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In today’s highly bloodthirsty environment, consumers are subjected to a stream of advertising. This occurs in every possible way and at every possible opportunity, mostly through the mass media. To gain a commercial advantage over competitors in this world of “bland’ brand names and everyday products, advertisers exploit different techniques. They can turn to a celebrity for help. Celebrities themselves are products of the mass media: they live through them and by them, so they form a rational target for advertisers.
Companies have been using stars to endorse everything, from food to food chains, from soft and hard drinks to health drinks, from clothes and accessories to cars. Commonly called “testimonials” or “celebrity endorsements”, this technique of persuasion is related to the person appearing in the ad: If the celebrity / athlete / star use the product, then it must be good, so I will purchase it too. The use of celebrity advertising has become a trend in creating a winning corporate image and is therefore used in the marketing phase.
Some of the best known celebrities employed for advertising campaigns include…..? AND HOW MUCH THEY GOT PAYED? Nicole kidman- channel Jessica simpson- proacitive Ian Thorpe- Uncle tobies Tiger woods, roder ferdere and ???? – gillet shaver campaign The reason behind the popularity of celebrity advertising is the advertisers’ certainty that the brand image will be built through the use of celebrities to achieve a high extent celebrities achieve a higher degree of attention and recall for consumers, which will eventually lead to higher sales.
Although the potential benefits of using celebrity advertising to promote brand images and products are significant, so are the costs and risks There a three main techniques when using celebrity endorsements, these include creditability, Attractiveness and power. Credibility is used to the extent to which the recipient sees the source as having relevant knowledge, skill or experience and trusts the source to give unbiased, objective information. They either have an expertise persuasion technique or a trustworthiness influence as they are honest, ethical and believable.
Attractiveness includes similarity, familiarity and likeability. Similarity is a supposed likeness between the source and the receiver of the message, while familiarity refers to knowledge of the source through exposure. Likeability is affection for the source as a result of physical appearance, behaviour or other personal traits. Some attractiveness leads to persuasion through a process of identification, whereby the receiver is motivated to seek some type of relation with the source and thus adopts similar beliefs, attitudes, preferences or behaviour.
As a result of power, the source may be able to induce another person to respond to the request or position he or she is advocating. When a receiver perceives a source as having power, the influence process occurs through a process known as compliance. The upside of connecting a celebrity with a brand is that the brand literally has the face, the name and the personality of that living breathing person. The downside is that individuals are not as stable or as easily controllable as corporate entities. As fame comes and goes, so goes the brand.