Impact of Celebrity to Brand Image

Celebrities are stars of their own light. They are known for the glitz and glamour that are associated to them by the fame they have acquired through various ways. Some are known for being attractive, some for being good in acting or singing or dancing, some for the controversy and some for the charisma they contain. At a certain point in a celebrity’s career, he/she becomes so famous that brands are willing to wrestle just to get them to endorse their product. This is for the reason that, as a marketing strategy, companies, in hopes of positive impact this association can bring about pays celebrities to represent them.

One of the most memorable ad can be Manny Pacquaio’s tag line in Vitwater “Now you know”. People can’t easily forget that ad because the endorser is a famous personality who is known all over the world. Even though the ad is really funny because of Manny Pacquiao’s repetitive line “you know”, it can be still considered a great ad, because people can remember it. So when people see Vitwater in the market, people will remember the ad in an instant. Kris Aquino’s Pantene commercial can be also considered a successful commercial, in that ad with with TV personality, Bianca Gonzales, it can be seen that Bianca is complaining about hair fall, Kris telling her about Pantene And hoe Pantene helped her solve falling hairs. So in that ad, viewers would think that Pantene is an effective shampoo because two famous celebrities are promoting that product. This paper claims that celebrity endorsers will have a positive impacy on consumers is they are attractive, famous and trustworthy.

According to Kulkarni (2012), in order for a new brand to be noticeable, advertisers should find celebrities that they approve of, because only then will the consumers will trust that brand (p.13). It is also said that brands will always have endorsers to endorse their product, because consumers love celebrities (Crutafield, 2010, p 3&5). The author also noted that it is faster to reach consumers if advertisers use celebrity-endorsement strategy. Seemingly, there are studies that show that athlete endorsed product jumped 4 percent sales six months after the start of the endorsement deal (Elberse, 2012, p. 4). McHill (2012) explained that selecting celebrities depends on how they are to perform for the product; either as a feature or just for an added interest for the brand (p.6). A list of possible celebrity endorsers are produced by the casting department, and in some occasions the advertisement is written around the chosen personality (Erdogan and Baker, 2012, p.8).

According to Clyde (2012), the most popularly mentioned factors were target audience’s feeling towards a celebrity and how much the celebrity charges for an endorsement contract (p.10). According to McCracken (1989), a celebrity endorser is someone who is known to the public and is hired to use this recognition in association to the consumer good (p.80). Khan (2012) explained that usually they are known by the people for their achievements besides the product they are endorsing (p.3). These celebrities are used as an instrument to help for the product retention by appearing in the ad (Bachchan, 2012, p.8). Nowadays celebrities can affect our lives in every way, so it is important how one views a celebrity endorser. As Karmin, Brand, Hueke & Mue (2012) mentions , “There are several reasons why a well known endorser may be influential. First, such a spoke person attracts attention to the advertisement in the cluttered stream of messages. Celebrities are traditionally viewed as being highly dynamic individuals with attractive and likeable qualities” (p.2).

We view celebrities as our role models so whenever we see them, we want to be just like them, what they wear, what they use (King, 2012, p.2 ). The author also stated that consumer feel much more connected with celebrities more than their own friends and parents. This happened because according to Till (2012), customers see the connection between the brand and the endorser so that’s why an advertisement is successful and why customers or viewers want to make celebrities as their role model (p. 23). Images of prestige are associated with the brand when consumers see that big personalities use them (Katyal, 2012, p.5). The true expanse of a celebrity endorser to the brand is to give it a distinguishing identity and impart values (Blige, 2012, p.12). Boorstin (2012) concluded that it is easy for the brand to get a celebrity endorser, but to utilize them in the right circumstances is challenging (p.3).

There has to be a connection between fans and celebrities so that sales will increase and ads will be successful. Some say that several brands increased 20% of their sales after they teamed up with an endorser, because brands rely on celebrities for that service (Elberse , 2012, p 2&5). But there are some who don’t believe that celebrity can influence sales because according to Daboll (2012), consumers nowadays do not rely on celebrities alone, but on their social networks. They are only interested in ads that have important information about the product (p.5). There are also celebrities who endorse several brands which can be the cause why some consumers do not rely on celebrity promoted product. This is supported Rice & Kelting (2012) who claimed that having a fit between a product and a celebrity is the only positive effect from having multiple endorsements (p.4-4). There are many ways on how celebrities can greatly influence people’s lives.

In the past when someone asks one what he/she wanted to be when he/she grows up, they would answer that they want to be like Britney Spears or any other artist because according to Knorr (2012), kids are easily influenced by celebrities, but it should be a celebrity that parents approve of (p.2). So like Britney Spears, who used to be an idol, but in the past few years behaved badly, can now be viewed as a bad influence for kids. In the present, celebrities can now dictate what the trend is, especially on clothes, by just wearing them. Their fans and even those who are not, will be persuaded to think that that is something to want and grab (Shaffer, 2012, p1). Another example of celebrities influence would be Oprah. According to Rao (2012), Barack Obama won in the past election because Oprah supported him, and we all know that she is a very influential person especially in the media world.

The author also quoted, “What we’ve found is that popular positions are made popular by celebrities and unpopular positions are made more unpopular (p 1&10). One way of persuading consumers is to associate the brand to a celebrity through making them appear in an ad and give testimonials. These are the views or opinions of a celebrity to a product he/she is ought to endorse (Dawn, 2012, p.2). Yssel (2012) proved through research that consumers lose confidence to celebrities who endorse too much brands, for it appears that he/she only does that for the pay (p.14). The effectiveness of these testimonials depends on good casting (Stomberg, 2012, p.16). Influential celebrities are effective endorsers. Almost everyone knows that Kris Aquino is one of the top celebrity endorsers in the Philippines. What makes her stand out is that she has a charm that is annoying but impressive (Quiros, 2012,p.6). In the U.S. the famous singer Rihanna has a strong personality giving her the privilege to endorse one of the most exclusive brands, Armani (Toglia, 2012, p.1).

Also, Oprah Winfrey cannot be left out. She is highly influential that she can even persuade people to read Tolstoy (Kuchl, 2012, p8). Aside from being influential, a celebrity should also be attractive enough to gain positive reactions from watchers. Compared to the unattractive celebrities, those who are attractive are more likely to get the attention of the customers and affect their decisions (Zaeim, 2012, p.3). Debevec and Kernan (1984) concluded that attractive celebrities are able to divert the consumers’ perception of the product because consumers, according to research, have a better image of them (p.7). Kamins (2012) explained that their effect on the decision making of the consumers is that because celebrities give their “star” status to the product they endorse, so it is really important that they be attractive (p.6).

Also, fame adds up to the effect a celebrity endorser can cause to the brand. Famous people all over the world are the most used endorsers today because they have the ability to attract many consumers. According to Mayaga, Po, Testa & Vilora (1988), people tend to have much more trust and belief in a brand that has entertaining celebrities and if the message of the ad is correct (p. 5). As a result , when a brand uses famous celebrity from a famous TV soap, that ad can be more successful because people watches that particular TV soap, viewers can relate to the characters in that TV soap , so when they see that celebrity in that ad, the viewers can immediately recognize them (Kulkarni & Gaulkar, 2012, p.17). Hence, if one wants to be a successful in an ad, then one should use TV ad rather than other ways to advertise it (Lane & Russel, 2012. P. 273). Same as being attractive and famous, being credible for the consumers completes that package.

For a celebrity endorser to be trustworthy, he/she has to be credible and likeable (Hakimi, 2012, p.10). It is important to the brand to be aware of who the consumers find dishonest because even if the product has the best features, if the message that the endorser appears to be doubtful, it would have a negative comeback (Abedniya, 2012, p.9). Erdogan (1999) explained that a celebrity has to have honesty and integrity from the point of view of the consumers (p.82). However, endorsements have downs as any other ad techniques do. There are risks which a brand should take into a consideration if they are going to make an ad, and that is the celebrity endorser’s characteristics. As Veen(2012) points out, “The bigger the pulling powers of the star, the greater the risks and that celebrity endorsement are always a high risk-high reward situation” (p.27).

There will be a risk for that brand if they didn’t like the celebrity endorser. According to Silburyte (2012), what consumers want are famous celebrities because they think that if someone is then he/she is perfect (p.11). Also attractiveness is a must and being familiar to the people is a bonus (Amos, Holems & Strutton, 2012, p. 23). There are also famous celebrities who has unsuccessful ads, like Tiger Woods the famous golfer, who has been known to sell much but when numerous scandals broke in the media his endorsements declined (Oeltzscher, 2012). In fact, the author also mentioned that economist from the University of California said that “Tiger Woods destroyed 5 to 12 billion dollars in market value of his advertising partners.” But the brand Nike still chose Tiger Woods as their endorser because he is after all still one of the greatest golfer in the world (p.3). Some endorsements work and some just do not.

Hiring a celebrity to endorse a product does not ensure backing from their fans for people can decide on their own (Smith, 2012, p.3). Babej (2012), based on a research, concluded that majority of people do not have an initial positive reaction to celebrity endorsements (p.1). They could only appeal, as so much as to grab attention, but not to surely change their supporters’ minds when it comes to decision making (Ghana, 2012, p.8). A study has been done to know what causes the variances between the effectiveness of endorsers. It showed several challenges in using celebrity endorsements for a brand. One is that a star is promoting too many brands causing people to become confused and people are most likely to mix them up (Swaran, 2012, p.10). Also, one product often gets a lot of celebrities to represent them, causing the same effect on the minds of the people, that they be confounded by too much images they are given with (Venka, 2012, p.8).

And according to Vikra (2012), several celebrity connections are just hard to rescind (p.6). But there are also times when an ad’s message is completely lost but can still be successful. As Sabhavis (2012) mentions “In the advertising world, celebrity advertising is seen as a substitute for ‘absence of ideas’- and actually frowned upon” (p.6). Because according to Suttle (2012), when people sees their favourite celebrity on an ad, viewers would want to be like them, and try hard to attain what their idols have. They will purchase the product that is being endorsed because the way that consumers think is that if a product is good for the celebrities, then it is good for consumers too. (p.2).

Also brands that are endorsed by an athlete and celebrities make consumers want to buy that product and try it for themselves, because they attract greater attention (Silburyte, 2012, p9). This paper has explained the impact of celebrity endorsements on brand image. The paper has also shown what characteristics an endorser has to have in order to be effective. One, the celebrity has to be attractive and shall bear charm, for the reason that people are more likely to have a positive impression on celebrities who hold glamour and prestige.

Two, he/she has to be famous enough to be influencial. They should be able to affect the consumers’ perception when it comes to brand choice. And lastly, celebrity endorsers have to be trustworthy and credible. Consumers have minds to judge on who to believe and who to not. So it is really beneficial for the company to get someone who is honest in the eyes of the buyers. Some trends just cannot help but get out of style. A celebrity cannot endorse a brand for either too long or too short. A brand, to be able to fully make use of the positive impact of a celebrity to their brand, should be able find right mix of the celebrity endorser with the right characteristics, the right time and the right way of utilizing them.

References

Amos, C., Holems, G., & Strutton, D. (n.d.). Exploring the relationship between celebrity endorser effects and advertising effectiveness. Retrieved , from http://hull.aug.edu/thoughtleadership/research/Amos-Holmes-Strutton-IJA-2008.pdf. Bretch, R. (2012, May 8). Do celebrity endorsers have equal advertising effectiveness? DMN3. Retrieved from http://www.dmn3.com/_blog/DMN3_Blog/post/Do_Celebrity_Endorsements_Equal_Advertising_Effectiveness/#.UKuNgeRJOAh. Crutchfield, D. (2012, September 22). Celebrity endorsements still push product. Advertising Agency & Marketing Industry News – Advertising Age. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/marketing-celebrity- endorsements-push-product/146023/. Daboll, P. (2011, January 12). Celebrities in advertising are almost always a big waste of money. Advertising Agency & Marketing Industry News – Advertising Age. Retrieved , from