Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers From Nepal

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Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal 1

Kathmandu University

Media Studies

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC

Endorsers from Nepal

Rajan Kathet

MEDS 406

Prem Luitel

July 08, 2011


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Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC

Endorsers from Nepal

The use of celebrity is regarded as one of the best strategies to deliver marketing

communication (marcom) message and to increase recall rates for an Advertisement.

Celebrities serve not only as spokesperson of the product but to create and maintain

attention and to achieve high recall rates for marcom messages in today's highly cluttered

environments. Katyal (2007) mentions that marketers spend enormous amounts of money

annually on celebrity endorsement contracts based on the belief that celebrities are

effective spokespeople for their products or brands (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.7).

Use of celebrities for branding is still a dream of future for Nepali products since

Made in Nepals are yet to be brands. Till now, they are just products manufactured in

Nepal for a small category of middle and lower class Nepalese citizens. These products

have not been able to grab the attention of people living in urban areas and belonging to

high class families. There are very few brands (mostly trekking stuffs) making significant

marks in the international level but they are not truly made in Nepal. They are kind of

assembled goods- either raw materials from abroad or made in abroad based Nepalese

companies. So, the thing called Brand rarely exists in true form in case of Nepal.

From this poor market reality of Nepal, we can infer that celebrities are rarely

endorsed for Television Commercials (TVCs) since the thing called Nepali Brand

makes almost no existence around. This is why we have varying actors/ characters in

TVCs but no Particular Brand Ambassadors.

Nepal is either an emerging or a developing nation. It has nothing developed to

fully fledged state- be it art or commerce. The state of market and commerce directly


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affects the advertising industry. So, till now, very less products and services have dared

to hire a famed celebrity as its brand ambassador to add value to the product/ service. If

Im to remember Nepali TVCs those have always grabbed my attention then there are

very few to mention: one of broadlink (animated) and another of Dish TV featuring

Maha Duo (one of the most successful comedian and actors Madankrishna Shrestha and

Haribansha Acharya).

Nepalese TVCs have been found going through the problem of which celebrity to

hire for the Ad-Face. Also, Nepal is such a nation that lacks high notched celebrities. It

has almost no internationally acclaimed celebrity. According to (Kulkarni & Gaulankar,

2005) it is observed that the presence of a renowned persona helps in solving the problem

of over communication that is becoming more and more prevalent these days (as cited in

Surana, 2008, p.16). As in every society and nation, celebrities have always been fancied

by a class and category of people. Only very few can be effective among all classes and

ages alike Maha Duo in case of Nepal.

Maha duo, along with commercial products and services, has engaged themselves

in Public Service Announcements (PSAs) too. They have always been found effective in

almost all of the works they do. Their stage performances, tele serials, movies, PSAs and

TVCs have always grabbed the attention of public. Their recent tele serial

Madanbahadur- Haribahadurand the TVC of Dish TV have been rated as highly viewed

stuffs by general public. There might be very few who dont hold their remote button of

the TV if it is broadcasting the TVC featuring Maha Duo since their works are always

humor and message filled.


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Maha duo, if looked from their past works to date of now, have always kept them

safe from cheap comedies. There works always meant a social message and awareness.

They have produced lots of telefilms and stage shows related to political awareness,

health awareness, afforestation and social welfare. Their media productions for good

cause are the main reasons why they are always considered credible. So, whatever

products they are endorsed for, they become always famous and of public concern- if not

the product then at least the performance of the duo. (It has not been researched yet on

how much public installed the Dish TV in their homes after watching Maha Duo, but

many of them with TV at their homes must have watched Maha Duos comic

performances.) According Hovland (1953), the effectiveness of a communication is

commonly assumed to depend to a considerable extent upon who delivers it (as cited in

Surana, 2008, p.20). Ohanian (1990) mentions the expression source credibility is used

commonly to entail the communicators positive attributes that affect the recipients

acceptance of a message (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.20)

This is why endorsing a right celebrity for a TVC becomes very much important. The

idea behind this strategy is that consumers who like the celebrity will transfer their liking

to the brand. For example, the Hajmola tries to transfer Amitabh Bachchan's image to the

candy (Koirala, 2008, p.139).

Taleja (2010) suggests several reasons why a famous endorser may be influential: -

- They attract attention to the advertisement in the cluttered stream of messages.

- They are perceived as being more entertaining.

- They are seen as trustworthy because of apparent lack of self-interest.


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- The final element is due to the wide-spread attribution that major stars do not really work

for the endorsement fee, but are motivated by genuine affection for the product (p.11).

Celebrities going through scandals can only damage the reputation of the

products. Till (1996) asserts if the celebrity is strongly associated with the brand then the

impact of the negative publicity will brim over to the product (as cited in Surana, 2008,

p.17). Katyal (2007) mentions that companies have been badly affected by the negative

publicity accruing from the celebritys misdeeds. One very prominent example is Pepsi

which suffered with three tarnished celebrities - Mike Tyson, Madonna, and Michael

Jackson (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.17).

Celebrities transfer their value to the product. So, hiring a celebrity based on his/ her

social background and moral conducts become very much influential since the first thing

that grabs the attention of public is the celebrity but not the product. It does matter who is

suggesting what to us.


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References

Koirala, K. (2008).Advertising Theory and Practices. Kathmandu: Benhmark Education

Support.

Surana, R. (2008). The Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement in India. Degree of

Master of Arts in Marketing, The University of Nottingham. Retrieved from:

http://edissertations.nottingham.ac.uk/2069/1/08MAlixrs13.pdf

Taleja, N. (2010). Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on Overall Brand. Retrieved from

http://www.coolavenues.com/mba-journal/marketing/impact-celebrity-

endorsements-overall-brand-0

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