Brand Awareness Generating Capability of Indian Cricketers in Kolkata ______
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BRAND AWARENESS GENERATING CAPABILITY OF INDIAN CRICKETERS IN KOLKATA _______________________________________________ Supriyo Patra* Assistant Professor in Management (Marketing) Department of Business Administration ST. Xavier’s College (Autonomous) Dr. Saroj Kumar Datta Pro Vice Chancellor & Dean, School of Business Galgotias University Abstract whereby each of their brands had a Cricket is the most popular sport in India manager assigned to only that brand who today and the Cricketers enjoy huge fan was responsible for its financial success. following and media attention. The primary According to (Keller, 2007), Branding is objective of this study is aimed at treated as a means to distinguish the goods determining the skill of the Indian of one producer from those of another. Cricketers in generating Brand Recall among respondents of different gender and Every business is a social entity and it age groups in Kolkata. operates within an environment. Its operation is affected by both the Micro Primary research was conducted with cross environmental and Macro environmental sectional research design by applying factors. Brand building is a challenging survey method among a randomly selected activity in today’s dynamic and competitive sample of 400 respondents in Kolkata with market place and companies are leaving no a structured questionnaire. Independent stone unturned to successfully promote sample t-test and ANOVA techniques were their brand in mass media. Brand used for analyzing the data. endorsement by Indian Celebrities is a common phenomenon noticed in Indian The findings show that there is no context. significant difference in their brand recall generation capacity among male and female Cricketers as Brand Endorser respondents. However, they are having a Cricket is treated as a religion in India and significant impact in generating brand the game enjoys a huge fan following and recall among the respondents belonging to tremendous media coverage. The cricketers the age group (18-25) years compared to are worshipped as god by their fans and the others three age groups selected for the they also enjoy media attention. The Indian study. cricket team is a glowing example of the concept of “Unity among Diversity” as we Key Words: Brand; Brand Recall; see players from different corners of our Celebrity; Indian Cricketers; Media. country playing together with pride and passion. Introduction Branding in some form or the other has In India people admire MS Dhoni because been around for centuries. According to he came from a small town in Eastern (Keller, 2007) Procter and Gamble put the first brand management system into place, 24 Brand Awareness India and went on to become the captain of Literature Review the Indian cricket team by virtue of his According to (Keller, 2007) Brand determination, dedication and positive Awareness consists of brand recognition attitude. Sachin Tendulkar is worshipped by and brand recall performance. Brand his fans because he represents a middle- Recognition relates to consumers’ ability to class boy from Mumbai who made it big confirm prior exposure to the brand when with sheer hard work and dedication . given the brand as a cue. Celebrities are considered as ‘any Brand Recall relates to consumers’ ability individual who enjoys public recognition to retrieve the brand from memory. It and who uses this recognition on behalf of a requires that the consumers correctly consumer good by appearing with it in an generate the brand from memory when advertisement’ (McCracken 1989). given a relevant cue. In the words of (Keller, 2007) Brand In this study the term “Celebrity” will Awareness also involves linking the brand- encompass a variety of endorsements the brand name, logo, symbol and so forth- including those in explicit mode ‘I endorse to certain association in memory. Brand this product’, the implicit mode ‘I use this Recall can further be classified as Unaided product’, the imperative mode ‘You should recall and aided recall. use this product’ and the co present mode ‘the celebrity appears with the product’ (Mc According to (Keller, 2007) in Unaided Cracken 1989). recall consumer recall the brand Unaided where as in aided recall various types of The marketers operating in India are quick cues are presented to help the consumer to spot this trend and are making use of the recall the brand. Effect of celebrity leading Indian Cricketers (IC) to promote endorsement on Brand Awareness-Recall their brands in various mass media. It is a has been an area of research that has been costly proposition and requires a lot of studied by researchers. A celebrity was strategic thinking to select an Indian better than other endorsers in enhancing Cricketer for Brand endorsement Purpose. brand name recall (Friedman and Friedman, 1979). The Indian Cricketers are treated as “youth icon” and are thought to have an instant A study conducted among MBA students of connect with the youths of our country. Pune in India to determine the association They have emerged as one of the most between celebrity advertising and brand sought after “Celebrity” among advertisers recall shows that recall for female celebrity for their brand endorsement purpose in advertisement is lesser compared to that of different mass media. male celebrity (Dhotre and Bhola, 2010). The Indian Cricketers (IC) is promoting It is also evident from existing literature different brands from across product that a celebrity was better in enhancing categories starting from Fast Moving brand name recall than a non-celebrity Consumer Goods (FMCG), Consumer (Petty et al. 1983). A physically attractive Durables and Services. They are making celebrity paired with an attractiveness- their presence felt in various mass media as related product could enhance brand name brand endorser. Hence, it is essential to recall (Kahle and Homer, 1985). study their role as brand endorser. (Misra and Beatty, 1990) also showed that celebrity/product congruency is better in enhancing brand name recall than an However different findings emerged from a incongruent or irrelevant celebrity. study conducted by (Costanzo and 25 Supriyo Patra, Dr. Saroj Kumar Datta Goodnight, 2005). The results presented in Hence the present study is conducted not their study, however, found that a celebrity just among students but respondents of recognized in a magazine advertisement did different gender and age groups in Kolkata. not increase consumer Research Objectives & Hypotheses recall of the brand endorsed by the celebrity We have identified the following broad for both professional athlete celebrities and objectives for the study based on a other entertainment celebrities who are not comprehensive review of existing literature. professional athletes (Costanzo and The first objective is aimed at Goodnight, 2005). presenting the Brand endorsement details of the 10 selected Indian Celebrity endorsement enhances self-brand Cricketers. connections when consumers aspire to be The second and final objective is like the celebrity, but harms them when aimed at understanding the Brand consumers do not; this effect is more Recall generating capacity of the pronounced when the brand image is Indian Cricketers among the congruent with the celebrity’s image respondents of different gender and (Escalas and Bettman, 2009). age groups selected for the study. Another study conducted on “Effectiveness Keeping the above objectives in mind the of Celebrity Advertisements” by following hypotheses are formulated- (Rajeswari et al. 2010) highlighted that factors like age, gender, viewers’ status, H0 1: There is no difference in Brand Recall monthly family income, educational score of Indian Cricketers among male and qualification, period of awareness of female respondents in Kolkata. celebrity advertisements and the type of celebrities (Film stars, Sports stars, H0 2: There is no difference in Brand Recall Professional models and TV personalities) Score of Indian Cricketers among have close relationship with the level of respondents of different age groups in effectiveness of celebrity advertisements. Kolkata. Celebrity endorsement enhances product Research Methodology information and creates awareness among In the first part of the study 10 Indian consumers. It helps them to recall the Cricketers (IC) were selected based on a brands of the durable products pilot study conducted among 50 (Balakrishnan & Kumar, 2011). respondents in Kolkata depending on their familiarity and Popularity. Thereafter, the From review of existing literature it is seen brands endorsed by each of these 10 Indian that contradictory findings emerged Celebrities were tracked from regarding the effect of celebrity advertisements featuring in Television and endorsement on Brand recall. Most of the Newspapers during the study period as earlier studies were conducted with presented in table 1. students and were experimental in nature. Table: 1 Brand endorsement details of 10 selected Indian Cricketers (IC). SR. NO NUMBER OF CELEBRITY (INDIAN BRAND ENDORSED BRAND CRICKETERS) ENDORSED 26 Brand Awareness 1 Sachin Tendulkar 9 Aviva, Sunfeast, Cannon Camera, Royal Bank of Scotland, Boost, Jaypee Cement, Toshiba, Adidas, Kaspersky 2 MS Dhoni 10 Aircel, Sonata, Boost, Pepsi, TVS, Orient PSPO, Lays, Dabur Chyawanprash, Lafarge Concreto, Emami Healthy & Tasty cooking oil 3 Yuvraj Singh 2 Royal Stag, Birla Sunlife, 4 Saurav Ganguly 3 Captain TMT bars, Chirag Computers, Vibgyor Motor Cycle 5 Virendra Sehwag 4 Pepsi, Karbonn Mobile, Zandu Balm, Hero Moto