Can Brands / Brand Managers in India sustain without Brand Ambassadors?

I was waiting in much anticipation for the India - England test series since it’s the last time we would be seeing the 'Great' Sachin, Dravid, VVS perform one last act on the English soil before they call it a day. But in reality it turned out to a damp squib considering how the Indian team was thoroughly exposed by an well oiled, hungry, goal oriented English team. Hats off to Andrew Strauss and his team for topping the ICC ranking.

The agony and the mental stress of the Indian fan increased by leaps and bounds while watching the Indian team's pathetic, spineless, dis-spirited performance in the English soil. The advertisements featuring Indian cricketers were only adding fuel to the fire. And naturally I started to develop an aversion towards the brand featuring Indian Cricketers. Can brands afford to lose their mind share  amongst the fickle minded consumers, after paying millions of rupees to the Indian Cricketers? Ideally the answer should be No.

How can brand managers insulate their precious Brands from the cyclical nature of the performance of the brand endorser. For example if Cricketer X doesn’t perform well then people might start developing an aversion towards the brand. Or if Actor Y doesn’t give sequence of hits then his / her market value takes a hit. Due to the skewed nature of demand, supply (many brands chasing few successful cricketers / actors) the brand endorser starts charging exorbitant amount. Is it possible to have an effective and efficient brand building exercise without having much dependence of the endorsers?

I think the answer is yes. Instead of paying millions of rupees / dollars trying to sign up those brand endorser it will be more prudent if certain % of the amount is invested on creating / formulating a strategy for Brand Management by highlighting the key differentiating factors or an strategy which captures the imagination of the public adhering to all moral ethical standards. Its all about capturing the mind space of the customers. Advertisements for companies like Tata Steel, Tata Indica, Nestle Maggi,Hutch / Vodafone, Cadburys etc haven't entirely relied upon the celebrities. During crisis management time (for eg: Cadburys chocolate worm incident) they can effectively leverage on a particular Brand Endorser (Mr. Big B in this case) to effectively propagate what the Brands really stands for and to negate any negative publicity arising.

As Mr.Nehruji said "If there is a will, there is a way" so lets try to strike a balance in our pursuit of brand endorsers, thereby letting them concentrate on what they are best known for and the brand managers can go back to what we are best known & paid for. It’s a Win - Win situation. The Cricketer will have more time to polish the rough edges which pushes the probability of him winning more