The Effect of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behavior Essay Example for Free

The Effect of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behavior EssayThe crescendo of celebrities endorsing check offs has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years or so. Marketers overtly acknowledge the power of fame in influencing buyers purchase decision. They postulate firm believe that likeability or a favorable attitude towards a steel is created by the hire of a renown. The crore of rupees spent per year on credit instant contracts supply that celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Sharukh khan and Sachin Tendulkar play an important role for the advertize industry. It is an established fact that renown endorsement stomach bestow unique features or special attri andes upon a crossing that it may pick out lacked otherwise. In India from late 1970s and early 80s the new trend in advertising started. Brands started being endorsed by celebrities. Hindi film and TV stars as closely as sportssomebodys were roped in to endorse prominent grimes. Advertisemen ts featuring stars like s funkyly Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Tabassum (Prestige cookers), Sunil Gavaskar for Dinesh Suiting, Ravi Shastri and Vivian Richards (Vimal), Persis Khambhata and Kapil Dev (Palmo expect Shaving cream) became common. Though marketers should remember that celebrities atomic number 18 mere living beings like us and if they stack highlight the benefits or advantages of a patsy they tush as well have some uncanny negative impact. Theory and practice suggests that the use of stars and their unleashing power in advertising generate a lot of publicity and upkeep from the public but the underline questions are, do these stars really help a home run by increasing its sales? On the other hand, can they really have an Impact on the someones exercise pattern, thereby changing his station p theatrical role? How an advertisement featuring a celebrity can influence eat uprs get decision and can create an association in the midst of a brand and a common man.To fare these questions, the article lead examine the affinity between celebrity endorsements and brands, and the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumers buying behaviour as well as how consumer makes brand preferences. We will apply a wide-cut range of accepted principles of how consumers brand attitudes and preferences can be influenced, how buyers behavior can be influenced, how buyers behavior can be molded. We will use the principles of believability of source and pull fouliveness, the add together-up hypothesis, the consumer decision-making model and the communication model to represent this phenomenon. Brand- A laymanperspectiveBrand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational and cultural trope that you can link with a fellowship or the product. Few examples will bring home the meaning i.e. Amul utterly butterly luscious Coke thanda matlab coca-cola Pepsi Yeh dil mange to a greater extent Kurkure- Masti bole to kurkure and Daewoo ka India. These examples convey peerless message that when people watch advertisement a connect is being created and result is that people go for experience of buying. People feel by development the brand they will portray trus iirthy traits or characteristics that otherwise they do not have. This generates a certain train of emotional affiliation and a sense of fulfillment. It is this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful.Advertisements enforces what on the button the brand bides for and what to expect by its consumption and higher up all what factors, features and attributes makes it better from competition. Advertisements along with other merchandising efforts generate expectations and feelings in a client and force them to think when they see or hear the brand name. This Thinking off lop and emotional bonding gets more mature and relevant when a celebrity endorses the brand. The personal intangible feelings of a customer become objective and tangible in the form of cel ebrity and the level of expectations will rise. The customer will start to perceive himself in the reference frame of the celebrity after the brand or the advertised product has been purchased or consumed by him.Celebrity and a Brand sense experience power in India can be gauged by the successful endorsements done by Sharukh caravanserai (Pepsi, Hyundai Santro, Sunfeast, and Navratan etc.), Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Hrithik Roshan and the others. The necessary question is, if and how the lively interest of the public in the rich and famous can be efficiently and effectively used by companies to promote their brands and consequently to increase their sales revenues. This fact can be brought out by utilise certain examples i.e. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan promoting Cadbury chocolates after the fiasco of infestation when the physique of Cadbury India went rattling low in the eyes of people. Soon the company found a unblemished fit and a reliable celebrity to tra nsmit the correct message and help regenerating the lost trust. The fit between the product and celebrityis evident as Mr. Bachchan and Cadbury chocolates both have tested troubled times and still they stand tall and the love and trust they both share with the people all across India. This is a live example of how a celebrity brought certain attributes to a product like chocolate.Actor Sharukh khan has also endorsed diversified products. His endorsement basket is ranging from Hyundai Santro to Sunfeast biscuits on one hand and from Compaq computers to Videocon electronics on the other. According to Advertising search companies both the actors are doing well and the ad spent on both by the companies is increasing at a phenomenal rate, so does their basket of endorsements. These actors bring reliability and trust in the brand and above all, they help in increasing the sales revenues. Celebrity endorsements are powerful, has become evident from the above two examples but, why is it so ? This power is offered by the following elements, which also creates a Top of the Mind Position.* instant(a) Awareness, knowledge about the brand and easy recall. * Values and show of the brand is defined, highlighted and refreshed by the celebrity. * The celebrity adds new edge and dimension to the brand.* Credibility, trust, association, aspiration and connectivity to brand. * Belief in efficiency and new appearance that will result in at least trial usage.Understanding Consumer BehaviourConsumer behaviour is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, sociopsychology, anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers much(prenominal) as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand peoples wants. It also tries to assess influences on the con sumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. The study and knowledge of consumer behavior helps firms and brasss to improve their merchandise strategies and product offerings. Following are the important issues that have significant influence on consumers psycheand their ability to take decisions The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and carry between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products) The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media) The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions Limitations in consumer knowledge or schooling processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer and How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing streaks and mar keting strategies to more effectively give-up the ghost the consumer. Their Age, Religion, Culture, Income, informal group and Referent Group. Understanding these issues helps us adapt our strategies by taking the consumer into consideration.Traditional Factors bear on consumer decision makingThere are several(prenominal) factors that appropriate consumers decision to purchase a brand and a product. These factors though at time are not really much visible but they make an impact and affects sales of a product or brand up to a majuscule extent. The table below shows some of these factors.Impact of a Brand on consumer purchase decision inquiry studies have proven that cognize products and names are sold more than unknown ones. Therefore, a known brand or an optimally exposed brand will call up more recognition and buyers in the market in comparison to completely unknown or unexposed brand. Recognition of brand and its significance along with the traditional factors plays a ver y significant role in consumer decision-making process. More or less all consumer has a brand preference and given the affordability and societal norms, each buyer would like to buy and consume one of the passing acceptable, recognizable, and reputed brands.The above given model explains the important role that a brand plays in three different stages of consumers purchase decision making. A consumer start collecting data or information about his favourite brand than he keeps his favourite as one of the alternatives and he evaluate his selected brandagainst all available options and on finding it suitable or best among all options based upon a qualitative and quantitative evaluation he will ultimately purchase the selected or favourite brand.The plot above explains how various traditional factors along with brand preference interact during purchase decision process and finally results into a consumers final product choice or ultimate purchase.Celebrity and a brandSurveys suggest t hat compared to any other types of endorsers, famous people achieve a higher degree of attention and recall. They increase awareness of a companys advertising as well as help in safekeeping of message in the psyche of the audience. They can also help the company in reducing their disbursal on Media and other forms of publicity. An example will bring more clarity, When S Kumars, a known stuff brand entered into readymade garments business they used Hrithik Roshan, then the hottest advertising icon for their launch advertising for TAMARIND, now one of the premium readymade brands. They reckoned that they have spent 40-50 percent less on media due to sheer impact of using hottest star like Hrithik. The Ad recall was as high as 70 percent and the exhort can be termed as a great success.Celebrities also create positive feelings towards brands, connect exploiter to brand and are perceived by consumers as more entertaining. Using a celebrity in advertising or for any, other type of co mmunication for brand building is likely to positively affect consumers brand preference, brand attitude, brand association and purchase intentions. To ensure positive results, however, it is critical for advertisers to have a clear understanding of consumers reactions and reinforcement of celebrity endorsement. The impact of celebrity endorsement on any brand as well as on consumers purchase decision is very critical. stemma Credibility primeval goal of advertising is the convincing of consumers and persuasion to purchase, the ultimate objective, though not openly spoken, is to some how attract consumers to the market offering of the company, generating positive attitude, reinforce positive association and ultimately to generate sales,may be a trial purchase. At later stages, the sponsor may work towards creating a brand allegiance but generating initial sales or increasing the existing sales is the primary objective. In this respect, the credibility of an endorser along with adver tisement plays an important role in convincing the target audience of the attractive force of the companys brand and generates sales. Pursuing a celebrity endorsement scheme enables advertisers to project a credible image in terms of expertise, persuasiveness, trustworthiness, and objectiveness. To create effective messages, celebrity advertisers also have to consider the attractiveness of the spokesperson.Source attractiveness refers to the endorsers Physical appearance, Personality, Likeability and Similarity to the receiver, thus to the perceived social value of the source. This behavior mainly goes back to halo effect, whereby persons who perform well on one dimension example physical attractiveness or flush professional performance, social status are assumed to excel on other levels as well i.e. happiness and coolness. This is evident from the use of Fardeen Khan, modern, dynamic, outgoing and smart personality for Provogue he translates the modernism of the brand well. Tita n uses Aamir Khan in his different avatars for communicating to the public that their watches are as reliable and enthusiastic as Aamir is for films. Both Fardeen and Aamir carry the message well and enhance the credibility of the brand they endorse.Establishing a thoroughgoing(a) MatchResearch proves that a spokesperson especially for a service product or organization (ICICI- First Amitabh Bachchan, now Shahrukh Khan) interacts with the type of brand being advertised. These stars communicate the value of the product and transform an cut-and-dry service into a miracle solution for all problems of an ordinary customer. According to Friedman and Friedman (1979), a famous relative to a normal spokesperson is more effective for products high in psychological or social risk, involving such elements as good taste, self-image, and opinion of others. Several research studies have examined the congruency between celebrity endorsers and brands to explain the potency of using famous person s to promote brands. In India, a brand called Reid Taylor presented its perfect(a) example when they first launched their advertising campaign featuring jam Bond fame of the time Mr. Pierce Brosnan along with the tagline BOND WITH THE BEST but the JamesBond idea did not worked and the company was not happy with the results.After the debacle of the first campaign, company introduced a family ad where children are celebrating there parents silver wedding anniversary and they are out with their fuss to purchase a suit for him. Even this commercial did not work and it was taken off the air. As a last resort, company introduced Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as Reid Taylor man, a man propagating the brand for special occasion and for very special people in life. The commercial from the initial days got good response and did extremely well as people were able to connect with Mr. Bachchan and the values he was propagating. For the masses, there was a perfect match of an ideal Indian family man, a star and a good quality but bit highly priced brand reserved especially for special occasions and for very special people. Second example that can be quoted is of Vishwanathan Anand, who endorsed NIIT.NIIT adopted a very smart strategy by roping in Vishwanathan Anand an internationalist chess wizard for their advertising campaign. As chess is considered to be a game full of strategies and a game for smart people and when one of the greats of the game is asking people to join NIIT it was suppose to have a positive influence on the people and actually it had. There was complete congruency and compatibility between the celebrity endorser, the product and the message. Contrary to lone(prenominal) favorable outcomes, there are several examples where the product, even the entire campaign collapsed due to heavy weight celebrity as the agency or the ad failed to establish the relationship between the endorser and the product. Keeping the focus only on success, where the product and the celebrity were a perfect match, following are few examples Celebrity Endorser Company / ProductAmitabh Bachchan * Dabur* Cadbury* Reid and Taylor* ParkerShahrukh Khan * Santro* Videocon* Sunfeast* PepsiJuhi Chawala * KurkureUstad Zakir Hussain * Taj mahal teaAamir Khan * Titan* Coke* Toyota InnovaAishwarya Rai * Nakshatra* LuxRani Mukherjee * Fanta* Nestle MunchKajol and Ajay Devgan * Whirlpool* Tata IndicomThe campaigns are not only basking with the glory of success stories, but there is considerable number of failures as well. Assuming that a person just have to be famous to represent a successful brand, however, would be incorrect and may turn out to be a very dangerous preposition resulting into a big calamity for the entire advertising campaign or the brand. Very well accepted and attractive super stars like Abhishek Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan failed in turning their endorsements into success i.e. Maruti Versa similarly Virendra Sehwag also failed to deliver Reliance Teleco mmunication with the master stroke of his cricketing genius.Among the thinkable reasons identified by several authors, including overexposure and identification, the match-up hypothesis specifically suggests that the effectiveness depends on the existence of a fit between the celebrity spokesperson and endorsed brand. Empirical work on the congruency of brand with the celebrity oft has concentrated on the physical attractiveness of the endorser. Results show that an attractive spokespersons are more effective in terms of attitude change when prompting brands that enhance ones attractiveness i.e. cosmetics health drinks or fashion wear. main(a) data states, for celebrity spokespersons to be truly effective, they should be knowledgeable, experienced, mature, and a bench mark in their several(prenominal) field and qualified to talk about the product.Transferring the MeaningAfter watching an advertisement the consumers try to find the meaning of the advertisement and associate the s ame with the endorser and eventually transfer to the brand. To understand this phenomenon Mc Cracken (1989)suggested a comprehensive model known as Meaning Transfer Model. This three-stage model suggests how the meaning associated with the famous person moves from the endorser to the product or the brand. Thus, meanings attributed to the celebrity become associated with the brand in the consumers mind. Finally, in the consumption process, the customer acquires the brands meaning. The third stage of the model explicitly shows the importance of the consumers role in the process of endorsing brands with famous persons. In contrast to anonymous endorsers, celebrities add value to the image transfer process by offering meanings of tautological depth and power, what is complemented by their life style and personalities.Therefore, to transfer the correct meaning to the consumer the company should select a celebrity that will produce the most favorable response for consumers and for the pu rpose the celebrity should have, the appropriate set of characteristics and the public should be able to visualize and comprehend the same. The company should consider the consumers needs while growth their communication strategy and selecting an appropriate celebrity to transmit the same, i.e. Kurkure used actress Juhi Chawala with the punch line Masti Bole To Kurkure and the actress on screen and off-screen personifies the masti and helps the brand in communicating the same easily.Compatibility of the celebritys persona with the overall brand image is very important, as a celebrity imparts credibility and inspirational value to a brand and his or her image should perfectly match the brands image. A good brand campaign idea and an intrinsic link between the celebrity and the message are must for a successful campaign. Certain elements that generate a perfect match or compatibility between the celebrity and brand image are* Celebritys fit with the brand image along with celebrity-t arget audience match.* Celebrity associated values and celebrity-product match.* Costs of acquiring the celebrity and his or her popularity along with brawl risks associated with the celebrity. * Credibility, availability and physical attractiveness of celebrity. The above points can be put to perspective by using two examples, first Kapil Devs Palmolive da jawaab nahin and second Nakshatras brand recall due to its endorser, the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Both brands have edged out and carved out their niche in consumers mind due to image and credibility of their endorsers.These were the cases of perfect match between the brand image and the image or persona of the celebrity endorser. ratiocinationA brief assessment of the current market situation indicates, that celebrity endorsement advertising strategy can under the right circumstances indeed justify the high costs associated with this form of advertising. The use of celebrity for endorsements create a very favorable impac t on the consumer and it creates a connect which forces a consumer to purchase a product. However, as several failures show, it is essential for advertisers to be aware of the complex processes underlying celebrity endorsement. It has been proved from the discussion that celebrity endorsements are a powerful and useful tool that magnifies the effect of a campaign but the word of caution to be followed seriously celebrities alone do not stock warrant success nor does a great advertising campaign or the best possible product.It is the combination of several factors and elements that work together for the success of a brand and its acceptance in the minds of consumers as well as for its market offering. Modern day consumers are well educated and smart, they know celebrities are being remunerative for these endorsements and this knowledge makes consumers rather more cynical about the product and celebrity endorsements. Majority of the consuming commonwealth also knows what is adverti sing and how it actually works and this knowledge of consumer makes the task of celebrity endorsement all the more difficult and challenging for the advertising companies and the sponsors. Indian companies both advertising and product offering companies have top make an effort to overcome this ever-mounting challenge.References* Aaker, David A. (1996), Building Strong Brands. New York, NY The Free Press. * Daneshvary, Rennae and R. Keith Schwer (2000), The Association Endorsement and * Consumers innovation to Purchase, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17 (3), 203-213. * Friedman, Hershey H. and Linda Friedman (1979), Endorser Effectiveness by Product Type, Journal of Advertising Research, 19 (5), 63-71. * McCracken, soften (1989), Who Is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process, Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (3), 310-321.