<p>Agree with ema. The celebrities are used for endorsements to get your attention. If you pay attention, you might be willing to try the produce. Companies know that word-or-mouth is the best endorsement, but they have to get the first person in your circle to try the product.</p>
<p>Think about it - are there products that you would never have tried, except one of your friends loved it. How did that friend find out about the product? If from another friend, where did it all start? The celebrity gets a handful of people to try the product, and gets the rest of us to remember the product.</p>
<p>In a small number of cases, some people do buy the product because they believe (or know) the celebrity does in fact use it. In some cases, it’s not really the celebrity endorsing the product, but the other way around (though it helps in both directions). Consider Olympic athletes pictured on boxes of Wheaties and now Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. Kellogg’s is one of the major sponsors of the US Olympic Team. If I’m going to spend full price on a box of cereal, at least I know where they spend some of their profits.</p>
<p>Right on Emaheevul07 and CTScoutmom! That’s the point of them. No, Rihanna does not make me want to buy VitaCoco (Coconut Water) BUT would I know about the brand if I didn’t see her bright red hair and unique image as the face of the brand?? No, I sure wouldn’t. </p>
<p>I work in advertising and the goal is to get customers to REMEMBER you. Remember your jingle, remember your logo, and all things encompassing your brand. I hate to say it but the Kardashians are a brand themselves. Whether you hate them/love them. As long as they remain in the spotlight, an assortment of companies will seek for their endorsements to reach out to their heavy following.</p>
<p>In the way these decisions are made, endorsements are not always to drive sales. They use celebrities for things like:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Image branding over the long term. Connect the product with a certain type of person. The idea is as much to reinforce brand loyalty as to drive sales. It isn’t that a picture of Tom Brady wearing a watch makes you buy a watch but that you feel good about owning that watch - because you are a little like Brady - so you wear it, influence others, put that brand first next purchase time, etc. </p></li>
<li><p>Visibility. Do people eat Subway because of Phelps or Jared or Strahan? It’s more that people watch the ads because the ads draw attention. Does it attract new customers? Unclear. Does it draw attention? Yes. The idea is that when people are making a decision about food and they’ll at least consider Subway when they see one or know one is around - and they are ubiquitous. Attention to ads plus a lot of outlets means maybe they can influence customers to eat there more often. The ads for Subway are really well aimed at a specific lever for people making eating decisions: not a bad choice for you, healthier than other choices, but satisfying. Having athletes who eat a lot in training conveys both messages. But the idea is to alter decisions in the moment, when you’re hungry. </p></li>
<li><p>Trendiness. I’ll bet Taylor Swift drives sales for Covergirl because that demographic doesn’t have brand loyalty and they identify with what is trendy. Short term image branding tries to capitalize on hot endorsements. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The issue with celebrities for me is that I have trouble overcoming negative associations. A choice of celebrity carries positive associations for those who identify with that person but strong negatives for those who may hate that person. From what I understand, much of the research in this area is about identifying the negatives. What do you think of Paula Deen? Of Mario Battali? Of Cher? The negatives are where I find myself most influenced in buying decisions.</p>
<p>I registered a domain through godaddy.com because it was cheap and easy. I remembered them because of Danica Patrick super bowl ads, and some even better ones from earlier.</p>
<p>I think the Jared ads for Subway are the unusual case of an endorsement that actually says something about the product (and I guess the ads are what made him a celebrity).</p>
<p>I also think celebrity endorsements might have more direct impact in more specialized areas–for example, in terms of guitar gear.</p>
<p>My mom used to work for a company owned by Mars. Apparently whenever the car they sponsored finished in the top 10 there would be a spike in M&Ms sales.</p>
<p>Well, Jared was good, he really tackled the idea you could eat on the run and lose weight- assuming you chose well and pumped enough dollars into Subway’s pockets. But I kept wondering if he got enough fruits and veggies. </p>
<p>At one point, wasn’t there some legal or ethical hubbub about endorsers not actually using those products? Eg, if Beckham does not take his kids to Burger King (pretty sure his wife doesn’t go,) isn’t he misleading the public that you can achieve his form on that product? Do sports figures really eat Wheaties? Or are we being lulled into assuming?</p>
<p>Personally, I’m a sucker for the little free samples that occasionally come in the mail. And, when I know, firsthand, what a particular store is doing for my community.</p>
<p>About sponsorships- they can be more competitive and brutal than we think. It’s not about picking some little guy or gal and underwriting some costs or giving them a chance to make some money, out of the goodness of their hearts. I think it’s a calculated move to get the company’s name out there in the biggest way they can. We have a relative involved in NASCAR- the sponsors were only in it as long as he had x wins. Very black and white. Not a matter of generosity. And, he was highly rated, had a great deal of attention as an up and comer. He is still racing, but was forced into a hiatus by those same sponsors. Maybe that’s just one tale. I don’t know.</p>
<p>And I wonder if Alton would tout those products if his team had approached the corporations and they refused to pay some fee-? Wow, I am such a doubter.</p>
<p>Apparently they do. Why would they waste money on endorsements then? CEO/Managers can go in front of the camera themselves and declare their products to be superior. When they are known, they actually do it also.<br>
If you ask individuls, you probably will get many different answers. I do not buy anything because somebody said whatever. I prefer tostick to the same food, old clothes, old everything. Well, onces in a while we need to change the car, and I prefer the used one of the brand that I am driving. Commercials sometime are entertaining, I watch them only for this quality. Most of the time, it escapes me completely what they advertise. Sometime I cannot figure out even right after commercial, I guess I did not pay attention to that part…</p>
I use tools a lot and also walk/run a lot. A celebrity wouldn’t influence me at all in either case since I know they’re being paid a lot of money to sponsor the thing and that’s the only reason they’re sponsoring it or wearing the product. </p>
<p>Realistically, a Craftsman wrench and a Stanley, Snap-On, Proto, Husky, and other quality brands will all work about equally as well and the tipping point for the celebrity hawking the item isn’t the item, it’s purely the money. Note that this is different than Norm doing a technical comparison test of different brands where he’s not paid to endorse a particular one - I’d pay attention to that. I wouldn’t pay any attention to Bob Vila because he doesn’t come across as if he knows much about tools, home repairs, and the like - he was just a host of a show and he didn’t do that well.</p>
<p>Ditto with the tennies. All of the top brands have about the same offerings so the only reason the celebrity is wearing and endorsing it is because of the money. If they’re getting paid to wear/hawk Nike but lose that contract and can manage to pick one up from New Balance, they’d switch in a heartbeat. They’d do it to the higher bidder as well.</p>
<p>I don’t pay attention to celebrities hawking things. I think they’re used primarily for a couple of reasons - to get people’s attention when they see/hear them on the spot, and for some nebulous ‘credibility’ - i.e. if the big celeb endorses the product then it MUST be a credible product.</p>