Ethnic consumer reaction to targeted marketing: A theory of intercultural accommodation

This research was designed to explore the ethnic consumer\u27s response to the use of cultural symbols in marketing communications. In this effort, Speech Accommodation Theory was extended to the non-verbal domain, and used to develop hypotheses about the potential consequences of intercultural accommodation efforts. Intercultural accommodation is defined as the attempt of a communicator to use the ethnic group\u27s culture (e.g. ethnic music or backdrops in advertising, or contributions to ethnic causes) in an attempt to gain approval or enhance communication with ethnic group members. A model was developed that can be used across ethnic groups, and was tested with African-American and Hispanic consumers. The consumer\u27s response to accommodation attempts is modeled as three constructs; recognition, attributional response, and affective response. The antecedents which are expected to influence the direction of the response are the consumer\u27s accommodation experience, attitudes toward accommodation, agent knowledge, strength of ethnic identification, attitude toward the mainstream culture, and the newness of the communication itself. The consequences of the consumer\u27s response to the accommodation attempt are hypothesized to take the form of evaluative effects (attitude toward the brand, the company, and the ad), influences on the effectiveness of the communication (comprehension and message recall), and reciprocal accommodative behaviors (positive word-of-mouth and intentions to buy). The study found support for the three factor representation of the consumer\u27s response to the accommodation attempt. The hypothesized consequences of the consumer\u27s response were also supported. The significance of the antecedents varied between the African-American and Hispanic samples. This study contributes to theory development by validating constructs and measures that can be used to study intercultural accommodation. The model can be used to detect differences among ethnic groups, and to predict consequences of the use of accommodation in targeting. The managerial contributions lie primarily in delineating the complexity of the consumer\u27s response to ethnic target marketing: intercultural accommodation efforts are not always received positively, and may have the opposite effects of those intended