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| Celebrity Endorsement Or Star War? |
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| They may be just about as old as sania mirza, but they can still dig someone, their granddads age. Theres no second-guessing teenagers favourite brand ambassadors |
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THE debate on the relevance of celebrity endorsements has worn itself out; the new debate ought to be about which celebrities to focus on, and whether they are capable of delivering bang for the buck. Whats perhaps more significant than the list of brand ambassadors that our 15-year-old respondents find relevant is the endorsers who do not make the cut at all-Sania Mirza,
For instance. While media reports indicate that the tennis star is hot property and very much in demand, her most visible association so far-with Club HP-gets no recall at all. On a broader level, tennis as a sport doesnt seem to have captured the fancy of this segment of consumers, yet.
Even more shocking is the fact that Sachin Tendulkar is pretty much the only representative of Indias cricketing 11 to get any recall. None of the other cricketing stars make the grade, in spite of being very popular on the field. Its a finding that ought to give pause to advertisers who are signing them on for health drinks, banks, insurance companies and cell phone networks. It also seems that overexposure works well for celebrities, even as ad gurus quip about ads featuring Amitabh Bachchan or Tendulkar becoming a clutter of their own- Aamir Khan, with his philosophy of working on just one brand at a time, is again given a miss entirely by the panel. Instead, what we have is a bunch of the usual suspects, but with some interesting cliques forming around individual stars.
No one would refer to Bachchan as a chocolate boy hero except, perhaps, our panel. A whole generation of kids is growing up knowing the Big B not as the angry young man but as the avuncular host of KBC (the top-rated TV programme by the panel), and the cheerful chocolate dispenser in the ads for Cadburys Dairy Milk (CDM). It seems incredible that the favourite celebrity and brand ambassador, according to 15-year-olds, is a man old enough to be their grandfather. But the most ubiquitous figure in Indian advertising, the Big B, performs remarkably well, vindicating, at least in part, the trust that manufacturers of everything from soft drinks to paint to health tonics have vested in him.
While he scores highest with CDM, 15-year-olds also associate him with brands like Pepsi, Parker and Hajmola infact hes considered best suited to the digestive drops by Delhi respondents. The Big Bs performance is buoyed by high scores in Mumbai, where 36% consider him the
favourite brand ambassador, and he appeals to 7% of even Bollywood-averse Chennai. Mumbai is also the only market that registers significant recall (at 17%) for Big B in Pepsis Oye Bubbly commercial. Its otherwise a campaign thats identified closely with Shahrukh Khan, the second most popular celebrity endorser among 15-years-olds. Each city seems to have its own star of choice-for Kolkata its Shahrukh who gets the vote of 25%. Among the hordes of brands that the star endorses, the ones hes remembered for are Pepsi, Santro and the recent campaign for Sunfeast, which again bags the best scores in Kolkata.
Master-blaster Tendulkar, while still the third most well-regarded endorser, has fallen out of favour big time with most markets-he registers incredibly low scores in Delhi and Kolkata, favoured by only 2% and 4%, respectively. His main centre of popularity is Bangalore, where hes the star of choice for 31%, a ranking that keeps him in the reckoning. Whats significant, though, is that Tendulkar has the maximum number of brand associations to his credit. While Boost is the brand that he suits best-70% of the respondents in Bangalore and 64% of those in Chennai say so-Tendulkar also has strong links with TVS, Pepsi, MRF and Adidas.
The only other national star is Kajol, who scores well in Delhi at 11%, but isnt really considered too hot any-place else. Chennai, of course, has a bevy of regional stars who outperform Bollywood-Surya, who endorses Pepsi, gets enough votes to account for 4% of the national ranking on the most favoured brand ambassadors.
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