Guillaume D. Johnson

Targeting without alienating

The growing diversity of different nations’ populations has encouraged advertisers to adopt their strategy by taking into consideration groups of consumers that were not traditionally targeted, such as cultural and sexual minorities. However, while such targeting has been favourably received among the targeted minorities, it has also engendered unfavourable reactions among majority members. This paper examines a way for advertisers to target a specific minority group within the mainstream media while maintaining resonance among the broader audience. An experiment is conducted to examine viewers’ responses to multicultural advertising in France. Results demonstrate the fundamental role of viewers’ congruence judgements and felt targetedness on the effectiveness of multicultural targeting attempts, and extend our understanding of consumer responses to multicultural advertising.

Toward Intercultural Competency in Multicultural Marketplaces

Intercultural competency plays a pivotal role in creating a more equitable and just marketplace in which situations of marketplace vulnerability are minimized and resilience is enhanced. Intercultural competency is the ability to understand, adapt, and accommodate anothers culture. In this essay, the authors present a framework of intercultural competency development in multicultural marketplaces. They discuss resilience-building actions for multicultural marketplace actors, specifically, consumers, companies/marketers, community groups and nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers for three phases of intercultural competency development.

Conceptualizing Multicultural Advertising Effects in the “New” South Africa

ABSTRACT Multicultural marketing is a strategic priority area for most companies in emerging consumer markets (ECMs). We develop a new conceptual framework that demonstrates how two processes influence the effectiveness of multicultural advertising, namely similarity and corporate social responsibility processes. We draw on attribution, social influence, and intercultural accommodation theories to argue that there are strong economic imperatives—expressed in terms of customer-based brand equity—for adopting a multicultural advertising approach in ECM settings. We also offer propositions regarding key framework constructs and moderating variables. This research contributes to the growing research focus on marketing communication strategies in ECMs. Further, the present research enriches our understanding of consumer behavior through the focus on the highly multicultural and unequal South African society which mirrors changing populations in other emerging and western countries.

Immigrants Versus Nationals: When an Intercultural Service Encounter Failure Turns to Verbal Confrontation

As diversity in the marketplace increases through immigration, examples of intolerance, confrontation, and even violence by nationals toward immigrant small business owners have begun to appear in popular press worldwide. This study examines how a simple and potentially unintended service encounter failure can evolve into a verbal confrontation that is outside the realm of acceptable marketplace interaction, to recommend ways to protect immigrant shopkeepers and their pursuit of entrepreneurial success as business owners. The results of two experiments in South Africa and the United States highlight that intercultural service encounter failure may put the shopkeeper at risk, as consumers’ reactions depend on the perceived level of similarity and anger, as well as the context. The findings suggest ways for policy makers to address the issues beyond the obvious repressive tools (i.e., training for [immigrant] shopkeepers in the management of consumers’ anger and a public campaign promoting diversity in the small business community).

When the burger becomes halal: a critical discourse analysis of privilege and marketplace inclusion

ABSTRACT Although a rich body of research provides insights to understanding stigma within the marketplace, much less is known regarding its direct corollary, privilege. We posit that this void is problematic as it may inadvertently support and legitimate existing socio-political arrangements which inhibit consumer wellbeing and marketplace equality. The present study addresses this gap by offering a theoretical understanding of privilege within the marketplace. Using a Foucauldian approach to privilege and power, we draw on the discursive perspective on legitimation to critically investigate the contentious debate over the inclusion of halal meat at a popular burger chain in France. In light of French political secularism (laïcité), we demonstrate how power discursively operates through narratives on rights and moral responsibility to constitute, defend and challenge a certain state of privilege within the marketplace. Our resulting theoretical discussion extends existing studies on marketplace equality and the growing body of literature related to the “marketization of religion”.

Re-Imagining the Marketplace: Addressing Race in Academic Marketing Research

ABSTRACT Race is a marketplace icon. How so? By holding true to an icon’s defining characteristics: high visibility, divisiveness, and uncritical devotion. In this brief musing, we describe how despite its centrality to market activities, race is uncritically addressed in academic marketing research. We next introduce the Race in the Marketplace (RIM) Research Network, a newly-formed interdisciplinary collective of scholars and scholar-activists that seek to break race of its iconic standing and bring greater equity to markets by disseminating critical, collaborative, and transdisciplinary race-based market research that supports liberatory public policies and community actions. We close with a call to join our effort to reimagine the marketplace through the critical examination of what has been a perpetually overlooked icon in marketing academia.

Understanding Cross-Racial Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction Through Interracial Anxiety and Cross-Group Contact

Managing Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction (CCI) is an essential task for any service provider since the presence of other consumers within the same service setting may spoil or enhance one’s service experience. CCI becomes even more critical in multiracial societies as it implies the integration of consumers from different racial backgrounds. This study, through an experiment ran amongst South African white subjects, demonstrates the fundamental impact of perceived homophily, anxiety and cross-group contact on CCI and consumers’ experience. Specifically, this study confirms, within the field of marketing, Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis and highlights its key influence on consumer behavior in a racially diverse marketplace.

The Smarteez and Post-modern Identities: The Meaning of Style among the Youth in South Africa Smarteez

Abstract Several studies have explored style among youth cultures, though the South African content has been ignored. The Smarteez is an emerging South African youth subculture that uses their style as a means for identity expression. This paper examines the Smarteez discourses on style in an attempt to better understand their style decisions. By means of an ethnographic study, the findings demonstrate that their relationship with style is consistent with post-modern consumer theories (Bennett, 1999; Kjeldgaard & Askegaard, 2006; Maffesoli, 1996; Wilska, 2002). The concept of style was organized into four overall thematic categories: style reflexivity, style switching, idealizing freedom and urbanized identities.