VIEWERS PERCEPTION ON CELEBRITY

ENDORSEMENT IN ADVERTISEMENT – AN
EMPIRICAL STUDY

M.NANDINI PRIYA
Introduction

The crescendo of celebrities endorsing brands has been steadily increasing over the
past years. Marketers overtly acknowledge the power of celebrities in influencing
consumer-purchasing decisions. It is a ubiquitously accepted fact that celebrity
endorsement can bestow special attributes upon a product that it may have lacked
otherwise. But everything is not hunky-dory; celebrities are after all mere mortals made
of flesh and blood like us. If a celebrity can aggrandize the merits of a brand, he or she
can also exacerbate the image of a brand.

“Any brand can get a celebrity. That is easy. But getting a celebrity consistent with
the right brand, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right
way... that is not easy.”

“The health of a brand can definitely be improved up to some extent by celebrity

endorsement. But one has to remember that endorsing a celebrity is a means to an end
and not an end in itself.”

Celebrity endorsements are impelled by virtue of the following motives:

• Instant Brand Awareness and Recall.

• Celebrity values define, and refresh the brand image.
• Celebrities add new dimensions to the brand image.
• Instant credibility or aspiration PR coverage.
• Lack of ideas.
• Convincing clients.

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

• Celebrity’s fit with the brand image.

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

Advantages of a celebrity endorsing a Brand

Brands have been leveraging celebrity appeal for a long time. Across categories, whether
in products or services, more and more brands are banking on the mass appeal of
celebrities. As soon as a new face ascends the popularity charts, advertisers queue up to
have it splashed all over. The accruement of celebrity endorsements can be justified by
the following advantages that are bestowed on the overall brand:

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

trust for that brand among the target audience- this is especially true in case of
new products. We had the Shah Rukh-Santro campaign. At launch, Shah Rukh
Khan endorsed Santro and this ensured that brand awareness was created in a
market, which did not even know the brand.
• Ensured Attention: Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking
the clutter of advertisements and making the ad and the brand more noticeable.
• PR coverage: is another reason for using celebrities. Managers perceive
celebrities as topical, which create high PR coverage. A good example of
integrated celebrity campaigns is one of the World’s leading pop groups, the Spice
Girls, who have not only appeared in advertisements for Pepsi, but also in product
launching and PR events. Indeed, celebrity-company marriages are covered by
most media from television to newspapers (e.g. The Spice Girls and Pepsi)
• Higher degree of recall: People tend to commensurate the personalities of the
celebrity with the brand thereby increasing the recall value. Golf champion Tiger
Woods has endorsed American Express, Rolex, and Nike. Actress Catherine 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.
• Mitigating a tarnished image: Cadbury India wanted to restore the consumer's
confidence in its chocolate brands following the high-pitch worm’s controversy;
so the company appointed Amitabh Bachchan for the job. Last year, when the
even more controversial pesticide issue shook up Coca-Cola and PepsiCo and
resulted in much negative press, both soft drink majors put out high-profile
damage control ad films featuring their best and most expensive celebrities. While
Aamir Khan led the Coke fightback as an ingenious and fastidious Bengali who
finally gets convinced of the product's `purity,' PepsiCo brought Shah Rukh Khan
and Sachin Tendulkar together once again in a television commercial which drew
references to the `safety' of the product indirectly.
• Psychographic Connect: Celebrities are loved and adored by their fans and
advertisers use stars to capitalise on these feelings to sway the fans towards their
brand.
 • Demographic Connect: Different stars appeal differently to various demographic
segments (age, gender, class, geography etc.).
• Mass Appeal: Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a
good bet to generate interest among the masses.
• Rejuvenating a stagnant brand: With the objective of infusing fresh life into the
stagnant chyawanprash category and staving off competition from various brands,
Dabur India roped in Bachchan for an estimated Rs 8 crore.
• Celebrity endorsement can sometimes compensate for lack of innovative
ideas.

Amitabh Bachchan has been a household name for three decades now.
He is known as the man with the Midas touch. And people have long loved to ape his style and his deep
voice.

No wonder advertisement agencies have been vying with one another to cash in on his megastar status.

Today, the star is one of the hottest advertising mascots and probably the most highly paid model for
commercials.

So far, Bachchan has endorsed brands like BPL, ICICI, Parker Pens, Maruti Versa, Pepsi, Reid & Taylor,
Nerolac Paints, and Dabur. He was also a prominent part of a recent AIDS campaign.

Even at 61, Bachchan makes more from his endorsements than the stars of today like Shah Rukh Khan and
Aamir Khan. Recently, he beat Aamir, who had bagged the biggest endorsement for Coke, with a whopping
Rs 10 crore contract with ICICI.

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

Pepsi
One of the Pepsi ads, which featured the Big B and a boy, was Bachchan's idea. The series also
saw cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar share screen space with Amitabh.

The closest Bachchan ever got to cricket in films was when he played narrator to Aamir Khan's
Oscar-nominated film Lagaan, which had an hour-long climax where the actors played cricket.

Rakesh Mehra, who directed the cola ads, also directed Bachchan in his previous BPL ads and
the film Aks, co-starring Manoj Bajpai, Raveena Tandon and Nandita Das.
Parker Pens
Amitabh Bachchan was actually roped in as brand ambassador by Parker to promote Waterman,
its French pen brand.

Who can forget the ad in a restaurant in which the Big B cannot get enough of writing with a
Parker and proceeds to sign the bills of all the diners? Or the one in which he goes on signing the
autograph book of a teenaged girl (Genelia D'Souza)? The idea for this one was, incidentally,
AB's.

Mansoor Khan (Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Josh) directed these ads. Bachchan was reportedly
paid Rs 5 crore for this series.

Maruti Versa
This was the first, and so far only, ad to feature the father-son duo of Amitabh and Abhishek
Bachchan.

The ad had the Big B relaxing in the backseat as son Abhishek drives the car. Both like the car for
different reasons and launch on a witty conversation about it.

The two will soon be seen together in films too, like Rajkumar Santoshi's Ranveer, which will be
launched on Big B's birthday, and Rakesh Mehra's next.

Dabur
The Dabur ads, which have still not been aired on television, boast of direction by Arjun Sablok
(Na Tum Jaano Na Hum), cinematography by Kiran Deohans (Aks, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham),
and sets by Sharmista Roy (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, K3G, Koi... Mil Gaya). Adman Prasun
Joshi (author of the Thanda Matlab Coca-Colacatchline) has scripted and supervised them.

The two-year deal will see Bachchan as the brand ambassador for Dabur's healthcare products.
According to the contract, Bachchan is required to shoot for the ads for seven days a year, eight
hours per day. He has been reportedly paid Rs 8 crore.

Reid & Taylor

Amitabh displaced none other than 'James Bond' Pierce Brosnan for this product. Reid & Taylor
is the first clothing brand AB has endorsed. The action-packed ad showcases him as the Indian
James Bond.

Bachchan had recently stated that his endorsements were necessary to pay off the large debts
incurred by his production house ABCL. Apparently, the money he earns from his ads goes to the
company.
Objectives

• To study the insight of Celebrity Endorsement in Advertisement.

• To identify the degree of recall of the advertisement consisting the Celebrity

Endorsement.

Limitations

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

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

Methodology

The aim of the study can be proficient by conducting a efficient market

research. The marketing research process that will be adopted in the current study
consists of the following stages:-

Defining the problem and the research objective:

The research objective states what information is needed to solve the

problem. The aim of the research is to obtain the insight of the respondents
regarding Celebrity Endorsement in advertisement.

Developing the research plan:

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

Market research requires two kinds of data, i.e., primary data and secondary
data. Well-structured questionnaires will be prepared for the respondents. There
will be door-to-door surveys. The questionnaires will contain open-ended
questions will be more useful wherein the main objective is to get an insight into
how people think. Secondary data will be collected from various journals, books
and web sites.

Sampling Plan:-

Sampling Units:

The customers will be stratified sampling random sampling which includes

Teenagers, Adults and Senior Citizen.

Sample Size:

Door-to-door surveys will be conducted for 100 respondents.

Analyze the collected information:

This involves converting raw data into useful information. It involves

tabulation of data were it is converted into bar chart for easy understanding.