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A. Factors

I. Product

Not every brand can and should be endorsed by celebrities. The brand's image, personality & the buying involvement of the customer would determine whether or not a celebrity endorsement would be effective and also identify its endorser.

Research has proved that consumers would react more favourably to celebrity endorsers as against experts or typical - consumer endorser in products which are high on psychological and / or social risk. The celebrity creates a positive image and significantly impacts consumer's intention-to-buy. Also, for products having aspiration value e.g. premium watches, cars, the celebrity creates the aura of elitism. Furthermore, products with high financial, performance or physical risk such as mutual funds, medical equipments, are evaluated more favorably when endorsed by a professional expert rather than by a celebrity. For products which are low in all five types of risk, typical consumer - endorsers are most effective since the consumers can relate to the character (Hershey H. Friedman and Linda Friedman).

II. Endorser

An Endorser can be defined as, "Any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement" {McCracken (1989)}. An endorser not only plays a critical role in catching the attention of the target audience but by influencing the beliefs, opinions, attitudes and behavior of the consumer is also effective in sustaining brand recall of the advertisement, product hence improving the intention to buy.

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* Contributed by: -
Ankur Khera & Rahul Chowdhury,
PGPM - Batch 2004,
Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon.