« Celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising campaign or marketing strategy used by brands, companies, or a non-profit organization which involves celebrities or a well-known person using their social status or their fame to help promote a product, service or even raise awareness on environmental or social matters. »
Consumers remember of products that have been endorsed by celebrities – regardless of whether they are actual fans or not.
Celebrity endorsement is a real marketing trend for companies that often seems to be more entertaining. Celebrities help advertisement to stand out from the surrounding disturbance and helps the brand to convey their message to the consumer in a better approach.
If the consumers happen to be fans, they place a higher value on products that celebrities are endorsing (as if they were receiving advice from a valued friend).
With celebrities promoting their products, brands can increase awareness, trust and familiarity, which are important variables in the purchase decision-making process.
Consumers feel more sympathetic towards a brand, if their products are promoted by a celebrity they admire or relate to.
A Nielsen research conducted in 2015 found that celebrity endorsements resonate more strongly with Generation Z (ages 15-20) and Millennial (ages 21-34) audiences.
While celebrity endorsements certainly help to attract consumers, its direct influence on the consumers’ purchasing decisions is not sure. In the book Contemporary Ideas and Research in Marketing, researchers found that 85% of people surveyed said that celebrity endorsements enhanced their confidence in and preference for a product, but only 15% said that celebrities had an impact on their purchase decisions.
Roger Federer for Lindt
Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 3 in men's singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Federer has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles—the most in history for a male player—and has held the world No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a record total of 310 weeks. The famous tennisman is an ambassador for the Premium Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprungli since 2009. An extension of its partnership with Federer has been announced in 2017.
"I grew up with Lindt products so, as a Swiss and an enthusiastic fan of chocolate, I associate the close partnership with Lindt with wonderful childhood memories," Federer said in a statement. "As I travel around the world, people are always asking me about Lindt and I am very proud to be part of the Lindt family. » Roger Feder says.
Federer has been an active candy man for Lindt, partnering for media events and charity activities.
He embodies the expertise (in tennis), the experience and excellence. That is exactly what Lindt communicates about its brand and wants to differentiate from its competitors. And on top of that? He is Swiss!
Chance the Rapper for Kit Kat
The 81-year-old brand saw an opportunity to better engage its young audience using influencers and social media. Hershey’s Kit Kat got it right in their 2017 October advertisement with Chance the Rapper. With over 1.2 million views on YouTube to date, the most influential factor in making this ad successful has been its endorser-conscious approach. Kit Kat business’ top-line sales grew almost 6% last year, which is about 10 times what the category grew.
Chance has established himself in the past year being one of the most popular hip-hop artist of today in mind and Kit Kat capitalized on this. In this ad, Chance the Rapper, reworked the “Gimme a Break” jingle for the brand in the same style as his music that his fans have come to know and love.
“It used to be this extended break that you take, and now it’s the expanse and number of different ways in which people engage in media, It was an opportunity for us to not only modernize our campaign but modernize how we communicated with our consumer.” Ian Norton, director of Kit Kat and PayDay at The Hershey Company says.
Among all its positive effects, music enable people to « Have a break » and this is precisely Kit Kat’s slogan. On top of this fact, Chance the Rapper was one of the best celebrities to choose for targeting Millenials. In February 2017, Bennett performed at the 59th annual Grammy Awards, receiving 7 nominations and winning 3 Grammys. In August 2017, Bennett headlined day three of Lollapalooza at Grant Park in his hometown of Chicago. His performance drew record crowds with some estimates making it the largest attended performance in the event's history.
“He fit really nicely with the break concept because we identified him as someone who was on the cusp of breaking out in his career,” Norton says. “We also wanted to align with someone who passionately loved candy, has sung about candy, has candy references a lot in his songs. We felt he was very relevant and of the generation we wanted to speak to.”
Finally, researches show that the celebrity endorsement have an impact on the consumers attention but may not change his purchase behavior.
And you, have you ever bought a product based on celebrity endorsement ads?
Don’t be shy, tell us in the comment: we won't repeat!
Cited Sources:
« Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behavior » - Guided selling - October 4, 2016
« Effect Of Celebrity Endorsement In Advertisement Marketing Essay » - Uk Essays - Dec 5, 2016
« Kit Kat Goes Viral With Chance the Rapper » - American Marketing Association - April 3, 2017
« Celebrity endorsements : How Hershey’s Kit Kat got it right » - Stanford Marketing - February 1, 2017
« Roger Federer Adds Millions To His Endorsement Earnings With Lindt Chocolate Extension » - Forbes - Dec 12, 2017