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In addition, an effective endorser should not associate with many different products and fall in the trap of overexposure. Keep the consumer's mind clear from confusion and do not let him feel that you are in it for the money rather than truly believing in the brand.
The celebrity-brand saliency takes a beating if he is rummaging with several brands and distorts the brand image.

The Law of Diminishing Marginal Celebrity Utility would further ensure that the return on such investment would be nothing short of negative. The ad-recall and celebrity association depletes rapidly in such clutter-cases and, hence, the utility obtained by the brand takes a pitfall. An increasingly popular strategy is the employment of the product placement tactic in the movies or television shows featuring the sponsored celebrities. Remember when James Bond traded in his Ashton Martin for a BMW Z3 in the "Golden Eye"? Or the looming presence of FedEx in the Tom Hanks super-hit "Castaway"? The brand believes that with such peripheral routes of communication, it will be able to initiate an alternative channel in the identification process with the consumer. Coca-cola presented this strategy on the Indian scene with its multi-million product placement deal in the movie "Taal". It is so much like 'not in your face, and yet there', urging you passively. Research has again shown that the subliminal effects of such brand imagery tend to linger in the consumer memory for a longer time-period than the direct commercials.

Let us accept one thing - the world of advertising and brand building does not believe in the Laissez-Faire principle. Unless you reach out to the customer, make him think and nudge him that little bit, you will fall short of your targets and that is a cardinal sin, given the competition. The brand managers work on an extremely sleek, thought-controlling process which may be propounded as the Multiplier Effect. They are smart, pragmatic people and know very well that Mr. Singh, sitting in his cosy home in Delhi and watching his favourite action hero driving the brand new LX car model, would not walk up to the car showroom next day and book one for himself. They offer simple feelers like concept and lifestyle to him, which are inherent to the product advertisement, with or without the celebrity endorsement.

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