Celebrity brand endorsement never goes out of vogue, primarily because people are easily attracted to glamour and many even follow their favorite movie and sports stars religiously. Thus, popular celebrities impact the lives of common people way more than anything else. In fact, brands today realize that hiring a celebrity provides them with the much needed visibility in the market and also enables them in achieving their sales and marketing goals. The above are some of the reasons why advertisers in India and even in abroad are always on the lookout for popular celebrities who can help them in promoting and publicizing their brands.
For instance, iPhone has hired Hollywood leading and famous actor Dwayne Johnson also dubbed as ‘The Rock’ for promoting Siri, the software that lets people talk to their smartphone and give it directions such as create to do lists and set reminders. However, unlike abroad, Apple hasn’t appointed any Bollywood celebrity as its brand ambassador in India and neither has Nokia. After its re-entry in the Indian market, the company decided to dump Shahrukh Khan and has appointed popular badminton player P.V. Sindhu as its brand ambassador. Sindhu, interestingly will be promoting the company’s new Android based smartphones including Nokia 6, Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 in the country. Here, take a sneak peak at some of the popular mobile phone brands and the Indian celebrities who’re endorsing them.
Deepika Padukone for Oppo: After signing up the extremely popular and versatile Hrithik Roshan and Sonam Kapoor as their brand’s ambassador in India and well as in the South Asian region, the China based mobile phone manufacturer Oppo appointed leading Bollywood actress and style icon Deepika Padukone as its new brand ambassador in the month of March in 2017. According to the company officials, Deepika’s popularity among youth and her unique sense of styling, fashion and attitude are exactly what they were looking for in their new brand ambassador. What’s interesting to note here is that Oppo that is relatively a new entrant in the Indian mobile phone market, has managed to penetrate deeper, through its offline marketing strategies. In fact, celebrity brand endorsement has helped them in gaining the much needed recognition and space in the Indian market.
Lenovo Ropes in Ranbir Kapoor: Lenovo is yet another Chinese company that sells a wide variety of products including smartphones, laptops and tablets in the country and worldwide. After announcing a series of smartphones in India, including K900 and Vibe Z, the company hired Ranbir Kapoor as its brand’s new face in 2014. The company strongly felt that Ranbir Kapoor’s huge fan following and celebrity status could provide them with the much needed boost and penetration into the Indian market. Ranbir’s popularity as a youth icon and his cool personality and attitude also resonates with the brand’s consumer and overall approach.
Sony Hires Katrina Kaif: Needless to mention, Katrina Kaif is one of the hot favorite stars of the Bollywood film industry today. In fact, the actress has been around for more than a decade now, which is exactly what prompted the Japanese technology giant Sony to hire Kaif as their brand ambassador. Kaif, who was appointed as the Sony’s brand ambassador for the Xperia range of phones played a pivotal role in enhancing the brand’s presence in the market. She also featured in the Xperia Z series advertisement, which gained a great deal of popularity among consumers from all walks of life.
Panasonic Signs up Varun Dhawan and Taapsee Pannu: After signing up Varun Dhawan in 2014, Panasonic also roped in actress Taapsee Pannu as their brand ambassador in August 2017. While, Varun Dhawan has already helped the brand in establishing its presence among the youth, Taapsee will now be featuring alongside Dhawan in the company’s new advertisement campaign for the Eluga range of smartphones.
Apart from this, other popular Bollywood celebrities such as Kareena Kapoor is associated with iBall Andi, Akshay Kumar is the face of Micromax mobiles and Samsung had roped in Shahid Kapoor after its long association with leading actor Amir Khan.
– Puja Bhardwaj
