Star search: here's how even the smallest business can win big-name celebrity endorsements - includes instructions on getting an endorsement

Entrepreneur, Sept, 1996 by Mark Henricks

No matter how patient you are, a celebrity's appeal is unlikely to overcome the negatives of a truly poor product or service. "Celebrities can help get the customer to you and give you that credibility," says Allan Kobrick, president of Phoenix sports marketing company International Sports Group. "But you still have to perform."

Still, it's common for marketers to expect more from a celebrity endorsement than it delivers. "Only about 20 percent of the expectations with celebrity endorsements are met," says Jorgensen. One major reason iS that companies expect returns that are too high and too fast, with an emphasis on the too fast.

* STAR STRUCK

Just as it offers unique potential, celebrity marketing also carries some special risks. Public relations nightmares like those surrounding Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson aren't the only hazards. You can also foul up less spectacularly but just as painfully.

Consider the time Kobrick's company pUt together a cruise featuring basketball star Charles Barkley as a guest and signed up scores of travel clients to go on it. When the mercurial Barkley pulled out at the last minute, Kobrick was left holding the bag. The project wound up losing money.

"Those are the risks you take when you hire a guy of that magnitude," Kobrick says. Actually, celebrities of every magnitude carry a broad range of risks when you base your company's marketing program around them.

The major problem is that celebrities are people, and people are unpredictable. They are liable to have foibles and make mistakes that can hurt your business. These mistakes don't have to be crimes, or even unethical, points out Urban. Something as simple as an unguarded comment that undermines a celebrity's credibility as an endorser can yank the rug out from under your campaign.

Urban cites a campaign to promote beef featuring the actress Cybill Shepherd. "In an interview, she was asked specifically if she ate beef, and she said no," says Urban. "There goes the advertising."

And a second attempt at using a celebrity ran into problems, too. Soon after the beef producers council tried hiring James Garner as their new spokesman, the steak-loving actor had a heart attack. "So much for the advertising again," says Urban.

Even if your celebrity is tactful and fit as a fiddle, your campaign may flop if the spokesperson is poorly chosen. Select a celebrity with a natural tie-in to your product or service. The most famous face in the world won't help sell something that nobody associates with that face.

"A yo-yo company probably would not do well using Magic Johnson," says Egart. "It's got to be the right situation, the right people and the right products."

Before you choose a celebrity, make sure you're not just star struck. "The wrong way [to select a spokesperson] is for the CEO to be enamored with a particular celebrity and decide that's the person they ought to go after," says Jorgensen. "The right way is to first decide what your marketing goals are and what your creative strategy is going to be, and then doing your research to determine who are appropriate endorsers."