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Persuasion - Source credibility

6 important questions on Persuasion - Source credibility

What are types of sources of advertising?

Stars and celebrities, experts, company spokespersons, actors and ad models, real users, real people who are unidentified, real people identified by name.

Name the three characteristics of souces that affect persuasion:

- Credibility: how believable the source is judge to be by the target audience.
- Attractiveness: quality of making an emotional connection with the viewer (physics or talent).
- Similarity: how similar to themselves consumer judge the spokesperson to be.

What are the two subcharacteristics of source credibility?

- Source expertise: profession, education, personal experience.
- Source independence: separation of the source from the company that would benefit from the message, e.g. Consumer reports.

What is a drawback of using celebrities?

- Consumers may dismiss the product benefits as unattainable.
- Reject the attractiveness of the stars as unworthy of pursuit (considered to be too different).

How would you make the ad message credible?

State the facts, cite authorities, obtain testimonials from experts and real users, build corporate repution.

What is 'match-up hypothesis'

The celebrity chosen to promote the brand, should have an image similar to the brand's image (or desired image). Celebrity sources have two kinds of appeal: expertise and attractiveness, decide which one you need for your brand.