The Story:
At the 2011 Grammy Awards show, which aired in February, there was an astonishing number of commercials using celebrity endorsement to sell product. According to this article, approximately 22% of the ads during the show were featuring celebrity endorsements, which was almost a 50% increase over last year. Brands that utilized this form of advertising included Ford, Chevy, Dodge, HP, CoverGirl, Olay, Target, Nintendo and Apple.
Reflection and Analysis:
I found this information very interesting when I first saw it, because I find myself very intrigued to see the continuous turnover of celebrity endorsers for various products in the marketplace. I also like to see which celebrities in particular are chosen by the various brands to help convey their brand messaging since it is crucial that the values of the brand and the celebrity are somewhat in sync. It seems that with this ever growing trend, if a brand does not have a link to some form of celebrity, than they may begin to lose ground in the market. I don’t feel that this is necessarily true, but it raises an interesting point. Are we reaching a point where the brands themselves are not strong enough to complete on their own without a celebrity to try to sway consumer perceptions? Or is this just a fun way to add another dimension to a brand? I feel that celebrity endorsements can still be very beneficial if done in the right way, but it needs to be understood that once an associative network is built between a celebrity and a brand, it is very difficult to reverse. This can make management of the brand difficult because if a celebrity acts in a way that perhaps contradicts the brand values, then it could have serious repercussions for the brand.
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