Race-Specific Advertising on Commercial Websites: Effects of Ethnically Ambiguous Computer Generated Characters in a Digital World

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Author(s): Osei Appiah (The Ohio State University, USA)and Troy Elias (University of Florida, USA)
Copyright: 2011
Pages: 19
Source title: Handbook of Research on Digital Media and Advertising: User Generated Content Consumption
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Matthew S. Eastin (University of Texas at Austin, USA), Terry Daugherty (The University of Akron, USA)and Neal M. Burns (University of Texas, Austin, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-020-3.ch007

Keywords: Accounting and Finance / Business & Management / Business Science Reference / Marketing

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Abstract

Avatars and anthropomorphic characters by marketers are becoming more commonplace on commercial web sites. Moreover, a trend among marketers is to use ethnically ambiguous models in advertising to appeal to specific consumer segments. This study helps our understanding of not only how best to segment and appeal to racially diverse consumers but how people interact with virtual human agents in relationship to the literature on audience response to real humans. It was predicted that Blacks would respond more positively to a Black agent, than they would to either a White agent or an ethnically ambiguous agent. It was also expected that Whites would show no difference in their response based on the race of the computer agent. The findings demonstrate that Blacks had more positive attitudes toward a computer agent, had more positive attitudes toward a web site and recalled more product information from a site when the site featured a Black agent vis-à-vis a White agent. Whites showed no significant response difference concerning the agent, the brand or the site based on the racial composition of the computer agents. Interestingly, the ethnically ambiguous character was overall just as effective in persuading both White and Black browsers as were the same-race agents.

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Race-Specific Advertising on Commercial Websites: Effects of Ethnically Ambiguous Computer Generated Characters in a Digital World

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