MHO: Endorsers in China

Sometimes ago, we share about choosing the right endorser for the right product, we concluded that, Product that requires emotional attachment, and involving ‘romance’ – attractiveness become an important element of the endorsers. Functional product, however, endorsers will need to have certain level of expertise and skills in the related product to be effective.

Today, I would like to share about endorsers’ match up to the product vs. Attractiveness. Often, marketers forget about the market is the important criteria in choosing the endorsers, taking China for example, the young generation as well as the middle age generation are setting the trend for celebrity endorsers; perhaps influenced by the China cultural and moral influence, Chinese emphasizes heavily on personal images, and tend to, first, judge a person by outer look.

Image is more important to them; thus, the current behavior of the China consumers is towards focusing on the image of the endorsers instead of the match up with the product. As long as the celebrity is well known and attractive, it increase awareness of the product and purchase intention because consumers seem to be attracted by the beautiful endorsers which in turn bring awareness to the product. One must also remember the pitfall of this, it’s the overshadowing effect.

If a company decided to use endorsers who are an expert in the product category, then they must ensure the ‘expertise’ can overrule ‘attractiveness’. A win-win situation is to have someone who is an expert, at the same time well known as a celebrity, and is attractive, then it carries better influence to the market.