The role of the congruity between self image and ad spokesperson image on advertising effectiveness

When the historical development of advertising is examined, we observe that there is a change from product-oriented informational advertising into the identity,image and lifestyle-oriented advertising. Some arguments on the content of the advertisements come out at this point. According to some, advertising world prefers being more image-oriented and emotional deviating from the aim of being completely informative. Both marketing communication and alterations on social, cultural and psychological properties of consumers are revealed as the cause of this change. Nowadays, making sale in the marketing environment where people are swamped with about ten thousand messages per day is not an easy job. We see that traditional researches on understanding of people's interests, demands and necessities truly and traditional marketing methods on modern-day branding are insufficient from time to time. Stimulants that will enable to stir up one's feelings are to be introduced to be able to repeat the purchasing decisions and make them constant. One of the significant factors determining individual's consumption behaviors is self- conception. Identity is the way one perceives oneself, how one sees oneself and what she/he thinks about his/her own personality. An individual express his/her personality with two aspects which are actual-self and ideal-self. Actual-self is about the properties he/she has, in other means who he/she is. Ideal-self is about who he/she wants to be. The main problem of this study is the congruity between the actual and ideal self image of the consumers regarding themselves and the self- image they recieve regarding to the actor acting in the commercial, and whether these two kinds of self-image congruity is determinant on some variables or not. This study named "The Role Of The Congruity Between Self Image And Ad Spokesperson Image On Advertising Effectiveness" consists of three parts. In the first part, concepts of changing consumer behavior, personality, identity and self are handled as well as the studies on the role of "self" on consumer behavior. In the second part, basic approaches used in creative thinking in the light of self- conception, advertising appeals and tips are observed. In the third and last part of the study, the results of field study applied are focused. In the casting, which is a significant decision in advertising production,the effects of famous or unrecognized actors on the decisions of consumers and the efficacy of the elected actor on expressing the consumers' ideal-self are studied. Furthermore, topic, aim, scope and limitations, model, variables, sampling process, the methods of collecting data and information of the research are discussed referring to the concepts the study is based on and also there are clarifications about which analysis techniques the hypothesis will be tested with. Key Words: Actual-Self Image, Ideal-Self Image, Self-Image Congruity, Advertising Attitude, Brand Attitude, Purchase Intentions, Advertising Spokesperson, Using Celebrities in Advertising.