Home Décor Celebs Send Mixed Messages

Port Washington, N.Y. —Consumers can be paradoxical, as a recent survey by The NPD Group found.

TV home improvement guru Ty Pennington ranked as the most trusted celebrity endorser —but despite his exclusive home furnishings collection at Sears, he is not strongly associated with home décor, the survey showed.

Martha Stewart ranked No. 1 on the home décor scale, but also ranked highest among celebrities that survey respondents said appear in too many ads. “While ranked at No. 1 [in home], it is interesting that more consumers do not recognize her based on her alliance with Kmart and her own lines of home decorating items,” the NPD summary stated.

Kirstie Alley ranked second to Stewart among celebrities associated with home décor — even though Pier 1 dropped her as its pitchwoman in spring 2004. Alley, like Pennington, also scored high in the survey for her overall level of trustworthiness among consumers, as did Lance Armstrong and George Foreman.

Olympic medalist Summer Sanders, actor James Earl Jones, chef Emeril Lagasse and musician Carlos Santana also have strong influences on consumer purchasing for the products they represent, NPD reported. While the quartet may not have the highest overall awareness levels or be recalled as pitching the most brands or products, “they are very effective in leveraging their fame to increase the purchase intent of consumers who know them,” according to NPD.

Celebrities who currently have a negative impact on purchasing, according to NPD, include Kobe Bryant, Donald Trump, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith.

“If the wrong celebrity is used, or the celebrity does something to disenchant the public, then their association with a brand can backfire,” said NPD chief industry analyst Marshal Cohen.

The survey was administered to a nationally representative sample of 11,000 adults and teens ages 13 and older from Sept. 22 to 29, 2005. A total of 3,241 completed surveys were included in the analysis, NPD reported.