Advertising in a Foreign Language or the Consumers' Native Language?

Abstract

Research on foreign languages in advertising stresses the role of the match between product and language. Ads with a match are more effective; however, their effectiveness has not been compared to that of ads in the consumers’ native language, which are not restricted to products with a match, but are used for a range of products. An experiment tested whether native ads were more effective than those utilizing foreign languages. We also took consumers’ foreign language proficiency into account. Results suggest that foreign language is not the only key to success in advertising and effectiveness might also depend on the foreign language used.