Power of Advertising Essay

Power of Advertising Essay Advertising is a form of communication intended to influence an audience to buy or take some action upon products, services or ideals. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand. 1.1 Background of Study 1.1.1 The Importance / Power of Advertising Nowadays, many companies are using advertisement to attract customers and it plays an important role during product or services life stages. It is very difficult for a company to promote their new product or services if they do the promotion without a proper. For example, during introduction stage, the company needs to make sure the advertisement is attractive and able to deliver the new ideas to the customers as well as able to move to the second stage, which is the growth stage. The growth of the products or services highly depends on the advertisement. The last stage is the decline stage. It also needs to do more promotion or advertising in order to keep the customers interest on the products or services. If the company fails to do so, then the sales of the products will go down and the company will suffer losses. From this, we can conclude that how important advertisement is and it is the most influencing tool among other marketing tools. Companies can choose different media of advertisement, such as through advertising in newspaper, magazine, online and so on. It is all depend on the cost that the company is able and willing to pay. In the modern advertising strategies, various appeal such as sexual, shock, emotional, fear, and humors are included. These appeals tend to raise high brand awareness and brand recognition among a large audience. However, when using any of these appeals there is always a person included either someone unknown or in most cases a well known person. According to (McCracken, 1989), a well-known person tends to have a greater effect on the consumer buying behavior. 1.1.2 The Celebrity Involve in Advertising The reason for using celebrities as endorsers is due to their huge potential influence. Compared to other endorser types, famous people achieve a higher degree of attention and recall. They increase awareness of a companys advertising, create positive feelings towards brands and are perceived by consumers as more entertaining. Besides, using a celebrity in advertising is more likely to positively affect consumers brand attitudes and purchase intention. The celebrity endorser is a ubiquitous feature of modern marketing. In fact, to use an endorsement by celebrities is not a new phenomenon (Mehulkumar, 2005). For present purpose, the celebrity endorser is defined as any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement. Besides, celebrities have an ability to transfer their image to a specific product that being advertised. Many companies have realized the importance of celebrity endorsement as a marketing communication tool. By using these advertising tools, a company generates a high awareness among a larger audience as well as an increased market share in short run. Besides, the celebrity endorsement may materially improve financial returns for companies that employ them in their advertising campaigns. The importance of celebrity endorsers, however, does not lie in the fact that they are used by firms who wish to increase revenue, but in how these celebrities add value to a company, brand or product. Celebrities add value through the process of meaning transfer. The meaning transfer model suggests that celebrities develop a persona through the types of roles they play in society as well as how they are portrayed in the media. Collectively, the culturally constituted society then assigns meaning to celebrities (Amos, 2008). When celebrities endorse a product, the meaning developed around a particular celebrity will or at least it is hoped for by advertisers transfer to a company, brand, or product. Thus, when a consumer identifies with a celebrity (identification occurs when a person is willing to accept influence from another person) (Kelman, 2006), he/she purchases the product in the hope of claiming some of these transferred meanings for their own lives. 1.2 Research Problem International brands nowadays need advertising promotion because it helps to improve sales, and the content of advertisements mostly focused on endorser. However the culture of advertisement is differing, an endorsed advertisement should not only consider the types and nationality of endorser, but also the celebrity endorser/product fit. The success of an advertisement depends on the selection of an endorser. The endorser must be correctly chosen in order to deliver the right message to the public. For example Anlene in India, whose target audience is adults over 35 (and chiefly women) is being endorsed by dancer Mallika Sarabhai in another ad that uses Bharatanatyam to focus attention on the product. It is impossible to use the young celebrity to endorse the product because the target market is above 35 years old. Choosing the right endorser will increase customers confident towards the products, and at the same time, the sales will be increased as well. Finding a right endorser is quite a difficult task; they may or may not bring benefit to the company. First, celebrity source credibility is one of the factors; it had been divided into many types of credibility such as attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise and so on. Some argument has arisen that it is useless if company based of these celebrity source credibility but some support it. In this kind of situation, which type of endorser appeared to be better? So far there is no certain answer for this question. Second problem that will influence the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement advertisement is endorsers nationality. In fact, some international companies believe that it is more suitable to hire well-known international celebrities such as artists and model as endorsers for advertising purpose, for instance: LV and DKNY. However, some brands think that different country or place has different culture; therefore different endorser should be used. For example Nike will choose their local sport stars such as Michael Jordan as endorsers in America but in Asia countries, they will use Asian sport stars like Nakata Hidetoshi. Next is celebrity endorser/product fit. For reference, NBA star Yao Ming first appeared on a China telecommunication company, China Unicoms CDMA mobile phone advertisements as endorser, some doubted that Yao Ming who staying in United States really used the mentioned mobile before? Can his sporty and fresh image help shape a good brand image for CDMA? Of course, China Unicom only takes Yao Mings fame into consideration and did not analyze the fit of Yao Mings endorsement for CDMA mobile phone. In facts, even Michael Jordan, a famous international superstar is not suitable for every brand. The internal link between brand and brand endorser is determined by brand element. The elements of a brand decide which kind of endorser should be invited, if they do not match, there will be greater damage on the brand. Research Statement: How the celebrity endorsement advertisement is effective method of advertising? What is the impact or effect of celebrity endorsement advertisement towards the customers? What are the most important source effects of celebrity endorsement? What is the influence of endorsers nationality celebrity endorsement effectiveness? What effect does the celebrity endorser/product fit have on celebrity endorsement effectiveness? As conclusion, I would like to solve these problems by giving questionnaires to the customers in hypermarket (Malacca) and compile all the answers to make a clear report. Besides, I also would like to find some journals or articles from internet to prove my statement and eliminate my wrong perception. 1.3 Objective of study To identify the most important source effects of celebrity endorsement advertisement. To identify the influence of endorsers nationality on celebrity endorsement advertisement effectiveness. To investigate the effect celebrity endorser/product fit have on celebrity endorsement advertisement effectiveness. To identify the factors that influencing the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement advertisement. This study brings a lot of advantages because nowadays companies like to use celebrities to market their products. Through this study, companies can learn how to choose a right celebrity as an endorser to gain higher degree of attention. They can do some research by reading this study to get the idea on what are the factors that may influence the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement advertisement. The product profitability is mostly depending on the endorser because customers will get attracted by the endorser first. So, choosing the right celebrity as endorser is the important part to marketing their product. Besides, this study also brings some advantages to customer. This study lets us know that celebrity had the ability to transfer their image to a specific product that is being advertised. Celebrities add value through the process of meaning transfer which is celebrities develop a persona through the types of roles they play in society. Customers will purchases the product in hope of claiming some of these transferred meanings for their own lives. But, some companies had done some mistakes such as using the wrong endorser for their product. It may affect the perception of the customers. Through this study, customer may get smart by knowing which products are using the not appropriate celebrity. They will not claim the transferred meaning blindly. From this study, we know that it is very important because by using the right celebrity as endorser is very important. It may reflect the product development. We also can learn the factors such as source credibility, endorsers nationality, celebrity endorser/product fit may affect the effectiveness of advertisement by using celebrity. This study will give us a basic idea and knowledge if we are interested in marketing products. 1.4 Justification This study is made to discover the influences of source effects, nationality of endorsers and celebrity/product fit towards the celebrity endorsement effectiveness. The purpose for this study is to have better understanding towards endorsers nationality and fit in advertising culture. Source effects of endorser are measured according to three main dimensions of source credibility of endorsers proposed by Ohanian(1991). The effectiveness of the advertisement is highly based on the customers focus. We need to have better understanding towards the product target market in order to choose the right endorser. There is some difficulty in doing this study because there is no current research. The latest author found for this issue is around year 2000. The reason for me to choose this topic is because there are many companies like to use celebrities as an endorser for their product. The current issue is that not every endorser is suitable to become an endorser of a product. We are to find out the factors that may affect the effectiveness of advertisement, not merely using any celebrities although some may not be effective. This is an important issue where it directly affects the product being advertised. 1.5 Methodology This research will be organized into 3 chapters and the outline of each chapter is as follows: Chapter 1 (Introduction)Chapter one is the introduction for this study which tells us about the importance of advertising and the celebrity involve in advertising. A well-known person tends to have a greater influence on the consumer buying behavior but the problem is that not every endorser is suitable to become an endorser of a product. We are to find out the factors that may affect the effectiveness of advertisement, not merely using any celebrities although some may not be effective. This is an important issue where it directly affects the product being advertised. Chapter 2 (Literature Review)Chapter two is the literature review which reviews the past studies that have been done by the researchers related to it. This chapter will explain clearly about the dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable is celebrity endorsement effectiveness while the independent variables are celebrity source credibility, celebrity endorsers nationality and celebrity endorser/product fit. Chapter 3 (Research Mythology)Chapter three is the research methodology which shows the steps taken in conducting the survey such as research, handing out questionnaires, data collection and so on. To ensure the research finding to be more precise and accurate, this study relied on both primary and secondary data. In this study, the descriptive research which is a type of conclusive research that has its major objective or description of something will be used. Definitions: Celebrity: Celebrities are people who enjoy public recognition by a large share of a certain group of people (Christina, 2003). Whereas attributes like attractiveness, extraordinary lifestyle or special skills are just examples and specific common characteristics cannot be observed, it can be said that within a corresponding social group celebrities generally differ from the social norm and enjoy a high degree of public awareness (Wikipedia, 2010). Celebrity Endorsers: McCracken (1989) has defined celebrity endorser as any individual who enjoys public cognition and who uses this cognition on behalf of a consumer by appearing with in an advertisement. Meaning Transfer Model: McCracken (1989) suggested a meaning transfer model that is composed of three subsequent stages. First, the meaning associated with the famous person moves from the endorser to the product or brand. Thus, meanings attributed to the celebrity become associated with the brand in the consumers mind. Finally, in the consumption process, the brands meaning is acquired by the customer. The third stage of the model explicitly shows the importance of the consumers role in the process of endorsing brands with famous persons. Ohanian(1990) established the source credibility model and defined expertise as the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertions and Trustworthiness as the degree of confidence in the communicators intent to communicate the assertions he considers most valid. Source attractiveness does not refer only to physical attractiveness but also related to three more general concepts: similarity, familiarity, and liking. Negative Celebrity Information Repeated pairings of a brand and celebrity strengthen the associative link consumers establish between brand and celebrity, negative information about the celebrity may negatively impact the endorsed brand (Erdogan, Baker, Tagg, 2001) 1.6 Delimitation of Scope This study contains few current journals or study. The current author had found is around year 2000. So, it is quite hard to find the journals later than year 2005. This researchs scope will focus on shoppers in Malacca who had exposed to advertisements and act as decision maker during shopping. These shoppers were mostly approached at hypermarkets or malls in Malacca.