Celebrity Endorsement in Attracting Men Consumers in the Fashion Sector in the UK - Article Example

The role of the celebrity endorsement in attracting men consumers in the fashion sector in the UK Table of Contents Introduction 2 Fragrance Market UK: An Overview 3 Advertising and Celebrity endorsement  4 Communication process and Celebrity endorsement  6 Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on the fashion conscious consumer’s buying behaviour, particularly men 8 Risks Involved in Celebrity Endorsement   9 Use of Celebrity Endorsement by Fashion Retailers 10 Further research 12 Bibliography 13 Introduction Celebrity Endorsement is an advertising technique which consumes enormous amounts of funds per annum in the fashion markets. This huge investment on the celebrity contract shows the belief of the of the fashion retailers that celebrities their products can attract augmented attraction of the potential consumers if presented through celebrities (Katyal, 2007). It was reported by Kambitsis et al. (2002) that marketing through celebrity endorsement in fashion markets have attained crucial status and regarded it as a billion dollar industry. It was Temperley and Tangen (2006), who conducted a rigorous study on the fashion industry and revealed that fashion retailers strongly believed in getting a strong position in the consumer’s mind by utilizing a celebrity to advertise their products. Uniqueness and relevancy in the mind of consumer can only be achieved through celebrities. Mustafa (2005) concluded that use of the celebrity endorsement has increased in all almost all industries with little importance of the type of the products being advertised. A brand can achieve a glamorous touch due to celebrity endorsement (Reynolds, 2000). A meaning is transferred to the product or brand when associated with a celebrity. Theory about this concept suggests that celebrity is a personality with some meaning for the consumers and this meaning is shifted towards the brand name or product being advertised through celebrity endorsement. There is a strong association between the celebrities and their fans, advertises use this association for the products and brands, the transfer of meaning from the celebrity to the product or brand is accomplished when consumer purchases the product due to this association (McCracken, 1989). The main purpose of this type of advertisement is to transfer the affirmative and complimentary association of the brand in consumer’s mind. Fragrance Market UK: An Overview Men’s Fragrance Market in UK has gained a lot of momentum in the recent past due to the celebrity endorsements; a survey conducted by Mintel (2010) showed that during last three years, the interest of the British men in celebrity fragrances had increased three fold. The UK men rank second in using celebrity fragrances after the Italy among all European countries. The survey involved 1000 people across the Europe; the results released by Mintel also revealed that approximately 6 % of the British men were using a fragrance advertised through celebrity endorsement e.g. famous soccer player David Beckham, this percentage was only 2 % in 2007. It clearly indicates that men are well aware of the vitality of fragrance products in augmenting the image of a personality and self-confidence; in fact the self confidence has become very important for men due to declining job securities and increasing unemployment have become serious issues for men. The recent augmented interest in the fragrances associated with male celebrities is indicative of the current market situation. An interesting fact is the boost of men’s fragrance industry despite the financial crisis across the globe, although its pace was slow. British men stand first in the quantity of fragrances sprayed every year, they used 388 million pounds (2010) of the fragrance products and it was estimated that this amount will reach over 400 million pounds till the end of the current year. The only larger market that attracts the men for fragrance products is Italian market, a comparison was made between the fragrance markets of five largest countries of Europe and results showed that more than 8 % of the Italian men were using celebrity fragrances, 6 % of the Spanish men, 6 % of Great Britain men and 4 % in France had a celebrity fragrance. The next section of this essay reveals the utilization of celebrity endorsement in the advertisement of fashion products. Advertising and Celebrity endorsement  Celebrity endorsement has been used for advertising the fashion products for several decades because these endorsements have proved a strong and effective tool for the transfer of meaning and magnitude to the product or brand. Assael (1984) reported that celebrity endorsers formulate a symbolic and inspirational group or association; these groups serve as cues in marginal route to influence. There are two main reasons for utilizing the celebrities as endorsers of the brands, first reason is their dynamic personality, attraction for their fans and likeability among the certain group of potential customers and the second is the fame associated with them which can be transferred to the product through endorsement process. The word celebrity has been described and explained by various researchers, the most recent definition of ‘celebrity’ as proposed by Kruzman et al. (2007) is, “Celebrity is an omnipresent feature of society, blazing lasting impressions in the memories of all who cross its path.” When a firm decides to utilize a celebrity for the promotion of its fashion products may use the selected celebrity as a testimonial of its product, as an actor, as a spokesperson of the organization for a specific product and as an endorsement, the most popular and effective way to utilize a celebrity for promotional purpose. The endorsement means that celebrities agree to lend their fame and name for advertisement of a product the services, it is not essential that the celebrity is an expert in the respective field (Klaus and Bailey, 2008). Celebrity endorsement has attained the category of the most rampant form of publicity; it was reported by Amos et al., (2008) that more than 20 % of all the TV ads in UK feature the famous celebrities in them. There have been extensive academic and market research on the impact of celebrity endorsement on the awareness of the viewers about the endorsed brands (Kamins et al 1989; Mc-Cracken 1989; Lee and Thorson, 2008; Jaiprakash, 2008; Klaus and Bailey, 2008). Celebrity endorsements prove more effective in the fashion industry because the fans of the celebrities have a craze to look like them, to use the products they are associated with or claimed to be in their use. Despite the increased awareness about the false celebrity endorsements and declined effectiveness of this method of advertisement and promotion, it is highly effective in the promotion of the fashion brands. The foremost reason for this effectiveness is the image, likeability, omnipresence and radiating lifelong impressions of the celebrity endorsing these products in the minds of their fans, the importance of the celebrity endorsed product is imprinted in the minds of the people. The strategic use of celebrity endorsements in the advertisement and marketing of the products have become more crucial than ever. The concept of celebrity endorsement has stepped forward and it is affecting the quality of the product being endorsed by it, price decisions regarding the particular product. It is also reported by Batra and Homer (2004)) that the fashion retailers always prefer super stars over the less known celebrities for advertising campaigns. Amos et al. (2008) conducted a study regarding the effect of celebrity endorsement on the advertisement campaigns and found that the brand managers obtained more success in the campaigns that involved celebrity endorsers and became more popular. Therefore, celebrity endorsers are widely used by the fashion retailers and other business organizations in their advertisement campaigns, these companies allocate huge budgets for convincing celebrities to sign an endorsement contract with them and lend their name and fame to their brands (Klaus and Bailey, 2008). Thomaselli (2004) quoted an example of the endorsement budgets to evaluate the importance given by companies to endorsement for the promotion of their products; Nike, a huge and well-known brand name, spent approximately $ 339 million for approval as well as broadcasting of their advertising campaigns through celebrity endorsement. This is a worldwide trend and companies across the globe utilize this strategy to run successful promotion and advertisement campaigns, especially the fashion retailers. Erdogan et al. (2001) illustrated that almost 25 % of the TV commercials were based on celebrity endorsements. 12 % of all the televised advertisements were reported using this strategy for success in Germany (Ipsos Response, 2008) and 25 % of the TV commercials in UK (Doss, 2008) utilize this advertisement tactic to some extent. Such extensive use of celebrity endorsement is indicative of the prevalent belief of the fashion retailers in the celebrity endorsements; celebrity endorsers do exercise a healthy and positive influence on the advertised brands (TNS Sport, 2005). The brand image as well as brand value is enhanced by running celebrity endorsed advertisements on the TV, which leads towards the effective marketing and high revenue for the retailers. Communication process and Celebrity endorsement  Communication, especially the one involving marketing, which utilizes celebrity endorsement techniques, is characterized as a process which involves a sender (celebrity) with power to convey the message and influence the behaviour of the target audience. The typical agenda of influential communication presented by Lasswell (1984) clearly distinguished the elements of the communication process including ‘who says’, ‘what’, ‘in which channel’ and ‘to whom’. The foremost element in this type of communication is the sender, or the message source. There are different kinds of message source; it may be impersonal such as an advertisement, experiential or interpersonal such as a friend or colleague (Keaveney and Parthasarathy, 2001). In the context of celebrity endorsed communication, celebrity is regarded as an impersonal source of message. Therefore, the characteristics of the celebrity like his or her perception; personal attributes including attraction and likeability among the people can establish endorsement triumph and can result in the constructive development of the brand image. The second element of persuasive communication is ‘says what’ which refers to the actual content of the message which is conveyed by the endorser celebrity. In order to ensure the success of this communication process it is crucial that the characteristics of message are pertinent to implementation as well as understanding of communication in celebrity endorsement. It was reported by Belch and Belch (2001) that the market decision of fashion retailers and other firms are heavily dependent on the degree and extent of the endorsement as well as one or two sided appeals. One sided appeals refers to the message content describing only positive aspects of the products while two way appeals include minor description of the negatives related to the product or services. The third element mentioned above is ‘in which channel’ which describes the means of communicating message from the sender to the receiver, these channels assist in bridging the gaps between the send, the endorsing celebrity, and the receiver , the target audience. For this purpose, celebrity endorsement is exploits the channel of mass media, and the most recent trend is the use of social networks as a channel for celebrity endorsement (Edward and Ferle, 2009). The features of the channel being used for the celebrity endorsement also affect the communication process and may build up or deteriorate its outcomes. The fourth and last element ‘to whom’, is very crucial in the celebrity endorsement communication process, it is the potential customer. Viewed from endorsement point of view the recipients may differ a great deal in their susceptibility to celebrity endorsed advertisement campaigns. The characteristics like personal individual traits, age and gender of the recipients must influence this process because they are the target audience and likelihood of complimentary outcomes about the brand image depends on their perception about the celebrity endorsing the product (Choi and Berger, 2010). It is obvious that all the elements have their role in the outcomes of the communication process of celebrity endorsed advertisements. It is very important to select the celebrity according to the target audience in order to influence the purchasing behaviour of the potential customers in the fragrance market, UK. The message content should be according to the personal attributes of the celebrity and the channel utilized for this purpose should be able to reach the message to masses. The following section entails the influence of celebrity endorsement on the fashion conscious customers, how it affects the buying behaviour of men in fragrance market. Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on the fashion conscious consumer’s buying behaviour, particularly men The way celebrity endorsement affects decision of the consumers regarding has been under extensive study by the academic researchers and a vital topic of marketing as well as social psychology researches. These researchers came forward with different hypothesis about the influence of these campaigns on the customer’s purchasing behaviour including celebrity endorsements create a recall in the consumer’s mind, it is the credibility of the celebrity on the expertise which leads towards the development of good perception about the quality of the product among consumers and the image of the celebrity endorsing the product is transferred towards the product and those who are attached to the endorser are also attracted towards the product (Byber, Whitehead and Breen, 2003). The men and women of today have become more fashion conscious than ever and the celebrities in the fashion and sports industry are known to make fashion statements, this fact has led the fashion retailers towards utilizing celebrity endorsement to positively affect the behaviour of the customer towards their products. The men of modern time have increasingly become fashion conscious, the experiments conducted by Clark and Horstman (2003) revealed that celebrity endorsement augmented the recall and assessment of the products among the men consumers. Menon et al. (2001) reported that celebrity endorsements are effective way of enhancing brain recalls among the men consumers. Petty et al. (1992) revealed that celebrity endorsements created a positive image among the consumers, especially the endorsements involving men athletes were more influential for the men consumers. They tend to like the products more when endorsed by the famous athletes as compared to the products endorsed by the average or relatively unknown athletes or fashion celebrities. Choi and Berger (2010) also reported the similar results and concluded that consumers, especially the men, consider a product of high quality and better which were endorsed by congruent celebrities. It is evident that the fashion conscious men consumers’ behaviour is largely affected by the celebrity endorsement campaigns; it strengthens the memory of the product in their mind and affects their purchasing behaviour while in the market and shopping for fashion goods. Risks Involved in Celebrity Endorsement   Numerous benefits are associated with the famous professional athletes as compared to the little or unknown endorsers. They enable the products to break through the media clutter and capture the attention of the viewers (Erdogan and Baker, 1999). It is specifically true about the athletes who are at the peak of their performance and media as well as consumer visibility. Joseph and Jones (2003) reported that certain risks were involved in adapting the celebrity endorsement, every process involved in this strategy of marketing have potential risks as well as the potential rewards. Celebrity endorsements are always a high reward as well as high risk situation, it involves human element that one have no control over. Therefore, utilization of professional and famous athletes involves certain risks. The foremost risk involved is the overshadowing of the brands due to increased attention brought about by celebrity endorsement (Erdogan & Kitchen 1998). The celebrity endorsing the product may involve in some controversial activities and bring negative impacts on the product or brand, e.g. in the late 2009, professional golfer Tiger Woods whose income from endorsement was $100 million per annum in a notorious car crash outside his home. His public status was dented by the media reports following this incident, many sponsors dropped Mr. Woods outright and other discontinued featuring him. Garland and Ferkins (2002) revealed that celebrities involved in multiple endorsements are more prone to overexposure; it reduced the impact and image of every product and results in the diminished credibility of the celebrity. Use of Celebrity Endorsement by Fashion Retailers Fashion retailers have successfully employed celebrity endorsement to increase their market share, there are several examples of successful celebrity endorsements, and the basic reason for their success was due to following appropriate strategy. The luxurious brand ‘Versace’ from Italy used Madonna in TV commercials and Demi Moore and Halle Berry in print media for endorsing their brand (Amos et al., 2008). Others examples include Julia Roberts for Gianfranco Ferres ads and Uma Thurman in the ads of Vuittion and Alexander for KFC. As far as UK fragrance market is concerned, the top three men’s fragrances attained this reputation due to the celebrity endorsement, Katie Price is endorsing for ‘Stunning’, the number one perfume in the UK. The UK company Superdrug’s Kate fragrance is the second most popular perfume and is endorsed by Kate Moss, and the third perfume is self-titled perfume by Christina Aguilera. The bad examples celebrity endorsement include that of Peyton Manning in the ad for Peyton Manning: Helping moving the products for Sony and Beyonce Knowles endorsing for Vizlo (Choi and Berger, 2010). Conclusion The above discussion about celebrity endorsement suggests that it an effective method of advertisement used by the firms and retailers to increase their market share. Although some risks are involved in the use of this marketing strategy but its widespread use is indicative of benefits perceived by the marketing mangers through this method. It affects the purchasing behaviour of the fashion conscious consumers by enhancing the recall for the product associated with a celebrity and by inducing positive perceptions about the quality of the product due to the increased credibility lent by the endorsing personality. The communication when viewed from endorsement perspective reveals that all the elements of this process have relative importance in the promotion of the product. As far as men customers are concerned, they are attracted towards the fashion products effectively with the help of celebrity endorsers from sports background, e.g. the UK men want to own the fragrances that Beckham uses. The sudden increase in the use of fragrances among men is due to the celebrity endorsed marketing of the products by the fashion retailers. Further research The future prospects of this research are manifold, the factors affecting the success of the celebrity endorsement, selection of the celebrity according to the nature of the product and target audience and strategies involved in the successful designing and implementation of advertising campaigns through celebrity endorsement require further exploration. There has been a lot of debate on the risks involved in celebrity and the effectiveness of this marketing technique which needs further elaboration by carrying out empirical research. Another very important future prospect of celebrity endorsement is the utilization of social networks as a channel to convey the message to the target audience. The research on this aspect is lacking and researchers have just started to explore this aspect but this aspect requires extensive studies to measure the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement through these modern channels. Bibliography Aaker, D.A. (1991). 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