CELEBRITY ADVERTISING IN PERFUME
This chapter discusses the use of celebrity endorsers in advertising and how it influences both the consumer and the sales of the product. It determines consumer psychology in relation to the products that they buy and the reasons behind their choice. Moreover, the different marketing techniques particularly celebrity endorsements will be tackled in the context of promoting and enhancing consumer psychology in favor of the product. Further, the logic behind the use of celebrities will be evaluated, the pros and cons of having a celebrity endorser and the effectivity of celebrity advertising as a marketing tool.
Consumer Psychology
Within any given product category, consumers typically can choose among a variety of specific brands. Presumably, consumers' attitudes toward each brand (i.e., their summary evaluations) guide or influence this selection process. Indeed, such an assumption appears to be central to much advertising. Although a goal of advertising is often to increase sales, the manner in which this goal is pursued is often via social influence attempts directed at attitudes. Advertising is typically concerned with the formation of positive attitudes toward the specific product--under the assumption that such information or change will prompt corresponding behavior.
COSMETICS MARKETING
The decision to purchase, use, and remain loyal to a particular brand of cosmetics is 85 percent emotional and 15 percent rational. Therefore the marketing of cosmetics, face creams, body lotions, and fragrances should consider and address the emotions that are involved. This can be done through a process called layering. Layering involves addressing or targeting two motivational levels in the same ad or marketing presentation. This procedure can be used with any product where the marketer is interested in using a three-dimensional approach to marketing and advertising.
Layering works this way. The major motivation to use and purchase cosmetics is: Person, but other motivations, such as spiritual survival, are also involved. Another motive involved with cosmetics is sexual survival (gender) where a woman wishes to appear feminine, unique, delicate, soft, fresh, etc. In many cases the marketer will want to focus on just one motivation or level. However, two of these three motivational levels may be layered to create an appeal that is more effective. A third level, the rational level, may then be added to give "permission" to purchase a particular brand or to communicate rationalizations, justifications, excuses, etc., that the consumers may use to justify their purchases (Fulton, 1996).
WHAT MAKES CELEBRITIES SELL?
The advertiser hires celebrities to endorse products because they believe that people consuming images of celebrities will consume products associated with celebrities. Also, celebrities create and maintain attention, and thus create high recall rates of the commercial. Their attractive and likeable qualities are transferred to the product, which is being promoted, and they may develop and polish brand/product image (Li, 2000).
There are two primary reasons on the effectivity of celebrities in advertisements: credibility and popularity. A celebrity lends credibility to a product or service. Consumers are more likely to be persuaded to accept a product they see used or endorsed by someone they know. A famous face can stop a channel hopper who may be curious to see what that celebrity is talking about. A celebrity can easily increase the viewing value of an infomercial.
However advantageous celebrities are in endorsing of products, there are also setbacks that they experience. A major risk inherent in using celebrity endorsers is the lack of control that the marketers have with the celebrity's lifestyle or career. As we have seen lately with such athletes as Dennis Rodman, Michael Irvin, and Oksana Baoul, celebrity endorsers may engage in behavior that attracts negative publicity to both the celebrity and indirectly the brand or product endorsed. Even if the celebrity is simply accused of unacceptable behavior (Michael Jackson and the child molestation charges and Michael Irvin and the rape charges) the celebrity's name can be tarnished forever. As evidence of this risk, advertising agencies are performing more background checks on prospective endorsers in response to client requests.
Another risk in using celebrities arises when the celebrity commands more attention that the company's brands. We have seen this in the Pepsi commercials featuring such superstars as Michael Jackson and Cindy Crawford. Consumers recall seeing the celebrity in the advertisement but cannot recall the product being endorsed.
Moreover, companies using celebrity endorsers may also attract negative publicity when the public perceives that the endorsements have an undue influence. One example is the backlash that Nike has suffered as a result of its domination in athletic sponsorship. Recently, the University of North Carolina basketball coach publicly denounced Nike for sponsoring too many college-level athletes and subsequently influencing those athletes deciding which college to attend.
It is also possible that an endorser will attract publicity on moral or ethical grounds. For example, if a company's celebrity is influential with teens and the public does not want teens using the product (beer or tobacco), the Moral Majority may launch a public attack on both the endorser and the company (Burke, 1997).
IS CELEBRITY ADVERTISING EFFECTIVE?
Assael (1984) suggests that celebrity advertising is effective because of their ability to tap into consumers' symbolic association to aspirational reference groups. Such reference groups provide points of comparison through which the consumer may evaluate attitudes and behavior (Kamins 1990). In advancing reasons why celebrity advertising may be influential, Atkins and Block (1983) assert that celebrity advertising may be influential because celebrities are viewed as dynamic, with both attractive and likable qualities. Additionally, their fame is thought to attract attention to the product or service. However, in a study involving Edge disposable razor advertisements, Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann (1983) found that under high involvement conditions, arguments but not celebrities influenced attitudes, whereas under low involvement conditions, celebrities but not arguments influenced attitudes. This suggests that celebrity influence may be related to the nature of the product rather than the person. Despite mixed findings, three factors seem to be associated with the degree to which celebrity advertising is effective: source credibility, celebrity knowledge and trustworthiness, and celebrity appearance.
CELEBRITIES AND THEIR PERFUME LINE
Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez are only a few of the celebrities who decided to launch their own perfume line. There’s Jennifer Lopez’s GLOW and Celine’s collection of Eau de Toilette. As for marketing strategies, both used print ads, with photos of the celebrities advertising their products. However, the theme of the ads differ in its presentation. Jennifer Lopez intends to present her line as sexy and feminine. She has just launched an advertising campaign with her posing nude in the shower, using only her arm to cover her modesty. Along with the photo is the slogan, “FRESH, SEXY, CLEAN. IT’S THE GLOW. THE NEW FRAGRANCE BY JENNIFER LOPEZ.” On the other hand, Celine Dion (See Appendix 1) presents her image as “the ultimate romantic person”. Her perfume uses notes of violets, jasmine and musk. Her photo as features her in a swing with the sky as her background, along with the slogan “LIVE TO LOVE”. It reveals her romantic side combined with the freshness and uplifting feel the perfume gives.
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN ADVERTISEMENT
Source credibility suggests that the effectiveness of a message depends on the "expertness" and "trustworthiness" of the source (Hovland, Janis, and Kelley, 1953; Sternthal, Dholakia, and Leavitt 1978).
Celebrity knowledge or expertise is defined as the perceived ability of the spokesperson to make valid assertions. The expert spokesperson seems most appropriate when advertising products and services that carry higher financial, performance, or physical risk while an ordinary consumer is considered best for low risk products or services (Atkin and Block, 1983). Moreover, physical appearance seems to induce positive feelings toward the spokesperson and in some cases changes beliefs (Chaiken 1979).
Schema-Based Expectancy Theories
A schema is an abstract, cognitive structure that represents some stimulus domain, e.g., a person, place, event, or thing. It is organized through experience and consists of a knowledge structure, i.e. a representation of the attributes of the stimulus domain. Not only do schemas lend structure to experience, they can also determine what information will be encoded or retrieved from memory. They can influence perceptual cognitive activities through the generation of expectancies. For example, when new information is received, individuals will tend to use existing schemas to process the relevancy or congruency of this information, i.e. the fit with the existing schema.
In the case of well-known celebrities, individual would typically have personal relevant schemas (person schemas), acquired over time. This cognitive representation of the person, in terms of the person's abilities, physical appearance, public characterization, etc., is then a set of abstract attributes that might be used to describe this person. When a celebrity endorses a brand, the characteristics of that celebrity may be compared with the advertised attributes of the brand by the audience for congruence or fit with their available person-schema. The degree of congruence between the new information (the brand attributes) and the existing information (the celebrity's characteristics) may then influence the level of recall of the new information.
Having a congruent image between the brand and celebrity does not guarantee any positive effect on consumers' brand preferences. The fundamental question is what a brand image really does to consumers? Baran and Blasko explained that, "since most products aren't special, most advertising does all that so-called image stuff... There's no information about the product, there's only information about the kind of people who might be inclined to use the product"(p.13). This view is echoed by Feldwick (1991) who has suggested that the subjective experience of using a brand can be different from the subjective experience of using an identical product without the brand reassurance. In the case of using celebrity advertising to build brand images, the effects are examined with a social psychological framework.
Identification Processes
The identification processes of social influence (Kelman, 1961; McGuire, 1969) explain various related aspects of the effectiveness of celebrity advertising. The identification process occurs when influence from the celebrity is accepted as a result of a desire to identify with such endorsers (Cohen & Golden, 1972). This process has been strongly linked to the use of celebrity in advertising, because consumers like to be associated with their images.
According to Kelman (1961), identification is said to occur when an individual adopts a behavior or opinion derived from another person because the "behavior is associated with a satisfying self-defining relationship to the other. That is to say, the role relationship between the individual and the other person is beneficial to some portion of the individual's self-concept. For example, when the source of a communication is attractive, this process of identification mediates attitude change. This process is the basis for referent power and has been hypothesized to be strongly related to affective characteristics such as likability and attractiveness of the celebrity endorser (Assael, 1984). Thus, individuals accept influence from an attractive/likable celebrity because of a desire to identify with this person.
It should be noted that even though celebrity images can be transferred to consumers and affect their preferences through identification process, the relevance (or involvement) of the products/services to consumers is equally important. The effect of the identification process discussed above is derived with an assumption of high product/service relevance.
Decision Making Process and Purchase Decision
Decades ago, John Dewey (1910) conceptualized decision-process behavior as problem solving - thoughtful, reasoned action focused on need satisfaction. A lot of marketing research has shown that consumer decision follows the sequence of need recognition, search for information, alternative evaluation, purchase and then outcomes. The sequence can have major variations, however, from one situation to the next in terms of the extent to which each of these steps is followed. There are two types of decision making processes defined. They include Extended Problem Solving and Limited Problem Solving.
In extended problem solving, thinking leads to feeling, which leads to action. The very nature of the decision often necessitates collection of information that is processed and stored. Various product attributes are weighed and evaluated. In limited problem solving, consumers will simplify the process by sharply reducing the number and variety of information sources and alternatives considered.
The two problem solving processes above suggest that brand images have a relatively insignificant impact on the consumer's purchase decision if the product/service involves extend problem solving. On the contrary, the brand images of product/service that involves limited problem solving will have a more significant impact on the consumer's purchase decision.
Buying into the Brand
According to Vertis' Customer Focus 2002: Fragrance survey, the overall top three fragrances for women who wear perfume are: Avon (8 percent), White Diamond (7 percent) and Estee Lauder (6 percent). Old Spice reigns at number one for men (15 percent), followed by Stetson (8 percent) and Polo Sport (7 percent). Respondents said that on average they have worn perfume or cologne 4.4 days during the past seven days; with women aged 18-24 this figure rises to 5.3 days. At 53 percent, YSL users are most likely to wear fragrances seven days a week. Vertis' Customer Focus 2002: Fragrance survey shows that perfume and cologne usage has decreased by five percent in the past year from 71 percent in 2001 to 66 percent in 2002.
The most significant decreases are between Gen X (for stratification of ages and generations, see Appendix 3) and Young Baby Boomers, both showing a nine percent drop from year to year. In comparison, the research shows that Young/Olds and Seniors are more dedicated to using fragrances, with just a one percent decrease among Seniors and no percentage change for Young/Olds (see figure 4). In 2002, men proved to be less enamored with wearing cologne than they were in 2001. Fifty-nine percent of the men surveyed said that they now wear cologne, in comparison with 66 percent in 2001. Women's use of perfume has decreased by four percent from 76 percent (2001) to 72 percent (2002).
METHODOLOGYThis study shall measure the success of the use of celebrity endorsers in advertising and how it influences both the consumer and the sales of the product. A research-based questionnaire will be designed and a survey of consumers will be done on a specified brand. It will be the bases of a comparative analysis on the effects of celebrity endorsements; the consumer behavior before and after a celebrity had endorsed the product.
This study will use the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research will utilize interview, observation and questionnaires in the study. To illustrate the descriptive type of research, Calmorin will guide the researcher when he stated: “Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of a particular phenomena.[i]
The researcher will use random sampling in identifying the respondents for the study. Part 1 of the survey will include age, gender, civil status, religion, birth order, educational attainment, occupation, place of origin, present location, housing status, number of children, occupation, and working experience. Part 2 will determine the effects of celebrity endorsing on the consumers’ perception of the product. The respondents will grade each statement in the survey-questionnaire using a Likert scale with a five-response scale wherein respondents will be given five response choices. Part 3 will identify the change in consumer behavior after a celebrity endorsed the product. The respondents will also be free to give their own experiences, which are not stated in the choices.
ENDNOTES
1 Laurentina P. Calmorin and Melchor Calmorin. Methods of Research and Thesis Writing. (Manila: Rex Bookstore, 1995), 1st ed. p. 46.
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