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Stars, who are known to shape destinies, cast an enormous influence. No, we're not talking about astrology here. We're referring to the powerful effect of celebrities on destinies of brands. One approving nod from a famous face can translate into millions in brand sales.
Perhaps that's why the world over, companies have been using stars to endorse everything, from food to food chains, from soft and hard drinks to health drinks, from clothes and accessories to cars (and the tyres on which they run).

Commonly called "testimonials" or "celebrity endorsements", this technique of persuasion says that consumers relate to the person(s) appearing in the ad: If the celebrity / athlete / star uses the product, then it must be good, so I will purchase it too.

In today's world, the use of celebrity advertising for companies has become a trend and a perceived winning formula of corporate image building and product marketing. This phenomenon is reflected by the recent market research findings that 8 out of 10 TV commercials scoring the highest recall are those with celebrities' appearances.

Some of the best known celebrities employed for advertising campaigns include Aamir Khan for Coca-Cola, Toyota's Innova, Amitabh Bachchan for Nerolac, Dabur, ICICI, Parker, Reid & Taylor, Shahrukh Khan for Omega, Hyundai Santro, Pepsi, Airtel, Videocon consumer durables, Sachin Tendulkar for Pepsi, Colgate Palmolive, ESPN-STAR Sports, MRF, Boost, TVS Victor, Fiat Palio, Visa, Adidas, Brittania, Airtel... and the list just goes on.

The reason behind the popularity of celebrity advertising is the advertisers' belief that brand images built through celebrities achieve a higher degree of attention and recall for consumers, which will eventually lead to higher sales. Although the potential benefits of using celebrity advertising to promote brand images and products are significant, so are the costs and risks.

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* Contributed by -
Bhawna Sikka & Vaibhav Hari,
PGDBM 2006,
IMT, Ghaziabad.