The use of celebrity endorsers is a common---and tricky---brand building strategy. Consider these recent ‘incidents’ involving celebrity endorsers:

Christian Dior dropped celebrity spokesperson Sharon Stone from their advertising in China, after the actress suggested that recent earthquakes there were “karmic retribution for Beijing’s treatment of Tibet.”

Conservative bloggers protested a Dunkin Donuts ad that featured Rachel Ray wearing a scarf that they charged resembled keffiyeh, the patterned and fringed scarf that is the traditional headdress of Arab men---and associated by some Americans with terrorism.

A 2007 print ad for Deréon Girls, Beyoncé’s fashion line for young girls, resurfaced as the target of criticism by a new round of bloggers for oversexualizing and ‘tarting up’ young girls. The label is an offshoot of the Hip Hop fashion House of Deréon.

Celebrity endorsements have the potential to significantly raise sales and market share, and introduce the brand to a new target audience. For example, Forbes reports that Chanel’s endorsement deal with spokes icon Nicole Kidman increased business by nearly 16%, without any changes in fragrance or packaging, because “all of a sudden, younger women took notice of the brand.” (Reportedly Nicole Kidman is being replaced by "Amelie" star Audrey Tautou)

But endorsement deals can turn bad in an instant. Who can forget actor Ben Curtis’ famous utterance, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell”? The consumer campaign, was “hugely successful” for Dell Computer Corp. In 2002 Dell began to transition away from Curtis’ character and it’s just as well since the actor was arrested for attempting to buy marijuana on Manhattan’s lower east side.

As a result, the memorable line and character spawned a host of parodies and late night jokes, many of which were at the Dell brand’s expense. (See the left column for a video of one of the Dell ads. If the ad isn’t visible you can view it here.) After Kobe Bryant’s rape arrest, Nutella and McDonald’s hastily dropped their agreements with the basketball star.

Celebrities are human after all; it’s impossible for marketers to remove every bit of risk from a deal. But here are three things every marketer must to enhance the potential for celebrity endorsement success:

Going Global? Make sure you understand cultural sensitivities.
Blogger Daisy Kong asks why Dior would pick Sharon Stone to endorse their brand in China since her pro-Tibet stance is well known. Good question. Brands need to understand cultural sensitivities if they expect to succeed outside familiar turf.

Does the endorser/endorsee relationship make sense?
Seriously, when you think brand extensions for sexy, R&B star Beyoncé, do you immediately think children’s clothing line?  Strategically smart celebrity/brand pairings enhance the core brand equities of each partner---and this doesn’t work for either.

Put fires out quickly. Despite a marketer's best efforts, sometimes stuff just happens. In the case of Rachel Ray’s scarf, most critics were also fans--- even the most vocal doubted she was trying to make a political statement. (Personally, the only reaction that I had to Ray’s scarf was that it was unattractive. The connection between it and a keffiyeh didn’t occur to me.)

While it's absurd to suggest that Dunkin Donuts was promoting a terrorism symbol, the company was right not to provide fodder for those bloggers who live for controversy. The company simply pulled the ad and got back to making donuts.   

Credits
Rachel Ray photo from AdAge
Dereon Girls Print ad from BrownSista
Dell Dude Screen Shot from YouTube

Just about everyone who’s ever reached for an artificial sweetener knows the color code: pink is Sweet’ N Low, Splenda is yellow and Equal is blue. At least until recently. According to AdAge, NutraSweet plans to introduce their packets in the pink, yellow and blue colors of its competitors.

That’s not to say that they will have an easy time of it. Aspartame has its own vulnerabilities. Sucralose sweeteners, such as Splenda, have overtaken aspartame in market share, and the artificial sweetener category is commoditized. It will be tough to generate market share based on substantive brand differentiation so NutraSweet’s strategy to grab share from competitors is smart. Hopefully, they've planned additional smart strategies as a follow-up.

Are you tired of companies who prattle about good service as if saying it is the same as delivering it? Here’s an online retail brand built on great service, not lip service.

Zappos.com was founded in 1999 by twenty something entrepreneurs Nick Swinmurn and Tony Hsieh, founder of LinkExchange.

In addition to a gargantuan selection (3 million shoes, handbags, clothing items and accessories from over 1,100 brands) Zappos.com offers free shipping and a 365 day return policy.

From the beginning, the founders wanted the Zappos brand to be a “service company that happens to sell shoes.” 

Providing great service requires a customer-focused culture. So all new hires at Zappos.com Las Vegas headquarters, "including accountants, lawyers and software developers," are required to go through Customer Loyalty training.

After a week, trainees are offered a $1000 bonus to quit, plus their salary. Why? To weed out the ‘wrong’ people. “If you want to create a memorable company, you have to fill your company with memorable people, says a Harvard Business article.

The 1500 employee company expects $1 billion in 2008 sales, primarily through repeat business and word-of-mouth. Hsieh says the company" will continue to build our brand and our culture, because in the long run, brand and culture are the same thing.” (Speaking of culture, when was the last time you read about a CEO forgoing his bonus to provide bigger employee bonuses?)

That isn’t to say that the road to success hasn’t had its speed bumps. The company’s recent decision to discontinue their price protection policy prompted customers to post a few dozen complaints, such as the one below, on CEO Hsieh’s blog:

“…For me, the price matching was critical for shopping at Zappos. I find Zappos to charge full retail or even more than full retail for the shoes I've looked at, probably to cover for the "free" shipping. I was happy to give Zappos my business when they could give me a good price, but since the elimination of price matching, I won't be shopping at Zappos anymore.”

We’ve talked about how to keep your brand vibrant and healthy---but what can you do if it’s out of date---or even dead?

According to a ‘retro marketing’ expert quoted in “Can a Dead Brand Live Again?” published by the New York Times, ”’There’s no real reason that a brand needs to die…unless it is attached to a product that ‘functionally doesn’t work.’ That is, as long as a given product can change to meet contemporary performance standards, ‘your success is really dependent on how skillful you are in managing the brand’s story so that it resonates with meaning that consumers like.’”

This article about marketers who specialize in reviving dead and dying brands provides valuable insight for marketers, regardless of where your brand is in the product lifecycle.

Some highlights:

• How the faultiness of consumer memory provides an opportunity “not just in what we remember but also in what we misremember. For example, Stanley  never produced ladders but when they discovered that many consumers 'remembered' they did, they began to produce ladders.
• The rebirth of White Cloud toilet tissue as (essentially) a Wal-Mart store brand.
• How updating the Volkswagen Beetle brand helped make it, according to the article, one of the most successful reanimated brands of all time.
• The newly relaunched Salon Selectives hair care brand illustrates how the new brand owner hopes to attract nostalgic fans of the brand as well as new consumers who aren’t familiar with it, providing great learning for marketers of mature brands.

This article isn’t a quick read but it’s a very worthwhile one and will provide some great thought starters on strategies to better manage your own brands. 

It’s All About Performance

It’s frustrating to feel that your hard work isn’t appreciated.

If not, reexamine marketing strategies and tactics to ensure they meet the business performance objectives of your company or client.

See Cross-Channel.

Cross-channel shopping, also referred to as ‘precision shopping,’ ‘multi-channel shopping,’ or ‘web-influenced offline sales,’ describes the practice of shoppers researching a product or service online, e.g. keyword search, retail websites, etc., and then purchasing the product or service at a bricks and mortar store.

Both eMarketer and Forrester Research highlight the growing importance of utilizing web marketing to reach cross-channel shoppers because of the appeal of cross-channels shopping to buyers; they can obtain a product immediately, see and touch it before they buy, and avoid shipping costs.

During the 1980’s the Liz Claiborne brand rode to success on the backs of working women who appreciated the versatility and affordability of the fashionable label.

But without a clear strategy to position and manage them, the brands faltered and the flagship Liz Claiborne brand began to lose its cachet---one writer recently even characterized the label as “stodgy.”  Ouch.

Profitability suffered and eventually the company was forced to divest itself of eight labels, closing down two, licensing one and folding two others into existing company names. (Brandweek)

So, what happened?

According to CEO William McComb, who was brought in to oversee a turnaround of the company, “While Claiborne really pioneered the multibrand portfolio model, it never got the idea that it was OK to sell, exit or divest a business…Good portfolio management, to me, is looking at what you're incubating, what you're buying, what you are milking and what you're getting rid of. [The company] didn't have a portfolio management strategy." He's right.

Liz Claiborne Inc (LIZ) holdings reduced by Becker Capital Management Inc

Liz Claiborne courting designers for overhaul

Brand Commoditization: 6 Ways to Prevent the Death of a Brand

Suppose someone walks up to you on the street and holds up the skanky-looking David Ortiz jersey in the photo here and invites you to buy it. Ugh. Even if you’re a Red Sox fan, how fast do you think you would walk away from the person trying to sell it to you without actually running?

What’s your brand's story?

UPDATE: Curse Shirt sells for $175,100.  

Photos: Listing on eBay.