Companies have various methods of
creating convincing advertising campaigns. One way is to involve superstars to
magazine, television, radio or social media advertisements. This practice has
been known from the beginning of advertising and it’s called celebrity endorsement.
Have you ever desired a product
because a famous person was also a user of the item? Have you ever bought
something that was signed by a celebrity? Is it important to you? Yes? So
you’ve been cheated with maybe not a cheap but simple marketing trick.
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On the other hand, this practice is
not as perfect as it seems. First of all, celebrity endorsements aren’t always
worth their costs. Instead of spending a lot of money on employing a famous
person, you’d be far better served investing that money in unusual,
unconventional marketing ideas. Secondly, celebrities make mistakes and those
mistakes can affect an endorsed brand. Tiger Woods is a good example. He lost ad-contracts with General Motors,
Gillette and Accenture after news about his infidelity in 2009. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021902442.html). There
is always some risk that a celebrity will become overexposed or he/she will overshadow
the endorsed brand.
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Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2008-11-14/the-trouble-with-celebrity-endorsementsbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice
Celebrity endorsement increases the demand for advertised products. Who would not want to wear underwear, which advertises his favorite footballer? :)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC_C07G-AGQ
Celebrities inspire normal people do not need to turn the television advertising to advertise eg. New shoes.
Just send a popular star of shoes from the new collection.
A good example is the Polish Natalia Siwiec, who founded one party shoes by Stuart Weitzman.
http://www.zeberka.pl/img_new/2014/10/12/kapif-k659528f.jpg
A week later, half of Polish rich women bought it from the store. A majority of Polish footwear manufacturers began to produce similar models. After a month, half Polish comes in similar shoes.
Such examples are more.
Returning to television advertising, sometimes you laugh. What you are capable of celebrities, just to have money.
Here I've got some funny examples of Polish stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soy_5n3kx1E
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3o4ve_profi-katarzyna-skrzynecka_news
Thank you for the links. The film with Edyta Herbuś is the best, is this real commercial? This is so surrealistic, it must be fake!
DeleteBecause you've mentioned Natalia Siwiec, I’ve remembered popular case with her. She took part in a photography session, and her photos landed on stock. Until she wasn't popular, it was not a problem. But… she became a celebrity, and some people used her image to promote their business. Unfortunately for her it was an unclothed session. She became a face of specific for whitening anus, vulva and armpits. After that, many companies did the same, so she was a face of many products. Of course, she wasn't pleased about that, and she tried to work against it.
DeleteHere you can find some more information about that campaign: http://www.mediafun.pl/natalia-siwiec-%E2%80%9Etwarza-genialnej-kampanii-produktu-do-dupy/.
So be careful, and respect your image, because you never know, when you will become popular. Once something gets on internet, it will never disappear, and it can turn against you.
Currently „Celebrity endorsment” is a very popular way to advertise a product. Almost every well-known Brand have its own brand ambassador. Ambassadors may be a very effective tool in building brand image by creating the required atmosphere around it. A great and maybe safer way to promote your own brand is to create your own character. A great example is Telekomunikacja Polska. This company created characters – „Serce i Rozum” whose appearance effectively divert attention from negative feelings about „Neostrada”. Or Henio i Krysia, created by Tesco, who amused the Poles, giving them a break from pasta and yogurt commercials. Creating your own characters is in my opinion safer and cheaper way to promote product. Our Product or brand was not be associated with skandal or the Celebrity who has done something wrong and as a result customers stopped buying our products.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I think that creating your own characters is much better and creative way to advertise brand, than use well-known person. If a product is really good, it doesn't need celebrity to sell it.
DeleteThis topic is very popular recently.
ReplyDeleteI think that celebrity endorsement is a good way for companies to promote their products. Many people that watch television or listen to radio have famous persons who they like. If celebrity is promoting some product people try to identify with their idols. Example? Famous raper 50 cent was promoting shoes in the past and many teenagers bought them only because 50 cent was wearing them in commercial.
But I think that we should still remember that celebrities are paid for that and product that is promoted does not have to as good and has quality.
You are right, it's really important to remember that celebrities are paid for their work. Consumers appear to use a product's commercial and product's price as a measure of the product's quality.
DeleteWe can’t forget that there is no bad advertisement, if it’s successful. The reason why many actors, sportsmen, singers are promoting stuff is that they have sign long-term contracts with company in exchange not only for gear and money, but in shares and profits as well. I really enjoyed Tiger Woods case, because it was a great base for South Park’s episode called ’Sexual Healing’: http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s14e01-sexual-healing (shorter clip - http://southpark.cc.com/clips/267344/pre-nup-power-up). And many time you pay only for company’s name or the person, who stands for it: (http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/950594/beats-by-dre-the-secrets-behind-a-headphone-empire). And if you stand your ground, you can always make Nike commercial:
ReplyDeletehttp://southpark.cc.com/clips/ajujy5/stanforsomething
But if something goes wrong, you can end up like Tiger Woods or… Stan:
http://southpark.cc.com/clips/t9gkys/a-witch-hunt
Do you have prepared South Parks episode for every topic? :) Funny clips, thanks!
Delete18 seasons of South Park and 13 of Family Guy - I have a decent amount of clips :)
DeleteI also agree with You that a celebrity endorsement is a good way to advertise products. People often want to liken self to theirs idols and this is a reason why celebrity endorsment give companies amazing sales results. Sometimes celebrities who behave inappropriately can loose their contract. Tiger Woods is a good example liked @Jakub instanced. Also Rihanna is a good example who few years ago lost her contract with River Island, because she published photos on which she smoked marijuana. River Island said that they didn't want to be associated with promoting drugs. I think that because of this confusion River Island earned more than they expected. Not always celebrity's blames harm companies. Very often promoted brands are pleased when a celebrity elicits a scandal around herself. In the world of celebrities there is a saying - it isn't important what they write about you, it's important they have written.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks for example with Rihanna and River Island, it's really interesting, I had never heard about it! I have just found this controversial photo, check it here http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1984180.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Rihanna-instagram.png
DeleteThis event happened 3-4 years ago :)
DeleteYes i know, when you mentioned about it, I decided to look for some information about this;)
DeleteWe live in the world where for many people celebrities are very important so it's natural that marketing agencies using it to sell product. There are many ways to use celebrities, besides being an ambassadors they can for example get a car just to drive for a couple days in the city and let paparazzis make them photos in this particular car. I'm sure that you've seen a lot of article titles like "She's got another brand new car!"
ReplyDeleteBut let's face it, who wouldn't want that? :)
it actually depends on what do we advertise. Advertising important products might be dangerous as you mentioned because whenever a person acting in an advertisement changes his views/items/"whatever is being mentioned in a advertisement" it will affect receivers of a advertisement.
ReplyDeleteYou chose a very trendy topic. Few days ago there were quite a few mentions around the internet about a girl who has been doing that celebrity endorsement thing for living and suddenly she decided to stop doing it (here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1Qyks8QEM). Her story maybe isn’t very interesting or touching but she mentioned how big and well known companies are using such „popular people” to advertise their products. First, they look for people who have the greatest number of followers they want to target (usually young people). Then they send a product with a list of requirements the celebrity must meet, for example the pose, time of a day, background of a photo etc. The sadest thing is that it actualy works and teenagers buy things just because they saw how their favourite celebrity wears it.
ReplyDeleteIt's only natural that companies hire personalities to promote their products. Some people are just famous and gather lots of attention around themselves. And that makes that strategy viable. Even if the product is completely not known hiring a celebrity for an advertisement will certainly gain some level of attention. In that case it doesn't really matter whether that person has a good or bad fame.
ReplyDeleteIt's only when a company already has a certain public image it has be careful and watch over who they want to choose to promote their brand.
Anyway, even though I obviously knew about act itself the term "celebrity endorsement" is new to me. Happy to learn.
It's only natural that companies hire personalities to promote their products. Some people are just famous and gather lots of attention around themselves. And that makes that strategy viable. Even if the product is completely not known hiring a celebrity for an advertisement will certainly gain some level of attention. In that case it doesn't really matter whether that person has a good or bad fame.
ReplyDeleteIt's only when a company already has a certain public image it has be careful and watch over who they want to choose to promote their brand.
Anyway, even though I obviously knew about act itself the term "celebrity endorsement" is new to me. Happy to learn.
I agree that topic is very actual, We are almost surrounded by various form of advertisments. From spam on our private mails which pretends pen friend's messagaes, to leaflets placed behind wipers.
ReplyDeleteI think that campagins with celebrities are more attractive for average consuments than outhers. I think public persons also builds some kind of trust - we think If famous cook recommed a product it has to be a good quality sasuage, yougurt, or milk.
We live in a world full of commercials, when we go outside we see many billboards located at buildings. When we watch TV, we see more commercials than normal TV programs or films. Nowadays when I follow commercials on TV and Internet I see that more and more celebrities take part in this. I think a few years ago, in Poland, there wasn’t celebrity endorsement, so this fashion is here from a few years and came from West, where stars like for example David Beckham, are the face of the brand. When a celebrity takes part in commercial, he or she has a huge responsibility on that, because when newspapers will denigrate a celebrity, because of theirs scandals, the company will suffer too. The celebrity endorsement which are now in Poland and comes to my mind are commercials of T-Mobile, where Tomasz Kot is taking part in all of commercials. People are now associating him with a company, so when we think T-Mobile we see Tomasz Kot. The next example is chain of Lidl where face of this brand is Okrasa and Wellman now. I think it is a good product endorsement because when Dorota Wellman is instilling sympathy in us, we have the same, good opinion about Lidl company. The next advantage for company, is when for example Okrasa is hosting his program, and we want to buy some products, to cook a dish from his recipe, we subconsciously choose Lidl. Sometimes we can met bad product endorsement which disgust us. The good example is the advertisement of Media Expert where Ewelina Lisowska is singing that irritating song, which everyone hates. I think that is the point, everyone hates this songs, talks about it, and a brand is getting more popular.
ReplyDeleteThank you for mentioned about Tomasz Kot and T-mobile. This ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y84TeGpeBvM is really everywhere, in some way it's funny, but I have saw this too many times to count. I just can't stand it anymore. ;)
DeletePower of promoting brands by endorsement by celebrities are really powerful and at the same time it is the easiest way to achieve the target.
ReplyDeleteAlmost everyone want to be like a famous person or as their own idol. People want to wear the same clothes, use the same gadgets etc.
Also children are susceptible to this form of advertisement. Most of the boys dreams about playing football as good as their favorite player and it does not matter who he is because almost every famous football player have signed a commercial contract. So kids love to play football in shoes promoted by Ronaldo and after that to win a match in newest FIFA game edition which is naturally also promoted by famous player like Messi, Lewandowski or Milik.
Regarding to the negative examples - I remember a legend of a Lance Armstrong. To a certain point he was a awesome cyclist, a great man involved in helping people with the fight against cancer. Firstly he won with this terrible disease, then repeatedly won the most important cycling races in the world. And then unexpectedly he lost his good reputation with the loss of many prizes due to using sports drugs. Also he must to give back many milions of dollars for his sponsors which he earned during his career.
The facts mentioned in the article cast some new light on the aspects of "celebrity endorsment", we usually tend not to notice. I think the general opinion likes to believe that engaging a famous person in one's advertisment campaign is nearly always a good move since in the worst case scenario it'll make your product somehow stand out on the market, which is not an easy thing to acquire nowadays, but hardly ever do we realise how risky such an endevour may be. Famous people are still just people and their actions can't always be forseen, for which an excellent example of Tiger Woods was stated. Their behaviour may in a long term actually buy us more shame than positive recognition, for the bill hard to fork out for.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand don't you guys think that it some cases even a scandal of "our celebrity" can actually be a good thing? Sometimes one just wants to be spoken about not caring what they say about him/her.
I have a feeling that advertising went a bit wrong :) Of course it's part of the capitalist market and it works like that for decades now. Nevertheless when I see celebrity endorsement campaings I can not help thinking: "So what? They payed him because they have the money. It has nothing to do with quality or functionality".
ReplyDeleteAnd personally I am not such a fan of buying products advertised this way, because usually the price goes up at the same time. Truth is - sometimes these products are indeed great. On the other hand the celebrity brand does not assure this, so the research needs to be done either way...