English or a Local Language in Advertising?: The Appreciation of Easy and Difficult English Slogans in the Netherlands

Abstract

Studies have demonstrated frequent use of English in international advertising, but little is known about people's preference for English versus local languages. This article empirically investigated the difficulty of the English language as a possible determinant of people's preference for English or the local language. In an experiment, Dutch participants judged a number of car ads with English slogans that were pretested as easy or difficult to understand. They were subsequently asked to express a preference for either the English slogan or the Dutch equivalent. Results showed that easy-to-understand English slogans were appreciated better than difficult-to-understand English slogans. Moreover, the degree of difficulty in comprehension of the English slogans affected participants' preference for English. English was preferred to Dutch when it was easy to understand; when it was difficult to understand, English was appreciated as much as the Dutch equivalent. In conclusion, the experiment provides empirical support for the role of comprehension in the preference for and appreciation of English in international advertising.

The Inference of the Characteristics of Pharmaceutical Drug Advertising upon the level of Physicians’ Acceptance of Drugs in Jordan

“…A similar result was found for non-English examples: Dutch participants found it easier to comprehend French language advertisements where slogans were easy to understand (Hornikx & Starren, 2006). Adaptation of advertisements therefore appears to be the best strategy, but many products are advertised in a range of countries, and then a choice must be made of whether to standardize or adapt (Agrawal, 1995, Jos et al, 2010, with similar considerations to those discussed above.…”

Effects of Difficult and Easy English Slogans in Advertising for Dutch Consumers

“…For the difficult French slogans, participants had a preference for ads with the Dutch translations of these slogans (Hornikx and Starren 2006). For the difficult English slogans, there were no differences in preference (Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer 2010). The studies by Hornikx and Starren (2006) and Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer (2010) used the complexity of slogans (difficult-easy) as a measure of comprehension.…”

“…For the difficult English slogans, there were no differences in preference (Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer 2010). The studies by Hornikx and Starren (2006) and Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer (2010) used the complexity of slogans (difficult-easy) as a measure of comprehension. In both studies, the relationship between complexity and comprehension was tested in a pretest, which showed that difficult slogans were more frequently mistranslated and were rated as more difficult than the easy slogans.…”

“…One study showed that the attitude of Dutch viewers toward spoken English phrases in television commercials was predicted by the degree of accuracy of their transcriptions of these phrases (an indirect measure of comprehension) (Gerritsen et al 2000). Two other studies with Dutch participants revealed that easy French and English slogans were appreciated more than difficult slogans in these languages (Hornikx and Starren 2006;Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer 2010). These two studies also showed that when the French and English slogans were easy, the participants preferred the ads with French and English slogans to ads with Dutch translations of these slogans.…”

“…In both studies, the relationship between complexity and comprehension was tested in a pretest, which showed that difficult slogans were more frequently mistranslated and were rated as more difficult than the easy slogans. In addition, Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer (2010) showed that the slogans that were more often translated incorrectly and were rated as more difficult were appreciated less. Thus, these two studies indicate a clear link between predetermined complexity and actual and perceived comprehension.…”