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Celebrities in Advertising

By

Mohd Norhazli Bin Mohamed Azlanudin

Master of Corporate Communication, UPM

2010

According to William King (2008), modern marketing needs more than just developing a

product, pricing it attractively and making it accessible in splendor shopping malls. Now days,

marketing are one-step ahead than it was earlier. It needs to communicate with common people,

address their inner fantasy world and attempt to inform consumers that consumer product (brand)

is their ultimate choice.

Everyday consumers are exposed to thousands of voices and images in magazines, newspapers,

and on billboards, websites, radio and television. Every brand attempts to steal at least a fraction

of an unsuspecting person's time to inform him or her of the amazing and different attributes of

the product at hand. The challenge of the marketer is to find a hook that will hold the subject's

attention. In helping to achieve this, use of celebrity endorsers is a widely used marketing

communication (marcom) strategy.

Many companies use known or unknown people to convey their message but how a message is

delivered has a greater impact on consumers than the brand name itself. Messages delivered by

media icons or popular sources mostly achieve higher attention and recall that is why advertisers

often use celebrities as their brand representative or spokespeople.

Today one of the most prevalent forms of retail advertising is through using of celebrity

endorsement. In fact celebrity endorsers are being used in about 25 percent of all television

advertisements in order to promote brands (Erdogan, 2001).These endorsers are being paid by

about 10 percent of advertiser's budgets (Agrawal and Kamakura, 1995).

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Marketers invest huge amounts of money in contracts with celebrity endorsers each year, since

they believe that celebrities affect the process of selling of their brands or products (Katyal,

2007). A celebrity endorser is a well known person (e.g., actors, sports figures and artists)

because of his successes in a special field other than the endorsed product class (James, 2004).

Celebrity endorsers are used by firms who want to support a product or service. Since presence

of celebrity endorsers affects purchase decisions of consumers positively, producers and retailers

have always preferred to use celebrity endorsements in order to sell their products.

Definition of Celebrities

Celebrities are people who enjoy specific public recognition by a large number of certain groups

of people. They have some characteristic attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary lifestyle or

special skills that are not commonly observed. Thus, it can be said that within a society,

celebrities generally differ from the common people and enjoy a high degree of public

awareness.

McCracken (1998) has defined celebrity endorser as "any individual who enjoys public cognition

and who uses this cognition on behalf of a consumer by appearing wit in an advertisement".

Moreover, celebrity is used as testimonial, endorsement, actor or spokesperson by the firm.

According to Friedman and Friedman, a "celebrity endorser is an individual who is known by the

public for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed".

Compared to other endorser types, famous people always attach a greater degree of attention,

recall and loyalty.

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Celebrities' Endorsement Brands Impact upon Customer's Attitudes, Beliefs, and

Behaviors

Celebrity endorsements are a ubiquitous feature of advertising today. Examples abound: Pierce

Brosnan for Omega; Sharon Cuneta for Superferry; Tiger Woods for Tag Heuer; Edu Manzano

for Lucky Me; Alicia Silverstone for Kamiseta; Britney Spears for Skechers; Bata Reyes for San

Miguel Beer. One estimate is that up to 20% of all commercials use some form of celebrity

endorsement (King, 2008).

Brands are considered to have personalities and identified the characteristics like sincerity,

excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness and zealous and consumers are likely to

choose brands whose personalities match their own. Therefore, the choice of celebrity is critical

that who is going to represent which specific brand. The celebrity must have high recognition,

extremely positive high profile, immense likability and high appropriateness to the product.

For example, any sports personality has high recognition but due to involvement in drugs and

rude behavior, they have negative affect among youth and other groups. Similarly, many media

images like Mawi, Diana Danielle, Erra Fazira, Rosyam Noor, Rozita Che Wan, Brad Pitt,

Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, David Beckham

and Ronaldino are successfully endorsing a large number of products because they have

extremely high positive rankings in recognition and likability.

Athletes and sports personalities usually endorse sporty apparels, shoes, blazers, sport products

and sports companies, health and energy drinks. Media icons represent brands that are

sophisticated, mild, and create fantasy like designer dresses, watches, cosmetics and fragrances.

The known personalities (celebrities) do not always cast a successful promotion of a specific

brand to position in public mind. For example, if someone has a high liking towards a personality

but not towards that brand to which he is endorsing, a two-way effect can occur, either, the

consumer will end up liking that celebrity a bit less or start liking that brand a bit more.

However, if that person will see his favorite celebrity continuously attached in praising other

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dislike brands, he or she will eventually develop a negative image of the celebrity and maintains

the negative attitudes towards the brand.

According to an expert, a number of companies also use a specific personality to overcome the

crisis if their brand faces at some point in time. Because, celebrities have an assuring

personalities and they can give a positive reputation to that tangible product.

Kaikati (1987) believes that using of celebrities in advertisements could have many benefits and

advantages including:

Facilitating of brand identification;

changing or impressing the negative attitude towards a brand;

repositioning an existing brand;

global marketing or positioning of a brand or product; and

affecting purchase intentions of consumers.

The Fred Principle

Choosing celebrity endorsers is vital to the success of an ad campaign. Dyson and Turco offer

the FRED concept. Both see this as the foundation of a successful endorser selection.

F is for Familiarity:

The target market must be aware of the person, and perceive him or her as empathetic, credible,

sincere and trustworthy.

R is for Relevance:

There should be a meaningful link between the advertised brand and the celebrity endorser, and

more important, between the celebrity endorser and the defined target market. The audience must

be able to identify with the person. If consumers can immediately associate with an endorser,

they will feel more predisposed to accepting, buying and preferring the brand to competition.

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E is for Esteem:

Consumers must have the utmost respect and confidence for the celebrity. The public respect

them because of their distinguished careers and unassailable salesmanship.

D is for Differentiation:

The target consumers must see the endorser as a cut above the rest. If there is no perceived

disparity among celebrities, then the strategy will not work. Michael Jordan is an example of an

international celebrity that rises above the clutter. This proves to be a huge contributory factor to

his effectiveness as an endorser.

"The FRED concept is not a guarantee to success, but it can serve as a guideline when selecting a

spokesperson. Each organization and its objectives are different, and should be evaluated on an

individual basis," Dyson and Turco enthuse.

Few studies have actually compared celebrity advertising to the non-celebrity approach, and

results of such studies reveal that ads with celebrity spokespersons will have greater

effectiveness as measured by higher scores on ad believability and purchase intent than those

with none. However, such is not always the case. Some product stories gain notice and

recognition without help from celebrity endorsers. They are sold based on its uniqueness,

competitiveness and cut-through abilities.

There is little doubt though that using a celebrity in advertising is a common marketing

communication approach. Advertisers will continue to consider it. Yet it cannot guarantee

foolproof success. However, they can work hard on it. Our celebrity endorsement strategy must

be integrated with target market characteristics, and the other elements of the marketing mix

such as product design, branding, packaging, and pricing. The message execution that will be

mouthed by the celebrity must likewise be made clear and single-minded.

There are various scientific ways in which the right celebrity is selected for the product

endorsement. Tellis defines stereotypes as perceptions and depictions of individuals based on

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simplistic, biased image of the group to which they belong, rather than on their own individual

characteristics. For example: its better to select celebrities who say are teens for chocolate

advertisements and females for detergent ads, etc.

The TEARS Model

The attributes highlighted by the acronym "TEARS" are gauged for:

o Trustworthiness: For example - Legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan who is an icon of

trust; promoting ICICI Bank.

o Expertise: For example - Golfer Tiger Woods for a sports brand.

o Attractiveness: For example - Actress Erra Fazira for beauty products.

o Respect: For example - Former Miss World Aishawarya Rai and the Angelina Jolie

donation campaign.

o Similarity: For example - a child artist promoting a chocolate brand.

A celebrity scoring high on all the above attributes can turn out to be a good endorser for the

brand under question.

The No TEARS Model

The "No TEARS" approach is a tool for managers and their advertisers how to go about selecting

celebrities so as to avoid the pitfalls from making an unwise decision. It gauges the following

information: -

o Celebrity & audience match up;

o Celebrity & brand match up;

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o Celebrity credibility;

o Celebrity attractiveness;

o Cost consideration;

o A working ease and difficulty factor;

o An endorsement saturation factor.

Thus using of a celebrity in advertising causes to influence brand attitude and purchase intentions

of consumers in a positive way. Celebrity endorsement has a strong effect on consumers'

memory and learning approach too. Most consumers are not in a purchasing situation when they

are encounter with message of the brand. Marketers use celebrity endorsement in order to help

better storage of information in consumers' minds which they can easily remember in purchasing

situations (Schultz and Brens, 1995).

The Dangers of Using Celebrities as Endorser

Although using of celebrity endorsers as brand messengers is impressive, but it could have some

risks. For instance, celebrities who are known to be guilty because of negative events (e.g.,

accident) may have harmful effects on the products that they endorse (Louie and Obermiller,

2002). There are can be some negative consequences to using celebrities as endorsers.

Despite the potential benefits they can provide, celebrity-advertising increase the marketer's

financial risk. In a report released by the Cyber-Journal of Sport Marketing, it was revealed that

Pepsi paid Shaquille O'Neal US$25 million to endorse the popular soda brand. Tiger Woods

received US$40 million from Nike to support the company's youth marketing campaign.

Previously, payment for celebrity endorsers ran into millions of dollars as well. Sharon Cuneta's

talent fee is huge, but to many advertisers, it is worth the investment. The sales of Big Macs shot

up when she took a bite of it in a McDonald's TV commercial. Goodwill Bookstore got a

refreshing take as a friendly, family bookstore when she made a sincere pitch for it, while Fuji

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got a big shot in the arm with her and Yaya Loring's presence in its ad which her endorsement of

small, unheard-of brands without a doubt has a legitimizing effect.

Large companies may not have a problem spending millions to acquire the fame and glamour of

a movie star or a sports icon, but the small ones may struggle to afford it. At some point, it may

be wiser to invest marketing funds in more print space or radio and television time rather than

spending precious money on expensive celebrity talent fees.

Losses are tremendous if something goes awry with a celebrity endorser. OJ Simpson and his

endorsement of Hertz Rent A Car and several other international brands were jeopardized when

he figured in a scandal that rocked the world. Mike Tyson's rape charges and corresponding jail

sentence greatly affected his product testimonies.

Previously, Robin Padilla's endorsement of a beer brand has been allegedly cut short because of

his "bad boy" image in reel and real life. Pops Fernandez and Martin Nievera's endorsement of

mass consumer brands was likewise put in danger when blind items in entertainment columns

started a guessing game on the showbiz couple's imminent separation.

"When a negative image of the celebrity is portrayed, a tainted picture is also painted for the

company or brand, making it difficult to gain consumer trust to support the organization or buy

the product," report Amy Dyson and Douglas Turco of Illinois State University (1995). Although

there is no way to guarantee that detrimental incidents like these won't occur, Dyson and Turco

continue, "Some situations may be prevented by evaluating the proposed celebrity's personal and

professional behavior to determine if they may be vulnerable to negative situations."

In advertising landscape, we find either a celebrity endorsing multiple brands or multiple

celebrities being used to endorse a single brand, for example Erra Fazira, endorsed 7 brands

(including Wyeth Nutrition, Bonia, SK-II, Avon, Cosmetic Fera Kosmolook, Johnsons &

Johnson, Slim World, Swiss London Cake, etc). Tripp et al, says that the endorsement of as

many as four products negatively influences the celebrity spokesperson's credibility and

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likeability. Also, the use of multiple celebrities to endorse a brand may hinder the meaning

transfer process, and thus, lead to confusion among the consumers.

Writer's Opinions

Companies invest large sums of money to align their brands and themselves with endorsers.

Such endorsers are seen as dynamic with both attractive and likeable qualities and companies

plan that these qualities are transferred to products via marketing communication (marcom)

activities. Furthermore, because of their fame, celebrities serve not only to create and maintain

attention but also to achieve high recall rates for marketing communication (marcom) messages

in today's highly cluttered environments.

Aristotle said, "Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction." This could

aptly summarize why innumerable products are endorsed by celebrities, with or without a

significant need or benefit from the same.

Despite the potential benefits derived from celebrity endorsements, they increase a marketer's

risk manifolds and should be treated with full attention and aptitude. A brand should be cautious

when employing celebrities to ensure promise believably and delivery of the intended effect. The

growing importance of mythical characters as celebrities and their sway over the target segments

are ample proof of public demand for icons to look up to.

Celebrities have also been in demand having succeeded in being effective by rising above the

clutter & grabbing the attention and focus of the consumer. They also succeed in creating an

aspiration in the minds of the consumer to acquire what their favorite celebrity endorses.

However, it might be too simplistic a solution for multitudes of marketing problems in the real

world.

Hence to analyze how effective any Celebrity Endorsement campaign is, we need to look at the

various factors which impact its success. While selecting a celebrity as endorser, the company

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has to decide the promotional objective of the brand and how far the celebrity image matches

with it. The selection is in fact a collaboration, from which both the company and the celebrity

gains. According to Melissa St. James, a doctoral fellow and marketing instructor at The George

Washington University, "Studies show that using celebrities can increase consumers' awareness

of the ad, capture [their] attention and make ads more memorable."

In this age of intense competition, where capturing a position in the consumers' mind space is

extremely tough, celebrity endorsements give an extra edge to the companies for holding the

viewers' attention. Celebrities can catalyze brand acceptance and provide the enormous

momentum that brands require by endorsing the intrinsic value to the brand.

The most important attribute for a celebrity endorser is the trustworthiness. The target audience

must trust that a celebrity carries a particular image and it must match with the product. The

second attribute in order of importance is likeability. The celebrity also must be accepted as a

popular icon by a large cross section of the audience.

Besides, while designing an ad campaign, one should also keep in mind that the overuse of some

extremely popular celebrities often tends to confuse consumers and reduce the utility of celebrity

endorsement. Another argument against celebrity endorsement involves the behavior of the

celebrity. The marketing function of a company should also understand that brands should

assume a much greater space than the celebrities should, because their association may be

temporary but the brands are permanent.

The various risks associated with celebrity endorsements are as follows: -

i. Negative publicity - If the celebrity is strongly associated with the brand then the occurrence

of the negative publicity can spill over the brand. Example, Salman Khan lost his

endorsement deal with Thumbs-Up after his infamous incidents like buck-killing and rash-

driving.

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ii. Overshadowing - When celebrity endorser is used, the risk of consumers focusing on the

celebrity and not on the brand exists.

iii. Overexposure - This risk arises when the celebrity chooses to endorse several different

products simultaneously which might leave the consumers confused. E.g: Rosyam Noor

endorses several brands such as Power Root, Nescafe, etc.

iv. Overuse - Sometimes the company can use many different celebrities to appeal to different

market segment. But multiplicity of endorser might blur the image. Example: Skin product

SK-II in Malaysia using Maya Karin, Fauziah Latiff and Camelia as the ambassadors.

v. Extinction - The favorable response obtained by a particular brand may weaken over time if

the brand gets significant exposure without the association of the celebrity. If the celebrity

contract is for a considerable period of time, then it can lead to draining out capital without

proper return.

vi. Financial Risk - The decision for hiring an expensive endorser may not be always feasible if

there is a poor brand fit.

Therefore, for celebrity endorsements to work effectively there are some fundamental ground

rules: -

i. Clear brand promise and brand personality;

ii. The communication objectives for the campaign should be frozen;

iii. Focus must be on the synergy between the brand and the celebrity image;

iv. Establish explicitly what the celebrity is going to communicate.

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International brand vs Local brand

Nike (Nike Inc.)

Nike is known around the world for being one of the most iconic brands. It was recently ranked

as the world's 31st most valuable brand in terms of its brand value - USD10.8 billion - by the

annual Business Week's global top 100 brand survey. In spite of many market maneuvers (such

as the recent merger between Adidas and Reebok), Nike has remained the leader in its category.

Nike is also very well known for another aspect and that is its consistent use of celebrities to

endorse the brand. In fact, one of the most successful collaborations between a brand and a

celebrity is that of Nike and Michael Jordan (Roll, 2007).

So successful was the collaboration that Nike and Jordan launched a new brand variant called the

Air Jordan line of sport shoes. Nike pulled off a very similar coup in the sports industry when it

joined forces with the ace golfer Tiger Woods to enter the golf category with its apparel,

equipment and accessories.

Nike had no experience in golf before. Moreover, golf being a very elite game, it was generally

considered that a brand like Nike would not be very successful. This might have probably been

true had Nike chosen the traditional path to building its equity in the golfing arena. However,

Nike chose to associate with the best golfer in the world and have him (Tiger Wood) endorse the

brand. As is known today, Nike has emerged highly successful in golf.

Power Root (Power Root (M) Sdn. Bhd.)

It would seem that a Chinese company has managed to corner the Malay coffee market indicates

the power of segmentation. The Power root company has used a powerful marketing mix that

decided to focus on the Malay (largest segment in Malaysia) by introducing a host of products

that uses the Tongkat Ali and Kacip Fatimah ingredients to differentiate themselves from the

Market Leader - Nestle with their flagship product Nescafe.

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It would seem that the promotional mix was also a key factor that allowed Ali Cafe / Power Roor

to catch up with the market leader and establish itself as a true Malay based company - it used

the celebrity endorsements (local stars Rosyam Nor and singers Farah). They also decided to

FOCUS on 2 segments only - Malay Male and Malay Female which it is very excellent move.

But bear in mind that not many people can remember all the brands that a celebrity endorses and

the chances of losing brand recall increases if the celebrity endorses multiple brands. In this case,

audiences tends to recall Rosyam Nor with Nescafe but lately with Power Root Cafe. They might

get confused in the endorsement of Nescafe or Power Root Cafe. Thus, for multiple

endorsements where the same celebrity endorses several brands, it boils down to the strength of

the brand and the advertising content.

Conclusions

As branding evolves as a discipline, companies must be extra cautious to utilize every possible

channel of communication rather than just a celebrity endorsement. When all other steps in the

branding process is followed and implemented, then channels such as celebrity endorsements can

provide the cutting edge as it did for Nike.

Despite the obvious economic advantage of using relatively unknown personalities as endorsers

in advertising campaigns, the choice of celebrities to fulfill that role has become common

practice for brands competing in today's cluttered media environment. There are several reasons

for such extensive use of celebrities. Because of their high profile, celebrities may help

advertisements stand out from the surrounding clutter, thus improving their communicative

ability.

Celebrities may also generate extensive PR leverage for brands. For example, when Revlon

launched the "Won't kiss off test" for its Colorstay lipsticks in 1994 with Cindy Crawford kissing

reporters, the campaign featured on almost every major news channel and equally widely in the

press. A brief assessment of the current market situation indicates that celebrity endorsement

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advertising strategies can, under the right circumstances, indeed justify the high costs associated

with this form of advertising.

Celebrity endorsement if used effectively, makes the brand stand out, galvanizes brand recall and

facilitates instant awareness. To achieve this, the marketer needs to be really disciplined in

choice of a celebrity. Hence, the right use of celebrity can escalate the Unique Selling

Proposition of a brand to new heights; but a cursory orientation of a celebrity with a brand may

prove to be claustrophobic for the brand. A celebrity is a means to an end, and not an end in

himself /herself.

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