Foreign languages in advertising
Chapter 1. Introduction
Five categories regarding nationality and internationality of the ad: (Snyder et al., 1991)
1) Local or domestic = the language presented was only the language of the country in
which the ad appeared.
2) Foreign European = if it contained one European language other than the language
spoken in the country where the ad appeared.
3) Foreign non-European = if it contained one non-European language, such as an ad
with Japanese published in a French magazine.
4) Pan-European/European-wide = if it contained at least two foreign European
languages or if it contained one foreign European language and a non-linguistic cue
referring to another European country (e.g. a French landscape).
5) Culturally neutral = if it did not contain any reference to European or non-European
countries.
Brand positioning = a brand should have a unique positioning among its competitor brands
from the perspective of consumers.
Three positioning strategies: (Alden et al., 1999)
Local Consumer Culture Positioning = 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.
Foreign Consumer Culture Positioning = a strategy that positions the brand as symbolic of a
specific foreign consumer culture: that is, a brand whose personality, use occasion, and/or
user group are associated with a foreign culture.
Global Consumer Culture Positioning = identifies the brand as a symbol of a given global
culture.
Three central components that can be used to express one of the three types of consumer
culture positioning in an advertisement:
1) Language
a. A company can use the mother tongue of the target audience if it wished to
emphasize LCCP.
b. If the language that appears in the ad is not the mother tongue of the target
audience but a language spoken in a different country, it is an indication of FCCP.
c. If the language used in an ad is English, GCCP is expected to be in play.
2) Aesthetic = what the elements in the ad look like.
3) Story theme
,Lecture 1.
Piller (2003) = Historical overview of research, until 1980.
Loanwords = words taken from other languages, e.g. El Eggo, El Perco.
Normative perspective (coincides with views of standard language as a closed, uniform
system) + Descriptive
“[Businessmen] most deeply believe that a foreign word is always more distinguished than
the corresponding German word. What are these business people actually thinking? Are
they thinking anyway? Who is the stupid one? The one at whom these words are targeted?
Or the one who hopes to make an impact? Tricky question.” (Wustmann, 1891)
From (loan)words to discourse:
Before 1980: especially linguistics
After 1980: expansion to marketing & advertising
Haarmann (1984, 1986) (Piller’s overview ends with Haarmann’s study)
Foreign languages are employed in product advertisements to associate the products with
ethno-cultural stereotypes of the speakers of the foreign languages (France: elegance).
Topics identified:
Frequency of occurrence of FL
Sella (1993) Majority of 1200 Greek advertisements contains FL, mainly English, but also
some French and Italian.
Effects of FL
Petrof (1990) English and French on attitudes, comprehension, intention, recall; French was
better for attitude and recall.
FL as a part of standardization
Mueller (1992) English as main instrument of Westernization in Japanese ads; more than
80% contain English language.
Standardization = advertising execution strategies intended for one national audience are
also used for a different national audience.
Westernization = Western advertising execution strategies (e.g. Caucasian models and the
English language) are applied in advertising in non-Western countries.
Connections with products and countries
Ray et al. (1991) German and Japanese associated with engineering quality, e.g. cars.
Mazda: Kansei Volkswagen: Fahrgegnügen
Foreign branding
Leclerc et al. (1994) Brand names such as ‘Larient’.
France hedonism; USA utilitarianism
French brand names lead to better evaluations when they promote hedonistic products (e.g.
nail polish) rather than utilitarian products (e.g. petrol).
English versus Spanish for US Hispanics
Koslow et al. (1994) 4 types of ads.
Hispanics perceived the advertiser to be more culturally sensitive when the advertisers used
(some) Spanish than when they used only English.
Conclusion
Solid academic interest in foreign languages in advertising, both in the business domain
(marketing, advertising) and the linguistic domain (applied linguistics, sociolinguistics,
,psycholinguistics), but lack of integration of insights from one field to the other, which
hampers research progress.
Studies in the field of linguistics have hardly incorporated insights from marketing and
advertising.
Consumer Culture Positioning (CCP) strategies
How can this diversity of topics be meaningfully integrated from a marketing point of view?
Snyder et al. (1991) and Mueller (1992) were first to study use of languages in a marketing
context. Three perspectives:
National character = restriction to local languages.
Foreign character = use of non-local languages but not English.
Standardized/global character = through the use of English.
Alden et al. (1999) present a framework that captures all three functions of foreign
languages in advertising and goals with which various languages can be used in advertising.
Language
Aesthetic
Story theme
Brand positioning = ensuring that a brand has a unique position among its competitor brands
for the customer depends on number of variables, including language choice.
Alden et al. (1999) Corpus analysis of more than 1200 TV commercials from 7 countries.
85% unique CCP strategy: 70% LCCP; 25% GCCP; 5% FCCP
Global Consumer Culture Positioning = identifies the brand as a symbol of a give global
culture featuring the idea that consumers all over the world consume a particular brand or
appealing to certain human universals might invest the brand with the cultural meaning of
being a conduit to feeling at one with global culture.
Local Consumer Culture Positioning = 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.
Foreign Consumer Culture = a strategy that positions the brand as symbolic of a specific
foreign consumer culture; that is, a brand whose personality, use occasion, and/or user
group are associated with a foreign culture.
Yin (1999) Marketing managers from 140 countries were asked to rate the importance of
different ad components used to localize ads. Language was the number one. Models,
humour, scenic background followed.
, Chapter 2. Theoretical Perspectives
Foreign language = a language that is not the person’s mother tongue learned from birth.
Varying degree of foreignness
Unidentifiable and incomprehensible
Identifiable but incomprehensible
Identifiable and partly comprehensible
Identifiable and fully comprehensible
Official language but not in the consumer’s part of the country, varying degrees of
comprehensibility
One of the languages fully mastered and used daily by bilinguals
Consumers’ evaluation of ads with foreign languages may vary depending on their degree of
foreignness.
Combinations with receivers’ mother tongue(s):
Code-switching = the use of two different languages or language varieties within a
single conversation or written text.
Code-mixing
Borrowings
In other work the term code-switching emphasizes a multilingual speaker's movement from
one grammatical system to another, while the term code-mixing suggests a hybrid form,
drawing from distinct grammars. In other words, code-mixing emphasizes the formal aspects
of language structures or linguistic competence, while code-switching emphasizes linguistic
performance.
Code-switching Attracting attention and evoking the country of origin related to the
foreign language used.
Evoking a sense of internationalism, modernity, and prestige
Code-switching within sentences = intrasentential code-switching (example by Luna &
Peracchio, 2005)
Code-switching between sentences = intersentential code-switching (example by Hornikx &
Van Meurs, 2013)
‘In Arizona spring has a way of warming los corazones’
Intrasentential code-switching in an ad in Latina magazine, popular among Spanish-
speaking women in the USA.
‘Absolute lasting liquid lipstick’
Intersentential code-switching in a Spanish-language ad for the Deborah brand in
Cosmopolitan magazine in Spain.
‘Because sometimes, a girl’s gotta walk’
Code-switching with respect to Umfeld, in an all-English ad for Skechers.
Two models used as a framework for studying foreign languages in advertising:
1) Revised Hierarchical Model
While a dictionary presents words together with their meanings, the Revised Hierarchical
Model proposes that in the human mind words and their corresponding meanings are
Chapter 1. Introduction
Five categories regarding nationality and internationality of the ad: (Snyder et al., 1991)
1) Local or domestic = the language presented was only the language of the country in
which the ad appeared.
2) Foreign European = if it contained one European language other than the language
spoken in the country where the ad appeared.
3) Foreign non-European = if it contained one non-European language, such as an ad
with Japanese published in a French magazine.
4) Pan-European/European-wide = if it contained at least two foreign European
languages or if it contained one foreign European language and a non-linguistic cue
referring to another European country (e.g. a French landscape).
5) Culturally neutral = if it did not contain any reference to European or non-European
countries.
Brand positioning = a brand should have a unique positioning among its competitor brands
from the perspective of consumers.
Three positioning strategies: (Alden et al., 1999)
Local Consumer Culture Positioning = 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.
Foreign Consumer Culture Positioning = a strategy that positions the brand as symbolic of a
specific foreign consumer culture: that is, a brand whose personality, use occasion, and/or
user group are associated with a foreign culture.
Global Consumer Culture Positioning = identifies the brand as a symbol of a given global
culture.
Three central components that can be used to express one of the three types of consumer
culture positioning in an advertisement:
1) Language
a. A company can use the mother tongue of the target audience if it wished to
emphasize LCCP.
b. If the language that appears in the ad is not the mother tongue of the target
audience but a language spoken in a different country, it is an indication of FCCP.
c. If the language used in an ad is English, GCCP is expected to be in play.
2) Aesthetic = what the elements in the ad look like.
3) Story theme
,Lecture 1.
Piller (2003) = Historical overview of research, until 1980.
Loanwords = words taken from other languages, e.g. El Eggo, El Perco.
Normative perspective (coincides with views of standard language as a closed, uniform
system) + Descriptive
“[Businessmen] most deeply believe that a foreign word is always more distinguished than
the corresponding German word. What are these business people actually thinking? Are
they thinking anyway? Who is the stupid one? The one at whom these words are targeted?
Or the one who hopes to make an impact? Tricky question.” (Wustmann, 1891)
From (loan)words to discourse:
Before 1980: especially linguistics
After 1980: expansion to marketing & advertising
Haarmann (1984, 1986) (Piller’s overview ends with Haarmann’s study)
Foreign languages are employed in product advertisements to associate the products with
ethno-cultural stereotypes of the speakers of the foreign languages (France: elegance).
Topics identified:
Frequency of occurrence of FL
Sella (1993) Majority of 1200 Greek advertisements contains FL, mainly English, but also
some French and Italian.
Effects of FL
Petrof (1990) English and French on attitudes, comprehension, intention, recall; French was
better for attitude and recall.
FL as a part of standardization
Mueller (1992) English as main instrument of Westernization in Japanese ads; more than
80% contain English language.
Standardization = advertising execution strategies intended for one national audience are
also used for a different national audience.
Westernization = Western advertising execution strategies (e.g. Caucasian models and the
English language) are applied in advertising in non-Western countries.
Connections with products and countries
Ray et al. (1991) German and Japanese associated with engineering quality, e.g. cars.
Mazda: Kansei Volkswagen: Fahrgegnügen
Foreign branding
Leclerc et al. (1994) Brand names such as ‘Larient’.
France hedonism; USA utilitarianism
French brand names lead to better evaluations when they promote hedonistic products (e.g.
nail polish) rather than utilitarian products (e.g. petrol).
English versus Spanish for US Hispanics
Koslow et al. (1994) 4 types of ads.
Hispanics perceived the advertiser to be more culturally sensitive when the advertisers used
(some) Spanish than when they used only English.
Conclusion
Solid academic interest in foreign languages in advertising, both in the business domain
(marketing, advertising) and the linguistic domain (applied linguistics, sociolinguistics,
,psycholinguistics), but lack of integration of insights from one field to the other, which
hampers research progress.
Studies in the field of linguistics have hardly incorporated insights from marketing and
advertising.
Consumer Culture Positioning (CCP) strategies
How can this diversity of topics be meaningfully integrated from a marketing point of view?
Snyder et al. (1991) and Mueller (1992) were first to study use of languages in a marketing
context. Three perspectives:
National character = restriction to local languages.
Foreign character = use of non-local languages but not English.
Standardized/global character = through the use of English.
Alden et al. (1999) present a framework that captures all three functions of foreign
languages in advertising and goals with which various languages can be used in advertising.
Language
Aesthetic
Story theme
Brand positioning = ensuring that a brand has a unique position among its competitor brands
for the customer depends on number of variables, including language choice.
Alden et al. (1999) Corpus analysis of more than 1200 TV commercials from 7 countries.
85% unique CCP strategy: 70% LCCP; 25% GCCP; 5% FCCP
Global Consumer Culture Positioning = identifies the brand as a symbol of a give global
culture featuring the idea that consumers all over the world consume a particular brand or
appealing to certain human universals might invest the brand with the cultural meaning of
being a conduit to feeling at one with global culture.
Local Consumer Culture Positioning = 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.
Foreign Consumer Culture = a strategy that positions the brand as symbolic of a specific
foreign consumer culture; that is, a brand whose personality, use occasion, and/or user
group are associated with a foreign culture.
Yin (1999) Marketing managers from 140 countries were asked to rate the importance of
different ad components used to localize ads. Language was the number one. Models,
humour, scenic background followed.
, Chapter 2. Theoretical Perspectives
Foreign language = a language that is not the person’s mother tongue learned from birth.
Varying degree of foreignness
Unidentifiable and incomprehensible
Identifiable but incomprehensible
Identifiable and partly comprehensible
Identifiable and fully comprehensible
Official language but not in the consumer’s part of the country, varying degrees of
comprehensibility
One of the languages fully mastered and used daily by bilinguals
Consumers’ evaluation of ads with foreign languages may vary depending on their degree of
foreignness.
Combinations with receivers’ mother tongue(s):
Code-switching = the use of two different languages or language varieties within a
single conversation or written text.
Code-mixing
Borrowings
In other work the term code-switching emphasizes a multilingual speaker's movement from
one grammatical system to another, while the term code-mixing suggests a hybrid form,
drawing from distinct grammars. In other words, code-mixing emphasizes the formal aspects
of language structures or linguistic competence, while code-switching emphasizes linguistic
performance.
Code-switching Attracting attention and evoking the country of origin related to the
foreign language used.
Evoking a sense of internationalism, modernity, and prestige
Code-switching within sentences = intrasentential code-switching (example by Luna &
Peracchio, 2005)
Code-switching between sentences = intersentential code-switching (example by Hornikx &
Van Meurs, 2013)
‘In Arizona spring has a way of warming los corazones’
Intrasentential code-switching in an ad in Latina magazine, popular among Spanish-
speaking women in the USA.
‘Absolute lasting liquid lipstick’
Intersentential code-switching in a Spanish-language ad for the Deborah brand in
Cosmopolitan magazine in Spain.
‘Because sometimes, a girl’s gotta walk’
Code-switching with respect to Umfeld, in an all-English ad for Skechers.
Two models used as a framework for studying foreign languages in advertising:
1) Revised Hierarchical Model
While a dictionary presents words together with their meanings, the Revised Hierarchical
Model proposes that in the human mind words and their corresponding meanings are
