Impact of Celebrity Endorsements

By Priya Chetty on August 22, 2011

Advertisement helps consumers in making their purchasing decision. Over the years advertising strategies have gone through various changes. Today, one of the most popular advertising strategies used by companies is celebrity endorsement. (Goldsmith, Lafferty and Newell, 2000)

In India, celebrity brand endorsement has started since late 1970s. Celebrities have their power to grab public attention towards an advertisement. This article will discuss whether celebrity endorsement can effectively influence consumers’ buying decision. (Joshi and Ahluwalia, 2008)

 

Celebrity endorsement and Indian consumer buying behavior

Various empirical studies have found that celebrities get more attention and recall than any other endorsers (Kulkarni and Gaulkar, 2005; Joshi and Ahluwalia, 2008; Matrade Chennai, 2005).  Celebrities are quite effective in generating positive attitude to brands. Celebrities are more powerful in connecting consumers to brands compared to other types of endorsers. (Choi and Rifon, 2007; Atkin and Block, 1983)

In India, celebrity power can rightly be assessed by their successful endorsements. Here, celebrities like film stars and cricketers have not only been successful in gathering huge public attention, but also in increasing sales volume. For example, Cadbury used Amitabh Bachchan to promote the brand when it went through a bad phase in India. Soon the ad recreated people’s love for the brand and increased Cadbury’s sale. (Joshi and Ahluwalia, 2008; Matrade Chennai, 2005)

Aamir Khan is used by Titan to communicate the message that Titan watches are as trustworthy as the actor is for his films. This celebrity endorsement has also been quite effective in influencing consumers buying decision. Similarly, various endorsements by Sharukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and others have been found to be successful in affecting consumers’ buying decision. (Joshi and Ahluwalia, 2008)

 

Conclusion

It can be concluded that celebrities have been quite successful in India in communicating right messages and influencing their purchasing behavior. Thus celebrity endorsements in India have produced positive impact on consumers buying behavior by increasing public attention and sales volume of the endorsed brands.

 

Bibliography

  1. Kulkarni, A.S and Gaulkar, U.S., 2005. Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Overall Brand. [online] Available at: http://www.indianmba.com/Occasional_Papers/OP88/op88.html [Accessed on 10th June 2011].
  2. Joshi, V. and Ahluwalia, S., 2008. The Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on
    Consumer Brand Preferences
    . [online] Available at: http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC706/fc706.html [Accessed on 10th June 2011].
  3. Matrade Chennai, 2005. Product market study: consumer behaviour in India. [online] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/26912919/Product-Market-Study-Consumer-Behavior-in-India [Accessed on 10th June 2011].
  4. Choi, S.M. and Rifon, J.N., 2007. Who is the Celebrity in Advertising? Understanding Dimensions of Celebrity Image. Journal of Popular Culture, 40(2), pp.304-325.
  5. Atkin, C. and Block, M., 1983. Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsers. Journal of Advertising Research, 23, March Issue, pp.57-61.
  6. Goldsmith, R.E., Lafferty, B.A. and Newell, S.J., 2000. The impact of corporate credibility and celebrity credibility on consumer reaction to advertisements and brands. Journal of Advertising, 29(3), pp.43-54.

 

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