Businessmen tops as pitchers

How believable and effective are celebrity endorsers? 

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a survey showing celebs don't have much clout when it comes to convincing us to buy a product or service. 

A new survey, from Adweek and the Harris Poll, doesn't ask whether or not celebs are effective influencers, but rather which types of celebs are the most and least persuasive relative to each other.

Business leaders scored the highest out of five categories, with 37 percent of respondents rating them "most persuasive."  They were followed by athletes, at 21  percent, TV and movie stars at 18 percent, singers and musicians at 14 percent, and former political figures, at ten percent.

Business leaders scored higher among older (55+) respondents, at 46 percent.  Only 28 percent of the 18 - 24 age group put business leaders at the top.  That group prefers sports figures.This poll is a comparative survey only, ranking the five categories against each other. 

A ranking of slightly more than one-third is not very impressive.  But I'm surprised that it's even that high in this post Bernie Madoff/GM and Chrysler bailouts/200 bank failures/derivatives meltdown/record home foreclosures economy.  It makes one wonder how trustworthy (or how smart) our business leaders are, and if their recommendations of products and services are worth following.

I wonder if the rankings for business leaders might have been lower if some other choices had been included in the survey -- choices like "doctor" or "educator" or "scientist" or "blue collar worker."

Comments

[Shannon Poole]

Business leaders can be believed if they are talking about a category that they are expert in. They can also be good pitching their own company's products since they put a face on the company, such as the CEO of Sprint in that company's ad campaign.