By: Megan Wall
Today’s world is saturated with advertisements of every kind. Companies — big and small — are desperate to stand out from the masses. Attempts to capture and retain the attention of target audiences lie at the forefront of every marketing department, and a company’s survival and growth largely rely on its ability to set itself apart and provide exceptional consumer experiences. According to data collected in 2018, the modern consumer is exposed to up to 10,000 advertisements on a daily basis. This constant bombardment of marketing messages has evolved consumers into expert ad-ignorers; how else could they make it through each day with their sanity still standing?
One marketing technique that businesses use worldwide in an attempt to grasp consumer attention is that of celebrity endorsement. The official definition of celebrity endorsement is “a form of brand or advertising campaign that involves a well know person using their fame to help promote a product or service.” We see examples of celebrity-endorsed products on the daily; Emma Stone pictured wearing Revlon products in Target’s makeup aisle, Jennifer Aniston drinking Smartwater in salon magazines, Beyoncé promoting Pepsi during commercial breaks, Betty White making appearances in Snickers’ marketing campaigns, and the list goes on. And on. And on.
This type of marketing strategy has been used as a promotion technique for centuries, dating all the way back to the 1760’s before the term “brand” had even been coined. Within this article, I will be conducting an in-depth analysis of how celebrity endorsement has historically influenced consumer behavior, the various risks that are involved with using this marketing method, the scale and impacts of the ever-evolving modern consumer in relation to this topic, as well as the role of celebrity endorsement within marketing in the years and decades to come.
Celebrity Endorsement — There’s a Reason it Works!
Historically, using admired and/or well-known celebrity figures to endorse a product or service has proven to be a beneficial marketing tool. An article from ScienceDirect describes a celebrity as an icon perceived for his or her prosperity and acclaim in a variety of fields. This source declares that “the latter might explain why individuals tend to impersonate [celebrities, making them compelling forces in the world of promotion and advertising].” Many individuals idolize their favorite celebrities, aspiring to live how they live, own what they own, know who they know, and to some extent, be who they are. According to one article,“A Taiwanese study shows that consumers show greater recall of products that have been endorsed by celebrities — regardless of whether they are actual fans or not.” This same article discusses how celebrity endorsement increases brand awareness, trust, and familiarity — all of which play a crucial role in a consumer’s decision-making process. Not surprisingly, these factors are more significantly impacted if the consumer admires or relates to the celebrity being used in the marketing campaign. In fact, “the human brain recognizes celebrities similarly to how it recognizes people we actually know. The effect is that, if consumers happen to be fans, they place a higher value on products that celebrities are endorsing — it is as if they are receiving advice from a valued friend.” WOW. It astonishes me that celebrity admiration can impact consumer viewpoints and product evaluations as significantly as real and personal relationship.
The expansion and increasing popularity of social media has created opportunity for consumers to follow and engage with admired celebrity figures in ways that were nonexistent just 20 years ago. The combination of celebrities’ vast followings with the unbelievable amount of time that many individuals spend staring at their screens explains how social media platforms have become the ideal places for celebrity sponsorship to occur. As the internet’s platforms and advancements allow for fans to increasingly engage and interact with celebrities, some individuals forget that the content publicly shared by famous figures is merely a one-way interaction. Amazingly, a phenomena actually exists for individuals that create an illusion of relationship with celebrities. This idea is termed “parasocial interaction,” and it forms when a fan extends interest, emotional intensity, and time in response to the perception that a celebrity’s public postings are an intimate, emotional, and personal interaction.
While doing my research, I discovered an informational source that highlights a research study from the University of Arkansas analyzing celebrity endorsement influence on consumer purchasing decisions. In summary, the findings of this study indicate that we see a vast amount of celebrity endorsements because marketers are aware that “‘a range of consumer-celebrity relationships conspire to allow consumers to form a personal identity that matches who they want to be. [This] study authors [these consumer-celebrity relationships] “celebrityscapes” or “celebrity bricolages.’ In other words, if you eat/smoke/drink the same as David Beckham or Brad Pitt, you might also think you emulate their other (mega) more desirable traits, too.”
This ideology is supported by my first referenced article once again: “Subconsciously people believe that purchasing a product that’s promoted by a celebrity they admire, will allow them to emulate the celebrity’s desired traits or attract similar people into their lives. [As illogical as it may seem,] they will associate the celebrities’ success, beauty, athletic skill etc. with a particular product.” The success of celebrity endorsement can surely be accredited to the ways in which societies idolize individuals in positions of fame, power, and fortune. Consumers long to attain the qualities, lifestyles, accomplishments, etc. that are featured on their favorite celebrities’ highlight reels, no matter how unrealistic.
One particular marketing study that also researched the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer buying behavior explains how celebrity endorsement is considered the most effective tool when attempting to stand out from the clutter of our advertisement-filled world. It declares that “consumers feel that by using such brands they will gain some status because celebrity endorsed products satisfy this longing of enjoying a brand that comes with symbol of status.” Using celebrity endorsement as a marketing strategy can enhance the value and perception of a brand. However, the link between the chosen celebrity and the brand must be strong and logical in order to be effective. Creating such a mesh between celebrity and brand can often be a difficult task, but is of utmost importance in order to ensure that consumers can appropriately remember and recall a brand’s image and attributes. This specific study found that consumers long to consume products or brands that have the maximum fit with their individual personalities and images. Marketers must be intentional about endorsing celebrities that connect the product image with the that of the consumer, and this is done by transferring actual meaning to the product being endorsed.
The results of this study revealed that celebrity endorser’s attractiveness has a positive impact on ad recall, but not on purchase intention. However, it was discovered that both credibility and meaning transferred “positively frame the purchase intention;” this particular research focused on female consumers in the field of cosmetics. In this field, a celebrity becomes credible and can positively influence purchase intention when expertise and trustworthiness meet.
Celebrity Selection — It’s Risky Business!
While celebrity endorsement can be a beneficial and worthwhile investment for a company, there are inherent risks that come with tying a brand image to an individual — especially one who is constantly watched and scrutinized by the public eye. The previously mentioned ScienceDirect article emphasizes how “an inappropriate choice of celebrity will cause the failure of communicating the intended message from the ad, hence the consumer’s passive purchase intention (Farrell, Karels, Montfort, & McClatchey, 2000).” Companies throughout history have made damaging and inappropriate choices of celebrities time and time again. Others have simply been unlucky. One semi-recent example is the past endorsement of Tiger Woods by Nike, Gatorade, and various other sponsors. A successful and professional golfer, it made sense for Tiger to be sponsored by many big-name brands. However, when his extramarital affairs became known to the public, these brands suffered significant losses merely due to association.
This sort of risk is inherent when utilizing this strategy, but there are several ways in which to lower risk when trying to choose the right celebrity endorser for your brand. According to this source, picking a celebrity with high-character is of utmost importance when selecting an endorser. Research must be done to evaluate who a celebrity is and how they behave; recognizing a troubling pattern of behavior, even in past years, should be a red flag for a company. In addition, making your company’s messages clear and uncontroversial can minimize risk; “don’t try to do too much simply because you are now using a celebrity endorser.” Risk is minimized further when a business selects a celebrity that truly fits their brand — someone who can reach and influence their target audience. Finally, the author of this article (who is also the CEO of Spotted) suggests conducting considerable trial and error before launching celebrity-endorsed material. The importance of evaluating how certain messages will be received when told by public figures has been revealed time and time again. The reality is that celebrities are “human beings… and how they’ve behaved in the past won’t always predict future behavior.” Associating your brand with a human being, who is also watched by the media 24/7, is risky — period. A celebrity is a person, and no matter how successful or highly acclaimed, no person is without flaw.
Whether through a celebrity endorsement or not, a brand is ultimately trying to convince a consumer that their product offers significant value; the brand must deliver this promised value in order to attain sustainability in the long term. It’s risky and unrealistic for a company to rely on a celebrity to carry and sustain their brand image, even if that celebrity is seemingly scandal-free and liked by all. A previously referenced source puts it this way:
“A brand needs to tell the consumer why a product makes sense for them as individuals and what problem they can solve with it, not solely rely on a real-life Barbie doll, athlete or pop-culture icon. If they can’t, their products will lose value over time, and consumers will be the first ones to turn their backs…. At the end of the day, a brand must let consumers know why to buy their products, not the celebrity. They are the ones that need to advice, convince and help shoppers decide, not the celebrity.”
According to an article written by Peter Roesler, the President of Web Marketing Pros, “many celebrity endorsements come off as insincere, mainly because they are.” For example, he references how Samsung uses celebrities to endorse their high-quality products. Unfortunately, many of the celebrities they’ve chosen seemingly love their iPhones in the real world, and have been seen using competitors’ products by consumers and the media.
Exhibit A:
As of 2013, Lebron James was chosen to represent the marketing campaigns for Samsung’s handsets and became an official spokesperson for the brand. Shortly after, he was seen using his iPhone, and photos of him with it were posted online as evidence. From a consumer’s perspective, this kind of observation reveals the insincerity of such a celebrity endorsement, and delves into an additional risk companies face when endorsing a celebrity. A brand’s image can be damaged when its very endorsers are seen supporting its competitors.
However, as Roesler points out, whether or not an endorsement is successful depends on various factors. When a celebrity has established credibility and expertise in a particular field, their endorsement for a related product can be quite influential and sincere. For example, Nike’s endorsements of professional athletes are strategic and logical marketing tactics; they strengthen Nike’s brand image because their sponsored athletes can speak to the quality and excellence of athletic gear and apparel — and consumers believe them.
The Modern Consumer
Roesler states that “celebrity endorsements remain valuable in many situations,” which explains why celebrities still get paid millions of dollars to represent various products and brands. However, growing evidence among certain demographics indicates that non-celebrity endorsements carry just as much weight, if not more, with consumers.” Consumers now-a-days have been exposed to enough marketing messages and are intelligent enough to understand that, as stated by Roesler, “slapping a celebrity’s face on the box doesn’t make a product good.” Quality is key for brand sustainability. Realistically, most modern consumers will not(re)buy and wear Chanel cologne if it smells like rubbing alcohol — even if it’s featured in an ad with a smoldering Brad Pitt. With increasing exposure to marketing tactics, consumers are becoming smarter and smarter. Clearly, celebrity endorsement can be a useful tool for impacting consumer perception and behavior, but it cannot be a substitute for consistent and valuable product quality. In the words of Aristotle, “quality is not an act, it is a habit.”
Celebrity Endorsements — What’s the Future?
Throughout my research, I have discovered a slight, and increasing, shift from celebrity endorsements to endorsements of non-celebrity bloggers and social media influencers. This shift is largely due to Internet’s growing presence in consumers’ everyday lives. There are approximately 3 billion internet users worldwide; a recent study concluded that 52.4% of the global online population accesses the internet from their mobile phone, and half of the world’s population are predicted to be using their mobile devices to access the internet by the year 2020. As more and more of the world’s population accesses the internet via their handheld devices, the opportunity for brands to endorse non-celebrities through web and social media advertising is expanding. According to Roesler, it’s not only less costly to endorse bloggers and online influencers, but it’s also much easier to reach them and get them to try a product.
Why should companies use non-celebrity endorsers when celebrity sponsorships have proven to influence consumer perception, and often, behavior? Well, again referencing Roesler’s article, he summarizes the findings of a 2016 Collective Bias survey that gathered data from 14,000 U.S. consumers. This survey analyzed consumer responses to celebrity endorsed marketing messages, and “the researchers found that nearly a third (30 percent) of shoppers are more likely to purchase a product endorsed by a non-celebrity blogger than a celebrity. The effective was even more pronounced amongst Millennials.” While 30% may not seem extraordinarily significant, I believe that this percentage will continue to increase as influencer marketing becomes more prevalent.
An article written by Shane Barker, a digital marketing consultant, discusses why influencer marketing is the future of successful endorsements. He declares that “influencer marketing works mainly because the influencer has expertise in the type of products they’re promoting.” In addition, he explains that these types of endorsers differ from celebrities because they engage with their audiences, create content that helps to fuel marketing campaigns, and are able to reach and communicate with targeted, loyal followers and consumers. Shane Barker explains that influencer marketing is more beneficial than celebrity endorsements because it is more cost-effective for the endorsing company, more reliable due to its use of influencers with expertise, and more strategic because it more fully engages target audiences. In alignment with Barker’s analysis and beliefs, award-winning global retail analyst and specialist Deborah Weinswig believes that “influencers are the golden children of marketing strategies right now.” According to her article, data from an influencer marketing platform called MuseFind revealed that 92% of consumers trust an influencer more than an advertisement or a traditional celebrity endorsement. MuseFind is a company that “fosters partnerships between [its brand] and influencers… [and, according to their CEO, longs to] re-romance their customers through social media influencers.”
I have deeply analyzed the history of celebrity endorsement, its proven impacts on consumer perception and behavior, the inherent risks that come with its utilization, as well as the evolutions of the modern consumer and the increasing prevalence of endorsements through online influencers. After conducting extensive research and collecting various professional opinions, I believe that consumer preference of non-celebrity endorsers will continue to increase over time, and that consumers will increasingly respond more positively and authentically to influencer-sponsored content. The modern consumer expects and demands authentic, high-quality content — the kind of content that is often produced by social media influencers with niche-expertise. Since the reality of unauthenticity behind many celebrity endorsements has lessened its influence on consumer perception and behavior over time, it is unlikely to remain a highly successful strategic marketing initiative in the long-term. The bottom line is that marketing is a human-centric field. The modern consumer is increasingly craving authenticity and vulnerability, and it is through these methods that marketers must reach them.
