Brand Impact and Popular Culture - Essay Example

? Brand Impact and Popular Culture Introduction Advertisement is a form of brand awareness campaign that marketers employ to boostsales. Advertisements boost the brand visibility thereby making the product more conspicuous among the target market segment. While several manufacturers and service providers use the conventional form of paid advertisements, the latest trend in advertisements is celebrity endorsement. Through this, the marketers seek to benefit from the market population determined by the celebrities. In doing so, the marketers select a prominent celebrity with a wider following (Bagozzi, 1975). This way the business benefits from his or her popularity possibly fusing the celebrity’s admiration for the product or the service. In the modern society, celebrities determine culture thereby setting trends. Following this understanding, businesses use the celebrities’ popularity to revamp the sale of their products as the discussion below reveals. Samsung is arguably the leading manufacturer of home appliances among other telecommunication equipment. The company enjoys autonomy in a number of international markets and competes successfully with other leading western brands such as Blackberry in the manufacture of mobile phones among other hand held devices and many other companies across the continents that manufacture such products as televisions, home entertainment systems, fridges among many other technological appliances. The company takes pride in an effective marketing strategy that has resulted in its substantial hold on the market (Powell, 1990). The South Korean company is currently among the fastest growing technology influences and manufacturers in the world. The company attributes most of its success to effective marketing strategies beginning with a conclusive market research to determine the needs of their customers. They therefore tailor make their products in accordance with the dictates of the market segment. Additionally, the company has one of the biggest advertisement budgets, second only to Coca Cola, which is the leading global advertiser. Through extensive advertisement, the company increases its brand awareness and visibility thereby promoting the unique specific features of the product more likely to increase the sales of their products. Among the commonly preferred advertisement methods that the company employs is celebrity endorsements. Lately the company sought the endorsement of the top Chelsea football club players. Chelsea is among the top four clubs in the United Kingdom enjoying a global fan base of more than five hundred million. The choice to sponsor the club is therefore strategic in the company that seeks the approval of the Western market. By sponsoring such a team, the company earns this besides the local market in South Korea and significant part of the global market. The company understands the club’s fan base. By supporting the club, the company possibly restricts its customer target to the fan base of the club. However, the company determines that there is none of its competitors supporting any football team in the world especially the leading teams in Europe enjoying a global fan base. This possibly earns the company the admiration of all football lovers, which is more than two billion people globally. Advertisement just as explained earlier is a means of improving the brand visibility, thereby increasing the market awareness (Hochschild, 1983). Football is the most watched sport in the world. By supporting such a famous team Samsung earns free global market access when the players adorn the football regalia branded with the Samsung logos. Chelsea fans globally further put on similar clothing during the football matches thereby increasing the global visibility of the brand. The choice to support Chelsea has therefore succeeded in creating the global awareness of the products manufactured by Samsung. Additionally, the sponsorship earns the company absolute privilege to use the club’s players in endorsing its products, a technique that the company has been using for a very long time. At the age of thirty-five Didier Drogba was arguably one of the oldest football players in the team. The company therefore employs Drogba, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien in the advertisement of some of their technological products in the African market. The choice of the three players is strategic and the company assesses each celerity on the specific features of the product. The three players have endorsed a number of Samsung products ranging from television sets, fridges and home entertainment systems among others. Drogba for example is the most adored player among the female fans of the club and enjoys an international affection of millions of female lovers of football. By using such a player to endorse a product, the company seeks to influence such a market segment into buying the products some of which are designed to meet the specification of women. Women for example are often the ones to make such shopping decisions as the choice of a fridge and other kitchen appliances. Additionally, the company uses Drogba and his entire family in the endorsement of some of these products. With his wife and two daughters, the celebrity convinces millions of families on the specific features of the product most of which are targeted at meeting the requirement of families. Fans often want to look like their most adored celebrities and one of the easiest ways of identifying with them is by buying the products they endorse and by dressing like them (Elliott, 1998). The company therefore achieves great advertisement success at an arguably lower cost. Additionally, the company uses the above three celebrities in advertising some of its products targeting the African market. After carrying out an effective market research, the company develops products suitable for use in different parts of the world. Africa is the poorest continent in the world and the region experiences such problems as rough roads and frequent power disruptions. The company therefore manufactures products that can withstand such pressures. The company uses Drogba’s durability at the club to represent their products’ longevity and robustness, Essien’s speed to communicate the reliability of their products and Mikel’s versatility to reflect their product's adaptability (Percy, Hansen and Randrup, 2004). The three are African and therefore gain relevance to the African continent and represent the features required to survive in the region. By selecting Africa, the company targets the fastest growing market thereby possibly earning a piece of the market before other manufacturers. Additionally, Africa experiences unique problems and a product that can therefore serve the region may possibly serve in any other parts of the world especially in the developed countries. The advert is therefore relevant in all other markets that the company targets. In retrospect, advertising is an effective way of improving the market’s awareness of a product or service. Every manufacturer therefore engages in advertisements in order to improve sales. However, the techniques in advertisement changes and marketers should also carry out an effective market research and determine the most effective way of accessing the market thereby increasing the popularity of the product among the target market. Reference List Bagozzi, R. (1975), ‘Marketing as exchange’, Journal of Marketing, 39, 4, 32–40. Elliott, R. (1998), ‘A model of emotion- driven choice’, Journal of Marketing Management, 14, 1–3, 95–108. Hochschild, A.R. (1983), The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, Berkeley: University of California Press. Percy, L., Hansen, F., and Randrup, R. (2004), ‘How to measure brand emotion’, Admap, November, 32–34. Powell, W.W. (1990), ‘Neither market nor hierarchy: network forms of organizations’, Research in Organizational Behavior, 12, 295–336. Read More