Cultural and language effects on Chinese bilinguals' and Canadians' responses to advertising

Abstract

AbstractThe first objective of this study was to examine how Hong Kong Chinese and Anglo-Canadians differed in their perceptions of the honesty and forcefulness of a message source in informational advertising. A second objective was to explore the reaction of bilingual Chinese subjects to an advertisement and questionnaire administered either in their native language or in their second language. An experiment was carried out with Anglo-Canadian and Chinese students. Findings revealed that the former perceived significantly greater source honesty and less forcefulness in the ad compared to the latter group exposed to the instrument in their native language. The comparison of the English language and Chinese language treatments for the Chinese subjects revealed that the former perceived significantly greater source honesty, significantly less perception of forcefulness on the part of the source, and developed significantly greater attitudes towards the brand than the latter, similar to that found for the Anglo subjects. These results help to confirm the operation of a cultural accommodation process. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRoy ToffoliRoy Toffoli is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Quebec in Montreal. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Concordia University and his B.Sc. and M.B.A. from McGill University. His research interests include cross-cultural consumer behavior and marketing communications, entrepreneurial marketing, and eco-friendly behavior. He has published in the Journal of Business Research and Advances in Consumer Research series, published by the Association for Consumer Research. He previously taught on the faculty of McGill University.Michel LarocheMichel Laroche is Royal Bank Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the John Molson School of Business. He holds a D.Ing. (École Centrale de Paris), M.S.E. (Johns Hopkins), M.Ph. and Ph.D. (Columbia), D.S.H.C. (Guelph). He is Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, American Psychological Association, and Distinguished SMA Fellow. Awards include Concordia University Research Fellow, Jacques-Rousseau Prize for best multidisciplinary researcher, Marketing personality (AMA Montreal Chapter) and 2002 Living Legend. He published 27 books, 70 journal articles, 80 papers in proceedings. He served the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada as President, Marketing Editor, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sdences (1991–1997), and awarded CJAS Service Award (1997). He was Associate Editor, Marketing, Journal of Business Research, recipient of JBR Outstanding Editor Award (bearing his name), and is JBR Managing Editor.