Services' influence on minority portrayals in magazine advertising

Abstract

PurposeThe primary goal of this study is to examine how services advertising strategy relates to the prevalence of minority portrayals in magazine advertisements.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a content analysis method. Over 1,000 advertisements were collected, and 455 were employed in the study. Chi‐square difference tests were used to test hypotheses. A second sample was collected to verify some initial findings.FindingsIt was found that minority models were more likely to appear in advertisements for services than in advertisements for goods. Differences were also found across types of services. Asian models were overrepresented in advertisements for technologies, a product category with a strong services influence.Research limitations/implicationsEmphasis was placed on portrayals of African‐Americans and Asians, so findings are most directly applicable to these groups. The generalizability of the results may be limited to the types of publications from which the sample was drawn.Practical implicationsGiven the frequency of minority portrayals in advertisements for services, especially for particular types of services, managers must consider implementing this approach to reach these customer groups. Those already implementing portrayals of minority models must be mindful of the negative effects of stereotyping.Originality/valueThe paper considers services advertising strategy in light of changes in the make‐up of the US population. It applies the same theoretical approach to explain differences in the frequency of minority portrayals in services advertising versus goods advertising, and across different types of services.

Multicultural markets and acculturation: implications for service firms

“…This uneven development seems to follow the assumption that inter-national differences are more salient than intra-national, cultural interactions. Without denying the importance of inter-national investigations for services firms, we note that the marketing literature explicitly showcases the importance of intra-national, cultural interactions across various sectors (Pires and Stanton, 2000;Poulis and Yamin, 2009;Briggs et al, 2010), which generate significant implications for both domestic and foreign firms . Therefore, there is a remarkable imbalance in the services literature between inter-and intra-national investigations, which renders further research on the latter as an imperative.…”

“…We can infer from this literature that interactions between ethnic groups are an ongoing, permanent process and that patterns of acculturation within ethnic groups are not homogeneous since "ethnic" consumers form their identities through diverse acculturation modes. However, on the other hand, the services marketing literature almost exclusively relies on an ethnic approach that is premised on an (often empirically invalid) high degree of intra-ethnic uniformity and sameness (Briggs et al, 2010;Neilson and Chadha, 2008;Shanmuganthan et al, 2003;Torres and Briggs, 2005). Several studies, thus, treat the ethnic group as an isolated segment, focusing on the distinctive features and the particular ethnic identification of, e.g.…”

“…More specifically though, the multicultural services marketing discourse has explored relevant issues through a variegated portfolio of methodological approaches including online surveys (Miyazaki et al, 2007), quasi-experimental designs (Torres and Briggs, 2005), surveys (Stevenson and Plath, 2006), dividend capitalisation method (Hearn et al, 2012), content analysis (Briggs et al, 2010), interviews (Perry, 2008), focus groups (Klemm and Kelsey, 2004) and mixed methods (Omar et al, 2003). Thus, research designs that are used in order to investigate multicultural marketing issues in the services sector cover a wide spectrum of qualitative and quantitative modes relying on both primary and secondary data across multiple and more narrowly-defined numbers of organisational and consumer respondents.…”

“…professional services) which are not normally associated with culture and minorities' relationships with majority populations. However, surprisingly, there is dearth of research even in services sectors which are fundamentally susceptible to cultural influences such as advertising (Briggs et al, 2010;Torres and Briggs, 2005) and also in services sectors of a utilitarian nature (e.g. financial services; Neilson and Chadha, 2008).…”

Portrayals of Minorities and Women in Super Bowl Advertising

“…The literature on advertising portrayals of minorities and women generally suggests that there has been an increase in the frequency of appearances relative to proportionality (Briggs ; Peterson ; Stevenson and Swayne ; Taylor and Stern ). While African Americans and Asians have been found to be well represented overall in advertising in accordance to their proportion to the US population, Latinos continue to be underrepresented, and South Asian and Middle Eastern groups have been reported to be nearly nonexistent (Taylor, Landreth, and Bang ).…”