Miguel Angel Zúñiga

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.

Boundary conditions to the effect of fluency and comprehension on AAD when targeting Hispanics vs Whites with single meaning vs polysemous slogans

Purpose – This paper aims to show that high ethnic identifying Hispanics and Whites pursue different routes discussed in the Elaboration Likelihood Model when processing single meaning versus polysemous slogan ads. The authors found that high ethnic identifying Hispanics used the peripheral route (processing fluency) to a higher extent compared to Whites who used the central route (comprehension) to process ads. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, 310 undergraduate students of a Southwestern university were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (slogan: single meaning vs polysemous) in a between-subjects experimental design. Subsequently, participants responded to statements measuring constructs of interest and demographics. Participants were debriefed at the end of the survey. Findings – It was found that high ethnic identifying Hispanics used the peripheral route (processing fluency) to a higher extent compared to Whites who used the central route (comprehension) to process advertisements....

African American Consumers' Evaluations of Ethnically Primed Advertisements

This study is a conceptual replication of Appiah and Liu (2009). Distinctiveness theory and social identity theory are used to study the effect of embedding African American cultural ethnic primes beyond the use of ethnic minority models in ads on ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions. Empirical results show that African American consumers respond significantly different when viewing a high African American cultural ethnic primed ad compared to a low and high white cultural ethnic primed ad (i.e., high, low = high, low levels of African American cultural ethnic primes found embedded in the ad). No significant responses from African American consumers were found when exposed to a high African American cultural ethnic primed ad versus a low African American cultural ethnic primed ad. This indicates it is not enough to include cultural ethnic primes beyond ethnic minority models to influence significantly different responses. This study recommends that situational and psychological factors (e.g., strength of ethnic identification, ethnic self-awareness, usage rate of cultural ethnic primes in media and geographic location of target audience, levels of ethnocentrism, and proportion of minority group to overall population in geographic location of target audience) need to be considered by marketers to increase ad effectiveness.

Millennials’ ethical ideology effects on responses to alcohol advertisements: The role of strength of ethnic identification and ethical appraisal of the ad

Abstract In an extension of generational theory, the present research argues that ethical ideology (i.e. idealism vs. relativism) impacts attitude toward the ad (Aad), attitude toward the brand (Abrand), and purchase intention (PI). Additionally, this research examines how this relationship is mediated by the ethical appraisal of the ad and moderated by the level of ethnic identification (i.e. high vs. low). The results of this experiment provide additional evidence in support of generational theory which states that each generational cohort holds distinct ethical ideologies. Furthermore, this study identifies differences in the participants’ responses to alcohol ads resulting from their personal values (i.e. in this study we focus on strength of ethnic identification).

A Bilingual’s Perspective on Polysemous and Single Meaning Slogans

Multiculturalism, bilingualism, consumer diversity and predominance of polysemous slogans has increased the complexity of consumer and advertiser interactions. Ad research considering the subjective feelings of ease-of-processing in ad evaluations is limited. Strategically, fluency has the persuasive capacity to impact Aad /Abrand despite consumers’ cultural differences and slogan type differences. In the case of single meaning slogans, comprehension played a limited role, therefore, advertisers might diminish the use of comprehension advertising strategies to influence both monolinguals and bilinguals. In the case of polysemous slogans, advertisers should consider that monolingual (vs. bilingual) consumers were impacted more by comprehension when forming Aad /Abrand.

Ads by 527 Groups and the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election

With the emergence of newly legislated 527 groups and their barrage of television attack ads against each major party candidate, the landscape of the U.S. presidential election changed markedly in 2004. Although these special interest groups—named after the amendment to the U.S. Federal Tax Code that authorized them—seem to function as political action committees, the lack of federal regulation allows 527 groups more latitude in ad content and opaqueness of ad sponsorship. The extant literature on the increasing effectiveness of negative political advertising suggests the relative efficacy of the promotional tactics used by 527 groups. After a discussion of the select 527 group ads run during 2004, the future regulation of 527 groups is broached.