It's Not Black and White: Advertising and Race in Cultural Context

ABSTRACT

Studies in the United States have found that matching an advertising model's race to the target audience is an effective marketing strategy. However, race is a cultural construct and little research has been conducted on race and advertising effectiveness outside of the United States. This study, conducted with female consumers in Brazil, found that advertisements were not more effective when the subject and the model were of the same race. To better understand the psychological processes triggered by race, this study explored two related but distinct conditions of identification: similarity and liking. It found that in conditions of boundary permeability between groups, liking is more important than similarity in determining advertising effectiveness in the target sample. A general model is proposed.     

Women “in motion”: the kinaesthetic viewing experience in Chinese viral advertising films

ABSTRACT

Visual imagery provides aesthetic experiences for viewers, and viral advertising films address viewers’ experience of movement which has not been analysed. Developing visual analyses, this study uses phenomenological approaches and the concept of kinaesthetic empathy, defined as the ability of viewers to react to movements, also in film. It considers Chinese Wei movies (“microfilms” or viral advertising films) with reference to examples by Audi and Swarovski as representatives of China's post-socialist marketing culture. Women in these films are presented as “in motion,” yet still are often delimited by traditional gender stereotypes. These films are potentially ambivalent ideological carriers that encourage women to reinvent themselves through consumption within traditional gender roles but may also suggest the pursuit of different experiences as movement is abstract, transitory and cannot be commodified.     

The communicative effectiveness of ethnically oriented advertising

A study conducted on Asian ethnic consumers in the UK showed ethnic origin to be a major segmentation variable in differentiating ethnic and white intergroup responses to four different executions of advertising copy incorporating different levels of ethnic appeal. The ethnic group gave consistently more favourable responses than white consumers, implying that they would respond more favourably to the visual ‘picture’ component in advertising copy. On an intragroup basis it was found that ‘all-ethnic’ copy with higher levels of ethnic content would be more effective in targeting ethnic groups because it provides a cultural framework with greater staying power in terms of its visual, nonverbal presentation in comparison to ‘all-white’ appeals. ‘Integrated’ panel layouts incorporating both ethnic and white appeals in the same advertising copy format did not evoke significantly more positive feelings among either Asian ethnic or white viewers in comparison to ‘all-ethnic’ copy. Advertisers should note therefore that integrated advertisements cannot be expected to radically influence either ethnic or white consumer attitudes towards promoted products. It was also found that as a compromise strategy, ‘product-only’ advertisements might well be the best answer to targeting ethnic as well as white viewers.     

Marketing by CPAs

Abstract

Until the late 1970s, the AICPA discouraged commercial advertising and some other marketing tactics by practicing accountants. This study contacted 600 CPAs in the U.S. in an attempt to discover what kinds of marketing they employ, how useful they think it is, and how appropriate do they feel the AICPA's rules and regulations are in regard to marketing an individual CPA's services. Most thought the AICPA was fair. Accountants doing the most marketing tend to be younger males. “Conflict of Interest” was the area of most current concern in light of the ongoing problems of public accounting firms doing both auditing and consulting for the same client. “Newspaper” was the preferred advertising medium. Most of those surveyed were pleased the AICPA relaxed its restrictions on marketing and advertising, even though many CPAs still do not market their services to any great extent. This may change as younger accountants fill leadership positions in U.S. accounting firms.     

Advertising, 2nd Edition. Runyon,Kenneth E. Columbus,OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1984. 702 pp

Abstract

Despite cultural similarities between the United States and the United Kingdom, there are substantial differences between American and British television advertising. British commercials tend to contain less information, employ a soft sell rather than a hard sell approach, and attempt to entertain the viewer. British viewers' opinions of advertising are also more favorable than those of American viewers. It is important that scholars and practitioners concerned with these two markets and with international advertising generally be aware of these differences and understand why they have evolved. Possible explanations are evaluated and implications of these findings discussed, including areas for future research.     

Examining Polish Market Mavens and Their Attitudes Toward Advertising

Abstract

In this paper, we offer some insights about Polish consumers with varying levels of general marketplace expertise, their role in diffusing product information, and their views of advertising. Market mavens are consumers who exhibit heightened interestin and knowledge about the marketplace. Because of their interest in communicating with others about the many aspects of the marketplace, these consumers can play an integral role for companies interested in diffusing marketing information. Our study results indicate that market mavens do indeed exist in Poland and they exhibit similar characteristics to market mavens identified in the U.S. They have more favorable attitudes toward advertising than other consumers. Additionally, they consider advertising as an important source of product and social image information. Although Polish mavens are less critical of advertising being misleading and confusing, they are concerned about advertising promoting materialistic values. Our findings imply that firms doing business in Poland would be well advised to target market mavens because they pay attention to advertising, have favorable attitudes toward advertising, and like to talk about marketplace phenomena with others.     

Courting Women Using Sports Marketing: A Content Analysis of the US Open

As surprising as it may sound, sales to the female sports market are almost equal to sales to the male sports market. Also, an increasing percentage of viewers of various broadcast sports events consist of females, even in male-dominant sports like football and baseball. Couple these with the increasing role that females play in purchasing decisions for a variety of products, and sports marketing emerges as an effective vehicle to reach this lucrative market. To investigate the extent to which marketers are taking advantage of this promotion strategy, a two-step project was conducted. First, gender differences with regard to advertising were delineated based on an extensive literature review. Second, a content analysis of commercials shown during the men's and women's tennis final in the 1990 US Open was performed. The results of the content analysis were contrasted with the expected findings indicated by the literature review. Only one product was found to be specifically targeted to women. Moreover, very few differences were found between the advertising strategy in both finals. The results indicate that to a large extent, marketers are not taking advantage of sports marketing targeted to women, and continue to use sports marketing to target the traditional male sports fan.     

Online advertising disclaimers in unregulated markets: use of disclaimers by multinational and local companies in the Brazilian toy industry

ABSTRACT

Researchers have documented whether and how companies use advertising disclaimers in regulated markets. We complement the extant work by analysing a sample of 449 online toy advertisements targeting children in Brazil, a largely unregulated market. Results show that multinational corporations are more likely to include disclaimers in their online ads than local Brazilian companies. Further analyses reveal, however, that advertising disclaimers used by multinational subsidiaries have more distractors that reduce viewer comprehension. Our research contributes to the fields of advertising and institutional theory by being the first to document whether and how multinational subsidiaries use disclaimers in online ads targeting an unregulated market.     

An Investigation of the Success of Targeting Newspapers and Efficiency of Advertising in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Segmentation and targeting have been considered a central component of marketing strategy for any organization for decades. This study considers the ability to utilize Irish print media to successfully target a high value segment. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to examine reader profiles of Irish daily papers and, second, to consider the accuracy of claimed target readers. Data from the Joint National Readership Survey was utilized to profile readers of the major newspapers available in Ireland. Results suggest once actual circulation size is taken into account there is unlikely to be any advantage in buying advertising space in a publication that claims to target a specific target reader with a smaller circulation, rather than buying advertising in a large circulation mainstream tabloid.     

Development and validation of an emic scale to measure ad-evoked nostalgia in France

The practice of imbuing marketing communications with nostalgic reverie is prevalent in numerous countries. However, scholarly research investigating consumer response to such communication across cultures is lacking. This inquiry follows an emic approach examining and measuring ad-evoked personal nostalgia in France. Findings from five studies (N = 699) reveal significant differences in consumer reactions in France, as compared to earlier research based on American samples. Among the French, nostalgic advertising evokes personal memories and cultural nostalgia, contrasted to reports of past imagery, physiological and positive and negative emotional reactions in the United States. Furthermore, while cultural nostalgia is an important component of the French personal nostalgic experience, it is the personal memories that are the key to the creation of positive impressions about the ad and brand (brand heritage, brand bonds, and attitudes), and driving behavioral intentions. The emic French scale was found to be superior to an etic ad-nostalgia measure, in terms of fit and variance explained of the endogenous variables. The findings contribute to cross-cultural advertising and marketing research, and can be instructive for advertisers targeting the French market.     

Who is the Athlete Endorser? A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Advertising Practitioners’ Views

ABSTRACT

This study, via the use of focus groups, explores the common meanings that advertising practitioners in 10 countries associate with athlete endorsers. The study's macro perspective brings a unique understanding of practitioners’ universal thinking and practices in relation to athlete endorsement. It reveals that practitioners across the world correlate athlete endorsers with a wide range of positive and useful psychological, social, physical, skillfulness, and sport meanings. In particular, authenticity, objective performance, and the athletes’ belonging to the realm of sport—considered by practitioners as a carrier of positive meanings and as a “meeting place” between audiences and endorsers—were identified as greatly contributing to athletes’ positive endorsement value. The article places the various universal dimensions of athletes raised by practitioners in a holistic conceptual profile, in order to help visualize and organize thoughts when selecting athlete endorsers for marketing campaigns.     

Encoding Advertisements: The Creative Perspective

The role of advertising within consumer culture as an ideological force has received much attention within academic studies in the advertising and marketing disciplines, and has also been the subject of inquiry and debate in related fields within sociology and cultural studies. While many of these works approach the role of advertising in society through textual analysis of advertisements and consumer interpretations of advertising meaning, surprisingly fewer studies have approached the subject from the perspective of the producers of advertising, particularly within the advertising and marketing disciplines. This paper examines how advertisements are encoded with meanings by advertising "creatives" by exploring the practices and processes in which these cultural practitioners engage. A discourse analysis of ethnographic interviews conducted with copywriters and art directors within an Irish advertising agency forms the empirical material for this inquiry. Four central interpretative repertoires are developed from these interview texts which provide insights into the pivotal work of advertising practitioners as cultural intermediaries within consumer culture.     

Comparing advertising effectiveness in South-American and North-American contexts: testing Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural dimensions in the higher education sector

ABSTRACT

This research compares the effectiveness of advertising and relational marketing in two countries characterized by varying levels of both Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural dimensions – Peru (high-power distance, high collectivism, survival and traditional values) and Canada (low-power distance, high individualism, self-expression and secular-rational values). Survey data from a high credence service sector (higher education) in both countries is used for the analysis. The results indicate that advertising and relational marketing have direct effects on choice in Peru, but do not have significant direct effects on choice in Canada. Advertising does, however, affect positively perceptual outcome measures (perceived marketing effectiveness) in Canada. Additionally, we find that advertising and relational marketing have an indirect impact on choice and perceived marketing effectiveness through the mediation of perceived informativeness and influencers in both countries. These results point to the need to account for mechanisms and mediating variables when building theoretical frameworks in cross-country studies.     

Historical research in marketing theory and practice: a review essay

Abstract

This paper reviews 30 years of interdisciplinary scholarship that deals with marketing history or the history of marketing thought. We have ranged across the humanities and social sciences to review the very best scholarship that these domains have produced which speaks to issues likely to concern the readers of the Journal of Marketing Management (JMM). These domains include: the history of marketing management, history of market research, history of market segmentation, product management history, retailing and channels history, promotion history, advertising history, the history of marketing thought, and marketing and the management of subjectivity, among others. Given obvious page limitations we have nevertheless tried to appeal to the paradigmatic span of the readers of the JMM. With this in mind, we have critically reviewed material that will be of interest to managerially oriented academics, as well as those who subscribe to consumer culture theoretics and critical marketing studies.     

A Case Study: How a Retail Jewelry Store Learned to Compete in the E-Commerce Market Place

ABSTRACT

The Case Study describes how a retail jewelry store adapted to a new e-commerce market place. Until the mid-1990s, their marketing strategy included (1) a large dramatic sign visible from surrounding streets, (2) local print and radio advertising, (3) a sales staff that aggressively pushed the perceived value and emotional component of jewelry, and (4) an after-sales follow-up program. Typical customers were in the lower to middle socio-economic segment.

E-commerce created more knowledgeable customers who recognized their buying alternatives. The Store reacted by developing several proprietary web sites, displaying products in the store “as seen on” the home shopping networks or on various web sites, and offering classes on how to become a more knowledgeable jewelry shopper. During the implementation of the e-commerce changes, problems arose in two areas: project management issues (deadlines, staffing, testing) and cultural adaptation issues. Once these issues were effectively addressed, and the e-commerce changes were implemented, sales stabilized and returned to prior levels.

The Case Study explores a well-known strategic principle: all organizations must monitor their changing environment and adapt accordingly, e-commerce is a current example; there will always be others.     

Developing trends in the marketing of life insurance

The personal financial services industry is being changed drastically by a number of legislative and other measures. As a result, life assurance companies are having to reappraise their use of marketing methods in a highly competitive environment. This paper investigates the major industry marketing trends which are occurring particularly in the areas of advertising, distribution, new product development and price. The role of IT is highlighted.

The trends are set against a backcloth of an analysis of market penetration by a range of personal financial services products. The paper ends by outlining likely future trends in the use of marketing methods by assurance companies as part of their competitive strategies.

Data are presented from published sources and from a series of personal interviews with marketing executives in the industry.     

Phenomenology of Aesthetic Organising--Ways Towards Aesthetically Responsive Organizations

Through explication of a visual research method, this paper theorizes how masculine identity interacts with consumption—of imagery, products, desires, and passions in advertising and consumer culture. We analyze the male body as a discursive “effect” created at the intersection of consumption and several marketing discourses such as advertising, market segmentation, and visual communication, balancing between brand strategy—what the marketer intends—and brand community—the free appropriation of meaning by the market. The paper’s contribution rests in extending previous work on male representation into historical, ontological, and photographic realms, providing a necessary complement between understanding advertising meaning as residing within managerial strategy or wholly subsumed by consumer response. We argue that greater awareness of the connections between the traditions and conventions of visual culture and their impact on the production and consumption of advertising images leads to enhanced ability to understand how advertising works as a representational system and signifying practice.     

A cross‐cultural analysis of print advertising targeted to Hispanic and non‐Hispanic American consumers

U.S. Hispanics represent an important consumer segment in the North American market, but research in the area of U.S. Hispanic advertising remains limited. This study provides cross‐cultural analysis of print advertising targeted to Hispanic and non‐Hispanic American consumers in an attempt to explore the differences or similarities in their depictions of cultural values. The authors develop a scheme for content analyzing cultural values based on cultural theory literature. Results show meaningful differences in the core cultural values emphasized to target U.S. Hispanic consumers. The study has implications for marketers and academics who want to differentiate between culturally adapted advertising appeals for U.S. Hispanic and non‐Hispanic American consumers. The coding scheme developed in this study can help marketers identify and depict Hispanic cultural value appeals in their marketing communications. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Competitiveness in the UK fork‐lift truck market

A method of measuring rivalry through a combination of marketing mix elements and importance of market share is outlined, based on marketing managers’ perceptions of competitiveness in the UK Fork‐lift Truck Market. An overall lack of correlation and synergy between market share and marketing strategy was discovered together with underutilisation of mix elements—this in turn created gaps for overseas importers to fill with competitive offerings. While the research instrument and quantitative analysis are capable of further refinement, the measures outlined should prove useful as an adjunct to market share and concentration measures.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Social Issue Advertising Believability

ABSTRACT

Television advertising of social issues has become an important element of social marketing. However, little assessment of social advertising believability has been undertaken. This is further compounded by a lack of attention to the antecedents and consequences of how believable the target audience see the advertised message. This study focused on examining social advertising by gathering data on two social issues being advertised. The results indicate that involvement and attention paid to social advertising influenced social advertisement believability, and believability and involvement influenced attitudes toward social issues. Also, attitudes and believability influenced intention to comply with the social issue message.