BLog 10: CeleBrities that Help (+) or Hurt (-) brand values . (Public Relations)

As we have seen throughout the course, advertisers always try to reach their target market by all kinds of original ways to enhance their clients to choose them from among the competition. Therefore, one of the most successful and common practices to advertise brands is through endorsement from public figures, in which celebrities act as the brand’s spokesperson and certify the brand’s claim and position by extending their personality, popularity, and expertise in the field to the brand.

One of the most successful examples of a company which has fruitfully taken advantage of a brand endorser is Nike. In the present, this company has created a very strong brand identity and a brand personality thanks to the use of the celebrity endorsement practice as one of the main channels of communicating its brand to a highly focused set of customers. Today, Nike is known around the world for being one of the most outstanding brands because it was recently ranked as the world’s 31st most valuable brand in terms of its brand value by the annual Business Week’s global top 100 brand survey. Nike has achieved this because it´s very well known for its consistent use of celebrities to endorse the brand. In fact one of the most successful collaborations between the brand and a celebrity is the one with Nike and Michael Jordan. So successful was the collaboration, that Nike and Jordan launched a new brand variant called the “Air Jordan” line of sport shoes. Moreover, Nike pulled off a very similar coup in the sports industry when it joined forces with the ace golfer Tiger Woods to enter the golf category with its apparel, equipment and accessories. Nike had no experience in golf before. In addition, golf being a very elite game, it was generally considered that a brand like Nike would not be very successful. But even if this might have probably been true, this made Nike choose to associate with the best golfer in the world and have him endorse the brand. And as it´s known today, Nike has emerged highly successful in golf. Consequently we can observe how Jordan and Woods have highly profited the company from their image and expertise in the sport industry by enhancing the value of the brand.

Another great example of a celebrity endorsement is the one of David Beckham with a number of important companies. For example: Armani underwear, Motorola's Global Brand, Adidas, Pepsi, Gillette, Vodafone, Police Sunglasses, Got Milk?, Snickers, TBC cosmetics, Marks and Spencer, Coty Perfumes, etc.

Just talking about the relation between Armani Underwear and Beckham we can decipher how this great endorser really has a positive impact on clients, because even if men are not physically attracted to the endorser, this was a very impacting campaign towards women who like to buy their partner their underwear clothing. Therefore, as this relation between Beckham and Armani, we can describe the other relations between Beckham and the other brands because this example show us how an attractive endorser (physical appearance, intellectual capabilities, athletic competence, expertise, trustworthiness and lifestyle) has most of the time a positive impact on the brand endorsed, and as a result, this positive endorsement helps to increase the brands value.

On the other hand, we can observe how brands strongly associated with celebrity endorsers who happen to be targets of highly unfavorable publicity are likely to risk losing their positive appeal and credibility fast. For example, the brand Hertz suffered in image ratings when its endorser, O.J. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. Consequently, this fact had a very negative effect on the brand value hurting the company´s position.

Finally, with this work I recognize that celebrity endorsements have several benefits, like building credibility and getting attention of the public, which can translate into higher sales. But at the same time I recognize that brands associated with endorsers who are targets of harsh publicity can just in a few seconds lose or diminish the companies´ brands value, so companies need to be very attentive when choosing their endorsers.

REFERENCES:
Jordan BrandHistory.RetrievedNovember8th2008.Fromhttp://www.sneakerhead.com/jordan-brand-history.html
Asis K. (2004) “Downside of celebrity endorsement” Daily Inquirer Business Features Section. RetrievedNovember8,2008.Fromhttp://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:JRV6S2emw3YJ:www.karendeasis.com/articles/downside_of_celebrity_endorsements.pdf+negative+brand+endorsers&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=mx