In this study, we examined how the increasingly popular marketing tactic of code-switching affects consumer persuasion in a monolingual market. According to the identity-accessibility effect, we proposed that the consumers’ local-global identity moderates the effect of code-switched
advertisements. The results from two experiments suggest that consumers with an accessible local
identity provide more positive advertisement and product evaluations for noncode-switched advertisements than for code-switched advertisements. By contrast, consumers with an accessible global identity provide more positive advertisement and product evaluations for code-switched advertisements than for noncode-switched advertisements. In addition, we provided evidence of the mechanism underlying this persuasive power by demonstrating that the congruence between
code-switching and the consumers’ local-global identity increases the level of consumer advertising involvement, thereby prompting more favorable evaluations. Although current international
marketing strategies focus on the effect of the brand origin (local vs. global brand) on code-switched advertising effectiveness, our research findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the crucial role of the consumers’ local-global identity.
Theoretical Implications
This study contributes to the literature on code-switched advertising, branding, and
international marketing. Previous studies on code-switched advertising have focused on bilingual consumers and have largely overlooked monolingual consumers. This study filled the research gap and revealed the importance of the consumers’ local-global identity in code-switched advertising effectiveness among monolinguals. Extending Zhang and Khare’s (2009) study from product
preferences (local vs. global) to code-switched advertising contexts, we demonstrated the moderating role of the local-global identity and the mediating role of advertising involvement in the persuasive effect of code-switched advertisements.
In addition, relevant studies on branding have primarily focused on the effects of the country of manufacture and the brand origin on consumer perceptions and preferences. For example, recent studies have investigated the asymmetric effects of brand origin confusion (Zhuang et al. 2008) on consumer preference and the moderating effects of confidence in brand origin identification on brand
evaluation (Zhou, Yang, and Hui 2010). Extending the direction of such studies, we found that the consumers’ local-global identity should be heeded when local and global strategies are considered (Zhang and Khare 2009). The present study suggests that the degree of congruence of code-switching to the consumers’ local-global identity affects advertising effectiveness, regardless of the brand origin. Moreover, similar to the findings of previous studies on international marketing (e.g., Bartikowski and Walsh 2015; Guo 2013; Westjohn, Singh, and Magnusson 2012; Zhang and Khare 2009), our findings suggest that the global culture (e.g., consumers’ local-global identity) of the target consumers should be paid more attention in code-switched advertising persuasion research and warrants further consideration in international marketing strategies.
Practical Implications
This study has marketing implications for brand managers. When designing an advertisement with local or global appeal, designers must consider the local-global identity of the target consumers.
Although an increasing number of code-switched advertisements are being published in magazines, simply pursuing a global image may be ineffective; consumers do not necessarily prefer
advertisements aimed at achieving global appeal by using code-switching. Alden, Steenkamp, and Batra (1999) demonstrated the distinction between local and global brand positioning strategies for different consumer cultures through advertising appeals (e.g., hard sell vs. soft sell). Similarly, the present study suggests that code-switched advertising persuasion is dependent on the identity accessibility of the consumers (local or global identity). Noncode-switched advertisements are more persuasive to consumers with an accessible local identity, and code-switched advertisements appeal more to consumers with an accessible global identity. When weighing the local versus global appeal, brand managers should be aware of the consumers’ local-global identity and its effect on advertising persuasiveness.
Limitations and Future Research Directions
Our study has some limitations; thus, a number of issues remain unanswered. Study 1 recruited participants from an online panel. The sample might not be representative of the target population, because the sample was restricted to those with Internet access. In addition, in the priming task in Study 1, participants assigned to the control condition unscrambled sentences related to the
environment. This task may be conceptually related to local or global identity. Future research should investigate the robustness of the findings by using a more representative sample and an improved control task.
This study focused on code-switched advertising effectiveness by investigating the use of a foreign language in the advertisements. Chang (2008) indicated that the use of foreign brand names and foreign fashion models in the advertisements exerts varying effects on perceived globalness, friendliness, trust, and affinity toward a brand. However, the ideal combination of foreign elements (e.g., brand names, models, and scenes) in the advertisements remains unclear. Future studies should determine the most effective strategies for enhancing advertising persuasiveness. On the other hand, this study revealed that advertisement comprehension significantly influenced advertisement and product evaluations. When the advertisement content is not fully understood by consumers, they might judge the advertisement or the advertised product on the basis of the language used in the advertisement or cultural stereotypes. Thus, future research should investigate whether (and, if so, how) such stereotypes influence advertisement evaluation.
In this study, the target population was monolinguals, where English is the main foreign language used to communicate global consumer culture positioning and Chinese is used to
communicate local consumer culture positioning (Alden, Steenkamp, and Batra 1999). Therefore, our study findings cannot be directly applied to native English speaking populations. To target these
populations, marketers need to identify foreign languages that can be used to communicate global consumer culture positioning for that specific population. Moreover, because foreign language proficiency levels vary, consumers prefer different types of brand name translations (Zhang and Schmitt 2004), and they exhibit various levels of perceived emotionality toward marketing messages (Puntoni, de Langhe, and van Osselaer 2009). For example, consumers who are proficient in a
foreign language prefer an accurate translation of a foreign language brand name, whereas consumers who are less proficient in a foreign language may prefer a translation that is more meaningful to them, regardless of the actual foreign language brand name. Previous studies have indicated that the
local-global identity is likely correlated to foreign language proficiency (Erling 2007; Roger 2010).
Thus, future research should investigate whether the local-global identity exerts such similar effects on brand name translation preferences (accurate vs. meaningful).
This study examined the persuasive power in code-switched advertisements by using
necessities as the advertised product. However, the product category may be another moderator in the persuasiveness of code-switched advertisements. For example, Krishna and Ahluwalia (2008)
suggested that when a foreign company markets necessities, it should use the local language or code-switching in advertisements to enhance advertising effectiveness; however, when a foreign company markets a luxury product, using the local language in a noncode-switched advertisement exerts less persuasive power. This observation is because the local language is associated with belongingness, whereas the foreign language is associated with sophistication. Belongingness is a critical criterion when evaluating necessities, whereas sophistication is critical when evaluating luxury items. Following this logic, code-switching in advertisements for luxury products is viewed favorably by consumers with an accessible local identity and those with an accessible global identity.
Consumers with an accessible local identity likely appreciate the foreign language in the
advertisements because they perceive it as being relevant to luxury products, which they associate with sophistication. Therefore, investigating whether our results can be replicated for different product categories would be valuable.
Similarly, researchers can examine the effect of the cultural origin of product category (COPC) and its interaction effect with the brand origin on code-switched advertising effectiveness. COPC refers to consumers’ product-culture associations. Consumers usually have stereotypical beliefs that certain products are associated with particular cultural origins (Zhou, Poon, & Wang, 2015). For example, dumplings, steam stuffed bun, herbal tea are perceived as local product categories that are associated with Chinese culture whereas hamburgers, English custard tart, and coffee are perceived as foreign (Western) product categories that are associated with foreign cultures among Chinese consumers (Zhou, Poon, & Wang, 2015). Because of market globalization, the foreign product categories are increasingly accessible to consumers in China and other Asian countries. Future research should investigate the optimal code-switching tactics for global and local brands when advertising products in various COPC.
In addition, previous studies have demonstrated the increasing use of code-switched
advertisements in Asian countries, including India, South Korea, and Taiwan (e.g., Ahn and Ferle 2008; Chang 2008; Krishna and Ahluwalia 2008; Lin and Wang 2016). For international marketing purposes, it is recommended that researchers should conduct a cross-country examination of the use of code-switching tactics in emerging countries, such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and developed countries. Such findings will assist marketers in understanding the current trends and the effect of code-switching tactics on advertising persuasion in these countries.
Finally, we did not observe the mediation effect of advertising involvement for the higher local identity respondents in Study 2. Recent studies have examined global identity, adopting the global
identity measure, along with national identity (Bartikowski and Walsh 2015; Westjohn, Singh, and Magnusson 2012). However, less attention has been paid to local identity and its measure. Our study is one of the few empirical studies that examined both local and global identities, adopting the local-global identity measure (Tu, Khare, and Zhang 2012). Further research efforts should assess their validity.
CONCLUSION
According to the identity-accessibility effect, this study demonstrated the moderating role of the local-global identity and mediating role of advertising involvement in code-switched advertising effectiveness among monolinguals. The congruence between code-switching and the local-global identity enhances code-switched advertising persuasion, and advertising involvement serves as a mediator. This study contributes to the literature on code-switched advertising by identifying the moderating role of the local-global identity in code-switched advertising persuasion. In addition, this study contributes to the literature on branding and international marketing by demonstrating that the local-global identity of the target population should be considered in international marketing efforts.
This study also provides managerial implications to practitioners for developing marketing strategies (e.g., languages used in the advertisement) to target monolinguals.
(Reference, tables and figures are available upon request)
Creating an Effective Code-Switched Ad for Monolinguals: The Influence of Brand Origin and Foreign Language Familiarity
Due to the pervasive nature of global marketing, consumers encounter numerous products and brands from all over the world (Zou & Cavusgil, 2002). To increase the attractiveness of ads and advertised products to consumers, companies must consider whether they should follow local cultural practices in their ads or blend them with a global appeal (e.g., by using foreign models or scenes). Researchers therefore have been investigating advertising strategies for multinational and local firms (Alden, Steenkamp, & Batra, 1999; Krishna & Ahluwalia, 2008; Tai, 1997). Local firms in developing countries use a variety of foreign elements to create a global impression and take advantage of the equity of a foreign country’s image: a western model, a foreign scene, foreign brand names, or ad copy in a foreign language (Ahn & Ferle, 2008; Steenkamp, Batra, & Alden, 2003;
Zhou, Yang, & Hui, 2010). By contrast, multinational firms devote substantial time and effort to localize their brands, products, and packaging to attract local consumers and enhance the evaluation of their products in local markets (Neff, 1999; Zhang & Schmitt, 2001). Using a local or foreign language in a brand name and ad slogan is a commonly used advertising tactic (Krishna & Ahluwalia, 2008; Noriega & Blair, 2008). Language is both a symbol and a value of a culture (Alden et al., 1999) and can generate culture-specific conceptual associations (Kroll & De Groot, 1997). The advertising tactic of “inserting of a foreign word or expression into a sentence (e.g., into an ad slogan), resulting in a mixed-language message” is called code-switching (Luna & Peracchio, 2005a, p. 760). The use of code-switching advertising tactics has been increasing in Asian countries. For example, our pilot study sampled 773 ads from 26 magazines in Taiwan and found that more than 30% of the local brands and 50% of global brands used code-switching, respectively. Unlike the target population (i.e., bilinguals) in prior code-switched (CS) advertising studies, many of the Asian countries are
populated with monolinguals who do not communicate with two languages in their daily lives
(Grosjean, 1997). Recent research has shown that monolinguals and bilinguals differ in cognition and brain activities (Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012). Developing an effective strategy for the design of CS ads targeting the monolingual population would be valuable to both scholars and practitioners in advertising.
Several studies on CS ads have been loosely conducted to investigate the impact of brand origin on ad effectiveness; however, the results seem inconsistent between monolinguals and bilinguals. For instance, the markedness model has been used to explain the social motivations of using
code-switching among bilinguals (e.g., Myers-Scotton, 1999; Luna & Peracchio, 2005a). That is, bilinguals choose to use the majority or minority language to portray their social identity. A language or CS element becomes marked when it is used in contrast to the language context; because it does not match the audience’s expectations, it is generally regarded as communicating a specific meaning.
In the CS ad context, the use of an unmarked language causes bilinguals to focus on the message content, whereas the use of a marked language causes bilinguals to focus on the language and its associations (Luna & Peracchio, 2005b). Adopting the markedness model (Myers-Scotton, 1999), Krishna and Ahluwalia (2008) found that for multinational firms, CS ads were effective for marketing a luxury product and non-CS ads were effective for marketing a necessity; however, no advantage was found for local companies using CS ads compared with non-CS ads (Krishna &
Ahluwalia, 2008). Nevertheless, other researchers have reported different findings. Without
considering corporation types, Chang (2008) found that Taiwanese consumers gave a higher rating to non-CS than CS ads in both necessity and luxury goods (i.e., food, telecommunication, and fashion).
Similarly, Villar, Ai, and Segev (2012) suggested that a brand name should be linked to the brand origin. One possible explanation for the inconsistent findings is the different samples used in these
studies. In addition to physiological and cognitive differences (Bialystok et al., 2012), monolinguals process language switching differently than bilinguals do (Costa & Santesteban, 2004). Thus, it is necessary to examine whether previous research findings of the influence of brand origin on CS ad effectiveness can be applied to monolinguals. To the best of our knowledge, the CS ads in most previous studies involve only one foreign language. However, CS ads using various foreign languages are accessible to consumers at different extents. For instance, Japanese, French and Korean are used in CS ads, in addition to English, as shown in our pilot study. Therefore, examining whether all types of CS ads are equally appealing would be valuable. Specifically, this research aims to address the following questions: (1) Is the influence of the increasingly popular advertising tactic of code-switching on ad persuasion contingent on the brand origin for monolinguals? (2) Are all types of CS ads equally appealing regardless of the foreign language used? (3) What is the mechanism underlying the aforementioned effects?
This study contributes to the code-switching literature by demonstrating the moderating effect of brand origin on CS ad effectiveness among monolinguals. Specifically, we showed that when a local brand is advertised, non-CS ads are evaluated more favorably than CS ads. However, when a foreign brand is advertised, not all types of CS ads are evaluated more favorably than non-CS ads. It is noted that the effects observed are different from those among bilinguals. As such, the findings provide additional support to the difference between monolinguals and bilinguals in the bilingualism literature. Instead of comparing non-CS ads with CS ads in only one foreign language, this study also investigated CS ads in different foreign languages (Study1: Chinese vs. English vs. French; Study 2:
Chinese vs. Japanese Kanji vs. Japanese Kana). Previous research findings in branding suggested that the congruency between the language used in a brand name and the country of origin influenced brand attitudes (Villar et al., 2012). Extending this concept to the CS context, our research findings
indicate that the congruency effect on CS ad effectiveness is more complex than the effect observed in the brand name context. We showed that the exposure level of the foreign language used in CS ads influences the CS ad effectiveness. That is, CS ads using a high exposure foreign language are
evaluated more favorably than CS ads using a low exposure foreign language because of the
consumer familiarity of the foreign language used. In short, the research findings suggest that when targeting monolinguals, the use of code-switching must take brand origin and foreign language familiarity into consideration.
To systematically examine the effect of CS ads among monolinguals, we performed a content analysis of magazine ads in Taiwan in a pilot study to understand the current use of CS ads and the languages used in these CS ads, thereby establishing the research context. We then reviewed the theoretical background and developed our research hypotheses. Two experiments were designed to test the research hypotheses. Study 1 was designed to investigate whether and how the CS ad effect is moderated by the brand origin among monolinguals. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 with another foreign language to eliminate alternative explanations. Study 2 also demonstrated the
mediating role of foreign language familiarity in CS ad persuasion when a foreign brand is advertised.
Finally, theoretical and managerial implications as well as future research directions were discussed.
Pilot study: Code-switching in magazine ads—A content analysis
The primary goal of this pilot study was to establish an evidence base for the code-switching advertising tactic used by both local and global brands in monolingual markets. We performed content analysis to examine the code-switching tactic used in magazine ads in Taiwan. The sampling was conducted in October 2009. According to the Taiwan Publication Annual published
by Government Information Office of Taiwan (2009), magazines are categorized into eight types:
Business, News, Living and Technology, Life and Recreation, Literature, History and the Arts,
Language, and Fashion. In order to include various magazine ads and avoid focusing on only a few types of magazines, this study included the two most popular magazines of each magazine type. The selected magazines had the largest readerships. For monthly magazines (PCHOME, MOBILE, Taipei Walker, Cycling, PPAER, My Home Life, Let’s Talk in English, Studio Classroom, BEAUTY, and Ray), one issue per magazine was analyzed. For weekly magazines (Business Weekly, Business Today, Next Media, and China Times Weekly), four issues per magazine were analyzed. In total, 26 magazine issues and 773 different ads were analyzed in this study. We examined the code-switching tactic in these magazines on the basis of several aspects: brand origin, brand name, and ad copy (headline, subheadline, and body copy). Two coders blind to the research purpose were trained to code the ads. They were given a detailed description of the rules and procedures on how to code an ad. The two coders discussed their coding results and resolved any disagreements to finalize the coding scheme. The intercoder reliabilities ranged from 85% to 90% for all categories in this study.
The coding sheet and instructions used in the content analysis are shown in Appendix 1.
Results
In this study, CS ads are ads that include a foreign language and non-CS ads are ads that use
In this study, CS ads are ads that include a foreign language and non-CS ads are ads that use