Operationalizing Critical Race Theory in the Marketplace

Race is integral to the functioning and ideological underpinnings of marketplace actions yet remains undertheorized in marketing. To understand and transform the insidious ways in which race operates, the authors examine its impact in marketplaces and how these effects are shaped by intersecting forms of systemic oppression. They introduce critical race theory (CRT) to the marketing community as a useful framework for understanding consumers, consumption, and contemporary marketplaces. They outline critical theory traditions as utilized in marketing and specify the particular role of CRT as a lens through which scholars can understand marketplace dynamics. The authors delineate key CRT tenets and how they may shape the way scholars conduct research, teach, and influence practice in the marketing discipline. To clearly highlight CRT’s overall potential as a robust analytical tool in marketplace studies, the authors elaborate on the application of artificial intelligence to consumption markets. This analysis demonstrates how CRT can support an enhanced understanding of the role of race in markets and lead to a more equitable version of the marketplace than what currently exists. Beyond mere procedural modifications, applying CRT to marketplace studies mandates a paradigm shift in how marketplace equity is understood and practiced

'Alisha in Obesity-land’: Is Food Marketing the Mad Hatter?

This case explores the aggregate influence of corporate marketing practices on public health and examines the increasingly important issue of the role of targeted marketing strategies by the food and beverage industries in the obesity epidemic. Specifically, it engages a discussion about a significant yet overlooked dimension - targeted marketing to ethnic minority children. Although US government reports clearly cite the disproportionate rates of obesity among ethnic minority youth, limited attention is paid to understanding whether the factors that contribute to obesity among children in general may have an excessive impact on ethnic minority youth

Understanding the influence of cross-cultural Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction on consumer service satisfaction

Managing Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction (CCI) is an essential task for service providers since the presence of other consumers within the same service setting may spoil or enhance one's service experience. CCI management becomes even more critical in multicultural societies as it implies the integration of consumers from different cultural backgrounds. The present research, through an experiment in South Africa, demonstrates the fundamental influence of cultural compatibility, intergroup anxiety and cross-group contact on consumers' evaluations of CCI and their service satisfaction. Results confirm Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis within the field of marketing, and highlight its key influence on consumer behavior in a culturally diverse marketplace

"What about the Intended Consequences?" Examining the Effects of Race-Stereotyped Portrayals on Advertising Effectiveness

Research that examines race-stereotyped advertising emphasizes the social impact of these representations and overlooks the potential positive effect on advertising effectiveness. The present research examines the effects of race-stereotyped portrayals on advertising effectiveness among both members and nonmembers of a group that is stereotyped in an advertisement. We integrate research on consumer identity, social categorization, and advertising persuasion to hypothesize the process underlying viewers' attitude formation when exposed to advertising featuring a race-stereotyped portrayal. Results of an experiment conducted in South Africa demonstrate that members of the group that is the subject of the stereotyped portrayal (stereotyped viewers) feel offended. At the same time, results suggest that nonstereotyped viewers experience ambivalence when exposed to stereotyped portrayals. Findings highlight the role of viewers' strength of identification and provide guidance to advertisers with regard to the use of stereotyped portrayals in advertising

Targeting without Alienating: Multicultural Advertising and the Subtleties of Targeted Advertising more

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

When Is Honesty The Best Policy? The Effect of Stated Company Intent on Consumer Skepticism

Prior research suggests that consumers evaluate firms more negatively if they attribute the firm's business practices to firm-serving motivations rather than to motivations that serve the public good. The authors propose an alternative hypothesis: firm-serving attributions lower evaluation of the firm only when they are inconsistent with the firm's expressed motive. As such, the negative effect of consumer skepticism regarding a firm's motives can be inhibited by public acknowledgment of the strategic benefits to the firm. The power of this inhibition procedure was demonstrated in an experiment that manipulated the salience of firm-serving benefits and the firm's publicly stated motive. Consumer evaluation of the sponsoring firm was lowest in conditions when firm-serving benefits were salient and the firm outwardly stated purely public-serving motives. This experiment also revealed that the potential negative effects of skepticism were the most pronounced when individuals engaged in causal attribution prior to company evaluation. Finally, this study measured the different effects on attribution and evaluation of two distinct forms of skepticism: situational skepticism--a momentary state of distrust of an actor's motivations--and dispositional skepticism--an individual's ongoing tendency to be suspicious of other people's motives.