement

strategy must be integrated with target market characteristics, and the other elements of
the marketing mix such as product design, branding, packaging, and pricing. The
message execution that will be mouthed by the celebrity must likewise be made clear and
single-minded. You can do this cleverly by aligning the spirit of the brand to the product,
or by using a celebrity because it ensures that people will notice you, and hopefully
remember what the brand is saying. Smart associations are ones where the former
happens.
Before we go into analyzing success and failure stories of brands, we examine the title
once again and try looking at it extremely minutely.
Relationship between a Celebrity & a Brand
To understand how consumers associate celebrities to brands is well documented by a

research study by Anderson (1976); Collins & Loftus (1975); Rumelhart, Hinton &
McClelland (1986). In their study, associative learning principles were based on a
conception of memory as a network consisting of various nodes connected by associative
links. In the research context, celebrities and brands both represent nodes, which initially
are unconnected but become linked over time through the endorsement process.
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When a consumer thinks about a brand, the link with the celebrity node is animated to a
certain level through spreading activation (Anderson 1983a). The joint activation of
brand and celebrity provides a path over which one's evaluation of the celebrity has an
opportunity to transfer to the brand. The key to the process is the simultaneous activation
of the brand and celebrity nodes. Negative information about the celebrity activates the
celebrity node, which then activates the brand node to some degree and allows reduced
evaluation of the celebrity to transfer to the brand. Studies by Noffsinger et al. (1983) and
Judd et al. (1991) provide empirical evidence demonstrating that attitudes can be affected
in such a way.
It is also important to view the consumer in their social and cultural setting to further see
how celebrity endorsements increase sales and impact brands over time. Celebrities
usually form a very good example of a reference group appeal. This is particularly
beneficial to a marketer and a brand who can cash in on the success of the star and,
hence, push his brand. People who idolize their celebrities, hence, have a biased affinity
to the brand their favorites endorse. As time passes on, they believe that they by adopting
the brand that their celebrity endorses are becoming more like them. Celebrities can be
used in four ways namely: testimonial, endorsement, actor and spokesperson.
Right now the current hot favorite in India is roping in celebrities for social causes like
pulse polio, etc. This has shown to be having a positive effect on the people. In India,
Bollywood and sport personalities rule the mind-space and airwaves.
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A recent study by FCB-ULKA was done on celebrity endorsements in India. Here, they
discussed two parameters: Compatibility Index and Trait Index when it came to
finding the relationship between a celebrity and a brand.
Compatibility Index meant that the consumers saw a suitable match between the brand
and the celebrity. Trait Index was based on the match between brand and celebrity
personality traits. The numbers showed that Compatibility Index was more favorable than
Trait Index. E.g., Hrithik Roshan scored high on his Compatibility Index (100) as
compared to his Trait Index with Coca Cola. But the end user being the consumer
preferred him. The other startling fact was the high points 93 and 100 by Salman Khan.
But Thums-Up had to drop him after Salman's accident. But people still associate Thums-
Up with the Khan. The other important factor is unaided association and Salman scored
higher than other competition. But in the long run, to protect the brand image, Salman
was dropped. So what is important is the way the customer perceives a brand and the
celebrity, so if the celebrity is favored, it does have a positive influence over the brand.
The other factor is the sheer image or popularity of the star, if the star's image is larger
than life, for example, for Amitabh Bachchan or Sachin Tendulkar, the Compatibility
Index seems to be a natural collorary.
Taking the millennium superstar Amitabh Bachchan, as an endorser, he fulfills all the
FRED objectives, namely, Familiarity (target market is aware of him, finds him friendly,
likeable, dependable and trustworthy); Relevance (which says that there should be a link
between the endorser and the product as well as between the endorser and the audience);
Esteem (the polio endorsement, for example, is successful as the masses see him as a
credible name-face-voice); Differentiation (in all his projections, he is seen to be one
among the masses, and yet he towers above them. He is different). His appeal is
universal; lesser mortals merely cater to specific niches. While there may be different
reasons, depending on the category, the lifecycle stage in which the brand is, and the
particular marketing mantra being the flavor of the moment, the main reason is to make
the brand stand out and to facilitate instant awareness.
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For example, in the much talked about Shah Rukh - Santro campaign, the organization
wanted to overcome the shortcoming of an unknown brand, Korean at that. The objective
of the company was to garner faster brand recognition, association and emotional unity
with the target group.
The Santro ad showed the highest recall amongst auto ads, despite average media spends
for the category. Reason being simple - star power paid off.
Another example was the launch of Tamarind by S. Kumar, they reckoned they spent 40-
50 per cent less on media due to the sheer impact of using Hrithik Roshan who was
riding on the 'Kaho Na Pyar Hai' wave of Success. Ad recall was as high as 70 per cent,
and even the normally conservative trade got interested (so while a new brand would
normally take 8-10 months for entry into a Shopper's Stop, Tamarind was prominently
displayed within 20 days of launch). But now looking at the long term effects of Hrithik,
his movies began to flop and it may seem a sheer co-incidence that the Tamarind brand
died out as well.
Looking on the flip side, the biggest concerns from the advertiser's point of view is that
of 'vampiring' - the celebrity being bigger than the brand. Consider the 1980s when
Dinesh Suitings chose Sunil Gavaskar as their brand endorser. Soon it was seen that
Gavaskar completely overshadowed the brand. A similar case was that of Shah Rukh and
Mayur Suitings, where post termination of the contract, the corporate had to vest crucial
monies in a campaign where the sole objective was to wean the brand identity off Shah
Rukh Khan. So having a celebrity who may outshine your product is not such a viable
idea is the common consensus.
The other problem is that of duration of endorsement, and a possible mismatch between
the celebrity's life cycle and that of the brand. Owing to unavailability of dates,
sometimes long-term contracts are signed, but the celebrity's life might be over soon.
Multiple endorsements are the other problem. There is unfortunately a limited pool of
celebrities who can resonate with consumers. So you have the same celebrity endorsing
several categories, as in case of Shah Rukh and Sachin, who are completely over-exposed
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- one would assume a fair degree of confusion and little room for credibility, and hence, a
possible devaluing amongst customers.
Studying TV and print advertisements, one will realize that either some celebrities are
endorsing several brands or a specific brand is endorsed by different spokespersons.
These concepts are called multiple brand endorsement and multiple celebrity
endorsement respectively.
The question is, does this special form of celebrity endorsement affects consumers' brand
attitudes? Following Tripp et al. (1994), the endorsement of as many as four products
negatively influences the celebrity spokesperson's credibility (i.e., expertise and
trustworthiness) and likeability. They further add that these effects are independent of the
celebrity, i.e., the perceptions of even well-liked stars can be influenced. Reasons may be
found in the lack of distinctiveness, with one famous person endorsing several products
instead of concentrating on and representing one specific brand. Though these findings
may be valid, it does not automatically mean that the concept of multiple product
endorsement is useless. Further, research is suggested on potential positive effects, like
transfer of positive brand images, and on the shape of consumers' response when more
than four products are endorsed.
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Is celebrity advertising effective?
What are the benefits of representing India in the national cricket team? It is an
opportunity to compete with the best in the world and pitch one's talent against the best.
It is an opportunity to travel around the world. It is an opportunity to uphold national

pride. And make good money from every match played.
But there is more, a ticket to modelling in the advertising world (and a future perhaps in
Bollywood). Not surprisingly it's a very attractive profession. As advertisers pour crores
of rupees every year, into celebrity advertising.
Think of Sachin Tendulkar. He means Pepsi in soft drinks, Boost in malted beverages,
MRF in tires, Fiat Palio in cars, TVS Victor in two-wheelers, Colgate Total in
toothpastes, Britannia in biscuits, Visa in credit cards, Airtel in mobile services and
Band-aid.
Clearly, an overload of brands and categories associated with one star.
In the advertising world, celebrity advertising is seen as a substitute for 'absence of ideas'
-- and actually frowned upon. Yet it appears again and again.
The reasons are quite insightful.
A client hits upon celebrity as a solution when his agency is unable to present to him a
viable, exciting solution for his communication/marketing problem. He then feels that the
presence of a well-known face is an easy way out. It is rare that there is an idea on the
table and client and agency mutually agree that the presence of a celebrity will actually
lift the script. This is very similar to Bollywood blockbuster films where the cast is
decided upon and the script either written accordingly or re-engineered around the cast!
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There is no doubt that celebrity advertising has its benefits –
The four Qs:
Quick saliency: It gets cut through because of the star and his attention getting value.
Goodlass Nerolac has ensured high saliency for its brand with the inclusion of Amitabh
Bachchan in its advertising.
Quick connect: There needs to be no insight but the communication connects because
the star connects. Sachin, Shah Rukh and their ilk's ensure an easy connect for Pepsi with
the youth.
Quick shorthand for brand values: The right star can actually telegraph a brand
message fast without elaborate story telling. Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar seem to
have done that successfully for Boost in the early '90s. And helped to differentiate it in
the malted beverages market.
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Quick means of brand differentiation: In a category where no brand is using a

celebrity, the first that picks one up could use it to differentiate itself in the market. Boost
did it in the malted beverage category.
And Preity Zinta does all the above four for Perk -- connecting with the youth and
reinforcing the brand's youthful, spontaneous, energetic values.
In general 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.
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 emphasized 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.
Compatibility of the celebrity’s persona with the overall brand image
A celebrity is used to impart credibility and aspirational values to a brand, but the
celebrity needs to match the product. A good brand campaign idea and an intrinsic link
between the celebrity and the message are musts for a successful campaign. Celebrities
are no doubt good at generating attention, recall and positive attitudes towards
advertising provided that they are supporting a good idea and there is an explicit fit
between them and the brand. On the other hand, they are rendered useless when it comes
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to the actual efficiency of the core product, creating positive attitudes to brands, purchase
intentions and actual sales.
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 match.
• Celebrity controversy risk.
• Celebrity popularity.
• Celebrity availability.
• Celebrity physical attractiveness.
• Celebrity credibility.
• Celebrity prior endorsements.
• Whether celebrity is a brand user.
• Celebrity profession.
Successful celebrity endorsements for a brand- An Indian perspective
In the history of advertising — products or services, political parties or ideas —

celebrities have played a seminal role in boosting the bottom line. Whether what's on
offer is a soft drink, beauty aid, ideology or public health message, it's the celebrity
endorsement that makes the difference between recognition and anonymity.
The latter part of the '80s saw the burgeoning of a new trend in India– brands started
being endorsed by celebrities. Hindi film and TV stars as well as sportspersons were
roped in to endorse prominent brands. Advertisements, featuring stars like Tabassum
(Prestige pressure cookers), Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving
Cream) and Sunil Gavaskar (Dinesh Suitings) became common. Probably, the first ad to
cash in on star power in a strategic, long-term, mission statement kind of way was Lux
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soap. This brand has, perhaps as a result of this, been among the top three in the country
for much of its lifetime.
In recent times, we had the Shah Rukh-Santro campaign with the objective of mitigating
the impediment that an unknown Korean brand faced in the Indian market. The objective
was to garner faster brand recognition, association and emotional unity with the target
group. Star power in India can be gauged by the successful endorsement done by
Sharukh for three products- Pepsi, Clinic All Clear and Santro. Unique selling
propositions are best boosted when a popular credible figure vouches for it. A Govinda
who claims to wear a particular brand of banian impels scores to switch brands. An
Aishwerya Rai pledging her eyes motivates thousands to queue up to pledge theirs.
In the Indian context, it would not be presumptuous to state that celebrity endorsements
can aggrandize the overall brand. We have numerous examples exemplifying this claim.
A standard example here is Coke, which, till recently, didn't use stars at all
internationally. In fact, India was a first for them. The result was a ubiquitously appealing
Aamir cheekily stating Thanda matlab Coca Cola. The recall value for Nakshatra
advertising is only due to the sensuous Aishwarya. The Parker pen brand, which by itself
commands equity, used Amitabh Bachchan to revitalize the brand in India. According to
Pooja Jain, Director, Luxor Writing Instruments Ltd (LWIL), post Bachchan, Parker's
sales have increased by about 30 per cent.
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Review of literature:-
Attribution theory and endorsement effectiveness
Although past research documents a general tendency for consumers to believe in the
purity of the motives of celebrity endorsers, it is likely that this tendency varies
substantially both across consumers and across endorsers. For example, Tripp showed
that celebrities who endorse several products are viewed as less credible endorsers than
those who endorse only a single product. also demonstrated that celebrities who are
blamed for negative events (e.g. accidents) can have detrimental effects on the products
they endorse. In short, the effectiveness of a celebrity endorser is dynamic, dependent on
the celebrity, the product, and perhaps even societal conditions at the time and place
where the advertisement is shown. As such, it could be fruitful to abandon the use of
traditional measures of the celebrity endorser's trustworthiness or credibility in general in
favor of directly measuring the degree to which individuals evaluate the celebrity as
liking the endorsed product after viewing the advertisement. Such evaluations fit under a
class of judgment that has been referred to as “correspondent inferences” Correspondent
inferences more generally refer to any judgment in which observers use an individual's
behavior (e.g. an endorser saying that she loves Cheerios cereal) to infer congruent
dispositions in that individual (e.g. inferring that the endorser actually does love Cheerios
cereal). We propose that correspondent inferences are a direct measure of a celebrity's
credibility in the specific context of the advertisement, and thus should predict
consumers' attitudes toward the advertised product.H1. =Correspondent inferences will
be positively associated with attitudes toward the advertised product. Another interesting
question in this context is whether consumers will tend to make correspondent inferences
about celebrity endorsers. Early social psychological work in attribution theory suggests
not – a large endorsement fee should be viewed as a strong incentive toward endorsement
behavior, and thus observers should doubt that endorsements reflect true liking for the
product on the part of the endorser. However, research indicating that celebrities are
especially credible and trustworthy endorsers (e.g. Freiden, 1984) suggests that
consumers might believe celebrities like the product regardless of endorsement fees.
Furthermore, research examining a phenomenon called “correspondence bias” suggests
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that observers are biased such that they tend to attribute behavior to personal
characteristics of the individual performing that behavior (e.g. liking for the product)
even when situational factors (e.g. endorsement fees) are sufficient to fully explain the
behavior.
Celebrity attributes that influence endorsement effectiveness
Previous research examining the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements has focused

primarily on personal attributes of the celebrity that enhance his or her persuasiveness
For example, a number of researchers have used models in which “source credibility”,
typically viewed as a function of trustworthiness and expertise, is the primary factor
determining how influential the endorser will be Trustworthiness refers to the general
believability of the endorser, and is thus broader but conceptually similar to
correspondent inferences about the endorser. Expertise refers to the product knowledge
of the endorser and thus to the validity of his or her claims regarding the product, and is
believed to be a factor that increases persuasiveness above and beyond the effects of
trustworthiness.H3.=Perceived product knowledge of the endorser will be positively
associated with attitudes toward the advertised product.Other researchers have
emphasized the importance of source attractiveness in determining liking for the endorser
and thereby increasing endorsement effectiveness To the extent that attractiveness is an
important determinant of endorsement effectiveness, research based on the matchup
hypothesis for a discussion of the matchup hypothesis in relation to endorser expertise)
suggests that its importance is limited by the degree to which attractiveness “fits” well
with the advertised product Thus, for example, physical attractiveness might be useful
when selling cosmetics but not when selling computers. Furthermore, although source
attractiveness research has focused primarily on physical attractiveness, attractiveness
can also be viewed more generally as a positive attitude toward the endorser. Such
positive attitudes might result from admiration or perceived similarity although effective
advertising is more likely to rely on the admiration component because the influential
power of celebrities is closely connected to their status as role models.
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Figure 1Model predicting attitude toward the advertised product in Experiment 1
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2Model predicting attitude toward the advertised product in Experiment
The argument for Celebrity Endorsement
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:
• 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.
• Time saving: Celebrity is able to build brand credibility in a short period of time.
• 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 Zeta-
Jones is used by T-Mobile and Elizabeth Arden. 007 Pierce Brosnan promotes
Omega, BMW, and Noreico.
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• 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 worms 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.
• 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.
• Providing testimony: Another benefit of using celebrity endorsers is that s/he can
provide testimony for a product or service, particularly when the product has
contributed to their celebrity. The more familiar an endorser, the more likely
consumers are to buy the endorsed product.
• 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.
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The argument against Celebrity Endorsement
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.
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2. The vampire effect: This terminology pertains to the issue of a celebrity

overshadowing the brand. If there is no congruency between the celebrity and the
brand, then the audience will remember the celebrity and not the brand. Examples
are the campaigns of Dawn French—Cable Association and Leonard Rossiter—
Cinzano. Both of these campaigns were aborted due to celebrities getting in the
way of effective communication. Another example could be the Castrol
commercial featuring Rahul Dravid.
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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
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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’.
Brand, Celebrities & Consumer
Factors Impacting a Brand while being viewed by a Consumer in Media
The model above shows the various factors that affect a celebrity endorsed brand while
viewed by a consumer in the media (both TV and print). The central idea being the
impact on brand. The three major parts to a brand being shown are: -
 The Product
 Advertisement
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 The celebrity endorsing it
It is important is to study the relationship between these factors and how they together act
for or against the brand.
The product is important, of course, it may fulfill a need, want or a desire. Quality is
quintessential and, hence, nowadays it is understood the product is of highest quality. So
what next? The advertisement is important as a good product could see an early exit if the
advertisement is handled badly, and otherwise, a mediocre product which is tastefully
handled goes a long way. Lastly, the celebrity in the advertisement, recall, trust,
familiarity are some of the reasons that they are used. Now consider the interactions of
these individual factors. The best of superstars can be doing the advertisement but if the
product is far from the image the star has, the whole advertisement is a waste. Imagine an
Amitabh doing an advertisement for ad for youth apparel. Well, exceptions can be there
but then again it depends on the way it is done. Believability is of vital importance, the
TVS Victor advertisement shows us the bike being compared to the bat of Sachin and the
strokes he plays. (Classically executed advertisement with the bike and Sachin coming
out as winners). The relationship between a product and its advertisement again can be
either dependant or none. In that case, a shock value makes people remember the brand
better and, hence, a possible long term loyalty.
Selection of Celebrity
Anyone who is famous may be the right celebrity. However, the appropriateness of the
celebrity largely depends on the product or service. Most advertisers insist that their
celebrity spokespeople have charisma and current popularity. That is why we see more
movie and television stars, athletes, real-life heroes, and musicians acting as brand
ambassadors in the market.
25
The choice of celebrity is critical for the success of the advertisement. The celebrity
should have high recognition, high positive affect, and the image of the celebrity must
match with that of the product. For this reason, famous sportsmen are used to endorse
sporting goods: Michael Jordan & Nike, Tiger Woods and Nike, David Beckham
endorses Adidas, etc. While it is totally inappropriate for movie stars to endorse a sports
products.
Celebrity endorsements must be used judiciously. If the celebrity is too famous or too
popular, then the celebrity will overpower the product - i.e., people will remember seeing
only the celebrity and forget the product. This happened when Britney Spears came in a
Pepsi Commercial in 2001. Britney Spears was at the height of her popularity - viewers
saw the advertisement to see Britney Spears and forgot all about Pepsi. In India,
Hollywood actress Dimple Kapadia in a sexy swim wear was used in a Cinthol soap
advertisement - People remember seeing the actress - but the soap was forgotten.
The cost benefit analysis of using celebrity in marketing communications is bit tricky.
But the general belief is that using celebrity is a lot cheaper in building a brand. For
example, S.Kumar’s built the brand "Reed & Taylor’s" as a premier suiting material by
having Amitab Bachan in its advertisements. To achieve the same without a celebrity
would have taken longer time & more money. In a span of less than two years after
26
launch, the brand Reed & Taylor’s" has become the second largest seller of cloth for
men’s suits in India.
Selection of the right celebrity is crucial. The needs of the brand—rather than the fame of
the celebrity—should be the primary criteria when selecting a celebrity spokesperson.
The celebrity's physical attractiveness, values, and credibility also matter tremendously.
However, it would be suicidal to forget about the target audience.
Types of Celebrity Endorsements

Celebrity branding has many aspects. A slight change in the type of branding used can
result in either a great success or a dismal failure. Celebrity branding falls into five
general categories:
• Testimonial: The celebrity acts as a spokesperson for the brand.
• Imported: The celebrity performs a role known to the audience.
• Invented: The celebrity plays a new, original role.
• Observer: The celebrity assumes the role of an observer commenting on the

brand.
• Harnessed: The celebrity's image is integrated with the ad's storyline.
27
Facts over the Years
• Approximately 60-70% of all television commercials feature famous people.

• Aishwarya Rai had once endorsed 'Fuji-Film' camera rolls. The company made an
agreement with her to endorse their camera rolls. But, Aishwarya's magic did not
work there and they had to terminate the contract.
• Amitabh Bachchan (AB) was seen endorsing Maruti's Versa Car. The AB factor
worked wonders as far as generating curiosity was concerned but the actual
product couldn't meet the expectations of people, and hence, the endorsement
strategy didn't work. He has been used very effectively by Parker Pens, ICICI
Bank and Cadbury's to name a few.
• Bata’s sales doubled soon after they adopted Rani Mukherjee as their brand
ambassador.
• Magic Johnson lost his endorsement deals when he announced in 1991 that he's
HIV-positive. It wasn't until July 2003 that he landed his first endorsement deal
since the announcement.
• Ticket sales at Wimbledon are known to have shot up significantly for all matches
featuring the latest 'sex-symbol' on the circuit - Anna Kournikova. An average
player who is yet to win even a single tennis tournament, Anna is known to have
earned far more from endorsements than her tennis career could ever have given
her.
Celebrity Endorsements as a Strategy

How Tiger Woods’s endorsement of Accenture is beneficial to the company in sending
the message of high performance. This is just an example of having celebrity
endorsement. Marketers of consumer products have long used celebrities to endorse their
product - and this has become a common strategy. I therefore have chosen to write about
the theory and the intentions behind the strategy of using celebrity endorsements.
28
Objectives of Marketing Communications
Defining the objectives of the advertisements is the first step. In general, there are four
major objectives for any advertisement. Note that not all advertisements need to have all
the objectives.
1. Establish the product need
stablishing a need for a product or a product category is the necessary first step.
This is more important in new-to-world category of products In Indian context,
consider the advertisement for Polio Immunization drive - the TV advertisement
featured Amitab Bachan telling that immunization is a must for every child -
while people suffering from polio are shown in the background along with
29
healthy kids. This advertisement used a celebrity to create the need for polio
immunization.
Another good example is Toyota’s advertisement of Innova in India. The TV

advertisement prominently shows Amir Khan playing different roles while
traveling in an Innova. The different roles - establish the need for such a big car in
India. ( Note that Indian car market is dominated by small cars - which can seat
only four adults, Toyota wanted to establish the need for a 8 seater car in India)
2. Create Brand Awareness
Once the need for a product is established, customers must be able to associate
the brand with the product category. For example iPod is strongly associated with
portable MP3 players, Nike with sports shoes etc..
A classic example of this is Nike’s use of Michael Jordan advertising for Nike.
This advertisement instantly created a strong association of Nike with basketball
shoes.
3. Set customer expectations
Brand value comes from the customers experience with the product. If the
product meets or beats his expectations, then a positive brand image is created,
else a negative brand image is created. Therefore it is essential to set the customer
expectations accordingly.
This is most common in established consumer products - Beauty products,

household cleaning products, food products etc.
30
4. Create a purchase intention
These are marketing promotion advertisements - Buy one, get one free, or get
additional discounts if you buy within a particular date etc.. The sole purpose of
such communication messages is to encourage customers to buy immediately or
within a short period after seeing
Use of celebrity endorsements to create a purchase intention has been very

limited. This is mainly because such advertisements adversely affect the
personality brand value of the celebrity. Being associated with a discount deal is
not favorable image for the celebrity and the customer.
Brand Image & Celebrity
Research has shown that there are three aspects that influence a customer's attitude and,
hence, the long term impact on the brand - Attractiveness, Trustworthiness and Expertise.
The matrix below shows us the images and the celebrities: -
Aspect of Brand Image Celebrity Product

Elegance Aishwarya Rai Nakshatra Diamonds
Beauty Madhuri Dixit Emami
Attractiveness Classy Saif and Soha Ali Khan Asian Paints-Royale
Saif Ali Khan Provogue
Stylish
Amitabh Bachhan Reid & Taylor
Honest Tarun Tejpal Tehelka
Trustworthiness
Reliable MS Dhoni TVS Star City
Knowledge Sachin & Sehwag Reebok
Expertise
Qualified Naina Balsavar Shampoo
Hence, we see depending on the product and aspect of brand, the choice of the celebrity
is important so that the celebrity can reflect that and not go against the brand.
We talk about Brand Equity, Brand Identity and Position. It is worthwhile to see the
effect of a celebrity on these critical elements. Brand equity essentially made up of
31
loyalty, awareness, perceived quality, associations, and other proprietary brand assets.
The celebrity should be chosen in such a way as to reinforce and strengthen the brand in
all these elements but the question is, can he? Take an example of another star Fardeen
Khan, who endorses Provogue. Snazzy fashionable apparel from an Indian manufacturer
with the backing of a star son was a great idea for the brand image. It was able to attract
new customers who were fashion conscious but unable to afford high price international
brands.
Awareness of the brand was phenomenal as fashion shows, print and media advertising
was booming and Fardeen and Provgue had become a national phenomenon. Quality was
given utmost importance and, hence, from the manufacturer side, the commitment to the
customer was complete. Competition was present but sales figures showed Provogue
reaping handsomely. Then the image of the so-called Bad Boy Fardeen emerged with the
drug and brawls in night clubs. This did lead to a certain discontent amongst fans of the
star and the brand. But remarkably not much effect on sales. It seemed that the
consumers had forgotten Fardeen's issues and remained loyal to the brand. Today
Fardeen is still the mainframe picture of every advertisement and the brand has not lost
any of its shine.
Measuring a Celebrity Endorsement
It becomes very important to measure the effectiveness of a celebrity (or determine the
worth of one). Few of the methods of measurement that are in practice are: -
 The Q-SCORE Method
 The FRED Principle
The Q-SCORE Method
32
There is a way to measure the credibility, believability, popularity, and like-ability of a

celebrity. It's called a Q-Score, and you can purchase the Q-Scores of the candidates
you're considering.
Consider both sides of the deal - for a client who wanted to use a celebrity endorser, and
for a celebrity who was looking for an endorsement opportunity. Once you've defined the
kind of endorser you need (e.g., athlete, actor, male/female, young/old, etc.), its well
worth going through the Q-Score exercise.
Evaluating the contribution of the endorser after you've already made the decision is not
nearly as straightforward. One time, many years ago, a company actually shot a
commercial with a well-known (high Q-Score) endorser for national use, and it shot the
same commercial with a good actor, not so well-known. The company ran a limited
market test for 6 months with the unknown actor (cutting in the commercials locally,
over national network schedule) so could quantify the sales impact of the celebrity. By
the way, the celebrity was worth every penny of his outrageous fee. It ended up using
him for years, and he helped the brand reach market leadership almost entirely on the
strength of the commercials in which he appeared.
The FRED Principle
33
This concept is seen as the foundation of a successful endorser selection.
F is for Familiarity. The target market must be aware of the person, and perceive him or
her as empathetic, credible, sincere and trustworthy.
R is for Relevance. There should be a meaningful link between the advertised brand and
the celebrity endorser, and more important, between the celebrity endorser and the
defined target market. The audience must be able to identify with the person. If
consumers can immediately associate with an endorser, they will feel more predisposed
to accepting, buying and preferring the brand to competition.
E is for Esteem. Consumers must have the utmost respect and confidence for the
celebrity. Amitabh Bachhan & Tendulkar have these. So do Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta,
Kapil Dev among others. The public respect them because of their distinguished careers
and unassailable salesmanship.
D is for Differentiation. The target consumers must see the endorser as a cut above the
rest. If there is no perceived disparity among celebrities, then the strategy will not work.
Michael Jordan is an example of an international celebrity that rises above the clutter.
This proves to be a huge contributory factor to his effectiveness as an endorser.
The Fred concept is not a guarantee to success, but it can serve as a guideline when
selecting a spokesperson. Each organization and its objectives are different, and should
be evaluated on an individual basis.
34
THE IMPACT
As defined earlier, impact would be both short term and long term, but here the focus
would be more on the long term implications of the brand. Measurement of this would be
challenging and data would be difficult to obtain. The parameters on which impact could
be measured would be on a comparative basis of the brand before and after the celebrity
began endorsing the brand. Sales / revenue, market share, brand recall, level of
repurchase, brand loyalty, trust, image and perception of the brand per say.
In this trend of creative advertising, we see usage of celebrities of all walks in life -
particularly actors, film stars, models, sports persons, and the whole gamut. But the usage
can always backfire if the choice of the star is completely contradictory in nature to the
brand. Believability and association of brand to celebrity is important.
Selection of celebrities can be done while they are at their peak or when they are destined
for greatness in the near future. Again a risk that may go either way. What is important at
some level is the value that a celebrity adds to a particular brand. The advertiser tries his
best to make the celebrity and brand as analogous as possible. The celebrity endorser is
35
seen to score quite well on dimensions such as trustworthiness, believability,

persuasiveness, and likeability when tested for reaction from people. This is important to
a marketer as if he can get a celebrity to make the masses follow, believe or listen to him,
he has been successful.
As discussed by Kelman (1961), the basis for the effectiveness of celebrity-endorsed

advertising can be linked to this process of identification and internalization of the
desired behavior. Price of fame may be high for the celebrity endorsed brands but they
have both what the markets and the everyday common man want - attention, power and
star sizzle.
Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition of a large group of people.
Celebrities may convey a broad range of meanings, involving demographic categories
(e.g., age, gender and status), personality and lifestyle types. For instance, people adore
Sachin Tendulkar because he represents a middle-class Maharashtrian boy who made it
big with sheer hard work. Likewise, Amitabh Bachchan for most is an icon of style, trust
and dependability.
Research Objective
36
Main Objective:
To study the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer buying behavior.
Sub-Objectives:
Three basic sub-objectives are:
• To understand consumer perception of the celebrities in advertisements.
• To understand the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement.
• To identify drawbacks associated with celebrity endorsement.
Research Methodology
• Data collection
For data collection, I developed a well defined questionnaire as a research instrument,
consisting questions aimed to measure the consumers perception, their
liking and disliking and their views and comments about Celebrity
Endorsement. I conducted unstructured interviews (sample size) of 50
students of USMS, in time duration of three days, all the data generated
was primary data that was generated from different cell phone
consumers.
• Data analysis
The data collected was compressed to 3 point scale by adding the scale to make
it more interpretable. The same is recorded on an excel sheet and
qualitative data is refined to present it as suggestions and complaints. The
same is being presented in form of graphs and tables and correlation is
being shown between some of the important items.
37
3. SURVEY RESULTS:-
The following are the findings regarding the consumer survey conducted by
me.The following graphs show the consumer’s perception about different
things, as shown below, below their questions:-
1. Percentage of cell phone ownership, among the surveyed people.
percent
No
Yes
No
Yes
 2. Cell phone buying behavior.
percent
on your own
with others
38
3. Motivating factor for buying a new cell phone.
percent
brand fewer prices, 14

ambassodor, 6
fewre prices discounts and

offers, 15
discounts and offers f
latest trends
brand ambassodor
latest trends, 65
For a cell phone consumer brand ambassador matters least to them while latest trends
matters the most.
4. Motivating factor for buying different products.
60
a) Motor vehicle
50
percent
40
30
20
10
0
luxury self brand celebrity
esteem name
39
Luxury matters the most in final decision making for a motor vehicle consumer, followed
by self esteem.
b) Clothing
percent
45
40
35
30
25
20 percent
15
10
5
0
status fewer latest celebrity
prices trends
Celebrity matters most to a shopper, but in this case as well people wants to
follow the latest trends or fashion, that fashion could be initiated by a celebrity or
a brand ambassador.
c) Food Products
percent
50
40
30
48
20
25
10 12 15
0
quality brand clebrity attractive
name package
percent
40
Similarly quality of the product matters most to a food products consumer in the final
decision making, a celebrity might help them considerably in raising awareness of the
product but not in buying behavior.
5. percent
can't say,
24
yes
no
can't say
yes, 52
no, 24
More then half the surveyed population believes that a celebrity helps an organization in
increasing its total revenue.
6.
percent
mostly true, 36
can't say , 46
mostly not, 18
mostly true mostly not can't say
Similarly around half of the surveyed people believe that a brand ambassador doesn’t
always result in increase in the market share of the product, but 36% of them believe that
a celebrity mostly results in raising the market share.
41
7. percent
can'tsay, 10
no, 30
yes, 60
yes no can'tsay
Around 60% of the surveyed people believe that a celebrity like Shahrukh Khan and
Hrithik Roshan in an advertisement motivates them to buy that product.
8.
60
50
40
30 58
percent
20
30
10
12
0
yes no can'tsay
Around 60% of the surveyed people believes that a celebrity asks them to them buy the
product but they themselves don’t uses their endorsed product.
42
9. percent
60
50
40
30 56
20 32
10 10
2
0
cricketer filmstar
Film stars are the most popular celebrities among all, followed by the cricketers and a
politician is least popular among the consumers as a celebrity brand ambassador.
10. Rating of different celebrities by the people.
can't say 0
poor 6
percent
average 30
excellent 64
0 20 40 60 80
Approx 65% of the surveyed people believes that Shahrukh Khan is a perfect brand
ambassador for Nokia Communication.
43
b). Hrithik Roshan for Sony Ericsson.
percent
can't say 0
poor 4
percent
average 22
excellent 74
0 20 40 60 80
Popularity of Hrithik Roshan as a brand ambassador is more then that of Shahrukh Khan
and very few people’s opinion is against him.
c). Priyanka Chopra for spice mobile.
percent
percent
can't say 8
poor 18
average 42
excellent 32
0 10 20 30 40 50
Priyanka Chopra is not that popular as a brand ambassador as Shahrukh Khan or Hrithik
Roshan, 42% of people believes that she is just an average brand ambassador.
44
11. percent
price qualityy value for money celebrity
celebrity, 10 price, 12
qualityy, 14
value for
money, 64
For a consumer, value for money matters the most followed by quality and prices, brand
ambassador matters least to a consumer in a the final buying behavior.
13.
percent
50
40
30
48
percent
20
30
22
10
0
yes no can't say
Around 30% of the people are agreeing with the fact that a celebrity endorsement helps
an organization in reaching its goal, but around half of the surveyed people were not sure
about that as well.
45
14.
percent
to follow competiors 6
to increase sales 18
percent
easy recognition 72
no new ideas 4
0 20 40 60 80
Around three fourth of he surveyed population believes that the prime purpose of a
celebrity endorsement is making the product popular, so that people may recognize it
easily.
15.
percent
high cost 54
trustworthness 6
8 percent
celebrity trap
32
celebrity vampires product
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
People think that the main drawback of celebrity endorsement is the very high cost
associated with that, celebrity vampirism of the product.
46
Profile of the surveyed people
profile of the respondents
female, 44 male
male, 56 female
Besides this all the surveyed people were students, their age lying between 21 years to 30
years.
47
Findings
After analyzing the whole survey results, one can easily draw the following conclusions.
1. Cell phone penetration is very high among the youngsters, especially in the
metros.
2. Celebrity endorsement plays a very minute role in final decision making for
buying a new cell phone (6% only). A celebrity might help in easy recognization
and popularity of a product but not in final decision making.
3. If a consumer wants to purchase a new cell phone then latest technology matters
the most to him/her and brand ambassador matters least to them.
4. Effect of brand ambassador differs with different products, according to our
survey results, it matters most in case of clothing and food products. Because
people tends to be more choosy in case of high attachment and costly products
like cars.
5. A common man feels that a celebrity helps an organization in increasing their
total sales and hence the revenue.
6. A brand ambassador also helps in increasing the market share of the product.
7. Three fifth of the surveyed people feels that a celebrity like Shahrukh or Hrithik
motivates them to buy a product.
8. But vast majority of the surveyed people (60% approx) feels that celebrity
themselves don’t use their endorsed products.
9. Film stars are the most popular celebrities among all, followed by cricketers.
10. More then 60 % surveyed people feels that Shahrukh Khan is the fittest brand
ambassador for Nokia Communications.
11. Popularity of Hrithik Roshan is slightly more then that of Shahrukh Khan as a
brand ambassador of a cell phone.
12. Priyanka Chopra is not that popular as a brand ambassador of cell phones as
Shahrukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan are. Just 32 % of surveyed people consider
her as a good brand ambassador of Spice mobile.
13. In final decision making, a value for money is most important for a consumer and
a brand ambassador matters the least.
48
14. Around 75% of the surveyed people feel that celebrity endorsement helps an
organization in easy recognization of their products.
15. According to the surveyed people, the high cost of a celebrity is the biggest
drawback of celebrity brand endorsement followed by celebrity vampire effect.
Summary and managerial implications
The given principles were linked to specific managerial suggestions regarding more
effective use of celebrities to enhance brand equity:
• Celebrity endorsements will be more effective when used consistently over time
to increase the strength of the link between the celebrity and the endorsed brand.
• Celebrity endorsements will be more effective when the ad execution is simple,
clean, and free of irrelevant design elements. Focus on the celebrity and the brand
together.
• Celebrity endorsements will be more effective when using a celebrity who is not
already strongly associated with another product or service.
• Celebrity endorsements will be more effective when using a celebrity with a high
“fit”, “congruence”, or “belongingness” with the endorsed brand.
• Celebrity endorsers can be used to effectively reinforce and/or create an image for
a product or service.
• Test potential brand/celebrity combinations to ensure that the impression and
image of the celebrity is positive for the target audience.
• Celebrity endorsements will be more effective for less familiar brands.
• Celebrity endorsers will be more effective for brands for which consumers have
limited knowledge/facts.
• Celebrity endorsers will be more effective when integrated across the elements of
the marketing mix.
• Caution in choice of celebrity endorser is warranted given the potential risk of
tarnishing the brand’s image.
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Conclusion
Celebrities have always been the easiest way for a new product launch (consumer goods)
and will remain to do so in the near future on account of their mass appeal and a world
full of star stuck loyal fans. But the impact on the brand is much greater than just an
advertisement showing a celebrity.
We have seen that the correct choice of a celebrity can surely increase sales but when it
comes to long term loyalty and impact on the brand. The effect is yet somewhat
debatable. In the end, the product must deliver for the customer, no matter who endorses
the product, if the customer does not see himself getting value from his purchase, he will
not buy it. But yes, celebrities over time can influence the loyalty and make a person
friendlier to a brand. Brand and celebrities are here to stay for a long time and in this age
of slick advertising and mass media and unthinkable budgets, celebrities are having a
field day charging huge amounts and making more money than their mainstream
professions. But then do they really care about the brand? Or is it just the money? But the
bottom line, celebrity endorsements are here to stay.
Let us accept one thing - the world of advertising and brand building does not believe in
the Laissez-Faire principle. Unless you reach out to the customer, make him think and
nudge him that little bit, you will fall short of your targets and that is a cardinal sin, given
the competition. The brand managers work on an extremely sleek, thought-controlling
process which may be propounded as the Multiplier Effect. They are smart, pragmatic
people and know very well that Mr. Singh, sitting in his cosy home in Delhi and
watching his favourite action hero driving the brand new LX car model, would not walk
up to the car showroom next day and book one for himself. They offer simple feelers like
concept and lifestyle to him, which are inherent to the product advertisement, with or
without the celebrity endorsement.
With the use of the celebrity, this effect is shrewdly magnified so as to allow the
consumer to equate the personality and the brand together. Hence, whenever the
50
consumer is watching the several images of her favorite actress alone, it conjures up
multiple impressions of her sipping the XY brand of coffee, each time.
The brand's ultimate goal is to be at the top of her choice bracket and it achieves this goal
by being omnipresent in her memory through related celebrity imagery. Does it justify
the obscene amounts of money paid to these celebrities? For firms with annual turnovers
in excess of Rs. 1000 crores, an endorsement deal of Rs. 5-6 crores for such a response
would indeed be a smart deal. In a Synovate/Blackstone Market Facts Survey in India in
late 2003, almost 47% respondents affirmed celebrity influence on their purchase
behaviour. That's a lot of people influenced by celebrity endorsement! Talking about
successful switchovers by celebrities among competitive brands, Aamir Khan had a 78%
top brand recall with Coke. But such transitions are rare and involve a lot of hard work
behind the scenes to dab any leftover effects of the celebrity's previous liaison with the
competitor.
While speaking of celebrities, we should be very clear as to who this term connotes to
and the powers they carry. Fido Dido for 7-UP, the Amul Girl or Tony the Tiger for
Kellogg's Frosted Flakes are as much a celebrity as any breathing face. They reach their
target consumer, they move the product, and they carry the brand. That's what counts. Of
course, the gestation period is higher in the case of such creatives, but in the event of a
hit, the comparative risks are minimized. After all, they cannot get drunk, attract a
controversy or commit a crime, as long as the management wants. In short, they are 'safe
floaters' vis-à-vis their unpredictable human counterparts.
Undoubtedly, there are many advocates for the clamp down upon the commercialization
of consumer emotions and money-making attitude of endorsers. But the celebrities have
circumvented these allegations by appearing in non-commercial advertisements. When
Aishwarya Rai appeals to the nation to donate their eyes while she personally pledges
them, she strikes a chord with millions of viewers. Shabana Azmi inspires a sense of
tremendous awe and respect while being shown as visiting HIV patients.
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This reverence is what is later harnessed by the brands in the commercial angle. You
grow in stature with the person. No matter how much we raise a hue and cry over one
celebrity being all over the place and marketing just about everything, it still works for
most of us.
Indeed, the premise that celebrity advertising has the power to propel a brand and drive
the sales can be argued. The Pareto Principle is widely debated and the 80-20 rule does
not have many takers in the advertising industry. That, "20% of advertising creates 80%
of demand or sales", may or may not be true. In either case it does not help. The word
remains that for a scintillating endorsement, you need much more than a glowing face
and aesthetic advertising. You should back it up with your operational and
communication skills.
Using a celebrity in advertising is no panacea and the success of this process depends on
several factors as discussed above. The careful selection of celebrity, matching the target
segment and brand values, should be inherently stressed upon. The advertisers can use
the Q Score, developed by a U.S. based marketing research agency, which considers two
factors - awareness and likeability, while evaluating the celebrity. Another important
factor is the flexibility with which the companies can go in for hedging the risks
associated in hiring a celebrity. They choose personalities from various fields or even
appealing to various consumer perceptions, so that they can minimize the damage in
cases of negative publicity due to any celebrity mistake. The cola brands spread their
endorsements across a wide 'variety' of celebrities such that even if one falls, the others
are still holding the fort.
In terms of the future, celebrity endorsements are here to stay. Their ability to cut across
the classes, caste barriers and apprehensions are simply too important to be sidelined.
They have been time-tested and delivered results repeatedly, given good hands. One
could continue to wonder if these celebrity-hawkers are worth the money and the
tantrums, but in a world of brand clutter and product muddle, celebrities seem to hit the
nail on the head, more often than not. And to be honest, let's look around ourselves, why
only Jane, we all in a little appreciation of those stars aren’t gazing back at us!
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Appendix -1
Studying Consumer perception for
Celebrity Endorsements.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a student of SIVA SIVANI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT and I am conducting
a survey on Consumer Perception for Celebrity Endorsement. The following
questionnaire has been drafted to make me understand the needs and expectations of the
customers. Therefore I request you to kindly spare some time and give me the following
information. I assure you that the results of the study will be kept confidential.
SECTION A
Questionnaire
1. Do you own a cell phone?

Yes
No
2. How do you purchase a cell phone?

On your own- With others-
3. If you wish to change your cell phone then what will be the motivating factor for that?
• Fewer prices
• Various discounts and offers
• Latest trends
• Celebrity endorsing the product.
4. What is the purpose behind buying the following product
a) Motor vehicle?
53
• Luxury
• Self Esteem
• Brand Name
• Celebrity
b) Clothing
• Status
• Cost
• Brand Name
• Celebrity
c) Food Products
• Quality
• Brand Name
• Celebrity
• Attractive Package
5. Do you think companies investing huge money, for using celebrities help them in
increasing their total revenue?
• Yes
• No
• Can’t say
6. Does the celebrity helps in increasing the market share of the company’s brand?
• Usually true
• Usually not
• Can’t say
54
7. Do you think, a presence of celebrity like Shahrukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan in an
advertisement encourages you to buy a cell phone?
• Yes
• No
• Can’t say
8. What do you think, do the celebrity themselves uses the product they themselves
endorse?
• Yes
• No
• Can’t say
9. On a personal note what kind of celebrity does you like the most?
• Cricketer
• Politician
• Film star
• Famous personalities
10. How do you rate the following celebrities as a brand endorser:-
a). Shahrukh Khan for Nokia.

• Excellent
• Average
• Poor
• Can’t rate
b). Hrithik Roshan for Sony Ericsson.

• Excellent
• Average
• Poor
55
• Can’t rate
c). Priyanka Chopra for spice mobile.

• Excellent
• Average
• Poor
• Can’t rate
11. What is the most important for you?

• Price of the cell phone.
• Quality of the cell phone.
• Value for money
• Celebrity endorsement
12. Do you think celebrity endorsement is an important thing in brand promotion?

• Yes
• No
• Can’t say
13. Do you think celebrity endorsement is really effective in reaching its goal?
• Yes
• No
• Can’t say
14. According to you, what can be the reason for the companies to choose celebrities for
promoting their products?
• No new ideas
• Easy recognition of product
• To increase sales and profit
56
• To follow competition
SECTION B
1. Name: _________________(optional)
2. Income_________________
3. Gender: Male Female
4. Age:
13-19 20-30 30-40 40-50
50and Above
5. Occupation:
Service Business
Housewife
Student Others (Please Specify) _________
57
Appendix -2
Bibliography
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/dec/05guest.htm
http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/Celebrity-endorsement.asp
http://www.coolavenues.com/know/mktg/surabhi3.php
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/2008/04/09/stories/2008040950750500.htm
http://www.coolavenues.com/know/mktg/surabhi6.php
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/04/08/stories/2008040851250500.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1507842.cms
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/15671/Celebrity-endorsements-ensure-higher-
sale-Shahrukh-Khan.html
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=183
http://www.icmrindia.org/free%20resources/Articles/Celebrity%20Endorsement1.htm
http://catalogue.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/1998/cjsm/v2n1/dyson.htm
http://issuesinimc.wikispaces.com/Advantages+and+Disadvantages+from+using+celebrit
y+endorsement
http://www.broadcastnewscorp.com/html/production.php
http://www.utalkmarketing.com/Pages/Article.aspx4187&Title=White_Paper._Celebrity
_Endorsement_2008
http://www.asuku.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4649
58
http://www.nerve.in/subscribe.php?xml=brand_ambassador
http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/Business/20070208/586975.html
http___www.emeraldinsight.com_Insight_ViewContentServlet_Filename=_published_e
meraldfulltextarticle_pdf_0070381109.pdf
J:\bandg\Emerald FullText Article Factors predicting the effectiveness of celebrity

endorsement advertisements.htm.
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Celebrity Endorsement in India

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PROJECT ON CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT

1 Introduction to the topic 6

2 Relationship between a Celebrity & a Brand 10

3 Is celebrity advertising effective? 16

5 The argument for Celebrity Endorsement 34

6 The argument against Celebrity Endorsement 37

7 Brand, Celebrities & Consumer 40

8 Measuring a Celebrity Endorsement 53

9 Research Objective and Methodology 59

12 Summary and managerial implications 76

CELEBRITY BRANDING AND ITS EFFECT ON CONSUMERS

At the end of the day, do any stakeholders in a company (employees, contractors,

Celebrity endorsement cannot guarantee fool-proof success. The celebrity endorsement

Relationship between a Celebrity & a Brand

To understand how consumers associate celebrities to brands is well documented by a

Is celebrity advertising effective?

It is an opportunity to travel around the world. It is an opportunity to uphold national

Clearly, an overload of brands and categories associated with one star.

The reasons are quite insightful.

There is no doubt that celebrity advertising has its benefits –

The four Qs:

Quick means of brand differentiation: In a category where no brand is using a

In general celebrity endorsements are impelled by virtue of the following motives:

• Instant Brand Awareness and Recall.

Compatibility of the celebrity’s persona with the overall brand image

• Celebrity’s fit with the brand image.

Successful celebrity endorsements for a brand- An Indian perspective

In the history of advertising — products or services, political parties or ideas —

Attribution theory and endorsement effectiveness

Celebrity attributes that influence endorsement effectiveness

Previous research examining the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements has focused

Figure 1Model predicting attitude toward the advertised product in Experiment 1

2Model predicting attitude toward the advertised product in Experiment

The argument for Celebrity Endorsement

• Establishment of Credibility: Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust

• Associative Benefit: A celebrity’s preference for a brand gives out a persuasive

The argument against Celebrity Endorsement

The celebrity approach has a few serious risks:

2. The vampire effect: This terminology pertains to the issue of a celebrity

brand. Each celebrity portrays a broad range of meanings, involving a specific

Brand, Celebrities & Consumer

Factors Impacting a Brand while being viewed by a Consumer in Media

 The celebrity endorsing it

Types of Celebrity Endorsements

• Testimonial: The celebrity acts as a spokesperson for the brand.

• Imported: The celebrity performs a role known to the audience.

• Invented: The celebrity plays a new, original role.

• Observer: The celebrity assumes the role of an observer commenting on the

• Harnessed: The celebrity's image is integrated with the ad's storyline.

Facts over the Years

• Approximately 60-70% of all television commercials feature famous people.

Celebrity Endorsements as a Strategy

Objectives of Marketing Communications

1. Establish the product need

Another good example is Toyota’s advertisement of Innova in India. The TV

2. Create Brand Awareness

3. Set customer expectations

This is most common in established consumer products - Beauty products,

4. Create a purchase intention

Use of celebrity endorsements to create a purchase intention has been very

Brand Image & Celebrity

Aspect of Brand Image Celebrity Product

Measuring a Celebrity Endorsement