After reading this blog, Celebrity Endorsements Study, on BrandChannel I was very intrigued at the results they got. The main point of the research is that only 4% of consumers will buy a product if a celebrity endorses it. I found this number very low, as having 2 younger sisters, I know they are swayed by what they see on certain celebrities in such magazines like US Weekly and other tabloids.
My main problem with the research is that I would like to see what kind of people they actually conducted the research on. Did they do research on all demographics? Or just very wealthy people? An example they bring up in the blog is Angelina Jolie doing advertisements for Louis Vuitton. However, in my opinion, someone who is purchasing Louis Vuitton really does not need to see an advertisement of a celebrity with the product. Due to Louis Vuitton being such a well renowned brand, the consumers know what they want and do not need to be swayed by seeing advertisements of celebrities.
This is Blake Lively, from the teen show Gossip Girl. I don’t think this is a smart advertisement for Chanel as most people buying Chanel purses do not watch Gossip Girl. Being a teenage hit, some consumers may be turned off by seeing Blake Lively in advertisements as they may see it as “trashing” the brand.
Another problem with having celebrities endorse your high quality products is that in the world of celebrities, reputations change very quickly. For example, last week there were naked photos of Blake Lively leaked on the internet (I don’t think a link is needed for this…) This is negative press for her and also negative press for Chanel. Having celebrities endorse high priced products can be problematic and high quality brands should reconsider who they use for advertisements.