Brands and celebrities

Consumers are only willing to pay premium prices if a brand has real added value. A well-chosen celebrity can participate in the brand building process and in implementing the marketing strategy in many ways. On 13 May, Career and Style Consultant Kft. held its professional forum, ‘Marketing concepts realised with the participation of celebrities’, on Margaret Island’s Danubius Grand Hotel. In her introductory speech, Dr Klára Csíkné Kovács, Career and Style’s managing director welcomed the trend of using more famous Hungarian faces in advertising. Using the latest data, Judit Szalókyné Tóth, Nielsen’s managing director analysed future prospects. She told that in certain parts of Europe – Scandinavia, Poland, Austria, Italy, Spain – volume growth went above 2 percent. Unfortunately, in Hungary Nielsen measured minus 3.5 percent that manifests in both value and volume. Consumers are shifting towards cheaper products and private labels on every level.

The real danger in this is that 95 percent of consumers asked will continue buying these even if the economic situation improves. Gábor Zab, Red Bull’s marketing director spoke about the Red Bull Air Race and World Champion pilot Péter Bessenyei, who has been a member of this great family for 8 years and whose ties with the brand go back even further. Renáta Draskovich, the marketing director of SSL Central and Eastern Europe told the story of turning grandmother’s comfort slippers into Ms Scholl’s sexy footwear. For their new, stylish products they recruited professional dancer Iringó Südi to represent the Scholl brand – which 83 percent of consumers know. Dr Mária Törőcsik, a professor at the University of Pécs told that because of the increasing number of fake products, real brands have to wake up consumers like an electric shock. Celebrity endorsement is capable of this, provided that the brand and the celebrity have the same market. Zoltán Soós, Rafinanz’s managing director explained how Gianni, Lidl’s face represented Vénusz cooking oil in a campaign when Lidl started selling the product. Péter Kerekes, the marketing director of Dreher SabMiller showed that a brand needs to be honest as well: Arany Ászok beer’s celebrities are everyday people who turn into starts on the football pitch.

Pál Dárdai, the national team’s midfielder was the face of the campaign, which supports amateur football. Gergely Papp, Unilever’s brand manager told how actress Judit Hernádi communicated messages of the Pro-active version of Flóra margarine successfully. Last but not least Kornél Saltzer – Spar’s managing director, Gábor Dávid – METRO’s marketing director and Péter Boros – Co-op Hungary’s sales director discussed the marketing strategies of private label products.