Project Work Report

Of

Customer Perception

on

Celebrity Endorsement

Submitted By

B.B.A 3rd year

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (BBA)

PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

SESSION-2008-2010

D.A.V COLLEGE

CHANDIGARH

APPROVED BY AICTE AND AFFLIATED TO

PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

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Declaration

I hereby declare that the project “customer perception on celebrity endorsement” submitted in Partial

fulfillment of requirement for the degree of

“BACHELOR OF BUSINESSS ADMINISTRATION”

To

PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

Is of my Original work and not submitted for the award of any other Degree, Diploma, Fellowship, or

other similar title or prizes

Panjab university

chandigarh

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Preface

BBA is a stepping-stone to the Management carrier and to develop good Managers is necessary that the

theoretical must be supplement with exposure to the real environment.

Theoretical knowledge just provides the base and it’s not sufficient to produce a good Manager that’s

why the practical knowledge is needed.

Therefore the Research Project is an essential requirement for the student of BBA. This research project

not only helps the students to utilize his skills properly and learn field realities but also provides a

chance to the organization to find out talent among the building Managers in the very beginning.

In accordance with the requirement of BBA course I have done my research project on the topic

“Customer Perception on Celebrity Endorsement”..

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Acknowledgement

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What Lies Ahead

Chapter-1 Introduction to Celebrity Endorsement

Meaning & History of Celebrity Endorsement

What is Advertising History of Advertising Types of Advertising Criticism of Advertising Scope of the Topic

Impact of Celebrity Endorsement On Brands

Advantages of Celebrity Endorsement

Disadvantages of Celebrity Endorsement

Chapter-2 Objectives of the Study

Chapter-3 Limitations of the Study

Chapter-4 Reareach Methodology

Chapter-5 Analysis & Interpretation

Chapter-6 Findings

Chapter-7 Conclusion

Chapter-8 Annexure

Chapter- 9 Bibliography

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Executive Summary

Today 'Celebrity Endorsement' has attracted immense debate on whether it really contributes to the brand building process or whether it is just another lazy tool to make the brand more visible in the minds of the consumers. Although it has been observed that the presence of a well-known personality helps in solving the problem of over-communication that is becoming more prominent these days, there are few undesirable impacts of this practice on the brand. The theories like 'Source Credibility Theory, Source Attractiveness Theory and Meaning Transfer Theory' provide a basis on which the methodology of celebrity endorsement works and also explains how the process of the celebrity endorsement influences the minds of the consumers. Firms invest huge amounts as advertising expenditure for hiring the right celebrity. However there lies uncertainty with respect to the returns that the company might be able to garner for the brand. The issue of matching the values of the celebrity with the brand values is also very important, i.e. getting the right celebrity to endorse the right brand. Consumers perceive the brand as having superior quality because it has been endorsed by a credible source. This makes endorsement as one of the indictors of quality for any brand. Corporate credibility along with endorser credibility plays a significant role in the attitude of the consumer towards the brand and the advertisement respectively. On the other hand, the over popularity of the celebrity sometimes overshadows the brand. If the celebrity is involved in multiple endorsements, it tends to create confusion among consumers and hence negatively affects the perception of the advertisement and the brand. Hence, to say clearly whether the practice of celebrity endorsement impacts positively or negatively to the brand still remains a debate.

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INTRODUCTION

The motive behind total branding may be decocted as an attempt to amalgamate diverse

activities to win customer preference. Apropos to this context, the topic “Role of celebrity

endorsement on overall brand”, is a significant one. The crescendo of celebrities endorsing

brands has been steadily increasing over the past years. Marketers overtly acknowledge the

power of celebrities in influencing consumer-purchasing decisions. It is a ubiquitously accepted

fact that celebrity endorsement can bestow special attributes upon a product that it may have

lacked otherwise. But everything is not hunky-dory; celebrities are after all mere mortals made

of flesh and blood like us. If a celebrity can aggrandize the merits of a brand, he or she can also

exacerbate the image of a brand.

Today 'Celebrity Endorsement' has attracted immense debate on whether it really contributes to

the brand building process or whether it is just another lazy tool to make the brand more visible

in the minds of the consumers. Although it has been observed that the presence of a well-known

personality helps in solving the problem of over-communication that is becoming more

prominent these days, there are few undesirable impacts of this practice on the brand. The

theories like 'Source Credibility Theory, Source Attractiveness Theory and Meaning Transfer

Theory' provide a basis on which the methodology of celebrity endorsement works and also

explains how the process of the celebrity endorsement influences the minds of the consumers.

Firms invest huge amounts as advertising expenditure for hiring the right celebrity. However

there lies uncertainty with respect to the returns that the company might be able to garner for the

brand. On the other hand, the over popularity of the celebrity sometimes overshadows the brand.

If the celebrity is involved in multiple endorsements, it tends to create confusion among

consumers and hence negatively affects the perception of the advertisement and the brand.

Hence, to say clearly whether the practice of celebrity endorsement impacts positively or

negatively to the brand still remains a debate.

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History

Celebrities are involved in endorsing activities since late nineteenth century. The advent of

celebrity endorsements in advertising in India began when Hindi film and TV stars as well as

sportspersons began encroaching on a territory that was, until then, the exclusive domain of

models. One of the first sports endorsements in India was when Farokh Engineer became the first

Indian cricketer to model for Bryl cream. The Indian cricket team now earns roughly Rs. 100

crore through endorsements. There was a spurt of advertising, featuring stars like Tabassum

(Prestige Pressure Cookers), Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving Cream) and

Sunil Gavaskar (Dinesh Suitings).

If I may take the liberty of rephrasing Aristotle’s quote on anger, “Any brand can get a

celebrity. That is easy. But getting a celebrity consistent with the right brand, to the right degree,

at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way... that is not easy.”

Celebrity endorsements are impelled by virtue of the following motives:

Instant Brand Awareness and Recall.

Celebrity values define, and refresh the brand image.

Celebrities add new dimensions to the brand image.

Instant credibility or aspiration PR coverage.

Convincing client’s.

“A sign of a celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services.” - Daniel J Boorstin

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If the world were full of all wise men and all wise women; we would have never heard of a term called "advertisement". And then good products would have found the right customers and grown to prosperity. Firms would have worked out a mathematical formula to sell and succeed. But the buying process isn't rational; and so is this world.

Today, the business firms are trying out different ways in advertisement to increase their sales. Indians are die-hard movie and sport buffs; and this aspect of the consumers has invited the concept of "Celebrity Endorsement" to the world of advertisement. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of Celebrity Endorsement in the process of brand-building by taking appropriate examples from the advertising landscape.

Branding & Celebrity Endorsement

Indian firms have been juxtaposing their brands with celebrity endorsers in the hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing and/or corporate communication attempts. Today, use of celebrities as part of marketing communication strategy is fairly common practice for major firms in supporting corporate or brand imagery.

What is a Brand?

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, once said, "Our most valuable assets are our intangible assets." The intangible asset he was referring to is a brand. The Dictionary of Business & Management defines a brand as: a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitor.

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Definition of Celebrity

A celebrity is a person who is widely recognized in a society. Whereas attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary lifestyle or special skills are just examples and specific common characteristics cannot be observed.

It can be said that within a corresponding social group, celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy a high degree of public awareness. Today's celebrities are larger figures from movies (Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan), television (Larry King, Smriti Irani) and sports (Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Schumacher).

Definition of Celebrity Endorsement

According to Friedman & Friedman, a "celebrity endorser is an individual who is known by the public for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed." So, in the Coco-Cola advertisement; actor Amir Khan is the celebrity endorser for the product or brand called Coke, and this process is referred to as Celebrity Endorsement.

The Need for Celebrity Endorsement

The charisma of the celebrities almost always entices people and their words are worshipped by a lot of people. Their influence also goes on the political front, where they are invited for political endorsement. The business firms, thus, resort to celebrity endorsement to perk up brand recall and product sales. This has now become a trend and is being perceived as a strategic means of brand building exercise.

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WHAT IS ADVERTISING

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade its viewers, readers or listeners to take some action. It usually includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume that particular brand.Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Different types of media can be used to deliver these messages, including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct mail. Advertising may be placed by anadvertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.

Organizations that spend money on advertising promoting items other than a consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement.

HISTORY OF ADVERTISING

Egyptians upapyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. commercial and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia Lost and found advertising on papyrus was common in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient advertising form, which is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. The tradition of wall painting can be traced back to Indian rock art paintings that date back to 4000 BC. History tells us that Out-of-home advertising and billboards are the oldest forms of advertising.

As the towns and cities of the Middle Ages began to grow, and the general populace was unable to read, signs that today would say cobbler, miller, tailor or blacksmith would use an image associated with their trade such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a horse shoe, a candle or even a bag of flour. Fruits and vegetables were sold in the city square from the backs of carts and wagons and their proprietors used street callers (town criers) to announce their whereabouts for the convenience of the customers.

As education became an apparent need and reading, as well as printing, developed advertising expanded to include handbills. In the 17th century advertisements started to appear in weekly newspapers in England. These early print advertisements were used mainly to promote books and newspapers, which became increasingly affordable with advances in the printing press; and

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medicines, which were increasingly sought after as disease ravaged Europe. However, false advertising and so-called "quack" advertisements became a problem, which ushered in the regulation of advertising content.

As the economy expanded during the 19th century, advertising grew alongside. In the United States, the success of this advertising format eventually led to the growth of mail-order advertising.

In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its pages, allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability and the formula was soon copied by all titles. Around 1840, Volney Palmer established a predecessor to advertising agencies in Boston. Around the same time, in France, Charles-Louis Havas extended the services of his news agency, Havas to include advertisement brokerage, making it the first French group to organize. At first, agencies were brokers for advertisement space in newspapers. N. W. Ayer & Son was the first full-service agency to assume responsibility for advertising content. N.W. Ayer opened in 1869, and was located in Philadelphia.

An 1895 advertisement for a weight gain product.

At the turn of the century, there were few career choices for women in business; however, advertising was one of the few. Since women were responsible for most of the purchasing done in their household, advertisers and agencies recognized the value of women's insight during the

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creative process. In fact, the first American advertising to use a sexual sell was created by a woman – for a soap product. Although tame by today's standards, the advertisement featured a couple with the message "The skin you love to touch".In the early 1920s, the first radio stations were established by radio equipment manufacturers and retailers who offered programs in order to sell more radios to consumers. As time passed, many non-profit organizations followed suit in setting up their own radio stations, and included: schools, clubs and civic groups When the practice of sponsoring programs was popularised, each individual radio program was usually sponsored by a single business in exchange for a brief mention of the business' name at the beginning and end of the sponsored shows. However, radio station owners soon realised they could earn more money by selling sponsorship rights in small time allocations to multiple businesses throughout their radio station's broadcasts, rather than selling the sponsorship rights to single businesses per show.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING

Virtually any medium can be used for advertising. Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes ("logojets"), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers,doors of bathroom stalls,stickers on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.

1 TelevisionMain articles: Television advertisement and Music in advertising

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising event on television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached US$3 million (as of 2009).

The majority of television commercials feature a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the product.

Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through computer graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank backdropsor used to replace local billboards that are not relevant to the remote broadcast audience. More controversially, virtual billboards may be inserted into the backgroundwhere none exist in real-life. Virtual product placement is also possible.

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2 Infomercials

Main article: Infomercial

An infomercial is a long-format television commercial, typically five minutes or longer. The word "infomercial" is a portmanteau of the words "information" & "commercial". The main objective in an infomercial is to create an impulse purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation and then immediately buys the product through the advertised toll-free telephone number or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and their features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and industry professionals.

3 Radio advertising

Radio advertising is a form of advertising via the medium of radio.

Radio advertisements are broadcasted as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for airing the commercials. While radio has the obvious limitation of being restricted to sound, proponents of radio advertising often cite this as an advantage.

4 Press advertising

Press advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper, magazine, or trade journal. This encompasses everything from media with a very broad readership base, such as a major national newspaper or magazine, to more narrowly targeted media such as local newspapers and trade journals on very specialized topics. A form of press advertising is classified advertising, which allows private individuals or companies to purchase a small, narrowly targeted ad for a low fee advertising a product or service.

5 Online advertising

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in text , Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

6 Billboard advertising

Billboards are large structures located in public places which display advertisements to passing pedestrians and motorists. Most often, they are located on main roads with a large amount of passing motor and pedestrian traffic; however, they can be placed in any location with large amounts of viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or office buildings, and in stadiums.

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7 Mobile billboard advertising

The RedEye newspaper advertised to its target market at North Avenue Beach with a sailboat billboard on Lake Michigan.

Mobile billboards are generally vehicle mounted billboards or digital screens. These can be on dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along routes preselected by clients, they can also be specially-equipped cargo trucks or, in some cases, large banners strewn from planes. The billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and others employing spotlights. Some billboard displays are static, while others change; for example, continuously or periodically rotating among a set of advertisements.

Mobile displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout the world, including:

Target advertising One-day, and long-term campaigns

Conventions

Sporting events

Store openings and similar promotional events

Big advertisements from smaller companies

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Others

8 In-store advertising

In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes placement of a product in visible locations in a store, such as at eye level, at the ends of aisles and near checkout counters, eye-catching displays promoting a specific product, and advertisements in such places as shopping carts and in-store video displays.

9 Covert advertisingMain article: Product placement

Covert advertising, also known as guerrilla advertising, is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderton owns a phone with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo. Another example of advertising in film is in I, Robot, where main character played by Will Smith mentions his Converse shoes several times, calling them "classics," because the film is set far in the future. I, Robot and Spaceballs also showcase futuristic cars with the Audi and Mercedes-Benz logos clearly displayed on the front of the vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie The Matrix Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac cars were used. Similarly, product placement for Omega Watches, Ford, VAIO, BMW and Aston Martin cars are featured in recent James Bond films, most notably Casino Royale. In "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer", the main transport vehicle shows a large Dodge logo on the front. Blade Runner includes some of the most obvious product placement; the whole film stops to show a Coca-Cola billboard.

10 CelebritiesMain article: Celebrity branding

This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers often advertise their products, for example, when celebrities share their favorite products or wear clothes by specific brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general products.

The use of celebrities to endorse a brand can have its downsides, however. One mistake by a celebrity can be detrimental to the public relations of a brand. For example, following his performance of eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, swimmer Michael Phelps' contract with Kellogg's was terminated, as Kellogg's did not want to associate with him after he was photographed smoking marijuana.

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11 Media and advertising approaches

Increasingly, other media are overtaking many of the "traditional" media such as television, radio and newspaper because of a shift toward consumer's usage of the Internet for news and music as well as devices like digital video recorders (DVRs) such as TiVo.

Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives.

Digital signage is poised to become a major mass media because of its ability to reach larger audiences for less money. Digital signage also offer the unique ability to see the target audience where they are reached by the medium. Technology advances has also made it possible to control the message on digital signage with much precision, enabling the messages to be relevant to the target audience at any given time and location which in turn, gets more response from the advertising. Digital signage is being successfully employed in supermarkets. Another successful use of digital signage is in hospitality locations such as restaurants. and malls.

E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as "e-mail spam". Spam has been a problem for email users for many years.

Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising (see mind control), and the pervasiveness of mass messages (see propaganda).

Unpaid advertising (also called "publicity advertising"), can provide good exposure at minimal cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat of equating a brand with a common noun (in the United States, "Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex" = tissue, "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly, "Hoover" = vacuum cleaner, "Nintendo" (often used by those exposed to many video games) = video games, and "Band-Aid" = adhesive bandage) — these can be seen as the pinnacle of any advertising campaign. However, some companies oppose the use of their brand name to label an object. Equating a brand with a common noun also risks turning that brand into a genericized trademark - turning it into a generic term which means that its legal protection as a trademark is lost.

As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid downloadable content appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time until mobile advertising followed, also first launched in Finland in 2000. By 2007 the value of mobile advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers such as Admob delivered billions of mobile ads.

More advanced mobile ads include banner ads, coupons, Multimedia Messaging Service picture and video messages, advergames and various engagement marketing campaigns. A particular feature driving mobile ads is the 2D Barcode, which replaces the need to do any typing of web addresses, and uses the camera feature of modern phones to gain immediate access to web content. 83 percent of Japanese mobile phone users already are active users of 2D barcodes.

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A new form of advertising that is growing rapidly is social network advertising. It is online advertising with a focus on social networking sites. This is a relatively immature market, but it has shown a lot of promise as advertisers are able to take advantage of the demographic information the user has provided to the social networking site. Friendertising is a more precise advertising term in which people are able to direct advertisements toward others directly using social network service.

From time to time, The CW Television Network airs short programming breaks called "Content Wraps," to advertise one company's product during an entire commercial break. The CW pioneered "content wraps" and some products featured were Herbal Essences, Crest, Guitar Hero II, CoverGirl, and recently Toyota.

Recently, there appeared a new promotion concept, "ARvertising", advertising on Augmented Reality technology.

CRITICISM OF ADVERTISING

1 Hyper-commercialism and the commercial tidal wave

Criticism of advertising is closely linked with criticism of media and often interchangeable. They can refer to its audio-visual aspects (e. g. cluttering of public spaces and airwaves), environmental aspects (e. g. pollution, oversize packaging, increasing consumption), political aspects (e. g. media dependency, free speech, censorship), financial aspects (costs), ethical/moral/social aspects (e. g. sub-conscious influencing, invasion of privacy, increasing consumption and waste, target groups, certain products, honesty) and, of course, a mix thereof. Some aspects can be subdivided further and some can cover more than one category.

As advertising has become increasingly prevalent in modern Western societies, it is also increasingly being criticized. A person can hardly move in the public sphere or use a medium without being subject to advertising. Advertising occupies public space and more and more invades the private sphere of people, many of which consider it a nuisance. “It is becoming harder to escape from advertising and the media. … Public space is increasingly turning into a gigantic billboard for products of all kind. The aesthetical and political consequences cannot yet be foreseen.” Hanno Rauterberg in the German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’ calls advertising a new kind of dictatorship that cannot be escaped. Ad creep."There are ads in schools, airport lounges, doctors offices, movie theaters, hospitals, gas stations, elevators, convenience stores, on the Internet, on fruit, on ATMs, on garbage cans and countless other places. There are ads on beach sand and restroom walls. “One of the ironies of advertising in our times is that as commercialism increases, it makes it that much more difficult for any particular advertiser to succeed, hence pushing the advertiser to even greater efforts. Within a decade advertising in radios climbed to nearly 18 or 19 minutes per hour; on prime-time television the standard until 1982 was no more than 9.5 minutes of advertising per hour, today it’s between 14 and 17 minutes. With the introduction of the shorter 15-second-spot the total amount of ads increased even more

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dramatically. Ads are not only placed in breaks but e. g. also into baseball telecasts during the game itself. They flood the internet, a market growing in leaps and bounds.

Other growing markets are ‘’product placements’’ in entertainment programming and in movies where it has become standard practice and ‘’virtual advertising’’ where products get placed retroactively into rerun shows. Product billboards are virtually inserted into Major League Baseball broadcasts and in the same manner, virtual street banners or logos are projected on an entry canopy or sidewalks, for example during the arrival of celebrities at the 2001 Grammy awards. Advertising precedes the showing of films at cinemas including lavish ‘film shorts’ produced by companies such as Microsoft or DaimlerChrysler. “The largest advertising agencies have begun working aggressively to co-produce programming in conjunction with the largest media firms” creating Infomercials resembling entertainment programming.

Opponents equate the growing amount of advertising with a “tidal wave” and restrictions with “damming” the flood. Kalle Lasn, one of the most outspoken critics of advertising on the international stage, considers advertising “the most prevalent and toxic of the mental pollutants. From the moment your radio alarm sounds in the morning to the wee hours of late-night TV microjolts of commercial pollution flood into your brain at the rate of around 3,000 marketing messages per day. Every day an estimated twelve billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials and more than 200,000 television commercials are dumped into North America’s collective unconscious”. In the course of his life the average American watches three years of advertising on television.

More recent developments are video games incorporating products into their content, special commercial patient channels in hospitals and public figures sporting temporary tattoos. A method unrecognisable as advertising is so-called ‘’guerrilla marketing’’ which is spreading ‘buzz’ about a new product in target audiences. Cash-strapped U.S. cities do not shrink back from offering police cars for advertising. A trend, especially in Germany, is companies buying the names of sports stadiums. The Hamburg soccer Volkspark stadium first became the AOL Arena and then the HSH Nordbank Arena. The Stuttgart Neckarstadion became the Mercedes-Benz Arena, the Dortmund Westfalenstadion now is the Signal Iduna Park. The former SkyDome in Toronto was renamed Rogers Centre. Other recent developments are, for example, that whole subway stations in Berlin are redesigned into product halls and exclusively leased to a company. Düsseldorf even has ‘multi-sensorial’ adventure transit stops equipped with loudspeakers and systems that spread the smell of a detergent. Swatch used beamers to project messages on the Berlin TV-tower and Victory column, which was fined because it was done without a permit. The illegality was part of the scheme and added promotion.

It’s standard business management knowledge that advertising is a pillar, if not “the” pillar of the growth-orientated free capitalist economy. “Advertising is part of the bone marrow of corporate capitalism.” “Contemporary capitalism could not function and global production networks could not exist as they do without advertising.

For communication scientist and media economist Manfred Knoche at the University of Salzburg, Austria, advertising isn’t just simply a ‘necessary evil’ but a ‘necessary elixir of life’ for the media business, the economy and capitalism as a whole. Advertising and mass media

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economic interests create ideology. Knoche describes advertising for products and brands as ‘the producer’s weapons in the competition for customers’ and trade advertising, e. g. by the automotive industry, as a means to collectively represent their interests against other groups, such as the train companies. In his view editorial articles and programmes in the media, promoting consumption in general, provide a ‘cost free’ service to producers and sponsoring for a ‘much used means of payment’ in advertising. Christopher Lasch argues that advertising leads to an overall increase in consumption in society; "Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life."

2 Advertising and constitutional rights

Advertising is equated with constitutionally guaranteed freedom of opinion and speech.[31] Therefore criticizing advertising or any attempt to restrict or ban advertising is almost always considered to be an attack on fundamental rights First Amendment in the US) and meets the combined and concentrated resistance of the business and especially the advertising community. “Currently or in the near future, any number of cases are and will be working their way through the court system that would seek to prohibit any government regulation of ... commercial speech (e.g. advertising or food labelling) on the grounds that such regulation would violate citizens’ and corporations’ First Amendment rights to free speech or free press.” An example for this debate is advertising for tobacco or alcohol but also advertising by mail or fliers (clogged mail boxes), advertising on the phone, in the internet and advertising for children. Various legal restrictions concerning spamming, advertising on mobile phones, addressing children, tobacco, alcohol have been introduced by the US, the EU and various other countries. Not only the business community resists restrictions of advertising. Advertising as a means of free expression has firmly established itself in western societyMcChesney argues, that the government deserves constant vigilance when it comes to such regulations, but that it is certainly not “the only antidemocratic force in our society. ...corporations and the wealthy enjoy a power every bit as immense as that enjoyed by the lords and royalty of feudal times” and “markets are not value-free or neutral; they not only tend to work to the advantage of those with the most money, but they also by their very nature emphasize profit over all else….Hence, today the debate is over whether advertising or food labelling, or campaign contributions are speech...if the rights to be protected by the First Amendment can only be effectively employed by a fraction of the citizenry, and their exercise of these rights gives them undue political power and undermines the ability of the balance of the citizenry to exercise the same rights and/or constitutional rights, then it is not necessarily legitimately protected by the First Amendment.” In addition, “those with the capacity to engage in free press are in a position to determine who can speak to the great mass of citizens and who cannot”. Critics in turn argue, that advertising invades privacy which is a constitutional right. For, on the one hand, advertising physically invades privacy, on the other, it increasingly uses relevant, information-based communication with private data assembled without the knowledge or consent of consumers or target groups.

For Georg Franck at Vienna University of Technology advertising is part of what he calls “mental capitalism”, taking up a term (mental) which has been used by groups concerned with the mental environment, such as Adbusters. Franck blends the “Economy of Attention” with Christopher Lasch’s culture of narcissm into the mental capitalism: In his essay „Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse“, Sut Jhally writes: “20. century advertising is the most powerful and

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sustained system of propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural effects, unless quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we know it.

3 The price of attention and hidden costs

Advertising has developed into a billion-dollar business on which many depend. In 2006 391 billion US dollars were spent worldwide for advertising. In Germany, for example, the advertising industry contributes 1.5% of the gross national income; the figures for other developed countries are similar. Thus, advertising and growth are directly and causally linked. As far as a growth based economy can be blamed for the harmful human lifestyle (affluent society) advertising has to be considered in this aspect concerning its negative impact, because its main purpose is to raise consumption. “The industry is accused of being one of the engines powering a convoluted economic mass production system which promotes consumption.”

Attention and attentiveness have become a new commodity for which a market developed. “The amount of attention that is absorbed by the media and redistributed in the competition for quotas and reach is not identical with the amount of attention, that is available in society. The total amount circulating in society is made up of the attention exchanged among the people themselves and the attention given to media information. Only the latter is homogenised by quantitative measuring and only the latter takes on the character of an anonymous currency.” According to Franck, any surface of presentation that can guarantee a certain degree of attentiveness works as magnet for attention, e. g. media which are actually meant for information and entertainment, culture and the arts, public space etc. It is this attraction which is sold to the advertising business. The German Advertising Association stated that in 2007 30.78 billion Euros were spent on advertising in Germany 26% in newspapers, 21% on television, 15% by mail and 15% in magazines. In 2002 there were 360.000 people employed in the advertising business. The internet revenues for advertising doubled to almost 1 billion Euros from 2006 to 2007, giving it the highest growth rates.

Spiegel-Online reported that in the US in 2008 for the first time more money was spent for advertising on internet (105.3 billion US dollars) than on television (98.5 billion US dollars). The largest amount in 2008 was still spent in the print media (147 billion US dollars). For that same year, Welt-Online reported that the US pharmaceutical industry spent almost double the amount on advertising (57.7 billion dollars) than it did on research (31.5 billion dollars). But Marc-André Gagnon und Joel Lexchin of York University, Toronto, estimate that the actual expenses for advertising are higher yet, because not all entries are recorded by the research institutions. Not included are indirect advertising campaigns such as sales, rebates and price reductions. Few consumers are aware of the fact that they are the ones paying for every cent spent for public relations, advertisements, rebates, packaging etc. since they ordinarily get included in the price calculation.

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4 Influencing and conditioning

Advertising for McDonald's on the Via di Propaganda, Rome, Italy

The most important element of advertising is not information but suggestion more or less making use of associations, emotions (appeal to emotion) and drives dormant in the sub-conscience of people, such as sex drive, herd instinct, of desires, such as happiness, health, fitness, appearance, self-esteem, reputation, belonging, social status, identity, adventure, distraction, reward, of fears (appeal to fear), such as illness, weaknesses, loneliness, need, uncertainty, security or of prejudices, learned opinions and comforts. “All human needs, relationships, and fears – the deepest recesses of the human psyche – become mere means for the expansion of the commodity universe under the force of modern marketing. With the rise to prominence of modern marketing, commercialism – the translation of human relations into commodity relations – although a phenomenon intrinsic to capitalism, has expanded exponentially.” ’Cause-related marketing’ in which advertisers link their product to some worthy social cause has boomed over the past decade.

Advertising exploits the model role of celebrities or popular figures and makes deliberate use of humour as well as of associations with colour, tunes, certain names and terms. Altogether, these are factors of how one perceives himself and one’s self-worth. In his description of ‘mental capitalism’ Franck says, “the promise of consumption making someone irresistible is the ideal way of objects and symbols into a person’s subjective experience. Evidently, in a society in which revenue of attention moves to the fore, consumption is drawn by one’s self-esteem. As a result, consumption becomes ‘work’ on a person’s attraction. From the subjective point of view, this ‘work’ opens fields of unexpected dimensions for advertising. Advertising takes on the role of a life councillor in matters of attraction. (…) The cult around one’s own attraction is what Christopher Lasch described as ‘Culture of Narcissism’.

For advertising critics another serious problem is that “the long standing notion of separation between advertising and editorial/creative sides of media is rapidly crumbling” and advertising is increasingly hard to tell apart from news, information or entertainment. The boundaries between advertising and programming are becoming blurred. According to the media firms all this commercial involvement has no influence over actual media content, but, as McChesney puts it, “this claim fails to pass even the most basic giggle test, it is so preposterous.”

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Advertising draws “heavily on psychological theories about how to create subjects, enabling advertising and marketing to take on a ‘more clearly psychological tinge’ (Miller and Rose, 1997, cited in Thrift, 1999, p.67). Increasingly, the emphasis in advertising has switched from providing ‘factual’ information to the symbolic connotations of commodities, since the crucial cultural premise of advertising is that the material object being sold is never in itself enough. Even those commodities providing for the most mundane necessities of daily life must be imbued with symbolic qualities and culturally endowed meanings via the ‘magic system (Williams, 1980) of advertising. In this way and by altering the context in which advertisements appear, things ‘can be made to mean "just about anything"’ (McFall, 2002, p.162) and the ‘same’ things can be endowed with different intended meanings for different individuals and groups of people, thereby offering mass produced visions of individualism.

Before advertising is done, market research institutions need to know and describe the target group to exactly plan and implement the advertising campaign and to achieve the best possible results. A whole array of sciences directly deal with advertising and marketing or is used to improve its effects. Focus groups, psychologists and cultural anthropologists are ‘’’de rigueur’’’ in marketing research”. Vast amounts of data on persons and their shopping habits are collected, accumulated, aggregated and analysed with the aid of credit cards, bonus cards, raffles and internet surveying. With increasing accuracy this supplies a picture of behaviour, wishes and weaknesses of certain sections of a population with which advertisement can be employed more selectively and effectively. The efficiency of advertising is improved through advertising research. Universities, of course supported by business and in co-operation with other disciplines (s. above), mainly Psychiatry, Anthropology, Neurology and behavioural sciences, are constantly in search for ever more refined, sophisticated, subtle and crafty methods to make advertising more effective. “Neuromarketing is a controversial new field of marketing which uses medical technologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) -- not to heal, but to sell products. Advertising and marketing firms have long used the insights and research methods of psychology in order to sell products, of course. But today these practices are reaching epidemic levels, and with a complicity on the part of the psychological profession that exceeds that of the past. The result is an enormous advertising and marketing onslaught that comprises, arguably, the largest single psychological project ever undertaken. Yet, this great undertaking remains largely ignored by the American Psychological Association Robert McChesney calls it "the greatest concerted attempt at psychological manipulation in all of human history.

5 Dependency of the media and corporate censorship

Almost all mass media are advertising media and many of them are exclusively advertising media and, with the exception of public service broadcasting are privately owned. Their income is predominantly generated through advertising; in the case of newspapers and magazines from 50 to 80%. Public service broadcasting in some countries can also heavily depend on advertising as a source of income (up to 40%). In the view of critics no media that spreads advertisements can be independent and the higher the proportion of advertising, the higher the dependency. This dependency has “distinct implications for the nature of media content…. In the business press, the media are often referred to in exactly the way they present themselves in their candid moments: as a branch of the advertising industry.

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In addition, the private media are increasingly subject to mergers and concentration with property situations often becoming entangled and opaque. This development, which Henry A. Giroux calls an “ongoing threat to democratic culture” by itself should suffice to sound all alarms in a democracy. Five or six advertising agencies dominate this 400 billion U.S. dollar global industry.

“Journalists have long faced pressure to shape stories to suit advertisers and owners …. the vast majority of TV station executives found their news departments ‘cooperative’ in shaping the news to assist in ‘non-traditional revenue development. Negative and undesired reporting can be prevented or influenced when advertisers threaten to cancel orders or simply when there is a danger of such a cancellation. Media dependency and such a threat becomes very real when there is only one dominant or very few large advertisers. The influence of advertisers is not only in regard to news or information on their own products or services but expands to articles or shows not directly linked to them. In order to secure their advertising revenues the media has to create the best possible ‘advertising environment’. Another problem considered censorship by critics is the refusal of media to accept advertisements that are not in their interest. A striking example of this is the refusal of TV stations to broadcast ads by Adbusters. Groups try to place advertisements and are refused by networks

It is principally the viewing rates which decide upon the programme in the private radio and television business. “Their business is to absorb as much attention as possible. The viewing rate measures the attention the media trades for the information offered. The service of this attraction is sold to the advertising business and the viewing rates determine the price that can be demanded for advertising.

“Advertising companies determining the contents of shows has been part of daily life in the USA since 1933. Procter & Gamble (P&G) …. offered a radio station a history-making trade (today know as “bartering”): the company would produce an own show for “free” and save the radio station the high expenses for producing contents. Therefore the company would want its commercials spread and, of course, its products placed in the show. Thus, the series ‘Ma Perkins’ was created, which P&G skilfully used to promote Oxydol, the leading detergent brand in those years and the Soap opera was born …

While critics basically worry about the subtle influence of the economy on the media, there are also examples of blunt exertion of influence. The US company Chrysler, before it merged with Daimler Benz had its agency, PentaCom, send out a letter to numerous magazines, demanding them to send, an overview of all the topics before the next issue is published to “avoid potential conflict”. Chrysler most of all wanted to know, if there would be articles with “sexual, political or social” content or which could be seen as “provocative or offensive”. PentaCom executive David Martin said: “Our reasoning is, that anyone looking at a 22.000 $ product would want it surrounded by positive things. There is nothing positive about an article on child pornography. In another example, the USA Network held top-level‚ off-the-record meetings with advertisers in 2000 to let them tell the network what type of programming content they wanted in order for USA to get their advertising. Television shows are created to accommodate the needs for advertising, e.g. splitting them up in suitable sections. Their dramaturgy is typically designed to end in suspense or leave an unanswered question in order to keep the viewer attached.

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The movie system, at one time outside the direct influence of the broader marketing system, is now fully integrated into it through the strategies of licensing, tie-ins and product placements. The prime function of many Hollywood films today is to aid in the selling of the immense collection of commodities The press called the 2002 Bond film ‘Die Another Day’ featuring 24 major promotional partners an ‘ad-venture’ and noted that James Bond “now has been ‘licensed to sell’” As it has become standard practise to place products in motion pictures, it “has self-evident implications for what types of films will attract product placements and what types of films will therefore be more likely to get made

Advertising and information are increasingly hard to distinguish from each other. “The borders between advertising and media …. become more and more blurred…. What August Fischer, chairman of the board of Axel Springer publishing company considers to be a ‘proven partnership between the media and advertising business’ critics regard as nothing but the infiltration of journalistic duties and freedoms”. According to RTL-executive Helmut Thoma “private stations shall not and cannot serve any mission but only the goal of the company which is the ‘acceptance by the advertising business and the viewer’. The setting of priorities in this order actually says everything about the ‘design of the programmes’ by private television.” Patrick Le Lay, former managing director of TF1, a private French television channel with a market share of 25 to 35%, said: "There are many ways to talk about television. But from the business point of view, let’s be realistic: basically, the job of TF1 is, e. g. to help Coca Cola sell its product. (…) For an advertising message to be perceived the brain of the viewer must be at our disposal. The job of our programmes is to make it available, that is to say, to distract it, to relax it and get it ready between two messages. It is disposable human brain time that we sell to Coca Cola.

Because of these dependencies a widespread and fundamental public debate about advertising and its influence on information and freedom of speech is difficult to obtain, at least through the usual media channels; otherwise these would saw off the branch they are sitting on. “The notion that the commercial basis of media, journalism, and communication could have troubling implications for democracy is excluded from the range of legitimate debate” just as “capitalism is off-limits as a topic of legitimate debate in US political culture

An early critic of the structural basis of US journalism was Upton Sinclair with his novel The Brass Check in which he stresses the influence of owners, advertisers, public relations, and economic interests on the media. In his book “Our Master's Voice – Advertising” the social ecologist James Rorty (1890–1973) wrote: "The gargoyle’s mouth is a loudspeaker, powered by the vested interest of a two-billion dollar industry, and back of that the vested interests of business as a whole, of industry, of finance. It is never silent, it drowns out all other voices, and it suffers no rebuke, for it is not the voice of America? That is its claim and to some extent it is a just claim...

It has taught us how to live, what to be afraid of, what to be proud of, how to be beautiful, how to be loved, how to be envied, how to be successful.. Is it any wonder that the American population tends increasingly to speak, think, feel in terms of this jabberwocky? That the stimuli of art, science, religion are progressively expelled to the periphery of American life to become marginal values, cultivated by marginal people on marginal time?

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6 The commercialisation of culture and sports

Performances, exhibitions, shows, concerts, conventions and most other events can hardly take place without sponsoring. The increasing lack arts and culture they buy the service of attraction. Artists are graded and paid according to their art’s value for commercial purposes. Corporations promote renown artists, therefore getting exclusive rights in global advertising campaigns. Broadway shows, like ‘La Bohème’ featured commercial props in its set.

Advertising itself is extensively considered to be a contribution to culture. Advertising is integrated into fashion. On many pieces of clothing the company logo is the only design or is an important part of it. There is only little room left outside the consumption economy, in which culture and art can develop independently and where alternative values can be expressed. A last important sphere, the universities, is under strong pressure to open up for business and its interests.

Inflatable billboard in front of a sports stadium

Competitive sports have become unthinkable without sponsoring and there is a mutual dependency. High income with advertising is only possible with a comparable number of spectators or viewers. On the other hand, the poor performance of a team or a sportsman results in less advertising revenues. Jürgen Hüther and Hans-Jörg Stiehler talk about a ‘Sports/Media Complex which is a complicated mix of media, agencies, managers, sports promoters, advertising etc. with partially common and partially diverging interests but in any case with common commercial interests. The media presumably is at centre stage because it can supply the other parties involved with a rare commodity, namely (potential) public attention. In sports “the media are able to generate enormous sales in both circulation and advertising.

“Sports sponsorship is acknowledged by the tobacco industry to be valuable advertising. A Tobacco Industry journal in 1994 described the Formula One car as ‘The most powerful advertising space in the world’. …. In a cohort study carried out in 22 secondary schools in England in 1994 and 1995 boys whose favourite television sport was motor racing had a 12.8% risk of becoming regular smokers compared to 7.0% of boys who did not follow motor racing.

Not the sale of tickets but transmission rights, sponsoring and merchandising in the meantime make up the largest part of sports association’s and sports club’s revenues with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) taking the lead. The influence of the media brought many changes in sports including the admittance of new ‘trend sports’ into the Olympic Games, the

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alteration of competition distances, changes of rules, animation of spectators, changes of sports facilities, the cult of sports heroes who quickly establish themselves in the advertising and entertaining business because of their media value and last but not least, the naming and renaming of sport stadiums after big companies. “In sports adjustment into the logic of the media can contribute to the erosion of values such as equal chances or fairness, to excessive demands on athletes through public pressure and multiple exploitation or to deceit (doping, manipulation of results …). It is in the very interest of the media and sports to counter this danger because media sports can only work as long as sport exists.

Scope of the Topic

Simply stating, a brand is a differentiated product and helps in identifying your product and

making it stand out due to its name, design, style, symbol, color combination, or usually a mix of

all these.

It provides full motivational support & boost up the morale of the sale forces of the organization.

It gives an image in the minds of people who are the customers of the company product.

It helps in to improve goodwill & image of the company & its products.

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It helps in winning new customer both in national as well as international markets.

It helps in provide the information about the product. Celebrity Endorsement is a marketing tool for selling the products Ideas &

services. Celebrity Endorsement is a means of communications, Celebrity promotes

the ideas, goods & services to the customer.

The celebrity does not have the power to improve or debilitate the efficiency and features of the

core product. Thus, we are gradually approaching an evident proposition claiming,

“The health of a brand can definitely be improved up to some extent by celebrity endorsement.

But one has to remember that endorsing a celebrity is a means to an end and not an end in

itself.”

An appropriately used celebrity can prove to be a massively powerful tool that magnifies the

effects of a campaign. But the aura of cautiousness should always be there. The fact to be

emphasised is that celebrities alone do not guarantee success, as consumers nowadays

understand advertising. They know what advertising is and how it works. People realize that

celebrities are being paid a lot of money for endorsements and this knowledge makes them

cynical about celebrity endorsements.

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Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on Brands

This paper studies the impact of celebrity endorsements on brands. While the magnitude of the impact of celebrity endorsement remains under the purview of gray spectacles, the paper establishes reasoning to the impact of celebrity endorsements on brands.

The study delves into the learning of impact regions of celebrity endorsement and how they occur.

This paper rifles through the concept of celebrity endorsement and provides insights on what it is and how the increasing number of endorsements throw a valid question to the consumers. Is there a science behind the choice of these endorsers or is it just by the popularity measurement? What are the reasons which lead to impact of celebrity endorsement on brands?

Through research and analysis, this paper emerges with a 14-point model which can be used as a blue-print criteria and can be used by brand managers for selecting celebrities, and capitalizes the celebrity resource through 360 degree brand communication since our research proposes it as the foundation brick of the impact of celebrity endorsement. Our study reveals that the impact of celebrity endorsement is proportional to the 14 factors discussed in the model. .

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Introduction

Businesses have long sought to distract and attract the attention of potential customers that live in a world of ever-increasing commercial bombardment. Everyday consumers are exposed to thousands of voices and images in magazines, newspapers, and on billboards, websites, radio and television. Every brand attempts to steal at least a fraction of an unsuspecting person's time to inform him or her of the amazing and different attributes of the product at hand. Because of the constant media saturation that most people experience daily, they eventually become numb to the standard marketing techniques. The challenge of the marketer is to find a hook that will hold the subject's attention.

Celebrities appear in public in different ways. First, they appear in public when fulfilling their profession, e.g., Vishwanathan Anand, who plays chess in front of an audience. Furthermore, celebrities appear in public by attending special celebrity events, e.g., award ceremonies, inaugurations or world premieres of movies. In addition, they are present in news, fashion magazines, and tabloids, which provide second source information on events and the 'private life' of celebrities through mass-media channels (e.g., Smriti Irani being regularly featured in various publications). Last but not least, celebrities act as spokes-people in advertising to promote products and services, which is referred to celebrity endorsement.

Celebrity Endorsement'

Friedman and Friedman (1979) found empirical evidence that, in the promotion of products high in psychological and/or social risk, use of celebrity endorser would lead to greater believability, a more favorable evaluation of the product and advertisement, and a significantly more positive purchase intention.

Difference Between Brand Ambassador & Brand Face

A Brand Ambassador would be one who is not only a spokesperson for the brand or is just appearing as a testimonial for the brand's benefits. He/she is an integral part of the brand persona and helps to build an emotionale, which goes beyond just appearing on TV commercials

He takes up the cause of a Brand Champion and is associated with every aspect related with the brand. What is more, there is a significant difference between making just an endorsement for say, a shampoo or an automobile, and being that brand's alter ego. Both parties take the latter far more seriously to the deal. So a brand ambassador would be involved in press releases, he/she would be actively participating in any sales promotion, sporting the Brand all the while. For example, Fardeen Khan is the brand ambassador for Provogue while he remains a brand face for Lux Body Wash.

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On the other hand, a Brand Face would be the current celebrity who is just used as a tool to increase brand recall and is only appearing in the advertisement. It is usually seen that a brand face is a temporary contract and is very short term at times. An example would be Sona Chandi Chawanpryash using Sourav Ganguly for a while in its commercials. Brand faces are easily forgotten and fades away with the campaign's end.

Spread of Celebrity Endorsement

Markets in which advertising coordinates consumer purchases, celebrity endorsements are more likely chosen for products that have either of the following: -

High price-cost margins

Large potential customer pools

The need to coordinate across diverse sets of customers

Scope of Celebriity Endorsement

The use of testimonials by advertisers dates back to the 19th century when medicines were patented. Firms have been juxtaposing their brands and themselves with celebrity endorsers (e.g., athletes, actors) in the hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing

The increasing number of endorsements throws a valid question to the consumers. Is there a science behind the choice of these endorsers or is it just by the popularity measurement? What

are the reasons which lead to impact of celebrity endorsement on brands?

Through research and analysis, this paper develops a 14 point model, which can be used as a blueprint criteria which can be used by brand managers for selecting celebrities, and capitalizes the celebrity resource through 360 degree brand communication, since our research proposes it

as the foundation brick of the impact of celebrity endorsement. Our study reveals that the impact of celebrity endorsement is proportional to the 14 factors discussed in the model.

The success of a brand through celebrity endorsement is a cumulative of the following 14 attributes. Greater the score of the below parameters, greater are the chances of getting close to

the desired impact.

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Fit with the Advertising Idea

Marketers now seek to adopt 360 degree brand stewardship in which the brand sees no limits on the number of contact points possible with a target consumer. Advertising ideas, thus, revolve around this approach, and the celebrity endorsement decisions are made through these startegic motives.

One of the most successful celebrity endorsement campaign which reflects the fit between the brand and the 360 degree advertising fit is Fardeen Khan and Provogue. Provogue's positioning in the apparel market is of a young, active, party-going, attention-grabbing brand and so is Fardeen Khan. The conjuction between the two has been immensely impactful and brand managers have utilised this endorsement through 360 degree reinforcement. Provogue Lounge and extensive phased insertions in print in selective publications reaching out to their target audience has made it as one of the highest recalled celebrity endorsement.

Similarly, Richard Gere's recent endorsement for VISA in India has gained acclaim due to its innovativeness and consumer connect. Brand marketers say that research reveals that Richard Gere was the most popular face across the Asia Pacific region, and would also fit into the persona of the brand meeting their communication objective to enhance VISA's brand leadership

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and consumer preference, and the motive to continue the "All it Takes" empowerment platform featuring international celebrities.

Celebrity-Target Audience Match

Smriti Irani endorsing the WHO recommended ORS Campaign in India. Indian mothers can associate with Smriti Irani through the facets she projects on screen or in regular life which helps develop a connect with the target audience since mothers medicate their children with ORS. The inserial placement of the campaign in "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" has won it an award from PR Week.

Similarly, Irfan Pathan endorsing Hero Cycles has gained the brand immense recall and embarked through the positve association between the consumer and the brand.

Celebrity Values

Celebrity branding is all about the transfer of the value from the person to the product he endorses or stands for. There are two concerns here. The first is how long this could last. Can the person maintain his popularity (i.e., his performance or status ranking)?

The lifecycle of celebrity popularity varies a lot. The second concern is his private life - personal integrity. If he is implicated in any kind of scandal, that would ruin the brand. "Who would want to use Michael Jackson to brand their product?" (brandchannel.com)

Tabu endorsing Tetra Packed Milk, Shabana Azmi campaigning for AIDS Awareness, Amitabh Bachchan & Shahrukh Khan campaigning for Pulse Polio or Aishwarya Rai appearing in the Donate Eyes campaign are few examples, which reflect the transfer of celebrity values to the brand, creating an impact that generates recall.

Costs of Acquiring the Celebrity

Consequently, companies must have deep pockets to be able to afford the best available celebrities. Recently, a newspaper report showed how cola firms had gone beyond their advertising budgets to get the best celebrities. Small firms that use celebrities' services run greater risks if they invest large amounts. Although nobody is willing to say exactly how much celebrities get paid, industry sources say Sachin Tendulkar's price is believed to be between Rs. 2.0-2.5 crore per endorsement, and musician A. R. Rehman, who had signed up with AirTel, is believed to have picked up Rs. 1.75 crore. Film-star Hrithik Roshan was rumored to have picked up Rs. 2 crore for the Fly With Hrithik campaign to push Close-Up, and Shahrukh Khan's rate seems to be between Rs. 2.5-3.0 crore. Aishwarya Rai apparently picks up Rs. 1.25 crore for an endorsement and the Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly is believed to get between Rs. 90 lakh to Rs. 1.5 crore, while film-star Aamir Khan apparently makes Rs. 1.5 crore per endorsement.

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Celebrity Regional Appeal Factors

R. Madhavan endorsing Pepsi in southern India or Sachin Tendulkar endorsing in India are few examples of how celebrities are chosen to reach out to target audiences for brands in regional markets.

Another interesting example would be of Steve Waugh campaigning for Tourism Australia in India since he was one of the popular celebrities from Australia and could carry the messge of Australia as a tourist destination. Other celebrities like Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman from Australia can be prospective endorsers for Brand Australia but not in the region of India.

Celebrity-Product Match

Cyrus Broacha is the brand ambassador for MTV since both the celebrity and the brand are considered as friendly, young, mood-boosting, humourous and outspoken. MTV's brand personality overlaps Cyrus Broacha's image as a brand.

Some more examples of compatible celebrity product match in which celebrity brand attributes get transferred to the brand and increases the brand equity is of Mallaika Arora & Freshizza from Pizza Hut, Govinda & Navratan Tel, Sanjay Dutt & Elf Oil, Sunny Deol & Lux Undergarments, Aishwarya Rai & Nakshatra, etc.

Celebrity Controversy Risk

The perfect example here is of Salman Khan and the controversy in which he crushed a man to death with his Pajero when he was driving under the influence of alcohol. Also, any act on the part of the endorser that gives him a negative image among the audience and goes on to affect the brands endorsed. The brand, in most instances, takes a bashing.

Celebrity Popularity

Celebrity Brand association like Garnier endorsed Tara Sharma & Simone Singh, Agni Diamonds & Riama Sen don't get much brand recall, and even if they do, its difficult to attribute it to the celebrities' endorsing the brand.

On the other hand, HPCL has had increased popularity and share of voice due to the endorsement of the brand through Sania Mirza.

Celebrity Physical Attractiveness

Bipasha Basu' physical attractiveness and her connect with the brand makes Levis Strauss's campaign through celebrity in India, John Abraham endorsing Wrangler and Timex Sunglasses

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are some examples which portray the celebrities' physical attractiveness that helps create an impact.

Celebrity Credibility

The most important aspect and reason for celebrity endorsement is credibility. In a research carried out among 43 ad agencies and companies, most experts believed that the most important dimensions of credibility are trustworthiness and prowess or expertise with regard to the recommended product or service (Miciak and Shanklin, 2002). One of the most obvious reasons of Amitabh Bachchan endorsing plethora of brands is the credibility of the celebrity and his recognition across consumers.

To site one of the most successful campaigns in which the celebrity's credibility has had an indelible impact on the brand and has saved the brand is of Cadbury's. After the worm controversy, Amitabh Bachchan's credibility infused into the brand through the campaign, helping it to get back on track. The campaign has won an award for the same.

Multiple Endorsements

The case of multiple endorsements, both in terms of a single brand hiring multiple celebrities and that of a single celebrity endorsing multiple brands, is often debated. At times, consumers do get confused about the brand endorsed when a single celebrity endorses numerous brands. The recall then gets reduced and reduces the popularity of the brand. Not many people can remember all the brands that a celebrity endorses and the chances of losing brand recall increases if the celebrity endorses multiple brands. For example, in case of Sachin Tendulkar people recall Pepsi, TVS Victor and MRF, but might not remember brands like Britannia and Fiat. Similarly, for Amitabh Bachchan, consumers remember ICICI, Pepsi, Parker Pens, Pulse Polio and BPL. They might get confused in the endorsement of Nerolac or Asian Paints. Thus, for multiple endorsements where the same celebrity endorses several brands, it boils down to the strength of the brand and the advertising content.

Whether Celebrity is a Brand User

One of the strongest platforms to discuss this is through NGOs. Various celebrities endorse NGOs and social causes since they believe in the social message that they need to convey to the audience. One of the most successful campaigns has been executed by PETA in which celebrities like Shilpa Shetty, Amisha Patel, Yana Gupta, Sheetal Malhar, Mahima Choudhary

to believe in PETA's philosophy, and thereby endorse the brand.

On the other hand, while some would understand that Amitabh Bachchan would have never used Navratan Tel, the target audience that the brands wants to reach out to will be ready to believe that he used the oil and his endorsement thereby creates an impact.

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Brand Image Formation & Brand Preference

Having a congruent image between the brand and celebrity does not guarantee any positive effect on consumers' brand preferences. The fundamental question is - what a brand image really does to consumers? Baran and Blasko explained, "Since most products aren't special, most advertising does all that so-called image stuff... There's no information about the product, there's only information about the kind of people who might be inclined to use the product." (p.13). This view is echoed by Feldwick (1991) who has suggested that the subjective experience of using a brand can be different from the subjective experience of using an identical product without the brand reassurance. In the case of using celebrity advertising to build brand image, the effects are examined with a social psychological framework.

Decision Making Process & Purchase Decision

Decades ago, John Dewey (1910) conceptualised decision-process behavior as problem solving - thoughtful, reasoned action focused on need satisfaction. As Ajzen and Fishbein (1980, p.5) put it, "Human beings are usually quite rational and make systematic use of the information available to them... People consider the implications of their actions before they decide to engage or not to engage in a given behavior." A lot of marketing research has shown that consumer decision follows the sequence of need recognition, search for information, alternative evaluation, purchase, and then outcome. The sequence can have major variations, however, from one situation to the next in terms of the extent to which each of these steps is followed.

There are two types of decision-making processes defined. They include Extended Problem Solving and Limited Problem Solving (Engel, Warshaw, Kinnear, 1991). In extended problem solving, thinking leads to feeling, which leads to action. The very nature of the decision often necessitates collection of information that is processed and stored. Various product attributes are weighed and evaluated.

In limited problem solving, consumers will simplify the process by sharply reducing the number and variety of information sources and alternatives considered. The two problem solving processes above suggest that brand images have a relatively insignificant impact on the consumer's purchase decision if the product/service involves extended problem solving. On the contrary, the brand images of product/service that involves limited problem solving will have a more significant impact on the consumer's purchase decision.

smoked glass, and book entire restaurants for an undisturbed meal. For most of us, life rarely holds such pleasures. But as our power to distribute images expands, the ranks of the highly visible in society are growing rapidly, and those who understand the transformation process utilize it to enhance their opportunities.

Facts

Through analysis and research, this paper brings forth the following insights: -

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Celebrity endorsements do work in the Indian scenario. The level and the magnitude of the effect vary with the celebrity and the product category but most endorsements have a favourable impact.

Multiple endorsements do clutter the minds of the consumer.

It is not just the financial gains from the endorsements that matter to the celebrity. They also look for the fit with the brand and what the endorsement might do to their image.

Professional performance of the endorser is important in deciding the success of the endorsement. However, the bad performance should be stretched so as to make sense to the audience.

More than the bad performance in the professional field, it is the association of the celebrity with a controversy or ill-behaviour that causes negative impact to the endorsements. During the match fixing scandal in India, the commercials featuring Ajay Jadeja and Mohammed Azharuddin were all taken off air so that they did not have a negative effect on the brand.

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Advantages of a celebrity endorsing a Brand

Brands have been leveraging celebrity appeal for a long time. Across categories, whether in

products or services, more and more brands are banking on the mass appeal of celebrities. As

soon as a new face ascends the popularity charts, advertisers queue up to have it splashed all

over. Witness the spectacular rise of Sania Mirza and Irfan Pathan in endorsements in a matter of

a few months. The accruement of celebrity endorsements can be justified by the following

advantages that are bestowed on the overall brand:

It healps in increasing the sales of the product.

It increase the good will of the company.

Establishment of Credibility: Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for

that brand among the target audience- this is especially true in case of new products. We

had the Shah Rukh-Santro campaign. At launch, Shah Rukh Khan endorsed Santro and

this ensured that brand awareness was created in a market, which did not even know the

brand.

Ensured Attention: Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter

of advertisements and making the ad and the brand more noticeable.

PR coverage : is another reason for using celebrities. Managers perceive celebrities as

topical, which create high PR coverage. A good example of integrated celebrity

campaigns is one of the World’s leading pop groups, the Spice Girls, who have not only

appeared in advertisements for Pepsi, but also in product launching and PR events.

Indeed, celebrity-company marriages are covered by most media from television to

newspapers (e.g. The Spice Girls and Pepsi)

Higher degree of recall: People tend to commensurate the personalities of the celebrity

with the brand thereby increasing the recall value. Golf champion Tiger Woods has

endorsed American Express, Rolex, and Nike. Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is used by T-

Mobile and Elizabeth Arden. 007 Pierce Brosnan promotes Omega, BMW, and Noreico.

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Associative Benefit: A celebrity’s preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message -

because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, the consumer will also benefit.

Psychographic Connect: Celebrities are loved and adored by their fans and advertisers

use stars to capitalise on these feelings to sway the fans towards their brand.

Demographic Connect: Different stars appeal differently to various demographic

segments (age, gender, class, geography etc.).

Mass Appeal: Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to generate interest among the masses.

It healps in increasing the sales of the product.

It increase the good will of the company.

It provides information about the product.

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Disadvantages of a celebrity endorsing a brand:

The celebrity approach has a few serious risks:

1. The reputation of the celebrity may derogate after he/she has endorsed the product:

Pepsi Cola's suffered with three tarnished celebrities - Mike Tyson, Madonna, and

Michael Jackson. Since the behaviour of the celebrities reflects on the brand, celebrity

endorsers may at times become liabilities to the brands they endorse.

2. Inconsistency in the professional popularity of the celebrity: The celebrity may lose his

or her popularity due to some lapse in professional performances. For example, when

Tendulkar went through a prolonged lean patch recently, the inevitable question that

cropped up in corporate circles - is he actually worth it? The 2003 Cricket World Cup

also threw up the Shane Warne incident, which caught Pepsi off guard. With the

Australian cricketer testing positive for consuming banned substances and his subsequent

withdrawal from the event, bang in the middle of the event, PepsiCo - the presenting

sponsor of the World Cup 2003 - found itself on an uneasy wicket

3. Multi brand endorsements by the same celebrity would lead to overexposure: The

novelty of a celebrity endorsement gets diluted if he does too many advertisements. This

may be termed as commoditisation of celebrities, who are willing to endorse anything for

big bucks. Example, MRF was among the early sponsors of Tendulkar with its logo

emblazoned on his bat. But now Tendulkar endorses a myriad brands and the novelty of

the Tendulkar-MRF campaign has scaled down.

4. Celebrities endorsing one brand and using another (competitor): Sainsbury’s

encountered a problem with Catherina Zeta Jones, whom the company used for its recipe

advertisements, when she was caught shopping in Tesco. A similar case happened with

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Britney Spears who endorsed one cola brand and was repeatedly caught drinking another

brand of cola on tape.

5. Mismatch between the celebrity and the image of the brand: Celebrities manifest a

certain persona for the audience. It is of paramount importance that there is an egalitarian

congruency between the persona of the celebrity and the image of the brand. Each

celebrity portrays a broad range of meanings, involving a specific personality and

lifestyle. Madonna, for example, is perceived as a tough, intense and modern women

associated with the lower middle class. The personality of Pierce Brosnan is best

characterized as the perfect gentlemen, whereas Jennifer Aniston has the image of the

‘good girl from next door’.

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OBJECTIVES

1. To study the impact of advertisement on customers endorsed by celebrities

2. To study the contribution made by star person in enhancing company’s goodwill by

advertisement.

3. To study the customer views in promoting advertisement by celebrities.

4. To study the growth of purchasing or sale by celebrity advertisement.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study based on survey through pre-designed questionnaires suffers from the basic limitation

of the possibility of difference between what is recorded and what is the truth, no matter how

carefully the questionnaire has been designed and field investigation has been conducted. This is

because the persons may not deliberately report their true responses and even if they want to do

so, there are bound to be differences owing to problems in the communication process. In

addition there are some limitations, which are as follows:

Data collection error may be there due to wrong response from respondents as some time

they are not right person who takes actual decisions.

Due to cost and human element is involved, project area was limited.

Some people do not want to give right information due to some constraints.

Some time people do not have time to fulfill questionnaire, so they give only few

information.

As per knowledge data was collected and analyzed, error may be there.

There can be analytical, interpretation and statistical error in final report.

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Some of the respondents can hide the real information.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.

RESEARCH DESIGN.

This is descriptive research study which aims at finding the influence of advertisement

by celebrities (cricketers , film star) on customer perception.

DATA COLLECTION .

Both primary and secondary has been collected for meeting the objectives of research.

* PRIMARY DATA

The primary data will be collected through questionnaires.

* SECONDARY DATA

For the purpose of secondary data a perusal of secondary sources of

information e.g. magazines , journals , website has been conducted.

SAMPLE SIZE.

The sample size for the study = 100

SAMPLING AREA.

Ludhiana

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Sample Design:

Keeping in view the time and resources available for the study, it was decided to restrict the

sample to 100 respondents. The respondents are also selected depending upon the

approachability and convenience of the research.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE.

All the respondents who were easily accessible and willing to share the infor-

-mation were administered the structured questionnaire to get the desireable

Information . a non probability sampling technique i,e. convenience sampling .

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ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION.

( RECEPT OF INFORMATION ABOUT CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT )

Do you follow the brand of a product when you purchase the product?

Yes 87% No 10%

None 3%

In surveyed city most of the people buy branded clothes so the analysis is 87% persons from the given sample justify that they follow the brand while purchasing the product & 10% of population said that they want only the product not the brand & 3% population ignore the brand name. Because people think that branded clothes are have some standard & quality.

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What comes first in your mind when you purchase the product?

Product quality 59% Product design 23% Product advertisement 10% Product celebrity endorser 8%

Most of the people are quality conscious & they want to prefer good quality clothes in my survey 59% respondents says when they buy a product they think about the quality & 23% respondent they buy product according to product design & 10% buy product acc. to advertisement.

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I go only for those products which are endorsed by famous people. They are quality products without any doubt”. Mark any One.

Strongly agree 78%Somewhat agree 10%Somewhat disagree 0%Strongly Disagree 12%

in the survey 78% respondents agree with the statement that they go for those products which is endorsed by famous people and they have very good faith in their endorsed product. In survey 12% respondents strongly disagree with statement.

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“When I see my favorite actor endorsing a product, I tend to compare it with my current product. mark any one.

Strongly agree 56%Somewhat agree 24%Somewhat disagree 12%Strongly Disagree 13%

Mostly the people strongly agree with this statement . in survey 56% respondents agree that they compare there products with endorsed by their favorite actor , 24% are somewhat agree with this statement . in survey 13% respondents strongly disagree with this statement and they said they are not comparing products with their favorite actor.

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Do you associate the celebrity directly with the quality and the performance of the product? Mark One.

Yes, every time 11%Not really 19%No, Never 70%

Most of the people from the given sample do not completely agree by this statement . in survey 70% respondents said that celebrity did not involve in quality or performance of product, only 11% respondents said that they are associate in quality and performance.

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Do you switch to another product if u see your favorite actor endorsing that product? mark One

Yes, every time 44%Not really 36%Not at all 20%

Most of the people always switch to another product because they have proper faith on their favorite actor endorsing that brand.44% respondents said that they will switch to another product and 20% respondents said they will not switch to another product.

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“I do not buy some products just because they are endorsed by people whom I don’t like”. Mark one.

Strongly agree 1%Somewhat agree 3%Somewhat disagree 64 % Strongly Disagree 32%

:

64% Somewhat disagree from this statement mostly people buy the product and 32% respondents strongly disagree with statement very few respondents agree with this statement.

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If celebrities is endorsing a product, I can have trust on the product without looking for further information about it. Mark any one

Strongly agree 42%Somewhat agree 33%Somewhat disagree 16%Strongly Disagree 9%

Mostly people easily trust on this statement for e.g. Akshay is a BRAND AMBASSADOR of levis jeans so people buy by looking his personality.42% of respondents are agree with this statement that they have very much trust in their favorite actor.9% respondents are disagree with this statement.

Are you satisfy with the involvement of players for “PRODUCT LAUNCH”?

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YES 40%

NO 56%

No comment 4%

By the involvement of players for product launch it will affect the performance by diverting their minds and time devotion toward practice. most of the respondents are not want players enrolment in product launch. 56% are not satisfy with players involvement in product launch.

NAME & FAME affect the brand ?

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Yes 75% No 25%

Maximum people thought that name & fame effect the overall brand , as shown in graph.

FINDINGS

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In survey it is find that most of people follow brand while purchasing the product, they believe in quality and comfort.

While purchasing a product first things comes in their mind is product quality of product.

Mostly people easily trust on celebrities for e.g. Akshay is a BRAND AMBASSADOR of levis jeans so people buy by looking his personality.

People start comparing their current products while seeing advertisements

Celebrities directly does not associate with performance or quality of product. They are doing advertisements because they are paid for them

The most people switch to another product because their favorite actor endorsing that brand.

Maximum people thought that if very famous actor attached with a company product is a good quality.

By the involvement of players for product launch it will effect the performance by diverting their minds and time devotion toward practice.

CONCLUSION

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Despite the obvious economic advantage of using relatively unknown personalities as endorsers

in advertising campaigns, the choice of celebrities to fulfill that role has become common

practice for brands competing in today's cluttered media environment. There are several reasons

for such extensive use of celebrities. Because of their high profile, celebrities may help

advertisements stand out from the surrounding clutter, thus improving their communicative

ability. Celebrities may also generate extensive PR leverage for brands. For example, when

Revlon launched the "Won't kiss off test" for its Colorstay lipsticks in 1994 with Cindy Crawford

kissing reporters, the campaign featured on almost every major news channel and equally widely

in the press. A brief assessment of the current market situation indicates, that celebrity

endorsement advertising strategies can, under the right circumstances, indeed justify the high

costs associated with this form of advertising.

But it would be presumptuous to consider celebrity endorsement as a panacea for all barricades.

Celebrity endorsement if used effectively, makes the brand stand out, galvanizes brand recall and

facilitates instant awareness. To achieve this, the marketer needs to be really disciplined in

choice of a celebrity. Hence the right use of celebrity can escalate the Unique Selling Proposition

of a brand to new heights; but a cursory orientation of a celebrity with a brand may prove to be

claustrophobic for the brand. A celebrity is a means to an end, and not an end in himself/herself.

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ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

This questionnaire is designed to have valuable feedback from you to have your

valuable opinion. The collected data will be used for a research project to analyses and

evaluate the “ celebrity endorsement ”. we ensure that your information will kept

confidential and will not be used for any other purpose. So kindly answer the questions.

Thanking you

Barinder pal singh

Name:________________________________Age:______________

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Occupation------------------------Q.1. Do you follow the BRAND or the CELEBRITY in your purchasing decision?YES { } , NO{ }

Q.2 What comes to your mind first when you go to buy a product? Mark your choice with a YES.Product quality_____________________ Product design_____________________________Product Advertisement______________ Product celebrity endorser__________________

Q.3 “I go only for those products which are endorsed by famous people. They are quality products without any doubt”. Mark any One.Strongly agree_____________________ Somewhat agree_____________________________Somewhat disagree______________ Strongly Disagree__________________

Q.4 “When I see my favorite actor endorsing a product, I tend to compare it with my current product”.mark any one.Strongly agree_____________________ Somewhat agree_____________________________Somewhat disagree________________ Strongly Disagree___________________________

Q.5. Do you associate the celebrity directly with the quality and the performance of the product? Mark One.Yes, everytime_____________ Not realy_______________No, Never__________________

Q.6 Do you switch to another product if u see your favorite actor endorsing that product?mark OneYes, everytime_____________

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Not realy_______________Not at all__________________

Q.7“I do not buy some products just because they are endorsed by people whom I don’t like”. Mark one.Strongly agree_____________________ Somewhat agree_____________________________Somewhat disagree________________ Strongly Disagree___________________________

Q.8. “If a celebrity is endorsing a product, I can have trust on the product without looking for further information about it”.Mark any oneStrongly agree_____________________ Somewhat agree_____________________________Somewhat disagree________________ Strongly Disagree___________________________

Q. 9 Are you satisfy with the involvement of players for “ product launch”?

Yes { } , no { }, no comment { }.

Q.10 Did Name & Fame effect the brand ?

YES { } , NO { }.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE TIME

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

www.chillibreeze.com

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www.coolavenues.com

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.frankwbaker.com

www.rediff.com

www. celebrity endorsement.com

www.genesiscreations.biz

www.marketingprofs.com

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