Who is a better brand endorser - a sportstar or a movie star?
Sachin Tendulkar-the moment this name crosses the mind, one imagines a squeaky-voiced, short man, dressed in the official blues with a bat in his hand, ready to hit the ball beyond the boundary.
Think Big B- For some he might appear as the lanky doc of 'Anand', for somebody else, he could be the angry, young cop of 'Zanjeer' or the schizophrenic banker of 'Aankhein'. He could assume the role of any character ha has played before in his movies.
In the Indian ad world, there is huge clutter and it is further dominated by the Sachin Clutter and the Amitabh clutter. Questions are raised whether the endorsed brand derives the advantage of celebrity association, when the celebrity ends up endorsing a host of brands. But then each brand has its own persona. For instance, some are 'youthful' like Coco Cola, some are 'funny' like Miranda, some brands are 'tough' like MRF, while some brands can be 'elite' like Parker.
If a celebrity can portray all these different facets of brands, he can certainly endorse various brands. In this context, a movie star can certainly fit in different roles better than a sportstar. But then a line needs to be drawn about what brands to be endorsed by a movie star. It is a well known fact that the metrosexual man has arrived but Big B endorsing Himani cosmetics is still not acceptable. Ditto about his Nerolac paints endorsement.
It would be better if sportstars stick to products that are related to their respective sports like Nike, Lotto, Cosco, Speed, and certainly not Sona Chandi Chyawanprash.
1 comment:
Categorizing celeberities the way brands or products are categorized is little naive. I believe, the associations depend on the theme of an ad campaign. In the himani ad, AB was a pandit, in a wedding ceremony(quite acceptable), giving advice to the people about usefulness of himani cream in differrent instances. Besides the theme, the success of an ad having celeberity in it, largely, depends on the mass appeal the celebrity has at the time the audience is exposed to the ad: Sachin endorsing an ad and is batting poorly will have a profound ill effect on the ad, doesn't matter what product it is, and the effect is otherwise if he is scoring well.. again, doesn't matter what product it is.
If advertisement is all about positively influencing the target audience, then, these celeberities are (perhaps) doing it: whether or not brand personality matches with them. All said and done, please let me know if there is any sure way of measuring the celeberity influence on audience.
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