Live Issue... Can overseas celebrities sell brands in China?

 As US actress Sharon Stone discovered last year, Western brand endorsers can easily fall foul of Chinese sensibilities.

But Stone’s ill-judged comments on the Sichuan earthquake do not seem to have diminished the use of overseas endorsers. Indeed, several industry observers point to a rise in the use of foreign — in particular Western — celebrities and models by brands eager to tap into the aspirations of upwardly mobile Chinese consumers. That strategy paid off in Japan 20 years ago; will it work in China?

“People think that Chinese consumers want foreign celebrities, but there’s really much more interest from marketers and brands than from consumers,” says Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group (CMR).

Rein says that a common mistaken assumption by international companies is that popular figures in the West must also be popular household names in China. He points to lifestyle brand Dunhill as an example. “Many Chinese do not know who Jude Law is, and he is not the type of guy Chinese males aspire to,” he says.

Tom Doctoroff, JWT’s North Asia area director, argues that China’s “fierce” nationalism prevents foreign figures from achieving the same trendy status as in markets like Japan, and that the only truly effective endorsement campaigns are those featuring “megastars”.
However, Charley Kan, national CD and MD of MEC Beijing, notes that Prison Break star Wentworth Miller, a relatively minor figure outside of China, generated strong interest in Me & City, a local budget fashion brand in the vein of H&M. Miller achieved stardom in China through pirated copies of the series, which has not officially been released in the market.

Clearly, the objectives in using Western and Chinese spokespeople differ. While a Western face is usually employed by local and foreign brands to create an image of international sophistication, Kan says, homegrown talent continues to be used to build a solid connection with consumers. But Rein says a better approach, at least for premium brands, is to combine the two. He points to Italian fashion brand Zegna, which has localised its approach for China by pairing Caucasian and Chinese models while retaining the photographic style of its Western advertising. He also cites L’Oréal as an example of a brand that understands the concept, compared with Clarins, which he says used an unsuitable combination of “ethnically diverse and metrosexual models” to launch its men’s skincare range. “You have to use people that fit both your image and the image China wants,” Rein advises. “A mix of Chinese and foreign shows people an international brand they can relate to. Women may think a blonde woman from the US looks great, but they cannot aspire to be like her.”

Use of Western spokespeople is expected to grow, particularly in view of what Doctoroff describes as “Liu Xiang overkill” during the Olympics (Liu endorsed 17 different brands) and a limited pool of domestic “super icons”.

But the spokesperson’s nationality aside, instances of true integration with the brand seem to be rare. “Most marketers use celebrities as a recognised name and do little to link them to the product proposition,” Doctoroff says, pointing to a “vicious circle of conformism” in the use of the celebrities imposed by staid cultural conventions.

The lack of differentiation between Liu’s endorsements arguably meant that the only clear winner was Nike, since the public associated the athlete with that brand. “Communications planning is the problem,” concludes Rein. “Chinese do believe in celebrity endorsement, but the question is how to use it more efficiently.”

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This article was originally published in 10 September 2009 issue of Media.