Defining a brand through ‘face’ value

By Puja Gupta

New Delhi, Dec 20 (SocialNews.XYZ) Celebrity branding has become a trend. In fact, branding has evolved from a single celebrity ambassador to multiple celebrities endorsing the same brand. For example, the advertising campaigns of Asian Paints features Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, Make My Trip has roped in Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, Manyavar has roped in Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma and so on.

With a mass appeal and distinctive charm, a popular film star or any other celebrity add more sheen to a brand as its face, believe many. Celebrity branding helps customers understand the brand, increases demand for the product and establish the credibility of the brand.

Arush Gupta, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Okaya Power Private Ltd. which roped in Ranveer Singh as its brand ambassador says: "People think that because a film star is a part of a brand, he must be genuinely supporting that brand which results in more demand for the product line. Moreover, celebrity endorsements also help the consumers to initially understand the product and it further helps the brand to reach out to their target audience more effectively in comparison to any other kind of advertisement campaign."

A celebrity face not only increases the attractiveness of the brand but also easily spreads awareness and positive messages about the brand among the people who later get converted into potential customers. However, it's imperative to choose the brand ambassador carefully, someone the customers can relate to, he says.

Celebrity association has been a proven strategy of creatively breaking through the clutter and consumers even show higher recall of products being promoted by a celebrity regardless of the fact whether they idolize that particular celebrity or not.

For a new brand, getting a celebrity face associated with it is a sure-shot way to attain instant popularity, success, and growth in sales.

"Having a known face aboard as brand ambassador helps in bringing credibility and a level of trust amongst the consumers," Sanjay Gupta, Chief Managing Director, APL Apollo Tubes Ltd which has Amitabh Bachchan on-board.

"For a brand like ours, the idea was to increase brand awareness with immediate results. However, the marketing strategy, in general, remains centered around getting a value boost with the right celebrity. Moving ahead with its vision, we have appointed Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador for all brands housed under APL Apollo," he says.

"The contract entails to endorse and promote the innovative product line of APL Apollo. With this association, we are looking to strengthen its pan-India presence on the back of the growing popularity of its state-of-the-art product range."

Celebrity branding does help in getting the initial eyeballs but then the real impact is totally based on the quality product that is being doled out. The strategy is to bring the customer across the table where they can get complete information about the project and the company. This initial push is important and depending on the capability of the company the final deal can be cracked. After the first push what matters is the price, location, facilities, timely delivery, and quality, etc.

"Celebrities can attract a customer towards a brand but then the only thing that customers want from that brand is the fulfillment of the promises, timely possession, and value for money," says Pradeep Aggarwal, Founder, and Chairman, Signature Global and Chairman, National Council on Affordable Housing, ASSOCHAM, which has Vidya Balan as its brand face.

"It is more about growing competition and to get the maximum attraction towards the brand, which translates into inquiries. In our case -- affordable housing -- the need is more due to the lack of awareness about the availability of good homes in people's budget," he says.

"People easily connect with Vidya Balan and respect the simple image that she carries with elan. Thus, we chose her as homebuyers connect to her, and she also talks about government schemes. She is a perfect fit when we talk about anything that relates to the betterment of lives. So in this case, it is about putting across the message by using the right medium/ambassador."

(Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in)

Source: IANS