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This is the power of celebrity advertising and it is what corporations across the globe pray to transform into ringing cash registers. The advertisers believe that brand images built through celebrities achieve a higher degree of attention and recall for consumers, eventually leading to higher sales.
Undoubtedly, the potential benefits of using celebrity advertising to promote brand images and products are significant, but so are the costs and associated risks. Nevertheless, companies are willing to play the game. Love them or loathe them, celebrities have emerged as frontline warriors in the war of brands and competitive advertising.

The celebrity-factor phenomenon seems so simple and yet it is intricate enough to send millions of money washed down without as much as a blink. There is no doubt whatsoever after decades of strong evidence, that celebrities indeed deliver a premium in terms of impact and memorability, not only to the promotion's direct audience but also to their related sets like friends and family. The use of celebrities is a testimony to their ability to cut through the clutter and reach the brand's target audience immediately and effectively. But then, if this were the sole case, names like Michael Jackson or Md. Azharuddin would not cause many furrows. Hence, it becomes clear that any celebrity endorsement is a two-way funnel between the personality and the product wherein both take upon each other's image and responsibility. This brings us to a delicate ground wherein we need to carefully assess the impact of celebrity cajoling on consumer perception and purchase behaviour.

The immediate question which comes to the mind is "Why celebrities", when the same money can be used to promote the same brand in myriad ways through non-celebrity figures. It would do us well to realize that in this era of slick competition, speed is the key. Celebrities reflect the modern society, transfer their associated qualities to the brand and project a living, breathing image to the product as opposed to a faceless entity. This triggers a chain of social influence which allows the consumers to be in accord instantly with the communicated attitude.

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* Contributed by: -
Rahul Dhanuka,
Class of 2006,
Indian Institute of Management, Indore.