By Jennifer Gordillo

On Tuesday Nov. 7, Florida State students from the Integrated Marketing Communication program attended the Ninth Annual International Research Conference held at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. At the conference, the students presented research that they had been conducting for months on a variety of topics.

The conference featured different categories of areas of study where participants could choose to present in. The focus of the IMC program is to study the effects and strategies of marketing communication in consumer behavior, so many of the students that attended the conference presented research within that field.

One of the groups consisting of Nivia Escobar and Peiheng Li, reported their findings on the effects of ethnic specific ads to brand loyalty on Hispanic and African American consumers. Their research found that African American consumers were more likely to respond positively to ads that featured people who were also African American.

“The findings were interesting. Both groups reacted positively to ads that featured their own ethnic groups, signaling the importance of diversity in advertising,” Peiheng Li said. “Attending the conference and presenting our research was overall a great experience and I’m excited to see what we will work on for the next one.”

Another student, Carlos Galindo, presented his paper on Hispanic motivation to consume American Football. His research involved data collected from Hispanic consumers and analyzed NFL marketing strategies for Hispanic fans.

“The conference was a great experience because not only did we get to present our research but we also got feedback on our work from other colleagues as well,” Galindo said. “Representing the research we do at the Center for Hispanic Marketing at a graduate conference is always rewarding.”

The abstracts of the research presented can be found here: http://www.gradcollege.txstate.edu/docs/conference-abstracts-2017.pdf