A person is exposed to many advertisements every day and every brand tries its best to grab attention of the

potential customers. It uses different strategies to create awareness about their brand and the product it offers. Celebrity endorsement is one such way.

The usage of celebrities in Indian advertising has increased phenomenally in the last 5 years. Celebrity endorsement is used as a strategy for bridging the gap of effective communication between the marketers and the consumers. [1]According to McCracken (1989), a celebrity could be defined as, any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition when they appear in the advertisement in front of the consumers.
[2]

According to (Kamen, Azhari and Kragh, 1975), a celebrity spokesperson may play multiple

roles like that of a spokesperson, endorser, provider of a testimonial, or an actor. A spokesperson represents the company or brand like a salesman, while an endorser is associated with the brand even though he may not be an expert in the product category of the brand. In case of testimonials, the superiority of the product is attested by an individual or the personal experience of the celebrity. Lastly, the celebrity actor is only a character in a dramatic presentation in the advertisement.
[3]

According to Atkin and Block (1983), celebrity endorsers have been found to produce

more positive responses towards advertising and greater purchase intentions. Theory and practice proves that use of celebrities in advertising generates lots of publicity and attention (Ohanian, 1991)[4]. [5]Dean and Biswas (2001) in their study indicate that celebrity endorsement can result in more favorable advertisement ratings and product evaluations.

REFERENCES: 1. McCracken, G (1989). Who is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundation of the Endorsement Process, Journal of Consumer Research, 16(3), 310-321. 2. Kamen, J M; Azhari, A C and Kragh, J R (1975). What a Spokesman Does for a Sponsor, Journal of Advertising Research, 15(2), 17-24. 3. Atkin C and Block M (1983), Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsers, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 57-61.

4. Ohanian R (1991), The Impact of Celebrity Spokespersons Perceived Image on Consumers Intention to Purchase, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 46-54. 5. Dean D and Biswas A (2001), Third-Party Organization Endorsement of Products: An Advertising Cue Affecting Consumer Pre-Purchase Evaluation of Goods and Services, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 41-57.

Ibrahim (2010) in his studies examined how effective is the use of celebrities to generate what a consumer intends to buy and different products that they can choose and provide this research as a helping hand to the different marketers and advertising agencies. It was found that celebrity endorsement did not play a major role in affecting the buying behavior of consumers. Although celebrity endorsement may increase the brand awareness, purchase intention is not effectively influenced. This is also supported by McCracken (1989) in his finding that every celebrity endorser carries an image that he/she passes to the product being endorsed and further to the target consumers. Contrary to this, Mehta (1994) pointed out in her studies that this does not hold true. In her study she exposed a split sample to two different test commercials, one with a celebrity and one without. Although there was no significant difference in the measurement post exposure, the cognitive responses during exposure indicated a variation. It was found that in the commercial with celebrities a consumers attention was stolen away from the product. According to McCracken (1989) there are four modes of celebrity portrayal: Explicit mode (the celebrity overtly declares the product endorsement), Implicit mode (physical or verbal communication is used by the celebrity), Imperative mode (the celebrity suggests the viewers to use the product), Co-present mode (the celebrity only appears with the product). Applying this model to Indian Television Commercials, Jain, Roy et al (2010) found that almost 64% of commercials used implicit mode, with more use of film celebrities as compared to sports celebrities. Also, that there exists a gender divide with male celebrities endorsing food and beverages, automobiles and consumer durables while female celebrities endorsing beauty products.

McCracken, Grant (1989), "Who is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundation of the Endorsement Process, Journal of Consumer Research, 16(3), pp.310-321. Mehta, .Ablihasha (1994), "Advertising Response Modelling (ARM) Can Increase Ad

Effectiveness," Journal of Advertising Research, 34, No 3 pp 62-74. Ibrahim, A.M. Alnawas, (). The Influence of Using Celebrities on Consumers Buying Behavior. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business. 2 (1), pp.27
Jain V, Roy S, Daswani A and Sudha M, (2010). How Celebrities are Used in Indian Television Commercials. Vikalpa. 35 (4), pp.9

Celebrity endorsement is nowadays most sought after way to become successful in the Indian Advertising world. Celebrities are the most effective way to catch attention of masses. Ads of different varieties are can be found everywhere with a common motive to publicize the product and inform the people. And for the same task different celebrities like famous athletes, musicians, film stars are made to feature in advertisements. According to Clark & Horstman, (2003), if a consumer observes the advertisement of two products of same category but of different firms, one having a celebrity endorsement and the other without celebrity endorsement, they believe that the celebrity endorsed product would be of higher value and would invite more purchases than noncelebrity endorsed one. There are certain parameters that determine the success of celebrity endorsement like credibility, profession, values, attractiveness, popularity, etc. India uses celebrity endorsement as a winning formula today. It helps the companies to retain their consumers. But the selection of a celebrity with less familiarity doesnt help the brand. So it is important to find a familiar and a popular face that can effectively help in creating a positive impact on the buying behavior of consumers.

Article name: Impact of Celebrity Advertisements: Bollywood Vs Cricket Stars by SK Dubey, Pradeep Agrawal
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