The effect of the indication of the country of origin and foreign languages in advertising for hedonic and utilitarian products.

Abstract

In advertising, the indication of the country of origin (COO) can be used to provide more information about a product. When a customer evaluates the COO positively, the product originating from that country is likely to be evaluated more positively as well. There are two common ways to indicate the COO: directly indicating it by using the phrase “Made in...”, or using a slogan in a foreign language (Foreign Language Display: FLD). This paper reports on a study into the effects of the use of the indication of COO and FLD in advertising for hedonic and utilitarian products. A total of 235 Dutch participants evaluated eight versions of advertisements. The independent variables were the COO (France or Germany), the COO marker (indication of COO: “Made in France/Germany” or FLD: slogan) and the type of product (hedonic or utilitarian).