Language Choice in Advertising for Multinational Corporations and Local Firms: A Re-Inquiry Focusing on Monolinguals

Abstract

This research involved conducting two studies to investigate whether the asymmetric language effects observed by Krishna and Ahluwalia (2008) among bilinguals can be replicated among monolinguals. In Study 1, we observed asymmetric language effects for local firms but not for multinational corporations (MNCs), which differs from Krishna and Ahluwalia’s observations. Based on Study 1’s results, Study 2 further proposes and tests two routes (language expectation and language-based association) that lead to consumer slogan evaluations. The findings of Study 2 suggest that slogan evaluations for MNCs were determined via the language expectation route, whereas evaluations for local firms were determined via the language-based association route. This research provides evidence that monolinguals have different responses to language choices in advertising than bilinguals do. Possible explanations and implications are discussed, and future research directions are outlined for this underexplored area