SYNOPSIS It is a known fact that the best endorsements achieve an eclectic balance between the product (brand) and

the celebrity. Giving a brand a 'face' is more than just a marketing strategy to increase sales or gain market share, it is a decision that can change the future of the brand forever. Choice of the celebrity, hence, is of utmost importance and is usually done based on many different parameters - appeal, looks, popularity or even just a fantasy figure to endorse a brand. In today's highly competitive markets, big brands are at logger-heads when it comes to products, each having a similar product to that of a rival. Where does one brand gain that quintessential advantage - advertising, service, promise of trust, or even the all important price factors? Advertising seems to be the best platform where brands prefer to compete on - right from hiring the best advertising agencies to getting the biggest celebrities. What would be the formula to success then? Well, a good creative agency, a large enough promotional budget and a huge star to endorse your brand would definitely ensure in the minds of a brand management team a feeling of security, success and a triumph over the competitors brand. The general belief among advertisers is that brand communication messages delivered by celebrities and famous personalities generate a higher appeal, attention and recall than those executed by non-celebrities. The quick message-reach and impact are all too essential in today's highly competitive environment. The different models applied by brands to achieve the full potential of such endorsements, highlight the need for a convergence between the theoretical and pragmatic approaches of brand building and effective advertising. The

importance of a celebrity-brand match and the various roles played by them as brand-associates show the momentum this strategy has gained in the last decade or so. We put forward certain ideas like 'positioning by association', 'diminishing celebrity utility' and the Multiplier Effect which show the triangular relationship between the brand, the consumer and the celebrity. India is a country where people are star-struck by film stars, cricketers, politicians, and even criminals. Why? Populations of 1 billion and ticking, everyday people need something or someone to look up to. A sense of security, admiration, comfort, familiarity, and above all, someone they aspire to be at some hidden level in their lives. And clever marketers leverage this very celebrity appeal and are successfully carrying out their jobs by giving the bottom lines of all the brands what they want - profit, market share and even recall. But how much star power is too much? "Does Amitabh really use Tide," asked a 6 year old to her mother. Her mother laughs and says, "No way, just a gimmick." What does that do to the brand? Now, despite the potential benefits derived from celebrity endorsements, they increase a marketer's risk manifolds and should be treated with full attention and aptitude. A brand should be cautious when employing celebrities to ensure promise believability and delivery of the intended effect. The growing importance of mythical characters as celebrities and their sway over the target segments are ample proof of public demand for icons to look up to. As the celebrities traverse from a mere commercial presence to public welfare message endorsements, a whole new dimension is added to this process and helps us in achieving a holistic view of the impact which celebrities generate in every sphere and segment through their wellversed endorsements.

At the end of the day, do any stakeholders in a company (employees, contractors, customers, shareholders, communities the company supports with jobs) benefit from a celebrity endorsement? Does anyone buy a product because a Bollywood or TV actor/actress stands up and reads a script in somewhat convincing manner? Are their distinctions in how consumers perceive these types of endorsements and respond to them? What happens when a celebrity endorser gets involved in a public scandal, or worse, dies? Will the product lose consumer support or perish? The most important thing to remember is that putting a celebrity in an ad is not an idea in itself. Unfortunately, this is how most celebrities are being used in Indian advertising, where they just become a prop. Ideally, there should be an idea that makes the celebrity relevant to the product and the consumer. A celebrity's presence in the ad should be contextual. Celebrity endorsement cannot guarantee fool-proof success. The celebrity endorsement strategy must be integrated with target market characteristics, and the other elements of the marketing mix such as product design, branding, packaging, and pricing. The message execution that will be mouthed by the celebrity must likewise be made clear and single-minded. You can do this cleverly by aligning the spirit of the brand to the product, or by using a celebrity because it ensures that people will notice you, and hopefully remember what the brand is saying. Smart associations are ones where the former happens. Before we go into analyzing success and failure stories of brands, we examine the title once again and try looking at it extremely minutely

Introduction Celebrity endorsement is a special type of advertisement which includes a famous person from film fraternity, athletes, and sports, modeling world etc. it helps in promoting the product brand and also increasing the sales of the product. Celebrity endorsement not only has developed in recent years, it is being used from the past for promoting the product. This type of marketing strategy is used to promote the product and has proved in it self a boon in advertising world. It is mainly used to influence the consumer who comes across these advertisements as it is accessed in the consumers mind for many days even after the advertisement. Celebrity endorsement has not always helped in promoting the product but it has been developed considerably over the years. It is very expensive to endorse a celebrity for a product but in the long run it has helped in increasing the sales of the product. Celebrities are also interested in endorsing themselves in the product as they get compensation for it and their image is been developed considerably. Businesses have long sought to distract the attention of the potentials customers that live in a world of ever increasing commercial bombardment. Everyday consumers are exposed to thousands o voices and images in magazines, news paper, and on billboards, websites, radio and television .Every brand attempts to steal a fraction of an unsuspecting persons time to

inform him or her of the amazing and different attributes of the product at hand. Because of the constant media saturation that most people experience daily, they eventually become numb to the standard marketing techniques. The challenge of the marketer is to find a hook the subjects attention. Also from the marketing communications perspective, I is vital that firms design strategies that help to underpin competitive differential advantage for the firms product or services. Accordingly, the marcom activities back up other elements in the marketing mix such as designs branding, packaging, pricing and place. The term celebrity refers to an individual who is known to the public (actor figure, entertainer, etc.) for his or her achievements the areas other than that of the product class endorsed (Friedman and Friedman, 1979),. This is true for the classic forms of celebrity, like actors (eg., Amitabh Bachchan, sharukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Amair Khan and ierceBrosnan. Models (e.g., Malaika Arora, Lisa Ray , Aishwarya Rai, Naomi Gisele Buendchen etc)., sports Figures (E.g., Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Sing Dhoni ,Virander Sehwag, rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan , Steve Waugh, etc). Entainers (e.g. ., Cyrus Broacha, Oparh winfrey, Conan OBrien), and popstars (e.g., Madonna, Dravid Bowie) but also for less obvious groups like businessmen (e.g., Donald Trump, Bill Gates) or politicians. Celebrities appear in public in different ways. First, they appear in public when fulfilling their profession, e.g., Viswanathan Anand, who plays chess in front of the audience. Further more, celebrities appears in public by attending special celebrity events, e.g., award ceremonies, Inauguration or world premieres of movies. In addition, they present in news, fashion, magazines, and tabloids, which provide second information on events and the private life of celebrities through mass-media channel (e.g., Smiriti Irani being regulated featured in various publications). Last but not the least, celebrities act as spokes-people in advertising to promote products and services, whish is referred to celebrity endorsement. Celebrity Per say, a dictionary meaning of this word is a famous person". A person who has excelled in his / her field of action or activity. In our day to day activity, we perform many acts, may at home, at work place, on field in sports, in social life. But these acts may be daily routine or just "acts" per say giving no extra-ordinary results, not noticed by anybody surrounding, and not taken into notice by Media.

But if a person acts or performs something which gives spectacular results is noticed by masses. That person has "done something" special that we and masses can not do. He is regarded as a special person with some "extra" given by that "Almighty" above. We start feeling that he/she is great. We start celebrating his/her all acts which produce success. If the success rate for that person is very high to "deliver" same results, he becomes a "CELEBRITY". It may be in field of sports, cinema, theatre, social life, politics, and science anything but something with some special results. But by all means these acts should be with good cause, positive results, morally good and acceptable results. Eg. A bandit queen of chambal valley was very famous, but was terror before her surrender to police. But she never becomes celebrity. But an actress Ms Seema Biswas who acted in film on "Bandit Queen" on life of that bandit, became very famous and a Celebrity. A celebrity is perceived as god by masses. They touch their feet, create idols and worship, garland their photographs, perform "Yagnyas" for their idols performance, wait for their "Darshan" in hot sun or heavy rains for hours together, follow fashions of them - wear similar clothes or have similar hair style as that of celebrity, and on wrongside even commit suicide if celebrity FAILS to deliver results. They have tremendous mass followings. They pull crowds with their presence only. If it is understood that BIG B is coming for shooting a film, to a particular location on a particular day , then there is big commotion in that area. Police worry about law and order situation, even young generation throng there in big nose to have glimpses of BIG B and even wait since early morning leaving aside their. Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition by a large share of a certain group of people. Whereas attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary lifestyle or special skills are just examples and specific common characteristics cannot be observed, it can be said that within a corresponding social group, celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy a high degree of public awareness.

What is product endorsement?

A product endorsement is a form of testimonial from someone which indicates that they like or approve of a product. Commonly, product endorsements are solicited from people who are socially prominent, allowing companies to advertise their products with statements like as used by such-and-such an actress, or the official product of company/event X. It's hard to miss a product endorsement on product packaging and in advertisements; most companies keep their endorsements front and center so that they are always in the public eye. The concept of the product endorsement is quite ancient. In England, for example, several companies have been advertising themselves as by appointment to the Queen for hundreds of years, indicating that they enjoy the patronage of the British royal family. Consumers are often seduced by the idea of purchasing a product which is endorsed by someone wealthy or famous, as though by buying the product, the consumer also becomes affiliated with the person who endorses it. Modern product endorsements can come with contracts worth substantial amounts of money. For example, many sports stars agree to participate in product endorsementendorsementendorsement campaigns with the understanding that the company will compensate them for the trouble; some stars donate the proceeds to charities they support, using the product endorsement as a public relations campaign. In exchange for an endorsement contract, someone may agree to use the product publicly whenever possible, and they may be restricted from using products made by a competitor. A product endorsement doesn't necessarily mean that a product is good. It just means that the company has managed to work its public relations connections to get a big name associated with it. While most people and organizations will try out a product before they agree to endorse it, this isn't always the case, and you shouldn't rely on endorsements to speak to the quality of the product, especially if you are concerned about issues like illegal labor or adulterated products. Some endorsements take the form of written testimonials, where people write about how the product changed their lives. Historically, such testimonials were often printed on the product packaging directly; modern testimonials are more commonly included in advertising campaigns, with excerpts only on the packaging. Many companies also use photographs of famous people on their products to create a visual connection between the endorser and the product, which is why sports stars appear on your cereal box.

What is celebrity endorsement? The use of celebrities in order to increase the sales and/ or the recall value of a brand is called celebrity endorsement The late '80s saw the beginning of celebrity endorsements in advertising in India. Hindi film and TV stars as well as sportspersons began encroaching on a territory that was, until then, the exclusive domain of models. There was a spurt of advertising, featuring stars like Tabassum (Prestige pressure cookers), Jalal Agha (Pan Parag), Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving Cream) and Sunil Gavaskar (Dinesh Suitings). Of course, probably the first ad to cash in on star power in a strategic, long-term, mission statement kind of way was for Lux soap, a brand which has, perhaps as a result of this, been among the top three in the country for much of its lifetime. Detergents on the other hand ran the whole gamut from Lalitaji - the antithesis of celebrity - to Shekhar Suman stepping into the lives of ordinary housewives.(Blonnet, April 2003) Endorsements by celebrities have started since a long time. The very fact that their use has continued for so long is proof enough of its immense advantages, but they have several disadvantages too. When it comes to celebrity endorsement, the first brand that comes to the Indian mind is that of Lux, the Beauty Bar of the Stars. Since its inception, Lux the brand has grown positioning itself thus. However, recently Lux has tried to change its positioning from being a womans soap to being soap for men as well. Sticking to its strategy of using celebrities to appeal to its target audience, this time around it has used Shah Rukh Khan to endorse Lux. But this time the response has been confusing. This paper attempts to find out if this strategy of Lux has been successful or not.

Background Celebrities are involved in endorsing activities since late nineteenth century. The advent of the celebrity endorsements in advertising in India began when Hindi films and TV stars as well as sportsperson began encroaching on a territory that was, until then, the exclusive domain of models. One of the first sports endorsements in India was when Farokh Engineer became the first Indian Crickets to model for bryl Cream The Indian cricket teams now earns roughly Rs. 100 crore through endorsements. There was a spurt of advertising, featuring stars like tabassum (pretisge Pressure cookers). Jalal Agha (Pan Parag).Kapil Dev (Palmolive Shaving cream) and Sunil Gavaskar (Dinesh Sutings)

Rise of celebrity culture The modern mass media has increased the exposure and power of celebrity. Often, celebrity carries with it immense social capitals that is highly sought after by some individuals. High paying jobs and other social perks unavailable to most people are readily available to celebrities, even for wok not connected to the talents or accomplishment that made them famous. For example A retired athletes might receive high speaking fees or compensation for public appearances, despite his talent having been sports, not oratory, while some envy celebrities, and many aspire to celebrity , some who have attained it are ambivalent about their status . Often, celebrities cannot escape the public eye, and risk being followed by fans. As well, child celebrities are notorious for having poor emotional health in adulthood, and often turn to drug and alcohols abuse when their celebrity (as it usually does) fades. Some participants in reality television shows have admitted that they appeared on these programs with the goal in mind of attain celebrity. Most often they achieve only fleeting celebrity with no special figures, has pervaded many sectors of society including business, publishing, and even academy (the celebrities) Only small portions of individuals in any profession can achieve celebrity. For those who do., the benefit can be substantial in the form of speaking access. There are disadvantages as well; however, academics and business leads that become well known often lose credibility with their colleagues. In many fields, such as the arts and publishing, a moderate measure of celebrity (being established) I necessary before individuals in these sectors are poorly-compensated though they may be as talented or more so then well compensated, famous people in he same field. Concept of celebrity endorsement Meaning of celebrity endorsement In India today, the use of celebrity advertising for companies has become a trend and a perceive winning formula of corporate image building and product marketing. Associating a brand with a top-notch celebrity can

do more than perk up brand recall. It can create linkages with the stars appeal, thereby adding refreshing and new dimensions to the brand image. In a world filled with faces, how many do you remember? Admittedly the ones that evoke some kind of feel in you, whether its humors, acceptance, appreciation or recognition. These are the faces youd turn to look at, the ones that would stop you in your tracks. And thats when you have more than just a face. You have personality. Personality thats reflective of your brand and promises to take it that extra mile. The argument supports a position by citing the endorsement of someone who is well known famous. The person need not necessarily be an authority implies that the endorsers game alone is sufficient to establish the truth of the position. As existing media get increasingly cluttered, the need to stand out has become paramount- and celebrities have proved to be the ideal way to ensure brand prominence. Synergizing personality with product and message can create an instant breakthrough. Result? Brand buzz. People begin to notice, opportunities come about. People want to be part of the brand. Touch it. Feel it. Experience it. Celebrities as brands is a concept-selling challenge, as the current notion of celebrity management is far from ideal its perceived as a business that merely attaches celebrity to the brand to get that added advantage. However, the actual job is not mere brokerage --- its about selecting a celebrity whose characteristics are congruent with the brand image. Before we proceed to identify the right celebrity or personality and test the correspondence bias lets first have a look at the literature survey done, address a few issues involved in celebrity advertising and understand the methodology of the study. Using celebrities in advertising dates back to the late nineteenth century and this common advertising practice has drawn a considerable amount of academic and practical attention. Most academic investigations of celebrity endorsement have been contextualized in the realm of source credibility and attractiveness models, and suggest that celebrities exert their influence on consumer through perceived attributes such as expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, familiarty, and likeability

Another stream of research on celebrity endorsement which labeled the match-up hypothesis: has examined the lift or match between a celebrity and product being endorsed, and maintains that celebrity endorsement is more effective when the in similar vein, McCracken suggest that a: celebrity who best represent the appropriate symbolic properties of the product should be selected, thus highlighting the importance of the cultural meanings of celebrities in the endorsement process. Celebrites embody a collection of culturally relevnt images, symbols, and values. As the images of the celebrity become associated with the products through endorsement, the meanings they attach to the product are transffered to consumer through and consumption. Therefore, the practice for celebrity endorsement should be closely related to the cultural context in which the images of celebrities are formed and individual celebrites are selected to be linked with particular products. For advertising practitioners, employing an appropriate celebrity endorser to promote a product is important and difficult tasks. For instance , as suggested in the theoretical literature , professional at advertising agencies and their companies in the united states and united kingdom cited celebrity attributes such as image , trustworthiness Familiarity, as well as the fit between celebrity and the product, as important factors for choosing the appropriate endorsers. Other highly ranked decision factors include celebrity/ target- audience congruence, costs of securing the celebrity, the celebritys risk of controversy, and the celebritys prior endorsement. As suggested by Erdogan, Baker, and Tagg (2001), the perceived importance and the actual use of endorser selection criteria may vary from culture to culture. Differences in the entertainment industry and the agency business, and more broadly, in the cultural environments are likely to influence the execution of the celebrity endorsement strategy across countries. Arguing for standardized advertising across countries, some contend that consumer demands and tastes have become similar on a global scale (and that using celebrities with world wide recognition in advertising is an effective means of overcoming cultural difficulties. Others claim that despite some observed convergence among consumer around world, fundamental values still remain divergent across cultures. Therefore, international advertisers cannot assume that the same advertising technique should be uniformly applied or that it will be equally effective in different countries. Yet research on similatries and differences.

Celebrity endorsements are very expensive. Therefore their use in an ad should be justified. In other words, the message strategy for a brand should strongly warrant the use a known face in an idea. Sadly, very often the celebrity is hired first and an idea is then weaved around his or her presence. Khan stresses, The important thing to remember is that putting a celebrity in an ad is not an idea in itself. Unfortunately, this is how most celebrities are being used in Indian advertising, where they just become a prop. Ideally, there should be an idea that makes the celebrity relevant to the product and the consumer. A celebritys presence in the ad should be contextual. When Sachin Tendulkar declares, Boost is the secret of my energy, it doesnt seem out of context. Internationally, Nikes association with Michael Jordan is legendary and also logical. Mendonza adds, I think celebrity endorsements work best when the celebrity is not introducing the brand. When the product already has a strong identity and a USP that is well established, then a celebrity can come in and give the brand an added fillip and generate some more interest value. However, what is of paramount importance is to find a complete fit between the values of the brand and the values of the celebrity. One needs to create a unique situation or story that links the celebrity to the product.

Is it smart to use celebrity endorsements for branding? Stars, who are known to shape destinies, cast an enormous influence. No, were not talking about astrology here. Were referring to the powerful effect of celebrities on destinies of brands. One approving nod from a famous face can translate into millions in brand sales. Perhaps thats why the world over, companies have been using stars to endorse everything, from food to food chains, from soft and hard drinks to health drinks, from clothes and accessories to cars (and the tyres on which they run). Even political parties are awestruck by the charisma of stars. Such is the magnetism of celebrities in this country that in the recent general elections, major political parties fielded a record number of film stars and cricketers to contest from important constituencies around the country.

So what about celebrities drives companies to spend in millions on obtaining their stamp of approval on their brands? Celebrity Endorsements as a strategy Signing up stars for endorsements is a time-tested strategy and has been effectively used by some of the top brands in the world including Nike and Pepsi. In India too, HLL has used Hindi film stars to endorse their beauty soap Lux since the fifties. Vimal, Thums Up, Gwalior and Dinesh are some of the other brands that used star-appeal in the early days of mass advertising. And who can forget Kapil Palmolive Dev? Ask about the objective of using a celebrity in an ad and most admen will talk about making an impact on the bottom line. They believe that star endorsements have several benefits, key among them being building credibility, fostering trust and drawing attention any or all of which can translate into higher brand sales. So how does one decide whether to put a celebrity in an ad? Ideally, this should be dictated by the communication idea. MG Parmeswaran, Executive Director of FCB Ulka says, As advertising professionals, we recommend celebrity endorsements when the case is justified. There are many cases where you need to use the celebrity to break out of a category clutter. At times celebrity endorsement is used to build credibility to the brand offer. Most experts concur that, when used judiciously, celebrity endorsements can be an effective strategy. According to Mohammed Khan, Chairman of Enterprise Nexus, Using a celebrity by itself is not a bad idea provided it is done intelligently. And there are many examples of good and bad use of celebrities. Take Amitabh Bachchan, who has been used by some companies like Parker Pens and ICICI Home Loans remarkably well while some others have been unable to exploit his Big B status too well. Shah Rukh Khans endorsement of Hyundai Santro too seems to have worked well. Parmeswaran adds, We used cricketers like Rahul Dravid for Castrol in an attempt to break out of the clutter, as well as have an image rub off of dependability on to the brand. Yet, there are some who dont have much conviction in star endorsements. Adrian Mendonza, Executive VP and Creative Director of Rediffusion DY&R does not recommend celebrity endorsements because he thinks that to be really successful, a brand needs to have a strong identity of its own. It should ideally not piggyback on the identity of a celebrity and hope to achieve success. Mendonza adds, I somehow get this feeling that not much

effort is put in to think through an ad with a celebrity. Most times it seems like it is just the celebrity saying I use this product, so why dont you kind of thing and the ad agency thinks it has done its job. Celebrity endorsements are capable of manifesting both favourable and adverse effects for the brands with which they associate. Lets analyse both. Mechanism and theories of celebrity endorsement Celebrity endorsements give a brand a touch of glamour and the hope that a famous face will provide added appeal and name recognition in a crowded market. In the battle for the mind, you get the customer excited by showing him a known face, and an effective demand is created. In short it helps increase the recall value of the brand. A piece of research states that the target audience age group of 15-30 gets influenced first by cricketers, then Bollywood stars and only then music, festivals and food4. According to Source Credibility Theory5, acceptance of the message depends on 'Expertness' and Trustworthiness' of the source. Expertness is defined as the perceived ability of the source to make valid assertions. Trustworthiness is defined as the perceived willingness of the source to make valid assertions. Audience acceptance increases with the expertness of the source and the ability of the audience to evaluate the product. According to Source Attractiveness Theory, which is based on social psychological research, the acceptance of the message depends on familiarity, likeability and similarity. Familiarity is the audience's knowledge of the source through exposure; likeability is the affection for the source's physical appearance and behavior while similarity is the resemblance between source and receiver. This theory explains the message acceptance in two ways: Identification and Conditioning. Identification is when the receiver or the target audience of the communication begins to identify with the source's attractiveness, and hence tends to accept his opinions, beliefs, habits, attitudes etc. On identification, a quote from Bijou Kurien, COO, Titan, "We decided on Aamir because we wanted someone who is a bit iconic, who is style-conscious himself, and somebody who cuts across both sex and age group, between urban and rural India. A celebrity who is mouldable and who is not over-exposed". Conditioning is when the attractiveness of the source is supposed to pass on to the brand after regular association of the source with the brand. Grant McCracken6 has criticized the previous two theories and proposed the

Meaning Transfer Theory. The theory explains that a celebrity encodes a unique set of meanings which if well used can be transferred to the endorsed product. Such a transfer takes place in three stages encoding meanings, meaning transfer, meaning capture (Figure 1). I. Encoding Meanings: Each celebrity has a unique set of meanings, which can be listed by age, gender, race, wealth, personality or lifestyle. In this way, the celebrities encode a set of meanings in their image. For example Preity Zinta can be seen as a lively, charming, bubbly, witty and enthusiastic. II. Meaning Transfer: This stage transfers those meanings to the product. When skillfully portrayed, celebrities can communicate this image more powerfully than lay endorsers. III. Meaning Capture: This assumes that consumers purchase products not merely for their functional value but also for their cultural and symbolic value. The theory says that consumers buy the endorsed product with the intention of capturing some of the desirable meanings with which celebrities have passed on to the product. This is more eminent in lifestyle products like clothes, perfumes, cell phones etc.

Celebrity endorsement can be key to marketing success

There's no denying the fact that marketing chiropractic can be challenging. The public has long been exposed to negative reports about it from the medical and drug industries, as well as from well-meaning but uninformed consumer advocates. They've heard chiropractic jokes on sit-coms and warnings on the nightly news. To market chiropractic in general and your practice in particular you must first overcome lingering fears, ignorance and skepticism that keep people from coming to your office. One of the most powerful ways to surmount these obstacles is to use a celebrity endorsement.

When you tell people that chiropractic can help them, they may or may not believe you. After all, you have a vested interest in selling your services. But when celebrities say that chiropractic has helped them, and it could help others, people tend to listen and believe. After all, most people assume "he wouldn't say it if it weren't true." As Marketing expert Patrick Bishop co-author of "Money Tree Marketing: Innovative Secrets That Will Double Your Small-Business Profits in 90 Days or Less" noted:

"When you get a celebrity to endorse your company or sign a licensing agreement, you benefit from customers' awareness of the property, [which] could include the perception of quality, educational value or a certain image." After researching the impact of celebrity endorsements, Melissa St. James, a doctoral fellow and marketing instructor at The George Washington University concluded, "Studies show that using celebrities can increase consumers' awareness of the ad, capture [their] attention and make ads more memorable" (quoted in "Celebrity Endorsements," by Kimiko L. Martinez, Entrepreneur's Start-Ups magazine, May 2001). If you're not convinced yet of the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements, here's what Jonathan Gaines, president and CEO of top marketing firm DMS Strategies has to say:

"High-profile endorsements from athletes and celebrities will set you apart from your competitors, and you can become a contender in the playing field a celebrity spokesperson can work for companies of all sizes." Obviously, celebrity endorsements work. In fact, they work so well that about 20% of all television commercials feature a celebrity. "Many companies have had considerable success using celebrities as spokespersons, especially athletes," stated researchers Amy Dyson and Douglas Turco, in "The State of Celebrity Endorsement in Sport," for the Cyber-Journal of Sport Marketing. They found that, in 1995, U.S. companies paid more than $1 billion to 2,000 athletes for endorsement deals, and that sport endorsers were featured in 11% of all television advertisements that same year. "Research has indicated that customers are more likely to choose goods and services endorsed by celebrities than those without such endorsements," they concluded. Their research shows that one of the advantages to celebrity-based marketing campaigns is that: "Famous people hold the viewer's attention. In this era of sound-bytes and channel surfing, there is a demand for people's time and focus. For instance, a commercial with the WNBA's Lisa Leslie or NHL's Wayne Gretzky is more likely to keep a television remote control clicker on the channel versus a commercial with a local doctor or dentist." Of course, any marketing material even with a powerful celebrity endorsement must be a combination of both education and sales. It has to convince people that chiropractic is a safe and effective health care approach and that it (and you) can help them in a very real and direct way. In short, it has to answer the question: "What can it do for ME?" That's why a celebrity video like the one produced by the World Chiropractic Alliance, featuring former boxing champion Paul "The Ultimate" Vaden, can be so effective! Here's a celebrity, boldly declaring "Without chiropractic, I would not have won the championship." Can you imagine the impact such a statement can make on a person who wants to be healthy, strong and fit? The video goes on to explain WHY chiropractic helped Paul, and how it can help everyone, including children.

The WCA video, called "Chiropractic Champion," builds on the Paul Vaden's strong endorsement by including testimonials from real chiropractic patients people who establish an instant rapport with viewers. Narrated by WCA President Terry A. Rondberg, D.C., the video details in clear, easy-to-understand language, the concept of subluxation and why people of all ages need regular adjustments to correct them. Using graphics, film clips and props, the video is an attention-grabbing presentation that will keep people watching. The World Chiropractic Alliance has helped doctors across the globe build large and successful practices, using the million-selling books "Chiropractic First," and "Chiropractic Works!" Now, with the addition of the "Chiropractic Champion" video, doctors have another effective tool to draw people into their offices and keep them coming for regular, life-time wellness care. The video is perfect for showing during workshops, classes and educational events in your community, as well as in your waiting room. Copies also make ideal "give-aways" since very few people will throw them out without viewing them. The videos are available from the WCA for just $4.00 each, plus $22.85 postage and handling in quantities of 50. When purchasing 100 or more tapes, the price drops to only $3.00 per tape, plus postage and handling. Fit with the Advertising Idea Marketers now seek to adopt 360 degree brand stewardship in which the brand sees no limits on the number of contact points possible with a target consumer. Advertising ideas, thus, revolve around this approach, and the celebrity endorsement decisions are made through these strategic motives. One of the most successful celebrity endorsement campaigns which reflect the fit between the brand and the 360 degree advertising fit is Fardeen Khan and Provogue. Provogue's positioning in the apparel market is of a young, active, party-going, attention-grabbing brand and so is Fardeen Khan. The conjunction between the two has been immensely impact and brand managers have utilized this endorsement through 360 degree reinforcement. Provogue Lounge and extensive phased insertions in print in selective publications reaching out to their target audience has made it as one of the highest recalled celebrity endorsement.

Similarly, Richard Gere's recent endorsement for VISA in India has gained acclaim due to its innovativeness and consumer connects. Brand marketers say that research reveals that Richard Gere was the most popular face across the Asia Pacific region, and would also fit into the persona of the brand meeting their communication objective to enhance VISA's brand leadership and consumer preference, and the motive to continue the "All it Takes" empowerment platform featuring international celebrities. Celebrity-Target Audience Match Smriti Irani endorsing the WHO recommended ORS Campaign in India. Indian mothers can associate with Smriti Irani through the facets she projects on screen or in regular life which helps develop a connect with the target audience since mothers medicate their children with ORS. The inserial placement of the campaign in "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" has won it an award from PR Week. Similarly, Irfan Pathan endorsing Hero Cycles has gained the brand immense recall and embarked through the positve association between the consumer and the brand. Celebrity Values Celebrity branding is all about the transfer of the value from the person to the product he endorses or stands for. There are two concerns here. The first is how long this could last. Can the person maintain his popularity (i.e., his performance or status ranking)? The lifecycle of celebrity popularity varies a lot. The second concern is his private life - personal integrity. If he is implicated in any kind of scandal, that would ruin the brand. "Who would want to use Michael Jackson to brand their product?" (brandchannel.com) Tabu endorsing Tetra Packed Milk, Shabana Azmi campaigning for AIDS Awareness, Amitabh Bachchan & Shahrukh Khan campaigning for Pulse Polio or Aishwarya Rai appearing in the Donate Eyes campaign are few examples, which reflect the transfer of celebrity values to the brand, creating an impact that generates recall.

Costs of Acquiring the Celebrity

Consequently, companies must have deep pockets to be able to afford the best available celebrities. Recently, a newspaper report showed how cola firms had gone beyond their Another interesting example would be of Steve Waugh campaigning for Tourism Australia in India since he was one of the popular celebrities from Australia and could carry the messge of Australia as a tourist destination. Other celebrities like Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman from Australia can be prospective endorsers for Brand Australia but not in the region of India. Celebrity-Product Match Cyrus Broacha is the brand ambassador for MTV since both the celebrity and the brand are considered as friendly, young, mood-boosting, humorous and outspoken. MTV's brand personality overlaps Cyrus Broacha's image as a brand. Some more examples of compatible celebrity product match in which celebrity brand attributes get transferred to the brand and increases the brand equity is of Mallaika Arora & Freshizza from Pizza Hut, Govinda & Navratan Tel, Sanjay Dutt & Elf Oil, Sunny Deol & Lux Undergarments, Aishwarya Rai & Nakshatra, etc. Celebrity Controversy Risk The perfect example here is of Salman Khan and the controversy in which he crushed a man to death with his Pajero when he was driving under the influence of alcohol. Also, any act on the part of the endorser that gives him a negative image among the audience and goes on to affect the brands endorsed. The brand, in most instances, takes a bashing. Celebrity Popularity Celebrity Brand association like Garnier endorsed Tara Sharma & Simone Singh, Agni Diamonds & Riama Sen don't get much brand recall, and even if they do, its difficult to attribute it to the celebrities' endorsing the brand. On the other hand, HPCL has had increased popularity and share of voice due to the endorsement of the brand through Sania Mirza Advertising budgets to get the best celebrities. Small firms that use celebrities' services run greater risks if they invest large amounts. Although nobody is willing to say exactly how much celebrities get paid, industry sources say Sachin Tendulkar's price is believed to be between Rs. 2.0-2.5 crore per endorsement, and musician A. R. Rehman, who had signed up with

AirTel, is believed to have picked up Rs. 1.75 crore. Film-star Hrithik Roshan was rumored to have picked up Rs. 2 crore for the Fly with Hrithik campaign to push Close-Up, and Shahrukh Khan's rate seems to be between Rs. 2.5-3.0 crore. Aishwarya Rai apparently picks up Rs. 1.25 crore for an endorsement and the Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly is believed to get between Rs. 90 lakh to Rs. 1.5 crore, while film-star Aamir Khan apparently makes Rs. 1.5 crore per endorsement. Celebrity Regional Appeal Factors R. Madhavan endorsing Pepsi in southern India or Sachin Tendulkar endorsing in India are few examples of how celebrities are chosen to reach out to target audiences for brands in regional markets. Celebrity Availability In case of various brands, there are situations in which they prefer to go without a brand face, since there is no brand-fit between the celebrities available and the brand. Also, due to multiple endorsements by certain celebrities, brands refuse to adopt celebrity endorsement since they fear dilution of the brand image. Celebrity Physical Attractiveness Bipasha Basu' physical attractiveness and her connect with the brand makes Levis Strauss's campaign through celebrity in India, John Abraham endorsing Wrangler and Timex Sunglasses are some examples which portray the celebrities' physical attractiveness that helps create an impact. Celebrity Credibility The most important aspect and reason for celebrity endorsement is credibility. In a research carried out among 43 ad agencies and companies, most experts believed that the most important dimensions of credibility are trustworthiness and prowess or expertise with regard to the recommended product or service (Miciak and Shanklin, 2002). One of the most obvious reasons of Amitabh Bachchan endorsing plethora of brands is the credibility of the celebrity and his recognition across consumers. To site one of the most successful campaigns in which the celebrity's credibility has had an indelible impact on the brand and has saved the brand is of Cadbury's. After the worm controversy, Amitabh Bachchan's credibility infused into the brand through the campaign, helping it to get back on track. The campaign has won an award for the same.

Multiple Endorsements The case of multiple endorsements, both in terms of a single brand hiring multiple celebrities and that of a single celebrity endorsing multiple brands, is often debated. At times, consumers do get confused about the brand endorsed when a single celebrity endorses numerous brands. The recall then gets reduced and reduces the popularity of the brand. Not many people can remember all the brands that a celebrity endorses and the chances of losing brand recall increases if the celebrity endorses multiple brands. For example, in case of Sachin Tendulkar people recall Pepsi, TVS Victor and MRF, but might not remember brands like Britannia and Fiat. Similarly, for Amitabh Bachchan, consumers remember ICICI, Pepsi, Parker Pens, Pulse Polio and BPL. They might get confused in the endorsement of Nerolac or Asian Paints. Thus, for multiple endorsements where the same celebrity endorses several brands, it boils down to the strength of the brand and the advertising content.

Whether Celebrity is a Brand User One of the strongest platforms to discuss this is through NGOs. Various celebrities endorse NGOs and social causes since they believe in the social message that they need to convey to the audience. One of the most successful campaigns has been executed by PETA in which celebrities like Shilpa Shetty, Amisha Patel, Yana Gupta, Sheetal Malhar, and Mahima Choudhary Claimed to believe in PETA's philosophy, and thereby endorse the brand. On the other hand, while some would understand that Amitabh Bachchan would have never used Navratan Tel, the target audience that the brands wants to reach out to will be ready to believe that he used the oil and his endorsement thereby creates an impact Difference between Brand Ambassador & Brand Face A Brand Ambassador would be one who is not only a spokesperson for the brand or is just appearing as a testimonial for the brand's benefits. He/she is an integral part of the brand persona and helps to build an emotional, which goes beyond just appearing on TV commercials. He takes up the cause of a Brand Champion and is associated with every aspect related with the brand. What is more, there is a

significant difference between making just an endorsement for say, a shampoo or an automobile, and being that brand's alter ego. Both parties take the latter far more seriously to the deal. So a brand ambassador would be involved in press releases, he/she would be actively participating in any sales promotion, sporting the Brand all the while. For example, Fardeen Khan is the brand ambassador for Provogue while he remains a brand face for Lux Body Wash. On the other hand, a Brand Face would be the current celebrity who is just used as a tool to increase brand recall and is only appearing in the advertisement. It is usually seen that a brand face is a temporary contract and is very short term at times. An example would be Sona Chandi Chawanpryash using Sourav Ganguly for a while in its commercials. Brand faces are easily forgotten and fades away with the campaign's end.

Impact Regions of Celebrity Endorsement While brand marketers with positive experiences would tend to believe that celebrity endorsements work and some would disagree, but one would be sure that the magnitude of its impact is difficult to measure even if sales figures are at our disposal. However, we can understand why it works and the impact regions of celebrity endorsement. The illustrations below explain the same: -

Source: Adopted from TOM et al, 1992.

How Celebrity Endorsements Influence the Consumer The basis for the effectiveness of celebrity-endorsed advertising can be linked to Kelman's processes of social influence as discussed by Friedman and Friedman. According to Kelman, there are three processes of social influence, which result in an individual adopting the attitude advocated by the communicator: Compliance, Identification & Internalization These latter two processes are particularly applicable to celebrity-endorsed advertising. Compliance infers that another individual or group of individuals influences an individual cause he or she hopes to achieve a favourable reaction from this other group. This process of social influence is not directly applicable to celebrity advertising because there is little, if any, interaction between the celebrity and the consumer. Identification applies to the situation wherein the individuals emulate the attitudes or behaviour of another person or group, simply because they aspire to be like that person or group. This process is the basis for referent power. It was found that celebrities are more commonly liked than a typical consumer spokesperson. Internalization as a process of social influence is said to occur when individuals adopt the attitude or behaviour of another person because that behaviour is viewed as honest and sincere and is congruent with their value system. The effectiveness of celebrity advertising traditionally has not been strongly linked to this process, as a celebrity's reason for promoting a product can just as easily be attributed by the consumer to an external motive (i.e., payment of fee) as to an internal motive (i.e., the celebrity's true belief in the value and benefit of the product). An important issue of concern relates to the development of a strategy for use in Celebrity Advertising, which benefits from the dramatic impact of dual support of both the identification and internalization processes of social influence. Celebrities are well-liked, but the techniques that can be used to enhance their credibility as spokespeople, and therefore, tie-in more closely with the internalization process needs to be looked into. Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsers A study conducted by Charles Atkin and Martin Block focused on alcohol advertising and young audience to examine the impact of celebrity

advertising in terms of social effects of advertising. The sponsoring Company is the underlying source of any advertising Message, but the individual models depicted in the advertising serve as the more visible communicator in many cases. The most thoroughly studied source quality is credibility. Research conducted by social psychologists over the past 30 years demonstrates that a source perceived as highly credible is more persuasive than a low credibility sender (Holland and Weiss, 1951; McGuire, 1969; Hass, 1981). The source that companies use to present their advertising message typically attempts to project a credible image in terms of competence, trustworthiness or dynamism. Celebrity endorsers are considered to be highly dynamic, with attractive and engaging personal qualities. Audience may also trust the advice given by some famous person, and in certain cases, celebrities may even be perceived as competent to discuss the product. Friedman, Termini and Washington cite a 1975 study showing that celebrities are featured in 155 of prime-time TV commercials. A later survey reported that this proportion was up to 20% (Advertising Age, 1978). The most widely used celebrities are sports figures, actors or other types of entertainers. There are several reasons why a famous endorser may be influential: They attract attention to the advertisement in the cluttered stream of messages They are perceived as being more entertaining They are seen as trustworthy because of apparent lack of self-interest. The final element is due to the wide-spread attribution that major stars do not really work for the endorsement fee, but are motivated by genuine affection for the product (Kamen et al, 1975). Despite the use of famous endorsers, there is little published evidence regarding effectiveness. In one experiment, an advertisement for a fictitious brand of Sangria wine featured an endorsement attributed to either a celebrity (actor - Al Pacino), a professional expert, the Company President, a typical consumer and no source (Friedman, Termini and Washington, 1977). College students read the ad and gave the ad 0-10 scales of believability, probable taste, and intent to purchase. Across these three measures, the celebrity condition produced the highest scores.

While the 'no-source' control group had a purchase intention rating of 2.7, the subjects exposed to the actor scored 3.9. Believability was rated 2.8 by control subjects versus 4.1 by those seeing the celebrity endorsement. For taste, the baselines of 4.0 compares to the celebrity group score of 5.6. None of the other three endorsers were as influential as the celebrated person. Selection of Celebrity

Celebrity endorsements are not new. One of the earliest examples is Coca Cola who used Lillian Nordica, a Metropolitan Opera Star as their first model or endorser. She became a household name all across USA known as the Coca Cola Girl. Soon people forgot her as an actress but remembered her as the Coca Cola girl. She did wonders for the brand and this led the company to release a series of these advertisements for over 30 years.

Role of advertising in creating Brand Personality Human beings have a personality, which is essentially a summation of traits. Brand personality can be defined in several ways, with emphasis on

emotion, human and tangible aspects of the brand. It can also be defined as sum of the tangible and intangible aspects of the brand. Even for industrial product like steel, SAIL uses emotional connect with 'punch line' there is bit of SAIL in everybody's life. Brand personality, is process of transforming the brand into a person or humanizing the brand. Thus brands can also have characteristics (Ex: Sex, Gender, skills & abilities etc). Marketers deliver the personality using advertising, features, packaging etc. Users and non users differ in perceptions with respect to Brand personality users attach a distinct personality to the brand. Established brands have unique personality which is generally consistent and may be implicit. Brand personality enables to establish relationship between brand & consumer with emotional content. The degree of proximity between brand and consumer personality, will influence the purchase intension and brand loyalty. Brands need to update personality to stay contemporary and relevant, as target audience personality may change over a period of time, due to changes in cultural, economic, media exposure etc. Brand personality should not be confused with target audience characteristics. Personality may be existing or aspirational. Projective techniques can be used to describe brands. Consumers can be asked to associate the brand, with adjectives (word association, sentence completion etc.) and also can be asked about user imagery. For example: Brands Moods Thumbs up Amul MTV India kings Woodlands Mahindra Scorpio Marlboro Ruff & Tuff Sona chandi Chavanprash Britania little hearts Brand Liril Lux Dove Bisleri : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Personality Sensitivity bravery / daring humors wacky Sophistication (upper class) Ruggedness & outdoorsy Ruggedness Ruggedness Bravery Bravery Love & Affection : Adjective freshness & Lime Beauty,softness Softness Safety

Bajaj Pulsar Yamaha Titan Cinthol Mysore Sandal Medimix

Power : Power : Style, elegance : Freshness : Traditional : Traditional

In all of the above brands, advertisement elements such as selection of the endorsers and execution etc., delivered the Brand personality. Using of Film stars for the Lux beauty soap is logical and the attractiveness of celebrity is high. This is critical and leads to credibility. Endorser personality gets transferred to the brand . Thumb up soft drink has distinct personality owing to chivalry based ads, which also communicates about user imagery. The name 'Marlboro' evokes Wild West imagery, thanks to ads and consistency of the marketers in maintaining the same brand personality. Ads for multi utility vehicles like Mahendra scorpio , shows the ruggedness personality. Nokia Powerful technology brand. 'Nokia' one the world's most valuable brand has distinct personality. The slogans.' We call this human technology', 'only Nokia human technology enables you to get more out of life' and 'connecting people' emphasize human side of technology, thereby resulting in brand personality of trusted friend. It also stands for reliability and quality. The ads also played prominent role in contributing to the distinct personality. The ads of Sprite cool drink primarily positioned on thirst quenching platform, depict the no nonsense type, down to earth personality of cool drink laced with humors & spoof, complimented by distinct shape and colour of the bottle. Endorser The selection of an endorser is critical, as the personality of the endorser can get transferred to the brand. Hathway shirts has acquired strong image owing to presence of sophisticated and mysterious endorser. Marlboro cowboy gave macho image to the brand. Endorser may be real or fictional. Using celebrities as brand endorser has advantages & disadvantages. Celebrity enjoys instant recognition & goodwill that can be transferred to the brand. Local celebrities can be used in local / Regional markets Ex. Pavan Kalyan for Pepsi in A.P. Celebrities can also be experts in some situations such as Michael Jordan expert in basketball shoes. The using of Film stars

for Lux beauty soap and highly successful sports persons for Nike is logical and shows brand fit. Sachin, Shahrukh Khan and Big 'B' endorse number of brands. Choosing the right celebrity & levering their qualities is important, otherwise celebrity endorsement may end up as futile exercise also involving wastage of money. Sachin stands for style, power play, technique and excellence or performance. Sharukh Khan represents energy & entertainment and style. They cut across all demographic groups and have mass appeal. For 'Boost' Health beverage brand fit with Sachin is excellent. Similarly, King Khan is also played role in the success of 'Santro small car' Rahul Dravid was brand endorser for Max New York life insurance, as he stands for trust, reliability, Which can be transferred to the brand. The same is the case with Steve Waugh endorsing ANP SANMAR Life insurance. 'Exide' has signed the new batting sensation MS Dhoni for his power play and talent. John Abraham is the latest upcoming star, is endorser for brands like Yamaha, Samsung etc., because of his rugged looks, good physique and youthfulness. Endorser stands for certain favorable values of the brand such as performance, style and reliability etc. Personality of the brand and celebrity should complement each other. Reliable celebrity ensures instant awareness, acceptability and positive attitude towards the brand, which is precursor to buying. Use of Cheeranjevi, Big' B' King Khan in publication ads, to salvage the brand image of brands (Thumbsup, Pepsi, CDM) after setbacks is excellent way to leverage on the celebrity credibility This will be providing much needed assurance to the consumers and also protect brand image & values. The element of creativity is critical while using celebrity endorsements. Otherwise celebrity may overpower, and overshadow the brand (vampiring effect). Boost advertisement featuring Sachin etc is a classic example of effective celebrity endorsement.

The Visa TV involving Hollywood star RichardGere, depicts the essence of Visa brand power (convenience, wide acceptance) through emotional appeal. This is excellent way of adapting the communication to local markets. Indian celebrity can connect foreign brand with the Indian consumer with great effect. S. Kumar's has Big ' B' is brand Ambassador for Reid & Taylor, as it will enable them to Indianise the brand personality.,Shahrukh Khan the Bollywood superstar is brand ambassador for Tag Heuer. The core values of the brand, pride, passion, precision and perfection closely matches with the personality. Singapore Girl for Singapore airlines also played key role in brand personality of Singapore airlines. Endorser - Attributes Amitabh Bacchan - resilent, professional, charismatic unassuming Sharukh Khan - Youth Icon. Stylish, successful Sachin - (Excellence, determination faith hard work) Rahul Dravid - Mr. Dependable ,( Reliable, composure Consistency) Virender Sehawag - Swashbuckling M.S. Dhoni - Sheer power play Rani Mukherji - Youthful, enthusiastic, User Imagery It describes who or what type of person, might use that product / brand. Somebody may identify himself as Mercedes owner or Volvo driver. The recent TVC of Raymonds,( playing with puppies) focuses on soft side of man (i.e. caring and loving) and also on subtle aspects of life styles of executives. Here the focus is on emotional aspects rather than on functional attributes). User imagery also communicates about the life style of the user. User imagery results in user-driven image which is transferred to the Brand. Brand personality needs to be updated with change in user imagery and information so that the brand remains contemporary and relevant. The Thumbsup, Marlboro, are classic examples for 'user imagery' contributing to brand personality & success. In fact, some of the brands have become cult brands in which brand personally played prominent role.

Kingfisher attained distinct personality as fun, frolic and lively supported by their ads and event sponsorships. Smirnoff attained youthful and innovative personality and all their innovative promotions are in tune with the brand personality. MTV has become coolest brand among the youth as channel, with sensible promotions (MTV youth icon award)and believed in talking to the audience/youth and localization of the content. Executional elements: The elements like layout, colour etc (in print ads) and visual appeal, music etc in broad cast advt. Also contribute to the Brand personality. Intelligent and creative ads deliver brand personality. IBM. Intel is excellent techno brands, in which advertising also played prominent role in their success. Mozart symphony played in Titan Ad. Complements the brand personality of Titan as sophistication, elegance etc. success of absolute Vodka in U.S.A. is also attributed to clever execution of the advt in which bottle image figures always in intelligent way, with Withy Puns. Tangible aspects of the Brand. Brand's tangible aspects like package and other elements like price are also key elements. Nirma's price & transparent package, Yellow colour of the detergent powder, symbolize 'Down to Earth' personality of Nirma. Smell package of Medimix and Mysore Sandal (including soap shape) gives distinct personality to them. Absolute Vodka, transparent liquid and shape of the bottle played key role in brand personality. Symbols & Logos Symbols can also be used effectively to communicate brand values and characteristics. Mascots may also be part of the logo of a brand. Eicher uses head of the horse in the past, representing power and sturdiness of the Tractor. Eicher now uses galloping horse after diversifying its operations. Goodlands Nerolac uses Guddy tiger, signifying bright lasting colors. Apple computers uses as it represent fun and friendliness. These symbols / mascots have become endearing and shombitSengupta designed wipro logo of rainbow colours. LIC used hands of logo where represents safety, UTI has 'Kalash' as it is considered sacred and signals good things. Royal stag brand uses 'Horse' symbolizing naturalness and purity.

ITC welcome group has W-Namaste as its logo, which captures the Indian tradition of welcoming the guests. Logos should be * Unique but easy to recoginize * Worth remembering and represent ideas etc. * Look simple and yet capture wider meaning. * relevant and in tune with the time. Nike represents action, Swoosh symbol represents it. Britania little hearts uses 'heart logo' symbolizing love and affection. Slogans / Punchlines They also reflect Brand personality. Peter England - Honest Shirt (sincerity) LIC - Try Thy name is LIC (Trust) L & T switch gear - Safe & Sure (Trust) Bajaj - Inspiring confidence (Competence) Videocon - The Indian Multinational (Competence) Vantlensen - Power Evolved (Sophistication- upper class) Bank of Rajasthan - Dare to Dream (Excitement) The New India Assurance Co. Ltd. - Assurance of the leader (Competence) Mahindra Scropio - Nothing else will do (Ruggedness) Bank of India - Bank that cares (empathy) Nike - Just do it (Motivation, excitement) Slogans enhance brand recall and have strong linkage with brand's essence / key values. Logos support brand names, provide ease in processing visual information lead to brand recall. Logo can be textual, abstract design and may be real. They convey a clear meaning or suggest something about product category / brand / values / features / benefits of the brand. Executional Elements:

Semantics of the ad and Big 'B' presence, played prominent role in delivering the Brand essence of Dabur Chyanvanprash highlighting the traditional and natural, effective way to strengthen mind & body. Brand personality plays prominent role in product categories such as alchohol, cigarettes, cool drinks, and perfumes. Brand personality may dominate functional attributes though which are equally important, thereby influencing consumer's preference. It also acts as differentiator in case of Brand parity with respect to brand features. The key differentiating factor between brands such as Coke , Pepsi, Thumpsup, Wiilsflake and India Kings is their distinct personality. Consumers have actual and ideal self concept, which has bearing on buying behavior. Self concept is sort of individual perception on his/her characteristics, abilities etc and also what others opinion on him/her is there. The proximity between self image and brand's image, will determine the attitude towards the brand. Consumers see brands and their associates, as means to express.. Marketers through ads try to activate self image / concept of consumer, which may be existing or aspirational through various elements such as Execution, celebrity, logos / symbols etc. Ads work on image congruence and try to influence consumer attitude and preference thus evaluations. The problem arises when brand self image is not in sync with that of consumer and vice-versa. The need arises to determine the brand personality (existing) and change it so as to match with that of consumer self image. For example, Brand which is considered as old, cannot be targeted to young target audience. In case of incongruence, Advertising needs to highlight functional aspects, and emphasize brand image in case of image congruence. Thus brand image may become dominant factor influencing buyer behaviour. It also helps to nullify the weaknesses of the brand contributing to poor perception.

Is celebrity advertising effective? As manufacturing companies invest cores of rupees, through advertising agencies, every year into campaigning their product taking services of celebrities, the question arises, Is it worth all the money invested and the headaches and problems of coordinating Celebrities, their

availability and Coordinating with many Celebrities if they are in number in an advertise and managing their Moods and Habits. Think of Sachin Tendulkar. He is in Pepsi for soft drinks, Boost in malted beverages, MRF for tyres, Fiat Palio for cars, TVS Victor for twowheelers, Colgate Total for toothpastes, Britannia for biscuits, Visa for credit cards and Airtel for mobile services. Clearly, IT IS an overload of brands and categories associated with one star. Human is suposed to have very few selective specialities. Multi Polar Personalities are very very few. Hence a single celebrity endorsing. So many products and categories? Is it Effective? Interestingly, use of "celebrity advertising" is adopted and carried by is big a, few big and reputed agencies in the field. They perceive celebrity advertising as a solution to clients problems. In the advertising world, celebrity advertising is perceived as a substitute for 'Absence of ides and felt that there is a compromise in quality etc- and actually frowned upon. But still it is perused by media. Urban and rural markets behave differently. In urban markets a celebrity is considered as a common man with some extra ordinary qualities. But in rural markets a celebrity is considered a god. He/She is worshipped. You will see their photos garlanded. They will build temples, create statues, imitate their styles; even commit suicides if their celebrity fails to perform or deliver desired results can kill somebody if their sentiments are hurt about their idols. Hence these factors create or destroy a brand. Hence, a celebrity is selected very carefully. Cricketers are selected based on their present form, how long they can survive in that competition etc. Hence may be replaced after few months or years. But some are very long lasting such as sachin Tendulkar. Celebritis like Kapil Dev is still endorsing products and are in eyes of public. Such celebrities definitely make impact on consumers mind. The reasons are: A client hits upon celebrity as a solution when his agency is unable to present to him a viable, exciting solution for his communication/marketing problem. He then feels that the presence of a well-known face is an easy way out. SOMETIMES A client looks at a USING celebrity AS solution, to follow competition. A Competitor deploys a celebrity, and in a quick response counters attack by using similarly powerful celebrity, to

combat competitions. The result is often achieves quick parity. EG. Coke and Pepsi reacting quickly to each others advertising gimmicks. A third reason could be, A Particular celebrity is a client's desire to rub shoulders with the "glitterati". And signing a celebrity is a passport to that. Most frequently, celebrities are given as 'fate accompli' to the agency. And scripts are written around them. For example Sahara India has top personalities from films and sports on the Board of Directors. It is rare that there is an idea on the table and client and agency mutually agree that the presence of a celebrity. There is no doubt that celebrity advertising has its benefits -- the four Qs: Quick saliency: It gets cut through because of the celebrity and their attention getting valueS. Goodlass Nerolac has ensured high saliency for its brand with the inclusion of Amitabh Bachchan in its advertising. Quick connect: There needs to be no insight but the communication connects because the star connects. Sachin, Shah Rukh and their ilk's ensure an easy connect for Pepsi with the youth. Quick shorthand for brand values: The right star can actually telegraph a brand message fast without elaborate story telling. Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar seem to have done that successfully for Boost in the early '90s. And helped to differentiate it in the malted beverages market. Quick means of brand differentiation: In a category where no brand is using a celebrity, the first that picks one up could use it to differentiate itself in the market. Boost did it in the malted beverage category. They become leaders and remembered for long. Striking first is an advantage.

Endorsement by celebrites couple After the marriage of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai lot of speculation has been raised that they would emerge as a formidable combination and as a value proposition they may become the costliest pair in

the market, as far as endorsement of a product is concerned. However, AB senior seems to have upstaged all the calculations by becoming the brand ambassador for DLF group of companies, for which he would reportedly be paid Rs. 50 crores. Is a marriage between stars, which are celebrity in their own right, making them a saleable proposition as a pair? Unlikely, if the past experience is to go buy. Kajol and Ajay Devgan had appeared together as brand ambassadors when the advertisements of Tata Indicom were released in the earlier avatar, but in the recent ad campaigns of Tata Indicom one finds that it is Kajol, who is doing the honors herself singly, and no Ajay Devgan is to be seen in the horizon. A Malaika Khan and Arbaaz Khan had together appeared for a coffee ad, but it was a short honeymoon and the ad had to be dropped out. When Catherine Zeta Jones had married Michael Douglas speculation of the similar kind had been made in the advertisement industry, that they would be a lethal combination, but nothing of the sort happened, and Catherine Zeta Jones continues to be the advertisement celebrity in her own right. Same kind of speculation was raised about Brad Pitt and Angelina Joile, but the pair as had been speculated reaped no windfall. The major dilemma that the companies face when they try to push through the pairs, for endorsement of a product, more so, when each in his individual capacity has been endorsing different product is that lack of compatibility about a product that can be jointly endorsed. The females are brand ambassadors for cosmetics, diamonds majorly, while the male are into toiletries, or into motor vehicles, watches and things like that. Then each one has an image based on which he is given a product to endorse. So if an Ash were to dance like Abhishek to endorse Motorola it could be shocker, than a qualitative value addition in sale of the product. Or for that matter how would a Dharmendra and Hema conjecturally appear together for an advertisement when whatever Dharmendra endorses has got an element of machismo associated with it, and it is very earthy, while the advertisements in which Hema Malini features, are very sophisticated and urban. Coupled with this, is also the fact that after the marriage, if it happens between superstars, the aura and the charisma that the star has starts loosing the sheen, as the romance of being able to relate with the actors, even in the realm of cyber space is now consigned to dust. Also, to project the image of a happy couple they can be utilized for endorsements which have got something to do with habitat related matters, and not to do much with consumable products. A field that could open up for Abhi-Ash is the

endorsement of cars. India is emerged as the one of the chosen areas by the international automobile majors, and it is here that they can have a wide acceptability as a happy pair. Copy of an advertisement product has a very singular nomenclature and existence, in the sense that the story revolves around a hero/ heroine and marriage between them Is a marriage between stars, which are celebrity in their own right, making them a saleable proposition as a pair? Unlikely, if the past experience is to go buy. Kajol and Ajay Devgan had appeared together as brand ambassadors when the advertisements of Tata Indicom were released in the earlier avatar, but in the recent ad campaigns of Tata Indicom one finds that it is Kajol, who is doing the honors herself singly, and no Ajay Devgan is to be seen in the horizon. A Malaika Khan and Arbaaz Khan had together appeared for a coffee ad, but it was a short honeymoon and the ad had to be dropped out. When Catherine Zeta Jones had married Michael Douglas speculation of the similar kind had been made in the advertisement industry, that they would be a lethal combination, but nothing of the sort happened, and Catherine Zeta Jones continues to be the advertisement celebrity in her own right. Same kind of speculation was raised about Brad Pitt and Angelina Joile, but the pair as had been speculated reaped no windfall. The major dilemma that the companies face when they try to push through the pairs, for endorsement of a product, more so, when each in his individual capacity has been endorsing different product is that lack of compatibility about a product that can be jointly endorsed. The females are brand ambassadors for cosmetics, diamonds majorly, while the male are into toiletries, or into motor vehicles, watches and things like that. Then each one has an image based on which he is given a product to endorse. So if an Ash were to dance like Abhishek to endorse Motorola it could be shocker, than a qualitative value addition in sale of the product. Or for that matter how would a Dharmendra and Hema conjecturally appear together for an advertisement when whatever Dharmendra endorses has got an element of machismo associated with it, and it is very earthy, while the advertisements in which Hema Malini features, are very sophisticated and urban. Coupled with this, is also the fact that after the marriage, if it happens between superstars, the aura and the charisma that the star has starts loosing

the sheen, as the romance of being able to relate with the actors, even in the realm of cyber space is now consigned to dust. Also, to project the image of a happy couple they can be utilized for endorsements which have got something to do with habitat related matters, and not to do much with consumable products. A field that could open up for Abhi-Ash is the endorsement of cars. India is emerged as the one of the chosen areas by the international automobile majors, and it is here that they can have a wide acceptability as a happy pair. Copy of an advertisement product has a very singular nomenclature and existence, in the sense that the story revolves around a hero/ heroine and marriage between them does not translate into marriage of opportunities for multitude of product endorsements. Scope of Celebriity Endorsement The use of testimonials by advertisers dates back to the 19th century when medicines were patented. Firms have been juxtaposing their brands and themselves with celebrity endorsers (e.g., athletes, actors) in the hope that celebrities may boost effectiveness of their marketing. The increasing number of endorsement throws a valid question to the consumer. Is there a science behind the choice of these endorses or is it just by the popularity measurement? What are the reasons which lead to impact of celebrity endorsement on brands? Through research and analysis, this paper develops a 14 points model, which can be used as a blue print criterion which can be used by brand manager for selecting celebrities, and capitalizes the celebrity resource through 360 degree brand communication, since our research proposes it as the foundation brick of the impact of celebrity endorsement. Our study reveals that impact of celebrity endorsement is proportional to the 14 factors discussed in the model The success of a brand through celebrity endorsement is a cumulative of the following 14 attributes. Greater the score of the below parameters , greater are the chances of getting close to the

desired impact

How Celebrity Endorsements Influence the Consumer The basis for the effectiveness of celebrity-endorsed advertising can be linked to Kelman's processes of social influence as discussed by Friedman and Friedman. According to Kelman, there are three processes of social influence, which result in an individual adopting the attitude advocated by the communicator: Compliance, Identification & Internalization These latter two processes are particularly applicable to celebrityendorsed advertising. Compliance infers that another individual or group of individuals influences an individual cause he or she hopes to achieve a favourable reaction from this other group. This process of social

influence is not directly applicable to celebrity advertising because there is little, if any, interaction between the celebrity and the consumer. Identification applies to the situation wherein the individuals emulate the attitudes or behaviour of another person or group, simply because they aspire to be like that person or group. This process is the basis for referent power. It was found that celebrities are more commonly liked than a typical consumer spokesperson. Internalization as a process of social influence is said to occur when individuals adopt the attitude or behaviour of another person because that behaviour is viewed as honest and sincere and is congruent with their value system. The effectiveness of celebrity advertising traditionally has not been strongly linked to this process, as a celebrity's reason for promoting a product can just as easily be attributed by the consumer to an external motive (i.e., payment of fee) as to an internal motive (i.e., the celebrity's true belief in the value and benefit of the product). An important issue of concern relates to the development of a strategy for use in Celebrity Advertising, which benefits from the dramatic impact of dual support of both the identification and internalization processes of social influence. Celebrities are well-liked, but the techniques that can be used to enhance their credibility as spokespeople, and therefore, tie-in more closely with the internalization process needs to be looked into.

Brand, Celebrities & Consumers

Figure 1: Factors Impacting a Brand while being viewed by a Consumer in Media

The model above shows the various factors that affect a celebrity endorsed brand while viewed by a consumer in the media (both TV and print). The central idea being the impact on brand. The three major parts to a brand being shown are: The Product Advertisement The celebrity endorsing it It is important is to study the relationship between these factors and how they together act for or against the brand. The product is important, of course, it may fulfill a need, want or a desire. Quality is quintessential and, hence, nowadays it is understood the product is of highest quality. So what next? The advertisement is important as a good product could see an early exit if the advertisement is handled badly, and otherwise, a mediocre product which is tastefully handled goes a long way. Lastly, the celebrity in the advertisement, recall, trust, familiarity are some of the reasons that they are used. Now consider the interactions of these individual factors. The best of superstars can be doing the advertisement but if the product is far from the image the star has, the whole advertisement is a waste. Imagine an Amitabh doing an advertisement for ad for youth apparel. Well, exceptions can be there but then again it depends on the way it is done. Believability is of vital importance, the TVS Victor advertisement shows us the bike being compared to the bat of Sachin and the strokes he plays. Classically executed advertisement with the bike and Sachin coming out as winners. The relationship between a product and its advertisement again can be either dependant or none. In that case, a shock value makes people remember the brand better and, hence, a possible long term loyalty.

Relationships Between a Celebrity & a Brand To understand how consumers associate celebrities to brands is well documented by a research study by Anderson (1976); Collins &

Loftus (1975); Rumelhart, Hinton & McClelland (1986). In their study, associative learning principles were based on a conception of memory as a network consisting of various nodes connected by associative links. In the research context, celebrities and brands both represent nodes, which initially are unconnected but become linked over time through the endorsement process. When a consumer thinks about a brand, the link with the celebrity node is animated to a certain level through spreading activation (Anderson 1983a). The joint activation of brand and celebrity provides a path over which one's evaluation of the celebrity has an opportunity to transfer to the brand. The key to the process is the simultaneous activation of the brand and celebrity nodes. Negative information about the celebrity activates the celebrity node, which then activates the brand node to some degree and allows reduced evaluation of the celebrity to transfer to the brand. Studies by Noffsinger et al. (1983) and Judd et al. (1991) provide empirical evidence demonstrating that attitudes can be affected in such a way. It is also important to view the consumer in their social and cultural setting to further see how celebrity endorsements increase sales and impact brands over time. Celebrities usually form a very good example of a reference group appeal. This is particularly beneficial to a marketer and a brand who can cash in on the success of the star and, hence, push his brand. People who idolize their celebrities, hence, have a biased affinity to the brand their favorites endorse. As time passes on, they believe that they by adopting the brand that their celebrity endorses are becoming more like them. Celebrities can be used in four ways namely: testimonial, endorsement, actor and spokesperson. Right now the current hot favorite in India is roping in celebrities for social causes like pulse polio, etc. This has shown to be having a positive effect on the people. In India, Bollywood and sport personalities rule the mind-space and airwaves.

Positive Impacts of Celebrity Endorsement on the Brand Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that brand among

the target audience. This is especially true in case of new product11. Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of advertisements and making the advertisement and the brand more noticeable. A celebrity's preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message and hence, because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, the consumer will also benefit. There is a demographic and psychographic connection between the stars and their fans. Demographic connection establishes that different stars appeal differently to various demographic segments i.e. age, gender, class, geography etc., while psychographic connection establishes that stars are loved and adored by their fans. Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to generate interest among the masses. Another invaluable benefit from celebrity endorsements is the public relation opportunities. Dwane Hal Dean12 studied the effects of three extrinsic advertisement cues viz. third party endorsement, event sponsorship and brand popularity on brand / manufacturer evaluation. It was observed that endorsement significantly affected only product variables (quality and uniqueness) and one image variable (esteem). The third party endorsement hence may be perceived as a signal of product quality. Goldsmith et al.13 assessed the impact of endorser and corporate credibility on attitude-toward-the-ad, attitude-toward-the-brand, and purchase intentions. 152 adult consumers were surveyed who viewed a fictitious advertisement for Mobil Oil Company. They rated the credibility of the ad's endorser, the credibility of the company, and attitude-toward-the-ad (Aad), attitude-toward-the-brand (AB), and purchase intentions. It was observed that endorser credibility had its strongest impact on Aad while corporate credibility had its strongest impact on AB. The findings suggest that corporate credibility plays an important role in consumers' reactions to advertisements and brands, independent of the equally important role of endorser credibility. Looking at the effect of celebrity endorsement on the wealth of a company a classic example of Michael Jordan can be used. At the time of rumors of Michael Jordan returning to NBA in 1995, he was endorsing products of General Mills (Wheaties), Mc'Donalds (Quarter Pounders, Value Meals), Nike (Air Jordan), Quaker Oats (Gatorade) and Sara Lee (Hans Underwear). Study conducted by Mathur et al.14 associated with Jordan's endorsements shows that the anticipation of Jordan's return to NBA, and the related increased visibility for him resulted in increase in the market adjusted values of his client firms of almost 2 percent, or more than $1 bn in stock market value. From this study one can observe that the major celebrity endorser

with rumors or otherwise has a tremendous potential to influence the profitability of endorsed products. Semi-partial endorsement indicates that when a company uses famous characters from any TV soaps for brand endorsements, consumers tend to relate to the character that he or she plays in the soap and hence can attract more credibility. For example, Smriti Irani who plays 'Tulsi' in a famous soap has garnered a lot of support from the middle-class housewife today. If she would endorse a brand, there would be more relativity and credibility. Same can be said about Priya Tendulkar who used to play the character of Rajani. Negative impacts of Celebrity Endorsement on the brand More often talked about is the extreme usage of a celebrity called 'lazy advertising', that is inadequate content masked by usage of a celebrity15 . A good example is the use of Boris Becker by Siyaram and Steve Waugh by ANP Sanmar. Also as said earlier, associating with a star, in itself does not guarantee sales. There is also the fear of Brand-celebrity disconnect which points out that if the celebrity used represents values that conflict with the brand values, the advertising would create conflict in the minds of the target audience. Clutter in brand endorsements is very prominent these days and such kind of over-exposure can be bad for the brand as the recall value drops by a huge margin. A popular drawback of celebrity endorsement is the 'Vampire Effect' or the celebrity overshadowing the brand16. Some viewers forget the brand that a celebrity is approving. Others are so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity that they completely fail to notice the brand being advertised. Two new drawbacks can be seen these days what marketers call Celebrity Trap and Celebrity Credibility17. Celebrity trap is when the celebrity becomes an addiction for the marketing team and the task to find substitutes becomes more and more difficult, leading to surfeit of celebrities. Celebrity credibility refers to skepticism by the consumers regarding the celebrities, especially when there is anything negative regarding the celebrity associated with the brand in the news, then brand is bound to be affected. For example, Air Jordan's generated revenue sales of $130 million in the first year. The sales dropped miserably in the second year when Jordan missed 62 games due to a broken foot18. Another main worry of the advertisers is that their celebrity endorser would get caught in a scandal or an embarrassing situation. Multiple product endorsement also has a negative impact on customers'

purchasing intentions. Tripp et al.19 investigated the effects of multiple product endorsement by celebrities on customers' attitudes and intentions. They found that the number of products a celebrity endorses negatively influences consumer perception of the endorser and the advertising itself. It was suggested that when as many as four products are endorsed, celebrity credibility and likeability, as well as attitude towards the ad, may attenuate. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan endorses multiple brands like Pepsi, Mirinda, ICICI, BPL, Parker pens, Nerolac, Dabur, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Hajmola, Tide, Cadbury and a few social messages. It has worked in some cases, while in some cases it has not. D. K. Jain, Chairman and President, Luxor Writing Instruments Pvt. Ltd, the marketer of the Parker brand said, "Using Amitabh Bachchan as our brand ambassador has helped in strengthening our brand image and recall within the target audience". Tarun Joshi, Communications Custodian, Reid & Taylor said, "Amitabh Bachchan is an icon with universal appeal and has helped us to reach out to the real 'Bharat.' In fact, agents and retailers have told us that already customers have started asking about the 'Amitabh wali suiting.'" Incase of Nerolac Paints, which was endorsed by Amitabh Bachchan, around 80% of the respondents when asked to associate Bachchan with any paint, did so with Asian Paints, which is the biggest competitor of Nerolac20. The budget or cost is an important factor for celebrity endorsement21. Depending on the status of the celebrity, remuneration could run into millions of rupees for several years or may also include a profit sharing plan. For example when S. Kumar's used Hrithik Roshan for their launch advertising for Tamarind, they reckoned they spent 40 - 50 per cent less on media due to the sheer impact of using Hrithik. Sachin's endorsements got him $18 million over five years. When Aamir first endorsed Pepsi in 1995, he received Rs 17 lakh for it; his Coke commercials in 1999 got him Rs 2 crore. Hrithik Roshan in his highflying days reportedly made over Rs. 20 crore in endorsements and events by 200122.

Nine uses of Celebrity Endorsements Establishes Credibility:

Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that brand among the target audience- this is especially true in case of new products. The role of a celebrity endorser in an advertising campaign is, without doubt, linked to the reputation of the celebrity. If the reputation is damaged, more often than not for reasons other than professional ,then the quality of his reputation dos suffer:particulary if it is to do with his (or her) public behavior. Example: Dyna ad by Katrina Kaif Attracts Attention: Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of advertisements and making the ad and the brand more noticeable. Example: Shahrukh khan in pespi, Hrithik Roshan in Sony Erricson Associative Benefit: A celebritys preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, the consumer will also benefit. Example: Amitabh Bachchan in Dabur Chwyanprash. Psychographic Connect: Stars are loved and adored by their fans and advertisers use stars to capitalize on these feelings to sway the fans towards their brand. Example: Dhoni in 7up Demographic Connect: Different stars appeal differently to various demographic segments (age, gender, class, geography etc.). Example: Amitabh Bachchan with child in Dadur Honey, Sunny Deol in Lux cozi ad. Mass Appeal: Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to generate interest among the masses. Example: Sharukh khan And Amitabh Bachchan in Polio Promotion Mitigating a tarnished image:

Cadbury India wanted to restore the consumers confidence in its chocolate brands following the pitch following the high-pitch worms controversy;so the company appointed Amitabh Bachchan for the job. Last year, when the even more controversial pesticide issues shook up Coca-cola and PepsiCo and resulted in much negative press, both soft drinks majors put out high profile damage control ad films featuring their best and most expensive celebrities. While Amair Khan led the coke fight back as an ingenious and fastidious Bengali who finally gets convinced of the products purity.Similary PepsiCo brought Shah Rukh Khan And Sachin Tendulkar toghter once again in a television commercial which drew references to the safety of the product indirectly. Rejuvenating a stagnant brand: With the objective of infusing fresh life into the stagnant Chyawnprash category and staving off the competition from various brand , Dabur India roped in Bachchan for an estimated project of 8 crore. The FRED Principle This concept is seen as the foundation of a successful endorser selection. F is for Familiarity. The target market must be aware of the person, and perceive him or her as empathetic, credible, sincere and trustworthy. R is for Relevance. There should be a meaningful link between the advertised brand and the celebrity endorser, and more important, between the celebrity endorser and the defined target market. The audience must be able to identify with the person. If consumers can immediately associate with an endorser, they will feel more predisposed to accepting, buying and preferring the brand to competition. E is for Esteem. Consumers must have the utmost respect and confidence for the celebrity. Amitabh Bachhan & Tendulkar have these. So do Shahrukh

Khan, Preity Zinta, Kapil Dev among others. The public respect them because of their distinguished careers and unassailable salesmanship. D is for Differentiation. The target consumers must see the endorser as a cut above the rest. If there is no perceived disparity among celebrities, then the strategy will not work. Michael Jordan is an example of an international celebrity that rises above the clutter. This proves to be a huge contributory factor to his effectiveness as an endorser. The Fred concept is not a guarantee to success, but it can serve as a guideline when selecting a spokesperson. Each organization and its objectives are different, and should be evaluated on an individual basis.

When it doesnt work In the last decade or so, there has been a spurt in the use of celebrity endorsements. And with it, there has been an increase in the number of instances of brands failing to take off in spite of the biggest and brightest stars endorsing it and consequently leading to speculation about the soundness of celebrity endorsements as a communication strategy. Many celebrity endorsements fail because they identify a celebrity they like in an emotive and un-researched manner, and then try to create advertising to force-fit the celebrity into the creative concept. Often, the finished advertising is at best contrived, and often, simply laughable. In the end, the

brand suffers from a mismatched concept and celebrity, and millions of dollars are flushed away There are several reasons why celebrity endorsements fail to produce the desired effect, and each of them has to more to do with the core communication strategy and less with the celebritys pull. Celebrities cannot really be blamed if their endorsements fail to push up the brand sales. Indeed, for it is important to recognize that celebrities can create interest - whether that interest converts into sales depends on various factors such as brand-celebrity disconnect, improper positioning, clutter of celebrities, or even product life-cycle. As advertisers pour crores of rupees every year into celebrity advertising, the question arises is it worth all the money and the headaches of coordinating stars and managing their tantrums. Think of Sachin Tendulkar. He means Pepsi in soft drinks, Boost in malted beverages, MRF in tyres, Fiat Palio in cars, TVS Victor in two-wheelers, Colgate Total in toothpastes, Britannia in biscuits, Visa in credit cards, Airtel in mobile services and Band-aid. Clearly, an overload of brands and categories associated with one star. (Business Standard, 2003.)

Causes of letdown Improper positioning :

Associating with a star, however big he or she may be, in it does not guarantee sales. The most it can do is generate interest about that product or create a buzz around it. Take the case of Maruti Versa, which was launched amidst a lot of fanfare about three years ago. In spite of Maruti signing up superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan as brand ambassadors for Versa, the brands sales remained sluggish. To be fair, the Big B magic did work and the ads created significant interest, drawing people into the showroom. But perhaps the positioning itself was faulty as people were expecting a larger than life car, just like the brands ambassador. Last year , versa being re-positioned as the joy of traveling together Versa has started doing well and has witnessed an upswing since the new positioning.
Brand-celebrity disconnect:

If the celebrity used represents values that conflict with the brand values and positioning, the advertising will create a conflict in the minds of the target audience who may reject the proposition. For instance Toyota, one of worlds leading auto manufacturing companies. Toyota chose teeny-pop singer Britney Spears for its brand Soluna Vios a family sedan, which is preferred by married men and women with children. A youth icon like Britney wouldve been better used by Toyota for a sleek sports vehicle and for Soluna Vios; Toyota should choose someone like a mature man, Harrison Ford for example. Clutter Flutter: In recent times, there has been such a deluge of celebrity endorsements that it has led to the very clutter that it aimed to break. For instance, Amitabh Bachchan endorses or has endorsed Pepsi, ICICI, BPL, Parker pens, Nerolac, Dabur, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Cadbury and a few social messages too. Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan endorses Omega, Tag Heuer, Pepsi, Hyundai, Clinic All Clear and Airtel among other brands has to his credit more television commercials than feature films since 1992. This overexposure can be bad for the brand. Consequently, each celebrity is called upon to push maybe a dozen brands or so. Which is great for the celebrity but it is pretty daft for the brand because the impact of the celebrity reduces as the number of brands he endorses increases Unfortunately in India, we have too many brands chasing too few celebrities. And the recall value drops by a huge margin when you move from an A Class celebrity to a B Class
Dissatisfaction with product quality/performance:

You cannot sell an ordinary product just by making a celebrity endorse it. In fact, if anything, the product will fail faster because the presence of the celebrity will create a buzz and increase interest about that Product and on usage more people will know about the ordinariness of the product. Unfortunately using a celebrity seems to be the easy way out of a parity product situation. Sachin Tendulkars endorsement of Fiat Palio was quite a success initially. But as word about the poor fuel efficiency of Palio spread, its sales took a beating. In this case, Sachins presence couldve worked wonders but for the poor performance of the car in a market that is highly performance conscious. Confusion/ Scepticism

The use of celebrities can be confusing. Some viewers forget brand that a celebrity is approving. Others are so spellbound by the personality of the celebrity that they completely fail to notice the product/brand being advertised. The brand is overshadowed in the overwhelming presence of the star. In some cases, a celebrity can give rise to scepticism because it might be a bit too much for the masses to believe that the celebrities who are rich and can afford the best in the world are actually using a mass product being advertised on television. On the contrary, people might speculate about such things as how much did the brand pay to rope him/ her in as the brand ambassador? Celebrities endorsing one brand and using another (competitor): Sainsburys encountered a problem with Catheina Zeta Jones, whom the company used for it receipe advertisement, when she was caught shopping in Tesco. A similar case happened with Britney Spears who endorsed one cola brand and was repeatedly caught drinking another brand of cola on tape. Inconsistency in the professional popularity of the celebrity: The celebrity may lose his or her popularity due to some lapse in professional performances. For example, when Tendulkar went through a prolonged lean patch recently, the inevitable question that cropped up in corporate circles-is he actually worth it. Multi brand endorsement by the same celebrity would lead to overexposure: The novelty of a celebrity endorsement gets diluted if he does too many advertisements. This may be termed as commoditization of celebrities, who are willing to endorse its logo emblazoned on his bat. But now Tendulkar endorses a Boost brand and the novelty of the TendulkarSunfeast Campaign has scaled down. Risks associated with Celebrity Endorsements Fame is a fickle and fleeting companion and can ditch the famous at the slightest provocation. Celebrities, being human, make mistakes. But their mistakes get as much attention as their celebrity status and this can adversely

affect the brands that they are endorsing. There are a number of examples, both Indian and International, where scandals and scams involving celebrity endorsers have caused embarrassment to the brands they endorse. Companies have to make quick decisions when one of their endorsers comes under fire or their own image could be tarnished. Guilty by association in a consumers eyes describes it best. If a brand continues with the celebrity, it may adversely affect the image of the brand and consequently, brand sales. If the brand chooses to distance itself with the tainted celebrity, the huge costs spent on roping in the celebrity and making of the ads may go down the drain and even then the association of the brand with the celebrity might by then be so ingrained that the damage is already done. Endorsement: India Inc prefers film stars over cricketers NEW DELHI: Gone are the days when cricketers dominated the advertising scene. The power balance between sports and the silver screen for celebrity endorsements has shifted almost entirely to Bollywood, a fact revealed when ET scanned through five-year data collated by media tracking firm TAM AdEx. Surprisingly, this is despite the huge success of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Here are the hard facts: The number of brands endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar has dropped from 10 to 6 over a period of five years, Rahul Davids endorsements have slipped from 12 to 5 and Sourav Ganguly barely has a couple to his credit, down from 9 in 2003. The only exceptions are MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, who have grown their endorsements year-on-year. The promising younger lot, which was much talked-about during the IPL debut season, hasnt found any significant takers either. Shah Rukh Khans endorsements have gone up from 6 to 18 in the same period, Hrithik Roshans have increased from 1 to 11 and Saif Ali Khans deals have doubled from 4 in 2003 to 8 now. Even Big B Amitabh Bachchan, who has gone down the power list in the last two years, has managed 10 endorsements, which is higher than all the cricketers except Dhoni, who has 15 existing deals and is still counting. Other Bollywood stars like Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt,

Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham have between 3 and 7 deals in their pockets. PepsiCo has signed up the maximum number of movie stars this year. The list includes Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. Whats more, the company has dropped Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid from its list. PepsiCo marketing executive director Punita Lal said: Pepsi will continue to leverage cricket as a platform; but its a fact that Bollywood is ahead of cricket in terms of endorsements. Rival Coca-Cola, a heavy advertiser during IPL, chose Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar for its summer campaigns and gave cricketers a miss. Max New York Life, another major advertiser during IPL, chose to end its contract with Dravid even though he was captaining the Bangalore Royal Challengers team. In such a scenario, it is not surprising that talent management firm Globosport has shifted focus to Bollywood from cricket. CEO Anirban Das said, With the exception of Dhoni, its the movie stars that connect with the audiences better across genres. Other lower-rung players like Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have all but disappeared from the endorsement circuit, while Anil Kumble hasnt made any impact. Sehwag and Zaheer, in fact, had as many as 13 and 7 brand associations respectively few years ago. Among women, while tennis sensation Sania Mirza is left with just a lone advertiser, Kareena Kapoors deals have gone up from 2 to 5, while the number of brands Katrina Kaif, Kajol, Priyanka Chopra and Bipasha Basu endorse has risen from almost nil to about six-seven each. Even new Bollywood entrants like Deepika Padukone and Vidya Balan are endorsing 3-4 brands each and more are expected. Whats more, even senior actors like Hema Malini and Juhi Chawla have multiple deals to talk about. And its not just Bollywood; even TV stars are a hit when it comes to endorsements. Some of them have between two-six deals each, much more than the cricketers. Recently, Dabur signed Smriti Irani aka Tulsi of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to endorse its Dazzl cleaner brand. Dabur senior general manager Girish Kumar said, She is a well-respected star and symbolizes the true family woman, a wife and a mother while managing a successful career. This fits well with the Dazzl brand and we are

confident it will help us reach out to our target audience, the modern Indian woman. Now thats Abinav Bindra Bindra now seen commanding Rs 20 mn per endorsement Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, August 11, 2008 After winning India's first individual gold at the Olympics, Abhinav Bindra can charge at least Rs 20 million ($500,000) per endorsement - an amount commanded by top Indian cricketers, says the sports management firm that handles his affairs. "I don't see any reason why Bindra shouldn't make at least a couple of cores (tens of millions of rupees) now," said Latika Khaneja, director of Collage Sports Management, the firm representing the shooting ace. "He is young, good looking and has a photogenic face. All of these factors count for signing up decent contracts," said another advertising professional who has been dealing with celebrity endorsements. One crore in India equals 10 million. If Khaneja's calculations - as shared with IANS - prove right, Bindra will now be as valuable as top Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar or Mahendra Singh Dhoni. "We backed him at Athens. We have backed him now. It's a dream come true for him and us," said Ruchika Batra, corporate communication general manager for Samsung India, which is sponsoring the Indian contingent to the Beijing Olympics. Indian sports celebrities seldom disclose contract amounts, but market reports say Tendulkar - the world's most expensive cricketer - commands around Rs 30 million per endorsement. Dhoni's deals are believed to fetch between Rs 10 million and Rs 20 million. Collage, which signed up the 24-year-old Bindra in 2004, also represents other sportspersons like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma - all members of the Indian cricket team, who reportedly ask for around Rs 3 million. As per Khaneja's calculations, endorsement counts commanded by these stars will then be cheaper than India's latest Olympic hero if endorsements

begin to come his way. The Delhi-based sports marketing firm had also represented shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who won silver at the Athens Games. Between 2005 and 2006, he got the endorsement deals with the Sahara group, Hero Honda and Coca Cola. Khaneja declined to dwell on possible campaigns around Bindra, saying it all depended on how much of a public figure the shooter wanted to be, or how his affluent family wanted to project him. "I had expected endorsements to come his way after he won the World Championship gold medal (in 2006 in Zagreb, Croatia). But that didn't happen," Khaneja said. "Shooting has never been on the national radar. But this is a huge feat - this is about an Olympic medal." Samsung India, which has also awarded scholarships for seven athletes at Beijing Olympics, including Bindra, will publish an advertisement Tuesday congratulating the shooter in various newspapers Tuesday. "But that is a minor issue," said Batra. Samsung does not have a brand ambassador as yet, apart from actor Aamir Khan who has been used for certain mobile phone campaigns. Batra, nevertheless, said her company did not want to comment if Bindra could fit that role. "We will continue to be associated with Bindra," is all that she would want to say now.

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT IN POLITICS:

As far the option of having .film stars for endorsement in politics

is concerned it may not be a bad idea for the parties as due to that they are able together large crowd. And why so? It is because of the aura of the film stars. Yet, it is difficult to say whether it is going to get them votes or not celebrity endorsements influence our day to day life from buying a chocolate to electing an Mp.

 Giving a ticket to a party worker is fair enough than to give a ticket to some celebrity. Because the celebrity has not necessarily done work for the society, except entertaining them. When we give a vote to some party, its not the candidate we are voting for. We vote for the celebrity. We are inspired by the character portrayed by the celebrity and not by an individual. So next time you vote, vote in the name of party and its work and in name of any celebrity.
It is stupid of the film stars to do such a thing, as being dishonest

to the voter, by suddenly coming out of nowhere and being a part of the campaigning process. Also I think that the present voter also laughs at them saying they think we are fools
Just another gimmick of the political parties to have something

new to offer to the voter. But instead of that I think they should do something more worthwhile, like talking to the voters personally.
Having film stars for endorsement in politics will definitely fetch

the political parties crowd and votes both. Because people love the character played by an individual and fall in love with the same. Deepika chikalaya (sita) has contested elections last time. People neither voted for a specific political party nor did they vote for deepika Chikalaya, but they elected SITA. Thinking that she might solve their problems. But how many promises were kept in front of our eyes. So if any celebrity wishes to join a party they must realize their duty towards society. As public brings them to power with lots of hopes
Its all about positioning the candidate .its upto the party as to

how its portraying its candidates.SWOT, analysis has o be made and they have to identify the strength of the candidates. Not only that, part must be prepared to counter-attack the opposition if it tries to attack on the weakness of the candidate yet another lousy to lure the voters! But doesnt work with the townies! But are they trying to impress us anyways?No
The major hunk of votes pour in for these peeps from the rural and

SEC-C people who still have some hopes from politicians!

And as far as the educated masses are concerned, do they really

care to vote??? So lure- the-poor are the mantra. And what comes close to doing this is the filmstars! Pheeeew! A part of political

drama! Probably, the school of advertising inspires them: Need 2 impress masses go the entertainment way!!
Film stars have the capacity to pull crowd, no doubts. Buts the IQ

level of the voters has increased gradually over the years. They vote for a person who as and will do some good for them shahrukh khan can attract crowds but a credible politician (hard to find nowadays) make them vote.
Everyone needs a new way of advertising for themselves...

Endorsements will work... May be not for metros but for the cites, towns, villages, my only concern is that these celebrities care a shit about the party they are endorsing. And choosing a government is a serious issue for the country so the bottom line is that I find it cheap that some celebrities are actually endorsing the political parties... Dont play with the countries dudes!! This is in reference to keyurs take on Mc Alisters message I guess in the final analysis We get what we deservedont blame the celebrities or politicians for doing things that will benefit them (remember that we live in a world in which self interest is given priority) the blame lies with the educated elite who have not yet realized that it is in their self interest to reduce mass of the poor and illiterate in a democry.
Celebrities are tax paying citizens and have as much right as

anyone to express their opinion. We obviously want to know everything about them since we buy people Mag. And the like . Why is knowing about their politics different than knowing about their relationship? You cant buy has it both ways?
Yes, we get what we deserve. We deserve jokers so we are getting

them. As some one said in the opinion that intellectuals only talk, and dont even bother to vote, the C class people go to vote, and as a result we get their choice as our rulers. So we are responsible for the chaos.
At the end of General Election2004, we can see it has worked for

individual star candidates. But for the party, it hasnt helped, like BJP had focused on hunting for stars. Finally for stars. Finally it resulted into dilution of political domain for BJP. In any case, no one can afford to ignore the base, the Indian public.

 Come elections and our politicians can go o any extend to assure

for themselves, a seat for the next 5 yrs. The latest of the bait used to lure voters are celebrties.Celebrities, who will come over+ to your hose and dance for a party in return in return to a hefty sum, surely wouldnt immaterial to them. All that matters is the dough that they get at the end of the day! Hardly a handful of the celebrities are actually into social work, and work for the party. The rest usually even trend to forget the party they are in and sometimes embarrass the party by criticizing a member other same party, as was the case of Ms Irani attacking Naendra Modi over the Gujarat communal riots. This shows the sheer ignorance on their part. TWENTY 20 WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS-2007 The victory of the Men in Blue against Pakistan in the ICC World Twenty20 championships is expected to see a doubling in the market value of young stars like Sreeesanth, Rohit Sharma, Guttam Gambhir, R P Singh Robin Uthappa, and Dinesh Karthik. Consider Guttam Gambhir, who played a Key innings in the final .before that, he has had problems getting endorsements of even Rs 10 lakh. He had brief contracts with Reebok and Dadur and Pepsi which were not renewed. Now, the cricketer is easily expected to command a price tag of over Rs 20 Lakh per brand. Players like Rohit Sharma or Dinesh Karthik who could never command more than Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh can now hope to hit Rs 30 Lakh for new deals. Bowler Sreesanths endorsement tag has shot up from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 40 Lakh after his performance in the twenty=20 tournament. Given the team performance the demand for these players has risen among advertisers. Consequently, the endorsement rates will increase and so will the number of advertiser approaching a player said khaneja, director, collage Sports Management, which manages both Virender Sehwag and Guttam gambhir.

Other youngsters like youngsters like Yuvraj Singh and M S Dhoni are also expected to see their brand value soar. Sources said Indian Oil Corporation is in talks to rope I 26- year old vice captain Yuvraj Sigh who currently endorses around 10 brands. Earlier, Singh commanded a price tag of Rs price with potential new companies. We are likely to increase his endorsement fees after his performance, confirmed Vinita Bangard, COO of Percept talent Management, which handles Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth. Of course, captain M S Dhoni who steered India victory has become a hot favourite among advertisers, confirmed Jeet Banerjee, MD, gameplan Sports, which manages Dhoni, robin Uthappa and Munaf Patel. Dhoni who charges Rs 1 crore for an endorsement is now commanding a price of Rs 1.75 Crore (Rs 15.5 million). Indian cricketers usually fall under three categories for endorsement. At the top are Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid who command over Rs 3 crore per brand. They are followed by Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh who charge around Rs 1 crore per brand. The new cricketers along with Irfan Pathan fall in the third category and earned close to Rs 25 lakh per brand. Latesh trends in celebrity endorsement Of the nearly 5,000 advertisements that aired last year, 108-sported cricketers and 259 featured filmstars. With so much of celebrity-led advertising, the question begging to be asked was, which stars are earning the most? In the last year of her teens, Sania's net worth through endorsements is a whopping Rs 6.4 crore. The ideal role model for the youth, she was a good catch for brands like Tata Tea and Sahara who signed her on, when her asking rate was only Rs 30 lakhs. With Sania inching up in the WTA rankings, she could soon overtake Saurav Ganguly who is not in the Indian cricket team now.

Sania Mirza is the only pretty woman in sports who's got endorsements This is what an impromptu vox pop has to say - Neha told CNBC-TV18, "Ganguly is useless, he is out of the team now, so he should be out of the ads also. Anand on the other hand, feels, "Ganguly should come back as the captain and continue with the ads." The first Khan on this celebrity list is Saif Ali Khan at No 8. With six brands already, he is close to signing two more. The ever dependable Dravid who can be depended on to do anything but act, has managed to more than double his endorsements over the last one year. Women are obviously hard to come by in this power list, but Aishwarya Rai makes an entry with seven brands. Highest earning celebs models 1. Amitabh Bachchan 2. Sachin Tendulkar 3. Narain Karthikeyan 4. Shahrukh Khan 5. Aamir Khan 6. Aishwarya Rai 7. Rahul Dravid 8. Saif Ali Khan 9. Saurav Ganguly 10 Sania Mirza

Aishwarya Rai in the Longines ad Vice President, Percept D'Mark-CMS, Vinita Bangard explains, "If there is a man endorsing it, a woman will still pick it up but if there is a woman endorsing it, chances are that a man may think it's a female shoe and therefore they might not want to pick it up."

NCD & Executive Chairman, O&M, Piyush Pandey adds, "I think that it's somebody's misplaced idea of celebrities. If you have to sell to a woman, you don't have to show a woman, if you have to sell a man, you don't have to show a man. You must have an idea, celebs (for ads) are not decided on the basis of gender." Picky about his films and picky about the brands he chooses to endorse, Aamir Khan has made it to number 5 with only three brands. Shah Rukh

Khan, who bought his first house from what he earned off his endorsements, comes next. Narain Karthikeyan zips into the third spot as a surprise entry. This is because, brands like Tata Motors and Speed paid top dollar to associate with the Formula 1 driver in the last season. As his contract with Worldtel comes up for review, Sachin Tendulkar is at No 3. And the top spot goes to the man who's health had got the nation worried, Amitabh Bachchan Cases Films and sports, thanks to their appeal cutting across age and income barriers, are without surprise the two most actively tapped sources for marketers in their pursuit of celebrities. Globally and in India, several celebrities have had glorious associations with brands. The section has six cases three personalities each from the international and Indian context. While four are from the sporting arena (David Beckham, Shane Warne, Ludmila Engquist and Kapil Dev), two (Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan) owe their popular appeal to their acting careers. The cases capture their persona and the brands with which they got associated. David Beckham, the first case, chronicles the growth of the personal brand and endorsement deals of Englands football player. With his good looks, immense talent and carefully cultivated image, he evolved into a lifestyle icon. His personal brand was estimated to be worth 200 million in 2003. Among the major brands, which he endorsed are Pepsi, Adidas, Castrol, Brylcream, Vodafone and Marks & Spencer. His popularity in Japan got him several promotional contracts there. Going beyond the traditional promotional tools, he was innovative and allowed Vodafone to use his voice in their voicemail. He was also involved in the design of garments subbranded on his name by Marks & Spencer. The next case is on Shane Warne, the Australian cricketer. Deregulation and permitting of Direct to Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of nicotine replacement therapy triggered Pharmacia Upjohns roping in Shane Warne to promote its Nicotte brand of gums and patches. As part of the deal, he announced his resolution to quit smoking on the eve of a New Year and appeared in advertisements. An announcement was made that if he succeeded in quitting smoking in four months he would collect a fee, part of

which would be donated to a cancer charity institute. The deal created huge media interest and generated wide coverage. Nicottes sales rose dramatically within three months. However, days short of the four month period, Warne was caught smoking. The case highlights how heightened awareness levels are possible when celebrities are associated with health issues. Ludmila Engquist, the next case, brings forth the risks involved for a brand when a celebrity endorsing it is involved in unethical practices. A Russian athlete, Ludmila married a Swede and became a popular figure in Sweden. Representing that country, after a surgery, she won several medals. Axa, a Swedish marketer of oats-based snacks and breakfast products, signed her up for its endorsements. Her revelation later that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs put Axa in trouble. Besides stopping the endorsements, it had to withdraw its cereal boxes from the market that featured her on the packs. From then on, the company added moral clauses to its celebrity endorsement deals. The case on Kapil Dev, is the next article. Sourced from Business Line, the case examines the multi-dimensional facets of the popular Indian cricketer. He endorsed a multitude of brands in a career spanning over a decade-and-a-half and continues to promote products long after his retirement. The more famous brands endorsed by him include Thums Up, Palmolive, Rapidex, Timex, Kinetic Boss and SET Max. He enjoys a son-ofthe-soil image, and has a reputation of simplicity and integrity. Perspectives of different marketers, who used him as their brand ambassador, are provided. Amitabh Bachchan, the case on Indias acting superstar profiles him and his role as a celebrity endorser. As against a single endorsement in his first three decades of acting career, he ended up signing up more than a dozen deals in a short period of four years. This was triggered by the popularity of a television programme anchored by him, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). Though he was quite popular even before KBC, the game show added several notches to his fame and catapulted him to the top league of Indian celebrity endorsers. Across a wide range of product categories, marketers leveraged his persona. The case highlights his magnetic appeal to advertisers, and their reflections on his contributions to the brands he endorsed. The last case, Shah Rukh Khan, captures the marketers perspectives on leveraging the immense popularity of the actor through endorsements. Over a nine-year period, the successful actor endorsed as many as 15 brands and

acted in 45 commercials. His consistent performance at the box-office and his ability to straddle both classes and masses are cited as the reasons for his popularity among advertisers. The risk of overexposure is also touched upon.