This Paper has won Consolation Prize in the CoolAvenues' Paper-writing Competition - "In Search of Excellence" - for the Year 2005.

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It is a known fact that the best endorsements achieve an eclectic balance between the product (brand) and the celebrity. Giving a brand a 'face' is more than just a marketing strategy to increase sales or gain market share, it is a decision that can change the future of the brand forever.
Choice of the celebrity, hence, is of utmost importance and is usually done based on many different parameters - appeal, looks, popularity or even just a fantasy figure to endorse a brand.

In today's highly competitive markets, big brands are at logger-heads when it comes to products, each having a similar product to that of a rival. Where does one brand gain that quintessential advantage - advertising, service, promise of trust, or even the all important price factors? Advertising seems to be the best platform where brands prefer to compete on - right from hiring the best advertising agencies to getting the biggest celebrities. What would be the formula to success then? Well, a good creative agency, a large enough promotional budget and a huge star to endorse your brand would definitely ensure in the minds of a brand management team a feeling of security, success and a triumph over the competitors brand.

So in this paper, we plan to see the "Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Overall Brand". The impact being both long and short term implications on the brand, its value, equity, and other tangible factors like profitability, market share, growth, etc. Not forgetting the all important customer recall, liking and probability of the repeat purchase, and above all, loyalty.

India is a country where people are star-struck by film stars, cricketers, politicians, and even criminals. Why? A population of 1 billion and ticking, everyday people need something or someone to look up to. A sense of security, admiration, comfort, familiarity, and above all, someone they aspire to be at some hidden level in their lives. And clever marketers leverage this very celebrity appeal and are successfully carrying out their jobs by giving the bottom lines of all the brands what they want - profit, market share and even recall. But how much star power is too much? "Does Amitabh really use Tide," asked a 6 year old to her mother. Her mother laughs and says, "No way, just a gimmick." What does that do to the brand?

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* Contributed by: -
Naveen Blazey & Shashi Kanth Ganti,
Goa Institute of Management, Goa.