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.     

Limitations of Combining Hispanics and African Americans for Analysis of Credit Problems

This study uses a combination of six Survey of Consumer Finances data sets to examine whether factors affecting credit delinquency differ by the racial/ethnic identity of households. Hispanic households are less likely than white households and white households are less likely than African American households to be delinquent. Our full model with interaction terms shows that the effects of financially adverse events, financial buffers and debt burden on the debt delinquency differ across racial/ethnic groups. Combining African American and Hispanic households into one racial/ethnic minority group as previous studies have done can be problematic.     

Effects of ethnic advertising on consumers of minority and majority groups: the moderating effect of humor

The effects of portrayals of ethnic endorsers in advertising are ambiguous. These portrayals strengthen the ethnic identity of ethnic minority groups, thus leading to positive responses toward the ad. They can lead to negative responses, because these portrayals can be perceived as stereotyped. Humor is a tool that can increase positive effects of identity-building and reduce negative effects of stereotyping. In this study, we investigate how humor moderates the effects of ethnic advertising on consumers from ethnic minority and majority groups. We find that humor supports the effects of traditional portrayals for both groups. Moreover, the effect of traditional portrayals combined with humor is strongest for the minority group. These findings provide evidence for the positive effects of humor in ethnic advertising and thus provide new insights to the stereotyping, ethnic advertising, and humor literature. The findings have practical implications for advertising using ethnic endorsers, humor, or targeted at ethnic minority groups.     

Calling It Out: The Impact of National Identity on Consumer Response to Ads With a Patriotic Theme

This study examined how ethnic minorities negotiate between ethnic and national identities and respond to ads that intend to appeal to consumers through patriotism. Specifically, this study proposed that activating ethnic minorities' national identity through a prime would affect their evaluation of ads with a patriotic theme. Further, this effect among ethnic minorities would be different from that among the majority. Findings from this study suggest that (1) Caucasian Americans (the majority group) responded more favorably to ads with a patriotic theme than did Asian Americans (ethnic minorities); (2) both Caucasian and Asian Americans became more positive in their ad evaluations when their American national identity was made momentarily salient through a national identity prime; and (3) the effect of national identity activation on evaluation of ads was greater among Asian Americans than among Caucasian Americans.     

Ethnic Marketing Ethics

Culture plays an important role in defining ethics standards because dissimilar cultures socialize their people differently, according to what is acceptable behaviour. The potential significance of ethnic groups for marketing justifies inquiry into the moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct exercised in marketing decisions and situations arising from decisions whether or not to focus on individual ethnic groups within an economy. Identifying and targeting ethnic groups for marketing purposes are tasks fraught with many ethical difficulties. In a multicultural society consisting of a dominant group and many diverse, minority groups defined by ethnicity, these problems can be expected to increase substantially. Consequently, marketers may include minority ethnic consumers in their mainstream marketing programs. In itself, this has ethical consequences. Alternatively, if marketers seek to target individual minority ethnic groups within the same economy a further set of ethical consequences needs to be considered. This paper reviews the concepts of ethnicity and ethnic groups and their relevance for marketing strategy within an economy where there is a dominant group and also significant minority ethnic groups. The ethical consequences for minority communities arising from the use of non-ethnic, mainstream marketing programs are examined. An alternative approach, ethnic marketing, is also examined and its ethical consequences in terms of other groups within the one country appraised. The ethical dilemma and tradeoffs facing marketers within advanced, culturally diverse countries are then considered.     

The impact of cultural symbols and spokesperson identity on attitudes and intentions

In today's multicultural societies, ethnic targeting is an increasingly important marketing strategy. Two main approaches to target ethnic minorities have emerged in recent years: messaging consumers when their ethnic identity is most salient, and doing so with spokespeople or models with the same heritage as the targeted minority. In this paper, we conduct conceptual replications of two influential articles representative of these research streams: Forehand and Deshpandé (2001) and Deshpandé and Stayman (1994). Our studies show that the effects of such practices on minority consumers are not homogeneous. The findings identify generational status (first vs. second generation) as an important boundary condition for these ethnic targeting strategies. This has important conceptual and practical implications for choosing an effective ethnic targeting strategy.     

Ethnic groups and the British travel industry: servicing a minority?

This article examines the attitudes of the British travel industry to non-white ethnic customers. Focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews and an audit of training provision were used to investigate the extent of ethnic minority integration in the industry. Research findings showed a segregated industry in the Yorkshire region. Asian agencies served their own communities. Mainstream travel companies revealed a lack of understanding of consumers from non-white ethnic groups, particularly with respect to different levels of acculturation and their impact on holiday buying behaviour. Recommendations outline policies to attract more travel customers from the increasing numbers of ethnic minorities in Britain.     

Exploring antecedents and consequences of consumer ethnocentrism: evidence from Asian immigrants in the US

The US is a multicultural society due to its growing number of ethnic minorities. These ethnic populations have made intracultural studies more difficult because of the different senses of identity and degrees of acculturation the varied groups possess. The current study examined the impact of perceived ethnicity (Asian vs. Asian American) and acculturation level (low vs. high) on consumer ethnocentrism towards the country of immigration (the US) and its consequences with respect to Asian immigrants, the fastest growing minority in the US. One hundred and eighty‐five responses from Asian immigrants were collected through a convenience sample from a university campus located in the southwest US as well as a snowball sampling technique. Results revealed that perceived ethnicity and acculturation play an important role in influencing Asian immigrants' ethnocentrism towards the US, which in turn affects their attitudes and behavioural intentions towards products made in the US. Implications and future research directions are suggested.     

Understanding the Racial/Ethnic Gap in Bank Account Ownership among Older Adults

The observed racial/ethnic gap in bank account ownership among older adults is substantial. We investigate socioeconomic, cognitive, and cultural barriers underling it. As additional potential barriers are accounted for, the residual gaps in financial inclusion with respect to Whites are reduced by 19% for blacks and 46% for Hispanics. We find that citizenship and “taste for privacy” play a limited role for both minority groups, while real asset ownership, health, cognitive ability, and cultural hurdles contribute substantially to the gap. For Hispanics, language barriers explain most of the gap, while neighborhood‐level socioeconomic characteristics are more salient for blacks. We also examine how the racial/ethnic composition of couples influences financial decisions. We estimate a significantly smaller residual gap between “mixed” and white couples than between minority and white couples. We provide empirical evidence suggesting that, other things equal, mixed couples are less concerned with the cultural/psychological barriers facing minority couples.     

Potential Lending Discrimination? Insights from Small Business Financing and New Venture Survival

Previous literature provides potential lending discrimination evidence of disadvantaged women and minority entrepreneurs' high rate of business loan application denial and their unequal access to external and commercial credits in comparison with white business owners. This paper aims to expand the literature and discussions on small business loan discrimination from a new research direction, besides those on loan applications/denials and on loan terms, focusing on the consequences of small business loans in terms of new venture survivability. The proposed new research direction is consistent with similar research approaches in mortgage lending literature examining loan default rates and potential discrimination. The Kauffman Firm Survey data are used with appropriate hazards model for the analysis. Extensive creditworthiness and business survival determinants are applied for controlling for their influences across racial and ethnic groups. The main empirical finding is that after controlling for a wide variety of borrower, establishment, and regional characteristics, business closure rates for minority entrepreneurs are not higher than those for white business owners. This finding does not support the prediction of the model for lender bias against minority entrepreneurs.     

Whiteness,ethnic minorities and advertising in travel brochures

Whiteness theory is used in this paper as an additional way to analyse ethnic minority portrayal in advertising, specifically, the extent to which images of ethnic minorities are dominated by whiteness in travel brochures. A sample of 37 brochures are examined from British tour operators. Culture-based differences in advertising are discussed with a specific focus on how advertising constructs the image of ethnic minorities of peoples of South Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Mixed Race as tourists, workers and local people. We consider the frequency of portrayals of the different racial groups, together with observations about gender, family and social contexts and interaction with whites. The findings show that the portrayal of non-white people is relatively rare and highly constrained.     

Endorser ethnicity impact on advertising effectiveness: effects of the majority vs. minority status of the target audience

Previous research has studied several factors influencing advertising responses. However, this body of work has been mainly conducted in contexts where the target audience is a minority with a perceived lower status in the host country. This current study examines the effect of endorser ethnicity on advertising in the specific context of Qatar. This is a unique context where the target audience is the local empowered numerical minority. We propose to study the moderator effects of product type (utilitarian versus hedonic product) and product ethnic orientation (ethnic oriented versus global product) for both, the minority and mainstream groups to explain some of the previously contradicting findings. Data is collected using a three factor between-subject experimental design. Findings reveal the moderating effects of the audience minority vs. majority status. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Measuring Ethnic Community Involvement: Development and Initial Testing of an Index*

This paper builds on the work of Chaganti and Greene, who distinguish between ethnic minority entrepreneurs/small business owners who are very involved with their ethnic community and those who are not. We extend their work by developing an Index of Ethnic Community Involvement based not only on personal but also business characteristics. We utilize a large sample size (698 interviews with entrepreneurs), drawn from five ethnic groups, and develop a valid and reliable (0.69) Index of Ethnic Involvement (IEI) with a strong emphasis on social capital theory. Our initial analysis shows the IEI predicts some personal and business characteristics. Future development will include building regression models to predict business outcomes. The IEI, when fully developed, promises to be useful for targeting assistance, education and training programs, and policy initiatives for entrepreneurs and small business owners according to the level of ethnic community involvement.     

Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility in the U.K. Asian Small Business Community

Within the limited, but growing, literature on small business ethics almost no attention has been paid to the issue of social responsibility within ethnic minority businesses. Using a social capital perspective, this paper reports on an exploratory and qualitative investigation into the attitudinal and behavioural manifestations of CSR within small and medium-sized Asian owned or managed firms in the U.K., with particular reference to the distinctive factors motivating organisational responses. It offers alternative explanations of entrepreneurial behaviour and suggests areas for further research.     

Influences on the behaviour of black and minority ethnic (BME) communities towards debt and bankruptcy

This article sets out to examine the attitudes towards debt, bankruptcy and the bankruptcy process of black and minority ethnic (BME) entrepreneurs and individuals who are experiencing bankruptcy; and to assess the extent to which their attitudes towards debt and bankruptcy have been influenced by various external factors, including their cultural and religious practices. The paper uses a qualitative methodology that involves in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews and direct observation, where possible. The findings suggest that in many ethnic minority communities, there are strong cultural and religious imperatives to settle debts, and this can lead to a strong desire to resist at all costs the bankruptcy process. The main finding of this study is that there is a high level of ignorance and a lack of understanding of the actions that can be taken when they find themselves in financial difficulties. The main implication of this study is that education, which fosters financial literacy and pre‐bankruptcy counselling, can empower consumers and enhance responsible financial decision making. There is very little research work in this area, and the paper is based on qualitative research that captures for the first time why the attitudes and behaviour of BME groups towards debt and bankruptcy differ from those of the white population.     

Costly Signaling: Asian Americans and the Role of Ethnicity in the Willingness to Pay More for Socially Responsible Products

The present study applies motivated reasoning and costly signaling theory to examine whether consumers transfer stereotypical race-related attributes to their evaluations of companies' socially responsible advertisements. The study compares corporate socially responsible advertisements featuring different model races and cultural cues in order to meet consumers' motives to impress others by supporting CSR initiatives. Results (N = 754) of a 2 × 2 × 4 experiment reveal that strong ethnic identifiers among Asian Americans are more likely to make a costly signaling behavior when ads feature a white model with white cultural cues by attributing higher social status to whites' images, which is mediated by conspicuous consumption motives. Interestingly, ethnic identification among white Americans is also a strong predictor in making costly signaling behavior with socially responsible products.     

Patterns of ethnic self-employment in time and space: evidence from British Census microdata

The over-representation of certain ethnic minority and immigrant groups in self-employment is, in common with other developed countries, a notable feature of the UK labour market. Compared to the substantial growth in self-employment in the 1980s, the 1990s saw overall self-employment rates plateau. Despite this, some minority groups experienced continued growth whilst others, particularly Chinese and Indian males and Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese females, saw their self-employment rates decline. In this paper we use microdata samples from the 1991 and 2001 Censuses to investigate the dynamic and spatial patterns of ethnic entrepreneurship. Using decomposition methods we find that, for males from the Asian groups, changes in observable characteristics associated with an increasing proportion of second-generation individuals explain much of the decline in self-employment. This, which is also true of Chinese females, reflects in part the age structure and educational experiences of the second generation. The dynamics of Black male and Pakistani/Bangladeshi male and female entrepreneurship are less easy to explain. We also find that, while there is no evidence of self-employment being an “enclave” phenomenon, local economic conditions do affect rates of entrepreneurship for some groups, notably Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.     

Revisiting the substantiality criterion: From ethnic marketing to market segmentation

This paper examines the meaning and application of the concept of substantiality for consumer market segmentation and target selection with a focus on ethnicity and minority ethnic groups. In contrast with interpretations of segment substance anchoring on some sufficient potential size to justify time and effort involved in planning, the objective is to consider key group dimensions to ascertain potential substantiality. Common criteria proposed to assess substance are essentially an exhortation to assess the value of the segmenting opportunity. An increase in producer surplus meets this requirement but this consideration is done post hoc. The challenge for market segmentation is to assess substantiality a priori. This paper presents a screening approach based on appraising minority ethnic group resources that enables such an assessment and has potential applicability to other consumer subcultures.     

Effects of Ethnic Identity on Perceived Advertisers’ Motives in Values Advocacy Advertising

The current study examined Asian American consumers’ responses to values advocacy advertising through the interaction of levels of ethnic identification (weak or strong Asian ethnic identification) and culturally embedded ads (low and high in Asian/White culturally embedded ads) in evaluating altruistic motives of advertisers and purchase intention through an experimental design. The findings suggest that low Asian ethnic identifiers may identify with the advertiser employing Asian spokespersons with Asian cultural cues and in turn, perceive that the advertisers advocate social causes with altruistic motives. However, they did not feel congruent with the advertisers utilizing values advocacy ads with low Asian cultural cues (only featuring Asian spokespersons) more than with low/high White cultural cues (featuring White spokespersons with and without White cultural cues).The findings were discussed based on ethnic schema and attribution theory. Further, the present study discusses how Asian American consumers view ads through their different lenses toward meanings of race and culture based on their different levels of ethnic identification.     

Ethnic identity,socialization factors,and culture‐specific consumption behavior

This study is designed to discover the degree to which ethnic identity and socialization factors influence the culture‐specific consumption behaviors of Asian American young adults, in general as well as in specific situational settings. Findings indicated that perceived parental cultural identification tended to strengthen the ethnic identity, which in turn influenced Asian American young adults' culture‐specific consumption behaviors. However, although their perceived parental acculturation level had no effect on their ethnic identity, it directly weakened the subject group's culture‐specific consumption behaviors. The ethnic‐friendship orientation was found not only to influence ethnic identity but also to influence directly the group's culture‐specific consumption behavior. Further analysis revealed that a situational factor (i.e., the presence or absence of ethnic friends) influenced culture‐specific consumption behavior, regardless of the strength of ethnic identity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.