An experimental research on the effects of using tv series characters in advertisements on attitudes towards ads, brands and purchase intention

The companies apply various advertising strategies to differentiate their brands from rival companies and to provide planned effects on their target market under the harsh competition conditions. One of the earliest and most common strategies is the usage of celebrities as a source of advertising. The issue of the effects of celebrities on advertisements has been addressed in various studies. Within the scope of this study, it's analysed whether the series characters categorized as a fiction celebrity frequently used in TV commercials in Turkey affect attitudes towards advertisement, brand and purchase intention. In this study, to reveal the ratio of the usage of celebrities and series characters in advertisements in Turkey, a quantitative content analysis has been applied before the effect research is executed. As a result of the content analysis, it has been ascertained that the series characters are used in the approximately 30 percent of the advertisements in which the TV series actors figure. The purpose of the second part of the research is to manifest the effects of the reliability, attractiveness, speciality, similarity and familiarity of the series characters on the purchase intention and the attitudes towards the advertisement and the brand. In accordance with this purpose, one sample pre-test and post-test design has been applied to the university students selected through the purposive sampling method. In order to construct the questionnaire form suitable for this design, main studies about the effects of celebrity usage in the ads on the advertisement, brand and purchase intention have also been referred within the frame of source models in literature. The first of the main findings obtained in the end of the research is that the reliability of the series character is the strongest and most common factor which affects the purchase intention, and the attitudes towards the advertisement and brand. In addition, when compared to male respondents, female respondents are affected from series characters more, since they regard them more reliable and familiar. Another important finding is that attitude towards advertisement that use series character affects the attitudes towards brand while the attitude towards brand partially affects the purchase intention. The other most remarkable point is that the advertisement which uses the series character affects the purchase intention of the consumers in terms of gathering information about the product rather than leading them to purchase the product. Lastly, it is deduced from the research that the attitudes of the respondents familiar with the series and characters towards the advertisement and brand are more positive than those of the respondents who don't watch the series and don't know the series characters. Keywords: Celebrity Usage on Advertisements, Source Models, Series Characters, Advertisement Attitude, Brand Attitude, Purchase Intention.