How implicit should fashion brand retailers advertise to stigmatized consumer groups?
How implicit should fashion brand retailers advertise to stigmatized consumer groups?
Purpose: marketing efforts toward stigmatized subculture groups are intriguing, as there is a risk of losing consumers from the majority group. Implicit advertisement is a discreet communication strategy that enables a marketer to communicate with certain subculture groups using symbols to avoid negative responses from other consumer groups. This study aims to determine the effect of implicit advertisement on brand attitudes among gay consumers in an unfriendly and friendly market.
Design/methodology/approach: this study employed a between-subjects experimental design, with two experiments conducted. The first study recruited gay men in Indonesia, an unfriendly market, whereas the second study recruited gay men in the Netherlands, a friendly market.
Findings: the result reveals that implicit advertisements significantly influence brand attitude. As expected, in an unfriendly market, a higher level of implicitness results in a more positive brand attitude. Surprisingly, the friendly market also prefers a high level of ad implicitness.
Originality/value: this is the first manuscript to examine how to advertise to gay men in friendly and unfriendly markets. Particularly, this study investigates the impact of three implicit gay advertisements (low implicit, moderately implicit and highly implicit ads) on gay consumers’ brand attitudes.
Brand attitude, Fashion brand retailers, Gay advertisement, Implicit advertisement, Implicit marketing, Minority marketing
Primanti, Haryani
0cd3a771-510a-44f2-8147-c7b757321633
Japutra, Arnold
004a3f8c-4d07-4cc7-8660-c5b3a5983760
Aksari, Ni Made Asti
16a32859-669f-4a32-8aac-09515b70a5a6
Primanti, Haryani
0cd3a771-510a-44f2-8147-c7b757321633
Japutra, Arnold
004a3f8c-4d07-4cc7-8660-c5b3a5983760
Aksari, Ni Made Asti
16a32859-669f-4a32-8aac-09515b70a5a6
Primanti, Haryani, Japutra, Arnold and Aksari, Ni Made Asti
(2025)
How implicit should fashion brand retailers advertise to stigmatized consumer groups?
Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics.
(doi:10.1108/APJML-08-2024-1035).
Abstract
Purpose: marketing efforts toward stigmatized subculture groups are intriguing, as there is a risk of losing consumers from the majority group. Implicit advertisement is a discreet communication strategy that enables a marketer to communicate with certain subculture groups using symbols to avoid negative responses from other consumer groups. This study aims to determine the effect of implicit advertisement on brand attitudes among gay consumers in an unfriendly and friendly market.
Design/methodology/approach: this study employed a between-subjects experimental design, with two experiments conducted. The first study recruited gay men in Indonesia, an unfriendly market, whereas the second study recruited gay men in the Netherlands, a friendly market.
Findings: the result reveals that implicit advertisements significantly influence brand attitude. As expected, in an unfriendly market, a higher level of implicitness results in a more positive brand attitude. Surprisingly, the friendly market also prefers a high level of ad implicitness.
Originality/value: this is the first manuscript to examine how to advertise to gay men in friendly and unfriendly markets. Particularly, this study investigates the impact of three implicit gay advertisements (low implicit, moderately implicit and highly implicit ads) on gay consumers’ brand attitudes.
Text
Manuscript for Pure
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 18 May 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 12 June 2025
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2025, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Keywords:
Brand attitude, Fashion brand retailers, Gay advertisement, Implicit advertisement, Implicit marketing, Minority marketing
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 503538
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503538
ISSN: 1355-5855
PURE UUID: 733f56c2-abeb-4e06-80c0-27c62d34bc13
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 05 Aug 2025 16:33
Last modified: 06 Aug 2025 02:15
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Contributors
Author:
Haryani Primanti
Author:
Arnold Japutra
Author:
Ni Made Asti Aksari
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