Advertising to Bilinguals: Does the Language of Advertising Influence the Nature of Thoughts?

Abstract

When targeting bilingual consumers, advertisers have a choice to advertise in a bilingual's native language or in the country's dominant language. Within the Hispanic community in the United States, for example, Kellogg has a choice to advertise Frosted Flakes in English or in Spanish. But which is the better choice and why? This research considers whether the choice of language in advertising to bilinguals influences the types of thoughts they have in response to an advertisement. In other words, for a bilingual, can the exact same selling message cue different associations depending on the language in which it is presented? The underlying issue is whether advertisers can use language of execution as a strategic variable with which to generate certain types of associations that may facilitate persuasion. The authors consider this issue from a social cognition perspective. They hypothesize that a native-language advertisement is more likely to elicit self-referent thoughts about family, friends, home, or homeland, which in turn may lead to more positive attitude measures and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the authors show that these effects are moderated by the consumption context presented in the advertisement.

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