Same Ads May Reach Both Minorities, Non-Minorities

A new study of the way individuals respond to advertisements shows how advertisers, through careful use of the individuals pictured in their ads as well as other visual cues, can appeal to minorities and non-minorities in the same ad.

The results of the study have important implications for the nation's advertisers. As the nation's minority populations grow, and as advertisers pitch their messages to ever-narrower segments of the public, advertisers need to find ways of targeting minority audiences without alienating members of the majority who see the ad.

The study, "Non-Target Markets and Viewer Distinctiveness: The Impact of Target Marketing on Advertising Attitudes," looks at how individuals in audiences other than those the advertiser intends to reach -- non-target markets -- respond to advertisements targeted toward minority groups.

The authors are Anne M. Brumbaugh, associate professor of marketing at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management, and Jennifer L. Aaker and Sonya A. Grier, assistant professors of marketing at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. The study has been accepted for publication in the "Journal of Consumer Psychology."

The research demonstrates that minority group members respond most favorably to an ad when they see someone in it with whom they can identify. Non-minority individuals will respond well to the ad if it includes other cues, such as setting or dress, which they recognize.

What this means for advertisers, say the authors, is that "combining distinctive sources (people pictured in the ad) with other targeting cues that attract non-distinctive viewers may be an effective way of reaching both distinctive and non-distinctive individuals. Thus, through careful strategy, an advertiser may be able to reach multiple target segments with one advertising appeal."

For example, says Brumbaugh, an advertisement featuring an African-American family in an easily recognizable suburban setting and conventional clothing will appeal to African-Americans and whites. But if the advertisement showed the same family in an ethnic setting with African-influenced clothing, it will likely alienate white viewers.

Research for the study consisted of three experiments using students in M.B.A. marketing classes and black M.B.A. and gay/lesbian graduate student organizations. Students were shown advertisements targeting white and black heterosexuals and white gays and lesbians, and answered written questions about how much they liked or disliked the ads and the ads' intended audiences. Then the students completed a detailed checklist about themselves.

In general, the study finds an asymmetry in responses to targeted advertising among distinctive (primarily African-American and gay/lesbian) audiences versus non-distinctive (white and heterosexual) individuals. Strong positive feelings about an ad are more likely to be found among distinctive audiences, while strong negative feelings are more likely to be found among non-distinctive individuals.

These findings, say the authors, are consistent with earlier research into "distinctiveness theory," which predicts that a person's distinctive traits will more strongly affect the person's self-image than will commonly-held traits. Thus an individual belonging to a distinctive or numerically rare group (such as Native Americans or people in wheelchairs) tend to be very aware of the characteristics that group shares and are more likely to incorporate that group identity into their self-image than are individuals not in the group.

Transferred to the marketing arena, distinctiveness theory implies that "target market effects" -- positive feelings about an advertisement -- will be stronger for distinctive viewers who are being targeted because of that distinctive trait than it will for viewers targeted on the basis of more common traits.

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