Amitabh Bachchan – The Biggest Celebrity Endorser of All Time

The celebrities are super achievers like Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan. The celebrity has a life cycle. Among all Indian celebrities, Amitabh Bachchan is an exception. He is beyond the normal life cycle of a celebrity in terms of endorsements. Amitabh Bachchan is popular with possibly all demographic, psychographic, geographic. He commands respect across the length and breadth of India, cutting across the barriers of age, income, region and language. Today he is not only one of the successful actors but also one of the most successful endorses. Having said this I must talk about the fact that during the first two-and-a-half decades of his acting career when he was called the one-man Hindi film industry never endorsed any product.

Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan (Amitabh Harivansh Srivastav), born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh is one of the most prominent Indian film actors of Bollywood. Amitabh Bachchan is known for his deep, baritone voice. He before entering the film industry applied for a job with All India Radio for the post of a news announcer, for which he was rejected – probably a destiny’s call. The actor also did Playback Singing for many Indian movies. The actor has also endorsed many brands and is one of the leading celebrity endorsers for Indian corporate world.

Birth of Endorser Amitabh Bachchan
In year 2000 Amitabh Bachchan, anchored Kaun Banega Crorepati (popularly known as KBC ) which positioned him into the league of the most expensive endorsers. The phenomenal success of KBC helped marketers realize that Amitabh Bachchan single-point attention-grabber. He is one Indian celebrity who could not only command attention but also lend his credibility status to the brands. He has been brand ambassador of products across industry and categories including Pepsi, Mirinda, ICICI Bank, Parker Pens, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Cadbury’s, Nerolac, Hajmola, Navratna tail, Emani Boroplus, Eveready, Dabur, Sahara city Home, D’damas, Binnani.
Amitabh Bachchan, before success of KBC had probably endorsed just one brand in mid nineties which was a corporate branding exercise for BPL. The campaign managed to position BPL as an aspirational Indian brand. After success of KBC he has endorsed brands in product categories as diverse as banking, soft drinks, batteries, paints, chocolates, automobiles, writing instruments, apparel, diet supplements, personal care and real estate.

Challenge for Endorser Amitabh Bachchan
It is believed that if the endorser is associated with many brands, exclusivity can no longer be associated with the celebrity. The audience gets confused when the same celebrity plugs many brands and hence the endorsement value gets eroded. In recent times, Amitabh Bachchan endorsement list has come down but he still endorses brands in double digits. And in my view most of his brands he endorses are doing good. I believe, if it was not Amitabh Bachchan the marketers would have been struggling with the ideas. Marketers can position Amitabh Bachchan as an action hero; an energizing personality; a jovial character; an advisor; a spokesperson; Mr. dependable and not to miss a passionate endorser – there is lot in Amitabh Bachchan which is unexplored. Having said this strongly advocate that marketers needs to use the celebrity power of Amitabh Bachchan judiciously.

Amitabh Bachchan – The Biggest Celebrity Endorser of All Time

The celebrities are super achievers like Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan. The celebrity has a life cycle. Among all Indian celebrities, Amitabh Bachchan is an exception. He is beyond the normal life cycle of a celebrity in terms of endorsements. Amitabh Bachchan is popular with possibly all demographic, psychographic, geographic. He commands respect across the length and breadth of India, cutting across the barriers of age, income, region and language. Today he is not only one of the successful actors but also one of the most successful endorses. Having said this I must talk about the fact that during the first two-and-a-half decades of his acting career when he was called the one-man Hindi film industry never endorsed any product.

 

Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan (Amitabh Harivansh Srivastav), born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh is one of the most prominent Indian film actors of Bollywood. Amitabh Bachchan is known for his deep, baritone voice. He before entering the film industry applied for a job with All India Radio for the post of a news announcer, for which he was rejected – probably a destiny’s call. The actor also did Playback Singing for many Indian movies. The actor has also endorsed many brands and is one of the leading celebrity endorsers for Indian corporate world.

Birth of Endorser Amitabh Bachchan
In year 2000 Amitabh Bachchan, anchored Kaun Banega Crorepati (popularly known as KBC ) which positioned him into the league of the most expensive endorsers. The phenomenal success of KBC helped marketers realize that Amitabh Bachchan single-point attention-grabber. He is one Indian celebrity who could not only command attention but also lend his credibility status to the brands. He has been brand ambassador of products across industry and categories including Pepsi, Mirinda, ICICI Bank, Parker Pens, Reid & Taylor, Maruti Versa, Cadbury’s, Nerolac, Hajmola, Navratna tail, Emani Boroplus, Eveready, Dabur, Sahara city Home, D’damas, Binnani.
Amitabh Bachchan, before success of KBC had probably endorsed just one brand in mid nineties which was a corporate branding exercise for BPL. The campaign managed to position BPL as an aspirational Indian brand. After success of KBC he has endorsed brands in product categories as diverse as banking, soft drinks, batteries, paints, chocolates, automobiles, writing instruments, apparel, diet supplements, personal care and real estate.

Challenge for Endorser Amitabh Bachchan
It is believed that if the endorser is associated with many brands, exclusivity can no longer be associated with the celebrity. The audience gets confused when the same celebrity plugs many brands and hence the endorsement value gets eroded. In recent times, Amitabh Bachchan endorsement list has come down but he still endorses brands in double digits. And in my view most of his brands he endorses are doing good. I believe, if it was not Amitabh Bachchan the marketers would have been struggling with the ideas. Marketers can position Amitabh Bachchan as an action hero; an energizing personality; a jovial character; an advisor; a spokesperson; Mr. dependable and not to miss a passionate endorser – there is lot in Amitabh Bachchan which is unexplored. Having said this strongly advocate that marketers needs to use the celebrity power of Amitabh Bachchan judiciously.

Idea of Positioning and Differentiation

The two different books positioning and differentiation says the same thing. The book by Jack Trout on differentiation – Differentiate or Die is repackaging of his book coauthored with Al Ries on positioning – Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. In my views when Jack Trout separated from Al Ries wrote Differentiate or Die to position Trout & Partners Ltd. Truly a positioning genius. I strongly believe that it hardly matters what you call the activity of buying share of consumer mind – positioning or differentiation you are doing same thing.

Brand managers across globe are busy differentiating their products or say working hard to position them. However, the major problems with most of the companies are that they don’t understand the concept of differentiation or positioning. In most of the cases they work on differentiation for the sake of differentiation. The situations in a few cases are so grim that some brand managers really don’t know the difference between a name and a brand. Addressing similar situation, Sergio Zyman, and Armin Brott says that If you don’t keep giving customers reasons to buy from you, they won’t. Awareness is absolutely worthless if it doesn’t lead to sales. In my views one can’t blame the brand manager solely for the problem. The problem of positioning also depends on the proliferation of me-too products. Today any company can come out with almost similar product that their competitors have within a few days.
The brand managers of successful brands take their brand for granted. They don’t work on them regularly and as a result the charisma of brand goes down. It is vital to remember that even the strongest brands don’t stay their way without working on them regularly. They need repositioning or for your convenience you may call it brand maintenance. The brand needs to be renewed or redefined constantly, else it will die.

The market analyst firm also correlate branding with the data analysis and ROI of marketing; and few other marketers believe that it’s advertising which position products. In my vies branding is not only about advertising and data analysis – it’s also about understanding how consumer lives are changing and how is it impacting consumer preferences. I believe branding is also about developing and implementing strategy which is grounded on a deep understanding of consumers that connects companies. Authors, Sergio Zyman, and Armin Brott in their book The End of Advertising as We Know It says that Advertising is a lot more than just television commercials – it includes branding, packaging, celebrity spokespersons, sponsorships, publicity, customer service, the way you treat your employees, and even the way your secretary answers the phone.

Idea of Positioning and Differentiation

The two different books positioning and differentiation says the same thing. The book by Jack Trout on differentiation – Differentiate or Die is repackaging of his book coauthored with Al Ries on positioning – Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. In my views when Jack Trout separated from Al Ries wrote Differentiate or Die to position Trout & Partners Ltd. Truly a positioning genius. I strongly believe that it hardly matters what you call the activity of buying share of consumer mind – positioning or differentiation you are doing same thing.

Brand managers across globe are busy differentiating their products or say working hard to position them. However, the major problems with most of the companies are that they don’t understand the concept of differentiation or positioning. In most of the cases they work on differentiation for the sake of differentiation. The situations in a few cases are so grim that some brand managers really don’t know the difference between a name and a brand. Addressing similar situation, Sergio Zyman, and Armin Brott says that If you don’t keep giving customers reasons to buy from you, they won’t. Awareness is absolutely worthless if it doesn’t lead to sales. In my views one can’t blame the brand manager solely for the problem. The problem of positioning also depends on the proliferation of me-too products. Today any company can come out with almost similar product that their competitors have within a few days.
The brand managers of successful brands take their brand for granted. They don’t work on them regularly and as a result the charisma of brand goes down. It is vital to remember that even the strongest brands don’t stay their way without working on them regularly. They need repositioning or for your convenience you may call it brand maintenance. The brand needs to be renewed or redefined constantly, else it will die.

The market analyst firm also correlate branding with the data analysis and ROI of marketing; and few other marketers believe that it’s advertising which position products. In my vies branding is not only about advertising and data analysis – it’s also about understanding how consumer lives are changing and how is it impacting consumer preferences. I believe branding is also about developing and implementing strategy which is grounded on a deep understanding of consumers that connects companies. Authors, Sergio Zyman, and Armin Brott in their book The End of Advertising as We Know It says that Advertising is a lot more than just television commercials – it includes branding, packaging, celebrity spokespersons, sponsorships, publicity, customer service, the way you treat your employees, and even the way your secretary answers the phone.

Celebrity endorsement – Cricketer’s loss is Bollywood’s gain

Bollywood Rising

The cricket celebrity brand endorsement is declining. The number of brands endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar has dropped from ten to six over a period of five years, Rahul Dravid endorsement list has come down to six from twelve and Sourav Ganguly is endorsing barely has a couple of brands today. The only exceptions among cricket celebrity are MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, who have grown their endorsements year-on-year. at the same time the film industry has gain importance in recent years. The silver screen celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham are few of the celebrity who has gained prominence in recent years.

Shah Rukh Khan’s endorsements have gone up from 6 to 18 in the same period, Hrithik Roshan’s have increased from 1 to 11 and Saif Ali Khan’s deals have doubled from 4 in 2003 to 8 now. Amitabh Bachchan, who has gone down the power list in the last two years, has managed 10 endorsements deals. Other Bollywood stars like Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham have between 3 and 7 deals in their pockets.

Cricketers were the favorites of PepsiCo till last year has signed up movie stars including Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif.

Among women celebrities Kareena Kapoor endorsement count has gone up from two to five, while the number of brands Katrina Kaif, Kajol, Priyanka Chopra and Bipasha Basu endorse has risen from almost nil to about six to seven each. The new celebrity such as Deepika Padukone and Vidya Balan are endorsing three to four brands each. The new celebrities are in demand and they are expected to sign a few more. The best part about the silver screen is that the senior actors like Hema Malini and Juhi Chawla have multiple endorsement deals.

End of cricket (sports) celebrities as we know it

Gone are the days of senior cricket players like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Anil Kumble from the list of trusted celebrities. The number of brands endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar has dropped from ten to six over a period of five years, Rahul Dravid endorsement list has come down to six from twelve and Sourav Ganguly is endorsing barely has a couple of brands today.

The young Indian team is popular and happening. Advertisers believe that audience follow performance and they put their money on players who are showing results. The T20 team after 24 years won a world cup and they are the real heroes. Now advertisers trust young and happening players like Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. In current scenario, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni commands over INR 2 crore each endorsement deal. While the younger players like Rohit Sharma and Uthappa are charging around INR 30-40 lakh per endorsement.

MS Dhoni endorses 7Up, GE Money, TVS Motors, Videocon, Titan besides a plethora of other brands. Moreover he is one of the few cricket celebrities who are endorsing brands in double digits. Today advertisers prefer the silver screen celebrities over cricketers.

Brand Endorsement – Rise of New Celebrity

Katrina Kaif has replaced Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as the brand ambassador of Nakshatra Diamonds is one of the many replacements of senior queens by new celebrities in endorsement race. The bollywood queen such as Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta and Aishwarya Rai – who were towering till recently are suddenly finding themselves out of the reckoning.

The growth of the new celebrity is also evident from the fact that senior actress such as Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta charge between INR 85 lakh and INR 1 crore per endorsement, which is much less than what Kareena Kapoor or Katrina Kaif charges which is around INR 1.5 crore.

New celebrities such as Asin, Genelia DSouza, Katrina Kaif, Imraan Khan, Harman Baweja, Kangana Ranaut, Jiah Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Farhan Akhtar are attracting advertisers attention. In recent time these new celebrities have signed various endorsement deals. These new celebrities are not only signing new endorsement deal but also replacing veteran celebrity in most of the cases. The demand of the new celebrities is so high that that have option to choose from the list of brands. Jiah is said to have recently turned down INR one crore offer from the brand Miss Bikini India 2007. She refused to pose in a bikini for the brand.

No doubt this is the best phase for newcomers in Bollywood but they have to sustain themselves for another three-four films before they become a big endorsement star. A stars brand value remains intact if he or she delivers hits. It is important to maintain a high success rate to negotiate for the next big deal in terms of remuneration. The senior actress such as Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta and Aishwarya Rai in recent past has not given any big hit and hence their brand value is depleting. The failure at the box office has also impacted the celebrity endorsement deals. In last one year Nestle India dropped Rani Mukherji, as its brand ambassador for the Munch brand of chocolates. Nestle ended a four- year association with Rani Mukherji and signed South Indian actress Trisha. The actress Trisha has also replaced Preity Zinta in the Scooty Pep advertisement. Preity Zinta in recent times has lost her association with brands such as Perk, Liril, BSNL, and Santro.

Brand Endorsement – Power of Two

In recent years advertising world has discovered power of two. The celebrity couples are manipulating their publicized relationships to rake in the moolah at a professional level. The star couples Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan and Kajol, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor are signing multi- crore contracts for lucrative advertising campaigns. Moreover, the celebrity couples are signing endorsement deal together to prove the point that they are together. The advertisers are enchasing the couple power to promote the brand. In recent times the celebrity couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor has signed endorsement deal with two brands Head & Shoulders and Airtel.
In the Head & Shoulders ads the couple – Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor is shown first time together. Though Kareena Kapoor is shown just for a few seconds in the shampoo advertisement but it is already attracting eyeballs. In other cases Ajay Devgan and Kajol have been seen in ads for Whirlpool and Tata Indicom, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone are seen in the Clinic All Clear campaign and Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone shared smallscreen space in an ad for cola giant Pepsi. Companies are often ready to pay an arm and a leg to get real life couples on reel. Ajay Devgan and Kajol, command INR 6- 8 crore per deal, while Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, command almost INR 10- 12 crore for a campaign. Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone easily commands INR 6- 8 crore per campaign while John Abraham and Bipasha Basu command INR 5- 6 crore per deal.

Idea Cellular new campaign “Education for all”

Idea Cellular has launched its new Ad Campaign with its Brand Ambassador Abhishek Bachhan. The ongoing campaign with a spotlight on “education for all” has attracted many eyeballs. It is one of my favorite advertisements.

The campaign highlights the power of Mobile telephony to address the socially relevant theme of education. Campaign has been promoted through print, television, out of home, digital and on ground activities.

Storyline

In the campaign Abhishek Bachchan has played the Head of an educational institution – a priest and the principal of the school. When challenged by the traditional, physically bound classroom methodology that prevents reaching out to many who are in need of education, he uses mobile telephony to overcome the barrier.

Campaign Phase One – Teaser: In the first phase which is a 10-second teaser Abhishek Bachchan is shown as sitting and wondering how to educate the country’s children who can not manage to go to school. He suddenly looks up with a confident smile on his face and says ‘Idea’.

Campaign Phase Two – The Message : The second campaign which is a 90-second TVC opens with a village girl. The commercial shows that the village girl did not get admission in a school as there were no vacancies. The priest and the principal of the school, Abhishek Bachchan, looking for a solution suddenly comes up with an idea of starting mobile classrooms where teachers have mobile phones with them on their desks and children are shown in the ground and listening to the classes through mobiles. The campaign came to me as a great idea with strong social message. Idea Cellular, as a company, in its previous campaign also focused on social issues with the theme of bringing people together like in the campaign’s of caste war, and cultural differences SMS.

Campaign Phase Three – Impact : The third phase of the campaign has impact of education for all. It shows how the parents of the school going students are behaving. They are also learning through their children.

Idea Cellular as a company believes that an Idea can change lives and this is the central thought of the brand which they have been following since beginning. The company to increase the impact of the campaign has tied up with Nanhi Kali, an NGO and NDTV to promote this campaign of education for all, especially girl child.

Company – Idea Cellular
Brand – Idea Cellular
Theme – Education for all
Creative agency – Lowe IndiaFilm – Chrome Films

Deepika Padukone new BSNL brand ambassador

Deepika Padukone who is brand ambassador of Kingfisher Airlines, Levi Strauss, Parachute hair oil, and Tissot SA has been signed by State-run BSNL as its new brand ambassador. She has replaced the squeaky, bubbly girl, Preity Zinta.

BSNL, country’s largest telecom operator with 74 million customers, has not renewed Zinta’s contract of Preity Zinta which ended last week as it was eager to associate the brand with a younger face.

Among the handset companies, BSNL’s rival Airtel has cine stars like Vidya Balan and Madhavan as ambassadors. Spice has hired Katrina Kaif, Nokia has Shah Rukh Khan, Idea has Abhishek Bachchan, and Amir Khan endorses Samsung Mobile phones.

BSNL has off late been very aggressive in its marketing exercise in order to shed the typical PSU image and be seen as a lively brand for all categories of users.

The company is learnt to have a Rs 100 crore ad and marketing budget.