Celebrity endorsement is “the use of a celebrity in advertising who recommends the sponsored product’s usage. “(Clemente, 2002) Apple would get an increase in sales if they got the right celebrity endorsing the brand . Apple already used celebrities to endorse its product a few years ago with a special edition iPod put together with U2 and Nike which had a sensor track workout process on their iPod nano.
The endorsement can help introduce brands to new customers who like to copy the latest celebrity trend.Although a celebrity image could overshadow a brand, Apple is so globally recognized that the person chosen would assist rather than outshine the products. Celebrity endorsement can be expensive but this would be a small expense to such a successful brand as Apple. Apple is notorious for using band’s music in its adverts to endorse its product, which can also benefit the band, such as Black Eyed Peas and Jet whose music went up in the charts due to the exposure. A permanent celebrity figure promoting the brand could create brand recall which “relates to consumers’ ability to identify the brand under a variety of circumstances.”(Keller, 1998, p658) This is the brain associating a person with the product they are promoting, for instance when a person thinks of Freddie Flintoff they remember his Morrisons advertisements.
According to Kamins “the image of the celebrity must fit with the image of the product or brand. “(Sti?? dtler, 2010) this is what’s known as the “Match-up hypothesis. ” (Kamins, 1990) In other words, a celebrity needs to be chosen who fits in with the image of the brand and product.A ‘good match-up’ would be Jamie Oliver representing Sainsbury as he is a chef and Sainsbury promotes good quality food.
A ‘bad match-up’ would be the Olsen Twins ‘got milk’ advertisement because of the girls’ image at the time of being anorexic celebrities. Furthermore, theorist McCracken (1989) believes that celebrities represent the ideal of what people want to achieve in life. This means that you are more likely to buy a product endorsed by a celebrity than an anonymous model. A ‘good match-up’ for Apple would be to have Beyonci?? Knowles as the celebrity to endorse future brand activity.As a singer, song writer, record producer and actress she would be a good person to represent the company as she is such a respected and well loved celebrity.
Moreover, it is thought that certain factors of a celebrity can affect the effectiveness of the sales. “Honesty, integrity, and believability of an endorser as perceived by the target audience,” (Erdogan et al, 2001, p. 40) Beyonci?? Knowles is a celebrity who encapsulates all of the attributes and more. It is common knowledge that Beyonci?? is a hard worker and puts 100% into everything she does so representing Apple would be no mean feat for her.Disadvantages of celebrity endorsement are that they may create public controversies which would damage a brands image or the image change of the celebrity may affect public recognition.
Both of these statements seem to have no relevance to Beyonci?? Knowles as she likes to keep her private life out of the public’s view. The Source of Creditability Model suggest for a consumer to buy into the endorser the “trustworthiness” (Hovland et al, 1953) of the message and the source from whom it is conveyed by are considered sometimes unknowingly to the consumer (psychologically).Attractiveness and credibility of a celebrity appear to go hand in hand.
The more attractive a celebrity the more appealing the brand becomes in most instances. This is based on the Source Attractiveness Model (McGuire, 1985) which has four dimensions; namely “familiarity” (knowledge of source through exposure), “likeability” (affection for source based on his/her physical appearance or behaviour), “similarity” (resemblance between the source and the audience), and “attractiveness. ” (McCracken 1989 p. 311) Attractiveness is something Beyonci??Knowles has, for the past five years alone she has been in the top twenty of the sexist females which is not an easy accomplishment.
Celebrities are currently promoting Apple without any incentive but merely because they love the product, for example Oprah Winfrey stated “Words cannot describe what I feel for this magnificent, magnificent device,” (Marsal, 2010) referring to the Apple iPad on her self-titled talk show. Winfrey had a great deal of influence over sales of products which shows that choosing the right celebrity can help increase sales figures.