Working Paper n ° : 2014-63-02 TARGETING WITHOUT ALIENATING ON THE INTERNET : ETHNIC MINORITY AND MAJORITY CONSUMERS

The authors draw on the phenomenon of processing fluency to develop a memory-based account of target and nontarget market effects related to consumer evaluations of culturespecific website designs. The test of the study’s hypotheses relies on longitudinal experimental data from Tunisian minority and French majority consumers in France. The psychological mechanisms that drive website evaluations appear to differ for the two populations. French majority consumers are alienated by culturally incongruent website design, but this negative effect is alleviated by repeated exposure. Tunisian minority consumers tend to prefer website design with a French look and feel, and repeated exposure enhances this effect. The results from an explorative post hoc study echo these findings and suggest that effects of culture-specific website design on consumer website evaluations are contingent on the website product category.