September 10, 2008
Indiaretailing.com: An idea can change a brand’s life
By Satrajit Sen
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of an article from Indiaretailing.com, presented here for discussion.
Virtually within hours of earning a bronze medal in the Olympics, Vijender Kumar
had been roped in by sportswear brand Adidas as its ambassador. Besides Mr.
Vijender, Adidas is looking to get associated with pugilists Akhil Kumar and
Jitender Kumar who brought India glory with their unexpectedly good show at
the Beijing Olympics.
Aligning brands with legends can be immensely valuable
in terms of brand-building – provided that the personalities remain closely
aligned to the brand values. India’s new-found sports stars are the newest
kids on the block and can expect to be hounded by scores of brands and retailers
for endorsements. To date, brands have been aligning themselves with celebrities
who predominantly belong to Bollywood or cricket.
When Indiaretailing dug deep to study the primary drivers of brand endorsements in India, it found that there are two important things the Indian branding industry is lacking in: According to experts, there is a scarcity of true icons in India and also the advertising industry is missing some genuine creative concepts.
“India has a serious lack of actual icons,” said Akashendu Das, a veteran advertising professional popularly known as Akash Das. “When we speak of icons our choices get limited to people from Bollywood and cricket, which are equally glamorous fields.”
Citing reasons for this, Das held that the frequent appearances of these stars and players in front of the media and masses have led the advertisers to believe that their brands will be recalled by consumers whenever they see those icons. “But the fact in this case is that the brand is remembered less while the celebrity becomes memorable. I have had people speaking to me about (Indian actor) Shahrukh’s brilliant performance in an advertisement with Maruti, while the star actually endorses Hyundai,” he said.
Speaking further, Mr. Das asserted that the Indian advertising and branding industry has been missing out on some brilliant ideas, and is counting too much on links to hot celebrities. “Actually, it is not only about the absence of icons and real celebrities, it is about the lack of a brilliant idea. The creative impact of a brilliant idea will always sustain in the consumer’s psyche, even if there are no celebrities involved,” said
Mr. Das.
Research conducted by Bates in India to track consumer opinion on the
‘relevance and effectiveness of celebrity advertising in building brands,’
urged brands to ‘de-celebritise’ and focus on ideas. Concluding that ideas,
and not celebrities, build brands, the study identified the optimum celebrity
‘fits’ and the cases where celebrities overshadowed brand-building performance.
The survey showed that in the case of cars, celebrity endorsers helped the
brands attain almost instant recall. The study also showed that consumers were
not naïve, and were able to identify a clear difference between a good script
and a good brand idea.
Discussion Questions: Much like India, do you think the celebrity endorsements too frequently fail to pay off for many brands in the U.S.? Do you think brand managers fail to notice that “ideas, and not celebrities” build brands? What are some smart strategies for picking and using a spokesperson for a brand?
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Poll
If these stories are anything to go by, food retailers and manufacturers believe there is still considerable mileage in recruiting athletes’ endorsements. Sporting Heroes Inspire Children into Sport and Gymnast Liukin, decathlete Clay make it to Wheaties box.
I find the language used in this story somewhat surprising, however – the athletes have been “roped in” and are being “hounded”. As I’ve always understood it, remuneration has been extremely generous. Although some celebrities may consider themselves pressured, I thought most welcomed the additional publicity and profit. Perhaps Indian athletes are more altruistic, or less well paid?
As for the wisdom, or otherwise, of using celebrities, I find it frankly patronising to tell consumers that they can be like the relevant celebrity if they just use the product. I find it even more worrying that it works.
I think for certain items, celebrities work. I’m sure these companies can measure promotion effectiveness, at least you would hope so. We all associate Nike with Michael Jordan and now Lebron James. I still associate Cindy Crawford and Hallie Berry with L’Oreal. They were successful, but I think it is because they are not only high profile celebrities, but the products also continue to improve.
I agree that maintaining a good product is most important. I think the endorsement contracts are getting out of control, but I do think that in some cases, they work well.
Celebrity endorsements without an idea are indeed tactics in search of a strategy and yes, even in the US, too many advertising “ideas” are built around a celebrity rather than something that will resonate with a customer.
As an example, when we developed Willard Scott as an ideal spokesperson for Days Inn, there were three compelling reasons that made him “work”:
1. He embodied their three key customer groups: road warriors (being on the road with NBC’s Today), families and seniors.
2. He was likable and appealed to these groups (i.e., he had good Q Scores)
3. There was a heavy added value component associated with his “weather” segments on Today (which Days Inn sponsored) as well as the link to the Days logo, a sunrise.
Like most other marketing activities, relevance counts both in terms of a customer and a brand’s strategy.
I have always believed that companies that use celebrities for endorsements or as spokespeople too often forget that the celebrity is their own person first and foremost. And anyone who reads a newspaper will tell you that those celebrities that are most recognizable, and thus more marketable, also tend to have the most erratic behaviour.
Such one-time marketable names as Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and OJ Simpson come to mind as celebrities that do not check in with their sponsors prior to making a lifestyle changing decision.
Coke is a classic example of a company that has proved you don’t need celebrity endorsements to create a strong brand identity, regardless of what former pitch man Mean Joe Green might tell you.
First, find a sport people care about. Case in point! David Beckham is young, good looking and talented and has rock star status in some parts of the world. However, outside of a few soccer moms, a handful of enthusiasts and a bunch of eight-year-olds trying to kick each other on a Sunday morning, the U.S. doesn’t care about soccer and never will. If I were a brand manager I’d be putting my money elsewhere.
If I were a brand manager I’d be pumping tons of cash into China. This is a country that didn’t spend much on sports paraphernalia. However, since Beijing, sales of equipment and clothing has exploded. Find some icons there or export some.
More Discussions
As Boomers ‘Age Out of Peak Purchasing,’ How Can National Brands Retain Interest With Gen Z?
According to a recent First Insight study titled “Is Gen Z Still Choosing Your Brand,” while…Is Supply Chain Volatility Here To Stay?
Can we expect an ongoing volatility to remain in terms of retail supply chain?Has Same-Day Delivery Become an Expectation Across Retail?
Are expectations around retail delivery speed in flux?
If these stories are anything to go by, food retailers and manufacturers believe there is still considerable mileage in recruiting athletes’ endorsements. Sporting Heroes Inspire Children into Sport and Gymnast Liukin, decathlete Clay make it to Wheaties box.
I find the language used in this story somewhat surprising, however – the athletes have been “roped in” and are being “hounded”. As I’ve always understood it, remuneration has been extremely generous. Although some celebrities may consider themselves pressured, I thought most welcomed the additional publicity and profit. Perhaps Indian athletes are more altruistic, or less well paid?
As for the wisdom, or otherwise, of using celebrities, I find it frankly patronising to tell consumers that they can be like the relevant celebrity if they just use the product. I find it even more worrying that it works.
I think for certain items, celebrities work. I’m sure these companies can measure promotion effectiveness, at least you would hope so. We all associate Nike with Michael Jordan and now Lebron James. I still associate Cindy Crawford and Hallie Berry with L’Oreal. They were successful, but I think it is because they are not only high profile celebrities, but the products also continue to improve.
I agree that maintaining a good product is most important. I think the endorsement contracts are getting out of control, but I do think that in some cases, they work well.
Celebrity endorsements without an idea are indeed tactics in search of a strategy and yes, even in the US, too many advertising “ideas” are built around a celebrity rather than something that will resonate with a customer.
As an example, when we developed Willard Scott as an ideal spokesperson for Days Inn, there were three compelling reasons that made him “work”:
1. He embodied their three key customer groups: road warriors (being on the road with NBC’s Today), families and seniors.
2. He was likable and appealed to these groups (i.e., he had good Q Scores)
3. There was a heavy added value component associated with his “weather” segments on Today (which Days Inn sponsored) as well as the link to the Days logo, a sunrise.
Like most other marketing activities, relevance counts both in terms of a customer and a brand’s strategy.
I have always believed that companies that use celebrities for endorsements or as spokespeople too often forget that the celebrity is their own person first and foremost. And anyone who reads a newspaper will tell you that those celebrities that are most recognizable, and thus more marketable, also tend to have the most erratic behaviour.
Such one-time marketable names as Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and OJ Simpson come to mind as celebrities that do not check in with their sponsors prior to making a lifestyle changing decision.
Coke is a classic example of a company that has proved you don’t need celebrity endorsements to create a strong brand identity, regardless of what former pitch man Mean Joe Green might tell you.
First, find a sport people care about. Case in point! David Beckham is young, good looking and talented and has rock star status in some parts of the world. However, outside of a few soccer moms, a handful of enthusiasts and a bunch of eight-year-olds trying to kick each other on a Sunday morning, the U.S. doesn’t care about soccer and never will. If I were a brand manager I’d be putting my money elsewhere.
If I were a brand manager I’d be pumping tons of cash into China. This is a country that didn’t spend much on sports paraphernalia. However, since Beijing, sales of equipment and clothing has exploded. Find some icons there or export some.