Study on the effect of text direction and temporal focus on advertising persuasiveness

Abstract

Global brands are benefiting from the rapidly growing demand in China. Text displayed both vertically and horizontally is common in Chinese advertisements. The skillful use of text direction can effectively improve advertising persuasiveness. Using two studies, we find that the descriptions of an advertisement that are displayed vertically (vs. horizontally) result in enhanced advertising persuasiveness among consumers who focus on the past. In contrast, the reverse holds for consumers who focus on the future. Furthermore, the results show that consumers' sense of “feeling right” mediates the interaction effect. In addition, we demonstrate how product category plays a vital role in the three‐way interaction effects between product category, temporal focus, and text direction on “feeling right.” Compared with utilitarian products, vertical descriptions of hedonic products enhance consumers' sense of “feeling right” when they are in the past‐focus condition. Our findings enrich advertising theory and practice. Meanwhile, we also elucidate the effects of text direction on Chinese advertising.

How to Effectively Display Sponsorship Information: The Influences of External Time Cues and Information Type on Individuals’ Evaluations

“…Second, this research explained the influence of temporal framing as an external time cue from the perspective of processing style, different from the perspective of individual internal perceptions used in past studies, such as a desire to savor the experience ( Huang et al, 2016 ) and familiarity or novelty seeking ( Zhang and Guo, 2019 ). Although many researchers suggest that time-related issues should be investigated, they remain largely ignored in empirical research ( Lin and Liao, 2020 ; Xi et al, 2021 ). Third, but most important, the current research also investigated whether the manipulations of temporal framing generated differences in the perceived temporal distance from the sponsorship campaigns.…”

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“…Structural aspects of language, such as script writing systems (logographic, syllabary, alphabet, pictographic, gesture) and direction of the script (left‐to‐right, right‐to‐left, mixed, vertical), invoke the Whorfian link between language and cognition, making them a point of interest for researchers in social marketing communication (Xi et al, 2022). Tavassoli and Lee (2003) suggested the potency of auditory cues (music, sound effects, and brand tune) for English advertisements, while visual cues are considered more effective for Chinese advertisements due to their distinctive writing systems.…”

“…Surprisingly, our findings underscore a noticeable absence of prior attempts to establish a relational structure within the framework of linguistic relativity (LR) perspectives. Recent research has examined the individual effects of enablers such as accent (Laroche et al, 2022) and text direction (Xi et al, 2022) on advertising and consumer responses, yet a gap persists in understanding their interconnected influence of accent and text direction on overall marketing communication effectiveness. Notably, studies addressing color effects lack consideration of the linguistic relativity (LR) perspective and diverse cultures (Lim et al, 2020).…”

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