Brand endorser may not be a new concept of today marketing communication world. Endorser is not only serve as the “people who talk about the brand” but also the representation of brand. They are the face of the brand so that people can see the “human characteristics” of the brand on the endorser. As the emergence of social media, we then see a new phenomenon of brand endorser who comes from the non-celebrity category. They are ordinary people, just like us, who happen to be famous by tweeting, posting, or sharing interesting information about the brand. Up to this point, we can clearly see that brand endorser may not only come from celebrity list, but also general public figure who met the criteria of ideal endorser. We conducted a survey to evaluate favourite brand endorser candidates for several product categories. We asked 209 respondents both male and female in nationwide to mention the name of public figures who were considered as the perfect endorser. Besides that, we also asked them to evaluate the considerable factors on choosing brand endorser for each product category. Theoretically, we use Till and Busler (1998) concept of brand endorser evaluation by measuring several indicators such as physical attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, and likeability.
First product category we would like to evaluate was medical product. Pharmacy is a big player in advertising industry. They also quite often use public figure as the endorser of their products. When we turn on our TV, it is very easy to see familiar faces on the screen endorsing medical products such as vitamin, medicine, and pain killers. We asked our respondent to mention several names of Indonesian public figure who they consider as suitable to endorse medical products. There were names mentioned, but only four names was mostly mentioned and sat on the top position. Interestingly, we found three different streams of public figure. From the celebrity list, Dian Sastrowardoyo was mentioned by respondents. From the athlete list, Ade Rai was chosen. Moreover, although according to the Indonesia Advertising Code of Ethics it was mentioned that doctor must not advertise medical products, but two names of doctor was mentioned. The first was dr.Lula Kamal and dr.Ryan Thamrin.
To expand our understanding towards their reason of choosing the names of endorser, we used the endorser evaluation concept to map the pattern. According to this pattern, we can see important factors on choosing brand endorser for medical products. Positive reputation of the figure, their trustworthiness, their competence credibility, and attractive physical appearance become important factors on choosing brand endorser for medical products.
The second product category we would like to evaluate was financial products. Today, financial products such as saving, leasing, and insurance were facing a competitive market. Most of them offer similar products and segmenting a relatively similar target market. Therefore, financial products may unable to only communicate the benefit of their products, but also represented by perfect figure. Unlike the medical products, respondents mentioned more names on financial product brand endorser candidates. Six names were mostly mentioned. There were names from celebrity list such as Raffi Ahmad, Dian Sastrowardoyo, Syahrini, and Feni Rose; and two names from motivator list such as Mario Teguh and Merry Riana.
As financial product is relatively important, private, and sensitive investment, the criteria of perfect endorser become different with the previous product category. Trustworthiness of the public figure becomes the number one criteria that should be met. The endorser should be trustworthy to be able to endorse financial products. Moreover, they also need to have positive reputation. Popularity and huge fan base stay on the third criteria, while their competence credibility follows at the last criteria.
The upcoming product category we would like to evaluate was household products. The wide range of household product varieties led to many names mentioned by respondents. However, five names were most mentioned and all of them were married celebrities. Dian Sastrowardoyo, Nagita Slavina, Raffi Ahmad, Dona Agnesia, and Chelsea Olivia were chosen as the perfect endorser for this category.
We once again found different pattern of considerable factors on choosing the perfect brand endorser for household products to the previous categories. Unlike the two previous categories, we found that attractive physical appearance become the most important factor for brand endorser of household products. This factor then followed by trustworthiness, positive reputation, and competence credibility of the figure.
The last product category we would like to evaluate was beauty products. This category covers various products such as facial foam, skin care, make up, and other toiletries. We asked our respondents to mention their vision of the perfect endorser on beauty products. Five names were mostly mentioned. All of them were woman and came from celebrity list. Raisa, Dian Sastrowardoyo, Sandra Dewi, Raline Shah, and Dewi Sandra were chosen as the perfect endorser.
At last, we then asked our respondents to mention their perceptions of the criteria that should be met by a public figure to serve as a perfect endorser for beauty products. Interestingly, although beauty products were closely related to the physical appearance, but respondents did not put it on the first place. Trustworthiness became the number one factor; while positive reputation, popularity and huge fan base, also attractive physical appearance has the same percentage.
For more detail you can download XLS report at the button below (bahasa). JAKPAT report consists of 3 parts which are 1) Respondent Profile, 2) Crosstabulation for each question and 3) Raw Data. Respondent profile shows you demographic profiles ( gender,age range, location by province, and monthly spending). Cross tabulation enables you to define different demographic segment preference on each answer.
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