Synopsis 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. 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. The issue of matching the values of the celebrity with the brand values is also very important, i.e. getting the right celebrity to endorse the right brand. Consumers perceive the brand as having superior quality because it has been endorsed by a credible source. This makes endorsement as one of the indictors of quality for any brand. Corporate credibility along with endorser credibility plays a significant role in the attitude of the consumer towards the brand and the advertisement respectively. On the other hand, the over popularity of the celebrity sometimes overshadows the brand. 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. Introduction The society that we live in can not only be called secular or democratic, it should be more appropriately termed as over-communicated these days. A typical supermarket in USA displays more than 12000 brands, an American family has at least one television set and a consumer is exposed to around 1000 ads per day1. Likewise, there are around 130 television channels in India broadcasting over 3 million television commercials each year in India. The media-explosion can thus be easily demonstrated. More over, people forget 80% of the information in just 24 hours! Just imagine the plight of the marketer to make his brand shout over the deafening clutter of all the brands! Some where in the 80 do, Indian marketers found the solution, 'Celebrity Endorsement' for the brand! Firms endorse celebrity for a variety of reasons. It might be the life experience of the celebrity that fits the advertising message or the endorser's high appeal with the firm's consumer target group. Studies associated with the market effect of celebrity endorsement suggest that consumers positively value the use of celebrity endorsers in the advertisements. Firms invest significant money in putting together brands and organizations with endorser qualities such as attractiveness, likeability, and trustworthiness. But today's dynamic market conditions make these investments unviable. In this project we are attempting to discuss the positive and negative effects of celebrity endorsement with few examples. History Celebrities are involved in endorsing activities since late nineteenth century2. 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 models3. 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). Mechanism and Theories of Celebrity Endorsement Celebrity endorsements give a brand a touch of glamour and the hope that a famous face will provide added appeal and name recognition in a crowded market. In the battle for the mind, you get the customer excited by showing him a known face, and an effective demand is created. In short it helps increase the recall value of the brand. A piece of research states that the target audience age group of 15-30 gets influenced first by cricketers, then Bollywood stars and only then music, festivals and food4. According to Source Credibility Theory5, acceptance of the message depends on 'Expertness' and Trustworthiness' of the source. Expertness is defined as the perceived ability of the source to make valid assertions. Trustworthiness is defined as the perceived willingness of the source to make valid assertions. Audience acceptance increases with the expertness of the source and the ability of the audience to evaluate the product. According to Source Attractiveness Theory, which is based on social psychological research, the acceptance of the message depends on familiarity, likeability and similarity. Familiarity is the audience's knowledge of the source through exposure; likeability is the affection for the source's physical appearance and behavior while similarity is the resemblance between source and receiver. This theory explains the message acceptance in two ways: Identification and Conditioning. Identification is when the receiver or the target audience of the communication begins to identify with the source's attractiveness, and hence tends to accept his opinions, beliefs, habits, attitudes etc. On identification, a quote from Bijou Kurien, COO, Titan, "We decided on Aamir because we wanted someone who is a biticonic, who is styleconscious himself, and somebody who cuts across both sex and age group, between urban and rural India. A celebrity who is mouldable and who is not over-exposed". Conditioning is when the attractiveness of the source is supposed to pass on to the brand after regular association of the source with the brand. Grant McCracken6 has criticized the previous two theories and proposed the Meaning Transfer Theory. The theory explains that a celebrity encodes a unique set of meanings which if well used can be transferred to the endorsed product. Such a transfer takes place in three stages – encoding meanings, meaning transfer, meaning capture (Figure 1). I. Encoding Meanings: Each celebrity has a unique set of meanings, which can be listed by age, gender, race, wealth, personality or lifestyle. In this way, the celebrities encode a set of meanings in their image. For example Preity Zinta can be seen as a lively, charming, bubbly, witty and enthusiastic. II. Meaning Transfer: This stage transfers those meanings to the product. When skillfully portrayed, celebrities can communicate this image more powerfully than lay endorsers.
III. Meaning Capture: This assumes that consumers purchase products not merely for their functional value but also for their cultural and symbolic value. The theory says that consumers buy the endorsed product with the intention of capturing some of the desirable meanings with which celebrities have passed on to the product. This is more eminent in lifestyle products like clothes, perfumes, cell phones etc.
Discussion Does celebrity endorsement really work? Theoretically yes, because the qualities associated with the endorser are associated with the brand and the brand therefore remains at the top of the consumer's mind. However one needs to realize that the impact of an endorser cannot be sustainable in all product categories and in all the stages of brand life cycles. It really depends upon the type of product. If it is a 'functional brand', then the product itself is the hero. Here any celebrity association with the brand without corresponding performance of the product will not be sustainable. While incase of 'image brands', like the categories of soaps, soft drinks, cigarettes etc., where it is difficult to distinguish between the products, celebrity endorsements help to distinguish between the brands at an emotional level. A research conducted by Synovate7, a global market research firm, revealed that 47% people would be more likely to buy a brand that was endorsed by their favorite celebrity. Pepsi Co. has used a variety of celebrities including Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Rahul Khanna, Fardeen Khan, Sachin Tendulkar etc. Amongst advertisements featuring celebrities, Pepsi tops the heap with the highest recall of 70%, while arch rival Coke is lower across all markets with 52% recall. This proves that Pepsi has really exploited the use of celebrities in their advertisements and has worked. Hindustan Lever's 'Lux' soap in India has been using popular film actresses to endorse the soap since its launch four decades ago implying that they owe their stunning looks to the brand. This consistent message hence reinforces the brand values and has been successfully able to position the soap rightly as the 'beauty soap. It would be difficult to judge the direct effect of celebrity endorsement on the sales or profits of the company. On Amitabh Bachchan endorsing RIN, an HLL
spokesperson says that it was too early to gauge the success of 'Rin' in terms of sales and that though Dabur healthcare products' sales had improved, the increase could not be solely attributed to him. Similarly, there are also cases wherein there was a dramatic change in the sales figure after the endorsements. For example Rahul Malhotra, Associate Director Marketing, P&G India quotes "Certainly, it has helped us promote our brand 'Head & Shoulders'. Last year, we were ranked as No. 2 and this year we are market leaders in this segment with over 45% market share". D. Garg, Vice-President (Marketing), Dabur India Ltd quotes, "A celebrity does help in increasing brand sales, but only if he/she is selected carefully and used effectively. The personality of the brand and the celebrity have to complement each other and the selection of the celebrity is, therefore, very important." Positive Impacts of Celebrity Endorsement on the Brand 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 product11. Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of advertisements and making the advertisement and the brand more noticeable. A celebrity's preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message and hence, because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, the consumer will also benefit. There is a demographic and psychographic connection between the stars and their fans. Demographic connection establishes that different stars appeal differently to various demographic segments i.e. age, gender, class, geography etc., while psychographic connection establishes that stars are loved and adored by their fans. Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to generate interest among the masses. Another invaluable benefit from celebrity endorsements is the public relation opportunities. Dwane Hal Dean12 studied the effects of three extrinsic advertisement cues viz. third party endorsement, event sponsorship and brand popularity on brand / manufacturer evaluation. It was observed that endorsement significantly affected only product variables (quality and uniqueness) and one image variable (esteem). The third party endorsement hence may be perceived as a signal of product quality. Goldsmith et al.13 assessed the impact of endorser and corporate credibility on attitude-toward-the-ad, attitude-toward-the-brand, and purchase intentions. 152 adult consumers were surveyed who viewed a fictitious advertisement for Mobil Oil Company. They rated the credibility of the ad's endorser, the credibility of the company, and attitude-toward-the-ad (Aad), attitude-toward-the-brand (AB), and purchase intentions. It was observed that endorser credibility had its strongest impact on Aad while corporate credibility had its strongest impact on AB. The findings suggest that corporate credibility plays an important role in consumers' reactions to advertisements and brands, independent of the equally important role of endorser credibility. Looking at the effect of celebrity endorsement on the wealth of a company a classic example of Michael Jordan can be used. At the time of rumors of Michael Jordan returning to NBA in 1995, he was endorsing products of General Mills (Wheaties), Mc'Donalds (Quarter Pounders, Value Meals), Nike (Air Jordan), Quaker Oats (Gatorade) and Sara Lee (Hans Underwear). Study conducted by Mathur et al.14 associated with Jordan's endorsements shows that the anticipation of Jordan's return
to NBA, and the related increased visibility for him resulted in increase in the market adjusted values of his client firms of almost 2 percent, or more than $1 bn in stock market value. From this study one can observe that the major celebrity endorser with rumors or otherwise has a tremendous potential to influence the profitability of endorsed products. Semi-partial endorsement indicates that when a company uses famous characters from any TV soaps for brand endorsements, consumers tend to relate to the character that he or she plays in the soap and hence can attract more credibility. For example, Smriti Irani who plays 'Tulsi' in a famous soap has garnered a lot of support from the middle-class housewife today. If she would endorse a brand, there would be more relativity and credibility. Same can be said about Priya Tendulkar who used to play the character of Rajani. Negative impacts of Celebrity Endorsement on the brand More often talked about is the extreme usage of a celebrity called 'lazy advertising', that is inadequate content masked by usage of a celebrity15 . A good example is the use of Boris Becker by Siyaram and Steve Waugh by ANP Sanmar. Also as said earlier, associating with a star, in itself does not guarantee sales. There is also the fear of Brand-celebrity disconnect which points out that if the celebrity used represents values that conflict with the brand values, the advertising would create conflict in the minds of the target audience. Clutter in brand endorsements is very prominent these days and such kind of overexposure can be bad for the brand as the recall value drops by a huge margin. A popular drawback of celebrity endorsement is the 'Vampire Effect' or the celebrity overshadowing the brand16. Some viewers forget the brand that a celebrity is approving. Others are so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity that they completely fail to notice the brand being advertised. Two new drawbacks can be seen these days what marketers call Celebrity Trap and Celebrity Credibility17. Celebrity trap is when the celebrity becomes an addiction for the marketing team and the task to find substitutes becomes more and more difficult, leading to surfeit of celebrities. Celebrity credibility refers to skepticism by the consumers regarding the celebrities, especially when there is anything negative regarding the celebrity associated with the brand in the news, then brand is bound to be affected. For example, Air Jordan's generated revenue sales of $130 million in the first year. The sales dropped miserably in the second year when Jordan missed 62 games due to a broken foot18. Another main worry of the advertisers is that their celebrity endorser would get caught in a scandal or an embarrassing situation. Multiple product endorsement also has a negative impact on customers' purchasing intentions. Tripp et al.19 investigated the effects of multiple product endorsement by celebrities on customers' attitudes and intentions. They found that the number of products a celebrity endorses negatively influences consumer perception of the endorser and the advertising itself. It was suggested that when as many as four products are endorsed, celebrity credibility and likeability, as well as attitude towards the ad, may attenuate. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan endorses multiple brands like Pepsi, Mirinda, ICICI, BPL, Parker pens, Nerolac, Dabur, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Hajmola, Tide, Cadbury and a few social messages. It has worked in some cases, while in some
cases it has not. D. K. Jain, Chairman and President, Luxor Writing Instruments Pvt. Ltd, the marketer of the Parker brand said, "Using Amitabh Bachchan as our brand ambassador has helped in strengthening our brand image and recall within the target audience". Tarun Joshi, Communications Custodian, Reid & Taylor said, "Amitabh Bachchan is an icon with universal appeal and has helped us to reach out to the real 'Bharat.' In fact, agents and retailers have told us that already customers have started asking about the 'Amitabh wali suiting.'" Incase of Nerolac Paints, which was endorsed by Amitabh Bachchan, around 80% of the respondents when asked to associate Bachchan with any paint, did so with Asian Paints, which is the biggest competitor of Nerolac20. The budget or cost is an important factor for celebrity endorsement21. Depending on the status of the celebrity, remuneration could run into millions of rupees for several years or may also include a profit sharing plan. For example when S. Kumar's used Hrithik Roshan for their launch advertising for Tamarind, they reckoned they spent 40 - 50 per cent less on media due to the sheer impact of using Hrithik. Sachin's endorsements got him $18 million over five years. When Aamir first endorsed Pepsi in 1995, he received Rs 17 lakh for it; his Coke commercials in 1999 got him Rs 2 crore. Hrithik Roshan in his highflying days reportedly made over Rs. 20 crore in endorsements and events by 200122. However, a number of brands have been built without celebrity endorsement. For some of their brands, Hindustan Lever and Procter & Gamble do not believe in celebrity endorsement because they think that consumers, especially housewives, are more likely to identify with a lay person on screen than a celebrity. Procter & Gamble launched its 'Rejoice' brand in India with testimonials from ordinary women in their TV advertising. Few more examples of this will be Lifebuoy, Wheel, Dettol, Close Up, Fevicol etc. Conclusion Whether Celebrity endorsement has a positive or a negative impact on the brand is a debate that is open to interpretation. But till the time the corporate world continues to foot fancy bills of celebrity endorsers and till consumers continue to be in awe of the stars, the party is not likely to break up.
ANOTHER MATTER RELATED TO THE SAME TOPIC…..
The crescendo of celebrities endorsing brands has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years or so. Marketers overtly acknowledge the power of celebrity in influencing buyer's purchase decision. They have firm believe that likeability or a favorable attitude towards a brand is created by the use of a celebrity. The crore of rupees spent per year on celebrity endorsement contracts show that celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh khan and Sachin Tendulkar play an important role for the advertising industry. It is an established fact that celebrity endorsement can bestow unique features or special attributes upon a product that it may have lacked otherwise. In India from late 1970's and early 80's the new trend in advertising started. 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 Late Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Tabassum (Prestige cookers), Sunil Gavaskar for Dinesh Suiting, Ravi Shastri and Vivian Richards (Vimal), Persis Khambhata and Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving cream) became common. Though marketers should remember that celebrities are mere living beings like us and if they can highlight the benefits or advantages of a brand they can also have some uncanny negative impact. Theory and practice suggests that the use of stars and their unleashing power in advertising generate a lot of publicity and attention from the public but the underline questions are, do these stars really help a brand by increasing its sales? On the other hand, can they really have an Impact on the person's consumption pattern, thereby changing his brand preference? How an advertisement featuring a celebrity can influence consumers buying decision and can create an association between a brand and a common man. Brand- A layman perspective Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational and cultural image that you can associate with a company or the product. Few examples will bring home the meaning i.e. Amul - utterly butterly delicious; Coke – thanda matlab coca-cola; Pepsi – Yeh dil mange more; Kurkure- Masti bole to kurkure and Daewoo ka India. These examples convey one message that when people watch advertisement a connect is being created and result is that people go for experience of buying. People feel by using the brand they will portray certain traits or characteristics that otherwise they do not have. This generates a certain level of emotional affiliation and a sense of fulfillment. It is this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful. Advertisements enforces what exactly the brand stands for and what to expect by its consumption and above all what factors, features and attributes makes it better from competition. Advertisements along with other marketing efforts generate expectations and feelings in a customer and force them to think when they see or hear the brand name. This Thinking process and emotional bonding gets more mature and relevant when a celebrity endorses the brand. The subjective intangible feelings of a customer become objective and tangible in the form of celebrity and the
level of expectations will rise. The customer will start to perceive himself in the reference frame of the celebrity after the brand or the advertised product has been purchased or consumed by him. Celebrity Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition and mostly they are the experts of their respective fields having wider influence in public life and societal domain. Attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary life style or special skills, larger than life image and demigod status can be associated with them. It is safe to deduce that within a corresponding social group celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy high degree of public awareness. Celebrities appear in public in different ways. To start, they appear in public when fulfilling their professional commitments example: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who played cricket in front of an audience in Twenty-Twenty World Cup. Furthermore, celebrities appear in public by attending special celebrity events, example: the movie award nights; special screening; world premiers of movies or for social causes. These celebrities have universal presence and appeal, they are present everywhere, in news, fashion shows and magazines, tabloids and above all advertisements. Celebrity and a Brand Star power in India can be gauged by the successful endorsements done by Sharukh Khan (Pepsi, Hyundai Santro, Sunfeast, and Navratan etc.), Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Hrithik Roshan and the others. The inevitable question is, if and how the lively interest of the public in the rich and famous can be efficiently and effectively used by companies to promote their brands and consequently to increase their sales revenues. This fact can be brought out by using certain examples i.e. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan promoting Cadbury chocolates after the fiasco of infestation when the image of Cadbury India went very low in the eyes of people. Soon the company found a perfect fit and a reliable celebrity to transmit the correct message and help regenerating the lost trust. The fit between the product and celebrity is evident as Mr. Bachchan and Cadbury chocolates both have tested troubled times and still they stand tall and the love and trust they both share with the people all across India. This is a live example of how a celebrity brought certain attributes to a product like chocolate. Actor Sharukh khan has also endorsed diversified products. His endorsement basket is ranging from Hyundai Santro to Sunfeast biscuits on one hand and from Compaq computers to Videocon electronics on the other. According to Advertising research companies both the actors are doing well and the ad spent on both by the companies is increasing at a phenomenal rate, so does their basket of endorsements. These actors bring reliability and trust in the brand and above all, they help in increasing the sales revenues.
Celebrity endorsements are powerful, has become evident from the above two examples but, why is it so? This power is offered by the following elements, which also creates a 'Top of the Mind Position'. * Instant Awareness, knowledge about the brand and easy recall. * Values and image of the brand is defined, highlighted and refreshed by the celebrity. * The celebrity adds new edge and dimension to the brand. * Credibility, trust, association, aspiration and connectivity to brand. * Belief in efficiency and new appearance that will result in at least trial usage. Understanding Consumer Behaviour Consumer behaviour is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, sociopsychology, anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. The study and knowledge of consumer behavior helps firms and organizations to improve their marketing strategies and product offerings. Following are the important issues that have significant influence on consumer's psyche and their ability to take decisions: • • • • • • • The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products); The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media); The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome; How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer. Their Age, Religion, Culture, Income, informal group and Referent Group.
Understanding these issues helps us adapt our strategies by taking the consumer into consideration. Consumer Decision-making process
The given process is very complicated though on first sight it does not look so. Process starts with problem recognition or with an unsatisfied need. Something that a consumer would like to have or purchase in order to attain satisfaction. This need can be Psychological, attitudinal or Physiological but yes it should have the capacity to be fulfilled by consuming a particular product or service. To satisfy the given need what all are the components that should be taken into consideration and how we can maximize the satisfaction is the next stage. In this stage, we will cover ability to purchase, level of involvement, people whose opinion will count and other relevant details that will help us in optimizing satisfaction. Based upon information search we will generate various alternatives i.e. which brand or product is affordable for me, where will it be available comfortably and above all in comparison to other brands or products how better or economical it is. Evaluation stage will look like cost benefit analysis and based upon maximum value or utility per rupee spend, we will decide or shortlist the product or brand. This is the decision and confirmation stage where the consumers prepares himself for the purchase of a particular brand and give preference to one and only one over and above the others. Next comes the purchase when the consumer will finally go to the market and look for the brand or the product, physically verifies it and purchases it. Last is the post purchase Evaluation in which the customer wants to justify his consumption or purchase decision. He tries to find out whether his purchase decision was right or not. Companies make lot of effort to tackle this situation successfully and they want the customer to be satisfied with their product. This stage may result into three situations, first is satisfaction where customer is satisfied and he got expected results but this does not necessitates the repeat purchase by the consumer. Second is dissonance where the consumer is not satisfied as he got less utility or less than expected result from the consumption or product performance. Third is Delight, here the consumer gets more than expected satisfaction and utility and this will assure the repeat purchase and creation of brand loyalty.
Traditional Factors affecting consumer decision making There are several factors that affect consumer's decision to purchase a brand and a product. These factors though at time are not very much visible but they make an impact and affects sales of a product or brand up to a great extent. The table below shows some of these factors.
Impact of a Brand on consumer purchase decision Research studies have proven that known products and names are sold more than unknown ones. Therefore, a known brand or an optimally exposed brand will find more recognition and buyers in the market in comparison to completely unknown or unexposed brand. Recognition of brand and its significance along with the traditional factors plays a very significant role in consumer decision-making process. More or less every consumer has a brand preference and given the affordability and societal norms, each buyer would like to buy and consume one of the highly acceptable, recognizable, and reputed brands.
The above given model explains the important role that a brand plays in three different stages of consumer's purchase decision making. A consumer start collecting data or information about his favourite brand than he keeps his favourite as one of the alternatives and he evaluate his selected brand against all available options and on finding it suitable or best among all options based upon a qualitative and quantitative evaluation he will ultimately purchase the selected or favourite brand.
The diagram above explains how various traditional factors along with brand preference interact during purchase decision process and finally results into a consumer's final product choice or ultimate purchase. Celebrity and a brand Surveys suggest that compared to any other types of endorsers, famous people achieve a higher degree of attention and recall. They increase awareness of a company's advertising as well as help in retention of message in the psyche of the audience. They can also help the company in reducing their expenditure on Media and other forms of publicity. An example will bring more clarity, When S Kumars, a known textile brand entered into readymade garments business they used Hrithik Roshan, then the hottest advertising icon for their launch advertising for TAMARIND, now one of the premium readymade brands. They reckoned that they have spent 4050 percent less on media due to sheer impact of using hottest star like Hrithik. The Ad recall was as high as 70 percent and the campaign can be termed as a great success. Celebrities also create positive feelings towards brands, connect user to brand and are perceived by consumers as more entertaining. Using a celebrity in advertising or for any, other type of communication for brand building is likely to positively affect consumers' brand preference, brand attitude, brand association and purchase intentions. To ensure positive results, however, it is critical for advertisers to have a clear understanding of consumer's reactions and reinforcement of celebrity endorsement. The impact of celebrity endorsement on any brand as well as on consumer's purchase decision is very critical. Source Credibility Central goal of advertising is the convincing of consumers and persuasion to purchase, the ultimate objective, though not openly spoken, is to some how attract consumers to the market offering of the company, generating positive attitude,
reinforce positive association and ultimately to generate sales, may be a trial purchase. At later stages, the sponsor may work towards creating a brand loyalty but generating initial sales or increasing the existing sales is the primary objective. In this respect, the credibility of an endorser along with advertisement plays an important role in convincing the target audience of the attractiveness of the company's brand and generates sales. Pursuing a celebrity endorsement strategy enables advertisers to project a credible image in terms of expertise, persuasiveness, trustworthiness, and objectiveness. To create effective messages, celebrity advertisers also have to consider the attractiveness of the spokesperson. Source attractiveness refers to the endorser's Physical appearance, Personality, Likeability and Similarity to the receiver, thus to the perceived social value of the source. This behavior mainly goes back to halo effect, whereby persons who perform well on one dimension example: physical attractiveness or top professional performance, social status are assumed to excel on other levels as well i.e. happiness and coolness. This is evident from the use of Fardeen Khan, modern, dynamic, outgoing and smart personality for Provogue; he translates the modernism of the brand well. Titan uses Aamir Khan in his different avatars for communicating to the public that their watches are as reliable and passionate as Aamir is for films. Both Fardeen and Aamir carry the message well and enhance the credibility of the brand they endorse. Establishing a Perfect Match Research proves that a spokesperson especially for a service product or organization (ICICI- First Amitabh Bachchan, now Shahrukh Khan) interacts with the type of brand being advertised. These stars communicate the value of the product and transform an ordinary service into a miracle solution for all problems of an ordinary customer. According to Friedman and Friedman (1979), a famous relative to a 'normal' spokesperson is more effective for products high in psychological or social risk, involving such elements as good taste, self-image, and opinion of others. Several research studies have examined the congruency between celebrity endorsers and brands to explain the effectiveness of using famous persons to promote brands. In India, a brand called Reid & Taylor presented its perfect example when they first launched their advertising campaign featuring James Bond fame of the time Mr. Pierce Brosnan along with the tagline 'BOND WITH THE BEST' but the James Bond idea did not worked and the company was not happy with the results. After the debacle of the first campaign, company introduced a family ad where children are celebrating there parents silver wedding anniversary and they are out with their father to purchase a suit for him. Even this commercial did not work and it was taken off the air. As a last resort, company introduced Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as Reid & Taylor man, a man propagating the brand for special occasion and for very special people in life. The commercial from the initial days got good response and did extremely well as people were able to connect with Mr. Bachchan and the values he was propagating.
For the masses, there was a perfect match of an ideal Indian family man, a star and a good quality but bit highly priced brand reserved especially for special occasions and for very special people. Second example that can be quoted is of Vishwanathan Anand, who endorsed NIIT. NIIT adopted a very smart strategy by roping in Vishwanathan Anand an international chess wizard for their advertising campaign. As chess is considered to be a game full of strategies and a game for smart people and when one of the greats of the game is asking people to join NIIT it was suppose to have a positive influence on the people and actually it had. There was complete congruency and compatibility between the celebrity endorser, the product and the message. Contrary to only favorable outcomes, there are several examples where the product, even the entire campaign collapsed due to heavy weight celebrity as the agency or the ad failed to establish the relationship between the endorser and the product. Keeping the focus only on success, where the product and the celebrity were a perfect match, following are few examples:
Celebrity Endorser Amitabh Bachchan * * * * * * * * Company / Product Dabur Cadbury Reid and Taylor Parker Santro Videocon Sunfeast Pepsi
Shahrukh Khan Juhi Chawala Ustad Zakir Hussain Aamir Khan Aishwarya Rai Rani Mukherjee Kajol and Ajay Devgan
* Kurkure * Taj mahal tea * Titan * Coke * Toyota Innova * Nakshatra * Lux * Fanta * Nestle Munch * Whirlpool * Tata Indicom
The campaigns are not only basking with the glory of success stories, but there is considerable number of failures as well. Assuming that a person just have to be famous to represent a successful brand, however, would be incorrect and may turn out to be a very dangerous preposition resulting into a big calamity for the entire advertising campaign or the brand. Very well accepted and attractive super stars like Abhishek Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan failed in turning their endorsements into success i.e. Maruti Versa similarly Virendra Sehwag also failed to deliver Reliance Telecommunication with the master stroke of his cricketing genius. Among the possible reasons identified by several authors, including overexposure and identification, the 'match-up hypothesis' specifically suggests that the effectiveness depends on the existence of a 'fit' between the celebrity spokesperson and endorsed brand.
Empirical work on the congruency of brand with the celebrity often has concentrated on the physical attractiveness of the endorser. Results show that an attractive spokespersons are more effective in terms of attitude change when prompting brands that enhance one's attractiveness i.e. cosmetics; health drinks or fashion wear. Primary data states, for celebrity spokespersons to be truly effective, they should be knowledgeable, experienced, mature, and a bench mark in their respective field and qualified to talk about the product. Transferring the Meaning After watching an advertisement the consumers try to find the meaning of the advertisement and associate the same with the endorser and eventually transfer to the brand. To understand this phenomenon Mc Cracken (1989) suggested a comprehensive model known as Meaning Transfer Model. This three-stage model suggests how the meaning associated with the famous person moves from the endorser to the product or the brand. Thus, meanings attributed to the celebrity become associated with the brand in the consumer's mind. Finally, in the consumption process, the customer acquires the brand's meaning. The third stage of the model explicitly shows the importance of the consumer's role in the process of endorsing brands with famous persons. In contrast to anonymous endorsers, celebrities add value to the image transfer process by offering meanings of extra depth and power, what is complemented by their life style and personalities. Therefore, to transfer the correct meaning to the consumer the company should select a celebrity that will produce the most favorable response for consumers and for the purpose the celebrity should have, the appropriate set of characteristics and the public should be able to visualize and comprehend the same. The company should consider the consumer's needs while developing their communication strategy and selecting an appropriate celebrity to transmit the same, i.e. Kurkure used actress Juhi Chawala with the punch line 'Masti Bole To Kurkure' and the actress on screen and off-screen personifies the masti and helps the brand in communicating the same easily. Compatibility of the celebrity's persona with the overall brand image is very important, as a celebrity imparts credibility and inspirational value to a brand and his or her image should perfectly match the brand's image. A good brand campaign idea and an intrinsic link between the celebrity and the message are must for a successful campaign. Certain elements that generate a perfect match or compatibility between the celebrity and brand image are: * Celebrity's fit with the brand image along with celebrity-target audience match. * Celebrity associated values and celebrity-product match. * Costs of acquiring the celebrity and his or her popularity along with controversy risks associated with the celebrity. * Credibility, availability and physical attractiveness of celebrity. The above points can be put to perspective by using two examples, first Kapil Dev's 'Palmolive da jawaab nahin' and second Nakshatra's brand recall due to its endorser,
the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Both brands have edged out and carved out their niche in consumer's mind due to image and credibility of their endorsers. These were the cases of perfect match between the brand image and the image or persona of the celebrity endorser.
Conclusion A brief assessment of the current market situation indicates, that celebrity endorsement advertising strategy can under the right circumstances indeed justify the high costs associated with this form of advertising. The use of celebrity for endorsements create a very favorable impact on the consumer and it creates a connect which forces a consumer to purchase a product. However, as several failures show, it is essential for advertisers to be aware of the complex processes underlying celebrity endorsement. It has been proved from the discussion that celebrity endorsements are a powerful and useful tool that magnifies the effect of a campaign but the word of caution to be followed seriously; celebrities alone do not guarantee success nor does a great advertising campaign or the best possible product. It is the combination of several factors and elements that work together for the success of a brand and its acceptance in the minds of consumers as well as for its market offering. Modern day consumers are well educated and smart, they know celebrities are being paid for these endorsements and this knowledge makes consumers rather more cynical about the product and celebrity endorsements. Majority of the consuming population also knows what is advertising and how it actually works and this knowledge of consumer makes the task of celebrity endorsement all the more difficult and challenging for the advertising companies and the sponsors. Indian companies both advertising and product offering companies have top make an effort to overcome this ever-mounting challenge.
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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). Mechanism and Theories of Celebrity Endorsement Celebrity endorsements give a brand a touch of glamour and the hope that a famous face will provide added appeal and name recognition in a crowded market. In the battle for the mind, you get the customer excited by showing him a known face, and an effective demand is created. In short it helps increase the recall value of the brand. A piece of research states that the target audience age group of 15-30 gets influenced first by cricketers, then Bollywood stars and only then music, festivals and food4. According to Source Credibility Theory5, acceptance of the message depends on 'Expertness' and Trustworthiness' of the source. Expertness is defined as the perceived ability of the source to make valid assertions. Trustworthiness is defined as the perceived willingness of the source to make valid assertions. Audience acceptance increases with the expertness of the source and the ability of the audience to evaluate the product. According to Source Attractiveness Theory, which is based on social psychological research, the acceptance of the message depends on familiarity, likeability and similarity. Familiarity is the audience's knowledge of the source through exposure; likeability is the affection for the source's physical appearance and behavior while similarity is the resemblance between source and receiver. This theory explains the message acceptance in two ways: Identification and Conditioning. Identification is when the receiver or the target audience of the communication begins to identify with the source's attractiveness, and hence tends to accept his opinions, beliefs, habits, attitudes etc. On identification, a quote from Bijou Kurien, COO, Titan, "We decided on Aamir because we wanted someone who is a biticonic, who is styleconscious himself, and somebody who cuts across both sex and age group, between urban and rural India. A celebrity who is mouldable and who is not over-exposed". Conditioning is when the attractiveness of the source is supposed to pass on to the brand after regular association of the source with the brand. Grant McCracken6 has criticized the previous two theories and proposed the Meaning Transfer Theory. The theory explains that a celebrity encodes a unique set of meanings which if well used can be transferred to the endorsed product. Such a transfer takes place in three stages – encoding meanings, meaning transfer, meaning capture (Figure 1). I. Encoding Meanings: Each celebrity has a unique set of meanings, which can be listed by age, gender, race, wealth, personality or lifestyle. In this way, the celebrities encode a set of meanings in their image. For example Preity Zinta can be seen as a lively, charming, bubbly, witty and enthusiastic. II. Meaning Transfer: This stage transfers those meanings to the product. When skillfully portrayed, celebrities can communicate this image more powerfully than lay endorsers.
III. Meaning Capture: This assumes that consumers purchase products not merely for their functional value but also for their cultural and symbolic value. The theory says that consumers buy the endorsed product with the intention of capturing some of the desirable meanings with which celebrities have passed on to the product. This is more eminent in lifestyle products like clothes, perfumes, cell phones etc.
Discussion Does celebrity endorsement really work? Theoretically yes, because the qualities associated with the endorser are associated with the brand and the brand therefore remains at the top of the consumer's mind. However one needs to realize that the impact of an endorser cannot be sustainable in all product categories and in all the stages of brand life cycles. It really depends upon the type of product. If it is a 'functional brand', then the product itself is the hero. Here any celebrity association with the brand without corresponding performance of the product will not be sustainable. While incase of 'image brands', like the categories of soaps, soft drinks, cigarettes etc., where it is difficult to distinguish between the products, celebrity endorsements help to distinguish between the brands at an emotional level. A research conducted by Synovate7, a global market research firm, revealed that 47% people would be more likely to buy a brand that was endorsed by their favorite celebrity. Pepsi Co. has used a variety of celebrities including Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Rahul Khanna, Fardeen Khan, Sachin Tendulkar etc. Amongst advertisements featuring celebrities, Pepsi tops the heap with the highest recall of 70%, while arch rival Coke is lower across all markets with 52% recall. This proves that Pepsi has really exploited the use of celebrities in their advertisements and has worked. Hindustan Lever's 'Lux' soap in India has been using popular film actresses to endorse the soap since its launch four decades ago implying that they owe their stunning looks to the brand. This consistent message hence reinforces the brand values and has been successfully able to position the soap rightly as the 'beauty soap. It would be difficult to judge the direct effect of celebrity endorsement on the sales or profits of the company. On Amitabh Bachchan endorsing RIN, an HLL
spokesperson says that it was too early to gauge the success of 'Rin' in terms of sales and that though Dabur healthcare products' sales had improved, the increase could not be solely attributed to him. Similarly, there are also cases wherein there was a dramatic change in the sales figure after the endorsements. For example Rahul Malhotra, Associate Director Marketing, P&G India quotes "Certainly, it has helped us promote our brand 'Head & Shoulders'. Last year, we were ranked as No. 2 and this year we are market leaders in this segment with over 45% market share". D. Garg, Vice-President (Marketing), Dabur India Ltd quotes, "A celebrity does help in increasing brand sales, but only if he/she is selected carefully and used effectively. The personality of the brand and the celebrity have to complement each other and the selection of the celebrity is, therefore, very important." Positive Impacts of Celebrity Endorsement on the Brand 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 product11. Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of advertisements and making the advertisement and the brand more noticeable. A celebrity's preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message and hence, because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, the consumer will also benefit. There is a demographic and psychographic connection between the stars and their fans. Demographic connection establishes that different stars appeal differently to various demographic segments i.e. age, gender, class, geography etc., while psychographic connection establishes that stars are loved and adored by their fans. Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to generate interest among the masses. Another invaluable benefit from celebrity endorsements is the public relation opportunities. Dwane Hal Dean12 studied the effects of three extrinsic advertisement cues viz. third party endorsement, event sponsorship and brand popularity on brand / manufacturer evaluation. It was observed that endorsement significantly affected only product variables (quality and uniqueness) and one image variable (esteem). The third party endorsement hence may be perceived as a signal of product quality. Goldsmith et al.13 assessed the impact of endorser and corporate credibility on attitude-toward-the-ad, attitude-toward-the-brand, and purchase intentions. 152 adult consumers were surveyed who viewed a fictitious advertisement for Mobil Oil Company. They rated the credibility of the ad's endorser, the credibility of the company, and attitude-toward-the-ad (Aad), attitude-toward-the-brand (AB), and purchase intentions. It was observed that endorser credibility had its strongest impact on Aad while corporate credibility had its strongest impact on AB. The findings suggest that corporate credibility plays an important role in consumers' reactions to advertisements and brands, independent of the equally important role of endorser credibility. Looking at the effect of celebrity endorsement on the wealth of a company a classic example of Michael Jordan can be used. At the time of rumors of Michael Jordan returning to NBA in 1995, he was endorsing products of General Mills (Wheaties), Mc'Donalds (Quarter Pounders, Value Meals), Nike (Air Jordan), Quaker Oats (Gatorade) and Sara Lee (Hans Underwear). Study conducted by Mathur et al.14 associated with Jordan's endorsements shows that the anticipation of Jordan's return
to NBA, and the related increased visibility for him resulted in increase in the market adjusted values of his client firms of almost 2 percent, or more than $1 bn in stock market value. From this study one can observe that the major celebrity endorser with rumors or otherwise has a tremendous potential to influence the profitability of endorsed products. Semi-partial endorsement indicates that when a company uses famous characters from any TV soaps for brand endorsements, consumers tend to relate to the character that he or she plays in the soap and hence can attract more credibility. For example, Smriti Irani who plays 'Tulsi' in a famous soap has garnered a lot of support from the middle-class housewife today. If she would endorse a brand, there would be more relativity and credibility. Same can be said about Priya Tendulkar who used to play the character of Rajani. Negative impacts of Celebrity Endorsement on the brand More often talked about is the extreme usage of a celebrity called 'lazy advertising', that is inadequate content masked by usage of a celebrity15 . A good example is the use of Boris Becker by Siyaram and Steve Waugh by ANP Sanmar. Also as said earlier, associating with a star, in itself does not guarantee sales. There is also the fear of Brand-celebrity disconnect which points out that if the celebrity used represents values that conflict with the brand values, the advertising would create conflict in the minds of the target audience. Clutter in brand endorsements is very prominent these days and such kind of overexposure can be bad for the brand as the recall value drops by a huge margin. A popular drawback of celebrity endorsement is the 'Vampire Effect' or the celebrity overshadowing the brand16. Some viewers forget the brand that a celebrity is approving. Others are so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity that they completely fail to notice the brand being advertised. Two new drawbacks can be seen these days what marketers call Celebrity Trap and Celebrity Credibility17. Celebrity trap is when the celebrity becomes an addiction for the marketing team and the task to find substitutes becomes more and more difficult, leading to surfeit of celebrities. Celebrity credibility refers to skepticism by the consumers regarding the celebrities, especially when there is anything negative regarding the celebrity associated with the brand in the news, then brand is bound to be affected. For example, Air Jordan's generated revenue sales of $130 million in the first year. The sales dropped miserably in the second year when Jordan missed 62 games due to a broken foot18. Another main worry of the advertisers is that their celebrity endorser would get caught in a scandal or an embarrassing situation. Multiple product endorsement also has a negative impact on customers' purchasing intentions. Tripp et al.19 investigated the effects of multiple product endorsement by celebrities on customers' attitudes and intentions. They found that the number of products a celebrity endorses negatively influences consumer perception of the endorser and the advertising itself. It was suggested that when as many as four products are endorsed, celebrity credibility and likeability, as well as attitude towards the ad, may attenuate. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan endorses multiple brands like Pepsi, Mirinda, ICICI, BPL, Parker pens, Nerolac, Dabur, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Hajmola, Tide, Cadbury and a few social messages. It has worked in some cases, while in some
cases it has not. D. K. Jain, Chairman and President, Luxor Writing Instruments Pvt. Ltd, the marketer of the Parker brand said, "Using Amitabh Bachchan as our brand ambassador has helped in strengthening our brand image and recall within the target audience". Tarun Joshi, Communications Custodian, Reid & Taylor said, "Amitabh Bachchan is an icon with universal appeal and has helped us to reach out to the real 'Bharat.' In fact, agents and retailers have told us that already customers have started asking about the 'Amitabh wali suiting.'" Incase of Nerolac Paints, which was endorsed by Amitabh Bachchan, around 80% of the respondents when asked to associate Bachchan with any paint, did so with Asian Paints, which is the biggest competitor of Nerolac20. The budget or cost is an important factor for celebrity endorsement21. Depending on the status of the celebrity, remuneration could run into millions of rupees for several years or may also include a profit sharing plan. For example when S. Kumar's used Hrithik Roshan for their launch advertising for Tamarind, they reckoned they spent 40 - 50 per cent less on media due to the sheer impact of using Hrithik. Sachin's endorsements got him $18 million over five years. When Aamir first endorsed Pepsi in 1995, he received Rs 17 lakh for it; his Coke commercials in 1999 got him Rs 2 crore. Hrithik Roshan in his highflying days reportedly made over Rs. 20 crore in endorsements and events by 200122. However, a number of brands have been built without celebrity endorsement. For some of their brands, Hindustan Lever and Procter & Gamble do not believe in celebrity endorsement because they think that consumers, especially housewives, are more likely to identify with a lay person on screen than a celebrity. Procter & Gamble launched its 'Rejoice' brand in India with testimonials from ordinary women in their TV advertising. Few more examples of this will be Lifebuoy, Wheel, Dettol, Close Up, Fevicol etc. Conclusion Whether Celebrity endorsement has a positive or a negative impact on the brand is a debate that is open to interpretation. But till the time the corporate world continues to foot fancy bills of celebrity endorsers and till consumers continue to be in awe of the stars, the party is not likely to break up.
ANOTHER MATTER RELATED TO THE SAME TOPIC…..
The crescendo of celebrities endorsing brands has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years or so. Marketers overtly acknowledge the power of celebrity in influencing buyer's purchase decision. They have firm believe that likeability or a favorable attitude towards a brand is created by the use of a celebrity. The crore of rupees spent per year on celebrity endorsement contracts show that celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh khan and Sachin Tendulkar play an important role for the advertising industry. It is an established fact that celebrity endorsement can bestow unique features or special attributes upon a product that it may have lacked otherwise. In India from late 1970's and early 80's the new trend in advertising started. 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 Late Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Tabassum (Prestige cookers), Sunil Gavaskar for Dinesh Suiting, Ravi Shastri and Vivian Richards (Vimal), Persis Khambhata and Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving cream) became common. Though marketers should remember that celebrities are mere living beings like us and if they can highlight the benefits or advantages of a brand they can also have some uncanny negative impact. Theory and practice suggests that the use of stars and their unleashing power in advertising generate a lot of publicity and attention from the public but the underline questions are, do these stars really help a brand by increasing its sales? On the other hand, can they really have an Impact on the person's consumption pattern, thereby changing his brand preference? How an advertisement featuring a celebrity can influence consumers buying decision and can create an association between a brand and a common man. Brand- A layman perspective Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational and cultural image that you can associate with a company or the product. Few examples will bring home the meaning i.e. Amul - utterly butterly delicious; Coke – thanda matlab coca-cola; Pepsi – Yeh dil mange more; Kurkure- Masti bole to kurkure and Daewoo ka India. These examples convey one message that when people watch advertisement a connect is being created and result is that people go for experience of buying. People feel by using the brand they will portray certain traits or characteristics that otherwise they do not have. This generates a certain level of emotional affiliation and a sense of fulfillment. It is this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful. Advertisements enforces what exactly the brand stands for and what to expect by its consumption and above all what factors, features and attributes makes it better from competition. Advertisements along with other marketing efforts generate expectations and feelings in a customer and force them to think when they see or hear the brand name. This Thinking process and emotional bonding gets more mature and relevant when a celebrity endorses the brand. The subjective intangible feelings of a customer become objective and tangible in the form of celebrity and the
level of expectations will rise. The customer will start to perceive himself in the reference frame of the celebrity after the brand or the advertised product has been purchased or consumed by him. Celebrity Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition and mostly they are the experts of their respective fields having wider influence in public life and societal domain. Attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary life style or special skills, larger than life image and demigod status can be associated with them. It is safe to deduce that within a corresponding social group celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy high degree of public awareness. Celebrities appear in public in different ways. To start, they appear in public when fulfilling their professional commitments example: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who played cricket in front of an audience in Twenty-Twenty World Cup. Furthermore, celebrities appear in public by attending special celebrity events, example: the movie award nights; special screening; world premiers of movies or for social causes. These celebrities have universal presence and appeal, they are present everywhere, in news, fashion shows and magazines, tabloids and above all advertisements. Celebrity and a Brand Star power in India can be gauged by the successful endorsements done by Sharukh Khan (Pepsi, Hyundai Santro, Sunfeast, and Navratan etc.), Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Hrithik Roshan and the others. The inevitable question is, if and how the lively interest of the public in the rich and famous can be efficiently and effectively used by companies to promote their brands and consequently to increase their sales revenues. This fact can be brought out by using certain examples i.e. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan promoting Cadbury chocolates after the fiasco of infestation when the image of Cadbury India went very low in the eyes of people. Soon the company found a perfect fit and a reliable celebrity to transmit the correct message and help regenerating the lost trust. The fit between the product and celebrity is evident as Mr. Bachchan and Cadbury chocolates both have tested troubled times and still they stand tall and the love and trust they both share with the people all across India. This is a live example of how a celebrity brought certain attributes to a product like chocolate. Actor Sharukh khan has also endorsed diversified products. His endorsement basket is ranging from Hyundai Santro to Sunfeast biscuits on one hand and from Compaq computers to Videocon electronics on the other. According to Advertising research companies both the actors are doing well and the ad spent on both by the companies is increasing at a phenomenal rate, so does their basket of endorsements. These actors bring reliability and trust in the brand and above all, they help in increasing the sales revenues.
Celebrity endorsements are powerful, has become evident from the above two examples but, why is it so? This power is offered by the following elements, which also creates a 'Top of the Mind Position'. * Instant Awareness, knowledge about the brand and easy recall. * Values and image of the brand is defined, highlighted and refreshed by the celebrity. * The celebrity adds new edge and dimension to the brand. * Credibility, trust, association, aspiration and connectivity to brand. * Belief in efficiency and new appearance that will result in at least trial usage. Understanding Consumer Behaviour Consumer behaviour is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, sociopsychology, anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. The study and knowledge of consumer behavior helps firms and organizations to improve their marketing strategies and product offerings. Following are the important issues that have significant influence on consumer's psyche and their ability to take decisions: • • • • • • • The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products); The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media); The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome; How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer. Their Age, Religion, Culture, Income, informal group and Referent Group.
Understanding these issues helps us adapt our strategies by taking the consumer into consideration. Consumer Decision-making process
The given process is very complicated though on first sight it does not look so. Process starts with problem recognition or with an unsatisfied need. Something that a consumer would like to have or purchase in order to attain satisfaction. This need can be Psychological, attitudinal or Physiological but yes it should have the capacity to be fulfilled by consuming a particular product or service. To satisfy the given need what all are the components that should be taken into consideration and how we can maximize the satisfaction is the next stage. In this stage, we will cover ability to purchase, level of involvement, people whose opinion will count and other relevant details that will help us in optimizing satisfaction. Based upon information search we will generate various alternatives i.e. which brand or product is affordable for me, where will it be available comfortably and above all in comparison to other brands or products how better or economical it is. Evaluation stage will look like cost benefit analysis and based upon maximum value or utility per rupee spend, we will decide or shortlist the product or brand. This is the decision and confirmation stage where the consumers prepares himself for the purchase of a particular brand and give preference to one and only one over and above the others. Next comes the purchase when the consumer will finally go to the market and look for the brand or the product, physically verifies it and purchases it. Last is the post purchase Evaluation in which the customer wants to justify his consumption or purchase decision. He tries to find out whether his purchase decision was right or not. Companies make lot of effort to tackle this situation successfully and they want the customer to be satisfied with their product. This stage may result into three situations, first is satisfaction where customer is satisfied and he got expected results but this does not necessitates the repeat purchase by the consumer. Second is dissonance where the consumer is not satisfied as he got less utility or less than expected result from the consumption or product performance. Third is Delight, here the consumer gets more than expected satisfaction and utility and this will assure the repeat purchase and creation of brand loyalty.
Traditional Factors affecting consumer decision making There are several factors that affect consumer's decision to purchase a brand and a product. These factors though at time are not very much visible but they make an impact and affects sales of a product or brand up to a great extent. The table below shows some of these factors.
Impact of a Brand on consumer purchase decision Research studies have proven that known products and names are sold more than unknown ones. Therefore, a known brand or an optimally exposed brand will find more recognition and buyers in the market in comparison to completely unknown or unexposed brand. Recognition of brand and its significance along with the traditional factors plays a very significant role in consumer decision-making process. More or less every consumer has a brand preference and given the affordability and societal norms, each buyer would like to buy and consume one of the highly acceptable, recognizable, and reputed brands.
The above given model explains the important role that a brand plays in three different stages of consumer's purchase decision making. A consumer start collecting data or information about his favourite brand than he keeps his favourite as one of the alternatives and he evaluate his selected brand against all available options and on finding it suitable or best among all options based upon a qualitative and quantitative evaluation he will ultimately purchase the selected or favourite brand.
The diagram above explains how various traditional factors along with brand preference interact during purchase decision process and finally results into a consumer's final product choice or ultimate purchase. Celebrity and a brand Surveys suggest that compared to any other types of endorsers, famous people achieve a higher degree of attention and recall. They increase awareness of a company's advertising as well as help in retention of message in the psyche of the audience. They can also help the company in reducing their expenditure on Media and other forms of publicity. An example will bring more clarity, When S Kumars, a known textile brand entered into readymade garments business they used Hrithik Roshan, then the hottest advertising icon for their launch advertising for TAMARIND, now one of the premium readymade brands. They reckoned that they have spent 4050 percent less on media due to sheer impact of using hottest star like Hrithik. The Ad recall was as high as 70 percent and the campaign can be termed as a great success. Celebrities also create positive feelings towards brands, connect user to brand and are perceived by consumers as more entertaining. Using a celebrity in advertising or for any, other type of communication for brand building is likely to positively affect consumers' brand preference, brand attitude, brand association and purchase intentions. To ensure positive results, however, it is critical for advertisers to have a clear understanding of consumer's reactions and reinforcement of celebrity endorsement. The impact of celebrity endorsement on any brand as well as on consumer's purchase decision is very critical. Source Credibility Central goal of advertising is the convincing of consumers and persuasion to purchase, the ultimate objective, though not openly spoken, is to some how attract consumers to the market offering of the company, generating positive attitude,
reinforce positive association and ultimately to generate sales, may be a trial purchase. At later stages, the sponsor may work towards creating a brand loyalty but generating initial sales or increasing the existing sales is the primary objective. In this respect, the credibility of an endorser along with advertisement plays an important role in convincing the target audience of the attractiveness of the company's brand and generates sales. Pursuing a celebrity endorsement strategy enables advertisers to project a credible image in terms of expertise, persuasiveness, trustworthiness, and objectiveness. To create effective messages, celebrity advertisers also have to consider the attractiveness of the spokesperson. Source attractiveness refers to the endorser's Physical appearance, Personality, Likeability and Similarity to the receiver, thus to the perceived social value of the source. This behavior mainly goes back to halo effect, whereby persons who perform well on one dimension example: physical attractiveness or top professional performance, social status are assumed to excel on other levels as well i.e. happiness and coolness. This is evident from the use of Fardeen Khan, modern, dynamic, outgoing and smart personality for Provogue; he translates the modernism of the brand well. Titan uses Aamir Khan in his different avatars for communicating to the public that their watches are as reliable and passionate as Aamir is for films. Both Fardeen and Aamir carry the message well and enhance the credibility of the brand they endorse. Establishing a Perfect Match Research proves that a spokesperson especially for a service product or organization (ICICI- First Amitabh Bachchan, now Shahrukh Khan) interacts with the type of brand being advertised. These stars communicate the value of the product and transform an ordinary service into a miracle solution for all problems of an ordinary customer. According to Friedman and Friedman (1979), a famous relative to a 'normal' spokesperson is more effective for products high in psychological or social risk, involving such elements as good taste, self-image, and opinion of others. Several research studies have examined the congruency between celebrity endorsers and brands to explain the effectiveness of using famous persons to promote brands. In India, a brand called Reid & Taylor presented its perfect example when they first launched their advertising campaign featuring James Bond fame of the time Mr. Pierce Brosnan along with the tagline 'BOND WITH THE BEST' but the James Bond idea did not worked and the company was not happy with the results. After the debacle of the first campaign, company introduced a family ad where children are celebrating there parents silver wedding anniversary and they are out with their father to purchase a suit for him. Even this commercial did not work and it was taken off the air. As a last resort, company introduced Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as Reid & Taylor man, a man propagating the brand for special occasion and for very special people in life. The commercial from the initial days got good response and did extremely well as people were able to connect with Mr. Bachchan and the values he was propagating.
For the masses, there was a perfect match of an ideal Indian family man, a star and a good quality but bit highly priced brand reserved especially for special occasions and for very special people. Second example that can be quoted is of Vishwanathan Anand, who endorsed NIIT. NIIT adopted a very smart strategy by roping in Vishwanathan Anand an international chess wizard for their advertising campaign. As chess is considered to be a game full of strategies and a game for smart people and when one of the greats of the game is asking people to join NIIT it was suppose to have a positive influence on the people and actually it had. There was complete congruency and compatibility between the celebrity endorser, the product and the message. Contrary to only favorable outcomes, there are several examples where the product, even the entire campaign collapsed due to heavy weight celebrity as the agency or the ad failed to establish the relationship between the endorser and the product. Keeping the focus only on success, where the product and the celebrity were a perfect match, following are few examples:
Celebrity Endorser Amitabh Bachchan * * * * * * * * Company / Product Dabur Cadbury Reid and Taylor Parker Santro Videocon Sunfeast Pepsi
Shahrukh Khan Juhi Chawala Ustad Zakir Hussain Aamir Khan Aishwarya Rai Rani Mukherjee Kajol and Ajay Devgan
* Kurkure * Taj mahal tea * Titan * Coke * Toyota Innova * Nakshatra * Lux * Fanta * Nestle Munch * Whirlpool * Tata Indicom
The campaigns are not only basking with the glory of success stories, but there is considerable number of failures as well. Assuming that a person just have to be famous to represent a successful brand, however, would be incorrect and may turn out to be a very dangerous preposition resulting into a big calamity for the entire advertising campaign or the brand. Very well accepted and attractive super stars like Abhishek Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan failed in turning their endorsements into success i.e. Maruti Versa similarly Virendra Sehwag also failed to deliver Reliance Telecommunication with the master stroke of his cricketing genius. Among the possible reasons identified by several authors, including overexposure and identification, the 'match-up hypothesis' specifically suggests that the effectiveness depends on the existence of a 'fit' between the celebrity spokesperson and endorsed brand.
Empirical work on the congruency of brand with the celebrity often has concentrated on the physical attractiveness of the endorser. Results show that an attractive spokespersons are more effective in terms of attitude change when prompting brands that enhance one's attractiveness i.e. cosmetics; health drinks or fashion wear. Primary data states, for celebrity spokespersons to be truly effective, they should be knowledgeable, experienced, mature, and a bench mark in their respective field and qualified to talk about the product. Transferring the Meaning After watching an advertisement the consumers try to find the meaning of the advertisement and associate the same with the endorser and eventually transfer to the brand. To understand this phenomenon Mc Cracken (1989) suggested a comprehensive model known as Meaning Transfer Model. This three-stage model suggests how the meaning associated with the famous person moves from the endorser to the product or the brand. Thus, meanings attributed to the celebrity become associated with the brand in the consumer's mind. Finally, in the consumption process, the customer acquires the brand's meaning. The third stage of the model explicitly shows the importance of the consumer's role in the process of endorsing brands with famous persons. In contrast to anonymous endorsers, celebrities add value to the image transfer process by offering meanings of extra depth and power, what is complemented by their life style and personalities. Therefore, to transfer the correct meaning to the consumer the company should select a celebrity that will produce the most favorable response for consumers and for the purpose the celebrity should have, the appropriate set of characteristics and the public should be able to visualize and comprehend the same. The company should consider the consumer's needs while developing their communication strategy and selecting an appropriate celebrity to transmit the same, i.e. Kurkure used actress Juhi Chawala with the punch line 'Masti Bole To Kurkure' and the actress on screen and off-screen personifies the masti and helps the brand in communicating the same easily. Compatibility of the celebrity's persona with the overall brand image is very important, as a celebrity imparts credibility and inspirational value to a brand and his or her image should perfectly match the brand's image. A good brand campaign idea and an intrinsic link between the celebrity and the message are must for a successful campaign. Certain elements that generate a perfect match or compatibility between the celebrity and brand image are: * Celebrity's fit with the brand image along with celebrity-target audience match. * Celebrity associated values and celebrity-product match. * Costs of acquiring the celebrity and his or her popularity along with controversy risks associated with the celebrity. * Credibility, availability and physical attractiveness of celebrity. The above points can be put to perspective by using two examples, first Kapil Dev's 'Palmolive da jawaab nahin' and second Nakshatra's brand recall due to its endorser,
the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Both brands have edged out and carved out their niche in consumer's mind due to image and credibility of their endorsers. These were the cases of perfect match between the brand image and the image or persona of the celebrity endorser.
Conclusion A brief assessment of the current market situation indicates, that celebrity endorsement advertising strategy can under the right circumstances indeed justify the high costs associated with this form of advertising. The use of celebrity for endorsements create a very favorable impact on the consumer and it creates a connect which forces a consumer to purchase a product. However, as several failures show, it is essential for advertisers to be aware of the complex processes underlying celebrity endorsement. It has been proved from the discussion that celebrity endorsements are a powerful and useful tool that magnifies the effect of a campaign but the word of caution to be followed seriously; celebrities alone do not guarantee success nor does a great advertising campaign or the best possible product. It is the combination of several factors and elements that work together for the success of a brand and its acceptance in the minds of consumers as well as for its market offering. Modern day consumers are well educated and smart, they know celebrities are being paid for these endorsements and this knowledge makes consumers rather more cynical about the product and celebrity endorsements. Majority of the consuming population also knows what is advertising and how it actually works and this knowledge of consumer makes the task of celebrity endorsement all the more difficult and challenging for the advertising companies and the sponsors. Indian companies both advertising and product offering companies have top make an effort to overcome this ever-mounting challenge.
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