Does Your Brand Need A Face To It? Entrepreneurs' Views Differ

Celebrity branding or endorsements can do wonders to brands – is what most marketing companies tell their clients.

Today almost every brand is being endorsed by a celebrity, be it a sports star or an actor. Celebs help upcoming companies stand out among others in the field. To put it simply, "brand ambassadors" endorse your brand and services as well as become one of the many faces of your company.

But the question remains: Is celebrity branding really necessary to sell your product and do celebrity endorsements lead to greater sales?

We caught up with key figures from the beauty & wellness industry at the recently organized Franchise India Summit 2016 to tell us the role brand ambassadors play in boosting brand awareness and making brands a success.

Face value – The biggest boost to your brand

Dhanush Reddy,Managing Director of Eden Spalicious Private Limited says if you are happy with your business and generating enough customers with whatever marketing you are doing without a face then it's okay. In his opinion, it depends on two factors – How happy are your customers and how happy you are with your business.

"If you are still growing and you can see your growth in front of your eyes then face value is not at all required," said Reddy.

To explain further he said, "Making use of a face value is what can give the boost to your brand. Take Chisel gym as a brand, it is just another gym but the co-founder Virat Kohli's brand name adds all the zing that the brand needs."

Brand - Instant recognition in instant world

Darpan Sanghvi, CEO of MyGlamm believes by bringing a celebrity on board you get instant recognition because people recognize a celebrity even if they don't recognize a brand.

"Ultimately it is your product that matters as you can have the best celebrity to endorse your product but if your product is crap it will not sell," said Sanghvi.

If the celebrity goofs up, your product could suffer Sanghvi cautions.

For Example, Aamir Khan lost Snapdeal contract as brand ambassador after he made a controversial comment on rising intolerance in the country. Following the controversy, thousands of people uninstalled the app and even its ranking went to down on Google play store.

Work – Speaks loud and clear

According to Nikhil Pradeep, Director of Adara Ayurveda, a face value does not do much to your brand. It is actually your work and product that keep your customers happy.

"We have few celebrity clients who follow our brand but we have never asked them to promote our product. We don't need a face value and it will only be our product which will reflect our brand," he explained.