 Strength in diversity: How incongruent racial cues enhance consumer preferences toward conservative brandsLaura Boman, Ganga S. Urumutta Hewage and Jonathan Hasford Journal of Business Research, 2023, vol. 168, issue C Abstract: A growing number of brands utilize political stances and ideological beliefs to communicate their image to customers. In examining how a brand’s ideological stance might impact consumer preferences, the current research examines how a persuasive appeal can be more effective when it provides cues which are incongruent with a brand’s perceived political ideology. Five studies show that conservative brands can enhance consumer attitudes, purchase intentions, and brand choice by using dark brown (versus pale white or yellow) skin-toned messaging cues such as emojis in their social media messages. These racial cues, which are incongruent with the in-group preferences associated with conservativism, increase a consumer’s willingness to advocate for the brand. Furthermore, this effect is mitigated if the social media message includes excessive cues or if the message is a paid promotion. Practical implications for marketing and social media strategies are provided. Keywords: Political ideology; Social media; Visual perception; Persuasion; Brand advocacy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:168:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323005672 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114208 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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