Marketing Theory - Learning from Celebrity Marketing and Branding

MKT1150/1151 - Personal and Professional Development

SEMINAR: Learning from Celebrity Marketing and Branding

Background

Celebrities are extremely visible in the marketing world, for two reasons. First, because they are widely used to market other people’s products. (There is an excellent book on this subject by Hamish Pringle called Celebrity Sells, which is well worth reading.) Secondly, because so many celebrities are continually marketing themselves. In this part of the module, you will explore the second aspect of celebrity marketing (self marketing), and will undertake exploratory research in order to answer the following questions:

1. What marketing strategies, techniques and media channels do celebrities (and their advisers and consultants) use to market themselves?

1. Which of these strategies are useful and appropriate for you, as a budding professional, to use in marketing and branding yourself?

1.  Celebrity marketing strategies

Not everyone who attempts to market or brand themselves has defined a clear strategy for doing this -- unless they have the money to employ a professional to think it through for them. Even those who have devised a marketing or branding strategy rarely make this public. You will therefore have to do some digging around, and also draw some inferences from the evidence you find of the celebrity’s marketing activities. For example, does a pattern emerge from their marketing and branding activities that suggests they are adopting a clear and consistent strategy?

2.  Relevance of celebrities to professional marketers

A quick look at the magazine shelves of a local newsagents or supermarket will tell you that not all celebrities are sound role models for professionals, that not all of their marketing activities are worth using, and that not all their brand identities are worth having. Here are some criteria you can use to evaluate celebrity marketing strategies and techniques for your own potential use:

• How will they support your professional goals?
• Will they undermine your professional standing?
• Do they provide a consistent picture of the individual (i.e. you) being marketed?
• How much do they cost?
• How much time and effort would they require to implement properly?

Suggested reading

Chris Grannell & Rowan Jayawardena (2004) Celebrity branding: not as glamorous as it looks, brandchannel.com/brand_speak.asp?bs_id=76. (Last visited 13 October 2009).

Gamson, J. (1994) Claims to Fame: Celebrity in contemporary America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).

Pringle, H. (2004) Celebrity Sells (Chichester, England: John Wiley).

Rein, I. J., Kotler, P., Stoller, M. & Rein, I. (1997) High Visibility: The making and marketing of professionals and celebrities (Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill).

Celebrity Marketing: Practical Exercise

This week’s seminar exercise is in two phases: the initial preparation work undertaken in class, followed by online searching.