Celebrity endorsement, this is when a Brand uses a celebrity to help sell there product, service or charity. This may be in adverts, creating a line, or in the case of charity attending different events, fundraising or being a face of a charity. There are both advantages and disadvantages of using celebrity endorsements, for many brands it is about them being noticed, and catching the attention of there market and many brands think that by using a celebrity known in society it will help entice the consumers in.

One of the main points that have become noticeable is the way different genders see an advert and the gender of the celebrity in the advert. “There is some evidence that women may be more favorably disposed toward celebrity endorsers than men.” Lake, Reece, Rifon, (2010 page p30-32)
Lake et al (2010) showed in their study that men look at the more noticeable aspects of the advert where as the women look at it in a broader view and pick up different cues.
In one study done by (Peetz, Park and Spencer, 2004) the results showed that male athletes were known 4 times greater than women athletes are known, this may prove that for Brands advertising sportswear they may be more inclined to use a male campaigner. Although (Ohainian, 1991) stated in her study that gender it was not an issue, it was the perceptions of the celebrity’s attractiveness, trustworthiness or expertise. In recent years though some of the sporting celebrity’s have been putting their brands under strain due to the celebrity being in the media for bad reasons that may harm the brand. For example Tiger Woods was dropped by Nike due to the car crash and sex scandal Lake et al, (2010), this was spread throughout the media all over the world. Another negative according to Patel (2009), is that Brands could fall into the celebrity trap which is hard to get out of, once a celebrity is known as the brands face it is hard to change the public perception that they are linked together. Finally a celebrity may be used to endorse one brand but themselves use a different brand for example Catherine Zeta Jones was used as an endorser for Sainsbury’s but was seen shopping in Tesco’s which may give the general public an unsurety about shopping at Sainsbury’s Saurbh Katyal (2010)
However there are some positives that come out of celebrity endorsement, firstly as Lake et al say by the help of celebrity’s endorsement they will increase the awareness of the brand as having someone the consumer knows on the campaign it will help catch there attention, and make them more interested in finding out about the product.
Also having a celebrity will help differentiate it from one brand to the other for example David Beckham advertises for Adidas and Roger Federer for Nike. The two are sporting brands with different celebrity’s, which differentiate them. A further positive could be that the value that is associated with the celebrity is carried through to the brand/ product. Through this the brand can become established and through having the celebrity endorsement may see an increase in sales. (Sonwalkar, Kapse and Pathak).
A study was done by a Dutch team in which they scanned 24 women’s brains whilst they looked at different pairs of shoes, both with celebrities and non-celebrity’s modeling the shoes, and it was noticed that part of the brain became very active when a celebrity was modeling them. (BBC, 2010). As stated above it shows that women do pay more attention to celebrity endorsed ads.
Celebrity endorsements can also attract the younger markets, as youths often look up to celebrities as role models and if they see a celebrity advertising a product they may be more inclined to buy it, for example if David Beckham is advertising his new Adidas football boots, they will most probably want them because he looked up to by young people. “Using ethnographic analysis, found that young admirers consider celebrity idols as their idealized self-images.” (Caughey 1978, 1985, 1994).
Finally a celebrity can help revive a immobile brand by flushing new life into the brand for example when Gary Lineker starter advertising for Walkers or David Beckham for Brylcreem. Both Brands picked up sales significantly mainly because of the celebrity involved.
Today as social media is become such a phenomenon it is becoming easier for celebrities to endorse products. As Hampp (2011) says celebrities such as Kim Kardashian are being paid to Tweet and Facebook about the endorsements, so now more marketers are bringing in social media to their contracts. Today when using a celebrity it is becoming more and more asked about how many followers they have and their popularity (Klout) scores. They have even gone to the extreme of creating a new measurement tool called FanDNA, this compiles of data from the top actors, musicians, athletes and models, it works by rating them and setting there appeal to different groups. It also matches them with the brands that will work best for them. (Hampp, 2011). Although there are many negatives involved in celebrity endorsing, from looking at the information, there are more positive outcomes than negatives. The company’s can get more out of having celebrity endorsing products as they bring in the consumers and therefore the people who give them the capital to continue to work. Some celebrity’s have bought a new light to the brands and made them reinvent themselves.