What Consumes Really Want

Is it enough to have a celebrity’s face on an advertisement to sell a product? Ashton Kutcher is the featured spokesperson for Nikon. Taylor Swift is the new Cover Girl, and Sarah Jessica Parker is face of Garnier. But I can’t help but wonder if these celebrities actually use the products. It is hard for me to believe that celebrities like Jessica Alba or Halle Barry use Revlon makeup over fancier department store cosmetics like Chanel or Dior. According to Forbes, consumers are less likely to buy a product if they believe the celebrity endorsing the product is unauthentic.

Consumers want truth, and authenticity is the key to capturing the heart of today’s consumers (McNicholas). Most ad campaigns don’t care enough to take this factor into account. They throw the hottest celeb of the moment into their ads, not realizing that we are seeing past the gimmick.

PepsiCo Gatorade and FRS energy drinks has chosen the authentic route. PepsiCo’s marketing director Kate Denton said that if they approach a celebrity or are approached by a celeb, the first thing they ask is if they use the product. If they don’t drink Gatorade or use the products, she tells them to go and use the product for a while and then come back to talk. Gatorade’s new G-series Fit products aren’t advertised by the most famous athletes. Instead, they are using up-and-coming athletes who used the products long before being approached by Gatorade.

The new G-Series Fit products aren’t actually new. They’ve been around for a while, but were only used by elite athletes. Only now are they being marketed toward the public. FRS energy drinks were what football player Tim Tebow contributes much of his success to at the NFL Combine before being drafted.

FRS’ VP of Marketing Deepak Masand said their ad campaign started from a creative perspective, not the celebrity endorser like many campaigns. They began by creating a brand point of view, and gave it a very personal, human-element. The goal was to create a campaign that consumers related to.




This perspective made Tim Tebow the perfect fit for the campaign. He used his own real-life struggle toward the NFL to promote the product. What makes this campaign successful is that it is very genuine. You don’t doubt that Tebow actually uses the product. It has an authentic, yet inspiring feel that consumers will appreciate rather than throwing a celeb that we’ve seen in a dozen other campaigns.

Consumers want authenticity.





Tim Tebow's commercial for FRS.


Works Cited

McNicholas, Kim. "Say Goodbye To 'Fake' Celebrity Endorsements! - Forbes." Forbes. 19 Apr. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. .

Celebrity Endorsements--Worth the Cost?

A recent article in Ad Age said that recent studies have shown that hundreds brands have seen a 20% increase after beginning an endorsement deal. Some companies have seen a .25% increase the day the deal was announced.

The article explores the question of whether using celebrities to endorse a brand or product is worth the cost. We receive more than 3,000 commercial images a day--150 images reach our subconscious mind and 30 reach our unconscious. Therefore one the main goals of an advertising campaign is to cut through all of the clutter--find an ad that reaches the conscious mind of the consumer.

It is the belief that celebrities do just that. They stand out. It's people we admire, look up to, and try to emulate. We listen to their music and watch their movies. It's the idea of, "If they use this product, then I should too." So, there are benefits to using a celebrity to push a product. However, the article stated that the decision to use a celebrity as a spokesperson in the ad should be treated like a marriage in a way. It should add something and create a certain amount of benefits for the brand.

You have to choose the right person. They need to maintain the image that the product or brand is trying to reflect. For example, a wrinkle cream ad campaign for Revlon shouldn't hire someone young like Dakota Fanning to promote the product. Sure, the ad would stand out, but it wouldn't add any validity to the ad's message.


The marriage of the celebrity endorser and the ad campaign should have an "added creature comforts that make the partnership invaluable" (Crutchfield). Celebrity spokespeople are most beneficial if they do the following:

-They should have the opportunity to create new markets or tap into anactivation base of fans.Ex) Patrick Dempsey men's perfume for Avon



-It should be able to create a "brand halo," meaning it entices consumers to learn more about the brand.

-The ability to promote a new brand attribute that might be hard to attain otherwise that is unique, relevant and sustainable. For example, Nike was only able to see an extremely quick success rate and growth of their golf line by using Tiger Woods, the #1 golfer in the world.


-Also, a collaboration that can impact the business model of the partnership is also important criteria that can make a celebrity endorsement more successful for a brand. Sean Combs taking a 50/50 ownership of Ciroc vodka company is an example.

-Finally, if the use of a celebrity to advertise a product can innovate the product its offering, then the partnership can become invaluable. Look at the success of Totes' line of umbrellas endorsed my pop artist Rihanna. After Rihanna's famous performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards of her song "Umbrella," she helped design Totes' newest line sparking huge sales.



Overall, using a celebrity has many benefits including the ability to inspire, enlighten, and entertain consumers. It is a valuable way to market to consumers, but choosing the right celebrity to represent a brand might be the most critical part of the marketing process.

Celebrity Endorsements and Social Media

Word-of-mouth is considered the most powerful, effective form of marketing. Sure, a celebrity endorsements draw attention, but the ultimate goal should be to get the brand or the new product into conversion. Marketing's most powerful media is recommendation, afterall.

An article in Ad Age touches on this very topic, and explores the power of social networking. Think of the social networking sites you're already apart of--Facebook and twitter for example. If someone posts a status or tweets about an amazing product that has changed their life or their new favorite restaurant, chances are you're going to be curious, maybe even a little intrigued. For example, just the other day I "checked into" Moonshine, my favorite restaurant in Austin on Facebook. Immediately, my friends started commenting about how much they loved it too and discussion began about their favorite dishes and what people should try. Just a simple post on my Facebook profile sparked discussion, and undoubtedly pushed someone to look up the restaurant or even try it.

Now imagine a celebrity tweeting about their favorite restaurant, or a new shoe they've fallen in love with. Their following is enormous. Take rap artist Drake, who boasts 3.7 million followers or Kim Kardashian, a reality TV star, who has about 10,000 followers. The whole purpose of "following" someone on Twitter is because you want to hear what they have to say. Their sphere of influence is huge, and this form of promotion costs nothing for a marketing campaign.




However, celebrity endorsements are often inhibited by constraints and contractual limitations. I believe it is critical for companies to utilize social networking as an additional platform for celeb endorsements and brand advocacy. According to Ad Age, 95% of social-media users agree and believe companies should have a presence in social media.

Social media enables consumers to adopt new behaviors and is the best way to get brand names, products, and services into people's conversations. It is a critical strategy that CMO's need to incorporate into their marketing campaigns because social media is the most effective way for consumers to "recommend" products to the greatest amount of people.




Works Cited:

Crutchfield, Dean. "Celebrity Endorsements Still Push Product." Ad Age. Crain Communications, 22 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. .

Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on a Brand-Intro

The use of celebrities as spokespeople for a particular brand has become increasingly common. It is rare to open a magazine and see the face of an actual model advertising mascara or lipstick. Instead, you see Drew Barrymore, Halle Barry or another famous celebrity as the face of the leading cosmetic brands. Famous actors, musicians and athletes are even dominating TV commercials. As celebrities begin to dominate advertisements, I am led to wonder how effective is this selling technique. Do famous celebs really maximize advertising effectiveness?

The purpose of this blog is to explore this very notion. What is the impact of celebrity endorsements on a brand? What is the cost to enlist a star in your branding campaign? How do consumers respond to these ads? What are the pros and cons to celebrity endorsements? How does the success of a branding campaign with the use of a celebrity compare to those that do not?

There's no doubt that the use of celebrities to advertise does have its advantages. First and foremost, one of the most important task for marketers and advertisers is to create an ad that breaks through the clutter. Consumers are dominated by an excessive amount of advertising--in newspapers, magazines, on television, on billboards as we're driving and on the radio. Consumers are also becoming better at tuning out many advertisements. One of the benefits of celebrity advertising is that it cuts through the clutter. In an age where celebs are almost worshipped, using a star's attention-grabbing power help catch the attention of a brand. The right star for an ad can even communicate a message without elaborate story telling.




However, there is a negative of using celebrities to represent a brand. Getting a big-named star to be the face of a brand's product comes at a price--a very high price. Then, marketers must consider the possibility of the spokesperson neglecting to maintain the "proper image" that is expected of a certain brand. Consider Tiger Wood's endorsements in the midst of his cheating scandal. Celebrity overexposure and bad press both can undermine how the authenticity of the message is perceived by consumers.


Tag Heuer dropped Tiger Woods from their ad campaign right after the scandal was exposed.


Works Cited:
Daboll, Peter. "Celebrities in Advertising Are Almost Always a Big Waste of Money." Ad Age. Crain Communications, 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Sept. 2011. .

Sliburyte, Laimona. "How celebrities can be used in advertising to the best advantage?." World Academy of Science, Engineering & Technology 58.(2009): 934-939. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.