"Real People" Offer Effective, Less Costly Alternatives To Celebrity Endorsers
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
|
Celebrity endorsers can grab media and public attention, but a well-informed pharmacist might promote OTC products more successfully than celebrities at a fraction of the cost. "Promoting OTC brands through the pharmacy is a great way to save money and not pay a celebrity," said Monica Feldman, a consumer health analyst with Chicago-based Euromonitor International (see preceding story). "Pharmacists usually are recognized as experts in OTC medications," and therefore, already have consumers' trust – something a celebrity might not engender, she explained.
Alternatives To Celebrity Endorsement
Plus, "they truly push products at the point of sale and they are the ones who can tell a consumer … what brand could be good for them," Feldman added. For pharmacists to recommend a brand, though, they must know about it. Feldman recommends firms give pharmacists training material and tools to help them identify symptoms and select certain drugs. Providing pharmacists with literature to give consumers also helps promote brands, even if the consumer does not buy the product the same day. Word Of Mouth The "Strongest" Source Other effective promotional alternatives to celebrity endorsers include word of mouth through the Internet, blogs, chat rooms and smart phone applications. "Word of mouth remains one of the strongest sources of communication around the world. Family and friends still play a significant role in the communication of a particular brand or a treatment for a minor ailment," Feldman said. Firms can influence those conversations through creative social media campaigns. "Blogs are really powerful. … It is amazing how an opinion of one person who is not a celebrity can influence thousands of people," Feldman said. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Consumer Healthcare learned this the hard way when an online ad for Motrin pain reliever prompted criticism from bloggers who threatened to boycott the brand (Also see "Marketers Should “Go Where People Are” In New Media Outlets" - Pink Sheet, 6 Apr, 2009.). But blogs can work in a company's favor too. Reviews and accolades by a blogger can prompt readers to try new products. However, firms and bloggers should tread carefully. If a firm pays a blogger to endorse a product or gives free products for review, the blogger must disclose the connection, according to FTC guidelines (Also see "FTC Testimonial Guide Moves Past "Results Not Typical," Enters Blog Era" - Pink Sheet, 12 Oct, 2009.). Smart phone applications are another influential marketing tool. Feldman noted people check their symptoms on their smart phones more often when they do not feel well, and this is an opportunity for firms to remind consumers of brands. For example, J&J's Zyrtec Allergy Cast iPhone application shows consumers the 48-hour allergy forecast, top allergens in an area and a map of pollen levels (Also see "Claritin, Zyrtec And Visine Products Flood Eye Drop Market" - Pink Sheet, 31 Aug, 2009.). It also reminds users of a solution to their discomfort.
Procter & Gamble also launched the free "Yuck Mouth" online game for smart phones to promote oral hygiene and their products, including Crest toothpaste and Oral-B toothbrushes and floss (Also see "P&G Targets Tweens In "The Battle To Brush" With New Oral-Care Line" - Pink Sheet, 13 Sep, 2010.). Sponsorships Place Products Front And Center Sponsoring spectator events is another successful promotional alternative to celebrity endorsement. P&G's heartburn reliever Prilosec OTC is "the official heartburn remedy" of NASCAR. As such it sponsored a car and "really hit their target audience," said Nancy Caravetta, president and founder of Rx Celebrity, an endorsement firm focused on the health care industry. Naturally Green Foods and Bioenergy Life Science's Bioenergy Ribose gave thousands of bicyclists Natural Energy Bars with Bioenergy Ribose during the 2010 Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Likewise, as part of Herbalife's campaign to become a household name, it sponsors more than 112 sporting events and 30 individual athletes worldwide, according to its website. "Real And Honest Statistics" Generate Trust Firms also can establish credibility by citing "real and honest statistics," said Grant Johnson, CEO and creative director of Johnson Direct, a full-service marketing company. "Crest has used that [strategy] for years," he added, citing P&G's commercials claiming four out of five dentists would recommend Crest. Despite the campaign's success, the ads sparked a court case between P&G and Pfizer, which marketed Listerine at the time and claimed the ads are misleading ( (Also see "Pfizer In ‘Campaign Of Disinformation’ Against Pro-Health, P&G Counters" - Pink Sheet, 27 Mar, 2006.) Long-term research also "can be used in lieu of celebrity endorsements" or statistics, Johnson added. Consumers Willing To Listen To Real People A product inventor or a firm executive can serve the same function as a celebrity in some cases, Johnson said. For example, inventor James Dyson established credibility for the Dyson vacuum by appearing in commercials for it. Johnson joked this tactic might not translate as well to the OTC world. "You'd have to find a really outspoken scientist, and I don’t know how easy that would be," he observed. McNeil Consumer Healthcare took a version of this approach in 2007 with its "I Promise" campaign. The ads featured employees who manufacture Tylenol promising consumers, "If I wouldn't give it to my kids, it wouldn't get to yours," "I'll never forget that what we make goes into someone's body" and "That I'll never let down my family here at work or at home," among other claims. The evolution of social media and the rise of reality TV generated a sense of trust between "real people" in similar situations, said Erin Byrne, the chief engagement officer at Gray Healthcare Group, a full-service advertising agency. As a result, she added, "in some cases they are trusting other people more than they are trusting celebrities and media and people who are in the business of telling them what they think." This was one reason for the success of Unilever's Dove real beauty campaign, featuring real women with different body types, she said. "When you look at the Dove real beauty campaign, the real person added something a celebrity couldn't in that it was about the meaning of beauty coming from within," she explained. Ultimately, an ad campaign "comes back to what will resonate with the audience and does a celebrity add something that a real person couldn't and, likewise, does a real person add something a celebrity can't," Byrne said. |