Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity EndorsementsThe use of celebrities in advertising is very common. When advertisers choose a celebrity to promote their product, they use three basic categories of source attributes, which include: credibility, attractiveness, and power. People are constantly bombarded with celebrity endorsements some examples include country singer Faith Hill, tennis player Anna Kournikova, and professional basketball star Grant Hill. It is important to analyze the effectiveness of these celebrities in advertising in order to gain a better understanding of celebrity endorsements.
In the past few years, country singer Faith Hill has become very well known, not only through her career, but also through advertisements with big companies such as Pepsi, and Cover Girl. Faith’s attractiveness leads to persuasion through a process of identification, because the speaker becomes motivated to seek some relationship with the source and adopts similar beliefs and preferences. Faith’s ads for Pepsi establish similarity, which refers to knowledge of the source through exposure. Her Pepsi ads, which are seen on TV and heard on the radio, are upbeat and trendy, it is the type of song that easily sticks in your head. This is an effective use of advertising because the audience relates Pepsi with Faith’s music, which makes them feel good. Faith also endorses Cover Girl makeup. Obviously, when a cosmetic company chooses someone to endorse their product it is because of their attractiveness. The receiver establishes likeability for the endorser and often times is influenced to adopt the same beliefs on the product. Especially with cosmetics, many young girls and women think Faith Hill is gorgeous, therefore they think that using the product might have a positive result. Faith Hill is an effective endorser for both of these products, because she establishes likeability and familiarity with her attractiveness and represents the products in a positive way.
Tennis player Anna Kournikova has become well known in the advertising world. Her credibility as an endorser for Adidas has been questioned; because many people think that she is only used for her attractiveness and not her talent. But attractiveness sells. Maybe people don’t see her as an extraordinary athlete, because she has yet to win a tournament, but there are people who gain likeability for her and the product she endorses because of her looks. Anna’s effectiveness as an endorser is not as positive as other celebrities such as Faith Hill, because she is not as well known, and because of the controversy over her and her advertising.
Grant Hill is has endorsed Fila since 1994. His credibility persuades the receiver. Credibility is important because the celebrity has to present him or herself as trustworthy and knowledgeable. Grant Hill has proven to be an excellent role model on and off the court. Because of this, the consumer trusts that he would endorse a product that he believes in. Grants trust in Fila is more credible because he has a certain level of expertise in the product, because he uses it everyday in his career as a basketball player. Fila’s use of Grant Hill to endorse their product has been very successful; they have seen significant increases in sales since Grant signed his contract with them.
The use of celebrities in advertising has become a very common and effective way of endorsing a product. There are three source factors used when choosing a celebrity to endorse a product, these include their credibility, attractiveness and power. It is important to analyze the effectiveness of the endorser in order to better understand the use of celebrities in endorsements. Next time you turn on the TV take a moment to watch some of these ads and what source factors are being used.