Monday, June 8, 2009

Actors in ads

Has anybody ever studied the link between using celebrities to advertise for a product and their impact on the sales?

Here in US, I don't see celebrities endorsing as much but in India everything from Toilet brush to ear buds to sanitary napkins is advertised using an Actor. You might watch an ad for the actor but would you even remember the brand? I wouldn't have noticed the Loreal ads if not for ash. But that was the novelty factor of watching an Indian actor in an ad here. Beyond that I don't remember the brand brooke shields endorses., sometimes even the product Even in relevant ads where they make an impact like the one with Julia Dreyfus(of seinfeld fame) I am not going to start using it even though i do want to lose weight and i do like Julia Dreyfus. Amitabh endorsing a retirement saving plan or shahrukh endorsing LIC are huge jokes because these are people who absolutely dont have the worries the a typical user of this product has.

Cosmetics is the one thing that actors could have an influence if you were a teenager. Now with google, i am an intelligent buyer(umm... ok, i used intelligence and me in the same sentence and not in a negative way). Amazon's user review might influence me lot more than my favoritie celebrity on buying a product. So, for me , a celebrity endorsement has no effect whatsoever.

Which is why ads that appeal to children makes a lot of sense. Children arent intelligent buyers(!). They are adamant and can be made to influence family decisions. Indian ads tap a lot into the phenomena. But even they arent going to urge their parents to buy something because kareena Kapoor endorses it. So why the hell do the companies prefer stars? do you really think they make an impact? would you buy something because your fav. star endorsed it?

-'Totally jealous of all the money stars make'

9 comments:

  1. Actually.. It is funny how kids can remember celebs.. my neice likes the lays man.. saif.. :D

    And the same one wanted a school bag coz hannah montana was on it. A cheap and cheesy lookin bag..

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  2. Never thought about it!

    And never got a product because some celebrity I like endorses it (or I don't remember any)

    Off late, I am using user reviews on Amazon for a lot of the books I am buying...so far it has not let me down :)

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  3. Babes,
    Yeah,cheap and cheesy, at their age is totally allowed. looks like the your niece got to know the saif through lays, i am sure they had hoped it was the other way around.
    Is Saya your real name?:)
    Kaushik,
    So, you are part of the intelligent buyer's(pretty much most of the adults would fit in there) club:). I do think people rely more on word of mouth endorsements than celebrity ones.

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  4. hmm.... I went to Borders today and was totally lost.... my ability to pick up random books by reading the blurb at the back or the first page is getting numbed by Amazon :)

    Well the club is not very exclusive then eh!

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  5. kaushik,
    "Well the club is not very exclusive then eh!"
    fortunately, no:)

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  6. Good comparison between marketing practices in India and abroad. I remember reading in one of my marketing courses (in India) that celebrity endorsement has a huge impact on sales. Makes sense. India is filled with Fan following. Fans that are loyal and in some cases even willing to worship celebrities. Producers discriminate between markets (not all markets are same, not all consumers are same) and obviously celebrity endorsement does the trick for certain class of consumers.

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  7. Suman, thats wat i find it hard to believe that there could be a strong fan following for neha dhupia(she was in a fairness cream ad).

    if a rajini says , tat is a different matter but i doubt if other stars have a huge impact. was there any figures that were shown in this regard?

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  8. sachita:

    part of it is probably the star power in india - hero worshipping there is way over what it is here.

    part of it is probably that actors charge more to appear in commercials (relatively speaking)...?

    - s.b.

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  9. yeah even i was thinking in terms of the charge, considering the advertisers spent a good percentage of their corporate budget on advertisement wat actors in india would get is miniscule.

    while hollywood stars will ensure they get their worth.

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