Brand Management Assignment: How Do Celebrities Become Brands?

Question

Task: Prepare a detailed brand management assignment on the topic “How do celebrities become brands?”. Please reference critical marketing theory and give relevant examples to illustrate your answer.

Answer

Introduction to brand management assignment:
The celebrity branding is the term which is used for the marketing campaign, and they are also used as one of the successful marketing strategies by the companies and other marketers. Marketers are targeting various methods so that they are able to reach the customers easily without any hassle and also get the better return on investments (Choiet al. 2015). The question which arises is how the celebrities’ become brands is all in the roots of the marketing technique which are used by the marketers and the theory which is applicable in the following case showcase the proper understanding of the following question. The following report is to showcase how the celebrities’ become brands and how they are used by the marketers.

Reach of Celebrity:
When it comes to the reach of the celebrity is effective if the product is able to reach the large number of consumers in the market. Other than that, it is also effective if the celebrity is famous and also, they are having the reach to a large number of consumers in the market. The reach of the brands could be defined as the number of people who have heard or seen the product and their message at least ones (Centeno, 2017). The reach of the celebrity is also defined as the number of followers they are able to reach the product to the consumers in the market with the help of their social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram and twitter. Some of the examples of celebrities who have become a brand and they have a huge reach of followers around the world such as Cristiano Ronaldo with 116 million.

Celebrity endorsements and how they become a brand:
The use of the celebrity endorsement is one of the most effective strategy which are used by the marketers and also, they are able to address the needs and demands of the consumers. Moreover, it also helps in conducting the decision making towards the promotion of the product or the brand in the market. Now the question which needs to be addressed is how the celebrities become the brand. Brands are generally defined as the things which are having a huge reach to the people (Hossain, 2020). Therefore, when it comes to the celebrities as discussed above such as Cristiano Ronaldo who is having and reach of 116 million, they are able to reach that number of people with the help of his social media. Therefore, it is the marketers who are making use of the following and they make the celebrities brands using which they are able to reach the customers.
The theory which is applicable in the following using which the marketers are making the celebrities their brands and using the image of the brand to reach the consumers. The following theory is showing the effectiveness of reaching the customers and the promotion of the product. It is the psychological mind of the consumers that they are trying to imitate their favorite celebrity. The theory which is applicable in the following case is the Celebrity endorsement theory (Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018). According to the theory they are connecting the celebrity to the product they are using and thus based on that, they are trying to make a memorable experience for them. Below is the conceptual model which showcase the same of how the celebrity endorsement theory is applicable.

Figure 1: Conceptual model of celebrity endorsement theory
Source: Wang and Scheinbaum, (2018)

The marketers are using the celebrity which are fit for the product and based on that they are using the following celebrity to reach the consumers who are imitating and favoring the likeliness of the following celebrity. The diagram above showcases the same and using the same technique they are able to reach the consumers (Wang and Scheinbaum,2018). It is not the celebrity who are the brands in the market, rather it is the people who are following the celebrities favoring the products they are using and using that, the marketers are making the celebrities as the brand and using them to reach the consumers.

People tend to follow the people more who they like the most.
The theory also explains the meaning that, the transmission of the meaning of the celebrity and the product and how they are reaching that meaning of the product to the consumer. The celebrity endorsers the attractiveness which is having a positive impact on the recall of the ads. Using the credibility with the products of the consumers, they are communicating the message which is related to the characters of the celebrity which is in sync with the product they are using. The final is related to the expertise and the trustworthiness of the celebrity among the consumers (GERA and BALI,2019).
Therefore, using the following the celebrity are becoming a brand as a whole who are having the ability to reach the consumers in the market.

Advantage and disadvantage for celebrity:
As the celebrities become a brand, they are having various advantages and disadvantages and they are as follows:
Advantage:
• Having a positive image: When the celebrities are becoming the endorser of the brands, they are having a positive image and they gain the same reputation of the brand they are associating with.
• Income: The brands pay a huge amount to the celebrities for the endorsement of the product. Therefore, they are gaining more money when they are associated with the brand.
• Fame: Other than that, when they are associated with the brand, they are able to gain more fame in the market as the followers of the brand are also following the celebrity in the process (Raphael and Lam, 2017).

Disadvantage:
However, on the other hand there are certain disadvantage as well associated with the following and they are as follows:
• Losing the credibility: One of the primary issues which the celebrities can face while becoming a brand is that, when the brand they are associated with does something which is deemed to be unacceptable the impact can also be seen on the reputation of the celebrity. The celebrity will also be associated with the brand when the unacceptable things are done by the associated brands.
• Putting off the other endorsements: When they are associated with one brand, they could be losing on other brands in the endorsement products. Moreover, they could be missing out on other brands or products in the market. This is possible when they try to endorse the product which are operating on the same market (KHUNTETA and KHUNTETA, 2020).

Conclusion:
The primary purpose of the following report was to understand how the celebrities are becoming brands. Therefore, to understand the following the brands and marketers’ involvement with the celebrity have been taken into consideration. Moreover, the use of celebrity endorsement theory is also considered in the following which showcase how the celebrities endorse a product to the consumers by becoming a brand themselves. Lastly, the advantage and disadvantage of becoming a brand as a celebrity is taken into consideration.

References:
Centeno, D., (2017). soCIalmedIa stakeholder Co-CreatIonoFCelebrItIes as human brands. In Contemporary Issues in Social Media Marketing (pp. 60-74). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315563312-5/social-media-stakeholder-co-creation-celebrities-human-brands-dave-centeno

Choi, H., Pang, S. and Choi, S.M., (2015). When Celebrities Become Brands. ACR Asia-Pacific Advances. https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/ap11/apacr_vol11_1018938.pdf GERA, N. and BALI, A., (2019). A STUDY ON CELEBRITY ADVERTISING OF ONLINE BRANDS. https://www.ijrssh.com/admin/upload/1501650355_NEHA_GERA_10.pdf

Hossain, T., (2020). From Influencer to Brand: How Social Media Influencers Become Brands. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/342685/Thesis.pdfsequence=2
KHUNTETA, B. and KHUNTETA, A., (2020). Customer perception about celebrity endorsement for retail brands. http://scientificresearchjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Social-Science-4_A-125-131-Full-Paper.pdf
Raphael, J. and Lam, C. eds., (2017). Becoming brands: celebrity, activism and politics. Brand management assignmentWaterHill Publishing. http://waterhillpublishing.com/bkimg/becombrandstocchap1.pdf
Wang, S.W. and Scheinbaum, A.C., (2018). Enhancing brand credibility via celebrity endorsement: Trustworthiness trumps attractiveness and expertise. Journal of Advertising Research, 58(1), pp.16-32. http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/58/1/16.short