Question

Are these advertisements ethnocentric, stereotyping or appropriately using good market research - Toyota’s marketing campaign for its new Camry?  Explain

African-American- This commercial of a black man driving is centered on the theme “strut,” and features an image of a peacock and the entrance music of the wrestler John Cena.

Hispanic- A Latino man enjoys his driving experience so much that he dares to decline a call from his mother, a move that the target audience is meant to see as rebellious.

Asian-American- A father picks up his daughter from baseball practice, a casting decision made to suggest that the Camry brings out the affectionate side of Asian-American fathers.

Transcultural Mainstream’ A schoolboy, a young woman and a bespectacled man are each waiting for someone. Their counterparts are joyful and unworried as they drive with Queen playing.

Answer 1

The African-American advertisement featuring a black man, image of a peacock and the music reminiscent of John Cena is clearly trying to address the issue of the brand's acceptability to people of all colour and is hence ethnocentric in its approach.

The Latino ad is clearly focussing on a typical behaviour seen as commonly associated with the Hispanic community on the interpretation and relies on stereotyping as a tool to appeal to the group wthout contrasting it with any other racial group. The objective is to create relevance with the Hispanic community, and sometimes the easiest way to do it is through common stereotyping of non-controversial behaviour.

Transcultural Mainstream depicts different types of prospective customers with their counterparts indulging in a specific activity - ie.e driving with Queen playing. This may have been done to build relevance with a set of customers who are diverse but are known to be associated with a specific type of music which Queen personifies. Such depictions usually go back to some fundamental qualitative or quantitative research of the category which has demonstrated this insight. Hence likely to be using good market research.