Brand Ambassador: Who Really Does The Cap Fit?

Everyday, consumers are exposed to thousands of voices and images in magazines, newspapers, on billboards, websites, radio and television. Every brand attempts to steal at least a fraction of a person’s time to inform him or her of the amazing and different attributes of the product or brand at hand. The challenge of the marketer is to find a hook that will hold the subject’s attention. In helping to achieve this, brand custodians sometimes deploy the marketing devise of using celebrity endorsement or brand ambassadors to achieve their goal. Thus, celebrity endorsement in advertisement and its impact on the overall brand is of great significance. In this process, the brand owner hires celebrities from a particular field to feature in its advertisement campaigns. These celebrities are called Brand Ambassadors. A brand ambassador is usually actresses, actors, sports players, singers and similar celebrities who symbolize a brand in a positive manner and carries the message of the brand out to the public. Brand ambassadors endorse products for which they get huge royalties. They also participate in marketing and launching campaigns of the product. The management board of a company connects its product with certain qualities of the celebrities figure. The promotional features and images of the product are matched with the celebrity image, which tends to persuade a consumer to fix up his choice from a variety of brands. Although this sounds pretty simple, but the design of such campaigns and the subsequent success in achieving the desire result calls for an in-depth understanding of the product, the brand objective, choice of a celebrity, associating the celebrity with the brand, and a framework for measuring the effectiveness. Virtually all brands have one or more ambassadors in Nigeria. We have quite a number of brand ambassadors with Globacom - both in the movie and in the music industry. While other brands like Mortein insecticide has the sensation singer, Omawumi, Hapic toilet cleaner has Chioma Chukwuka Akpote, Good Mama Detergent has Funke Akindele and the list goes endless. The recent signing of the new entrant into the music industry, Davido by MTN as an ambassador to the MTN Pulse package has continued to generate controversy as some consumers are not comfortable with their idea of signing an artiste who doesn’t even have a single music album to his credit. What really is the idea behind brand ambassadorship? What are the pains and gains of the act to a brand? A brand ambassador directly interacts with potential customers and is able to give consumers more “feet on the street” without the extra cost of hiring employees all over the country. A brand ambassador can play a powerful role in the development of a brand and will definitely help emerging brands establish themselves far quicker that they otherwise might. But what most brand owners neglect is the fact that as with all communications, the wrong person could do the product and brand more harm than good. The brand ambassador relationship is, to some extent, symbiotic. It relies on PR – that’s media relations rather than public relations and unfortunately most brand owners in Nigeria are not fretful of this. Basically, a brand ambassador should be a darling of the media, the kind of person who has created a niche for him/her self in the chosen industry not just a ‘flash-in-the pan’ celebrity, whose future career blink and not well reported in the media. The signing of Saka, real name Hafeez Oyetoro by Etisalat as an ambassador was what many subscribers applauded looking at the actor’s pedigree in his chosen profession. The comic artistic attitude of Saka in all the commercials, his pedigree as a successful actor coupled with other unique qualities makes many not to question the authenticity of the free blackberry promotions. Most consumers are not against the usage of a musician as brand ambassador because many of them applauded the signing of the likes of Sammy Okposo and other talented young musicians by Globacom. Who really are the target audience of MTN pulse package? How well can Davido connect with this target audience? Though, at this point, some industry watchers and many music lovers might think he is a flash in the pan, yet only time will tell how much impact Davido will make as the face of MTN Pulse compared with the success of Saka and others who have helped their brands to drive consumer traffic. Highlighting the essence of brand ambassador, David Aaker n his book ‘Brand Leadership’ said ‘Because of their fame, celebrities serve not only to create and maintain attention but also to achieve high recall rates for today’s highly cluttered environments. Similarly, every product has an image. The consumer tries to consume a brand which has the maximum fit with his/her own personality/image. The celebrity endorser fits in between these two interactions, where he tries to bring the image of the product closer to the expectation of the consumer, by transferring some of the cultural meanings residing in his image to the product. A good brand ambassador is the one who is interested in the product that they are endorsing. The brand or product that has less competition and enjoys a good market share has less need for a brand ambassador compared with a product which has many strong competitors. What is obtainable in terms of brand ambassador in our community is slightly different as some brand owners, out of pure sentiment engaged celebrities as brand ambassadors. Commenting on the act of brand ambassadorship Yinka Olaito, an Executive with Michael Sage Consulting said there are other factors brand owner should consider when choosing a brand ambassador. His words, ‘Brand ambassador concept was first developed in the western world. It is a concept or process whereby a brand identifies a known person whose attributes aligns with its brands and selects that individual to serve as its representative. In some cases brand ambassador may be a person of influence in the market the brand has influence. So for the brand it will help to use the ambassador's goodwill to penetrate the market. Some brand ambassadors are paid while some are glad for the recognition and association. “For instance Kanu, DBanj are noted UN ambassadors.. Having said this, One huge disadvantage of this practice for the brand is appearance of character failure in a brand ambassador since the attitude of the ambassador may affect brand’s image. For example Tiger Wood immoral affairs greatly affected the brand he was associated with then. So, for the brand ambassadors, their lifestyle can affect brand positively or negatively’. He said. On the part of Muyiwa Akintunde, CEO/lead Consultant at Lead Communications he claims the motive behind having a brand ambassador is connecting with the market segments that acknowledge such an ambassador as a role model. He explained that “the more acceptable or credible the ambassador is to the core targets, the more the brand equity is enhanced. Most people would like to adopt the same lifestyle, products and services that their icons identify with. It therefore adds significantly to the bottom line of the brand in the long run”. Commenting on negative effect brand ambassador can have on a brand, Akintunde said ‘When a celebrity gets involved in scandal or otherwise loses reputation, the brand he/she represents is dragged down along in the mud, if crisis containment strategy is not immediately activated’. Brand ambassador serves as the face of the company and offers an opportunity to the company to make an excellent impression on prospects. Brand ambassador describes the qualities of the product with an impressive personality and magnetic charm as well as shape the fortune of products. The success of a brand relies on customer satisfaction, quality, marketing, and somewhat on brand ambassador. So the companies select famous personalities to endorse a product which help in building brand demarcation and rapid awareness as well as connect with the consumer. The brands and products that are launched newly get the utmost publicity and attention of the public when they have shining celebrity as brand ambassador. The brand ambassador’s positive trademarks get relocated to the brand as the patrons begin to view the brand in connection with the brand ambassador. Brand ambassadors guarantee the patrons to trust in the reliability of the brand. Brand ambassador endorse names of brand and products through interacting with sales prospects, business partners, customers and the media.