Celebrities rarely carry out negotiations themselves. Marketers use the acronym FRED to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of potential marketing campaigns. The same tools are used to evaluate celebrity spokesmen. Here is how it works. Celebrity marketing requires special skills that make these professionals unique in the field of advertising. First, and foremost, anyone working with celebrities must be able to set aside the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. An endorsement deal is a business deal and it is important that advertisers remain objective even when dealing with dazzling celebrities.
Celebrity marketing also requires a savvy analysis of the media landscape. Trends in media, current celebrity gossip and upcoming blockbuster films are all things that a successful advertiser has to track. Finally, marketers who work with celebrity spokesmen have to be exceptional with people and able to deal with the egos of some of the most famous people on earth. Celebrities are famous because of their outsized personalities, but these can strain a business relationship.
Keeping both the celebrity and the advertiser happy is crucial for a successful partnership. GCU's Colangelo College of Business offers leading edge degrees that address the demands of contemporary business environments.
Celebrity marketing is a unique mixture of business and creative skill. An ad campaign must grab the attention of customers and accomplish the goals of advertisers. The balance between entertainment and salesmanship is a difficult one to pull off.
That is why there are as many failed ad campaigns as successful ones. The best way to get an introduction into the world of celebrity marketing and all the skills necessary to be successful is to get a degree in marketing. At the undergraduate level, this will be broadly focused and will encompass the principles of marketing across all mediums and industries.
Students will get a wide range of education that includes the history, ethics and strategies of marketing. See also Ethical Marketing. At the graduate level, degrees in marketing become more focused. Students can choose to specialize in the areas that interest them most or that will be most relevant to their career goals. This might include performing market research, advanced production techniques, international marketing strategies or consumer psychology. Advanced education is usually necessary to get higher level celebrity marketing jobs.
Education is crucial to breaking into the marketing industry. A degree in marketing proves to employers that you have the skills, experience and drive necessary to work on successful ad campaigns. Because the contestants are aspiring celebrities and unknown to the public up to that point, being associated with a celebrity with an established image can improve their assessment. Similarly, a new product launched on the market with the endorsement of a celebrity with credibility in the area can also improve its reception.
Thus, it is expected that: H1. The evaluation of aspiring new celebrities will be more positive when a well-known celebrity endorses them.
The purpose of Study 1 is to analyze whether the effect of celebrity endorsement also occurs in the evaluation of an aspiring new celebrity, as it does with tangible products. The stimuli were defined by the researchers. To give greater validity to the study, all studies were conducted during season two of the program The Voice Brazil, in which candidates compete for the preference of the public while seeking successful careers in the music industry.
They are divided into teams led by established singers who act as coaches. Thus, in this program, candidates seeking to become new celebrities are valued by the public potential consumers of their music and are endorsed by the celebrity that chooses them to compete for their teams. An online questionnaire was used, and the link was distributed on an online panel provided and maintained by a national research institute.
In all studies of this research project, the first section of the instrument presented stimuli for manipulation. Respondents evaluated the candidate using a Likert scale ranging from 1 Completely Disagree to 7 Strongly Agree points. Demographic data from the respondents were collected. First, participants had to answer questions about their involvement with the program, and people who did not watch, or did not know the participant, were excluded from the study.
All spectators assessed the participant through a series of questions. The study was conducted with viewers of the show, with an average age of The results show that the effect of celebrity endorsement can also occur in a context where the evaluated object is a person aspiring to be a future celebrity.
Despite the generally positive aspects of endorsement on the evaluation of general products, as has been verified in other studies Choi and Rifon, ; Silva et al. These contrasting results demonstrate the complexity of celebrity endorsement, and reinforce the relevance of verifying this effect in a context of an acclaimed celebrity and an aspiring new celebrity.
According to the results, the celebrity endorsement influences not only the assessment of the candidate in the program but also the intention to consume future work music and television shows by this candidate. This is another indication of the effectiveness of this type of endorsement.
According to Knoll and Matthes , the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement has been discussed in recent years in terms of positive and negative effects, and the influence of this effect is subject to several moderating variables, such as congruence, charisma Silva et al. Another dimension of the endorsement effect is the influence that the brand has on this phenomenon. A brand aims, among other factors, to differentiate the product from other offerings and to add value, contributing to achieving competitive advantage Keller and Lehmann, ; Aaker, Strong brands grant greater awareness, consciousness and consumer loyalty Rust et al.
In addition, for consumers, product quality is not necessarily related to the technical characteristics of the product, but to an intangible assessment of the brand in question, thereby turning the brand into a key element in the process of purchase decisions Hoeffler and Keller, People can also be considered brands Aaker, Their assets, as in the case of product brands, can be built through recognition and remembrance, positive associations, perceived quality in the relationship and loyalty level generated by the relationship.
Brands can also reflect human dimensions of personality, based on the evaluation of consumers Aaker, If brands can have human characteristics, it can be inferred that people can be brands and that these dimensions would be prominent. Consumers generally perceive and react to stimuli generated by people just as they do in relation to brands. This phenomenon is triggered by automaticity and by the level of evaluation for that particular object — in this case, people and brands Alba and Hutchinson, For celebrities, this phenomenon is further evidenced by the fact that they are role models for society in general McCracken, Prominent celebrities in their professional areas do not only lend their names to endorse products and services; their own production can be understood as endorsed by their names.
Also, they may create new products and extend their product lines Kowalczyk and Royne, ; Luo et al. The development and exponential growth of new media, combined with the diversification and growth of new media programming formats, has allowed the emergence of new celebrities Keel and Nataraajan, Series on free and subscription TV channels; comedy and music programs on YouTube; and reality shows based on simulations of real-life events such as musical and sporting competitions, have captivated audiences, making room for actors, musicians, athletes and participants in these reality shows to be considered aspiring celebrities, thus achieving certain social recognition.
Recognized brands are considered superior and better evaluated than unrecognized brands or more poorly evaluated brands, with or without the use of celebrity endorsement Silva et al. According to the authors, a well-evaluated, recognizable brand does not need celebrity endorsement because the effect of such endorsement would not add significant value to brands perceived as strong by consumers.
In a reality show, candidates are aspiring celebrities and are also building their images and their brands Keel and Nataraajan, , some with more ownership and competence than others.
Given that the image of the celebrity endorser influences the product — and a negative image can negatively influence the evaluation of the product Louie et al.
A weak candidate worst evaluated brand endorsed by a celebrity with a positive image will be better evaluated than a weak candidate endorsed by celebrity with a negative image. The evaluation of a strong candidate best evaluated brand does not depend on the image of the celebrity endorser. The purpose of Study 2 is to analyze whether the effect of the brand on celebrity endorsement also occurs in the evaluation of an aspiring new celebrity, and whether the influence of the celebrity image has an effect.
The stimuli were defined by the researchers, and Sam Alves was chosen as the contender Strong Brand , for being one of the most popular candidates and most downloaded on the official website of the program. Gabby Moura was chosen as the poor candidate Weak Brand because she is less popular and has a significantly lower number of downloads on the official website of the program. Claudia Leitte, who was the technical advisor of both candidates, was used as the celebrity endorser.
The instrument was similar to that used in Study 1. The final sample of Study 2 was individuals. As in Study 1, spectators first answered questions about their involvement with the program, and people who did not watch or did not know the participants were excluded from the study.
Participants then assessed the candidate using a series of questions. To check celebrity influence on candidates, the participants of this study also evaluated the celebrity. Study 2 was conducted with viewers with an average age of Regarding the assessment of the celebrity, respondents were divided by the median to form the two groups well evaluated celebrity vs poorly evaluated celebrity.
We found 80 respondents with a positive assessment well evaluated celebrity and 72 with negative assessment poorly evaluated celebrity. Concerning the strong candidate strong brand , there was no difference whether spectators perceived his advisor as a good or bad endorser. The findings of this study are similar to those found by Silva et al. On the other hand, the weakest candidate worst evaluated brand was better evaluated when the endorsing celebrity coach was rated as having a positive image by the participant, rather than a negative image, confirming H2 of this study.
In addition, when considering the scenario where the endorsing celebrity has a positive image, the evaluation of the weak endorsed candidate rises to the same level as the strong participant. Based on this result, professionals interested in the new celebrity should propose strategies of dissemination associated with the celebrity endorser, and preferably with the current fans of this celebrity, which would enhance the effect of the endorsement.
Celebrity choice should be guided by the congruence that he or she has with the product endorsed. The concept of congruence is known as finding the best match between the product and any associated variable.
Congruence depends on two dimensions: relevance and expectation. Relevance reflects the extent to which the stimulus information contributes to a clear identification of the theme or main message being communicated Heckler and Childers, Expectation refers to the expected degree to which an item or piece of information fits in a predetermined pattern or structure evoked by the subject.
Several authors have demonstrated the relevance of the positive relationship between the celebrity endorser and the advertised product Batra and Homer, ; Misra and Beatty, An aspiring celebrity candidate in a musical reality show presents a set of characteristics that must somehow fit in with a certain musical style, which indicates their level of professionalism Kahle and Homer, In addition, there are also aspects related to attractiveness and credibility Ohanian, , which may or may not be considered congruent with their technical advisor in the program, i.
Thus, it is expected that: H4. A weak candidate worst rated endorsed by a congruent celebrity will be better assessed than a weak candidate endorsed by an incongruent celebrity. The evaluation of a strong candidate best rated does not depend on congruence with the celebrity endorser. The purpose of Study 3 was to analyze whether different celebrity congruence levels also affect the evaluation of an aspiring new celebrity.
The scenarios of congruence level were manipulated by having spectators read a text showing the congruence or incongruence between the candidate and the celebrity that was coaching him or her during the show. For example, in one of the scenarios, the text emphasized how candidate and coach shared the same musical style. The instrument was similar to that used in previous studies. The final sample of this study was spectators.
As in previous studies, participants had to answer questions about their involvement with the program, and people who did not watch or did not know the participants were excluded from the study.
The stimulus was presented, and participants assessed the candidates on the same scales as previous studies. Study 3 was conducted with viewers of the show, with an average age of There was no difference in the evaluation of the weak participant worst evaluated concerning the congruence level with the endorser celebrity.
However, and as expected, the congruence level with the celebrity endorser had no effect on the strongest participant best rated. The results of the study show that the weaker candidate was better evaluated when there was congruence between her and the celebrity endorser.
However, to understand this phenomenon, it was necessary to isolate the effect of attitude toward celebrity, indicating that — despite the fact that congruence affects the assessment in the case of an aspiring new celebrity — celebrity endorser image plays a key role in the celebrity endorsement effect.
Regarding the strongest candidate, the evaluation was the same regardless of congruence with celebrity endorser. This result demonstrates how the endorsement effect can be complex. Based on their skills of creating a meaning, advertisers try to create an image for the brands they market and try to make sure that the brand is distinguished from other brands in the market that caters for similar requirements.
In other words, the purpose is to convince the consumer by creating a consistent brand image. Williamson [ 11 ] explains that when communicating the meaning, the product or brand is associated with an object, person or an image that does not potentially exist.
In this respect, in order to communicate the advertising messages, advertisements take advantage of the popular culture and characters that are part of this popular culture. Celebrities used in advertisements are usually widely known and respected celebrities in cinema, music, sports and business world, and similar fields. Celebrity endorsement is a very old marketing communication strategy whereby popular culture and celebrities that are part of this popular culture are used to create a brand image and to deliver the messages regarding the brand image.
Roy [ 15 ] explains that this is a centuries old marketing method, which is being widely used today. Schlecht [ 19 ] mentioned that one of the most common methods used to deliver the advertising messages and to convince the consumers to buy their brands is taking advantage of a spokesperson.
Zamudio [ 20 ] defines celebrity endorsement as brand alliance between a corporate brand and a human brand, which is the celebrity and expressed that celebrity endorsement is important to enhance value of the corporate brand or its products and turn it into a brand that is preferred by consumers.
This way, an advertisement to attain its goal, in other words ensuring that a product has a meaning for the potential consumers, becomes much easier. It is becoming more and more important to look and live like celebrities and have the things they have. For this reason, identifying a product with a celebrity to make a product more popular helps the product to become popular in a very short time and turns the celebrity into an essential marketing communication tool. According to Choi and Rifon [ 14 ], consumers prefer specific products and brands in order to shape themselves and their world.
Products used in advertisements turn into inspiring figures that may be a role model for the consumer in the process of shaping and building themselves and their world. The reason for this is that celebrities possess different cultural meanings that may contribute to the self-realization process of the consumer. Consumers that buy a product, which has been endorsed by a celebrity, try to take credit for the meaning that such celebrity possesses.
To put it differently it can be said that consumers try to create their personal images being inspired by the image of the celebrity in the light of information they obtain through advertisements or other communication tools of the popular culture and they use these products to reflect their new images.
McCracken [ 1 ], p. In this respect, it is possible to say that celebrity endorsement is in fact a meaning transfer process. According to Ohanian [ 22 ], theoretical researches and practice demonstrated that using celebrities in advertisements manages to attract attention and interest of the society. The impact of the person endorsing the brand depends on the meaning such person conveys to the process of endorsement.
Celebrities are associated with various and diversified meanings. Status, class, gender and age differences, personality, and lifestyle types that celebrities in the current celebrity pool represent offers an extensive range in terms of variety during the phase where marketing communication is established.
Different models have been developed to analyze how the meaning that a celebrity possess is transferred to the product and consumer, in other words to explain in detail the celebrity endorsement which is a very complex process. The following section explains these models that are referred to in literatures. Even though people who make researches about celebrity endorsement criticize this by stating the inadequacies of the studies in this respect, celebrity endorsement is explained very extensively in literatures.
Especially the definition of celebrity endorsement features four models that have guided the subsequent works—the source credibility model, the source attractiveness model, the product match-up hypothesis and the meaning transfer model [ 15 ].
The source credibility model and the source attractiveness model are categorized under the title source models. McCracken [ 1 ] explained that these two source models are designed for communication works but later adapted to the endorsement process. Both source models claim that specific qualities of spokesperson as a communication source may positively affect the potential consumers and convince them to buy the product in advertisements.
This model claims that messages from a credible source are more successful in convincing the target audience. In other words according to this model, advertising messages communicated by an endorser who is highly credible makes a positive impact on purchasing behavior.
Many studies that have been carried out using the source credibility model reveals that celebrity endorsers have more influence on the purchasing behavior of the consumer than the spokespersons that are not celebrities [ 21 , 22 ]. According to Choi and Rifon [ 14 ], popularity of celebrities and recognition of celebrities by consumers are the reasons why celebrity endorsers are perceived as a credible source. Trustworthiness signifies the qualities of the endorser like honesty and integrity [ 21 ].
At this point, the identity of the endorser, the person who delivers the advertising message and how his identity is perceived by the society plays a role.
According to Smith [ 23 ], consumers respect endorsers who they consider as honest and credible and ignore the endorsers that they see as unreliable. Expertise represents the knowledge, experience, or skills of the endorsers. Knowledge here does not mean the knowledge about the product or brand that the person endorses; it is the perception of expertise that is created in the minds of the target group.
Even though the endorser may have nothing to do with the product he is endorsing, his accomplishments in his career, and the quality of communication he builds during the marketing phase may cause the endorser to be perceived as an expert [ 24 ].
This model claims that messages communicated by an attractive source positively guide the consumer behavior [ 25 ]. According to this model, the attractiveness of the endorser plays a crucial role on the effectiveness of the message he delivers. However, attractiveness should not be interpreted only as physical qualities, it also arises from the significant meanings that the consumer finds attractive and useful [ 1 , 21 ].
In other words, it is claimed that if there is a congruency between the image of the celebrity used in the endorsement process and the image of the brand being marketed, this positively affects the consumers [ 28 ].
Source models, congruence or match-up models are being criticized, as they are unable to or inadequate in explaining some matters about the celebrity endorsement. One of the most important criticisms made about source models is that such models perceive celebrities only as a group made of attractive and credible individuals and cannot fully define the world of celebrities that involves complex and various meanings.
From this point of view, source models fall short of discovering the meanings that celebrity represents and how these meanings serve to the purpose of endorsement process [ 1 ].
Another critique is the ambiguity of the factors that constitute credibility of the source and which factors are more important than the others [ 21 ]. Finally, source models cannot explain why some celebrities are convincing for some brands whereas not for others, and they remain incapable of defining the congruence or incongruence of the celebrity and the brand [ 15 ]. McCracken [ 1 ] stated that cultural meanings that a celebrity possesses are what make celebrities useful in the endorsement process widely used in marketing communication.
According to him, the success of the endorsement process depends on establishing a connection between the cultural meanings that a celebrity possesses and the product endorsed. In the celebrity endorsement model of McCracken, meaning transfer is realized at three stages:. First stage is the phase where cultural meanings associated with the celebrities are created in the minds of the society. In this sense, in the endorsement process, the way celebrities are perceived is quite different from the way anonymous people are perceived.
As celebrities are well known by the society, the meanings they have are displayed in a very clear and precise way and this enables easier communication with the consumers. In the second stage symbolic meaning of the celebrity is transferred to the products.
At this point, it is necessary to be wary about congruence of product and celebrity. Advertising agencies first determine the symbolic properties of the product and then choose the celebrity that best suits to that symbolic value. In other words, advertising is designed to imply the main similarity between the celebrity and the product. Developing the advertisement in a way that will serve best to the congruency of the product and celebrity, and to create a content that supports this idea facilitates transferring to the product the symbolic meaning of the celebrity in the minds of consumers.
Third stage is the time when meanings of the celebrity created in time as the result of all performances of the celebrity before public meets with the consumer via the product. The better the images of celebrities on screen are built, the stronger symbolic meanings these images involve and the better the product-celebrity match-up is, the easier it will be for the consumer to embrace the product. These meanings transferred from the celebrity to the product and from product to the consumer are used by consumers in building their own images.
In other words through products they purchase, consumers try to identify themselves with the celebrity endorsement of that product. As a result the celebrity endorser is the representative of the new identity that the consumer can use. In this regard consumer goods are not objects that meet the needs of consumers and serve to specific functions, they are tools used to form the social identities of consumers. Housing advertisements that are used as the research sample are prepared for marketing large-scale housing projects constructed in Istanbul as of Brand image is very important in marketing of these projects because almost all the projects are launched for sale based on small models and project visuals even before construction works have been started.
Hurriyet newspaper was selected as the source, as it is the newspaper with highest circulation. After all advertisements published on Hurriyet newspaper have been scanned, advertisement where a celebrity was the spokesperson was determined.
Meaning transfer model was explained in detail in the previous section; however, it is necessary to add a few comments in this section as well about the way these are used in the analysis process.
Accordingly analysis is configured as a three-stage process. First question for which an answer is sought was what properties caused the celebrity to be selected for endorsement. Celebrity endorsement strategy has been widely used in housing advertisements.
We can say that in general advertisements that use celebrity endorsement exploit attractiveness of the celebrities and their credibility based on their trait of trustworthiness and expertise. Most of the celebrities used in housing advertisements due to their quality of attractiveness are mostly actors-actresses, models, or vocal artists. Some of them are celebrities that are locally recognized and some are worldwide famous.
Generally celebrities used in housing advertisements based on their credibility trait like trustworthiness and expertise have very different professions but remarkably, most are known by their careers in football.
Probably it is believed that in marketing communications, celebrities of the football arena are more effective and credible compared to other celebrities. This is not very surprising considering the fact that football has an important place in cultural structure of the society and that these people appear somehow on mass media or printed media almost every day.
Also it is seen that only a small part of the celebrities used in housing advertisements due to their credibility are experts in the fields that are partly or directly related with the construction sector—like architects, engineers, finance experts, etc. She has a distinctive image in the minds of consumers by her concerts, videos she shoots or magazine programs that she attended.
One of the most important elements of this image is related with, without any doubt, the attractiveness of the singer. Also, it is not that easy to reach that level of attractiveness because not only women but also men aspire the beauty, youth, and dynamism of this worldwide star, Jennifer Lopez.
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