Madhukar Sabnavis: Endorsements & testimonials

Deep down it's a reflection of the power of word of mouth.

"Celebrity tag amuses toppers," screamed a headline in a daily newspaper recently.

It went on to say how coaching classes are vying with one another for the right to claim the IIT-JEE toppers were trained by them. Said one father, "A well known coaching class from the south called us and offered Rs 5 lakh to allow them to call Harsh (eighth in all-India ranking) its student. When I refused, the offer was upped to Rs 15 lakh." In fact, Harsh was contacted by seven coaching classes. One even offered to fly him to Andhra Pradesh, where a seminar for prospective IIT students was being held, and promised to take pay for his stay. Just weeks after the cricket star "endorsements" were taking a beating, new celebrities were being born with the announcements of the IIT-JEE results. Why is this craze for endorsements?

Sales and motivation consultant Cavett Robert captures the principle nicely in his advice to sales trainees: "Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer." It's more than comfort in crowds; the average consumer and person have many things to worry about in everyday life, many decisions to make""so following somebody else's word in the case of some decisions just makes life more comfortable. We use the actions of others to decide on proper behaviour for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves. And this is where endorsements work.

Much as we would like to believe that advertising messages in the mass media have the power to persuade, empirical evidence shows that for many people in many categories it is word of mouth""views of family, friends, acquaintances (and even dealers)""that are also taken in account before brand purchase decisions are made. Unlike the West, this is perhaps even more true in India, which is an affiliative society where people connect and interact very easily and hence share information. It's hard to conceive that routine, "boring" decisions like detergent and tea brands can be influenced by word of mouth. However, if one considers that for many small-town housewives, one leisure activity is spending time with neighbours, then products and brands are often a topic of discussion in such neighbour talk (alongside local "gossip").

Dove internationally built itself on the platform of testimonials getting real women to speak honestly and frankly about their experiences with Dove. This supported its one quarter moisturising cream story and built a distinct "real" personality for itself in a world of cosmetic beauties. Closer home in India, Ariel in the mid-90s successfully used hidden cameras at retail outlets to get testimonials from real buyers. It went ahead and telecast the video shoots as commercials""the rather "untidy" production quality supported the reality of the characters and executions. It worked. A few years ago, BP wanted to communicate the message that its Vanellus engine oil gave a diesel consumption saving of 4.9 per cent. It first tried the hyperbole execution""showing Vanellus user become richer""to drive home the point. The executions did not cut ice. It then latched on to the obvious insight "truckers trust only another trucker". This led them to use real-life truckers to talk about the benefit of using BP Vanellus lubricant. Vanellus users were captured on screen speaking extempore and their testimonials were made into commercials verbatim. They connected. The brand sales shot through the roof. Testimonials sound creatively boring, but are surprisingly effective in moving people.

A variation of this is celebrity endorsement. When the celebrity is a credible source of knowledge of a brand or category, it again can be a powerful connector, enabling the consumer to make the decision without thinking much. Kapil Dev achieved this for Boost, an "energy" drink, in the late 80s/early 90s. When he said, "Boost is the secret of my energy," it rang true to many kids who wanted to be as energetic and they pestered mothers for the brand. It worked just the same way when Michael Jordon endorsed Gatorade in the US. However, it gets a little more complicated when the sync between the celebrity and the product is off-key. Consider the case of film stars endorsing a local popular brand of soap. It could have cut ice in the 60s and 70s, when advertising was nascent and consumers believed whatever advertisements said. However, in this day and age, when advertising literacy and scepticism are on the rise, such celebrity endorsements are clearly seen as "advertising messages" mouthed for money and taken cynically. It becomes simple celebrity advertising and is no longer an endorsement.

Of course, the biggest challenge for marketers and agencies is to get loyalists to spread the word of the brand to other prospects. Religions have done it successfully tapping into the human frailty of "faith" and using a set of rituals that define it to get parents (a strong source of endorsement) to pass it on to children. This has been managed generation after generation. This is relatively hard for "product" brands to achieve on an ongoing basis. However, whenever there is news and newsworthiness, brands have an opportunity to capitalise on positive word of mouth.

This is where the importance of buzz comes in. It works in many categories quite obviously""music, films, books, etc. The first week of any film is seen to be critical in deciding the fate because the opinions of the first viewers can influence the "to go or not to go" decisions of many others who follow. Not surprisingly, many movies, books and music albums work desperately to make it to the top of popularity charts, making claims of "houseful" weeks and "golden" disc just to flaunt their "mass" endorsements. The future will of course be where brands can use the new media like the Net (including blogs and consumer feedback) to create a positive buzz for themselves and thus harness the power of endorsements.

The coaching classes' desperate attempt to leverage successful IIT students to their advantage may not be morally right. However, it is a reflection yet again of the power of endorsements. It stimulates us, in marketing and advertising, to reflect on how to leverage word of mouth for our brand's advantage.

Something worth thinking about.

The author is Country Head, Discovery and Planning, Ogilvy and Mather, India. The views expressed are personal.

Madhukar.sabnavis@ogilvy.com