Brand ambassadors are commonly used by companies across the world to personify their brands. Be it Shahrukh Khan for Santro Zip, Sachin for Boost or Hrithik for John Players, brand ambassadors are a way people easily associate themselves with a brand.
Other than building awareness, it is a way brands use to build an emotional bond with their target and potential customers. The most important criteria which is considered in bringing a brand ambassador on board is whether he / she is the right fit for the product or not.
Till date, it was considered as illegal / unethical if a company had more than one brand ambassador. Even if they had, like Tag Heuer or Omega watches, the multiplicity of their brand ambassadors wasn’t shown at one particular time.
But now, more and more companies are looking at finding more and more stars / celebrities to endorse their products. Take Airtel; today it is using Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Bipasha Basu, Shahrukh Khan and Saina Nehwal as its brand ambassadors for different segments. With Rs 400 cr set aside for just promotional campaigns (17% TV ad volume share), Airtel seems to say, if you have got the money, why not use it. With such distinct personalities, Airtel aims at breaking through the clutter of the competition. And Sony, Levis, Pepsi, P & G, all are following the same.
So today companies are saying
“Why stick to just one person if you have the money to spend on other media vehicles?”
It is the age of differentiation in every possible way. And if using different brand ambassadors for different segments helps, so be it.
Sony uses Kareena for Vaio and Deepika Padukone for its cameras. Gitanjali uses different brand ambassadors for its different collections like Nakshatra, Gili etc. In such cases if different brands operate across segments, socio economic classes and also undergo extensions, using multiple brand ambassadors is beneficial. In the case of Gitanjali, different brands convey different emotions thus stimulating the need for different brand ambassadors.
Obviously a well known face for a brand works. But after that, the match of the ambassador and the brand and also its ability to strengthen its positioning and values is the most important factor.
Do you think having a good brand ambassador makes a difference for a brand?