Michelle F. Weinberger

Consumer ethnicity three decades after: a TCR agenda

Abstract Research into consumer ethnicity is a vital discipline that has substantially evolved in the past three decades. This conceptual article critically reviews its immense literature and examines the extent to which it has provided extensive contributions not only for the understanding of ethnicity in the marketplace but also for personal/collective well-being. We identify two gaps accounting for scant transformative contributions. First, today social transformations and conceptual sophistications require a revised vocabulary to provide adequate interpretive lenses. Second, extant work has mostly addressed the subjective level of ethnic identity projects but left untended the meso/macro forces affecting ethnicity (de)construction and personal/collective well-being. Our contribution stems from filling both gaps and providing a theory of ethnicity (de)construction that includes migrants as well as non-migrants.

Looking in through outdoor: a socio-cultural and historical perspective on the evolution of advertising humour

This study examines the evolving acceptance and use of humour in advertising over the past century. Sociologists point to humour as an expression of the macro-societal mood. Consistent with this thesis, we analyse two data sets of outdoor advertisements that span over 100 years. We use a socio-cultural and historical perspective to understand the underlying drivers and changes in humour use at both the macro-cultural level and at the micro-industry level in the US. The results reveal the contextual interplay that led to changes in the acceptance of humorous advertisements as well as the evolution of humour styles and elements.

Publicity and advertising: what matter most for sales?

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between publicity, advertising activity and corporate sales in the context of a company’s existing reputation. Design/methodology/approach – The study brings together four unique industry datasets and uses discriminant analysis and multiple regression methods to examine the relationship between existing corporate reputation, publicity, advertising activity and sales levels for major multi-national companies in the technology products sector. Findings – Positive publicity is most important in distinguishing between firms with higher and lower sales. The effects of negative publicity and advertising are dependent on a firm’s existing reputation. For companies with weaker reputations, positive publicity in tandem with business-to-consumer (B2C) advertising is most highly associated with higher company sales. Conversely, for firms with stronger existing reputations, advertising has a significantly diminished role; positive and even negat...

The Role of Culture in Advertising Humor

Consumer research incorporates perspectives from a spectrum of long-established sciences: psychology, economics and sociology. This Handbook strives to include this multitude of sources of thought, adding geography, neuroscience, ethics and behavioural ecology to this list. Encompassing scholars with a passion for researching consumers, this Handbook highlights important developments in consumer behaviour research, including consumer culture, impulsivity and compulsiveness, ethics and behavioural ecology. It examines evolutionary and neuroscience perspectives as well as consumer choice.

Gifts: intertwining market and moral economies and the rise of store bought gifts

ABSTRACT Gifts are a major part of both economic and social life. This intertwined relationship between the market and moral economies has long been unsettling to those concerned about rationalized marketplace meanings contaminating and eroding the sacred social role of gift giving. Consumer researchers have analysed the important relationship work done through gift giving in the moral economy and the ways that the marketplace facilitates such work (or not). However, little has explored when, how, and why a store bought gift, rather than a homemade one, actually became acceptable. This article uses three case studies from the early to mid-1800s to trace the rise of the store bought gift in the American marketplace. It highlights how the sociocultural context, marketing innovations, retailers, and meanings surrounding gifting all helped to ensconce gift giving as both a central component in the contemporary marketplace and a tool for symbolic communication in social life.

How Publicity and Advertising Spending Affect Marketing and Company Performance: Print Media Publicity about Durable-Goods/Services Brands Has a Stronger Impact than Advertising

This research investigated the relative effects of marketing communications on a chain of “marketing-productivity” measures—metrics that evaluate the influence of marketing at the consumer, market, financial, and company levels. Results of the study, which combined five industry data sets, revealed that publicity—specifically, via newspaper and magazine articles—and advertising spending have unique and different relative effects on the so-called marketing-productivity chain. On average, publicity had a stronger relative importance compared with advertising for several indicators, although the effects for any individual company can vary. These findings have implications for the marketing-communications environment, which increasingly is saturated with publicity from a variety of sources.