:eye of the tiger
Eye of the Tiger
How important are celebrity endorsements?
Celebrities have been endorsing brands and products for
well over a hundred years; and just about everything has been backed by
a famous person at some point. In theory, these high-profile references
cut through media clutter, grab consumers��� attention and strongly
influence buying decisions. After all, fame sells, right?
That���s what conventional marketing wisdom says but the reality seems
to be quite different. In 2011, an American advertising measurement
company called Ace Metrix ran a study of over 2,600 adverts, comparing
the performance of celebrity vs. non-celebrity ads. The study showed
that ������contrary to popular wisdom ��� celebrity ads do not perform any
better than non-celebrity ads, and in some cases they perform much
worse.��� In fact, few of the celebrity ads managed to perform any better
than the industry norms.
This may seem counterintuitive, especially in the New Zealand
context where we have celebrities endorsing stuff like crazy, but on
reflection it makes sense. There are a number of reasons why celebrity
endorsements don���t work as well as many marketers think they do.
The effectiveness of an endorsement depends on both the relevance
and the traits of the celebrity. Studies have shown that sometimes
the negative qualities associated with a celebrity will transfer to the
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endorsed brand, even if the positive ones don���t. This is especially true
if the products being endorsed have no relevance whatsoever to the
celebrity. So a glamorous but edgy singer endorsing a car may well lead
consumers to relate her seedier aspects to the brand because they simply
don���t buy the connection between her and the car. They���ll assume that
she���s just doing it for the money, which is actually exactly what she���s
doing (Rule #1: The consumer isn���t a fool). A racing driver endorsing
that car might well resonate more successfully with the audience, but
then again, he may not because of the negative connotations of speed,
or if the car is an entry-level runabout.
Celebrities can be polarising, so they may negatively influence the
part of the target market that doesn���t approve of them. In addition,
there���s ���me too��� syndrome, where Company A has a celebrity backing
its products and out of the blue, up pops competing Company B with
an endorsement from a similar star, which basically nullifies both
endorsements. Yet another factor to consider is celebrity overload; how
many brands and products can one famous individual endorse before
the effect is diluted?
Brands need to be particularly careful when it comes to endorsements
from ���celebrities��� who are famous for nothing more than being famous
