07-10-2016, 10:10 AM
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ABSTRACT
This study analyzes the effects of misleading celebrity endorsements on consumer’s behavior in India. Celebrity endorsement is now a trend in India and considered as one of the most powerful tools for product marketing and brand building in this competitive era as stars are idolized and looked up in a country like India. Misleading endorsements by the stars violates several rights of the consumers like: right to information, choice, protected against unsafe goods and services as well as from unfair trade practices. To achieve the purpose we choose to conduct a case study on Nestle's Maggi noodle brand to discuss, analyze and to draw conclusions. Finally we concluded that celebrities featuring in such ads making false claims are accountable for their acts.
INTRODUCTION
India is a country where stars are idolized and worshipped. Marketers use them so as to influence their existing or potential customers to succeed and reap huge profit. The manufacturers use various immoral methods like Concealment of facts, false claims and false testimonials thus violating several rights of the consumers. Celebrities who endorse the product should test, experiment and try the product to find out its quality. This has given rise to many controversies in the Indian advertising.
Motives behind endorsements by celebrities
Improving Credibility
Recognition of the brand
To refresh the brand/company image.
To boost the demand of the product
To bring reliability on the product
To bring Retention of the product.
The favorite snack of many people is “Nestle’s Maggi” which has always positioned their products with the attributes of health and quality. It adopted strong celebrity endorsements that resulted in its emergence as a brand and became market leader in the noodle segment with products MAGGI 2 Minute Noodles, MAGGI Extra delicious Chicken Noodles and Vegetable Atta Noodles, Oats Maggi catering to different consumer segments.
It has been banned by the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) because of problems linked with the product quality. The FSSAI acts as an agency of ministry of health and family of the country that is responsible for ensuring protection and promotion of health of the people by regulating and supervising the safety of the food. The notices were issued to various celebrities who had been endorsing Maggi noodles and the order for lodging FIR against them has resulted in legal debates concerning the liability of celebrities for endorsing the product.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The identification with an endorser then correlates with the purchase intentions of the consumers (Ohanian, 1991). He also explains the effect of the endorser’s expertise on the perceived credibility of a company that also affects the purchase intentions of consumers.
Atkins & Block, 1983 is of the view that consumers associate a brand with their favorite celebrity due to their attractiveness which makes the advertising more attractive.
According to Erdogan et al (2001), managers choose celebrities based on their characteristics for endorsing their product.
According to Till and Shimp (1998), celebrity endorsements shows a credible image of the company in terms of trust, expertise, objectiveness and persuasiveness.
As per Ellis (2000), the influence of celebrities, athletes and models can be seen mostly in younger generations.
Pughazhendi et al. (2012), feels that advertisers make use of popular celebrities in their ads for promoting their product image.
O’Mahony and Irish (1997) is of the opinion that celebrity endorsements can have an impact on the consumers to make a recall, attention and purchase intentions.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Celebrity endorsement
Celebrity endorsement is a form of brand or advertising campaign which involves a popular person who uses their fame to help in promoting a product or a service. It helps a company to improve their credibility and boosts the demand of the product.
Consumer behavior
Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. (Wikipedia)
According to Louden and Bitta, ‘consumer behaviour is the decision process and physical activity, which individuals engage in when evaluating, acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services’.
DISCUSSION
The International brand maggi is owned by Nestle since 1947. The original company was founded in Switzerland in 1872 by Julius Maggi. Their products include instant soups, ketchups, stocks, sauces, seasonings and instant noodles.
Maggi was endorsed by the popular stars like: Amithab Bachhan, Preethy Zinta and Madhuri Dixit who has a strong influence over the consumer choices as their every word is taken as the ultimate truth.
The advertising campaign “Me and meri maggi- 2 minute mein khushiyan” was endorsed by the most popular stars Amitabh Bachhan and Preethy Zinta while Maggi Oats noodles was endorsed by Madhuri Dixit. In the past 68 years maggi has entered all most every Indians body without any age limitation as all were addicted to its flavor. It comes with a tag that says, "No added MSG (monosodium glutamate)” and the company also stated that they regularly monitored for lead in accredited laboratories.
Recently enough, the very famous global brand Nestle faced a controversy for their 2-minute Maggi noodles for containing excessive lead(17.2ppm) than the permissible limit(2.5ppm) which is regarded as unsafe for health ,its presence in blood in high levels may cause lead poisoning, which can cause severe mental and physical impairment in a person. It slows down development process, cause chest pain, nausea and learning disability in children.
They also face the charge of mislabeling with regard to monosodium glutamate (MSG) content on its packets. According to the Food Safety and Standards Rules, 2011, MSG is a “flavor enhancer” which is found to be harmful for our health. It is mandatory for companies to specify on the packaging if MSG has been added.
Since these celebrities are leading a public life, they should have given due diligence while accepting its endorsements without checking it. They should have been aware that they have a greater individual and moral responsibility and their actions have wide social implications.
However Section (24) of FSSAI states that any person who makes a false claim about the efficacy of the product or nutritional value of the product without providing any scientific justification would be violating the act.
In reality, these laws does not affect these stars as they will always find a way out and such laws cannot indemnify the losses incurred by the consumers by consuming Maggi. For example when Reebok launched its sports shoes EasyTone that claimed that the shoes toned calf muscles by 11%, which was found to be a false claim. And the company faced legal charges of deceptive advertising, and Bipasha Basu, who endorsed those shoes, walked away with a payment and faced no consequences.
After the controversy and ban on Maggi noodles the sales have crashed by over 90 per cent and dropped about Rs. 30 crore a month. But before this controversy they had sales for Rs.350 crore a month. This leads the consumer to shift their consumption towards the Sunfeast Yippie Noodles. At the end of 2015 Maggi noodles had a comeback and tried to get the attention of the consumer without celebrity. From this we understand that the consumers were influenced by the celebrities who endorsed this product but after the controversy they just ignored the product even after they comeback.
The celebrities should consider FSSAI certificate as a prerequisite to endorse it. They are responsible in this regard not only to sustain their reputation but also for ensuring the safety of the society. Thus the main role of an ambassador is to create awareness among the customers regarding the product. They should not mislead a consumer with wrong facts and figures. Most of the time, people buy certain products just because their favorite celebrities endorse it. So this shows that they have more accountability and responsibility on their part.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Who are all the celebrities involved in endorsing this product?
2. What was the recent controversy charged against them?
3. On ethical grounds, should celebrities endorsing such brands be punished by law?
4. Change of Consumer behavior after the controversy.
5. How will these celebrities monitor the quality and safety of the products they endorse it?
CONCLUSION
Celebrities symbolise knowledge, trust and aspiration in the eyes of consumers. Their mass appeal to attract target customers earns them huge endorsement amount and the consumers are too preoccupied to give much thought, so they go to the stores and purchase it blindly. They have a notion that if a product is good enough for the star, it is good enough for them. Thus the impact of misleading celebrity endorsements on the consumer behavior assumes a massive role.
So celebrities have to possess a sense of moral and ethical responsibility while endorsing any product is it consumable or otherwise.