Celebrity Appeal in Branding - Research Proposal Example

CELEBRITY APPEAL IN BRANDING "A sign of a celebrity is that his is often worth more than his services." - Daniel J Boorstin Celebrity Endorsement: As defined at venturerepublic.com, "Endorsement is a channel of brand communication in which a celebrity acts as the brand's spokesperson and certifies the brand's claim and position by extending his/her personality, popularity, stature in the society or expertise in the field to the brand. In a market with a very high proliferation of local, regional and international brands, celebrity endorsement was thought to provide a distinct differentiation. But over the years, many aspiring brands in Asia have jumped on to this celebrity endorsement bandwagon. Even though endorsements have taken on a quasi-industry stature, there is hardly any hugely successful collaboration as those of Nike" Background: Over the past fifty years, the association of brands with celebrities has been used as a widely accepted and popular means of branding any product. Irrespective of the industry diversity celebrity endorsement is being used to appeal customers in the pharmaceutical, watches & accessories, personal use items, cosmetics, cola drinks and virtually everything. This method of branding has not lost its popularity over the years and the potential in this sector is enough to have sustained the emergence of brand consultancy firms specialized in providing celebrity matching and celebrity endorsement services. Focus of Research: Considering the above, the purpose of this research is whether celebrity branding is actually beneficial for the product or are their some hidden, spillover negative effects Is celebrity-branding effective in generating sales by influencing the decision making process Is celebrity endorsement as successful a tool in all the industries or whether its impact differs form industry to industry Is the celebrity appeal the same across different geographical regions and cultures And the focal question is celebrity endorsement really necessary for all products or is it a marketing myth phrased as " Is Celebrity Endorsement beneficial for the product or is it a limiting factor" Theoretical Framework: For the academic text, "The 22 immutable Laws of Branding" by Al Ries & Laura Ries and Marketing Management by Philips Kotler were particularly useful. Celebrity Endorsement is a part of the branding strategy. Considering this the 22 immutable laws relate to this specifically the 18th Law the law of borders which states that a brand should not have any borders and should be global and la 13 which states that the brand name should take precedence over the name of the company to avoid confusion. Considering this, the question that arises is that since singularity is important to leave an impact on the mind of the customers, is it really prudent to have a celebrity endorsement, which might confuse the customer by removing the singularity or overshadowing the brand in itself The general background to branding and advantages and disadvantages of labeling, branding and other functional aspects are well explained by Kotler in the Book Marketing Management. Literature Review: To conduct this elementary level research, academic journals, articles available on the internet and case studies pertaining to well-known brands have been reviewed and they provide useful insight onto the different circumstances that the brands face, the way they adapt, how celebrity branding has helped them boost their sales or bring it to low levels. A study conducted at University of Columbia by Christina Schlecht "Celebrities impact on Branding" provides good reading material for this subject. For an insight into the current topics, the articles available at www.about.com were very insightful especially "Celebrity Endorsement Deals Gone Astray" by Apryl Duncan. For the case study analysis, www.fultable.com and www.celebrityendorsements.co.uk are particularly useful. From the above it can be seen that a lot has been written on this subject. However, as observed by on hindubuisnessline.com and in the various writings by Apryl Duncan, it can be observed that even though the common marketing myth is that celebrity endorsement is the key to success of a brand and will lead to success, however, celebrity endorsement is a double edged sword. This thesis would aim to focus on the necessity of celebrity endorsement and what negative impacts a wrong choice regarding celebrity icon can have on the product. Further to this, what current studies have missed out is that once the damage to the reputation has been caused, how to reverse the process Previously, marketers' general tendency was to go ahead with celebrity endorsement. However, with the recent developments, they are being lead to make a cautious choice. Previous search also seems to focus more on business case studies and thus they focus on identifying a problem rather then generating solutions. This thesis aims to come up with damage control solutions after a celebrity endorsement strategy has failed in terms of having negative spillover effects in the products image. The best way to find out this would be by interviewing the brand managers and marketing managers at the leading companies and asking them questions pertaining to the damage control strategies that they have in mind and they think would work bets under the circumstances. Research Questions: From the above observation, it can be seen that even though celebrity endorsement has always been widely accepted marketing tool, but now the marketers and media planners are beginning to question the use of celebrity endorsement in relation to its impact. After conducting extensive secondary research, it was deduced that prior to arriving at a conclusive statement pertaining to the focus question " Is Celebrity Endorsement beneficial for the product or is it a limiting factor", we have to analyze the following sub-questions: 1. Celebrity endorsement impact on the product image in case the celebrity chooses to be the brand ambassador of a competitor's product This is an instance which is not very common in developed countries but in third world countries where marketing laws are not so well-defined or a proper contract is not signed, the celebrity might choose to endorse first one product and may even go ahead to endorse a competing product. A good example would be the model Reema in Pakistan endorsing the brand LUX of Unilever chose to endorse another soap brand. There was quite a lot of hype in the print media about this, however, since there was no clause relating to this, nothing could be done about it." A global example is quoted at Chilllibreeze.com by Saurabh Katyal "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 Britney Spears who endorsed one cola brand and was repeatedly caught drinking another brand of cola on tape" 2. Celebrity endorsement impact on the product image in case the celebrity chooses to be the brand ambassador of another product from another product line or industry This is as case whereby the contract has a limiting clause whereby the contract seeks to "Limit" the celebrity from endorsing other competitor products rather than "prohibiting" him/her from endorsing any other products. A good example of this would be the doctors who endorse certain brands of toothpaste. The same "Celebrity" doctors are seen endorsing various other hygiene brands for e.g. the same doctor endorsing toothpaste may choose to endorse a mouthwash product. This issue has been addressed by Saurabh Katyal in the following words in his article Impact of celebrity endorsement on a brand, "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." 3. Change in public opinion of the Celebrity or negative publicity of the celebrity and its impact on the brand, the damage estimation and the damage control In the article "Celebrity Deals gone Astray, Apryl Duncan addresses this issue very aptly "When a celebrity is the center of controversy, many advertisers can't afford to wait the situation out. The damage may be done. Companies may have to distance themselves before their own reputation is tarnished. Kobe Bryant's family-friendly endorsement deals with Nutella and McDonald's came to a quick end after he was accused of rape. Pepsi shied away from Madonna after her Like a Prayer video was aired. Dell quietly let spokesman Benjamin Curtis's contract expire after he was arrested for allegedly trying to buy marijuana. Sears and Federal Express yanked their sponsorships of Politically Incorrect after host Bill Maher called Americans "cowards" for "lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away," post September 11." This observation alone is reason enough to re-consider a proposal on acquiring celebrity endorsement for a brand. 4. Use of more than one celebrity to endorse the same brand. Some ambitious companies have a tendency to use multiple celebrities for the same brand at different points in time or maybe for separate campaigns. Telenor is a good example where it's using pop music idols in every region. However, multiple celebrity endorsement is likely to create confusion in the mind of consumers and the appeal might be lost in this process. Pepsi has used Mike Tyson, Madonna and Michael Jackson creating confusion in the minds of the audience. 5. Celebrity endorsement vs. endorsement by public, or private associations or other such bodies. Credibility is an important aspect in endorsements. No matter what industry the company manufacturing the product is in, every industry has some associations or some other central or regulatory body that has authority over all industry members like for example the Swiss watch makers have an association of their own. It is a question market why companies choose not to utilize their services for endorsements. However, the reason behind this could be lack of glamour and the disinterest of the consumer with these bodies. Also, the consumers tend to be unaware of these associations. 6. The emergence of Celebrity endorsement agencies and the brand ambassadors Considering the high potential in this industry, specialized celebrity endorsement agencies have started operations and provide matchmaking services to companies and celebrities. 7. The impact of celebrity endorsement in different cultures and geographical regions The issue to be addressed here is whether Kaka the famous Brazilian soccer player endorsing the Georgio Armani brand would have the same appeal in Middle east or other countries where cricket is the most favorite game of the masses 8. The question of 'Why to use the marketing budget out of the company's funds to finance the propagation of the celebrity As Apryl Duncan observed ion her article, "Companies Ditch Celebrity Endorsements" Same case for Chrysler, which dumped Celine Dion from its new ad campaign. Insiders at Chrysler say the commercials featuring Dion driving a Pacifica produced great sales...for the singer, not the car." Research Methodology: A comprehensive study on impact of celebrity endorsement on brands would include a combination of primary as well as secondary research methods. Secondary research will be carried out by a comprehensive analysis of periodicals, books and academic journals and publications specifically on brand related issues for example 'brandwagon'. The services of a marketing research company like AC Neilsen will be made use of and data on sales through retail outlets of a well-known brand, before and after acquiring the celebrity endorsement would be obtained from them. This will give useful insight onto what impact does celebrity endorsement have on the sale of the company. Most probably this sort of a database would be available with them though it might have been carried out for some other company and might require tailoring. This would be a relatively easy and less costly method of research. All the published literature available on the Internet including, blogs, reviews, and latest celebrity scams of icons endorsing some product will be taken into account. However, no matter how comprehensive the secondary research is, the study on implications of celebrity endorsement on brands can never be comprehensive without first hand knowledge of the customers, consumers and of the brand & marketing managers. In this regard, devising a small questionnare with five to six questions will carry out a survey on brand awareness and choice of brand celebrities and the association of celebrities with the brand. The survey would be conducted across various industries for example a sample of five hundred questionnaire would be distributed and filled at a retail outlet of Swiss watch manufacturers and distributors, likewise 500 questionnaires would be distributed at the Nike outlet, and same would apply to the perfume outlets. The aim would be to analyze he impact of celebrity association in different industries, whether the association is more strong or less in some industries as compared to others. This survey would be carried out in different global regions. The objective behind this would be to assess the geographic, territorial and cultural impacts on the brand and the celebrity association. Another objective would also be to assess whether it would be worthwhile to have different celebrities for different regions or would it be prudent to have just one celebrity in the global marketing plan. The various cost factors would also be objectively analyzed whether multi celebrity associations are more cost effective as compared to singular celebrity association. The last aspect of our comprehensive research would be to get first hand information from the brand managers and marketing manager of the leading brands as well as the celebrities about their experience of being brand ambassadors and providing endorsements. The brand managers would be the best source on providing an insight into the means and way of curing the damages caused by a negative celebrity association. How to make the brand recover from the after effects of this association Holding focus groups with the brand managers would carry this out. Data Interpretation and Analyses: The research questions generated by the secondary research will be answered through carrying out the primary research in form of focus groups as well as retail outlet surveys. The information collected would be inform of sales data collected before and after a celebrity association. This would determine the impact on the sales of the celebrity association. The second objective is to find out, through primary research, whether the impact of celebrity association is the same on all industries or what the difference is in the impact levels. This can be judged by simultaneously measuring the percentage increases in sales of two different product categories for example Nike and Swiss watches after a recent celebrity association. The third objective would be to determine if the sales are affected by celebrity endorsement at all This can be carried out by evaluating the sales of a celebrity association brand as compared to any of its non- celebrity association competitor brands and evaluate the sales patterns to determine the impact of having a celebrity association as compared to no celebrity association. The fourth objective of primary research, for which focus groups are proposed, is to judge the belief of practicing brand managers whether they think a celebrity association will tend to overshadow the brand or lend more publicity to the celebrity as compared to the brand The fifth question to be answered by focus groups is how to counter the negative spillover effects on the brand due to a celebrity association that eventually lost image with the masses What would be the best strategies to make the brand recover from this damage Difficulties in The Proposed Research Methodology: Marketing Research: The marketing research data acquired from a research company like AC Nielsen might have been conducted for some other company. Not only might it not be applicable but also it might also be outdated and may not match with the current market scenario. This would make analyses difficult and misleading. Periodicals & Academic Journals: The authenticity of figures is questionable as in most cases the sources are missing. Also incomplete information may be provided for example we would be requiring information related to Nike and the celebrity appeal factor, The article may include information on Nike however it may not provide figures or Reebok and Adidas. Use of Internet Sources: The issue with the use of Internet sources is that it cannot be cited as an authentic means of deriving information. Also, the location of accessed material might change over night rendering the statistics quoted futile for referencing purposes. Primary Research, Survey: Even though surveys are required frequently in conducting a research since they are the best way to acquire first hand knowledge form the consumers, however, this is the costliest research method, While attempting to conduct a survey, the cost implications have to be kept in mind especially in our case in which we have proposed to conduct a survey in separate industries as well as in different geographical regions. Another issue that may be encountered is the translation of the survey questions in the local language of the people in the different geographical region for example to judge the impact of an association with Kaka and impact on the market of Armani's Middle East market, we would require the survey questionnaire to be devised in the local language of the UAER. Not only that translator service would be required and during translation the true meaning might be lost. The focus groups on the other hand would be difficult since it would be difficult acquiring appointments form the brand manager and marketing managers for such in length interviews. Also, there might be a tendency to keep things hidden or to overstate since they might feel that the information might be published or passed on to others. REFERENCES I. Kotler, Marketring Management II. Al Ries & Laura Ries, 22 Immutable Laws of Branding III. Celebrity Endorsement Deals Gone Astray, Apryl Duncan, About.com IV. Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on a Brand,Saurbh Katyal,chillibreeze writer V. Celebrities Impact on Branding, Christina Schledt, VI. http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/Celebrity-endorsement.asp VII. http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asppf_id=160 VIII. http://www.venturerepublic.com/resources/Branding_celebrities_brand_endorsements_brand_leadership.asp IX. http://advertising.about.com/od/celebrityendorsements/Celebrity_Endorsements.htm X. http://www.celebrityendorsements.co.uk/ XI. http://advertising.about.com/od/celebrityendorsements/a/celebendorse.htm XII. www.globalbrands.org/academic/working/Celebrity_Branding.pdf XIII. http://www.whisperbrand.com/blog/category/brand-image-identity/ XIV. http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/b/brandcharacters/celeb/celeb.htm XV. http://www.google.com/searchq=celebrity+endorsement+branding XVI. http://www.bizsum.com/the22immutablelaws.htm XVII. http://chris.golde.org/filecabinet/disspropose.html XVIII. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MAinTV/dissert1.html Read More