Who is a Brand Ambassador?
A Brand Ambassador is a person hired by the company to represent the brand in the positive light and promotes its offerings of products and services. He or she helps in accentuating the brand awareness and sales of the company. The Brand Ambassador is meant to exemplify the corporate identity of the brand in his or her appearance, demeanor, values, and ethics.
Due to the growing market saturation and tough competition, the brands need to come up with the out-of-the-box ideas and groundbreaking strategies to sustain in the market with the competitive edge and push the sales of the company. Hiring a Brand Ambassador is an integral part of the brand management and it’s a well thought-out and planned strategy that provides an impetus to the sales and the overall brand value.
Characteristics of a Brand Ambassador
1) Famous
It is a must of the brand managers to hire a brand ambassador who is quite famous amongst the target market and the location having a huge fan following as then only the person will be able to influence the market to indulge in the purchasing of the brand’s products and services. He or she needs to have a strong legacy and a background that works as a lucrative factor for the brand in pulling new customers and expanding the reach.
2) Passionate
It is the passion and enthusiasm that drives results and attains objectives. The hired ambassador should be passionate in his or her field and displays the same amount of passion whilst working as a Brand Ambassador for the company. He or she should be able to help the brand to target the untapped markets getting new customers on board thereby elevating the reach of the brand.
3) Professionalism
Being an ambassador for any brand brings along a lot of duties and responsibilities that include traveling to various places for the product launch, representation at events and exhibitions, shooting commercials for television and print media, and being present at different PR and corporate activations amongst others. Hence, the factor of professionalism holds the utmost importance for being a Brand Ambassador.
4) Established Online Presence
With the changing market scenarios, the marketing and promotional techniques require an edge of digital and social media to attain the 360-degree curvature of targeting customers plus the digital medium has gained a lot of significance over a period of time. The person hired as a brand ambassador should have an established and positive online presence on his or her social media handles such as Instagram, Twitter, Google, Snapchat, Linked In, and Facebook amongst others with infinite fans and followers that treat the person as a community influencer and an opinion leader.
Types of Brand Ambassador
1) Celebrity Brand Ambassador
Hiring various celebrities and famous personalities from the various walks of life that complement the nature and objectives of the brand as brand ambassador is one of the highly utilized marketing techniques in today’s time. It helps to further the reach and awareness of the brand with the celebrity label attached to it.
Example: Taylor Swift has aggressively promoted Diet Coke by appearing as a brand ambassador in the print and outdoor campaigns of the brand.
2) Goodwill Ambassadors
A Goodwil Brand ambassador reflects the hiring of the famous personality for the charitable and non-profit organizations to promote funding, donation, and encourage volunteers to become the part of the organization. The goodwill ambassador needs to be attached and fully invested to the attached cause on the personal level as well.
Example: Pamela Anderson has been an integral part of PETA- People for Ethical Treatment of Animals owing to her love and care for animals.
3) Promotional Models
The promotional models hired are not the brand ambassador in actual terms as they are not bound by any contract. They are hired as the spokesmodel to promote the brand and its offerings at specific events, exhibitions, and trade shows.
Importance of Brand Ambassador
1. Human Touch
It is a known fact in the fraternity of marketing that ‘People trust People and buy from them’. Hiring a Brand Ambassador adds the aspect of human touch to the brand that results in the ambassador creating an emotional connect with the target audience and people buy the products and services of the brand due to their trust and loyalty with the hired ambassador.
2. Drive New Customers
The Brand Ambassador has a set of his or her loyalists, fans, and followers that are not necessarily existing customers of the brand or have been targeted earlier. Hence, it helps when the ambassador promotes the offerings to them, they add to the database of existing and prospective customers of the brand.
3. Trust on Brand Ambassador
The trust that people have for the ambassador is automatically reflected towards the brand as well, as the ambassador’s name is now attached to it.
4. Positive Word of Mouth
The positive word of mouth is spread across within the target market due to the strong legacy and celebrity status of the hired ambassador helping the brand in numerous ways.
5. Target Untapped Markets
Many a time it is not possible for the brand to reach the markets that are not targeted using marketing and promotional strategies. But with the celebrated status and fame of the hired ambassador, the brand is able to penetrate into the untapped markets where the ambassador is famous.
6. Increased Brand Awareness
There is an increased level of brand awareness in the national and international market when the brand hires an ambassador who is quite famous and celebrated in his or her field having a strong base of fans and followers.
As discussed earlier in the article that the hiring of a Brand Ambassador is one of the most crucial features and an integral part of the brand management strategy as the person hired should match the status of the brand that is achieved over the years and complement the objectives of the company.
With the changing business cycles and internal policies of the company, the brands also take the decision to hire a new ambassador replacing the existing one to match the new line of the products or the evolving tastes of the customers. The decision is arrived keeping the customers and the target market at the focal point.
