One of the main concerns brands have is how to get the consumer’s attention and how to create advertisements that persuade the consumer to buy the brands’ products. An evident brand personality has been established to be vital for a brand as it contributes to creating meaningful and long-lasting customer relationships. But once their brand personality is established, how can brands utilize this brand personality to create more persuasive advertisements? This study looks at implicit self-theory, signaling advertisement appeals, self-improvement advertisement appeals, and self/brand congruence to answer this question. The research question of this thesis is thus: To what extent does implicit self-theory, advertisement appeals, and self/brand congruence influence someone’s attitude towards the advertised product? A quantitative study with an experimental design was conducted to answer the research question. The data was collected through an online, self-administered questionnaire. Three variations of the questionnaire were randomly distributed to the respondents, with the manipulation being a Nike advertisement. The first experimental group received an advertisement with signaling appeals, the second group received an advertisement with self-improvement appeals, and the third group was a control group that received a neutral advertisement with no added appeals. The sample consisted of 184 respondents. Two linear multiple regressions were conducted. The results showed that against predictions, no relationship was found between the interaction of implicit self-theory, the advertisement appeals, and attitude towards the advertised product. Furthermore, no evidence was found for the three-way interaction between implicit self-theory, type of advertisement appeal, and self/brand congruence on attitude towards the advertised product. However, self/brand congruence was found to have a significant positive effect on attitude towards the advertised product. This means that respondents with a high self/brand congruence also had a more positive attitude towards the Nike shoe. It was also discovered that self/brand congruence had a bigger impact on attitude in the control group as opposed to the group with a self-improvement advertisement appeal. These findings help scholars and brand managers understand the importance of congruence between a brand’s personality and the consumer’s personality and the impact it can have.

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Livia van Vliet
hdl.handle.net/2105/65036
Media & Business
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication

Kim Mulleneers. (2022, June 27). The impact of implicit self-theories, ad appeals, and self/brand congruence on advertisement effectiveness A quantitative study using Nike. Media & Business. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/65036