Does Hispanic‐targeted advertising work for services?

Abstract

Purpose

The study seeks to examine two variables of interest to marketers in the area of services advertising, ethnicity and service involvement. The goal of this study is to investigate the relative effectiveness of ethnic‐targeting in services advertising, specifically, Hispanic‐targeted advertising. The purpose of this research is to understand what types of services can benefit from Hispanic‐targeted service advertising and develop practical implications for practitioners trying to spend advertising dollars more efficiently.

Design/methodology/approach

The impact of the advertising model's ethnicity on post‐exposure attitude toward high and low involvement service brands was explored.

Findings

The results of this quasi‐experimental study suggest that appealing to strong Hispanic identifiers may be highly desirable in terms of creating favorable attitudes toward service brands when advertising low involvement services, where, by definition, the consumer does not engage in intensive decision making and considers few attributes. Since few attributes are evaluated, obvious attributes such as ethnicity can easily influence choice. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that employing Hispanic‐targeted advertising may not be an effective strategy in promoting high‐involvement services since consumers consider more attributes and, therefore, ethnicity does not play a major role.

Originality/value

Of interest to marketers in the area of services advertising, ethnicity and service involvement.

Citation

Torres, I.M. and Briggs, E. (2005), "Does Hispanic‐targeted advertising work for services?", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876040510596821