Celebrity endorsements

 ABSTRACT

 Celebrity endorsements, more so on Twitter have helped a great deal in ensuring that company’s increase sale their products. Celebrities are effective endorsers because they have a mass appeal. Celebrities are often viewed as highly dynamic, so when they endorse a product they make the target audience (mostly lay people) to have a positive view of the product being endorsed. The study has revealed that the use of celebrities could be helpful to a company by ensuring an increase in attention to the product, polishing the image of a company, introduction of a new brand (product) and repositioning a product. Keywords: Celebrities, Endorsement      

INTRODUCTION

Celebrities are defined as individuals who are known in the public domain. A celebrity could be an entertainer, an actor or a sports figure. Celebrities are known for their achievements in other areas other than in the area in which the product is being endorsed. Most of the celebrities who are used to endorse products are often likable and attractive to the target audience. Celebrities are effective endorsers because they have a mass appeal. Celebrities are often viewed as highly dynamic, so when they endorse a product they make the target audience (mostly lay people) to have a positive view of the product being endorsed. The target audience will go to an extent of buying the product that is being advertised by the celebrity so that he/she may associate with the celebrity. There are several reasons why companies decide to use celebrities in the endorsement of products. First and foremost, a company usually wants to exploit on a celebrity’s public image so that the company may sell its products. A company also often wants to exploit the celebrity’s attractiveness and worthiness in selling of its products.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Celebrities are often used in marketing communication strategies so as to ensure that a product of a company gets a mass appeal. There are three categories of endorsers: lay endorsers, celebrities and experts. Experts refer to people who have rich knowledge in a certain field or area. Experts are used in endorsing brands because of the respect they command in society. Lay endorsers refer to individuals who have a close resemblance with the target population. Lay endorsers are used because they can make the target audience to identify easily the message that is passed across by the endorser (McAuley, 2010). Celebrity endorsements are invaluable when a company wants to venture into a new and foreign market. This is so because celebrities like Cristiano Ronaldo have a global appeal and popularity and they can help a company disseminate information to all corners of the world. Celebrities often have a specific image all over the world; they therefore they can help companies overcome cultural and political barriers that would have been difficult for the companies to break. Studies have revealed that celebrities can hold viewers’ attention and penetrate the numerous and brief advertisements that are used to compete and capture the attention of the audience. Scholars have revealed that endorsement by celebrities often give a product an instant appeal to the target audience (Hunter, 2009). Studies have revealed that celebrities confer subtlety, power and death to any given product. Celebrities offer meaningful effects on products; this includes a lifestyle meaning and personality that cannot be offered by a model (Gunter, 2014). Selection of a celebrity that can be used in endorsing a product has to take cognizance of several factors. The first factor that has to be looked at is the symbolic properties that are being sought so as to make the product marketable. A company has then to assess available celebrities and what meanings they can have on a product. The celebrity that is selected should be one that fits the product’s appeal and can provide valuable meaning to the product. Once the celebrity is picked, the advertising team has to work and ensure that it identifies and delivers meaning on the product that is being sold. The marketing team must then work to ensure that it captures all the meaning that it wants to obtain from a celebrity and utilize it to the best of its ability. The marketing team should also ensure that it captures only the meanings it wants from the celebrity. Unwanted meanings from a celebrity should not be captured by the marketing team. Celebrities often add meanings to products; a person may be convinced to buy a product because the celebrity has added value and meaning to the product. Use of celebrities to endorse brands does create an impression that the celebrity is a ‘super consumer’ who is worthy being emulated by the target audience (Gunter, 2014).

 2.1 Ellen DeGeneres

– Entertainer According (Soboleva et al., 2015) to Ellen DeGeneres is a comedian, actress and a television host who was born on Jan 26 1958. She has won a total of 12 Emmy awards for her performance as a standup comedian. In November 2004, DeGeneres was appointed the spokesmodel for American Express In 2008, DeGeneres did sign with Cover Girl as its spokesmodel for their new line of makeup known as Simply Ageless. In 2010, DeGeneres did get into a contract with Glaceau vitamin water as the face of the company. DeGeneres has more than 25 million followers on Twitter.

Katy Perry

 – Musician According to (Bou & Jones, 2012). Katy Perry is an American pop singer who was born in 1984 in the state of California. In 2013, Perry did get into a contract with Proactive, Cover Girl as its spokesmodel. In 2015, Perry became the face of H&M Fashion Company. Kerry has been involved in promoting Pop chips. Pop chips are fried potato chips that have about half of the fat that is available in ordinary chips. After the endorsement that was made by Katy Perry, sales of Pop chips grew astronomically (Busler, 2010). Perry announced her endorsement with Cover Girl on Twitter. Her tweet got 3,218 likes and 3,123 re-tweets on the first day. Perry has featured in an advertisement promoting Pop Chips where she used words like “Bite Me” and ‘nothing fake about “Pop chips.” She shared the Pop Chips advertisement on her Twitter account. Based on the comments from her fans about the advertisement, it was a revelation that she convinced people to purchase the product. There are individuals who follow Katy Perry on Twitter who stated that they had never bought Pop chips but because Katy Perry had endorsed the product, they will buy the it. This shows how powerful an endorsement from a celebrity is (Adeyanju, 2015). Katy Perry has in the past been involved in an endorsement deal with Jemella Group Ltd, a British hair-care product company. Katy Perry has more than 71 million followers on Twitter.

 2.2 Selena Gomez

 - Actress Selena Gomez is a singer and an actress who was born in 1992. Gomez has starred in a number of TV series that are aired by the Disney channel. Gomez has produced two music albums in her music career. Her debut album was released in 2013 and her second album was released in 2015. Gomez has endorsed products for companies such as Kmart and Adidas neo (Leslie, 2011). Gomez did enter into a contract in 2015 with Pantene, a hair care product line as their new ambassador and spokesperson. The move by Pantene to hire Gomez as their brand ambassador was strategic because studies had earlier revealed that the Latino demographic spends more money on hair products and cosmetics than any other demographic. Given that Gomez is a Latino and her appeal transcends the Latino demographic, the company saw that Gomez endorsement of their products will catapult its sales. The Pantene deal that Gomez signed reportedly granted Gomez 3 million dollars (Adeyanju, 2015). Gomez has in the past worked with a perfume company known as Adrenalina as its ambassador. Selena Gomez has about 40 million followers on Twitter.    

2.3 Cristiano Ronaldo

 – Athlete According (Leslie, 2011) Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese football player who plays for Real Madrid FC and his national team. Ronaldo was born on February 5th 1985. Ronaldo is one of the best paid football players. Ronaldo entered into a contract with Nike in 2010. He is one of the leading faces of Nike (the leading sports brand in the world). The contract value of Ronaldo’s endorsement of Nike is about $20 million per year. Ronaldo is involved in an endorsement with Emporio Armani clothing line. The contract is worth $1.4 million. Ronaldo models for the company’s jeans and inner clothing.  Ronaldo is involved in an endorsement contract with KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). The contract commenced in 2013 and it is to end in 2016. The value of the contract is $2 million. Studies revealed that sales at different KFC outlets increased on the day news spread that Ronaldo had signed an endorsement contract with the fast food company (Svend & Christian, 2013). Ronaldo is involved in an endorsement deal with the Fly Emirates. The endorsement deal ends in 2019. There is a Fly Emirates advertisement that features Cristiano Ronaldo together with Pele (a legendary Brazilian footballer). Ronaldo is involved in an endorsement deal with Coca-Cola Company. The deal is one of the most lucrative deals that Ronaldo has been involved in. The deal is worth $85 million, and it expires in 2019. Ronaldo is involved in an endorsement deal with Tag Heuer, a Swiss company that is involved in designing, manufacturing and marketing watches. Tag Heuer company is also involved in the manufacturing of other products such as eye wear and fashion accessories. The endorsement deal with Tag Heuer commenced in 2014 and it will end in 2019. Currently, Ronaldo is one of the major ambassadors of Tag Heur (Svend & Christian, 2013). Ronaldo is a brand ambassador of Castrol. Castrol is a British company that is involved in the sale of oils, automotive lubricants, industrial lubricants and other products that are used for lubricating purposes. Ronaldo has been a brand ambassador for Castrol since 2009. The contract signed in 2009 by Ronaldo was worth $11.2 million for two years. On the expiry of the first contract, Ronaldo signed another contract with Castrol that is worth $7.7 million dollars (Gunter, 2014). Ronaldo is currently a brand ambassador of Konami, a Japanese company that is involved in the sale of toys and video games. The contract that Ronaldo signed with Konami is worth $85 million and ends in 2018. Ronaldo has more than 37 million followers on Twitter.

2.4 Tyra Banks

 - Public Figure Tyra Banks is an American television host and former model who was born on 4th December 1973. Tyra Banks is reportedly the first black woman to feature on the top cover of a sports magazine known as Illustrated. Banks is famously known for hosting a TV program known as America’s Next Top Model and her own show known as The Tyra Banks Show. Tyra Banks has done endorsement deals with Cover Girl by appearing on the front cover of the magazine. Tyra Banks has done an endorsement for the Swimsuit magazine through Twitter. Banks’ tweet endorsing the magazine got 350 retweets and 1,500 likes in the first day of the tweet. Tyra Banks has done endorsements for RevivogenPro beauty products on Twitter. Bank’s tweet endorsing RevivogenPro beauty products got 43 retweets and 260 likes during the first day of the tweet.

METHOD

 I did establish celebrities that have been used by companies in the endorsement of products. Out of the celebrities that have been used in product endorsement, I did settle on Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and Cristiano Ronaldo. I assessed the number of followers that the celebrities have on Twitter. I also assessed the number of products that the celebrities have endorsed. I also assessed the number of products that were bought by customers courtesy of the endorsement deals that were made with the celebrities. The unit of analysis is the number of products that were sold as a result of the endorsement deals.

CODING CATEGORIES

 I did develop six coding categories that I used for the study. The coding categories that were developed were three advertisement specific factors and three socio-cultural categories. The three ad-specific factors include advertisement appeal, advertisement angle and referral to resources. The three socio- cultural categories that I established were racial pride, collectivism and religiosity. I did use dichotomous variables (no/yes) to measure socio-cultural categories. Racial pride includes any verbal or visual mention of exalting a certain race in an advertisement. Religiosity refers to any mention of religion, spirituality, God or a supreme being in an advertisement. Advertisement appeal refers to the likeability of an advertisement based on the strategy that has been used which could be emotional or informational. Referral to resources refers to cues that are given by advertisements to information so as to make customers relate the advertisement with the information.

RESULTS

Annual sales of Glaceau vitamin water went up from $350 million to $1 billion annual sales after the endorsement deal with DeGeneres. DeGeneres has more than 25 million followers on Twitter. Pop chips sales have improved significantly after the endorsement deal with Katy Perry. Katy Perry has more than 71 million followers on Twitter. Sales of Pop chips have grown by 50% since the endorsement deal with Katy Perry. Sales at Pantene Hair Company have grown by 25% since the endorsement deal with Selena Gomez. Selena Gomez has about 40 million followers on Twitter. Studies revealed that sales at different KFC outlets increased on the day news spread that Ronaldo had signed an endorsement contract with the fast food company. Ronaldo has more than 37 million followers on Twitter. Sales of RevivogenPro beauty products quadrupled after the company signed an endorsement deal with Tyra Banks. Tyra Banks has 13.1 million followers on Twitter.

DISCUSSION

A celebrity can add a significant value to a product when the product is being introduced to the market. Introducing a new product by having the product design around the personality of the celebrity many increase the acceptability level of the product. Appeal to a new product increases courtesy of the use of a celebrity in advertising the given product. When launching of the product is done, the buyer will notice the image of the celebrity and purchase the product; the image of the celebrity will help in pushing his/her image to the product (Busler, 2010). Image polishing is enabled by the use of a celebrity to endorse a product. If the image of a certain product is going in the wrong direction, a celebrity with a positive image can be used in restoring the product’s image. Repositioning of a product can be done courtesy of the use of a celebrity to endorse the product. Using of a celebrity to endorse a product will give the product a new image. The attention of consumers is increased courtesy of the use of celebrities to endorse a product. Celebrities have the ability to capture the full attention of the target audience. There are several risks that are associated with the use of celebrities to endorse products. The use of celebrities may be a double-edged sword. Controversial celebrities may be deleterious to a company by alienating customers who don’t like the celebrity or they find behavior exhibited by the celebrities to be detestable (Belch & Belch, 2015). A future negative behavior from a celebrity who has been used to endorse a product may have a deleterious effect on the sales of products he endorsed. The company that chooses to use a celebrity in endorsing its product usually has no control over the celebrity’s future behavior. Any negative news about the celebrity may reduce his allure, consequently reducing the allure of the product that he is endorsing. A reduction in the allure of that product will lead to a reduction in the appeal of the product being sold. According to Tellis (1988), the media glorifies a star when he is on the rise but when he/she id plummeting in performance and allure; the media will perpetuate negative stories about him or her. When celebrities engage in behaviors that dent their images, celebrities will be on the front line in disseminating negative information about him/her. According to till (1998), any negative information about a celebrity not only have a negative influence on the perception that a customer has on a product; it also has a negative impact on the product that is being endorsed by the celebrity. There are several examples that show the manner in which negative information on a celebrity who is endorsing a product can have on the sale of a product. For instance, Michael Jackson had a contract with Pepsi as its brand ambassador but when the child molestation issue came about, sales of Pepsi terminated the contract it had with him. The benefits that a celebrity may have on the sale of a product can turn around when his/her images changes or his popularity drops (Svend & Christian, 2013).  

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