The positive effects of integrated advertising, featuring diverse ensembles, on societal identification and mainstream brand value

Abstract

The present research employs the Assess Symptoms, Diagnose Causes, Identify and Test Interventions paradigm to measure, understand, and address a grand challenge facing prominent brands: weakness with minority consumers in increasingly diverse societies. First, an analysis of six-hundred thousand consumer-brand ratings reveals that the purchase intention advantage enjoyed by more prominent brands weakens among racial minorities. We posit that these symptoms of weakness are due to the erosion of ingroup identification that would advantage mainstream brands. A diagnostic survey of American consumers confirms the role of societal identification and points to symbolic marginalization from segregation in advertising as one contributor under brands’ influence. Minorities are less likely to report that advertising depicts diverse people together, which predicts lower societal identification and mainstream brand purchase intentions. Experiments confirm that advertising with minority representation and featuring (but lacking) diversification through multi-racial ensembles lessens (perpetuates) a sense of segregation, strengthens (undermines) societal identification, and strengthens (weakens) prominent brands’ value. Advertisements with representation and diversification can contribute to greater societal unification while protecting advantages afforded by social influence, an opportunity for brands to do good while doing well.