Celebrity Endorsement in India

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In India, celebrities are idolized as Gods and marketers have been trying their best to tap on this emotional connect of the people with the celebrities. Today, most of the popular brands are being endorsed by a famous personality either from entertainment industry or sports arena. Strategic brand positioning and effective communication are the keys to success in today's market where many brands compete in the same category for the market share. Companies are employing their maximum might to promote their brands and occupy a long lasting image in the minds of the consumers.

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In India, television is the most popular and effective means of the mass communication. There are over three million television commercials being aired every year. However, 80 percent of them are forgotten by the people in a day or two.

So, it is imperative for the marketers to ensure that their ad campaign stands out amongst the crowd (Suhalka, n.d.). Since advertising is a highly critical tool for luring customers to make purchases, Indian firms are investing millions of rupees on celebrity advertising (Khatri, 2006).

Celebrity endorsements are also an easy option for Indian marketers because of the disparities of the Indian consumer base in terms of religion, ethinicity, value system and most importantly economic variations. Therefore, advertisers in India emphasis a lot on brand recall and customer persuasion for differentiating their ad campaigns from those of the counterparts. It is here that celebrity endorsement provides a tremendous boost (Surana, 2008). For instance, one of the strongest celebrity endorser is cricketer Sachin Tendulkar who is a youth icon and endorses many successful brands like, Pepsi, Boost, Aviva Life Insurance, TVS, Britannia Biscuits, Visa, Airtel etc.

Like, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor also have many brands in their kitties.

Indians love their celebrities and blindly follow their suit. This has proved to be a boon for the marketers and celebrity endorsement is just getting better by the day. It has now become an indispensible part of the marketing communication strategy. It is a win ?win situation for both the celebrities and the brands. However, the consumers are ones who are least benefitted as they end up paying more for the products and services.

References:

• Khatri, P., 2006. Celebrity Endorsement: A Strategic Promotion Perspective. Indian Media Studies Journal, 1(1).Pp. 25-37 • Suhalka,G.n.d. Celebrity Endorsers and Endorsements in India- The Rise and the Impact [pdf] Available at: http://www.ndtvmi.com/b4/dopesheets/garima.pdf [Accessed 18 February 2012] • Surana,R., 2008. The Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement in India [pdf] Available at: http://edissertations.nottingham.ac.uk/2069/1/08MAlixrs13.pdf [Accessed 18 February 2012]