That's wrong! Right? The effects of language errors in online and offline advertisements on brand recall and recognition, text evaluation, author perceptions and persuasiveness.
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2019-08-30
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en
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Abstract
Building on studies concerning language errors, the present study aimed at uncovering the effects of different types of errors across media representations on brand recall, brand recognition, text evaluation, author perceptions and persuasiveness. This was done to examine whether marketeers could use language errors to break through the advertising clutter or whether language errors negatively affect the ad’s persuasiveness.
To date, studies concerning language errors were often limited to a single language error or texts containing different types of errors. These studies were missing comparisons between different types of errors or media. The current study added to research concerning the subject by comparing the effects of spelling and d/t-errors. Furthermore, online and offline advertising were compared to see whether effects differ across media representations. Participants (N = 207) evaluated two advertisements within one error condition, one on Facebook (online) and one in a magazine (offline).
It was found that overall salience of language errors was lacking as errors, especially d/t-errors, were not always noticed. Furthermore, results showed that, for both media, actual errors had no effect on the dependent variables, while perceived errors did. Participants who thought the ads contained errors negatively evaluated the ad’s attractiveness, the writer as well as the company. They also were less likely to purchase products than participants that did not notice any errors. Comprehensibility of the text was unaffected by error perception. Concerning brand recall and brand recognition, this study found no effects of error perception. Medium, however, did have an effect, but only on brand recognition. Participants were more likely to recognize the brand from an online ad than from an offline one. Thus, the findings would suggest that intentionally using language errors to attract attention may not be advisable since error perception negatively affects the overall ad including its author and persuasiveness.
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Faculteit der Letteren