Ethnic perceptions of advertisements: Attitude towards the advertisement and acculturation, a comparative study

This study compared ethnic consumers' perceptions of ethnic advertisements versus their perceptions of American advertisements. It also investigated whether ethnic consumers' perceptions of advertisements are related to the ethnic acculturation process.;When examined from the acculturation perspective, ethnic consumers' affective attitude towards the advertisement were positively related to their degree of acculturation. It was seen that as ethnic consumers became more acculturated, their preference for the American advertisements increased and their preference for the ethnic advertisements decreased.;Ethnic consumers' affective attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) was also found to vary within and across the three stages of the acculturation process. Low and moderate-acculturated ethnic consumers preferred the ethnic advertisements to the American advertisements. On the other hand high-acculturated ethnic consumers preferred the American advertisements to the ethnic advertisements. The results imply to marketers and advertisers that: (i) ethnic consumers are not a homogeneous group, (ii) an ethnic segmentation strategy would be beneficial, and (iii) acculturation should be used as a segmentation variable.;The ethnic group selected for this study were Asian-Indians. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires from attendance at "Diwali" celebrations of several Indian associations in three metropolitan areas of western New York. Ethnic consumers' perceptions of print advertisements were operationalized through their attitude towards the advertisement (Aad), a commonly used affective variable indicating consumers' favorable or unfavorable feelings towards the advertisement. Acculturation in this study was viewed as a process of Asian-Indians becoming more American-type or remaining Indian-type. The print medium used was magazine advertisements.