Celebrity endorsement marketing campaigns assignment

The argument is that through internalization, the message from the celebrity endorser can influence opinions, beliefs, attitudes and behavior. Another model looked at source attractiveness (McGuire, 1985). This argues that consumers generally have a more positive attitude towards attractive people. Use of models and attractive people is a fairly common phenomenon in the world of celebrity endorsement. One model that is considered to take it a step further is the Meaning Transfer Model (McCracken, 1989).

It demonstrates that celebrity endorsers bring their own symbolic meaning into the endorsement process. The strengths of this model are that it considers celebrity status, class, gender, age, lifestyle, and personality. Many people see themselves as they imagine others see them. This type of theory is relevant to the Reebok campaign that works on self image and allowing people to be who they are (I am what I am). Solomon (2002) speaks about celebrities being most effective in situations involving high social risk, where the buyer is aware of the impression peers will have of him or her.

This is largely undertaken to connect with the different and diverse target audiences of their products. One should be careful however in this strategy to take care of the core brand values, especially when using several different celebrities to endorse the core brand. Hsu and McDonald (2002) found that endorsing a product with multiple celebrities can be beneficial in attracting the different target audiences of the product for example the milk mustache campaign. There is not a lot of literature on the negative aspects of celebrity endorsement.

There are many things regarding celebrities that companies can not control, for example the celebrities’ private life, their fame and the message that they may deliver to the consumers. Unsolicited highly public support from controversial celebrities also works in this manner. Although there may not be an official association, and people recognize that, but it certainly could have a very subliminal effect that could degrade the product. Britney Spears frequent unsolicited endorsement of Cheetos now has the company launching a massive multi-platform campaign to rebrand their mascot.