How Effective Are Celebrity Endorsements
How effective are Celebrity Endorsements
Ever since the start of commercial radio in the 20’s and the since the first silver screen entered the market, broadcasting messages by celebrities has been a tool employed to endorse products.”Just about every star was associated with one sponsor’s product he or she plugged.”(1). Over the years celebrity endorsement became an essential part of marketing (more than 25% of television ads feature celebrities)(5), for the endorser it became an easy way of generating an income while for the endorsing company it became a guaranteed way to reach a wide segment of potential clients.
With the cost of celebrity endorsement deals reaching astronomical highs, one has to address the effectiveness of such expenditures on a company’s marketing plan and whether the economic result justifies the high cost associated with it. A better understanding to the aspects of celebrity endorsement is imperative in analyzing its worthiness; it starts with the nature of the endorser and with a main question of “who is a celebrity endorser?”
A celebrity endorser is defined as “an individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement” (2). It is not the just the TV or movie stars, it encompasses people from the world of sports, politics and business among other fields. The role also varies from endorsing a product in an explicit mode as in “I endorse”, implicit mode as in “I use”, imperative mode as in “we should use” ,co-present mode in which a celebrity appears with the product and the cases where the endorser is an expert in the range of the product manufacturing or usage. No matter what role the celebrity takes “to persuade the target audience and push them towards purchase”(3) is the key factor in the success of the campaign. Various psychological researches produced two main models that endorsers fall into the credibility model (4) and the source attractiveness
Ever since the start of commercial radio in the 20’s and the since the first silver screen entered the market, broadcasting messages by celebrities has been a tool employed to endorse products.”Just about every star was associated with one sponsor’s product he or she plugged.”(1). Over the years celebrity endorsement became an essential part of marketing (more than 25% of television ads feature celebrities)(5), for the endorser it became an easy way of generating an income while for the endorsing company it became a guaranteed way to reach a wide segment of potential clients.
With the cost of celebrity endorsement deals reaching astronomical highs, one has to address the effectiveness of such expenditures on a company’s marketing plan and whether the economic result justifies the high cost associated with it. A better understanding to the aspects of celebrity endorsement is imperative in analyzing its worthiness; it starts with the nature of the endorser and with a main question of “who is a celebrity endorser?”
A celebrity endorser is defined as “an individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement” (2). It is not the just the TV or movie stars, it encompasses people from the world of sports, politics and business among other fields. The role also varies from endorsing a product in an explicit mode as in “I endorse”, implicit mode as in “I use”, imperative mode as in “we should use” ,co-present mode in which a celebrity appears with the product and the cases where the endorser is an expert in the range of the product manufacturing or usage. No matter what role the celebrity takes “to persuade the target audience and push them towards purchase”(3) is the key factor in the success of the campaign. Various psychological researches produced two main models that endorsers fall into the credibility model (4) and the source attractiveness