Non-Target Markets and Viewer Distinctiveness: The Impact of Target Marketing on Advertising Attitudes

This research examines the effect of target marketing on members of the advertiser’s intended audience as well as members not in the target market: the “non-target market.” The results of three experiments show that unfavorable non-target market effects are stronger for members of non-distinctive groups (e.g., Causasian individuals, heterosexual individuals), and that favorable target market effects are stronger fro members of distinctive groups (e.g., Africian-American individuals, homosexual individuals). The results of Experiment 2 demonstrate that the psychological processes by which target and non-target market effects occur differ by viewer group: felt similarity with sources in an advertisement drives target market effects for distinctive viewers, while felt targetedness drives target market effects for non-distinctive viewers. Finally, Experiment 3 shows that these consumer feelings of similarity or targetedness are associated with underlying processes of identification and internalization. Theoretical implications regarding the impact of distinctiveness theory in consumer persuasion effects, and potential social effects of target marketing are discussed.