Celebrity Endorsement in China free essay sample

The percentage of television commercials worldwide featuring a celebrity has increased to 17% during the past decade (White, 20014). Researches indicate that celebrity endorsements occur in greater frequencies in some Asian countries including Japan, Korean and China (Choi, Lee, amp; Kim, 2005). Celebrity endorsements in china Even though most of the modern advertising and marketing for consumer goods in china has a short history of only 25-30 years, celebrity branding becomes prevalent in the country (ref 2). China is an emerging market with many brands at its developing life-cycle targeting new markets and customers. So, strategy of targeting new customers has a huge impact on the nature of marketing communication. Some researches indicate that ads in developing markets focus on product attributes where a lot of consumption is still driven by the desire to acquire the biggest, brightest and most popular ( Ref 2). However, in a developing market with limited choices for many of the new product categories, brand awareness is also very important. A lot of researches have proven the effectiveness of using celebrity to enhance brand awareness. So, celebrity endorsements are somewhat powerful to drive new customers trying new things in emerging markets like China (Ogilvy, 2011). ACEs in China: celebrity endorsements are commonplace in China with many of these featuring athlete celebrity endorsements (ACEs) and 3 of top 5 ranked celebrities in China were athletes. For example, Yao, former Houston Rocket basketball star reported to have endorsement deals with Reebok, Apple, VISA, TAG Heater, Gatorade and McDolnalds’ (Ref 6). One research found that Chinese customers are considerably more receptive to ads featuring athlete celebrity celebrity endorsers, especially toward the information contained in these advertisements (Ref 6). Actually, China is home to one of the fastest growing sport industries in the world. One reason behind the rapid growing sports industry is the massive government funding and supports. Over-Exposure of Celebrity Endorsers in China: in China, those â€Å"hot celebrities† can accrue numerous, simultaneous endorsements. This over endorsements confuse consumer about which brand is endorsed by which celebrity (Ref 2). The movie star Jackie Chan has endorsed tons of products, some of which fail spectacularly. One Chinese newspaper called him a man who can destroy anything. Chan is believed to have at least two dozen endorsement contracts at present from an anti-hair-loss shampoo which allegedly contained carcinogens to even frozen dumplings. Although the Chan name has translated to big bucks at the box office, not every product he touches turns to gold (Ref 7). Many people question the effectiveness with over endorsements. Celebrity who endorse more than one product tend to decrease the impact and distinctiveness of each product relationship (Garland and Ferkins, 2003) there is another over-exposure Chinese ACE- Liu Xiang. Ogilvy tested consumer recall for Liu’s dozen endorsements including Nike, VISA, YiLi Diary and so on. They found that people could connect Liu with the product of Nike but they had single and low-double digit recognition rate with other endorsements (Ref 1). Some U. S. elebrities limit their product endorsements to enhance their aura of exclusivity, but experts said Chinas media market is still too small, and the country too big, to worry that Chan will suffer from overexposure. Generally, in a country of 1. 3 billion people, celebrities want as much exposure as possible, said Tiger Hou, an analyst for Entrgroup. com. Reasons behind the Greater Frequency of Celebrity Endorsements and Over-Endorsements in China: In dividualism VS collectivism: In china, the culture value of collectivism remains strong in people’s ideology (ref, 3). Zhang and Gelb found Chinese consumer prefer collectivistic appeals. Someone argues that a match between ads appeals and culture values can bring favorable attitudes toward the advertisements (Ref 5). So, the selection of celebrity endorsers may mirror the fundamental cultural orientations and values; On the other side, people with collectivistic background tends to use relationships with peers and superiors to avoid uncertainty and risks (Ref 4). Many customers view celebrity endorsements as a way of reassurance especially when many products and services qualities are still in doubt; Today, like never before, individualism and collectivism co-exist in china through different channels and across different age groups. During the widespread social, economic and cultural flux, celebrity endorsements serve not only for awareness and uncertainty avoidance, but bring alive some modern values. Actually, some celebrities are valued as aspiration role models for people to express and experience individualism in those collectivistic societies. High level power distance amp; cultural context: according to Hofstede’s power distance dimension theory(level of people’s acceptance to the unequal distribution of power including social status, prestige and wealth), the US represents one of the lowest scoring countries on Hofstede’s power distance index, while China rates higher (Hofstede, 1980). Consequently, Chinese respondents would more unquestioningly listen to the product opinions from celebrities. However, it by no means indicates Chinese will listen to the advices of all kinds of celebrities. Actually, china has a long history of looking down to those entertaining celebrities. So, people would accept some hot celebrities’ attractiveness but not their expertise. When it comes to the concept of cultural context, china belongs to the countries with high context culture comparing with most English speaking countries. Eastern advertising tends to be less direct and contain more soft sell appeals feature emotional image of persons because indirect, implicit and nonverbal communication styles. Beside the higher frequency and over-exposure with Chinese celebrity endorsements and the cultural values behind them, Chinese consumer’s perception of the effectiveness differs from the other countries. Many researches have revealed that the attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise would not drive purchase intention in many conditions. Only expertise had a critical impact on purchase intention using a US sample ( ). However in collectivistic countries like Singapore and China, all three sources have significant impact on purchase intention (Pornpitakpan, 2003). Theory and concept with celebrity branding: Researchers continued to examine the effectiveness of celebrity branding at enhancing consumer’s attitudes toward advertisements and brand as well as purchase intent. However, most results are inconclusive and not correctly toward Chinese part. Source Credibility Model amp; Source Attractiveness Model. Celebrity will generate some trustworthy, attractive and likable feelings than an unknown people (Friedman, Termini, Washington). According to source credibility model, the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements depends on the â€Å"expertise† and â€Å"trustworthiness† of the celebrity (Dholakia amp; Sternthal, 1977). Trust is reflected in the confidence in the general believability of the endorser and message. But some results also indicate that 90% of those respondents felt that financial and publicity reasons drive celebrity to appear in advertisements (Abhilasha Mehta Ref 8). The source attractiveness model argue that the physical appeal of a celebrity influences the effectiveness of a advertising message (Baker amp; Churchill, 1976). But Ohanian pointed out most celebrities were attractive and hence the overall impact of this variable may be weak. Also, attractiveness may be only relevant for categories that are related to attractiveness (Ref 9). Still, many researches argue that credibility amp; attractiveness of celebrities can generate some favorable attitudes toward advertisements and brands. However, this effect can be a double edged sword in marketing. The prominence credibility and attractiveness decreases, the attitude towards the product suffers as well. Purchase Intent. It might be possible that â€Å"attractive†, â€Å"trustworthy† or â€Å"credible† source can facilitate the message-learning and acceptance process. But even highly credible sources have not been found to be that â€Å"influential†. So, even though attitude toward the products is more favorable, overall advertising effectiveness and purchase intent mixed (Ref 8). Actually, there are a lot of researches found no difference in purchasing intent between celebrity and non-celebrity branding. Petty, Cacioppo and Schuman found that the product was liked better with sports star endorsers, but intention to buy did not differ. As the above discussion illustrates, the findings related to purchase intent are inconclusive. So, someone argues that â€Å"appropriateness of celebrities†, â€Å"involvement levels† and even â€Å"cultural meanings† will also influence the persuasion of celebrity endorsements. Match-Up Hypothesis amp; Level of Involvement. It is not enough to know the degrees of â€Å"attractiveness† and â€Å"credibility†, kinds of â€Å"attractiveness† and â€Å"credibility† should also be measured. The product match-up hypothesis suggests that the higher the perceived fit between the celebrity’s image and the endorsed brand, the more persuasive the celebrity and the ad will be (Erdogan, 1999). According to the theory of â€Å"extended self†, consumer tends to consider their possession as reflective and as part of themselves. So, consumer compare perception of brands to their own value perception, then selects the brands that match the closest (Ref 9). Especially with a high-social-consequences-context, image congruence will have greater effects (Ref 10). Now, it’s an environment where consumers are increasingly cynical toward marketing messages. So, badly match-up lacking authenticity can only alienate the target audience (Ref 11). Level of involvement will also influence the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements. Theories related to â€Å"central route† and â€Å"peripheral route† indicate that the influence of celebrity is minimal under condition of high involvement when consumer will consider information diligently. However, in most purchasing situations, consumer followers central route as well as peripheral route (Ref 8). Both peripheral and central-route processing can be monitored by â€Å"means of capturing the thoughts and feelings†. The author argued that feelings and thoughts generated from the celebrity exposure in the ads would directly go to â€Å"intention to buy† (Ref 8) The differences in response to celebrity endorsement also vary across cultures, so a careful match between celebrity characteristics and cultural values can bring more favorable attitudes. Identification theory† is another critical element underlying celebrity endorsers. According to the identification theory, the individual might develop a sense of closer relationship with the endorser sharing racial similarity and ethnic identification and he or she will be more likely to adopt the attitude or behavior advocated by the celebrity (Ref 12). For example, consumers with various cultural backgrounds might identify with athlete spokesperson at different levels. n individualistic culture, consumers have higher levels of identification and greater levels of source credibility as athletes who has individual personality and compete in individual sports (eg, golf player). While people from collectivistic culture have higher levels of identification towards athletes who has many collectivistic characteristics(eg, cooperation, self-sacrifice for group profit, interdependence) (Ref 3). Problems with Celebrity Branding Celebrity has long been examined about its effectiveness on advertising ttitude, brand awareness and purchase intent because considerable amounts invested on celebrity endorsement. There are a lot of researches found no difference in buying intention between celebrity and non-celebrity branding. Even though celebrities can enhance brand awareness and bring favorable attitudes, but non-celebrity endorser’s image are easily created to fit with the brand’s imag e (Ref 13). On the other hand, the brand â€Å"owned† live or animated non-celebrity is nearly impossible for to endorse other brands, and thus avoid over-endorsements. Moreover, celebrity can transfer negative information to brand with negative publicities, so some company even use dead celebrities to endorse their brands. Besides above discussion, using celebrity also has certain risk of â€Å"Brand Eclipsing†, â€Å"Over-Endorsements† as well as â€Å"Transferring Negative Information†. â€Å"Brand Eclipsing† Ads featuring celebrities will also have risk of paying less attention to the brand. One problem is that many ads emphasize too much on celebrity rather than product. There are potentially other factors that affect the impact of timing, visibility and alchemy on the probability of eclipsing. So, media that have a time and audio component such as audio amp; video has greater possibility for brand to eclipse, because the inanimate of brand. Advertisers should measure the conditions under which eclipsing occurs, which may focus on the celebrity and his or her fame, visibility of focal brand, interaction between celebrity and the brand and the media as well (Ref 13). Over-Endorsement of Celebrity (Case Study of Chinese Hurdler Liu) Nowadays, those â€Å"hot celebrities† can haphazardly accrue numerous, simultaneous endorsements and some even go to competitors’ brands. The over-exposure of celebrity confuses consumer even makes them confused which brand is endorsed by which celebrity. However, celebrity who endorse more than one product tend to decrease the impact and distinctiveness of each product (Garland and Ferkins, 2003). On the other side, the effect of a celebrity endorsing multiple products is to reduce the celebrity’s credibility and likeability (Tripp, Jensen, and Carlso, 1994). In China, 40% of advertisements geared toward youths feature at least one celebrity. Personalities, such as former NBA basketball star Yao Ming, actor Jackie Chan and Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang, are frequently featured in advertisements for a wide range of products and services as diverse as soft drinks, credit cards and life insurance (Ref 14) With the creation of 12 econds and 88 miracle in Lausanne in July 2006, Liu Xiang with healthy image of the sun, naughty, cheerful personality has become the darling of the sports sector the most sought after by the advertisers to become one of the Chinese sports with the highest income movement (Ref 17). until 2008 before the Beijing Olympics, Liu Xiang, the four years the endorsement of the brand 14, and most international brands, including cars, clothing, beverage, a nd communications, Liu Xiang’s advertising is full of our life’s basic necessities. The world-class hurdler Liu Xiang has a representation deal with Nike, so Nike tried nail down any issues related to the â€Å"Liu Xiang† name in or out of China. Nike filed for trademark protection in China for the â€Å"Liu Xiang† name but was rejected by the China Trademark Office. Nike then filed an appeal of the rejection with our old friends the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB), which upheld the decision (Ref 16). Ogilvy and Millward Browns new findings arent entirely surprising, in this regard. As early as 2009, the China Market Research Group found similar results in a study. Looking at celebrity Liu Xiang, a Chinese star hurdler, the group set out to test consumer recall for Lius dozen or so endorsements. Results did not speak well to Lius partners: Nike was a lock, since people could make the connection between a star athlete and Nike products, but Visa, Cadillac and Yili, among others had single- and low-double-digit recognition rates as brands Liu Xiang represented. Furthermore, fewer than 20% said that an endorsement by Liu Xiang would make them buy products from any of the companies except Nike. Celebrity Endorsement in China Advertising, Brand, Brandmanagement, Celebrity, China, Endorsement, Liu, LiuXiangIntroduction The history of celebrity endorsement of products can date back to the 1760s in the western countries. In the US, 25% of all advertising features a celebrity (Shimp, 2003), which is an increases from the late 1970s, when 17% of advertising featured celebrities (Howard, 1979). Because there is an increasing realization of the high costs and risks with celebrity branding, advertisers begin to quantify and qualify the use of celebrities by evaluating their effectiveness under different conditions. Actually, celebrity endorsements are not just an American phenomenon. The percentage of television commercials worldwide featuring a celebrity has increased to 17% during the past decade (White, 20014). Researches indicate that celebrity endorsements occur in greater frequencies in some Asian countries including Japan, Korean and China (Choi, Lee, amp; Kim, 2005). Celebrity endorsements in china Even though most of the modern advertising and marketing for consumer goods in china has a short history of only 25-30 years, celebrity branding becomes prevalent in the country (ref 2). China is an emerging market with many brands at its developing life-cycle targeting new markets and customers. So, strategy of targeting new customers has a huge impact on the nature of marketing communication. Some researches indicate that ads in developing markets focus on product attributes where a lot of consumption is still driven by the desire to acquire the biggest, brightest and most popular ( Ref 2). However, in a developing market with limited choices for many of the new product categories, brand awareness is also very important. A lot of researches have proven the effectiveness of using celebrity to enhance brand awareness. So, celebrity endorsements are somewhat powerful to drive new customers trying new things in emerging markets like China (Ogilvy, 2011). ACEs in China: celebrity endorsements are commonplace in China with many of these featuring athlete celebrity endorsements (ACEs) and 3 of top 5 ranked celebrities in China were athletes. For example, Yao, former Houston Rocket basketball star reported to have endorsement deals with Reebok, Apple, VISA, TAG Heater, Gatorade and McDolnalds’ (Ref 6). One research found that Chinese customers are considerably more receptive to ads featuring athlete celebrity celebrity endorsers, especially toward the information contained in these advertisements (Ref 6). Actually, China is home to one of the fastest growing sport industries in the world. One reason behind the rapid growing sports industry is the massive government funding and supports. Over-Exposure of Celebrity Endorsers in China: in China, those â€Å"hot celebrities† can accrue numerous, simultaneous endorsements. This over endorsements confuse consumer about which brand is endorsed by which celebrity (Ref 2). The movie star Jackie Chan has endorsed tons of products, some of which fail spectacularly. One Chinese newspaper called him a man who can destroy anything. Chan is believed to have at least two dozen endorsement contracts at present from an anti-hair-loss shampoo which allegedly contained carcinogens to even frozen dumplings. Although the Chan name has translated to big bucks at the box office, not every product he touches turns to gold (Ref 7). Many people question the effectiveness with over endorsements. Celebrity who endorse more than one product tend to decrease the impact and distinctiveness of each product relationship (Garland and Ferkins, 2003) there is another over-exposure Chinese ACE- Liu Xiang. Ogilvy tested consumer recall for Liu’s dozen endorsements including Nike, VISA, YiLi Diary and so on. They found that people could connect Liu with the product of Nike but they had single and low-double digit recognition rate with other endorsements (Ref 1). Some U. S. elebrities limit their product endorsements to enhance their aura of exclusivity, but experts said Chinas media market is still too small, and the country too big, to worry that Chan will suffer from overexposure. Generally, in a country of 1. 3 billion people, celebrities want as much exposure as possible, said Tiger Hou, an analyst for Entrgroup. com. Reasons behind the Greater Frequency of Celebrity Endorsements and Over-Endorsements in China: In dividualism VS collectivism: In china, the culture value of collectivism remains strong in people’s ideology (ref, 3). Zhang and Gelb found Chinese consumer prefer collectivistic appeals. Someone argues that a match between ads appeals and culture values can bring favorable attitudes toward the advertisements (Ref 5). So, the selection of celebrity endorsers may mirror the fundamental cultural orientations and values; On the other side, people with collectivistic background tends to use relationships with peers and superiors to avoid uncertainty and risks (Ref 4). Many customers view celebrity endorsements as a way of reassurance especially when many products and services qualities are still in doubt; Today, like never before, individualism and collectivism co-exist in china through different channels and across different age groups. During the widespread social, economic and cultural flux, celebrity endorsements serve not only for awareness and uncertainty avoidance, but bring alive some modern values. Actually, some celebrities are valued as aspiration role models for people to express and experience individualism in those collectivistic societies. High level power distance amp; cultural context: according to Hofstede’s power distance dimension theory(level of people’s acceptance to the unequal distribution of power including social status, prestige and wealth), the US represents one of the lowest scoring countries on Hofstede’s power distance index, while China rates higher (Hofstede, 1980). Consequently, Chinese respondents would more unquestioningly listen to the product opinions from celebrities. However, it by no means indicates Chinese will listen to the advices of all kinds of celebrities. Actually, china has a long history of looking down to those entertaining celebrities. So, people would accept some hot celebrities’ attractiveness but not their expertise. When it comes to the concept of cultural context, china belongs to the countries with high context culture comparing with most English speaking countries. Eastern advertising tends to be less direct and contain more soft sell appeals feature emotional image of persons because indirect, implicit and nonverbal communication styles. Beside the higher frequency and over-exposure with Chinese celebrity endorsements and the cultural values behind them, Chinese consumer’s perception of the effectiveness differs from the other countries. Many researches have revealed that the attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise would not drive purchase intention in many conditions. Only expertise had a critical impact on purchase intention using a US sample ( ). However in collectivistic countries like Singapore and China, all three sources have significant impact on purchase intention (Pornpitakpan, 2003). Theory and concept with celebrity branding: Researchers continued to examine the effectiveness of celebrity branding at enhancing consumer’s attitudes toward advertisements and brand as well as purchase intent. However, most results are inconclusive and not correctly toward Chinese part. Source Credibility Model amp; Source Attractiveness Model. Celebrity will generate some trustworthy, attractive and likable feelings than an unknown people (Friedman, Termini, Washington). According to source credibility model, the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements depends on the â€Å"expertise† and â€Å"trustworthiness† of the celebrity (Dholakia amp; Sternthal, 1977). Trust is reflected in the confidence in the general believability of the endorser and message. But some results also indicate that 90% of those respondents felt that financial and publicity reasons drive celebrity to appear in advertisements (Abhilasha Mehta Ref 8). The source attractiveness model argue that the physical appeal of a celebrity influences the effectiveness of a advertising message (Baker amp; Churchill, 1976). But Ohanian pointed out most celebrities were attractive and hence the overall impact of this variable may be weak. Also, attractiveness may be only relevant for categories that are related to attractiveness (Ref 9). Still, many researches argue that credibility amp; attractiveness of celebrities can generate some favorable attitudes toward advertisements and brands. However, this effect can be a double edged sword in marketing. The prominence credibility and attractiveness decreases, the attitude towards the product suffers as well. Purchase Intent. It might be possible that â€Å"attractive†, â€Å"trustworthy† or â€Å"credible† source can facilitate the message-learning and acceptance process. But even highly credible sources have not been found to be that â€Å"influential†. So, even though attitude toward the products is more favorable, overall advertising effectiveness and purchase intent mixed (Ref 8). Actually, there are a lot of researches found no difference in purchasing intent between celebrity and non-celebrity branding. Petty, Cacioppo and Schuman found that the product was liked better with sports star endorsers, but intention to buy did not differ. As the above discussion illustrates, the findings related to purchase intent are inconclusive. So, someone argues that â€Å"appropriateness of celebrities†, â€Å"involvement levels† and even â€Å"cultural meanings† will also influence the persuasion of celebrity endorsements. Match-Up Hypothesis amp; Level of Involvement. It is not enough to know the degrees of â€Å"attractiveness† and â€Å"credibility†, kinds of â€Å"attractiveness† and â€Å"credibility† should also be measured. The product match-up hypothesis suggests that the higher the perceived fit between the celebrity’s image and the endorsed brand, the more persuasive the celebrity and the ad will be (Erdogan, 1999). According to the theory of â€Å"extended self†, consumer tends to consider their possession as reflective and as part of themselves. So, consumer compare perception of brands to their own value perception, then selects the brands that match the closest (Ref 9). Especially with a high-social-consequences-context, image congruence will have greater effects (Ref 10). Now, it’s an environment where consumers are increasingly cynical toward marketing messages. So, badly match-up lacking authenticity can only alienate the target audience (Ref 11). Level of involvement will also influence the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements. Theories related to â€Å"central route† and â€Å"peripheral route† indicate that the influence of celebrity is minimal under condition of high involvement when consumer will consider information diligently. However, in most purchasing situations, consumer followers central route as well as peripheral route (Ref 8). Both peripheral and central-route processing can be monitored by â€Å"means of capturing the thoughts and feelings†. The author argued that feelings and thoughts generated from the celebrity exposure in the ads would directly go to â€Å"intention to buy† (Ref 8) The differences in response to celebrity endorsement also vary across cultures, so a careful match between celebrity characteristics and cultural values can bring more favorable attitudes. Identification theory† is another critical element underlying celebrity endorsers. According to the identification theory, the individual might develop a sense of closer relationship with the endorser sharing racial similarity and ethnic identification and he or she will be more likely to adopt the attitude or behavior advocated by the celebrity (Ref 12). For example, consumers with various cultural backgrounds might identify with athlete spokesperson at different levels. n individualistic culture, consumers have higher levels of identification and greater levels of source credibility as athletes who has individual personality and compete in individual sports (eg, golf player). While people from collectivistic culture have higher levels of identification towards athletes who has many collectivistic characteristics(eg, cooperation, self-sacrifice for group profit, interdependence) (Ref 3). Problems with Celebrity Branding Celebrity has long been examined about its effectiveness on advertising ttitude, brand awareness and purchase intent because considerable amounts invested on celebrity endorsement. There are a lot of researches found no difference in buying intention between celebrity and non-celebrity branding. Even though celebrities can enhance brand awareness and bring favorable attitudes, but non-celebrity endorser’s image are easily created to fit with the brand’s imag e (Ref 13). On the other hand, the brand â€Å"owned† live or animated non-celebrity is nearly impossible for to endorse other brands, and thus avoid over-endorsements. Moreover, celebrity can transfer negative information to brand with negative publicities, so some company even use dead celebrities to endorse their brands. Besides above discussion, using celebrity also has certain risk of â€Å"Brand Eclipsing†, â€Å"Over-Endorsements† as well as â€Å"Transferring Negative Information†. â€Å"Brand Eclipsing† Ads featuring celebrities will also have risk of paying less attention to the brand. One problem is that many ads emphasize too much on celebrity rather than product. There are potentially other factors that affect the impact of timing, visibility and alchemy on the probability of eclipsing. So, media that have a time and audio component such as audio amp; video has greater possibility for brand to eclipse, because the inanimate of brand. Advertisers should measure the conditions under which eclipsing occurs, which may focus on the celebrity and his or her fame, visibility of focal brand, interaction between celebrity and the brand and the media as well (Ref 13). Over-Endorsement of Celebrity (Case Study of Chinese Hurdler Liu) Nowadays, those â€Å"hot celebrities† can haphazardly accrue numerous, simultaneous endorsements and some even go to competitors’ brands. The over-exposure of celebrity confuses consumer even makes them confused which brand is endorsed by which celebrity. However, celebrity who endorse more than one product tend to decrease the impact and distinctiveness of each product (Garland and Ferkins, 2003). On the other side, the effect of a celebrity endorsing multiple products is to reduce the celebrity’s credibility and likeability (Tripp, Jensen, and Carlso, 1994). In China, 40% of advertisements geared toward youths feature at least one celebrity. Personalities, such as former NBA basketball star Yao Ming, actor Jackie Chan and Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang, are frequently featured in advertisements for a wide range of products and services as diverse as soft drinks, credit cards and life insurance (Ref 14) With the creation of 12 econds and 88 miracle in Lausanne in July 2006, Liu Xiang with healthy image of the sun, naughty, cheerful personality has become the darling of the sports sector the most sought after by the advertisers to become one of the Chinese sports with the highest income movement (Ref 17). until 2008 before the Beijing Olympics, Liu Xiang, the four years the endorsement of the brand 14, and most international brands, including cars, clothing, beverage, a nd communications, Liu Xiang’s advertising is full of our life’s basic necessities. The world-class hurdler Liu Xiang has a representation deal with Nike, so Nike tried nail down any issues related to the â€Å"Liu Xiang† name in or out of China. Nike filed for trademark protection in China for the â€Å"Liu Xiang† name but was rejected by the China Trademark Office. Nike then filed an appeal of the rejection with our old friends the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB), which upheld the decision (Ref 16). Ogilvy and Millward Browns new findings arent entirely surprising, in this regard. As early as 2009, the China Market Research Group found similar results in a study. Looking at celebrity Liu Xiang, a Chinese star hurdler, the group set out to test consumer recall for Lius dozen or so endorsements. Results did not speak well to Lius partners: Nike was a lock, since people could make the connection between a star athlete and Nike products, but Visa, Cadillac and Yili, among others had single- and low-double-digit recognition rates as brands Liu Xiang represented. Furthermore, fewer than 20% said that an endorsement by Liu Xiang would make them buy products from any of the companies except Nike.