Personalisation of online avatars: is the messenger as important as the message?

In traditional media, the selection of an appropriate source for communication (such as a celebrity) is left in the hands of the advertiser who generally adopts a standardised spokesperson for an entire target market. Online, the opportunity now exists for this spokesperson to be personalised to suit individual consumers, through the use of avatars. This exploratory study investigates the potential functions and manifestations of avatars as well as consumer preference for avatars as a direct source of communication. Using a non-probability referral sample of college educated females (aged 18?30) from Southern California, preliminary findings revealed that empowering female consumers to select their own source of communication for online apparel shopping may offer a more effective way of developing persuasive messages.