Foreign Language in Advertising

Foreign Language in Advertising Notes from slides + book: Hornikx, J., & Meurs, F. van (2020). Foreign languages in advertising:

Linguistic and marketing perspectives. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan.

Table of contents Chapter 1................................................................................................................2 Chapter 2................................................................................................................6 Chapter 3..............................................................................................................14 Chapter 4..............................................................................................................20 Chapter 5..............................................................................................................25 Chapter 6..............................................................................................................30 Chapter 7..............................................................................................................32 1 / 4

Chapter 1 Piller historical overview 1.– 1980s linguistics 2.Descriptive and normative, foreign loanwords (listing and classifying) 3.(in the meantime, interest emerged) Studying foreign words within advertising discourse 4.Frequency of which foreign languages are used in advertising (French – elegance and style)

• research domains 1980-2000

Frequency of occurrence of foreign languages in advertising – linguistics and in marketing Mostly focus on English Effect of foreign languages in advertising – attitude towards foreign language use, attitude towards the ad, comprehension of the foreign expression.Foreign language use as an element of advertising standardization – marketing perspective Cultural symbols, Westernization in most studies Connections of foreign languages with products, countries and characteristics –language for specific products (German & Japanese – engineering quality) Foreign branding – effects of foreign branding (attitude towards brand and ad) English versus Spanish for U.S. Hispanics – large number of Spanish speaking residents in USA Research in linguistics domains and marketing domains. However, there is a lack of integration what limits the progress of research.Integrating various areas of interest in foreign languages in advertising Snyder et al. 1500 advertisements from 4 different magazines published in France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and West Germany.A local language in an advertisement helps convey a national identity.A foreign language is used to evoke a sense of foreignness.Language choice in advertisements does not stand alone but functions in combination with other visual and cultural elements.Mueller third function of the use of foreign language – standardized worldwide marketing Alden et al. 3 types of brand positioning (LCCP, FCCP, GCCP) Brand Positioning – ensuring that a brand has an unique position among its competitor brands for the customer. This depends on several variables.Local Consumer Culture Positioning (LCCP) – a strategy that associates the brand with local cultural meanings, reflects the local culture’s norms and identities, is portrayed as consumed by local people in the national culture, and/or is depicted as locally produced for local people. 2 / 4

Foreign Consumer Culture Positioning (FCCP) – a strategy that positions the brand as symbolic of a specific foreign consumer culture; that is, a brand with a foreign culture.Global Consumer Culture Positioning (GCCP) – a strategy that identifies the brand as a symbol of a given global culture.

• central components to express CCP

1.Language, key indicator (e.g. mother tongue of target audience – LCCP, language from different country – FCCP, English – GCCP) 2.Aesthetic style (e.g. spokesperson is from the country where the ad is published – LCCP) 3.Story theme (e.g. young professional travelling around the world with a laptop – GCCP) LCCP 70% of the ads, GCCP 25% of the ads, FCCP only 5% of the ads Studies on the frequency of occurrence of FLA and their effects have generally taken the consumer’s own language as a baseline; however, this leads to several problems.—> A country can have more than one official language; people speak regional dialects and ethnic languages; and all countries host people with different linguistic backgrounds.Empirical research – testing theories with basis of real-life examples.PowerPoint Stereotypes – an oversimplified set of beliefs about the characteristics of any social category that is largely shared within a given population; the content of stereotype (i.e., stereotypical characteristics) is generally assumed to apply uniformly to every induvial member that belong to the category Holkias as cited in Hornikx & Meurs 3 / 4

National stereotypes – point to differences between countries and their citizens Emotional stereotype – “Italians are passionate” Rational stereotype – “Germans are good engineers” Stereotyping is stubborn, persistent, and very often incorrect.So why?Processing stereotypes requires smaller cognitive load, Beeghly Benefit of living by our first impulses seems to outweigh the cost (racist, sexist etc.) Our brain is lazy and slow It can save our lives (e.g. smoke=fire) Direct experimental techniques – participants are aware of the purpose of study Conscious attitudes and culturally shared stereotypes are shown Typically extract the most tenacious, unchanging stereotypes Indirect experimental techniques – participants are ignorant Less conscious and private attitudes Can return changing conceptualizations Juxtaposition of these techniques offers access to language change determinants (Het naast elkaar leggen van deze technieken biedt toegang tot determinanten van taalverandering) Schoel C., Eck J., & Sthalberg D.Influence of context on judgements and attitudes

• groups strong German accent

weak German accent native speaker

• conditionsstrong arguments

weak arguments Situation 1 participants were told that speakers with an accent were German – German accents were evaluated better than native speakers.Situation 2 participants were not told that speakers with an accent were German – no influence of accent; strong arguments> weak arguments Bijlmakers Can stereotypes change?Attitude towards the advertisement – fuller model > thin model Attitude towards the product, buying intention, product recognition – no difference

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