The trend for celebrity endorsements and for celebrities to have their own product lines has spread rapidly from sports and fashion to technology, appliances and accessories. Music star Dr Dre is promoting headphones made by his own company, Beats by Dr Dre. English cricketer Alastair Cook is the face of Samsung’s Series 9 and Simon Cowell is associated with Sony-branded X headphones.
According to a report by The NPD Group, only 16 per cent of respondents in their year-long study prefer celebrity-endorsed products. “The power of celebrity is still very important, but the dynamic is changing quite a bit,” Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst of The NPD Group, Inc. explained, adding: “It is no longer just a popularity contest; authenticity counts, too. Authenticity by way of actual, real world experience.” No wonder, then that one of the world’s best celebrity-endorsed products is Olympic boxer George Foreman’s own brand of non-stick grills.
Celebrity endorsements are big business. An article in the Journal of Advertising Research says stocks of companies endorsed by celebrities go up an average of 0.25 per cent while Business Insider states that $50 billion (about Dh184 billion) is invested globally in securing celebrity endorsements. And what celebrities say about the products they endorse is often worth the hefty fee that manufacturers pay them.
So English chef Jamie Oliver teamed up with Tefal on a range of kitchen appliances while another English chef, James Martin, has teamed up with Wahl for his food preparation range of appliances. Marco Pierre White works in association with Russell Hobbs to create sturdy appliances and two months ago, Heston Blumenthal lent his name to the Sage series of 16 kitchen appliances in the UK.
In the world of Chinese celebrity product endorsements, Jackie Chan is such a large and prominent fixture in advertisements that no one knows how many different brands he promotes. Last August saw a new series of commercials featuring Chinese actress Gong Li as a seductive housewife using Midea’s small electric appliances.
In India, female celebrity power is certainly taking centre stage in the appliances domain. In the last four years, several brands have associated with Indian actresses. Sony India roped in Deepika Padukone as the brand ambassador and invested Rs500 million (about Dh31 million) in a single year on marketing. Samsung India said it hoped for a 40 per cent jump in sales when it launched washing machines endorsed by Priyanka Chopra, even as Electrolux signed on Sonam Kapoor and Panasonic got Katrina Kaif and Dia Mirza.
In Australia, at May’s unveiling of the country’s first curved OLED TV, Lambro Skropidis, Marketing General Manager, LG, welcomed Ewan McGregor to the company’s celebrity stable. “Ewan will be a light post to our brand. People are always interested in what celebrities are up to.”
