Advertising Ethnicity: Attracting, Reaching, and Connecting with Ethnic Minority Consumers

The ethnic mosaic of the United States population contributed to the evolution of promotional efforts from mass marketing to mass choice. Target populations must be defined by both mutual economic interest and cultural compatibility. It is the notion of cultural compatibility that is the essence of this book. This research investigates the meaning of advertising through the eyes of Hispanics. For the first time, data were collected about how one ethnic minority group (Hispanics) evaluates stimulus (print advertisement) featuring other ethnic group (African-American) members as cues to communication. Finding show that the ethnic compatibility of the stimulus influences the resulting attitudes toward the advertisement and the overall advertisement, bring into question the value of multicultural advertising strategy.