Are brand ambassadors passé?








Brand ambassadors can bring to life the values, images and emotions associated with a brand1. Choosing a brand ambassador is an extremely critical choice – as you are transferring the essence of the brand to a living being, with his/her characteristics, attitudes and personality traits. Choosing the right celebrity can act as a financial force multiplier for the brand2 as consumers equate and synonymize the brand with the celebrity – putting the brand at peril if there is incongruity between the brand and the brand ambassador.

Published research in 20113 proves that brands that engage with top celebrities generate on average $10 million in additional sales annually and nearly a 0.25% increase in stock returns. In light of the incidents of negative celebrity news impacting brand endorsements, is a brand ambassador still relevant today? Is there evidence that delinquent celebrity behavior actually impairs brand valuation? Is it worth the risk (and rewards) to engage with a brand ambassador?

Being a brand ambassador is a 24-hour responsibility, not just for the celebrity – who has to ensure that are living the brand they are representing. If this is the slightest incongruence in this, the fakeness is transparently visible for all to see. Moving from the involuntary incongruence to the more voluntary, negligent behavior, recent incidents involving celebrities such as Tiger Woods and Maria Sharapova pose questions for brand manager everywhere. Would brand custodians be fair to ask celebrities not to engage in behavior that they perceive could damage the brand? More so, would celebrities be willing to accept this? Extremely doubtful.

Moving on - the product endorsement space is itself diverse, product endorsements or brand ambassadors for luxury products may be acceptable – but are they needed for everyday FMCG goods? Are the consumers okay with celebrity product endorsements of consumable goods? The problem is that atleast in a few countries (like India) celebrity brand endorsement is endemic, almost like a crutch on which sub par consumer products hope to ride on in order to create short term visibility and gains.

The celebrity endorsement space worked in the past, 80s, 90s, and upto some extent early 2000s. So what has changed from then to now? It is the democratization of information – of the kind that impacts the FMCG space. Information - competitive information, product category information, brand information, customer reviews - is so easily available online. The increasingly savvy customers are making informed choices not based on who is peddling  what product, but based on the product that fits right into their need / price matrix – and then it doesn’t matter as much which celebrity sells it. The fact that you don’t need a celebrity brand ambassador for this market is amply proved by the spate of recent lean advertisements for a home grown FMCG brand in India (Patanjali Ayurved, revenues in excess of Rs 2,500 crore4)– sold purely on the perception and of course, some pretty smart marketing that hurts the bigger spenders. Also, brands and brand ambassadors are now at the risk of exposing themselves to an extremely cynical and oversaturated audience who already know that one of the main influencing variables for the celebrity is advertising the product is the brand endorsement fee. Are they actually using the product? Umm, no. Then why are they choosing to represent the product? Is there not something fake about this? Ad fatigue is at an all time high - people don’t trust ads3. Are brand managers realizing that the smarter they think they are getting at positioning ads that don’t appear as ads (advertorials, native advertising) the smarter the consumers (especially the urban consumers) also get at identifying content with conflict of interest.

Ambassadors should appear as if they would choose your brand proudly on their own, even if there was no commercial gain1 and this is what is most deceptive now. It does make some sense when Roger Federer talks about Mercedes or when you see Mila Kunis being the brand ambassador for Dior – there is a certain congruence between the product / brand values and the celebrity values. But whenever there is a chasm between the product lifestyle and the celebrity lifestyle, there will be disparity. For example, which Bollywood celebrity would use the products (hair products, skincare products, kitchen products) that they so soullessly endorse? Why get a celebrity to endorse a product which is so distant from their lifestyle, so farcical that it ends up alienating the intelligent consumer?

Most brand ambassadors that we see on TV/print/radio are those that the aware audience knows that are not synergetic with the product. Instead, would it be better to see slice of life advertisements that perhaps are slightly more authentic and a little less soul-less?So in what situations would it help FMCG brands to engage with celebrity brand ambassadors?

Awareness Generation and Discoverability

If you are launching a new product and you need instant visibility (and you have the budget), then a brand ambassador can help you by generating word of mouth (good / bad). Not a big fan of this, but it can help. Again incongruence can ruin a product in the long-term, despite short term wins.Of course, the ultimate test of market is a good product. No celebrity can save a sub par product, an initial spike in sales, yes. Sustained growth – no.

Social Cause /Social Awareness

In case you are running a campaign for a social cause, for example, to prevent drunken driving, then yes, it makes absolute sense to engage with a celebrity brand ambassador. In fact, this is exactly the kind of influence that celebrities can positively extend. The audience that this campaign would speak to would recognize and resonate the message communicated by the celebrity.

Controversies

Say you just side stepped into difficult territory brand-wise. In case you need to build public opinion, provide clarification, clear controversies, explain your position, using a celebrity can help. The best is to be authentic and honest and use slice of life scenarios again (case in point, Maggi, who used this really well), but a celebrity brand ambassador can help greatly.This is just my opinion – has your experience in managing brand endorsements been any different? Do write back at blogbox24x7@gmail.com.


 References
1. Are brand ambassadors still relevant for luxury marketers? Rachel Lamb, August 22, 2012, http://goo.gl/bl7KJk
2. Why Celebrity Endorsements Are Relevant in 2016 and Choosing The Right Match, Hannah Chapple, January 05, 2016, http://goo.gl/JipjZZ
3. The Economic Value of Celebrity Endorsements, Elberse and Verleun, http://goo.gl/cJaoFH
4.    The Difference Between Brand Advocates, Brand Ambassadors and Micro-Influencers, Caroline Burke, January 21, 2016, http://goo.gl/O3FWbt
5.    Baba Ramdev's Patanjali bigger than Emami and Jyothy Labs, wish it was listed: CLSA report, Jwalit Vyas, ET Bureau Aug 28, 2015
 

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