After 3 days of contemplation, I chose this topic to write my next blog, moment I decided on it, I knew I would be on the ‘yes’ side of the debate. Take example of Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan -the two most ubiquitous faces of Indian advertisements they promote anything and everything under the sun,\: garments, cosmetic creams, medicine, cars, colas, candies, sim cards, insurances etc. Just when I noticed there was no advertisement featuring these two in this cricket world cup, I saw Khan promoting his own film Ra one. So should not this type of overexposure; dilute brand appeal of celebrity him(her)self as people keep seeing the same face over and over again with every other product? Also look at Bachchan, who endorses Himani cream which is a mass product. Yet how can the audience accept him endorsing Parker; will it not lead to miscommunication? Initially my answer to these questions was yes as I thought there should be consistency in types of products a celebrity endorse and limit on number, so as to maintain credibility of the celebrity.
But while conducting literature survey on celebrity endorsement in India, I found that each endorsement undertaken by these two benefited the brand. While stagnant brands like Boroline and Ddabur Chawanprash got new interest, Parker became aspirational brand for many, and i10 became a well recognized brand very quickly. This case is also applicable to few other celebrities like Dhoni and Sachin. Appeal of these celebrities cuts across the classes in the nation and association with these celebs bring benefits to the brand.
While analyzing this, I came across two reasons: one, predominant hero worship in our culture; probably it was this reason that Coke had to rope in Aamir Khan for its promotion, while it used to reframe from using celebrities at other places across globe. Secondly humble and dignified conduct of these celebs in public attributes which are widely appreciated in our culture.
So the number of products and the type of products that a celebrity can endorse entirely depends on the appeal of the celeb but his appeal does not depend upon them (probably case models would be different; blog on that some time later). In case celeb over exposes himself a market feedback will instill him at his right place, guess Invisible hand working. J
~ Varun Joshi
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