Target the untargetable: How to attract Hipsters through advertising?

The Hipsters seem to be outright allergic to traditional advertising. Their longing for authenticity, uniqueness and individuality causes their consumption behaviour to depart from the general population. The Hipster culture is a unique social phenomenon because Hipsters do not dare to admit the affiliation to the culture while simultaneously the overt behaviour and outer appearance of the majority of them clearly signals otherwise. And although individuality characterizes the culture, all the Hipsters possess similar characteristics and are therefore considered a social collective. This idiosyncratic behaviour frequently receives criticism in the media and journals. Despite the constant public mocking, the popularity of the Hipster culture is increasing continuously and it has spread itself beyond its urban roots. However, companies lack the knowledge on how to attract Hipsters through advertising, which has led to countless of failed marketing campaigns. Successfully attracting Hipsters can substantially boost the performance of certain companies. The aim of this research is to discover advertising strategies to attract Hipsters by comparing the attitude of Hipsters and ordinary consumers towards different types of advertisements. An experiment is conducted to compare differences in evaluations. Small alterations were made to the advertisements to challenge core values of the Hipster culture. Any difference in evaluations indicate what is valued by Hipsters and should be respected when targeting them. The results of the experiment indicate that contradicting the desire to be authentic and ignoring the refusal of Hipsters to be part of a social collective will significantly lead to a lower attitude of Hipsters toward advertisements. It is advised not to make a connection, either visually or verbally, with the Hipster culture in advertisements.