Who’d you pick - A Brand Ambassador or A Brand Face?

This question is quite clearly posed to marketers of whom would they choose to feature in their Ad campaigns. There is a need to define and also distinguish these two terms that could support a marketer’s choice. A brand ambassador is one who serves as the spokesperson for a particular brand, enhancing the brand image by appearing as a testimonial for the brand’s benefits. He or she becomes an integral part of the brand persona and helps build an emotional bond with the consumers. And this goes beyond just appearing in TV commercials to running promotional campaigns, to attending press conferences, to even using the product (brand being endorsed) so as to make it visible to the public. The brand ambassador transforms into a brand champion where he is associated with every aspect related to the brand that could also enhance his/her laurels.

Now, a Brand Face is just like a tool used to increase brand recall and would only appear in advertisements and nothing beyond that. Brand faces would have limited or temporary contract periods under their kitty for an instance Sona Chandi Chawanpryash using Sourav Ganguly for a while in its commercials. They are simply forgotten once the campaign ends. Now the question could arise – why choose or incorporate brand faces in the first place? Wouldn’t they create a temporary brand image that people can easily forget after the campaign ends? Yes, this is true, but it is important to know that everything is contextual and fits well with situations. This is also true with brand faces, that it is going to be appropriate to use them not for a long term brand building objective (which will rather be done by brand ambassadors), but for short term goals of promoting awareness of a newly launched product, or to communicate a discount in prices, and many such goals.

The choice therefore is based on the context or situation that a marketer or a brand manager faces.