Rise to the top with celebrities

CELEBRITIES ARE being increasingly used in marketing communication by marketers to lend personality to their products. With the visual media becoming more popular with the middle class, the use of celebrities in the TV media has increased. Celebrities create headlines. Their activities and movements are being closely watched and imitated. What the heroes and heroines wear in movies become fashion. What they endorse sell like hot cakes. It is not surprising therefore that using celebrities in advertisements has become common practice.

In India especially, it is not difficult to look for the reasons as to why companies are increasingly using celebrities. Indians always loved their heroes and heroines. They revered their leaders. Unlike their foreign counterparts they always deified them and put a halo around their heads - `they could do no wrong'. The public believed that they possessed certain special qualities. A movie hero like Shah Rukh Khan, for example, is expected to possess dynamic qualities such as attractiveness, sexiness, likeability, manliness and appeal. These qualities, it is believed, will be transferred to the products he endorses. Therefore, companies vie with each other to use stars as their spokespersons. If Pepsi uses Shah Rukh Khan it becomes Coke's headache to find an equally charismatic character, which they have found in Hrithik Roshan.

People like ads more if they like the endorsers in the ads. When a person likes the endorser in the ad, he or she is more likely to believe what the endorser says about the advertised product and therefore will develop more positive feelings toward the ad and the brand itself. Thus, when Shah Rukh Khan, a popular actor, endorses Clinic Plus - All Clear - people get convinced about the ability of the product to clear the head of dandruff. Because they are famous celebrities they are able to attract attention and retain attention by their mere presence in the advertisements.

High recall rates

In the midst of the advertisement clutter and mish mash, the ads that celebrities endorse also achieve high recall rates. The theory of selective attention states that people tend to pay more attention to what is important and interesting to their beliefs. Therefore, when people see their favoured reference group members or celebrities in the ads, they pay more attention to the ads. At the same time, the advertiser can be sure that the positive feeling towards the ad has got transferred to the product. When Aishwarya Rai appeared in an advertisement appealing (with her beautiful fluttering eyes) to the viewers to donate their eyes she instantly attracted attention, enabled retention of the message and changed people's attitude towards eye donation as well.

To the loyal followers celebrities represent an idealisation of life that most people aspire, dream and would love to live. A movie actress is expected to possess a flawless skin, blemish- free face and, what is more, her fans are curious to know the secret of her beauty. So she becomes a natural endorser for beauty cosmetics, toilet soaps, talcum powder and other related products.

The audience might be attracted to certain reference groups such as movie stars and wish to possess qualities like the members of the groups. Lux, which has distinguished itself as the soap of movie queens, has successfully capitalised on this aspect. It is common knowledge that Indian women want to look like movie stars and by getting a host of cinema actresses endorse it, Lux has carved out a unique position for itself in the highly competitive industry.

Just as movie stars are popular so are cricket stars. Sachin, Azharuddin , Jadeja, Kapil and Srinath were the darlings of advertisers in the past. Cricket stars were assumed to be energetic, fit, healthy, strong, macho and smart and were also considered to represent the aspirations of the younger generation. The cola wars in India were fought in cricket stadiums. Cricket being such a popular game, the stars were on demand to lend their personality to Pepsi and Coke and a host of other products like health drinks, suiting and shirting, footware and even credit cards.

Celebrities may also help reposition products. A product with sagging sales needs some boosting and in this only the celebrities can help. Cinthol, when it was introduced as New Cinthol, had Vinod Khanna to endorse it. Boost made use of the combined vigour of Kapil and Sachin to capture the minds of school children. Introduction of a new product can also be done successfully with the help of celebrities. Wagon-R, a newly introduced brand in the already crowded car market, drives home the message it wishes to convey through Shah Rukh Khan. The ad gets attention, recall and what is more, in the crowded car market it gets greater visibility.

Pitfalls

Of course, there may be umpteen other reasons to use celebrities. But there are an equal number of disadvantages. One reason is that celebrities do not come cheap. They could cost the company a fortune. Since celebrities by themselves do not guarantee success, the risk factor could be high. Companies which used some cricket stars in their advertisements have been embarrassed and worried when the latter embroiled in scandals and controversies and made headlines for the wrong reasons.

The two cola companies that had a long association with cricket stars have been smart enough to switch over to movie stars as their endorsers and spokespersons. A celebrity may just disappear or lose his importance before the expiry of a contract. Advertisers thus have to study the life cycle of a star's career and ensure that he/she is signed up during his/her growth stage. Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid are ideal choices whose career graphs are still in the growth stage. These two also seem to have emerged untainted by the betting scandal.

The suitability and credibility of an endorser for a product are also important factors for consumers to like the ad. A celebrity like Visvanathan Anand (the Chess legend, who presently endorses Memory Plus) may be found suitable for computers and other products which rate high in cognitive ability. He may however be found unsuitable to endorse soft drinks.

Risk of overexposure

A celebrity may become the spokesperson of many products and runs the risk of getting overexposed. Possible examples are Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, who are spokespersons for about half-a- dozen products or services. When a celebrity is a spokesperson for one product he may have high credibility. When he endorses a variety of products, his or her perceived credibility gets reduced due to overexposure. The economic motivation underlying the celebrities' endorsement effort may also become too apparent to consumers and they may take them for granted. A series of advertisements released by `Sprite', a soft drink, pokes fun on the above mentioned two aspects.

It is important that advertisers find a suitable celebrity match for their products. Celebrities can definitely prove to be useful in the cluttered and heavily advertised market where product differentiation is limited. At the same time the celebrities' personality should be thoroughly studied to match that of the product. Celebrity attractiveness and credibility and the package of meanings and implications that the celebrity could lend to the product should be studied. Celebrities should also be matched with the target audience.

``Does the celebrity appeal to the target audience? What is the reference group or aspiring group of the target audience? Will the celebrity manage to transfer favourable attributes, traits or values to a particular product or service?'' These are the possible issues and questions that need to be considered before narrowing down on a particular endorser.

The appropriate media in which the advertisement will appear should also be carefully chosen. Past experience suggests that not all celebrities succeed as product or service endorsers. Similarly, as pointed out earlier, celebrity advertising is not without its pitfalls. One has to exercise caution and act intelligently to succeed and benefit.

Sukanya Ashokkumar

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Colour does not matter
Next     : ICRA assigns adequate safety rating to Escorts'
           NCD