Where do you visit online when you want to find the perfect outfit? Do you look to your celebrity idol for inspiration from magasines and blogs, or do you quite simply go straight to your favourite online fashion retailer website, because you can rely on them and know the advice they will be giving to you is on trend, whether from a celebrity or not? Many of the population do want to resemble and look to their idols for inspiration on lifestyle, make up, style etc. and fashion brands take advantage of this in their marketing strategies.
Products evolved into brands in order to differentiate themselves against competitors and give them a competitive advantage, by offering ‘added value’, taking the offering from a product to a brand. Celebrity endorsement has become a popular approach in the branding process both in terms of gaining and keeping attention and in creating favourable associations, leading to positive brand knowledge and distinct brand images. (Caroll, 2009)
An example of a current online brand targeting 16-30 year olds that invests heavily into celebrity endorsement is Missguided, as you can see from the YouTube link, they have just recently created a summer campaign, using the Singer Pia Mia as the ambassador to promote this: http://bit.ly/1Wnn4Iu.
Pia Mia is a young singer who will appeal to a wide audience, including those who are interested in music, as well as fashion. By Missguided utilising this wider audience that Pia Mia attracts, they will raise their brand awareness and attract unique visitors to their social media platforms, through the campaign. Brand engagement is key, engagement has been viewed as a promising concept expected to provide enhanced predictive and explanatory power of focal consumer behaviour outcomes, including brand loyalty. (Hollebeek, et al., 2014)
H&M is another example of a fashion label that uses popular celebrities to promote their brands, including Miranda Kerr and Beyonce (H&M, 2016) , both of the celebrities promoting different aspects of the brand:
Here is a link to an article detailing many other famous celebrities who have collaborated with fashion brands, some luxury, some mass: http://bit.ly/1Tz6TRF.It is quite clearly a trend in the fashion world of today and interesting to see how so many different brands are utilising celebrities.
It is quite clear that celebrities give the edge to brands, in order to benefit brand attractiveness to the loyal consumers and also to those who may not yet be aware of the brand. However, how much do the brands actually collaborate with the brands themselves and does this matter?
Although there is great potential for using endorsers to enhance brand equity, there has not yet been much empirical research on this aspect of the endorsement process. (Walker, et al., 1992)
Some celebrities endorse multiple products. For example, Michael Jordan is probably the most prolific endorser with current and/or past endorsements for products such as Wheaties, Coca-Cola, Nike, Food Lion, Gatorade, and McDonalds. Some celebrities endorse multiple products already strongly associated with a brand, will not so readily form associative links with other brands. Using a celebrity endorser who is already established as an endorser for other products or services inhibits forming an association between the celebrity and a newly endorsed product. (Till, 1998)
The following are advantages of using celebrities to endorse a campaign:
- Does not require available cash
- Perceived quality
- Perceived credibility
- Brand repositioning
As well as disadvantages:
- Risk of campaign not being successful/right for the brand
- Being tied to celebrity
- Less equity can be used for other purposes
- Image change and loss of public recognition. (Erdogan, 1999)
(LinkedIn, 2014)
In a sense, celebrity endorsement strategy can be a two-edged sword, which makes selecting a celebrity endorser from innumerable alternatives in the presence of potential pitfalls very challenging. (Erdogan, 1999)
Overall, there are advantages and disadvantages Celebrity endorsement for brands, although this does seem to be the current trend for fashion brands at the moment. Celebrity endorsement doesn’t only get attention from the consumers, but it is also popular in the media, which is a bonus for brands as it will give them mass exposure, reaching a wider target audience.
References:
Caroll, A., (2009). Brand communications in fashion categories using celebrity endorsement. Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 17.
Erdogan, Z., (1999). Celebrity Endorsement: A Literature Review. Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 15, No. 4.
H&M, (2016). Newsroom. [Online]
Available at: http://about.hm.com/en/news/newsroom.html
[Accessed April 2016].
Hollebeek, L., Glynn, M. & Roderick, B., (2014). Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development and Validation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 28, No. 2.
LinkedIn, (2014). The Benefits and Disadvantages of Equity for Endorsements. [Online]
Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141004182605-200864366-the-benefits-and-disadvantages-of-equity-for-endorsements-part-2
[Accessed April 2016].
Till, B. D., (1998). Using celebrity endorsers effectively: lessons from associative learning. The journal of product & brand management, Vol. 7, No. 5.
Walker, M., Langmeyer, L. & Langmeyer, D., (1992). Celebrity Endorsers: Do you get what you pay for?. The Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 6.
Leave a Reply