STAR POWER

BUSINESS ENDORSEMENT

WORDS BY LEE GIMPEL

How celebrities can take your business to new heights.

Nike does it. So do McDonald’s and Pepsi. Using celebrity endorsers can be good for business. For smaller companies that lack multi-million-dollar budgets, it’s easy to think famous faces are out of reach. But just because you can’t land a deal like T-Mobile’s $20-million contract with Catherine Zeta-Jones, that doesn’t mean you should rule out harnessing the power of celebrity as a means to promote your small- or mid-size business.

Hamish Pringle, director general of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and the author of Celebrity Sells (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), warns that celebrities are not a “silver bullet,” but says they can be an important part of a company’s promotional strategy, regardless of its size or budget. Indeed, many smaller businesses have realized big gains after signing on someone famous. “Smaller companies often just have to be a bit smarter,” says Pringle.

Celebrities can offer a number of benefits for smaller companies. They bring their own fame and attract the attention of the media and customers. They can also give a company credibility, particularly when their area of expertise meshes with the product they’re endorsing. For instance, it’s easy to believe that a golfer’s recommendation about a new putter would carry considerable weight. Finally, celebrities lend their traits—be it intelligence, strength or creativity—to the brand with which they’re associated. A company doesn’t need to sign on A-list stars either; even Bor C-list celebrities can help a company if chosen wisely.

Sean O’Brien, vice president of Elmhurst, Illinois-based Artistic Wire, has become a believer in the success that a celebrity can bring. When his 10-person company began selling wire in multiple hues, O’Brien had little experience or credibility in the craft market and lacked access to buyers who might be interested in the product. Sales totaled only about $10,000 nine years ago. However, signing on Kathy Peterson, a crafting celebrity who’s written half a dozen books and hosts television shows on different crafts, has largely gotten the company to where it is today. Now, the company brings in a million dollars annually. “It’s something I never would have been able to do without Kathy,” says O’Brien.

Peterson has the clout to get the product in front of potential customers and can speak their language. She appears at trade shows on behalf of Artistic Wire, designs new products and has also created a signature line of offerings for florists. Peterson’s contract is not so different from that of a regular salesperson who draws a salary and a percentage of sales.

“It’s just like hiring another employee. It’s not that I’m paying her hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. And if I am, it’s because we’re selling a lot of her product,” says O’Brien, who notes that such an arrangement is a less risky way to benefit from someone else’s fame.

To find the right celebrity, Pringle says that companies must first consider whether the celebrity is indeed a good fit. Will customers believe that he or she is sincere and understands the product, or will they think the deal is just about an endorsement check? In addition, a person’s fame is important, but it’s relative. The most famous person in the world may not make sense for your company, but a niche celebrity who is not as well-known may be perfect.

Companies should also decide the way in which they want the celebrity to be involved. It may be anything from a simple voice-over or a two-line endorsement quote to a full-blown campaign where the personality appears on product packaging and attends promotional events. Finally, weighing up financially what the investment will cost against what it will generate is crucial. Many deals sound staggering, but delineating different bite-size endorsement chunks (such as whether the person will appear online, in-print or in various markets) that can be executed or not, can make the deal seem bigger but still be economical.

But, how and where to find a celebrity endorser? Quite often, they’re right under your nose, drifting among your regular customers. Simply scanning your database and talking with salespeople can be a good start when looking for the right endorser. After all, it’s best to simply highlight someone who’s already a believer rather than try to convert a newcomer.

“It’s almost impossible to conceive of a company that does not have some kind of a celebrity in their midst. It’s just that they’ve never looked and they don’t know about it,” says Pringle.

Barring that, it is sometimes easier to seek implicit endorsements— the kind where someone praises your products but has not necessarily signed on to be the face of the brand. Studio Becker, a firm that specializes in high-end custom closets, installed a promotional unit for Carmen Electra and later reaped the benefits of her association with the company, including publicity on national television and print pictorials of Electra’s exceptional closet.

Regardless of whether you’re looking for a long-term spokesperson or an endorsement that is smaller in scope, Pringle says it is important to find a celebrity who has genuine enthusiasm for your product. It is very valuable when you have “someone who really does like it and who naturally enthuses about it,” he says. “They become the walking, talking ambassador of your brand.”