Influence of celebrity endorsements in emotional Marketing an Indian perspective

Abstract

As Marketing continues to chart new boundaries, companies have moved from marketing attributes to marketing emotions. Billions of dollars are spent every year on celebrity endorsement, and this shows the importance of celebrities in the advertising industry. The project aims to understand the effectiveness of the celebrity endorsement, in influencing the various emotional dimensions of an individual which in turn governs his purchase intentions. The key objectives of the study are as follows: Understanding the difference in the influence in purchase intention through emotional and functional advertisement. Identifying the various emotional attributes which impact the Purchase intention of an Indian consumer. Assessing the effect of celebrity endorsement on the identified emotional attributes. The scope of the project hence includes understanding the effect of advertisements based on emotions (especially family sentiment) rather than attributes/Ad characteristics on attitude formation & buying behaviour of consumers in the Indian context. However owing to practical constraints of geography and time, it is possible that findings of this study may not be comprehensive. The methodology employed for the analysis comprised of the following stages: Identification & Validation of emotional parameters through depth interviews, surveys, word association techniques and literature review. Short listing of advertisements & grouping into Functional & Emotional pairs. Comparing the responses of the experimental & control groups subject to emotional & functional advertisements respectively employing ANCOVA & ANOVA Identifying the prime emotional factors affecting purchase intentions through One –way ANOVA test. Determining the effect of celebrity endorsements on the identified factors. Three different kinds of product/services - Airtel: medium involvement Service Lux: low involvement FMCG product & Bajaj Caliber: high involvement consumer durable were chosen to cover the whole gamut of consumer behaviour. Key learning from the analysis could be generalized across FMCG products, Services & Consumer Durables as follows. CCS-Term 5: Influence of Celebrity Endorsement in Emotional Marketing From the research on LUX, no definite conclusion could be drawn on the importance of emotional and functional advertisements; however major FMCG players have mostly positioned their products on emotional benefits such as having a star-like feeling, happiness, hope and optimism, rather than harping on the functional benefits such as fragrance, moisturizing effects, freshness etc associated with the product. Referring to the survey response for Lux, it was observed that the average of the purchase intentions for respondents who were shown the emotional advertisement was more than that for the respondents who were shown the functional advertisement. Hence it can be interpreted that emotional advertisement for an FMCG product does have a superior effect on influencing the buying decision of the respondents. Some of the key emotional attributes that can be positively influenced through celebrity endorsements for a FMCG product are Happiness & Hope. Positioning the product on these dimensions & selecting the right celebrity endorser can thus enhance the purchase intentions for the product. Cut-throat competition and aggressive price cuts have commoditized the low end services market such as telecom, IT, tourism & education. There is not much to differentiate between the services offered by the different players, resulting in standardization. Value added services seem to be the only point of differentiation. Hence using any one of the service in offer gives the consumers a good idea about the industry. Thus prior usage of the service does not significantly affect the purchase intentions of the respondents. Offers in this category require medium involvement exhibiting both transformational and informational characteristics and hence emotional as well as functional advertisement has equally significant effect on the purchase intention of buyers. A functional advertisement communicates the various applications being offered by the player as an effort to draw parity with the competitor’s offerings. Differentiation is majorly achieved through emotional advertisement which attempts to increase the brand recall and increase customers mind share for the brand. Thus both emotional and functional advertisement equally affects the buying decision of respondents. The key emotional attributes that can be positively influenced through celebrity endorsements for a Service offering are Happiness & Hope Consumer durables are technologically complex product. Hence prior experience in using the product increases its chance of being selected over other competing offerings in the consideration set of the consumers. Since it is a high involvement product, the consumer here utilizes every opportunity to know more about the product and is eager to spend more time to get familiar with it. However the emotional component of owning the product cannot be totally ignored. Thus though functional advertisement educates the consumer about the features specific to the product, the role of emotional advertisement is also significant in helping him to identify the product with his core CCS-Term 5: Influence of Celebrity Endorsement in Emotional Marketing values. The prime emotional attributes that can be positively influenced through celebrity endorsements for consumer durables are Hope & Thrill. The findings from the study have been further substantiated through opinions from industry practitioners on the significance of celebrity endorsement in emotional marketing. Finally certain key recommendations for the marketers have been suggested as mentioned below: A new brand should preferably be endorsed by a celebrity to maximise customer’s attention and inquisitiveness thereby increasing awareness and top of the mind recall. In competitive markets where presence of numerous brands has commoditized the product, celebrity endorsements can be used to differentiate a product. The credibility and authenticity attached with certain celebrities can be used to regain the positive image and regain the confidence among the masses for the brand. For high involvement products like consumer durables promotion through celebrity endorsements should be substantiated through consumer trials, word of mouth promotions and referrals. Celebrity presence in add should be contextual. In specific cases wherein the company would prefer not to use a celebrity due to budgetary constraints, it is recommended to instead go ahead with a spokesperson which has been tailor made for the product being offered by the company