The Hindu Business Line : Brisk peddling

Kajol is back. No, not on the big screen. On the telly. Dressed in a sharp red jacket, and accompanied by four faceless men, she has been accosting people eating a certain biscuit in a mock-menacing fashion, and thrusting another in their faces. It's only another variant of the same biscuit brand, but in the last couple of weeks, following the blitz, there is no doubt that a new digestive cracker has arrived.

In the past couple of weeks, Kareena Kapoor has also been delivered to us, wrapped only in what looks like chocolate spread. And Aamir has turned his gaze on a comely secretary wearing a new watch, apart from being highly approving of an SUV.

The gigs may be new, but the idea is as old as the movies. Get a top-star endorsement, and the brand is set, if not for life, at least for a long haul. In a list compiled by a media house last week, the billing for top star brands began, expectedly, with Amitabh Bachchan (net worth roughly Rs 20 crore), followed by Shah Rukh (a close second at about Rs 18 crore). The usual suspects amongst the male stars include Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan; fairly new entrants in the ad mart are Ajay Devgan and John Abraham.

The female pack is led by, again no surprises here, Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, and Preity Zinta. Rani Mukherjee is also an old favourite with ad filmmakers, and Bipasha Basu is also spreading her wings in this area.

Talking about Kajol's new avatar as a brand endorser, the people behind the biscuit ad crowed on a business TV programme last week about their star's interesting mix of `serious and non-serious image': Kajol is fun, and not fluff, so people will take the message seriously, but not too seriously; if, for example, it was Shabana Azmi doing the same thing, people would take it too seriously!

Whatever. Without going into the inner and often incomprehensible reasoning of advertising honchos, what is interesting for showbiz watchers is to see how stars extend their brand equity to other brands, to launch new products, extend their collective shelf life, and, in the process, amass capital. Proclaimed the guy behind the new digestive biscuit, on the same show, that Kajol was poised to enter the select Rs 1 crore endorser band. (Both she and her star spouse Ajay Devgan broke their long resolve of not `selling stuff' last year: as a couple, they have sung praises of a well-known housing appliance brand, and extolled the virtues of a mobile phone company; she has been picked up for a solo act by the biscuit manufacturers).

Advertising gurus have long known that the right match, between product and star, is crucial. So an Aamir Khan, who is known for his exclusivity, is aligned with a watch brand, which wants to piggyback on the star's appeal, to gain access to a client base which values that virtue; the same flagship company hires him to popularise its SUV. Rani Mukherjee, the quintessential girl-next-door, sells, among other things, affordable chocolates bars, and an orange fizzy drink, which denotes `fun and masti'.

Sometimes, the rule of the `right match' is broken: Amitabh Bachchan's mind-boggling range of endorsements — from super-expensive suit fabrics to cheap chooran (digestive powder) — prove that nothing succeeds like excess. The discerning viewer may have got sick of the different kinds of hard-sell that the Big B obligingly spouts (in the same ad break, Bachchan Sr can be seen dancing a jig for a chocolate and a chyawanprash, folding his hands in a multi-hued namaste for paint, and, just for a different spin, exhorting people to go in for polio drops for their kids). But for most marketers, Amitabh Bachchan is still the biggest and the best.

Those in the business are also aware that there could be a sharp plateau in the life of an icon (take Saurav Ganguly, who has been dogged with long arid spells on the field, and public acrimony off it, for example), so they are making hay while the sun shines. And as far as Bachchan goes, in all likelihood this will go on for a long time. He's still got back-to-back movies with the biggest banners (one with Karan Johar, and the other with Yash Chopra), and a hugely watchable second round with Kaun Banega Crorepati `Dwitiya', as he loves calling it.

Very often, the index of a star's marketability is linked to box-office success: for example, the more successful Saif Ali Khan has been, the more products he has got under his belt. But sometimes, the star's enduring appeal goes beyond the movies he or she is making: Shah Rukh Khan may have appeared in only one moderately successful film last year (Paheli) but the buzz surrounding him never dies down. He's been selling a range of consumer durables, his small car is one of the best selling in the segment, his favourite biscuits and colas are big, and lately, like all `senior' stars, he has got into the public service slot, talking about the importance of vaccination.

And sometimes, a star's saleability may have very little to do with box-office success. Aishwarya Rai has marketed herself so well that regardless of how her few movies do, she is rated tops among advertisers (she was also among the first female stars to talk about eye donation, with the camera lingering lovingly on her amazing green orbs). The only big thing Ms Rai has to her credit recently is the item number Kajarare in last year's mega-hit Bunty Aur Babli (the fact that it turned out to be practically a national anthem in 2005 has a lot to do with the Bachchans, father and son, dancing to her tune). But it hasn't dissuaded her international backers like a major cosmetic line, and a jewellery company, and she is still very much on the wishlist of most big brands.

Kareena is another case in point. She may not be blockbuster material, but she has always been high on advertisers' priority, endorsing anything from designer watches to beauty soaps. She may have tough competition in the shape of Shah Rukh Khan (his saucy act of lounging in a bathtub for another beauty soap, surrounded by four stunners, past and present, has to be the most talked-about ad of 2005), but the lady has her firm votaries.

Popular comics have their place, too. Jaaved Jafferi (remember him and Pankaj Kapoor in a popular ketchup ad?) and Arshad Warsi are the faces of a credit card. Boman Irani is all over the place. And he and Paresh Rawal also do pizzas. Irrfan Khan is new to the selling game, but he does a great number, fronting a mobile phone company.

Clearly, when it comes to peddling products, the stars are the limit.

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