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Consumer racial profiling in retail environments: A longitudinal analysis of the impact on brand image

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Abstract

Retailers invest substantial resources developing and managing their brand; however, the challenge of upholding an established image becomes problematic during times of adverse publicity. Although practitioners and scholars agree that publicity about unethical business practices tarnishes brand image, research examining the extent and duration of the image shift from negative publicity in retail and brand management contexts is scant. Using latent difference scores to analyze longitudinal data (N=152 and N=145, respectively), this research investigates consumer immediate and short-term brand responses when exposed to video vignettes depicting consumer racial profiling (CRP) (that is, when retailers treat consumers differently based on race/ethnicity as a means to curtail shoplifting); in doing so, we examine how personal moral philosophy and marketing communications affect changes in brand image over time. The results indicate that CRP has a temporary negative effect on consumers’ image of the retail brand; however, the rate of image recovery varies with exposure to marketing communication and personal moral philosophy. By exploring the effects of marketing communications and personal moral philosophy on brand image changes over time, this research offers meaningful insight into understanding how brand image perceptions are affected by CRP.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Pookie Sautter for her insightful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, McCoy College of Business Administration, Texas State University – San Marcos, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, 78666, TX, USA

    Jeremy J Sierra

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  1. Jeremy J Sierra
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  2. Robert S Heiser
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  3. Jerome D Williams
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  4. Harry A Taute
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Correspondence to Jeremy J Sierra.

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1(PhD) is an assistant professor of Marketing at Texas State University – San Marcos. He teaches marketing research, sports marketing and services marketing. His research interests include advertising effects, consumer behavior, marketing ethics and services marketing. His research is published in outlets such as Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Journal of Services Marketing.

2(PhD) is an assistant professor of Marketing at the University of Southern Maine, teaching marketing management, international marketing and multivariate statistics to graduate and undergraduate students. His research interests include advertising, branding, professional selling and structural equation modeling. He has published in a number of journals including Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice and Academy of Marketing Science Review. He also has 19 years of sales and marketing experience at Fortune 500 and startup companies.

3(PhD) is the Prudential Chair in Business and Research Director of the Center of Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, in the Department of Management and Global Business, Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick. He held previous Chaired positions at the University of Texas at Austin and Howard University, where he also was Director of the Center for Marketplace Diversity. He also was on the Penn State University faculty for 14 years. He conducts research on multicultural marketing and marketplace discrimination.

4(PhD) is an assistant professor of Marketing in the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University. His research interests center on emotions in: consumer behavior, sports marketing and brand management. His work is published in Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Sport Marketing Quarterly and Journal of Intercollegiate Sport.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

Scale items

Brand Image

On the basis of (seven-point Semantic Differential scale).Not credible/CredibleNot prestigious/PrestigiousDisreputable/ReputableIrresponsible/ResponsibleNot trustworthy/TrustworthyLow quality/High qualityUnreliable/Reliable

Personal Moral Philosophy

On the basis of (nine-point Likert scale, 1 – strongly disagree to 9 – strongly agree).

Idealism: A person should make certain that their actions never intentionally harm another even to a small degree.

Risks to another should never be tolerated, irrespective of how small the risks might be.

The existence of potential harm to others is always wrong, irrespective of the benefits to be gained.

One should never psychologically or physically harm another person.

One should not perform an action that might in any way threaten the dignity and welfare of another individual.

If an action could harm an innocent other, then it should not be done.

The dignity and welfare of people should be the most important concern in any society.

Relativism: Moral standards should be seen as being individualistic; what one person considers being moral may be judged to be immoral by another person.

Different types of moralities cannot be compared as to ‘rightness’.

Moral standards are simple personal rules that indicate how a person should behave, and are not to be applied in making judgments of others.

Ethical considerations in interpersonal relations are so complex that individuals should be allowed to formulate their own individual codes.

No rule concerning lying can be formulated; whether a lie is permissible or not permissible totally depends on the situation.

What is ethical varies from one situation and society to another.

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Sierra, J., Heiser, R., Williams, J. et al. Consumer racial profiling in retail environments: A longitudinal analysis of the impact on brand image. J Brand Manag 18, 79–96 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2010.24

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