The society that we
live in can not only be called secular or democratic, but it should also be more
appropriately termed as over-communicated these days. There are around 857 television
channels in India including 190 government channels broadcasting millions of television
commercials each year in India. The media-explosion can thus be easily demonstrated.
Moreover, people forget 80% of the information in just 24 hours! Just imagine
the plight of the marketer to make his brand shout over the deafening clutter of
all the brands!
Somewhere in the ’80s,
an Indian marketer found the solution, called as Celebrity Endorsement. For a
long time, companies have used well- known public figures, movie stars and
sports personalities to endorse their brands, as it is widely believed that
these celebrities help to build or reposition brands by extending their
personality, character and popularity to the brands they endorse.
The main aim of
product endorsement is to persuade consumers to buy a product/ service, to
shape their perceptions toward it and position it more as a lifestyle product
or service rather than solely on its application merits. It is also intended to
shape or change perceptions of a particular brand, increase brand popularity
and consumer mind share of the brand, strengthen brand recall and highlight
differentiation and its uniqueness.
Why Celebrity Endorsements-
Celebrity endorsements
pull in hundreds of crores every year and are widely preferred by marketers to
promote their products. Using celebrities for endorsing brands has become a trend for building the brands as well as the company’s image; Sportspersons
and film stars fit the bill perfectly.
People always wish to
see their favorite stars and marketers, and advertisers are quick to capitalize
on such ideas. Endorsement of a product/service by a celebrity gives out the
message that it is as authentic and credible as the celebrity is. The urge that
people have of enjoying the same recognition and status as their favorite
stars is often the main reason for the increasing use of celebrities for
products/services endorsement.
We have seen the
legend Mr. Amitabh Bachchan who has been the most valued celebrity endorser for
many years. He has taken brands like Maggi, Navratna oil, Goibibo, Parker pens,
ICICI Home loans, Kalyan jewelers, Just Dial, and much more. They have been successful
because people in lakhs and crores admire him, take inspirations from him and
definitely want to replicate lifestyle like the legend.
Let’s come to the meat of
our topic, in the last decade or so, there has been a spurt in the use of
celebrity endorsements. And with it, there has been an increase in the number
of instances of brands failing to take off in spite of the biggest and
brightest stars endorsing it.
There are several
reasons why celebrity endorsements fail to produce the desired effect, and each
of them has to more to do with the core communication strategy and less with
the celebrity’s pull.
One of the biggest and the brutal factor behind the failure is celebrity endorsers causing embarrassments to the brand-
Fame is a fickle and
fleeting companion and can ditch the famous at the slightest provocation.
Celebrities, being human, make mistakes. But their mistakes get as much attention
as their celebrity status and this can adversely affect the brands that they
are endorsing. There are a number of examples, both Indian and International,
where scandals and scams involving celebrity endorsers have caused
embarrassment to the brands they endorse.
Here are the 3 biggest
examples where because of the celebrity, the brand had to face backlash from the
consumer:
1. Akshay Kumar - Levi’s
brand -
Akshay Kumar and the brand Levi’s had to
face criticism in the year 2009 when he walked on the ramp at the Lakme Fashion
Show and asked his wife Twinkle Khanna to unbutton his denim to promote the tagline of Levis. Both Akshay Kumar and the company had to face legal issues
due to this act and the actor later declared this as a spontaneous act which
wasn’t performed with any other intention.
2. Aamir Khan – Snapdeal
After Aamir Khan’s sayings about feeling
insecure in India, Snapdeal got a very negative response on social media as he
was the brand ambassador of Snapdeal at that time. Users even rated the
e-commerce app with 1 star to show their protests. This controversy had a huge
impact on the image of Snapdeal in the Indian market and the officials kept
their calm and didn’t speak anything against Aamir. Later, Snapdeal didn’t
extend their deal with Aamir Khan for promotions.
3. Swara Bhaskar – Amazon
Swara was chosen for promoting Amazon on
Twitter and this campaign generated massive backlash for the e-commerce giant.
This happened due to the negative reactions that Swara got for her comments on
Kathua rape case. Amazon tried to solve the issue by deleting the post in which
they retweeted Swara’s tweet. This didn’t happen to be the complete solution
and #BoycottAmazon was one of the top trends in the country at that time.
Because of such incidents, modern-day
brands always have a fear of being associated with a celebrity who may have
personal views that could act in opposition to what a brand wants to portray.
If you look closely, we can see that in
some of the instances not choosing an appropriate brand representer made
companies lose reputation, and some of these even faced legal issues. Celebrity
endorsements are often very costly but the impact the benefits brands get from
this form of marketing can’t be ignored. Hence, companies keep practicing
this form; as if it succeeds the returns are remarkable, if not achieved then
be ready with a strong team of legal advisors.
Written by - Soham Upadhyay
Edited by - Bushra Makhdoomi
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