Irving Rein, Philip Kotler, and Martin Scoller, The Making and Marketing of Professionals into Celebrities

 Read the following sources listed in the Marketing Insight: "Endorsements as a Strategy,”

a)    Irving Rein, Philip Kotler, and Martin Scoller, The Making and Marketing of Professionals into Celebrities (Chicago: NTC Business Books, 1997);

b)    Greg Johnson, "Woods Cautious Approach to the Green,” Los Angeles Times, July 26, 2000, p. A1; Bruce Horovitz, "Armstrong Rolls to Market Gold,” USA Today, May 4, 2000, p. 1B;

c)    Theresa Howard, "Pepsi Takes Some Fizz off Vanilla Rival,” USA Today, November 16, 2003;

d)    Keith Naughton, "The Soft Sell,” Newsweek, February 2, 2004, pp. 46-47;

e)    Betsy Cummings, "Star Power,” Sales & Marketing Management, (April 2001): pp. 52-59. 

Celebrity marketing is a tactic featuring a famous person to offer an endorsement of a product. This famous person might be an actor, musician, athlete, ex-politician or a cartoon character. They do not need to be international superstars; they only need to be familiar to the target audience. Celebrity endorsement advertising happens when a well known person use his/ her fame to help promote a product or service of certain company. Celebrities can be music stars, cricketers, actors, actress, and so on. The celebrities make the product through radio, television, large events and so on. Many organizations use the celebrities in the hope of increasing sales and profits in the long run. Manufacturers of perfumes and clothing are some of the most common business users of celebrity endorsement.

Celebrity endorsement can benefit the organization in several ways. It helps in building brand equity. The advantages of celebrity endorsement are as follows. Through celebrity to endorsement, a business can reap huge rewards for a brand. Celebrity endorsement can benefit the organization in several ways. It helps in building brand equity. Take an example of Nike which primarily sponsored tennis and track athletes in its ads for promotion. Celebrity to endorsement can improve ad recall. It helps to generate sales in the market. Using celebrity to endorsement, an organization's product or services can entice new customers. Celebrities advertising can build awareness among the customers. Also, it may influence customer purchases. This is because of consumers may have attitude if some celebrity is backing the product or services it must be good.

These days, many companies spent lots of money on celebrity endorsement to create the positive awareness in their products and brands. The essential objective of celebrity endorsement is to achieve a favorable impact on brand image. Celebrities are watched very carefully so if anything goes wrong; it blows up in the media.

 The advantages of using celebrity endorsement are:

• ·The celebrity can enhance brand equity.
• ·The attitudes of the customers towards a specific brand are changed or affected by celebrity.
• ·It is the celebrity, who is able to build up the brand credibility.
• ·Celebrities make advertisement believable.
• ·It helps in creating a distinct personality to the endorsed brand.

There are different examples that gave competitive advantage to the company by his method. For example; Cadbury, Indian chocolate brand, 12 years back was seen some worms inside the chocolate which came out in the media. Companies spend huge amounts of money annually on celebrity endorsement contracts, because they believe that celebrities are effective spokespeople for their products or brands. But sometimes it occurs celebrity endorsement risk. The risk is that celebrities who endorse products will one day turn around and do something embarrassing, illegal, or stupid. That, in turn, could result in a loss for the product as well. When a celebrity falls out of favor with the public, he/she generally loses a fair number of fans. Celebrity scandals are nothing new. Scandals have been coming out of Hollywood since its formation, but the consequences have become steeper. 

Evelyn Nesbit was considered one of the most beautiful and talented models in New York during the start of the 1900s. She got pregnant while she was still a teenager, and numerous scandals rocked her career, ending it prematurely. The fashion industries that hired and supported her did not suffer much fallout at all as they quietly replaced her. As a marketer we should select the best celebrity who has good personality, attitude, behavior and more concern about social values where that helps to give more popularity to the company Famous personalities can bring business in and take it away just as easily. It is always important to weigh both sides of an issue before making a decision, particularly  when it comes to celebrity involvement. 

References

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2012). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall

McCracken, G. (1989). The Equity Effect of Product Endorsement by Celebrities. European Journal of Marketing.

Friedman, H.H., & Friedman, L., (1979). Endorser effectiveness by product type. Journal of Advertising Research.