Search results

Reviews an article on celebrity endorsement and brand alliance

Reviews a case study of Jamie Oliver's endorsement of Sainsbury's

Jamie Oliver launched his career as a TV chef in the late 1990s with The Naked Chef. Soon loved for his cheeky persona and approachable demeanour, he attracted the attention of Sainsbury's, a UK supermarket chain whose reputation had become outdated. The consumer market at the time understood the Sainsbury's demographic as middle aged and middle class. Oliver's charisma, his good, simple cooking, and his wide appeal to young people made him the perfect choice to revitalize their brand. In 2000, he became the face of the chain in a deal worth £2m a year. The Sainsbury's/Oliver partnership is one of the longest standing brand alliances in the UK, and has therefore attracted much analysis.

Suggests that a celebrity endorsement should be approached as a brand alliance. Offers suggestions for further research

Puts forward a new thesis on branding

Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular forms of marketing, and this study aims to suggest that celebrity endorsement should be considered as a brand alliance, where meanings and values can transfer from either partner to the other. This paper seeks to report on an exploratory attempt to identify the processes involved and explore whether celebrity endorsement should be considered a brand alliance.

After a review of both celebrity endorsement and brand alliance literature, a case of meaning transfer process was examined. The collaboration between Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was studied as a case, within which a special episode of negative publicity emerged and was analysed through newspaper articles.

A model for a reciprocal meaning transfer process is proposed and the existence of a brand‐alliance‐like relationship in the case is established.

The paper is the first qualitative study to examine meaning transfer process in a real life celebrity endorsement context. It indicates the need for managing celebrity endorsement as a brand alliance by suggesting that celebrity endorsement should be considered as an alliance of equals. A model illustrated and supported by a case study is proposed.

The learning outcomes of this paper are as follows: to understand the meaning of celebrity endorser, to understand factors that play a significant role in selecting a celebrity endorser for product endorsement, to decide when a brand needs a celebrity endorser and to generate option analysis factoring in the pros and limitations of celebrity endorsement.

Dish TV pioneered digital entertainment in India. It was July 2016, the first quarter board meeting of Dish TV India Limited at the company corporate office in Noida, India. One of the agenda items was whether the company needed to rely on celebrity endorsement 12 years after its inception. In three months, time, at its next meeting, the board was expected to come up with a product campaign that would most effectively impact its target customers.

The case is targeted at business management students pursuing a postgraduate management program.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.