Authors
Colleen M Harmeling, Martin Mende, Maura L Scott, Robert W Palmatier
Publication date
2021/4
Journal
Journal of Marketing Research
Volume
58
Issue
2
Pages
223-245
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Description
A consumer’s personal attribute (e.g., disease, body weight) can assume the qualities of a stigma (i.e., become a source of devaluation by others) in the presence of certain audiences, which can affect consumption and represent a major hurdle to marketers in many industries (e.g., health care). Two field experiments manipulating the marketing communications sent to 1,453 consumers diagnosed with 87 diseases of varying stigma potential, as well as two Amazon Mechanical Turk studies, reveal that consumers with potentially stigmatizing attributes distinctly decode aspects of marketing communications as audience cues, to infer how (un)favorable observers of their consumption will be in light of the potential stigma. When consumers possess potentially stigmatizing attributes, audience cues influence social devaluation inferences, which influence their beneficial consumption (program enrollment, long-term …
Total citations
20212022202320241101710
Scholar articles
CM Harmeling, M Mende, ML Scott, RW Palmatier - Journal of Marketing Research, 2021