Customers will pay more for products that have diversity in ads

But Aparna LabrooProfessor of Marketing at Kellogg and Uzma Khan at the University of Miami, he explored what happens when companies adopt an unusual approach to their ads. Together with the doctoral students of Khan Saetbyeol Kim and Suwon Choi, they worked to evaluate the effectiveness of ads that included a different group of people who may not necessarily look like their audience.

Through a series of studies, they found that consumers who saw more diversity in product ads – especially in terms of different ages, breeds, sexes or nationalities – were willing to pay more for the products of these brands. “The models depicting models that represent more diversity in ads are good for the bottom line of a business,” says Khan. “Consumers tend to perceive observatively different people, as they also have deeper differences in needs and preferences.”

Consumers were willing to pay much to a large extent because they believed that the brands that had diversity in their ads offered a larger variety of products and were more creative.

“As we explored the financial case to represent the diversity in marketing communications,” Labroo says, “we found that this positive result has steadily.”

Satisfaction of a variety of needs

In the first of several studies, the research team examined the impact of age diversity. They showed 301 US residents an advertisement for an exploration of the city. Half of survey participants saw an ad with three models from the same age group using the application, while the other half saw an ad with three models of different ages, including a child and an elderly citizen. The two ads were different identical.

The participants then evaluated the experiences offered by the app – how creative they thought the brand was, how likely they were to use the app and how much they would pay to buy the app.

Those who saw the advertising with models of different ages believed that the application offered a greater variety of experiences, evaluated the brand as more creative and said they would pay more to buy it.

“If an ad shows people who look different, consumers seem to believe that these people should have different needs and that a company that responds to such different needs should be more innovative and creative,” says Labroo. “And consumers who believe that they are more willing to use the product and pay more for it.”

This result, he adds, “is innovative and amazing, as the needs of the different people represented in an advertisement may not match the needs of the consumer.”

In a second study, the researchers examined the diversity of nationality. A total of 600 US participants saw an advertisement for a bank that included testimonies by three customers. Half of the participants saw an ad where customers were characterized by the US, the other half saw an ad where customers were from Greece, Argentina and the US

The research team was also tested for the brand’s personality – the Half of ads described phrases such as “your future is exciting”, while the other half simply contained more vanilla content for the bank’s ability.

Again, the team found that the participants ranked advertising with more diversity as more creative and offering more variety of services. On the contrary, the brand’s personality had no effect on these scores.

“We started wondering how widespread this relationship is between the diversity of ads and the perceptual value of the product,” says Labroo. “It seemed as if we could generalize in many different types of brands. We wanted to keep digging deeper and understand it.”

A powerful result

In a third study, the researchers investigated the impact of racial diversity on ads. A total of 600 US women saw a shampoo ad that characterized either three white models or one Asian, a white and one black model. The groups were subsequently divided into two: half saw the ad with only the models, while the other half saw an advertisement with the models and the specific needs of their hair were printed next to them, such as “nourish your hair” or “enhance your hair volume.

The research team found that monitoring different models gave participants with a greater variety of products.

“This is one of the most powerful results I have worked,” says Khan.

Participants who saw ads that showed specific hair needs, such as boosting the volume, also believed that the brand offered a larger variety of products, though not almost to the extent that ads simply represent diversity.

Activate the effect and disable

Researchers have tried to try their case that consumers who see different representation in ads assume not only that these models have different needs but also that the company is in a better position to meet these different needs. To do so, they created a study in which the models, despite being different, do not necessarily represent different needs. They showed the participants different versions of an advertising for cosmetics and found that people who saw the gender -based version (both men and women models) did not believe that the brand offered a larger variety of products.

This was likely that researchers say, because people tend to instinctively attach cosmetics to women. “If the need for cosmetics is generally linked to women and if we remove the ability for people to conclude this need with men, then we can remove the effect of diversity in advertising,” says Labroo.

But when the researchers ran the same study again, except this time by telling participants that the cosmetics advertisement was aimed at targeting artists of all sexes, the positive impact of advertising diversity reappeared.

Because it is more common for both men and women being makeup artists, it was clearer to participants that “they would have this variety of needs,” says Khan.

Bringing positive change to advertising

The consequences of this research could reach a wide range of industries, from advertising to raising capital. “Because of how spontaneously this conclusion looks, every brand could potentially be affected,” says Labroo.

“But especially for brands with limited variety of products, the appearance of diversity in their ads could be a useful tactic for designing customers,” says Khan. “Therefore, the impact of representation of diversity in marketing communications offer benefits that simply go beyond that people see their own identity reflected in ads.”

Research also has a social impact on initiatives on diversity and how people respond to them.

“It shows that people generally respond positively to diversity,” says Khan. “It is a spontaneous, perceptual result. Understanding could bring a positive change to advertising.”