Celebrity Endorsements Of High Involvement Brands Evoke Cognitive Evaluations That Can Erode Brand Equity And Affect Celebrity Credibility

"Celebrity endorsements of high involvement brands evoke cognitive evaluations that can erode brand equity and affect celebrity credibility"

Abstract:

Celebrity endorsement is one of the most commonly used channels of brand communication which a celebrity acts as the brand's spokesperson and endorses the brand's claim and position by extending his/her personality, popularity, stature in the society or expertise in the field related to the brand that he/she is associated with. Celebrity endorsements have long been seen as one of the most preferred tools to build a firm's brand equity by advertisers. This strategy has largely been successful. In fact every possible brand that enjoys high equity amongst its target populace has used celebrities at least once to endorse their products or services. However, when it comes to studying the effects of celebrity endorsement, very little work has been done to understand whether celebrity endorsements can lead to brand erosion, especially in high involvement products/services. This work primarily focuses on this issue.

The overall picture that emerges reveals a positive relationship between celebrity endorsements and brand equity built through positive brand associations of the brand and the celebrity. This study furthers research in this domain by focusing primarily on the celebrity endorsement - brand equity relationship as applicable to high involvement product brands. The study explores the dynamics of brand equity within the purview of consumer attitudes as dictated by cognitive / rational evaluations of products. This research paper is limited to the study of a very well known Indian celebrity, Amitabh Bachchan, who enjoys high Q scores (a measure of popularity) and his association with a high involvement brand and consumer reactions to this association in terms of its effects on the value of the brand. The paper also explores 'reverse effects' in terms of the association and its effects on the Q score of the celebrity. The study Suggests the possibility of both brand equity erosion through celebrity associations together with the decline of Q scores of the celebrity.

This research thereby seeks to explore the possibility that brand endorsements can lead to brand erosion. It can also lead to the erosion of credibility that a celebrity enjoys within a public domain thus adversely affecting chances of endorsements in the future.

Introduction:

In today's competitive environment, it's not just enough to have a product of good quality, it is important that the product is better than your competitor's product and above everything else comes a relation; a relation between the company and its customers. Building such a relationship is a challenge faced by most modern day marketers.

Over the years, marketers have explored various avenues to build a lasting relationship with its customers. One of the most successful ideas to come across has been to "build a brand". A brand, as Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, leading authorities on marketing, define is, "A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from the competitors".

A former board member of Coco Cola once famously talked about the value of a brand. He said if every asset they owned, every building, and every piece of equipment were destroyed in a terrible natural disaster, they would be able to borrow all the money to replace it very quickly because the value of their brand. He rightly said, than the totality of all the assets they owned, more valuable than anything else is the brand.

Building a brand is an exercise that needs to be meticulously planned and executed with precision. Marketers have over the years used various modes to execute this and one of the most favored media has been advertising. Advertising has enabled marketers to create a brand identity and in many cases they have been successful. Examples for this include well known brands such as Coco Cola, Pepsi among others.

But in recent years, the increasing clutter of advertisements has meant that just having an advertisement is not enough. A differentiating factor is needed in these advertisements too and one of the methods used by many big brands is celebrity endorsements. Celebrity endorsements, if effectively executed, can do wonders for a product or service. For starters, it can effectively differentiate itself from other advertisements.

But to understand the essence of celebrity endorsements, we need to know who a celebrity is. A dictionary definition suggests that a celebrity is someone of renown, distinction or eminence. The area of distinction could span across various fields such as sports, cinema, fine arts, music, education and many more such fields. More often than not these celebrities are role models for many aspiring youngsters. According to Friedman and Friedman, a "celebrity endorser is an individual who is known by the public for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed".

A celebrity usually enjoys a high degree of visibility, and when this visibility is combined with the power associated with a brand, it can create a lasting impression in the minds of a consumer. Celebrity endorsements can ensure a high degree of attention, recall and above all loyalty from consumers.

Although, it must be taken into consideration that celebrity endorsements can even mar the image of a brand or vice versa. There have been many instances where in negative publicity received by a celebrity has affected the fortunes of a brand that he is strongly associated with, an example in this case would be Salman Khan who was associated strongly with Thums Up, a popular soft drink brand. The company faced loss in sales when Salman was indicted in a few criminal cases and eventually he lost the endorsement deal with the company.

The former part of this relation between a celebrity and a brand (falling popularity of a celebrity affecting the fortunes of a brand) has been explored to great depths. As Prathiba Abrol and Riya Sharma (2006) have written in their paper have cited how negative publicity and criticism faced by celebrities evoke the need for companies to rethink their strategy on using that celebrity as an endorser for its products. They talk about how companies decide to drop a celebrity as it defeats