A great marketing tactic is to use celebrities to endorse brands or products. Celebrities have a broad reach and can give a face and meaning to a brand. Some recent examples include Jennifer Aniston for EyeLove and Smart Water, Tim McGraw promoting America’s Diabetes Challenge, and Lady Gaga for Tiffany.
Pairing a celebrity with a brand or campaign can be very tricky. It starts with a thorough understanding of the target customer. Marketers need to consider the target customer’s age, gender, lifestyle, behavior, occupation, and more. Then, a celebrity spokesperson has to be chosen, and available, to match with the customer and brand.
The celebrity has to be a person who the target market will identify with, and have personal credibility for representing the brand. In essence, the celebrity becomes the ‘source’ of information about the company. And, any celebrity missteps can be disastrous to a brand. (Remember Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and Jerod the Subway guy?)
Who do you find credible?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss the importance that celebrities play in brand endorsements.
- Have students list all of the celebrities-brands links they can remember.
- Show a few videos of celebrity spokespeople:
Jennifer Aniston: https://youtu.be/Tv4u6aI0aaE
Adam Levine: https://youtu.be/xj7hJipn9K0
Tim McGraw: https://youtu.be/3CupTlT0AXk
- What makes these pairings successful?
- Divide students into team. Have each team select a product or brand and then find a celebrity who could successfully endorse the brand.
- Debrief: Poll students about their opinions about the suggested pairings. Why were the celebrities selected?
Source: Brandchannel.com, Ad Age Daily
