Branding with Celebrities

I was watching a commercial during a football game and a Dodge Ram commercial come on the tube. It talked about a handshake and that it used to mean something. The voice of the commercial was tough, rugged, a bit like you would imagine a Dodge Ram should be. The commercial itself was gritty and utilized a washed out look. The images were of a pickup truck going through what is probably the most brutal treatment you would put it through.

Fast forward two quarters, by this time I’d seen the same Dodge Commercial two more times and by this time I’d seen a few Coors commercials. What did these two things have in common? Sam Elliott. A quick bio on Elliott: He has been characterized as the typical American Cowboy, tough, deep voice, and has consequently played various roles as such. (See Virgil in Tombstone, Sacketts, Ghost Rider (terrible movie by the way but not his fault) and others) So when you put all the pieces together it makes sense that Dodge and Coors would target the same person.

Both the brands want to be for the working man, the blue collar man who is tough or wants to be tough and wants to associate with someone and something who is tough. Both brands are “American”. Both brands target the middle class worker. Both brands have positioned themselves as a quality cost effective product, and both brands have Elliott.

When a company chooses a celebrity or a voice for the product they hope that the audience recognizes who the voice is. They want the audience to relate to that person and what they represent. This seems like a great way to build some immediate essence by just associating with the celebrity. This can also go really really wrong (see Tiger Woods and Brett Favre).

Another voice that is interesting is Kiefer Sutherland doing the voiceover for Bank of America. I mean that’s Jack Bauer for Heaven’s sake!!! If Jack Bauer banks at BoA then I should! No kidding, sure, Sutherland has a good voice, he played a role in a movie where it never showed his face rather his voice was used the whole time (Phone Booth). I guarantee you that B o A wanted us to think and feel that Jack Bauer has confidence in them and that we should too.

It’s a slippery slope when you start associating yourself with stars. Tag Heuer took a black eye from Tiger Woods. Wrangler didn’t think it was going to need to pull Favre commercials until it took an opinion poll of him and it wasn’t positive. Nike is everybody, in fact it has almost become the reverse for them. An athlete is identified as “legit” if they are signed by Nike. A previously non associated company Timex wanted to get more into the outdoors market with their Expedition line of watches and signed Conrad Anker, knowing full well that anyone who has any kind of mountaineering knowledge would know the name and again, “if it’s good enough for Conrad, it’s good enough for me”.

As companies continue to have athletes endorse their products there will continue to be a high risk high reward return. You could have that rough and rugged Elliot or you could have Michael Vick shooting himself in the foot. It is a wonderful way to build a brand but it is a risky business and should be evaluated, researched, thought out, voted on… you get the point, make a good choice, it could pay off big time.