Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

Kathmandu University Media Studies

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

Rajan Kathet

MEDS 406 Prem Luitel July 08, 2011

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

The use of celebrity is regarded as one of the best strategies to deliver marketing communication (marcom) message and to increase recall rates for an Advertisement. Celebrities serve not only as spokesperson of the product but to create and maintain attention and to achieve high recall rates for marcom messages in today's highly cluttered environments. Katyal (2007) mentions that marketers spend enormous amounts of money annually on celebrity endorsement contracts based on the belief that celebrities are effective spokespeople for their products or brands (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.7). Use of celebrities for branding is still a dream of future for Nepali products since Made in Nepals are yet to be brands. Till now, they are just products manufactured in Nepal for a small category of middle and lower class Nepalese citizens. These products have not been able to grab the attention of people living in urban areas and belonging to high class families. There are very few brands (mostly trekking stuffs) making significant marks in the international level but they are not truly made in Nepal. They are kind of assembled goods- either raw materials from abroad or made in abroad based Nepalese companies. So, the thing called Brand rarely exists in true form in case of Nepal. From this poor market reality of Nepal, we can infer that celebrities are rarely endorsed for Television Commercials (TVCs) since the thing called Nepali Brand makes almost no existence around. This is why we have varying actors/ characters in TVCs but no Particular Brand Ambassadors. Nepal is either an emerging or a developing nation. It has nothing developed to fully fledged state- be it art or commerce. The state of market and commerce directly

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

affects the advertising industry. So, till now, very less products and services have dared to hire a famed celebrity as its brand ambassador to add value to the product/ service. If Im to remember Nepali TVCs those have always grabbed my attention then there are very few to mention: one of broadlink (animated) and another of Dish TV featuring Maha Duo (one of the most successful comedian and actors Madankrishna Shrestha and Haribansha Acharya). Nepalese TVCs have been found going through the problem of which celebrity to hire for the Ad-Face. Also, Nepal is such a nation that lacks high notched celebrities. It has almost no internationally acclaimed celebrity. According to (Kulkarni & Gaulankar, 2005) it is observed that the presence of a renowned persona helps in solving the problem of over communication that is becoming more and more prevalent these days (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.16). As in every society and nation, celebrities have always been fancied by a class and category of people. Only very few can be effective among all classes and ages alike Maha Duo in case of Nepal. Maha duo, along with commercial products and services, has engaged themselves in Public Service Announcements (PSAs) too. They have always been found effective in almost all of the works they do. Their stage performances, tele serials, movies, PSAs and TVCs have always grabbed the attention of public. Their recent tele serial Madanbahadur- Haribahadur and the TVC of Dish TV have been rated as highly viewed stuffs by general public. There might be very few who dont hold their remote button of the TV if it is broadcasting the TVC featuring Maha Duo since their works are always humor and message filled.

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

Maha duo, if looked from their past works to date of now, have always kept them safe from cheap comedies. There works always meant a social message and awareness. They have produced lots of telefilms and stage shows related to political awareness, health awareness, afforestation and social welfare. Their media productions for good cause are the main reasons why they are always considered credible. So, whatever products they are endorsed for, they become always famous and of public concern- if not the product then at least the performance of the duo. (It has not been researched yet on how much public installed the Dish TV in their homes after watching Maha Duo, but many of them with TV at their homes must have watched Maha Duos comic performances.) According Hovland (1953), the effectiveness of a communication is
commonly assumed to depend to a considerable extent upon who delivers it (as cited in

Surana, 2008, p.20). Ohanian (1990) mentions the expression source credibility is used
commonly to entail the communicators positive attributes that affect the recipients acceptance of a message (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.20)

This is why endorsing a right celebrity for a TVC becomes very much important. The idea behind this strategy is that consumers who like the celebrity will transfer their liking to the brand. For example, the Hajmola tries to transfer Amitabh Bachchan's image to the candy (Koirala, 2008, p.139). Taleja (2010) suggests several reasons why a famous endorser may be influential: They attract attention to the advertisement in the cluttered stream of messages. They are perceived as being more entertaining. They are seen as trustworthy because of apparent lack of self-interest.

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

The final element is due to the wide-spread attribution that major stars do not really work for the endorsement fee, but are motivated by genuine affection for the product (p.11).

Celebrities going through scandals can only damage the reputation of the products. Till (1996) asserts if the celebrity is strongly associated with the brand then the impact of the negative publicity will brim over to the product (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.17). Katyal (2007) mentions that companies have been badly affected by the negative publicity accruing from the celebritys misdeeds. One very prominent example is Pepsi which suffered with three tarnished celebrities - Mike Tyson, Madonna, and Michael Jackson (as cited in Surana, 2008, p.17). Celebrities transfer their value to the product. So, hiring a celebrity based on his/ her social background and moral conducts become very much influential since the first thing that grabs the attention of public is the celebrity but not the product. It does matter who is suggesting what to us.

Maha Duo- The Most Effective TVC Endorsers from Nepal

References Koirala, K. (2008). Advertising Theory and Practices. Kathmandu: Benhmark Education Support. Surana, R. (2008). The Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement in India. Degree of Master of Arts in Marketing, The University of Nottingham. Retrieved from: http://edissertations.nottingham.ac.uk/2069/1/08MAlixrs13.pdf Taleja, N. (2010). Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on Overall Brand. Retrieved from http://www.coolavenues.com/mba-journal/marketing/impact-celebrityendorsements-overall-brand-0