Celebrity endorsements are a good tool for increasing sales, especially when the celeb
involved is high profile and quite well-known. Film stars fit the bill perfectly and an
analogy is tried to be established between the brand and the traits of the celebrity used.
Thus positioning becomes easy. You see an ad of the ‘Men in Blue’ with a round red,
white and blue logo and you go, ‘Pepsi!’ See a picture of Aishwarya Rai in a red dress on
a white background and immediately one is reminded of L’Oreal.
So what makes celebrity endorsements click? The answer is, quite simply, the need to
identify oneself with the brand or rather with the celebrity endorsing it, who seems to
have something in common with the brand. If a teenaged girl buys Vivel Soap, it could be
because she idolizes Kareena Kapoor or perhaps admires the actor’s skin though she may
never admit it. So there!
It is for this reason that advertisers quantify and qualify the use of celebrities in their
marketing campaigns by evaluating their awareness, appeal relevance to a brand’s image
and the celebrity’s influence on consumer buying behavior. They know, celebrities,
especially actors, that often portray the underdog and commoners, are the best means to
strike a chord with the target consumers.
The only problem these days is that there are too many brands and too many celebrity
endorsements. What’s worse is that, there’s one celebrity endorsing several products.
And it’s hard to remember which. One can’t say it’s bad for the celebrity since everything
is fair as long as one can rake in the moolah. But for the advertiser it definitely is
detrimental because a consumer may get confused about the brands.
Amitabh Bacchan is all over the ad scene- from Navratna Oil to Dairy Mail to Parker Pen
to ICICI to Tanishq and what not! It gets all the more confusing when endorsers switch
brands in the same category. Aamir Khan who endorsed Pepsi was roped in by Coke.
The consumer was so used to Mayur Suiting’s ‘Shahrukh Mayur Khan’ when suddenly
Salman Khan was b(r)ought to endorse it.
Celebrity endorsements can definitely leverage the popularity of a brand by smart use
of celebrities. But the thing to be remembered is that one should never fall into the trap
of believing that bringing in a popular celeb will change the game for the product. No, it
won’t. But sensible marketing would.
Students Speak
Which endorsement’s a hit, which one’s a miss?
The Hits
Kareena Kapoor in Airtel Dish TV: The ad has a story line, that’s what I like
about it. And it seems so real- Kareena looking all scared, the child walking in
and the whole scene turning about to be a show on TV. Great execution!
-Shibili
Mohanlal in Malabar Gold’s Malinya Vimukta Keralam: The message is a
good one. I would say these are the kinds of ads celebs should endorse because
they have a huge fan following and youngsters are actually influenced by what
their idols say and do.
-Shini
Akshay Kumar in Thums Up: The man has been endorsing this brand for quite
a while now. I feel ‘Taste the thunder’ goes well with his personality. He is a
black belt holder, known to be adventurous and doesn’t look clumsy doing the
things he shown doing in the ads. Thumbs up, really!
-Veena
The Misses
Mohanlal in Manappuram Gold Loan: Oh I hate it! It makes no sense. Why
would someone wealthy like Mohanlal endorse Gold Loan? I mean, why would
I believe his claim? And it’s too dramatized. Add to it, a nauseating track and
horrible dance moves by Mohanlal! I really don’t know what the makers of this ad
were thinking…
-Shibili
Sreesanth in Ayu Care Kizhi: Sreesanth is always in news for all the wrong
reasons. Sreesanth jokes are already doing the rounds; this ad has really made him
the butt of a new set of jokes now! The voice over doesn’t sound like Sreesanth’s
and the overall execution looks bad. I think the endorsement does neither
Sreeshanth nor the brand, any good.
-Shini
Shahrukh Khan in Fair & Handsome: I like SRk for what he is- talented,
handsome and yes, dark! Shahrukh Khan promoting a product like fairness cream
is too fake. I say, he should be out there telling all dark guys to be confident of
their skin tone, making them feel good by saying ‘I am dark and look at me’ but
he’s out there doing just the opposite. I prefer a dark skinned SRK to a botoxed,
light-skinned one any day!
-Veena
