Anne-Sophie Lenoir nominated for ESOMAR Young Researcher of the Year Award

Anne-Sophie Lenoir, PhD candidate at ERIM, is shortlisted for the ESOMAR Young Researcher of the Year Award for her work on ethnic minority targeting. The paper she submitted for the ESOMAR award also got accepted by the International Journal of Research in Marketing. The paper is co-authored by Americus Reed (Wharton), Peeter Verlegh (UvA), and Stefano Puntoni (ERIM).

In her presentation at the ESOMAR Congress 2013, entitled "Targeting Ethnic Minorities: Intergenerational differences in consumer response to targeted advertising", <link people anne-sophie-lenoir>Anne-Sophie will argue that generational status - that is, whether a person personally relocated to the host country, or rather was born in the country their parents had relocated to - affects the effectiveness of advertisers' minority targeting strategies. In particular, ethnic identity activation has a more positive impact on responses to ads among the second generation of ethnic minority consumers, whereas showing ethnic models or spokespersons has a more positive impact among the first generation.

Anne-Sophie Lenoir comments: “Second-generation ethnic consumers constitute a growing population, and yet so far the differences in response to advertising between the first and second generation in terms of targeting were unexplored. Until now, the literature on ethnic minority targeting just tended to assume that ethnic communities were homogeneous. I think this nomination shows that our research has managerial relevance, and it provides a great opportunity to discuss my work with practitioners. Hopefully it will help advertisers pick the right strategy for their target market by taking into account the generational profile."

Stefano Puntoni adds:  “As her PhD supervisor, I’m very proud of Anne-Sophie. This honour testifies to her talent and commitment as well as to the substantive importance of her work. Her research in the areas of culture and language is timely. In our increasingly diverse society, it is becoming of key importance for marketers to understand how to target and engage with ethnic minorities.”

Paper Abstract

In recent decades, our societies have grown more diverse and multicultural. Reaching minority consumers has emerged as a priority for marketing, and specific targeting strategies have appeared. For instance, advertisers often attempt to approach minority consumers when their ethnic identity is most salient. Targeted ads typically feature spokespeople or models with the same ethnic background as the target, as well as other cultural cues.

These strategies presuppose that ethnic groups are homogeneous. Yet, even within a single minority, not all consumers identify with their host and heritage cultures to the same degree. Generational status - whether a person was born in another country and relocated to the host country, or rather was born in the country their parents had relocated to - is one factor likely to affect the effectiveness of these targeting approaches.

Second-generation minority consumers constitute a growing demographic. They are more likely to identify as biculturals: this means that their ethnic identity can change depending on the context they find themselves in. Because of this, the impact of attempts to activate ethnic identity should be stronger in these consumers than in first-generation minority consumers, whose ethnic identity is chronically accessible.

In addition, because of the relative weakness of ethnic identity in second-generation consumers, spokespeople with the same heritage should have less of a positive impact on them than on first-generation consumers. In other words:

• ethnic identity activation should have a more positive impact on responses to ethnic ads among second-generation than first-generation minority consumers;
• ethnic spokespersons should have a more positive impact in first-generation than in second-generation ethnic minority consumers.    

The goal of her research is twofold: first, investigate whether these two effects are found in the field, and second, determine how to best reach a particular target by taking into account its generational profile.

About Anne-Sophie Lenoir

Anne-Sophie Lenoir (Belgium, 1987) holds a BSc (2008) and MSc (2010) in Business Engineering from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB). Since January 2011, she has been a PhD candidate in marketing at ERIM.  Her research focuses on developing a better understanding of bilingual and bicultural consumers.

About the ESOMAR award

Each year, ESOMAR offers young researchers the opportunity to develop innovative research solutions to tackle challenging global issues. An international jury of specialists will select 3 finalists from the worldwide submissions. These finalists will be given the chance to present their findings to an international audience at the ESOMAR Congress in Istanbul (22 - 25 September). The competition is open at all researchers under the age of 30, and carries an ESOMAR-sponsored prize of €2,500.