Celebrity Endorsements play an important role in advertising as a well-recognised face brings a spotlight to the brand, helping in building its image. It also makes the brand stand out in the crowd. In this blog, we will cover the different aspects of celebrity endorsement in advertising and how effective it can be when it comes to marketing.
Celebrity branding is a type of advertising campaign where the social status of a celebrity helps in brand promotion. Marketers collaborate with celebrities as endorsers and utilise their positive image to improve their company name. These also help in the fundraising process.
The branding technique has the potential to reach a large number of prospective consumers or viewers. However, a demerit of endorsement is if there is no linkage between the famous face and the brand or product, the whole concept of branding will go wrong. A miscommunication and hindrance in understanding can be troublesome and can destroy a brand name.
These are lists of the various types of endorsements:
1. Paid Endorsements: These are a paid way of advertising a company’s brand, where a renowned celebrity endorses a product or service by paying them a certain amount of money.
2. Unpaid Endorsements: Contrary to paid endorsements, unpaid forms of endorsements are where influencers promote a certain brand’s product or services, totally free of cost.
3. Ambassadorial Endorsements: In this type of endorsement, the celebrity becomes the face of that brand. The main purpose of such endorsements is to spread awareness and to promote sales of the brand.
1. Commercials: This type of advertising endorsements usually appears on social media platforms or comes into sight as banners. Another way of presenting a celebrity via commercials is to let the celebrity host the commercial-sponsored ad on television or radio.
2. Spokesperson: In this form of advertising, a celebrity acts as the main speaker or becomes the voice on behalf of the brand. The celebrity becomes the centre of attention while representing the name of the organisation in front of the media or to any other third party.
Also read: 10 Indian Companies Use Influencer Marketing to Grow their Brand!
Celebrity Endorsements have both positive and negative impacts on marketing. Let us discuss some of the benefits and drawbacks associated with celebrity endorsements:
Following are some of the benefits of celebrity endorsements:
1. Selection of Brands: People are more likely to choose products or brands that are endorsed by a popular celebrity rather than an unpopular face. Viewers could build their trust easily while choosing a product that was marketed by a celebrity. This strategy helps in building a strong base of loyal customers.
2. Emotional Aspects: Endorsing a celebrity's fame can be efficient as people can build an emotional bond with such brands. Often people purchase a product or service that is marketed by their favourite celebrities. These can be a part of a marketing alignment that boosts the sales of their products.
On the contrary, let us discuss some of the drawbacks of celebrity endorsements:
1. Background: One of the most important points, companies should keep in mind while choosing a celebrity for their marketing purpose is their background. A correct choice of celebrity is an essential fact in the marketing field. Brands are the assets of a company if you fail to select an appropriate brand face, it can turn the table for you in the wrong direction.
2. Cost-Effectiveness: Another important factor which is involved with celebrity endorsement is the cost. Hiring a high-paid celebrity can cost a lot, especially for start-ups and small-scale businesses. Hence, deciding the budget and strictly sticking to it when going for celebrity endorsements is imperative.
Research has shown that celebrity endorsements affect customers from a broader perspective. For example, David Beckham for H&M, Nicole Kidman for Chanel and Virat Kohli for Boost can trigger the right emotion in the head and heart of the customers. This is so because the brand’s motto resonates perfectly with their background.
Another dimension of the endorsement is the effectiveness or influence that the brand has on the phenomenon. A brand target among other factors, is to differentiate their product from other offerings and add value, that they are contributing to achieve a competitive advantage.
This was a rough ideation behind celebrity endorsement in advertising that can immensely help you if you are planning to undertake this marketing strategy. It is a common and popular business strategy to promote or improve brand recognition and can highlight the difference between brands by using various celebrities' images and statuses.
Christiano Ronaldo endorsed Nike for USD 1 billion for a lifetime duration. David Bechlam’s deal with Adidas for USD 168 million is another big celebrity endorsement.
Two simple steps are followed to endorse celebrities for any brand or company: selection of celebrity and negotiation process.
Ranveer Singh is the current most popular celebrity with the highest number of endorsement counts.
Nowadays, celebrity endorsements have become popular across all brands. Almost every celebrity is endorsed in almost every television advertisement, which makes India a 2,000-crore celebrity endorsement market.
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