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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
Critically Evaluate the Effect of Celebrity Endorsement on Brand Affinity
Celebrity endorsement appears to be an effective marketing communication tool
for today’s marketers. Generally, the tool is not a new phenomenon as it has appeared
in advertising message execution since the late nineteenth century in the utilization of
Queen Victoria in Cadbury’s Cocoa (Shennan, 1985 cited in Erdogan, 1999, p.292), yet
it still seems to be a powerful tool in this intense commercial era. Celebrity endorsement
is the use of celebrity as a spokesperson which could incur large investment for the firm
in exchange of transferring endorsers’ qualities- credibility and attractiveness- to the
brand that would result in generating desirable outcomes. The consequences refer to
the influence on consumers brand choices, thus creating consumers’ attentions, and
purchase intentions to the brand (Erdogan, 1999, p.291). Although celebrity
endorsement has been controversial as a double-edged sword because of the
inconsistent images of celebrities, it could incrementally provoke consumers’ affections
for the brand with celebrities’ qualities.
To begin with, this essay discusses the positive effects of celebrity endorsement
on brand affinity in terms of reassuring consumers of the product qualities and
differentiating a brand from its competitors, using Nike-Golf and Canon case studies.
Then, the essay discusses hazardous effects towards brand affinity when using
celebrity endorsement with reference to the Tiger Woods’ infidelity and David Beckham
multiple images case studies. These effects include celebrities’ images changing and
loss of public recognition, and public controversy. Finally, there is a discussion and an
emphasis on the celebrity endorsement’s rewards that lead to the higher level of brand
affinity.
In this essay, the term celebrity is defined as ‘people who enjoy public
recognition and who often have distinctive attributes such as attractiveness and
trustworthiness’ (McCracken, 1989; Silvera and Austad, 2004 cited in Kumar, 2010,
p.5). As Schlecht (2003, p.3) states ‘…Celebrities generally differ from the social norm
and enjoy a high degree of public awareness’. There could be eight classical forms of
celebrity which include actors (e.g. Pierce Brosnan, Angelina Jolie Pritt), models (e.g.
Naomi Campbell, Gisele Buendchen), sports athletes (e.g. Tiger Woods, Maria
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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
Sharapova, David Beckham), entertainers (e.g. Oprah Winfrey), singers (e.g. Lady
Gaga, Britney Spears, Jenifer Lopez, Black Eyed Peas), businesspeople (e.g. Donald
Trump, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs), politicians (e.g. Barak Obama), and high-society people
(e.g. Prince William, Victoria Beckham) (Schlecht, 2003, p.3-4).
Commonly, the brands have the distinct images and personalities that attract the
consumers. The intense favorable emotional connection between consumers and the
brands is taken to mean ‘brand affinity’ in this essay. The brand affinity is not usually
logical, but it is powerful. It encourages consumers to view a brand as the
representative of a personal aspect of their persona (DeGabrielle, 2011). To illustrate,
ACNielsen (2006) states that Armani is a brand that stands for well-understood
attributes as high quality, sophistication and style – timeless values with global appeal.
Consumers tend to buy Armani because they would like to be part of that shared
identity. DeGabrielle (2011) suggests that ‘…[Consumers] perceive the brand as
representing their values – or believe being associated with these brands makes them
more “cool”…’. For Armani, the utilization of David and Victoria Beckham- who are
suggested to have a glamorous lifestyle- in Emporio Armani underwear could be an
example of endorsing the brand stylish and sophisticated images affect consumers by
celebrities. It has been believed that celebrity endorsement could be a marketing
communication tool that helps strengthen brand affinity to the brands. The meaning
movement from celebrities’ qualities towards the endorsed products could be illustrated
in figure1.
Source: www.clothingbrands24.com
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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
Figure 1: Meaning Movement and Endorsement Process (Source: McCracken,
1989 cited in Kumar, 2010, p. 25)
The first positive effect of celebrity endorsement on brand affinity is that
celebrities could reassure product quality in consumers’ minds. Consumers are usually
reluctant to believe in quality of product unless they have consumed it. For this reason,
seeing celebrity reputation attached to the brands could mitigate some uncertainty and
make it easier for the product to become the consumers’ brand choice (Elberse, 2009).
For example, before 1996, although Nike appeared to be well-respected as a successful
brand in mainstream sports apparel especially in footwear, it was generally considered
to be less likely to be successful in entering the golf category because it had limited
experience in an elite category. However, Nike decided to utilize its area of expertise to
build the equity in golf arena by collaborating with the athlete stars similar to the
successful platform made with Michael Jordan. Nike associated with world rising golf
star at that time- Tiger Woods who appeared to be the symbol of fast success and
endurance-and became an emerging successful brand in golf apparels, equipments,
and accessories without actual proved qualities. The statistic in COMPUSTAT (cited in
Farrell, et al., 2000, p.2) explains that after Nike signed a five-year contract worth
approximately forty to sixty million dollars with Tiger Woods in 1996, the returns seemed
to be instantaneous and lucrative. The golf apparel and footwear sales of Nike was
double the contract fee to approximately one-hundred twenty million dollars on the fiscal
year ended on May 31, 1997. Furthermore, the sales of the entire company in the
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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
following quarter rose by fifty-five percent as a result of Tiger Woods’ endorsement
(Farrell, et al., 2000, p.2). Nike has appeared to be an admirable brand in sports
apparel- ranked number one for the industry (Fortune on CNN Money, 2011).
Source: www.theblemish.com
Another reward of celebrity endorsement on brand affinity is the perceived brand
differentiation by consumers. In this twenty-first century, there are thousands of brands
worldwide. Consumers seem to be more selective and would prefer the brands with the
outstanding images that help express their styles. For that reason, celebrity
endorsement could convey distinctive attributes that differentiates the brand from its
competitors. For instance, as Elberse (2009) explains that ‘Canon's reason for turning to
Maria Sharapova was her reputation as someone who plays aggressively but with
precision, and who has a sense of style - exactly the kinds of attributes it hoped to
emphasize in marketing its line of PowerShot cameras’. The clear images of Sharapova
lead to the distinct images of Canon to consumers. Consumers preempt those attributes
and feel proud to use Canon PowerShot cameras as they see the difference of stylish
Canon to static Nikon or the unclear image of Panasonic. Therefore, Canon appears to
have higher number of referrals among consumers and is on the top rank for compact
digital camera category, despite their actual qualities.
Source: www.letsgodigital.org Source: www.coloribus.com
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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
Despite the fact that celebrity endorsement leads to stronger brand affinity, it
conveys the potential hazard to consumers’ affection for brand as the celebrities’
images could change and lose public recognition. The lapse in professional
performances may lead to lose in celebrities’ popularity. The preventive tactics for
marketers are to study celebrities’ personal and professional life cycles and research on
their possibilities to maintain or positively transfer the brand images. Take David
Beckham as an example, since his movement from Manchester United to Real Madrid,
AC Milan, and LA Galaxy, he has gradually declined in his top form as the professional
football player. He could lose public recognition if he merely maintains a sole image
because he is not anymore a representative of the successful athlete with high
performance. However, David Beckham appears to convey multiple images such as
Posh’s husband, fashion icon, father of four children, and football player, therefore, his
life expectancy as brand endorser could be favorably extended (Vincent, et al., 2009,
p.177). Consumers still appear to be attracted to Beckham’s endorsed brand as Adidas
and Armani.
Another potential damage to brand affinity results from celebrities’ public
controversies. Rumors, and scandals caused by celebrities’ behaviors could be sources
of negative brand images, thus they may ruin consumers’ affections for the brand. As
Chung, et al. (2011, p.4) states that ‘To name a few, Nike: Kobe Bryant when charged
with rape, Pepsi: Mike Tyson when charged with beating his wife, Hertz: OJ Simpson
and his first degree murder charge, Prince tennis racket: Jennifer Capriati when
charged with marijuana possession, [and Nike: Tiger Woods’ infidelity in November
2009.]’. One study shows evidence that the negative publicity hitting a celebrity who
endorses the brand leads to the decline in company’s stock price (Louie, Kulik, and
Johnson, 2001 cited in Alsmadi, 2006, p.73). For example, Knittel and Stango (2009
cited in Chung, et al., 2011, p.8) who study the negative impact of Tiger Woods’
infidelity scandal states that ‘…By looking at the stock prices of the firms that Tiger
Woods endorses, they estimate that, after the event in November 2009, shareholders of
Tiger Woods’ sponsors lost $5-12 billion relative to those firms that Woods did not
endorse.’ However, it is important to address that the negative effects are more likely to
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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
affect the brand in the short-term than damaging entire consumers’ brand choices.
According to the Harris Poll (2010), ‘Three-quarters of Americans (74%) say when a
celebrity endorser gets involved in a scandal, it doesn’t impact the way they feel about
the brand or brands they endorse.’ There is also an evidence to support that sales of
Nike product were negative up to March before becoming positive in April 2010 since
his public scandal revealed in November 2009 (Chung, et al., 2011, p.24).
In conclusion, celebrity endorsement could strengthen the consumers’ affections
for brands as it helps reassure product quality and well-portrayed distinct brand images
to consumers. This is because the credibility and attractiveness embedded in celebrities
are easy to access and approachable. Although there are potential hazard effects due
to celebrities’ images changing and public controversies, they can be prevented and
merely lead to the short-term affect on branding. All in all, celebrities’ roles as the
endorsers in the commercials could create favorable emotional connection between the
consumers and the brands. However, further cognitive research on the relationship
between brand affinity and celebrity endorsement is worth undertaking, as it could
examine the true value of celebrity endorsement programs given to the brands and
companies’ investments.
Reference list:
ACNielsen (2006) ‘Giorgio Armani and Gucci – the “world’s most coveted” fashion
brands’ Breaking News.
Alsmadi, S. (2006) ‘The Power of Celebrity Endorsement in Brand Choice Behaviour :
An Empirical Study of Consumer Attitudes in Jordan’ Journal of Accounting-Business &
Management, 13, 69-84.
Chung K., Derdenger T., and Srinivasan K. (2011) ‘Economic Value of Celebrity
Endorsement: Tiger Woods’ Impact on Sales of Nike Golf Balls’.
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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
Clothingbrand24 (2010) Rafael Nadal in Giorgio Armani underwear campaign [Online].
Available from: http://clothingbrands24.com/brands/rafael-nadal-giorgio-armani.html
[Accessed: 5 September 2011]
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Elberse A. (2009) ‘Risks and rewards of celebrity endorsements’ CNN.com. Available
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Erdogan, B. (1999) ‘Celebrity Endorsement: A Literature Review’ Journal of Marketing
Management 15,291-314.
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Arada Jirakarnjanakorn (Noon)Class: KingWord count: 1557
Harris Poll (2010) ‘Celebrity Scandals Have Low Brand Impact’. Available from:
http://www.marketingcharts.com/topics/behavioral-marketing/celebrity-scandals-have-
low-brand-impact-12920/ [Accessed: 5 September 2011]
Kumar A. (2010) ‘Celebrity Endorsements and Its Impact on Consumer Buying
Behaviour’ : The Executive Business School, Bournemouth University.
Letsgodigital (2007) Maria Sharapova in Canon PowerShot commercial [Online].
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September 2011]
Schlecht C. (2003) ‘Celebrities’ Impact on Branding’: Center on Global Brand
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Theblemish (2010) Nike Accepts Tiger Woods’ Apology [Online]. Available from:
http://theblemish.com/2010/02/nike-accepts-tiger-woods-apology/ [Accessed: 7
September 2011]
Vincent J., Hill J., and Lee J. (2009) ‘The Multiple Brand Personalities of David
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