Both Ankit Chhabra and Sankalp Kohli, my partners in crime @Brandistics, had recently made a post on Brand Sachin. You must have read them, or if you have not then do that my clicking on their names. For once you read their posts, a few questions that beg to be asked comes to your mind.
Is Brand Sachin one of its kind? Can Athlete Endorsements and the analysis behind a Sachin Tendulkar be extended to other athlete endorsements?
To answer the first question, you could have done that yourselves. Of course, Sachin is not one of his kind in this respect. All over the world, you could have had various athlete endorsers that have lent their celebrity status to a brand, that may or not be related to their sport. You have had footballers advertising Gatorade, an energy drink, and you have had Maria Sharapova endorsing a Power Shot. So, Sachin is definitely not one of this kind who has managed to advertise a Aviva Life Insurance in spite of the fact, that Sachin as a great sportsman has probably never really worried about his future income.
The answer to the second question is what grabs my attention the most. If Sachin is not one of his kind, and there are numerous other examples, than it allows to form a hypothesis that Brand Sachin could be extended to other athlete endorsements as well.
And so I decided to do some research. This is what I found out.
Sachin can be classified as a Multi Dimensional Endorser. Not only can Sachin advertise the products and services that are related to his sport, he can as effectively market the products that are seemingly not even remotely attached to his cricket. So what makes this effectiveness?
The fact is that for the Indian audiences Sachin is both, Attractive (some regard him as the same 16 year old cute kid) and Expert (well, he has been on the international cricket scene for 20 years straight) and research has proved that both this attractiveness and expertise is what is effective in Athlete Endorsements. An attractive athlete grabs the audience attention and his expertise helps them convince that the master must be right.
Thus, the multiple dimensions that make Sachin a multi dimensional endorser can be broken down as follows:
- Trustworthiness
- Expertise
- Physical attractiveness
- Familiarity
- Likeability
Of course, they will never play an equal role in the case of all celebrities. For the role these dimensions play, you will have to come back to Brandistics. Till then...
6 comments:
so can this be extended to other athletes in the same market? I disagree. Leander Paes has a lot of the qualities you described, but i don't think that he is a power endorser
i disagree ankit when you say that paes has a lot these qualities.
paes is certainly not attractive, after the mahesh-paes saga, he certainly lost a lot of likeability
the only dimensions that are with paes are the expertise and familiarity ones.. and hence the only endorsements he is most suited to are the ones that are directly related to the tennis...
i think it is time for another post on this topic now!
i think its the perception....
take example of dhanraj pillai...
cant find a better athlete then him in 1990s who had the capability to tackle more than 5 defernders and goal at an instant...
i am not against the fact that Sachin isnt worth....
He is more sorth but i think its the perception otherwise pillai is better than many of the ppl like ravi shastri who still can be seen on TV in adds with some drinks in hand..
vinit,
it definitely is perception when it comes to endorsements, which is why familiarity, likeability, trustworthiness are important parameters other than expertise..
looking at brand specifications..
sachin is seen in media as the base of india team which is quitre true
so all good respecable brands would die to endorse him..
Taking Paes as an example I dont think him to be better or base to indian tennis...
actually vinit,
if you were to look at kohli's post you would find out that dhoni is signed more than sachin from the indian cricket team.
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