Is it smart to use celebrity endorsements for branding? Cont

Idea First
Celebrity endorsements are very expensive. Therefore their use in an ad should be justified. In other words, the message strategy for a brand should strongly warrant the use a known face in an idea. Sadly, very often the celebrity is hired first and an idea is then weaved around his or her presence. Khan stresses, “The important thing to remember is that putting a celebrity in an ad is not an idea in itself. Unfortunately, this is how most celebrities are being used in Indian advertising, where they just become a prop. Ideally, there should be an idea that makes the celebrity relevant to the product and the consumer.”
A celebrity’s presence in the ad should be contextual. When Sachin Tendulkar declares, “Boost is the secret of my energy,” it doesn’t seem out of context. Internationally, Nike’s association with Michael Jordan is legendary and also logical.
Mendonza adds, “I think celebrity endorsements work best when the celebrity is not introducing the brand. When the product already has a strong identity and a USP that is well established, then a celebrity can come in and give the brand an added fillip and generate some more interest value. However, what is of paramount importance is to find a complete fit between the values of the brand and the values of the celebrity. One needs to create a unique situation or story that links the celebrity to the product.”

When it doesn’t work
In the last decade or so, there has been a spurt in the use of celebrity endorsements. And with it, there has been an increase in the number of instances of brands failing to take off in spite of the biggest and brightest stars endorsing it and consequently leading to speculation about the soundness of celebrity endorsements as a communication strategy.
According to leading management thinker Dr Seamus Phan, “Many celebrity endorsements fail because they identify a celebrity they like in an emotive and un-researched manner, and then try to create advertising to force-fit the celebrity into the creative concept. Often, the finished advertising is at best contrived, and often, simply laughable. In the end, the brand suffers from a mismatched concept and celebrity, and millions of dollars are flushed away. If this company is publicly listed, imagine the disservice the company has done for its shareholders.” [2]
There are several reasons why celebrity endorsements fail to produce the desired effect, and each of them has to more to do with the core communication strategy and less with the celebrity’s pull. “Celebrities cannot really be blamed if their endorsements fail to push up the brand sales,” says Mendonza. Indeed, for it is important to recognise that celebrities can create interest - whether that interest converts into sales depends on various factors such as brand-celebrity disconnect, improper positioning, clutter of celebrities, or even product life-cycle.

Five causes of letdown
It’s worth going over some of the reasons why celebrity endorsements may not work:

1. Improper positioning
   Associating with a star, however big he or she may be, in itself does not guarantee sales. The most it can do is generate interest in the product or create a buzz around it. Take the case of Maruti Versa, which was launched amidst a lot of fanfare about three years ago. In spite of Maruti signing up superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan as brand ambassadors for Versa, the brand’s sales remained sluggish. To be fair, the Big B magic did work and the ads created significant interest, drawing people into the showroom. But perhaps the positioning itself was faulty as people were expecting a larger than life car, just like the brand’s ambassador. Last year, we saw Versa being re-positioned as a family car, with the core proposition being, “the joy of travelling together.” In the words of Ravi Bhatia, General Manager of Marketing at Maruti, Versa has started doing well and has witnessed an upswing since the new positioning. Last year, the average sales were 80-100 vehicles a month. Now they are selling 450 vehicles a month. [3]
2. Brand-celebrity disconnect
   If the celebrity used represents values that conflict with the brand values and positioning, the advertising will create a conflict in the minds of the target audience who may reject the proposition. Take for instance Toyota, one of world’s leading auto companies. Toyota chose teeny-pop singer Britney Spears for its brand Soluna Vios, a family sedan, which is preferred by married men and women with children. According to Phan, a youth icon like Britney would’ve been better used by Toyota for a sleek sports vehicle and for Soluna Vios, Toyota should choose someone like a mature man, Harrison Ford for example. [4]
3. Clutter Flutter
   In recent times, there has been such a deluge of celebrity endorsements that it has led to the very clutter that it aimed to break. For instance, Amitabh Bachchan endorses or has endorsed Pepsi, ICICI, BPL, Parker pens, Nerolac, Dabur, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Cadbury and a few social messages too. Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan endorses Omega, Tag Heuer, Pepsi, Hyundai, Clinic All Clear and Airtel among other brands has to his credit more television commercials than feature films since 1992. This over-exposure can be bad for the brand. Khan adds, “We seem to have just 2 ½ celebrities in a country of 1 billion people which is a terrible tragedy. Consequently, each celebrity is called upon to push maybe a dozen brands or so. Which is great for the celebrity but I think it is pretty daft for the brand because the impact of the celebrity reduces as the number of brands he endorses increases.” Parmeswaran agrees, “Unfortunately in India, we have too many brands chasing too few celebrities. And the recall value drops by a huge margin when you move from an A Class celebrity to a B Class.”
4. Dissatisfaction with product
   quality/performance
   You cannot sell an ordinary product just by making a celebrity endorse it. In fact, if anything, the product will fail faster because the presence of the celebrity will create a buzz and more people will know about the “ordinariness” of the product. Parmeswaran says, “Unfortunately using a celebrity seems to be the easy way out of a parity product situation.” Sachin Tendulkar’s endorsement of Fiat Palio was quite a success initially. But as word about the poor fuel efficiency of Palio spread, its sales took a beating. In this case, Sachin’s presence could’ve worked wonders but for the poor performance of the car in a market that is highly performance conscious.
5. Confusion/ Scepticism
   The use of celebrities can be confusing. Some viewers forget brand that a celebrity is approving. Others are so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity that they completely fail to notice the product/brand being advertised. The brand is overshadowed in the overwhelming presence of the star. In some cases, a celebrity can give rise to scepticism because it might be a bit too much for the masses to believe that the celebrities who are rich and can afford the best in the world are actually using a mass product being advertised on television. On the contrary, people might speculate about such things as “how much did the brand pay to rope him/ her in as the brand ambassador?”

Risks associated with Celebrity Endorsements
Fame is a fickle and fleeting companion and can ditch the famous at the slightest provocation. Celebrities, being human, make mistakes. But their mistakes get as much attention as their celebrity status and this can adversely affect the brands that they are endorsing. There are a number of examples, both Indian and International, where scandals and scams involving celebrity endorsers have caused embarrassment to the brands they endorse. Companies have to make quick decisions when one of their endorsers comes under fire or their own image could be tarnished. Guilty by association in a consumer’s eyes describes it best.
Magic Johnson lost his endorsement deals when he announced in 1991 that he’s HIV-positive. It wasn’t until July 2003 that he landed his first endorsement deal since the announcement. [5]
It’s a tricky situation for marketers. If a brand continues with the celebrity, it may adversely affect the image of the brand and consequently, brand sales. If the brand chooses to distance itself with the tainted celebrity, the huge costs spent on roping in the celebrity and making of the ads may go down the drain and even then the association of the brand with the celebrity might by then be so ingrained that the damage is already done. “It’s a two-way street. One way it shows the strength of the brand promotion. But it is also fraught with risk if your brand ambassador fails to perform in the related field,” says Reliance India Mobile (RIM) marketing head Kaushik Roy. RIM uses Cricket star Virendra Sehwag as its brand ambassador. Roy added, “We want to try and avoid celebrity endorsements as much as possible. Over-dependence on them will create problems in future so we should stand on our own legs.” [6]

Hedging the risk
The first thing to ensure, when zeroing in on a celebrity, is to try and choose someone whose record is impeccable. Having said that, it’s best not to depend on one celebrity, for that can backfire. Instead, it’s better to use many celebrities who represent the same values. Pepsi does this quite well. Capitalising on the popularity of cricket and films in Indian, Pepsi uses several cricketers and film stars in their ads. So when Azharuddin and Jadeja got embroiled in the match-mixing controversy, Pepsi’s severed its association only with these stars, but its relationship with cricket continued.

So what’s the big deal?
Star endorsement deals are big in every way. They are big on expenses and can have big implications on the brand’s fortunes. Celebrities have an enormous potential to shape the destinies of the brands they endorse, albeit sometimes negatively. Therefore, marketers who use celebrities must do so prudently, thinking through the concept of such endorsements carefully before adapting it into the message strategy. Advertising Experts concur that you must consider a celebrity endorsement if, and only if, the message strategy warrants it, not as a cover for a poor idea or bad product quality. And last but not the least, one should seriously consider the risks of associating with a well-known personality, and hedge against a future scandal by not relying on just one celebrity and instead linking the brand’s association with a broad theme represented by several celebrities. And if you can’t afford many celebrities, then get your thinking caps on, and come up with a better, safer idea. That will ensure that you’re in control of the brand’s destiny - not the stars!

She may be contacted at imedia@vsnl.com.