Te quiero mama, I love you mum or Te quiero mum? English, Spanish or a mix of both? Investigating Mexican consumers' response and attitude towards language use in product advertising.
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2018-08-31
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en
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Language choice is often perceived to be of high importance for Multinational Corporations (MNCs) when operating internationally (Lin & Wang, 2016). Different studies have demonstrated that language and general language attitudes might or might not influence consumers' attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the product and purchase intention (e.g. Krisha & Ahluwalia, 2008; Van Hooft et al., 2016). Previous studies concerning Mexico have demonstrated the presence and importance of English in its contemporary society. However, these studies have often studied Mexico in relation to the US and thus failed to include cultural notions like consumer ethnocentrism. Furthermore, little research has been done on the effects of language choice when advertising different product categories (e.g. Álvarez, Uribe & De-la-Torre, 2017). Finally, in most cases only the mixed version ad with the simplest grammatical structure (Luna & Perrachio, 2005) was used. Therefore, the current study investigated the effect(s) of language choice on Mexican consumers attitude towards the product, attitude towards the ad and purchase intention when evaluating low and high involvement products. Additionally, it was aimed to find out whether consumer ethnocentrism also influenced consumer responses. Lastly, it was studied whether attitude towards the English language and the use of English could predict consumer responses of ads containing English. A 4 x 2 x 2 mixed design (repeated measures) was applied with language of the ad (Spanish, English, mix +Spanish, mix +English) as the between-subject factor and product involvement (low vs. high) as the within-subject factor. Consumer ethnocentrism (between-subject factor) was entered in the model as moderator. The results showed that language choice of the ad did not significantly affect attitude towards the advertisement, nor attitude towards the product nor purchase intention. Individuals with a low consumer ethnocentrism had a more positive attitude towards the high involvement than towards the low involvement product. No differences were found in the evaluations of subjects with a high consumer ethnocentrism. Finally, neither attitude towards the English language nor use of English yield to be significant predictors of consumer response. It can thus be concluded that irrespective of consumer ethnocentrism, Spanish, English or mixed language could be used when advertising high and low involvement products in Mexico. However, more research is needed to determine adequate advertising strategies for international organizations who consider advertising in Mexico.
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