Abstract
Although diversity is of great importance in many contexts and a legitimate goal in developing a more inclusive global world, the term itself seemingly has become a business buzzword in the late 2010s and early 2020s. There is an increasing pressure from stakeholders for more racial and ethnic diversity in teams, on corporate boards, in advertisements, and in many other dimensions of business. Consequently, it became almost mandatory for decision-makers at all management levels and business functions to designate and pursue diversity as an explicit goal. Against this broader background this chapter takes up a specific topic of diversity in marketing and examines the use of diverse portrayals in advertising, focusing on racial diversity. Specifically, it aims to demonstrate the impact of the visual presentation of different races, that is, different people of color, in product advertising on consumers’ perceived value of mass-customized products. Mass customization is a particularly interesting area for examining the impact of diversity and racial variation in advertisements, as this manufacturing strategy seeks to fulfill individual customer needs and preferences, which can vary widely. Data was collected through an online survey in which 559 Italian women evaluated one of four fictitious advertisements, which varied with regard to showing women of varied racial composition, for a customizable shampoo. The PERVAL scale was used to assess customers’ perceptions of the product’s value along functional, emotional, and social dimensions. Two single-item questions were used to assess customers’ willingness to customize and willingness to pay a higher price for the customized product. The results demonstrate that race has an impact on how a consumer perceives value only when there is no similarity effect from advertisements featuring different race models. The less similar the models to the customer are the less value the consumer perceives. In contrast, race does not appear to impact consumer willingness to customize or their willingness to pay a higher price for a customizable product.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Research in the field of counseling psychology suggests that racial identity is embedded in one’s consciousness and value system, which in turn affects the development of racial attitudes toward oneself and others (Tettegah, 1996).
- 2.
The endowment effect can be described as “the tendency of people to place a higher value on items once they own them or once these have been associated with the self in some other way” (APA Dictionary). This concept was coined in 1980 by Richard Thaler.
References
Aichner, T., & Shaltoni, A. M. (2019). The impact of perceived advertising creativity on behavioural intentions and quality perceptions in mass customization. International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 10, 131–138. https://doi.org/10.24867/IJIEM-2019-2-234
Barban, A. M. (1969). The dilemma of “integrated” advertising. The Journal of Business, 42(4), 477–496.
Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 752–766.
Coletti, P., & Aichner, T. (2011). Mass customization: An exploration of European characteristics. Springer.
Cui, G. (1997). Marketing strategies in a multi-ethnic environment. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 5, 122–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.1997.11501756
Davis, S. M. (1997). Future perfect (2nd ed.). Addison-Wesley.
Epley, N., & Gilovich, T. (2006). The anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic: Why the adjustments are insufficient. Psychological Science, 17(4), 311–318.
Fogliatto, F. S., da Silveira, G. J., & Borenstein, D. (2012). The mass customization decade: An updated review of the literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 138, 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.03.002
Forza, C., & Salvador, F. (2007). Product information management for mass customization: Connecting customer, front-office, and back-office for fast and efficient customization. Palgrave Macmillan.
Franke, N., & Schreier, M. (2008). Product uniqueness as a driver of customer utility in mass customization. Marketing Letters, 19, 93–107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-007-9029-7
Franke, N., Schreier, M., & Kaiser, U. (2010). The “I designed it myself” effect in mass customization. Management Science, 56, 125–140. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1090.1077
Furnham, A., & Boo, H. C. (2011). A literature review of the anchoring effect. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 40, 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2010.10.008
Garth, T. R. (1930). A review of race psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 27, 329–356. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0075064
Green, C. L. (1999). Ethnic evaluations of advertising: Interaction effects of strength of ethnic identification, media placement, and degree of racial composition. Journal of Advertising, 28(1), 49–64.
Greenwald, A. G., & Leavitt, C. (1984). Audience involvement in advertising: Four levels. Journal of Consumer Research, 11, 581–592. https://doi.org/10.1086/208994
Han, X., & Tsai, S. W. (2016). Beyond targeted advertising: Representing disenfranchised minorities in ‘inclusive’ advertising. Journal of Cultural Marketing Strategy, 1(2), 154–169.
Iyer, G., Soberman, D., & Villas-Boas, J. M. (2005). The targeting of advertising. Marketing Science, 24, 461–476. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1050.0117
Jacob, F., & Aichner, T. (2022). Customer participation and commodity marketing. In M. Enke, A. Geigenmüller, & A. Leischnig (Eds.), Commodity marketing: Strategies, concepts, and cases (Management for Professionals) (pp. 153–165). Springer.
Jean-Philippe, M. (2019). So, what’s the difference between race and ethnicity? Oprah Daily. Retrieved June 3, 2021, from https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/a28787295/race-vs-ethnicity-difference
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1972). Subjective probability: A judgment of representativeness. Cognitive Psychology, 3, 430–454. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(72)90016-3
Kareklas, I., & Polonsky, M. (2011). Consumer response to spokesperson’s race: A research synthesis of racial similarity effects in advertising. In D. W. Dahl, G. V. Johar, & S. M. van Osselaer (Eds.), Conference: Advances in Consumer Reesarch, 38. Association for Consumer Research.
Kelman, H. C. (1961). Processes of opinion change. Public Opinion Quarterly, 25, 57. https://doi.org/10.1086/266996
Krugman, H. E. (1965). The impact of television advertising: Learning without involvement. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 29(3), 349–356.
Licsandru, T. C., & Cui, C. C. (2018). Subjective social inclusion: A conceptual critique for socially inclusive marketing. Journal of Business Research, 82, 330–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.08.036
Mundel, J., & Yang, J. (2022). Hispanics’ response to ethnic targeting ads for unhealthy products: Examining the roles of endorser identification and endorser–product matchup. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 22, 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2021.2014371
Northcraft, G. B., & Neale, M. A. (1987). Experts, amateurs, and real estate: An anchoring-and-adjustment perspective on property pricing decisions. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 39, 84–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(87)90046-X
Parente, D., & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K. (2014). Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to marketing communication plans (5th ed.). Cengage.
Peter, J. P., & Olson, J. C. (2010). Consumer behavior & marketing strategy (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Piller, F. T., & Müller, M. (2004). A new marketing approach to mass customisation. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 17, 583–593. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951192042000273140
Reed, P. W., & Ewing, M. T. (2004). How advertising works: Alternative situational and attitudinal explanations. Marketing Theory, 4, 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593104044088
Salvador, F., Piller, F. T., & Aggarwal, S. (2020). Surviving on the long tail: An empirical investigation of business model elements for mass customization. Long Range Planning, 53, 101886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2019.05.006
Solomon, P. J., Bush, R. F., & Hair, J. F. (1976). White and black consumer sales response to black models. Journal of Marketing Research, 13, 431. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151036
Stephenson, A. (2021). Heuristics and shopper behavior in market research—Part 1. Explorer Research. Retrieved June 3, 2021, from https://explorerresearch.com/heuristics-and-shopper-behavior
Stock, C., & Gierl, H. (2015). It’s a consumer’s idea, you must like it: The efficacy of created-by-consumer cues in market communication. Die Unternehmung, 69, 371–395. https://doi.org/10.5771/0042-059X-2015-4-371
Sweeney, J. C., & Soutar, G. N. (2001). Consumer perceived value: The development of a multiple item scale. Journal of Retailing, 77, 203–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4359(01)00041-0
Syam, N., Krishnamurthy, P., & Hess, J. D. (2008). That’s what I thought I wanted? Miswanting and regret for a standard good in a mass-customized world. Marketing Science, 27, 379–397. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1070.0302
Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 33, 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.000245
Tettegah, S. (1996). The racial consciousness attitudes of white prospective teachers and their perceptions of the teachability of students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds: Findings from a California study. The Journal of Negro Education, 65, 151. https://doi.org/10.2307/2967310
Trentin, A., Aichner, T., Sandrin, E., & Forza, C. (2020). Competing through manufacturing: Countering a product’s liability of foreignness through mass customization. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 40, 1661–1683. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-11-2019-0725
Vakratsas, D., & Ambler, T. (1999). How advertising works: What do we really know? Journal of Marketing, 63, 26. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251999
Varey, R. J. (2001). Marketing communication: A critical introduction. Routledge.
Whittler, T. E. (1991). The effects of actors’ race in commercial advertising: Review and extension. Journal of Advertising, 20, 54–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1991.10673207
Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). Consumer perceptions of price, quality, and value: A means-end model and synthesis of evidence. Journal of Marketing, 52, 2. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251446
Zhang, Y. (2021). Mass customization: The new path for luxury industry? Retrieved June 3, 2021, from https://hapticmedia.com/blog/mass-customization-definition-goal-examples
Acknowledgments
We are extremely thankful to Shampora and its founder and CEO Manuel Corona for granting us the right to use one of its real products as an advertising stimulus in our study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aichner, T., Brutto, A., Nippa, M. (2023). Impact of Racial Diversity in Advertising on the Perception of Mass-Customized Products by Consumers. In: Aichner, T., Salvador, F. (eds) Mass Customization and Customer Centricity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09782-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09782-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-09781-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-09782-9
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)