Definitions of Celebrity Endorsement - Case Study Example

Celebrity endorsement Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Abstract This report discussed the celebrity endorsement when marketing the brand of a product. Celebrity endorsement is the use of famous personalities in the society to promote a brand of a product. The report further discussed the various models of celebrity endorsement which include source attractiveness model, source credibility model and transfer meaning model which emphasizes on the attributes of the celebrity and the brand to ensure effectiveness in endorsing the product. Further, the report discussed the role of celebrity endorsement and these roles include creating awareness of the products, promoting loyalty among the customers and improving product call by the customers and all these contribute to improved competitive advantage of the product. In this regard therefore, the main role of celebrity endorsement according to this report is to ensure an organization creates competitive advantage through positive perception of the brand in the market. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Definitions of celebrity endorsement 4 Models of celebrity endorsement 5 Role of celebrity endorsement 8 Conclusion 8 Appendix 11 Introduction Many organizations are contemplating on the best ways they can improve their competitive advantage in the global market. In this regard, they are applying various strategies which can help to create awareness of the products the better in the market (Elberse & Jeroen 2012). The marketing strategy that many marketing managers have turned to is the celebrity endorsement. The celebrity endorsement by the celebrity plays a great role in the marketing function of an organization (Belch & Belch 2001). In the first place, celebrity endorsement helps to create awareness of the company products to the customers and enabling the marketing function create a positive feeling by the customers towards the brand as indicated in the appendix below. In addition, celebrity endorsement helps to attract the attention of the customers and in the process they get to access the product message which is passed across. In this regard therefore, this essay will discuss the main definitions of celebrity endorsement, the models of celebrity endorsement and the roles of celebrity endorsement in the marketing function in an organization. Definitions of celebrity endorsement There are a number of definitions which try to explain celebrity endorsement. The first definition is that, it is the form of advertising which uses well known people in the society because their achievement to promote the brand or product of a company (Belch & Belch 2001). However, this definition has been criticized because it does not take into account what the celebrity has achieved. It might be a negative image and this could spoil the reputation of the brand. Another definition of celebrity endorsement is the use of famous personalities in the society to promote the brand of a product. The celebrity must have a positive influence on the society and must have achieved a positive award in the society. This is the most effective definition of celebrity endorsement. In addition, there is also another definition which says that celebrity endorsement in where big names are used to create awareness of the company’s brand to the customers (Belch & Belch 2001). This definition has been criticized because there are some big names in the society which have negative influence on the people and this implies that the celebrity will influence the customers negatively instead of positive influence. In this regard therefore, the most effective definition of celebrity endorsement is the use of famous personalities who have positive rewards in the society to promote the brand of a product of a company (Belch & Belch 2001). For instance, the musicians can be used to promote the brand of a product to the youth and this will help to promote a positive feeling among the followers of the celebrity. Models of celebrity endorsement There are various models or frameworks which have been developed to enhance the implementation of the celebrity endorsement. The following are the main models of celebrity endorsement. The first model is the source attractiveness model (Zafer 1999). This theory states that the positive influence of the endorser will have a positive impact on the endorsed brand. The celebrity should be a source of attraction so as to attract the attention of the customers to the message which is being passed across. The endorsers can be selected from the athletics to promote a shoe brand (Duncan 2002). This will help to attract many customers because especially the fans of the celebrity. The use of this celebrities helps to create a long term memory among the customers as they will be able to memorize the brand of the product. The success of the celebrity endorsement depends on the competency of the celebrity. If the celebrity is not competent in the relevant field, he or she will not be able to promote the brand effectively as expected. In this regard therefore, the attractiveness of the celebrity determines the success of his influence on the brand. If the brand does not have the powerful feature which will attract the customers, the celebrity will help to do that. The brand of the product can be regarded positively by the customers depending on the perception of the customers in the market (Duncan 2002). The celebrity will help to promote positive customer perception of the brand since the customers will regard the products as they perceive the celebrity. A good example of source model of celebrity endorsement is the Cadbury brand in India. The brand suffered a negative impact in the market but the company introduced celebrity endorsement and they selected Amitabh Bachan to promote the brand. The celebrity changed the perception of the customers concerning the brand to a positive perception (Elberse & Jeroen 2012). The brand was then perceived positively among the customers and this led to increased sales of the brand even than previously. This is because the celebrity endorsement affected the perception of the customers and they purchased the brand more and this increased the sale of the company. Another model of celebrity endorsement is the source credibility model. This is the model which emphasizes that the success of the celebrity endorsement depends on the expertise knowledge of the endorser and his or her trustworthiness. Effective celebrity endorsement depends on the ability of the customers to trust and believe the word of the celebrity. This will help to promote the effectiveness of the message being passed across about the brand (Duncan 2002). Trust is the key factor which determines the success of the celebrity endorsement. However, the criticism of this model of celebrity endorsement is that it is hard to measure the trust among the customers. This implies that celebrity selection could be a problem since it is hard for the organization to select the most trusted celebrities to promote the brand (JauShyong 2013). For instance, the Chinese organizations like celebrities from the west than the local celebrities. This is because the Western celebrities are trusted better than the local celebrities. On the other hand, there is the transfer meaning model of celebrity endorsement. This theory of celebrity endorsement emphasizes on the character traits of the celebrity. The celebrity should possess traits which are in compatible with brand of the product. The celebrity should possess positive attributes which are in line with the attributes of the brand and this will help to promote positive association between the product and the customers. This implies that the key success of the celebrity endorsement is the attributes of the celebrity (Shimp 2003). A celebrity should be selected who possesses almost the same characteristics as those of the brand. This will help to communicate the brand effectively to the customers. For instance, a leading athlete should be used to promote sportswear to liken the leading athlete with the brand and the customers will perceive it to be leading among the many brands in the market (Elberse & Jeroen 2012). This will help to promote the association between the customers and the brand. The attributes of the celebrity helps to transfer the attributes to the brand hence will develop a positive perception of the brand among the customers. The criticism of this theory of celebrity endorsement is that is does not focus on customer expectations (Shimp 2003). The brand and the celebrity might have almost the same characteristics but it is important but if they don’t consider the expectations of the customers, the brand might not be effective in the market and it will not have much influence on the customers. Considering the above models of celebrity endorsement, there are some similarities and differences among these models of celebrity endorsement. The first similarity is that they help to improve the awareness of the brand. This will help to improve the sales of the brand which will lead to competitive advantage. Another similarity is that these models use celebrities to promote the brand of the products in the market (Raluca 2013). The most competent brands are used to create awareness of the brand of the products in the market. In this regard, celebrity endorsement helps to improve the performance of an organization in the market. On the other hand, there are some contrasts among these theories of celebrity endorsement. The source attractiveness model emphasizes that the celebrity attractiveness determines the success of the celebrity endorsement. This implies that the perception of the celebrity among the customers helps to determine how the brand of the product is being promoted in the market. Poor attractiveness of the celebrity leads to poor performance of the celebrity because there will be poor perception of the brand among the customers (Shimp 2003). On the other hand, source credibility model emphasizes that the success if the celebrity endorsement is determined by the expertise of the celebrity to market the product. The celebrity should be competent to ensure effective message is passed to the customers. Finally, transfer meaning model of celebrity endorsement emphasizes that the celebrity should possess attributes which are almost the same as those of the brand (Pedhiwal 2011). This is the key success of celebrity endorsement according to transfer model of celebrity endorsement. In this regard therefore, transfer model of celebrity endorsement is the most appropriate model which can be applied by an organization to promote the brand (Shimp 2003). This is because this model associates the product with the attributes of the celebrity and this improves the endorsement of the product to the customers. Role of celebrity endorsement Celebrity endorsement plays an important role in the marketing of a product. The first role is to create trust among the current customers of the brand (Kotler & Chernes 2012). This is because continues advertisement will influence the buying behavior of the customers. The celebrity endorsement will influence the buying behavior of the customers and this will help to improve competitive advantage of the organization in the market. In addition, celebrity endorsement also helps to improve the customers to remember the brand better. This is because once the customers see the image of the celebrity, they remember the brand. The end result is that the customers will develop loyalty in the brand which and this helps to attract and retain customers of the product (Kotler & Chernes 2012). Most of the customers hold celebrities with high regard ad therefore when the celebrity endorses a certain brand, the customers will definitely be able to follow consume the product because they have trust in the celebrity. This promotes product recall as a result of the celebrity courtesy. Moreover, celebrity endorsement helps to create awareness of the brand to the customers. Since the celebrities are public figures, they have many followers who will imitate what their celebrity is doing. This implies that if the celebrity is using a certain brand of a product, his or her followers will also follow the same and will want to taste the brand being used by the celebrity (Kotler & Chernes 2012). In this regard, the celebrities play the role of creating awareness of the brand to the customers. Conclusion Celebrity endorsement is where an organization uses the celebrities to promote its products to the customers. The celebrities are the famous personalities and who have an influence in the society. They help to influence the buying behavior of the customers since the famous personalities have influence on the perception of the customers. The main models of celebrity endorsement include the source attractiveness model which emphasizes on the attractiveness of the celebrity while source credibility model emphasizes on the expertise of the celebrity to influence the perception of the brand and finally there is transfer meaning model which emphasizes that the celebrity should possess same attributes like the brand for effective endorsement of the brand. The main roles of celebrity endorsement include creating awareness of the brand to the customers, improve trust and loyalty of the existing customers and also improve recall of the product among the customers. Celebrity endorsement therefore helps to improve the performance of the brand in the market by attracting and retaining many customers which in turn improve the sales of the company. References Belch, E.G & Belch, A.M 2001, Advertising and Promotion, 5th edn, McGraw Hill Irwin, New York Duncan, T 2002, IMC, International Edition, Mcgraw-Hill, America. Elberse, A & Jeroen, V 2012, "The Economic Value of Celebrity Endorsements." Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 149–165. JauShyong, W 2013, Effect of celebrity endorsement on consumer purchase intentions: Advertising effect and advertising appeal as mediators, Human factor and ergonomics in manufacturing service industries, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 357-367. Kotler, P & Chernes, A 2012, Strategic Marketing Management, McGraw Hill Pedhiwal, G. L 2011, Impact of celebrity endorsements on overall brand, Indian streams research journal, Vol. 1, No. 5, pp. 1-22. Raluca C 2013, Celebrity endorsement in fashion print advertising, EuroEconomica, Vol 32, No 1, pp. 26-370. Shimp, A.T 2003, Advertising and Promotion, 6th edn, Thompson, USA. Zafer, E 1999, Marketing management, journal of marketing management, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 291-314. Appendix Celebrity endorsements attract customers to a new products.Image 1 of 2 Read More