The Advantages and disadvantages of Using Celebrities in Advertisements

Introduction In today’s business environment, advertisements are a part of our everyday lives as business aim to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. Advertisements appear in any conceivable legally acceptable place as organizations aim to capture the attention of their prospective clients. TV programs are punctuated by commercial breaks which increase in intensity at the time of day when advertisers concede that there is maximum viewership and towering billboards continue to litter our highways.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Advantages and disadvantages of Using Celebrities in Advertisements specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Advertising as a marketing medium for business promotion is here to stay owing to the huge successes it yields to the organizations which employ the means. Advertisements have evolved in complexity and creativity throughout the years as a result of numerous resear ch efforts undertaken in advertisements. In the recent past there has been the prevalence in the use of celebrities by organizations in advertisements. The fashion industry in particular has been notorious for its usage of celebrities to endorse its products. This begs the question as to whether employing celebrities to front fashion marketing campaigns results to greater gains for a particular organization. To answer this question, this paper shall set out to discuss the significant advantages and disadvantages that may come about as a result of using celebrities in marketing campaigns. An analysis of the merits and demerits of celebrity advertisement in the fashion industry shall enable the paper to authoritatively state if these means of advertisement is worthwhile for the industry. Advertisement and Celebrities There is no universally accepted definition of the term â€Å"advertising† but the legal and statutory definition puts it as â€Å"a paid form of message dissemin ated by businesses†¦ specifically and systematically designed to influence the attitudes and decisions of individuals in relation to their consumption of goods and their use of services† (AGCM 2010). As such, advertising is always aimed at biasing the attitudes of the market to be favourably disposed to the company’s product. Despite the lack of a universal definition, the core function of advertising remains the say: to sell a good, service or product to a targeted audience (MacRury 2009, p.1). One can therefore infer that good advertisement is that which results in the increase in sales of goods or services to the targeted audience. The fashion industry stands out for its use of celebrity endorsement as a major marketing communications strategy. A celebrity is a well-known personality who is famous to the public for his or her accomplishments in some area e.g. acting, entertainment or athletes. Celebrity endorsement is generally defined as â€Å"any individual w ho enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement† (McCracken 1989, p.310, cited in Wong 2009, p.1).Advertising Looking for essay on advertising? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More A report by Cooper (2010) indicates that the reason that celebrities are so prevalent in fashion marketing strategies is as a result of the acknowledgement by marketing executives that celebrities actively influence the public’s taste. Advantages of Celebrity Advertisements For a product to sell there must be some positive regard to the product by the consumers. If the consumers can perceive the product as being of a superior quality to other similar products by differing companies in the market, the consumers are more likely to purchase the alleged quality product. Celebrity advertisements are very effective in creating this perception of quality in the eyes of the consumer. This allusion of quality as a result of the products being used by the celebrities springs from the fact that the public assumes that being a celebrity is synonymous with having a taste for quality products. A case in point is the Nike â€Å"Just Do It† campaign in the early 1990s which made use of a number of celebrity sport figures including Michael Jordon and Bo Jackson. The Center for Applied Research (2000, p.2) asserts that the use of celebrity sports figures was very effective in reassuring consumers that the brands they picked (Nike in this case) was a quality brand. As a result of the celebrity endorsement, Nike rose to become the leading sports apparel company in the world. This goes on to demonstrate the power of celebrities to showcase a product as being of high quality hence leading to increased sales. The core goal of any advertisement efforts is to expand the consumer base of a product and ensure that the current consumer base is maintained. Cele brity endorsement enables an organization to tap into the fan base of a particular star (Elberse 2009). This is especially significant if the organization desires to reach a certain group of consumers who are known to make up a significant presentation of a celebrity’s fans base. Devoted fans of a celebrity have been known to don the product that the particular star vouches for regardless of their prior like/dislike for the same. Contrasting this with non-celebrity advertisement personalities who have no fan base and are unknown to the public, one can see why an organization would prefer to use celebrity advertisers whose mere endorsement of the products represents an intrinsic increase in the products consumer base. One of the defining attributes of using celebrities in advertisements is that they are generally very expensive. However, celebrity endorsements are in most cases regarded as worthwhile investments in advertising since the company makes up for the costs incurred through the positive stock returns and increased sales.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Advantages and disadvantages of Using Celebrities in Advertisements specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This may be because a product always has a higher likelihood of being successful if it is well known to the consumers and the use of celebrities invariably leads to the generation of a lot of publicity and attention by the public to the product in question. While the high cost may be seen as undesirable since it cuts into the company’s bottom line and the success of the celebrity endorsement is not always guaranteed, Elberse (2009) reports that a survey she conducted indicated that use of celebrity endorsements mostly led to the increase in a firm’s stocks. It can therefore be reasonably argued that despite the high cost for celebrity endorsements, an organization gains more than it losses in advertisement co sts. Today’s market is saturated with multiple products serving the same purpose but made by varying manufacturers. This is especially the case in the fashion industry where the there may exist multiple dresses, hand bags and shoes to name but a few, all made by different designers. In such a case, celebrity endorsement can achieve the invaluable task of differentiating the organization’s products from those of its competitors (Elberse 2009). In an attempt to differentiate its products from those of other organizations, a company will have to invest a lot of time and money into ensuring that its products remain visible to the public. As a matter of fact, celebrities are more exposed to mainstream media than anonymous models (Bergstom Skarfstad 2004). Celebrity endorsement will therefore bring a great amount of attention to the organization’s unique product therefore differentiating it from the others in the market. Celebrities can be used to bring about credibi lity to a particular brand. If a celebrity is perceived as being trustworthy and respectful, the audience to the advertisement will see the celebrity as believable and hence take his/her word for it in relation to the product that he/she is endorsing. Credibility is given high value in the fashion industry since some of the products sold are especially expensive and as such, consumers need to be convinced before parting with a small fortune to purchase the product. Elbers (2009) suggest that while â€Å"consumers cannot easily assess the true quality of products†¦ seeing a celebrity attaching his or her name to a product may help alleviate some of the uncertainty.† The consumers trust will therefore be built as a result of this celebrity connection leading to higher sales for the organization.Advertising Looking for essay on advertising? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Disadvantages of celebrity Advertisements A significant disadvantage of using celebrities in advertisements is that if a company repetitively uses the same celebrity, consumers may subconsciously begin to link the brand to the celebrity. For example, Till 1998 (cited in Bergstom Skarfstad 2004, p.2) notes that the consistent use of Michael Jordan in Nike’s advertisements encouraged customers to think about Nike whenever they thought of Jordan and vice versa. This may be detrimental to a company’s goals should the celebrity endorser fall out of grace with the public. This is a very real danger as can be demonstrated by the product endorser giant, Tiger Woods. Until 2009, Tiger Woods was one of the most popular celebrity endorser earning up to $100 million from his endorsement deals with multiple companies (Shimp 2008, p. 250). Nike in particular made use of this athletic star to endorse some of its products. The negative publicity that came about as a result of Tiger W oods infidelity cases which were over publicized by main stream media resulted in a bludgeoning of his image and by extension, a negative perception for the products he endorsed. Another demerit of celebrity advertisement comes from the fact that fitting a celebrity endorser with a product may be a hard task and if it is not done correctly, an organization may end up spending millions on advertisement costs and not reap any benefits from it. A research by Bergstom Skarfstad (2004) indicates that most companies do not employee a clear strategy when they are selecting celebrities to use in their advertisements. As such, the companies rely more on intuitions and feelings in the selection process. For example, the sports apparel company, Gap, enlisted the high-fashion celebrity Ms. Parker (the star in Sex and the City) to market its sportswear (Ferla 2005). This was a mismatch which had disastrous results for Gap as its consumers could not identify the celebrity with the product. The o rganization therefore ended up spending millions of dollars in celebrity advertisement despite it not reaping any significant gain as the sales decreased. Conclusion This paper set out to highlight the significant advantages of employing celebrities by an organization to front its marketing campaigns. To this end, this paper has discussed some of the advantages as well as disadvantages that are apparent in celebrity endorsements. From the discussions presented herein, it is evident that the main aim of using celebrities is to obtain as much media coverage for the organization as possible which results in the generation of more sales. The facts presented in this paper demonstrate that this is a role that celebrities play successfully. It can therefore be authoritatively stated that the use of celebrities in advertisements is more advantageous to a company. Celebrity advertising should therefore be employed wherever possible by organizations in the fashion industry. However, care shou ld be taken to ensure that the celebrities chosen to endorse a product are well fitted for the role and fairly predictable to avoid the losses that can be incurred by the organization should the celebrity fall out of favour with the public. References AGCM, 2010, The Statutory Definition of Advertising. Web. Bergstom, C. Skarfstad, R. 2004, Celebrity Endorsement: Case Study of J. Lindeberg. Web. Center for Applied Research (CFAR) 2000, Mini-case Study: Nike’s â€Å"Just Do It† Advertising Campaign,. Cooper, R. 2010, Celebrity Fashion: Terms of Interest to the Fashion Industry. Web. Elberse, A. 2009, Risks and Rewards of Celebrity Endorsements. Web. Ferla, R. L. 2005, The Celebrity Endorsement Game. Web. MacRury, I. 2009, Advertising. Illustrated. Routledge. Shimp, T. A. 2008, Advertising Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, Cengage Learning. Wong, C. 2009, Risky Business: The Pitfalls of Celebrity Endorsement, Otago Marketing Review. We b. This essay on The Advantages and disadvantages of Using Celebrities in Advertisements was written and submitted by user Dylan George to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Effects of Teenage Pregnancy essays

Effects of Teenage Pregnancy essays The high level of teenage births continues to create numerous problems for social services, parents and the public at large. At the beginning of a new century, reducing teenage childbearing remains a challenge to social scientists, service providers and public officials. An organization named, The National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy, have provided statistics listed on the internet. The research is broken down by individual states as well. The overall findings inidicate that birth rates have dcreased in the United States as a whole , for six consecutive years, (1992-1997). In 1997, the teenage birth rate was 52.9% births per 1000 females ages 15-19. The year 1997, is the most recent year for which data is available. This rate represents a siginificant 15% decrease since 1991. Althugh, the 1997 teenage birth rate is still higher than the 1986 rate of 50.2%, the lowest in more than half a century. In an effort to aim for a lower percentage in teenage pregnancy, the research from the following psycholgists and authors providing valuable information; can give a clear understanding of what remains to be done in the cultural, political and programs arena. In a survey completed in the Illinois High Schools, Grades 9-12, 1995) students were asked the following questions regarding sexual activity and contaceptive use. 1st Question Have you ever had sexual intercourse? The survey showed 46% females and 51% males said yes. A liitle over 50% of those students did not use any form of contraceptive. (TNCTPTP) Every 31 seconds, an adolescent becomes pregnant and every 2 minutes one gives birth in the United States The United States adolsecent birth rates is the highest among western Countries and approximately one million teens under 18 years of age became pregnant. (Hardy and Zabin , 1991) Those statitics are frightening, but the more imporant statistic is just under 50% ...

10 Part-Time Job Interview Questions (And Quick, Good Answers)

10 Part-Time Job Interview Questions (And Quick, Good Answers) The typical questions you might be asked for a part-time job are a little different than the ones you’d expect to be asked for a full-time job. In order to properly prepare yourself for a part-time job interview, start thinking of good answers to the following likely questions. â€Å"Why do you want to work here?†The interviewer is trying to figure out if you have any enthusiasm about the company or the position, or if you’re just looking for whatever is out there. Have an answer that will convince them of the former by doing a bit of research.â€Å"How long were you at your last job?†This is a sneaky way of figuring out whether you will stick around or not. It also might lead into questions such as why you left or what your relationship was like with your former employer. Be prepared to answer those, but also to explain- if you weren’t at your last job very long- why. Just make sure they know you’re not a flight risk.â€Å"When are you avai lable?†Even if they love you, your needs might mismatch, so this question is critical. They have shifts they need covered. You have conflicts that would prevent you from fitting in with what they need. Be honest. And make sure to think about evenings and weekends.â€Å"Would you prefer full-time if a position were available?†Be careful here. They might be testing you to see whether you might bail the second a full-time gig turns up at another company. In this case, either be honest and explain why full-time doesn’t currently work for you (but you might be open to it in the future). Or explain that you’re eager to work for this company in whatever way you can.â€Å"Describe your pace.†Depending on the job and company, your potential employer might be looking for a speed demon (particularly if the job description says â€Å"fast-paced environment† or mentions multitasking or juggling) or they might want someone with a steady, reliable pace. Try to figure out what would fit the company best, but answer honestly. You won’t want to fib about this if you work one way or the other.â€Å"What are you looking for in your next job?†Say what? Why would you tell them that, when clearly your next job of choice is their job. Basically, your interviewer wants to make sure that your goals match that of their company. Frame your answer to highlight the overlap between the requirements listed on the job posting and your skillset. And be honest. What about this company excites you or epitomizes a value that you hold dear?â€Å"How do you handle stress/pressure?†Part-time jobs aren’t necessarily part-time stress. Your interviewer is trying to understand your temperament, ability to problem-solve, and grace under fire. For extra credit, give an example of a time when you handled a particularly stressful situation in an old job. Maybe even mention how stress is a good motivator for you and how a fast-paced environ ment keeps you moving and busy, which you prefer.â€Å"Talk about a situation in which you failed.†No one likes talking about their failures, particularly not at a job interview. But showing how you learn from mistakes and failures is important- even for a part-time employer.â€Å"How do you deal with unhappy clients/customers?†If your part-time job would involve customer service or client relations of any kind, this question will probably come up. Hopefully you have some relevant experience to draw from with concrete examples. Showcase your conflict resolution skills.â€Å"What are your questions for me?†Yup. Just like any other job interview, a part-time gig will still ask you if you have any questions for the interviewer, and you’ll still have to come up with some intelligent and thoughtful ones- or risk not being in contention for the job. Reiterate your interest in the position and show that you’ve been thinking about how working there would b e and ways that it would be mutually beneficial.

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Oppurtunity Cost - Term Paper Example The articles also indicate how the country has decreased revenue generated from local consumption. The change in energy sources are triggered by the fact that most of the countries are embracing green energy and attributes to the future benefits the energy could have to the environment (196). The environmental benefits according to the article are of environmental benefits are far more important than economic benefits. The country has two energy alternatives. The choice to use renewal energy rather than the natural oil and gas are based on environmental factors rather than the economical value. The natural oil contributed largely to the national income. The country being among the largest producers of oil, the government’s decision to cut off their second largest source of revenue and invest on other sources indicates how choices where triggered by other factors. The decision has nothing t do with the economic benefit but the environmental factors. The decision is triggered by the world millennium development goals. The initial investments may be high and the country may take a longer period to realize the economical benefit to their planned investment. New infrastructure could consume half of the revenue invested by the government towards the sector. Choosing the option would mean that the governments revenue on oil and natural would dwindle. The country depends on agriculture and oil export to contribute to the national revenue. The elimination of natural oil will mean that the country depend mostly on agriculture as their main economic activity. The national expenditure will increase meaning resources allocated to national development. This means their opportunity cost would be the revenue collected from the renewable energy subtracted from the income that would otherwise be collected from exports of natural oil and gas. The result is the sacrifice foregone by the government to ensure a sustainable environment. The new investment

Electronic commerce and application Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Electronic commerce and application - Assignment Example This paper explores the existing debate between first-mover and follower firms to study the impact of each of them. The synthesis of the existing literature points out that the first-mover advantage in e-commerce comes from both the customer and the producer side. It has been documented that the first-mover firms have an opportunity to obtain greater knowledge about customers and securing their trust. Works of researchers like Reichheld and Schefter (2000) had comprehensively pointed out the advantages that accrue to the producers on account of FMA. Another recurrent factor in the academic discussions is the higher market share that results from the FMA. They suggested affiliate relationships, establishing partnership with major portals and increasing access to financial resources as the major advantages (Barney, 1991). One of the major examples of firms using e-commerce for growth is Netflix which has introduced features like personalization tools and recommendations systems as a useful mechanism to differentiate between customers in the rental business. Similarly, e-bay had also banked on the e -tailing technology to rapidly expand its set of buyers and sellers. Despite the advantages that can be earned from the FMA, several researchers have also shown that follower firms can also gain a number of advantages by replicating the efforts of the leading firms (Suarez and Utterback, 2007). For instance, the research of Golder and Tellis (1993) had shown that late movers can easily become free riders on the first-movers allowing them to obtain similar knowledge regarding buyer education and enhanced security in transactions. Other researchers like Suarez and Utterback (2007) have shown that late movers can have additional advantages as the market uncertainties and technological drawbacks are removed by the time they enter. Finally, factors like customer satisfaction and customer needs can only be comprehended after a certain time span has elapsed proving

The Ambiguous and Separate Natures of Mosca and Volpone :: Volpone Mosca

The Ambiguous and Separate Natures of Mosca and Volpone The "dynamic duo" consisting of Mosca and Volpone in Ben Jonson's play Volpone are consistently and inconsistently similar. Strangely enough, appearances can be both correct and deceiving indicators of each character's traits. The obvious notions of each player are often replaced by the intricacies of individuality. Considered together, Mosca and Volpone both are childless, unmarried, and cunning deceivers. They are both guilty of unbridled materialism and sordid betrayals. Also, each character depends on some form of disguise- either physical or mental (1.1. 1,31; 1.2.73). Both lustfully desire women, are presumably childless, and unmarried (1.2.117-118). Mosca and Volpone are both alike in their linkage to their personalities by metaphor. Differences, however, arise soon enough. The play's establishment of a societal hierarchy is a worthy consideration in the comparison of Mosca and Volpone. Mosca is bound and resistant to his subservience as a "parasite" to his equally dishonest benefactor (Volpone) (1.1.69). Mosca's pla ce in society is much less considerable than Volpone's as his longer, more severe punishment reveals. Mosca is left without the saving graces of the status of gentleman (5.12.18). Increasingly, Mosca's metaphorical affiliation (the housefly) conveys his common existence and non-influential social class. Further, Mosca resents being Volpone's support system and setting up his wealthy well-wishers for swindlings. Mosca is (at best) praised for being a "fine devil" (5.3.46). Also, as a parasite, Mosca f eels the need to be appreciated for his services- "You see, sir, how I work/ Unto your ends..." (4.6.91-92). Another distinction between both characters is that Mosca feels proud (even in reliable soliloquies) of his prosperous misdeeds. Mosca remarks, "I fear I shall begin to grow in love/ With my dear self..." (3.1-2). His pride grows into viciousness and a plot to kill his own master in a "Fox-trap" (5.5.18). Volpone, while equally witty and deceptive, demonstrates he has more power in the relationship. Volpone uses this capability to attempt to claim Celia's hand despite Mosca's non-verbalized attempt to do likewise (1.5.108-116). As a nobleman, it st ands to reason that Volpone is more "wrong" for his aspirations. However, in his pursuit, Volpone has real ethical problems (unlike Mosca) with his actions. He talks of expelling a conscious "humor from [his] heart" and cries "What a vile wretch was I" (5.11.12-15). Mosca is also the driving force for rekindling Volpone's evil in the duo's attempt to "gull the court" (5.

Pre-school children Essay

I carried out my observation on a group of pre-school children consisting 1 boy and 2 girls for 13 minutes in the morning free play session. These children were about to do leaf and twig printing for the first time. The equipment that was provided was yellow paint, brown paint and green paint all of these were in small paint trays. There was also sugar paper for the children to print their leaves on. There was also various sized leafs and twigs in a small tray. Each child went and put their aprons on. Then they came and sat sown around the table on the chairs. I explained to them what they have to do and I demonstrated this by dabbing a leaf into the paint and printing it onto a piece of sugar paper. Then I got a piece of twig and dabbed it into the paint and printed it onto the sugar paper. The children listened to me carefully and then they started to their printing. A picked a large leaf using her right and looked at it, and then she said â€Å"wow, look at how many colours this leaf has, 1, 2, 3 different colours†. Next she carefully lifted another large leaf she dabbed it into the green painted. Next she printed the leaf onto the large piece sugar paper. R picked up a twig and he stroked it into the brown paint; next he stroked the twig onto the piece of sugar paper and whilst he was doing this he said â€Å"this paint is going in lines, it looks like chocolate, weeeeehhh†. Beside this K picked up a leaf and dabbed it into the yellow paint. K rubbed the leaf into the yellow paint, next he lifted the leaf from the yellow paint and placed the leaf in the green paint, and again he rubbed the leaf and said while doing this he excitedly said â€Å"I am mixing colours†. Next I asked the children â€Å"where do leaves come from? † A quickly answered â€Å"they come from trees†. R added â€Å"then they fall off the trees†. K also added â€Å"twigs come from trees as well†. K said â€Å"Look, I made a nice picture†, she also added â€Å"I have got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 leaves printed†. Soon after R picked up a leaf and said loudly â€Å"this leaf is red, yellow and brown†. A picked up a twig and using both of her hands she rolled it into the green paint, she next rolled the twig onto the sugar paper. A picked up 3 different sized leaves and placed them onto the sugar paper and said â€Å"this one is tiny, this one is a little bit bigger and this one is the biggest†. R then said excitedly â€Å"look my twig has made patterns†. A leaned over to have look at R’s picture. A said â€Å"it hassss! â€Å". Then she looked at her picture and said â€Å"look! My leaves have made patterns in the middle†. Next K held up her paper and said â€Å"I am finished! â€Å". She placed her paper on the drying rack and took her apron off, washed her hands and went to play with some toys. R and A also said that they had finished they placed their pieces of paper onto the drying rack. Next they removed their aprons and washed their hands and went to play. E6 & E7 & E10 I carried out my observation on a group of morning children of the pre-school for a total of 13 minutes approximately whilst they had a free play. I observed how a group of children play with natural materials and noting how it helps them to learn. While I was observing this small group of children playing I noticed that this activity helps them to learn about the knowledge and understanding of the world. I also noticed that they were interacting and communicating really well with each other. You can view this by reading my observation in E5. But we must remember that each child develops at their own pace. This group of children’s ages range from 3:6 years to 3: 9 years. The Foundation Stage Curriculum states â€Å"Knowledge and Understanding of The World; children notice and comment on patterns† (2000, pg89). This statement was from the green area stepping stone and this shows me that this group of children are at the correct developmental stage. But we must remember that each child is an individual. Also The Foundation Stage Curriculum states â€Å"Mathematical Development; children count actions and objects that cannot be moved† (2000, pg 75). This statement from The Foundation Stage Curriculum is from the green area stepping stone, and it shows me that K is at the correct developmental stage because you can see from my observation in E5 that K was counting the leaf printings on her piece of sugar paper. The Foundation Stage Curriculum also states â€Å"Mathematical Development; children use size language such as ‘big’ and ‘little’. † This statement shows me that R is at the correct developmental stage because he was using size language when he was describing the three leaves. You can see this by viewing my observation in E5.