Celebrities are always sought after by the marketers to endorse their brands. Celebrity endorsement and their effect on brand popularity and sales is a phenomenon that is not new, but the rigor with which researches are being done in this area shows the new found interest of academicians and marketers in this phenomenon. Maybe the hefty fee for endorsement that celebrities are asking for is leading the brand managers and marketers to rethink this tried and tested formula.

Pertinent questions that are being asked today are: Why do we require celebrities to endorse various brands? How do consumers relate the celebrity's personality with the brand personality? What meanings do the consumers attribute to this celebrity-brand relationship? Henrik Uggla in his paper titled, "Persons as Leader Brands: From Endorsers to Branded Houses", tries to address a few of these questions. The author presents and explains a model as to how meaning transfers to and from brands and how it can it be strategically leveraged from different sources in a system of brands. The author claims that the proposed model presents a more balanced holistic perspective than the existing models of celebrity endorsement and brand alignment between persons and brands.

Analysts might disagree on the impact of celebrity endorsements, but no one is questioning the growing importance of the rural consumers. How do rural consumers buy? What do they buy? What are their buying motives and what factors influence their buying behavior? All such relevant questions are addressed by A Sarangapani and T Mamatha in their paper titled, "Rural Consumer Behavior with Regard to Selected FMCGs Consumption Patterns and Brand Usage: A Study". Through their empirical study in the rural areas, the authors have brought forth many interesting insights.

Like the first paper, which explores the meaning that consumers attribute to the celebrity-brand relationship, the paper titled, "Meaning Transfer in Event Sponsorships", by Subhadip Roy and Lopamudra Ghosh, also talks about the meanings that the consumers attribute. But, in this case, the authors explore the meanings associated with an event and whether they get transferred to the sponsor brand or not. In the author's own words, this study provides partial evidence for the presence of meaning transfer.

The next paper titled, "An Empirical Study on the Factors Influencing the Buying Behavior of the Consumers: LCD Televisions", by Sunil Bharadwaj and Indrani Palaparthy, identifies many interesting factors like physical features, word-of-mouth, etc. that tend to influence the buying decision in a positive manner as far as LCD televisions are concerned.

Like brands periodically change the celebrities who endorse them with old faces making way for the new ones—they also encounter the dilemma of changing themselves. Kaushik Mukerjee in his case, "The ICICI Bank Brand: Is It Time for Revitalization", divulges such a scenario for a leading private bank in India. From introducing the reader to the brand building strategies of ICICI to the brand's performance in the changing competitive landscape, the author presents a comprehensive case study that brings forth many relevant branding issues that many contemporary firms can identify with.

- Nitin Gupta
Consulting Editor