市场营销学系学术讲座（6月4日）

The Effect of Racial Diversity Representation on Preference for Stigmatized Product

Speaker: Julio Sevilla

Professor of Marketing

Terry College of Business, University of Georgia

Time: 10:00-11:30, Jun.4^th (Thursday), 2026

Venue：Siyuan Building,Room 624

MC: Prof. Yiqi Yu

Abstract:Stigmatized products and services (e.g., STD treatment, Alcoholics Anonymous) often face unique marketing challenges due to consumers’ fears of social judgement. This research examines how the depiction of racial diversity in marketing communications for stigmatized products can help mitigate negative consumer responses and improve brand outcomes. Across twelve laboratory-controlled studies (all preregistered, six reported in the Web Appendix, N = 7,185) and one field analysis using real in-market engagement data, we find that mixed-race group depictions (i.e., White with minority) consistently yield more favorable attitudes toward the ad than same-race group depictions (i.e., White-only or minority-only) in stigmatized promotions. This effect occurs as consumers infer that a brand depicting models from diverse races in its communications possesses higher expertise in that category. These results contrast with recent findings observed for non-stigmatized products, where minority-only representations often perform better, highlighting the nuanced role of diversity representation in shaping consumer response. Together these findings advance theory on stigma in the marketplace and offer actionable insights for designing effective communication strategies for stigmatized marketing appeals.

Bio:Julio Sevilla is the L. Edmund Rast Chair of Business, and Professor of Marketing at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. His research interests include numeric cognition, retailing and product design/aesthetics, consumption and multicultural marketing. Julio’s research has been published in the leading journals of our field, including Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), Journal of Consumer Research (JCR), Journal of Marketing (JM), Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP), Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP), and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS). Julio serves as associate editor at JCP and in the editorial review boards at JCR and JM. He was selected as an MSI Young Scholar in 2021, and as an MSI Scholar in 2024. He is currently doctoral program director at UGA.