The role of celebrities in shaping consumers brand awareness and purchasing behavior: A case study from Konya

The main aim of this study is explaining the strategy of celebrity endorsement in advertisements and revealing its effects on brand and at what kind of a position this is in accordance with the academic sources. A survey was applied on 404 people chosen in simple random sampling method in the direction of the aim of the research. The survey was applied face to face and the developed hypotheses were analyzed according to SPSS technique. In order to create the psychological profile of the participants, frequency distributions have been analyzed. Graphical presentations were prepared in Excel. Purchasing behaviors of the participants, findings regarding the popularity of brands and descriptive statistics were also analyzed. Reliability of the scales used in the research was analyzed with the Cronbach's Alpha parameter. In the process of testing the hypotheses T-test and ANOVA were applied in order to detect the relationship between the variances. It was aimed to detect the points on which firms pay the most attention while deciding to use the celebrities in advertisements and the effects of it on the brand and purchasing habits. In addition to their eye-catching quality of target masses, it is also observed that celebrities also contribute much to add meaning to the image in the minds of consumers with their reliability and physical attraction. Besides, it is also observed that celebrity endorsement strategy of firms in advertisements is a mostly resorted activity and is used by many brands in Turkey as a means of marketing. Key Words: Advertisement, Celebrities, Firms