Research On Self-reference Effect And Its Theory In Autobiographical Advertising

China is under a transition from quality consumption to sensitive consumption. The later one suggests that consumers are pursuing sensitive satisfaction, or display of self-image. When merchandise meets those needs, it would worth more in consumer's mind than its real value. Autobiographical Advertising comes to being under this circumstance.Autobiographical Advertising is a sensitive advertisement that provokes consumer's memory by invoking his individual life. Linkage between according emotion and the brand in the advertisement would reinforce memory of the brand or commodity. This paper believes that self-reference in autobiographical advertising would result in persuasion effect.Experiment 1 product characteristics in advertisement of Black Southern Sesame Laster, focusing on trials of different subject types before the screening of ad, which help to decide the advertisement impression. Then , test one would continue on the brand assessment and emotion measurement, and come to the conclusion that audiences would respond positively on emotional experience which leads to approval of the brand when performing self-reference. And also, the decrease in product analysis can result in high appraisal of the commodity.Experiment 2 investigates adaptation in Southern Black Sesame Laster advertisement, comparing the difference between autobiographical ad and factual ad by invoking paradigm of Imagination Inflation. The test indicates that good advertisement effect was achieved when autobiographical ad transfers audience's positive emotion of childhood stirred by ad to the actual advertisement.Experiment 3 works over self-reference effect in Autobiographical Advertisement, concluding that the persuasion mechanism of SRE is category-based Process.