Impact of “Q” score of Indian Cricketers on Brand Recall and Brand Preference of male and female respondents of Kolkata.

Supriyo Patra*

Assistant Professor in Management (Marketing), Department of Business Administration, ST. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), 30, Mother Teresa Sarani Kolkata-700016

*Corresponding Author E-mail: Supriyo_patra@rediffmail.com

ABSTRACT:

India is unique in terms of the cultural diversity exhibited and it becomes very challenging for advertisers and their advertising agencies to establish their brand in the market and connect with their target audience.

Marketers are hiring Indian Cricketers for promoting their brands in various mass media because the Indian Cricketers are enjoying huge fan following and the spot light of the media are on them.

The main objectives of this study are to first determine the “Q’ score of the Indian Cricketers among male and female respondents of Kolkata. Thereafter highlight the impact of “Q” score of the Indian Cricketers on Brand Recall and Brand Preference of male and female respondents of Kolkata.

I have conducted Primary research with a cross sectional research design by applying survey method among a randomly selected sample of 400 respondents in Kolkata. Data was collected with a structured questionnaire. Multiple Regressions was conducted to analyze the data.

The major findings of the study highlight that Sachin Tendulkar is having the highest “Q” score followed by Saurav Ganguly and MS Dhoni among both male and female respondents surveyed in this study.

The “Q” score of the Indian Cricketers has got no role in generating Brand Recall and Brand Preference among male respondents. In case of female respondents once again “Q” score has got no role in generating Brand Recall but interestingly “Q” score has got a role in generating Brand Preference.

The study is expected to make a modest contribution to the existing body of knowledge in the theoretical domain in the area of Celebrity Brand endorsement and also provide valuable practical insight to advertisers.

KEY WORDS: Cricket, “Q” Score, Brand Recall, Brand Preference, Kolkata.

INTRODUCTION:

The Indian Cricketers (IC) is promoting different brands from across product categories starting from Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Consumer Durables and Services. They are making their presence felt in various mass media as brand endorser. India is unique in terms of the cultural diversity exhibited and it becomes very challenging for advertisers and their advertising agencies to establish their brand in the market and connect with their target audience.

Marketers who are trying to connect with such culturally diverse profile of target audience in India are facing a huge challenge in front of them. With the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991 it paved the way for Multinational Corporation (MNC) to penetrate the Indian market with their products and service offerings.

Many MNC’s and domestic players operating in India are now looking to hire famous Indian Celebrities specially the Indian Cricketers (IC) to endorse their brands in order to connect with their target audience.

Celebrities are considered as “any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement” (McCracken 1989)¹.

In this study the term “Celebrity” will include a variety of endorsements including those in explicit mode “I endorse this product”, the implicit mode “I use this product”, the imperative mode “You should use this product” and the co present mode “the celebrity appears with the product” (Mc Cracken 1989).

Celebrities are expected to have the following type of association with the customers of a brand:

Ø Psycho graphic Connect: Stars are loved and adored by their fans and advertisers use stars to capitalize on these feelings to sway the fans towards their brand.

Ø Demographic Connect: Different stars appeal differently to various demographic segments (age, gender, income group, occupation etc.).

Ø Mass Appeal: Some stars have a universal appeal to generate interest among the masses.

In the words of Batra et al. (2006)² there are three types of benefit of using a celebrity endorser. First, endorser enhances advertising readership, viewership or listenership scores. Second, endorser can induce positive attitude change towards a company and its product. Third, personality characteristics of the endorser can get associated with a brand’s imagery.

Brand building is a challenging activity in today’s dynamic and competitive market place and companies are leaving no stone unturned to successfully promote their brand in mass media. Brand endorsement by Indian Cricketers (IC) is a common phenomenon noticed in Indian context.

According to Keller (2007)³ Brand Awareness consists of brand recognition and brand recall performance. Brand Recognition relates to consumers’ ability to confirm prior exposure to the brand when given the brand as a cue.

Brand Recall relates to consumers’ ability to retrieve the brand from memory. It requires that the consumers correctly generate the brand from memory when given a relevant cue.

In the words of Keller (2007) Brand Awareness also involves linking the brand- the brand name, logo, symbol and so forth- to certain association in memory. Brand Recall can further be classified as Unaided Recall and Aided Recall.

Keller (2007) is of the opinion that in Unaided Recall consumer recall the brand unaidedly where as in Aided Recall various types of cues are presented to help the consumer recall the brand.

Brand Preference or attitudes can be regarded as a consumers’ predisposition towards a brand that varies depending on the salient beliefs that are activated at a given point in time (Fishbein and Ajzen⁴ 1975; Mitchell and Olson⁵ 1981).

Effect of celebrity endorsement on Brand Awareness-Recall has been an area of research that has been studied by researchers. A celebrity was better than other endorsers in enhancing brand name recall (Friedman and Friedman, 1979)⁶.

A study conducted among MBA students of Pune in India to determine the association between celebrity advertising and brand recall shows that recall for female celebrity advertisement is lesser compared to that of male celebrity (Dhotre and Bhola, 2010)⁷.

It is also evident from existing literature that a celebrity was better in enhancing brand name recall than a non-celebrity (Petty et al. 1983)⁸.

Table 1 Brand endorsement details of 10 selected Indian Cricketers (IC).

Sr. No	Celebrity (Indian Cricketers)	Brand Endorsed	Number of Brands Endorsed
1	Sachin Tendulkar	Aviva, Sunfeast, Cannon Camera, Royal Bank of Scotland, Boost, Jaypee Cement, Toshiba, Adidas, Kaspersky	9
2	MS Dhoni	Aircel, Sonata, Boost, Pepsi, TVS, Orient PSPO, Lays, Dabur Chyawanprash, Lafarge Concreto, Emami Healthy and Tasty cooking oil	10
3	Yuvraj Singh	Royal Stag, Birla Sunlife,	2
4	Saurav Ganguly	Captain TMT bars, Chirag Computers, Vibgyor Motor Cycle	3
5	Virendra Sehwag	Pepsi, Karbonn Mobile, Zandu Balm, Hero Moto Corp	4
6	Gautam Ghambir	Airtel Digital TV, Reebok, Coca Cola, Karbonn mobile,	4
7	Virat Kohli	TVS Motor, Flying Machine, Fastrack	3
8	Harbajan Singh	Royal Stag, Pepsi	2
9	Irfan Pathan	Tata Indicom.	1
10	Ishant Sharma	Pepsi	1

(Source: Primary Research)

Evidence of selecting celebrities based on their familiarity and popularity among the target audience is found in the existing literature. Given the high costs associated with using celebrity endorsements, marketers have relied on rating systems to evaluate the potential value added of celebrity endorsers (Costanzo and Goodnight; 2005)⁹.

The Performer Q-ratings have been commercially available to evaluate entertainment celebrities (Finkle¹⁰, 1992; Belch and Belch¹¹, 2001; Shimp¹², 2003) while Sport “Q”-ratings has been commercially available for the rating of sport celebrities.

In both cases, “Q” Scores are rankings determined by the company that have become the industry standard for measuring familiarity and appeal of performers, characters, and sports personalities, broadcast and cable programs as well as company and brand names (Belch and Belch, 2001).

(Misra and Beatty, 1990)¹³ also showed that celebrity/product congruency is better in enhancing brand name recall than an incongruent or irrelevant celebrity.

However different findings emerged from a study conducted by (Costanzo and Goodnight, 2005). The results presented in their study, however, found that a celebrity recognized in a magazine advertisement did not increase consumer recall of the brand endorsed by the celebrity for both professional athlete celebrities and other entertainment celebrities who are not professional athletes (Costanzo and Goodnight, 2005).

Celebrity endorsement enhances self-brand connections when consumers aspire to be like the celebrity, but harms them when consumers do not; this effect is more pronounced when the brand image is congruent with the celebrity’s image (Escalas and Bettman, 2009)¹⁴.

Another study conducted on “Effectiveness of Celebrity Advertisements” by (Rajeswari et al. 2010)¹⁵ highlighted that factors like age, gender, viewers’ status, monthly family income, educational qualification, period of awareness of celebrity advertisements and the type of celebrities (Film stars, Sports stars, Professional models and TV personalities) have close relationship with the level of effectiveness of celebrity advertisements.

Celebrity endorsement enhances product information and creates awareness among consumers. It helps them to recall the brands of the durable products (Balakrishnan and Kumar, 2011)¹⁶.

From review of existing literature it is seen that contradictory findings emerged regarding the effect of celebrity endorsement on Brand recall. Most of the earlier studies were conducted with students and were experimental in nature.

In this study first, I plan to determine the “Q” score of the selected Indian Cricketers (IC) based on their familiarity and popularity among male and female respondents in Kolkata and thereafter present the ranking of the selected Indian Celebrities based on their “Q” score.

Next, I plan to study the effect of “Q” score of the selected Celebrities on their Brand Recall and Brand Preference Score among the respondents of Kolkata.

STUDY OBJECTIVES:

I have identified the following objectives for the study based on a comprehensive review of existing literature focusing on the title.

v The first objective is aimed at determining the “Q” score and ranking of the Indian Cricketers (IC) among male and female respondents of Kolkata.

v The second objective is aimed at studying the relationship between the “Q” score of the Indian Cricketers (IC) and their Brand Recall and Brand Preference Score among male and female respondents.

I have formulated the following Hypothesis keeping the study objectives in mind.

Hypotheses for Indian Cricketers (IC) among Male respondents

H0₁: Brand Recall Score (BRS) of Indian Cricketers is not related to their “Q” score or number of brands they are endorsing.

H0₂: Brand Preference Score (BPS) of Indian Cricketers is not related to their “Q” score or number of brands they are endorsing.

Hypotheses for Indian Cricketers (IC) among Female respondents

H0₃: Brand Recall Score (BRS) of Indian Cricketers is not related to their “Q” score or number of brands they are endorsing.

H0₄: Brand Preference Score (BPS) of Indian Cricketers is not related to their “Q” score or number of brands they are endorsing.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Research Design and Research Methods

In the words of Bryman and Bell (2010)¹⁷ a research design relates to the criteria that are employed when evaluating business research. It, is therefore a frame work for generation of evidence that is suited both to a certain set of criteria and the research question in which the investigator is interested.

According to Bryman and Bell (2010) a research method is simply a technique for collection of data. It can include a specific instrument, such as a self completion questionnaire or a structured interview schedule or participant observation whereby the researcher listens to and watches others.

After selecting the 10 Indian Celebrities and tracking their brand endorsement details from Television and Newspaper advertisements I have conducted quantitative research that is non-experimental in nature and first, collected primary data with the help of a structured Interview Schedule by conducting survey among the respondents of Kolkata. I have adopted the Cross sectional research design.

In this study, I have defined the Target Population in terms of –

Ø Elements- Gender wise both male and female between 18 years to 49 years staying in Kolkata.

Ø Sampling Units- I have selected house hold as the sampling unit.

Ø Extent-The study is conducted within the geographical boundary of Kolkata and for that purpose all the Postal Codes (Kolkata 700001 to 700157) were considered.

Ø Time- The time period under consideration for the survey was (April- September 2012).

First, I have defined the Target population in terms of elements, sampling unit, extent and time. Thereafter I have selected all the postal codes of Kolkata (Kolkata 700001 to Kolkata 700157) as our sampling frame.

Next, I have selected the probability sampling technique for the study and have determined the Sample Size as 400 for the study keeping in mind the availability of time, resources, and sample size used in similar studies. I have also selected the sample size keeping in mind 95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval.

I have implemented two stages Simple Cluster Sampling in this study. In the first stage I have selected all the postal codes of Kolkata and in the Second stage from the 10 selected clusters, I have selected 40 house hold each as the sampling unit keeping the total sample size (400) requirement in mind and followed the Next Birthday method to interview the respondent in the household. I have also conducted a pilot study and finalized the research instrument after ascertaining its reliability and validity.

I have framed the first question to ascertain the familiarity of the Indian Cricketers (IC). A respondent who has seen or heard of a celebrity is said to be familiar with the celebrity.

I have asked the second question for finding the popularity of each of the 10 Indian Celebrities among the respondents. The respondents were asked to rate a celebrity with whom they are familiar under five criteria namely One of my Favorite, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. A celebrity who is rated as “One of my Favorite” by a respondent is said to be popular with that respondent for the purpose of finding his/her “Q” score (Finkle, 1992; Belch and Belch, 2001; Shimp, 2003).

In the third question, for finding the unaided recall I have shown the respondents the names of the 10 Indian Cricketers (IC) and have asked them to mention the name of the brands that they can recall against each celebrity.

In the fourth question, for finding the aided recall, we have once again shown the respondents the names of 10 Indian Cricketers (IC) along with a separate list containing brands endorsed by all the Indian Cricketers (IC) and asked them to correctly match the brands with the celebrities.

The actual number of correct brands unaidedly recalled against a celebrity is noted for calculating the Unaided Brand Recall Score of that celebrity. Similarly the actual number of correct brands aidedly recalled against a celebrity is noted for calculating the Aided Brand Recall Score of that celebrity.

In the next question in order to find the brand preference score of the 10 Indian Cricketers (IC) I have once again shown the respondents the names of the 10 Indian Cricketers (IC) and asked them to mention whether they prefer brands advertised by these celebrities or not. If a respondent says yes against a celebrity then that celebrity gets a brand preference score of one but if the respondent says no against a celebrity then that celebrity gets a brand preference score of zero.

Table: 2 “Q” Score, Rank, Unaided Brand Recall Score (UNABRS), Aided Brand Recall Score (ABRS) and Brand Preference Score (BPS) of the Indian Cricketers (IC) among Male respondents.

Sr No.	Indian Cricketers	Number of Brand Endorsed	“Q” Score	Rank Based on (“Q” Score)	UNABRS	ABRS	BPS
1	Sachin Tendulkar	9	73.53	1	198	679	158
2	MS Dhoni	10	35.29	3	170	796	156
3	Yuvraj Singh	2	33.33	4	100	160	131
4	Saurav Ganguly	3	43.14	2	67	211	94
5	Virendra Sehwag	4	31.99	6	38	118	98
6	Gautam Ghambir	4	32.26	5	14	39	87
7	Virat Kohli	3	27.54	7	49	163	124
8	Harbajan Singh	2	5.20	9	74	120	68
9	Irfan Pathan	1	6.24	8	13	24	56
10	Ishant Sharma	1	4.43	10	32	46	33

(Source: Primary Research)

Table: 3 “Q” Score, Rank, Unaided Brand Recall Score (UNABRS), Aided Brand Recall Score (ABRS) and Brand Preference Score (BPS) of the Indian Cricketers (IC) among Female respondents.

Sr No.	Indian Cricketers	Number of Brand Endorsed	“Q” Score	Rank Based on (“Q” Score)	UNABRS	ABRS	BPS
1	Sachin Tendulkar	9	61.22	1	107	415	142
2	MS Dhoni	10	31.63	3	83	630	139
3	Yuvraj Singh	2	23.47	4	40	68	114
4	Saurav Ganguly	3	47.96	2	21	115	104
5	Virendra Sehwag	4	13.27	7	23	67	39
6	Gautam Ghambir	4	23.40	5	10	32	70
7	Virat Kohli	3	21.71	6	23	88	77
8	Harbajan Singh	2	5.30	9	36	80	50
9	Irfan Pathan	1	6.79	8	13	16	44
10	Ishant Sharma	1	2.83	10	18	29	19

(Source: Primary Research)

Based on the above results, the Null Hypothesis could not be accepted and the finding is very interesting. “Q” score of the Indian Cricketers (IC) has got a role in generating Brand Preference among female respondents of Kolkata.

From the output of the regression analysis an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) equation can be constructed. By using the regression coefficients for Independent variables (“Q” Score and Number of Brand Endorsed by Indian Cricketers) and the constant term an OLS equation can be constructed for predicting the Brand Preference Score (BPS) of the Indian Cricketers (IC) among female respondents as mentioned below.

BPS of IC among Female =

28.211 + 1.405 (“Q” Score) + 4.666

(Number of Brand Endorsed by IC)

Figure 1 OLS equation for predicting Brand Preference Score of Indian Cricketers among female respondents.

CONCLUSION:

It is clearly evident from the present study that multiple brand endorsement is a common phenomenon among the Indian Cricketers. Especially Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni are endorsing a quite a lot of brands across product categories.

Most of the Indian Cricketers selected for the study are enjoying high familiarity and popularity among both male and female respondents of Kolkata. The “Q” score of the Indian Cricketers has got no role in generating Brand Recall among respondents of both the gender but interestingly “Q” score of the Indian Cricketers is having a positive impact in generating brand preference among only female respondents of Kolkata. The present piece of research is expected to make a modest contribution in the field of Celebrity brand endorsement in Indian context from both theoretical and practical aspect.

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Received on 03.10.2014 Modified on 22.10.2014

Asian J. Management 6(1): January–March, 2015 page 44-52

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2015.00008.6