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Journal of Advertising
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Enhancing Recall and Recognition for Brand Names and Body

Copy: A Mixed-Language Approach
a b
Jungsun Ahn & Carrie La Ferle
a
Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing, Michigan State University
b
Temerlin Advertising Institute, Southern Methodist University
Published online: 04 Mar 2013.

To cite this article: Jungsun Ahn & Carrie La Ferle (2008) Enhancing Recall and Recognition for Brand Names and Body Copy: A Mixed-
Language Approach, Journal of Advertising, 37:3, 107-117, DOI: 10.2753/JOA0091-3367370308

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 Enhancing Recall and Recognition for
Brand Names and Body Copy
A Mixed-Language Approach
Jungsun Ahn and Carrie La Ferle

ABSTRACT: As the inclusion of foreign languages in advertisements is a growing global trend, this research examines
how language choice may influence important advertising outcome measures within a South Korean advertising context.
Specifically, the study aims to explore how foreign and local languages influence recall and recognition for brand name and
body copy messages. The interaction of using two languages in an advertisement to convey different elements of the ad
may secure varied levels of attention and comprehension. The findings suggest that recall and recognition are significantly
affected by the language presented. An ad presenting a brand name in the foreign language (English Roman alphabet)
with the body copy message in the local language (Hangul) is an effective strategy to enhance recall and recognition of the
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 14:04 19 December 2014

brand name and the ad message within the Korean youth market. The results of this study expand linguistic theory within
an advertising context while also providing international advertisers with useful tips when operating in a multinational
marketplace. Future research avenues are discussed.

Language is important to consider in an advertising context
because the effectiveness of messages in ads depends on how
properly words and other symbolic representations are em-
ployed and received (Neelankavil, Mummalaneni, and Sessions
1995; Ueltschy and Ryans 1997). The inclusion of foreign
languages in advertisements is a growing trend throughout the
world and is attributed to the increasing number of emerging
global brands and the marketing practices of multinational
companies (Cutler, Javalgi, and White 1995; Domzal, Hunt,
and Kernan 1995; Hancock 1999; Neelankavil, Mummala­
neni, and Sessions 1995; Ray, Ryder, and Scott 1991; Wang
et al. 1997). As a potent symbol of globalization, English has
become one of the most popular foreign languages used in
advertisements in many non-native English speaking markets
such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea (Crystal 1997;
Cutler, Javalgi, and White 1995; Harris et al. 1986; Mueller
1992; Ray, Ryder, and Scott 1991; Taylor and Miracle 1996;
Voigt 2001). However, little is known about mixed-language
approaches across borders.
Similar to the continuum view of standardized and local-
ized issues in marketing strategies (Ueltschy and Ryans 1997;
White 2000; Yin 1999), a growing number of empirical studies
Jungsun Ahn (M.A., Michigan State University) is a Ph.D. can-
didate in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and
Retailing at Michigan State University.
Carrie La Ferle (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an as-
sociate professor in the Temerlin Advertising Institute, Southern
Methodist University.
have applied this continuum approach to assessing mixed-lan-
guage techniques in advertising (Caruana and Abdilla 2005;
Koslow, Shamdasani, and Touchstone 1994; Luna, Lerman,
and Peracchio 2005; Luna and Peracchio 2001, 2002, 2005a,
2005b; Taylor and Miracle 1996; Ueltschy and Ryans 1997;
Zhang and Schmitt 2004). For instance, in a study undertaken
in Mexico, Ueltschy and Ryans (1997) measured the influence
of varying degrees of visual and language standardization
on attitudes toward advertising. Zhang and Schmitt (2004)
researched language proficiency issues in the processing of En­
glish and Chinese brand names in mainland China. Altering the
use of English and Spanish in U.S. ads, Koslow, Shamdasani,
and Touchstone (1994) investigated the effects of language on
attitude toward the ad for Hispanic Americans.
The past five years have, in fact, seen an increase in research
from linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic perspec-
tives on the impact of bilingual messages in advertising. Across
these studies, a number of outcomes have been assessed, such
as the effects of a first language versus a second language on
product evaluations, slogan evaluations, and attitudes toward
advertisements. While often focused on bilingual subjects
with strong fluency in both languages, the research has further
identified several moderators, including picture–text congruity
(Luna and Peracchio 2001), need for cognition and processing
motivation (Luna and Peracchio 2002), attitude toward the
language (Luna and Peracchio 2005a), type of processing (Luna,
The authors thank the previous Editor, Russell Laczniak, and the
three anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.
Journal of Advertising, vol. 37, no. 3 (Fall 2008), pp. 107–117.
© 2008 American Academy of Advertising. All rights reserved.
ISSN 0091-3367 / 2008 $9.50 + 0.00.
DOI 10.2753/JOA0091-3367370308
 108 The Journal of Advertising
Lerman, and Peracchio 2005), attitude toward code switching
(Luna and Peracchio 2005b), context in which code-switched
ads are presented (Luna and Peracchio 2005b), and the time of
acquiring a second language (Caruana and Abdilla 2005).
However, the influence of language on consumer’s memory
(recall and recognition of what is presented in an ad) is rela-
tively underresearched (Luna and Peracchio 2001). In addition,
despite this growing body of research, it is still uncertain
how the interaction of using two languages to convey differ-
ent elements of the ad message (i.e., brand name versus body
copy) may influence advertising effectiveness. To the authors’
knowledge, no study to date could be found that has examined
this issue and none using participants who, while familiar
with the second language, are not necessarily fluent bilingual
speakers of both languages.
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The objectives of this study are therefore to examine how
foreign and local languages impact advertising effectiveness
within the South Korean market. The influence of language
on consumers’ memory for the brand name and the advertis-
ing message is assessed using English as the foreign language
and Korean as the local language. Adding to the uniqueness
and contribution of the study, both languages are processed
phonetically (Lee 2004), even though the English language is
written using the Roman alphabet while the Korean language
is written using the Hangul alphabet. Previous studies in this
area have typically either compared languages using a common
writing system such as the Roman alphabet (i.e., English-
Spanish, English-French, etc.) or have compared English with
Chinese (Zhang and Schmitt 2004), where the latter language
involves visual-semantic processing.
Results of such a study would benefit Korean marketers
and multinational advertisers entering the Korean market.
However, they would also be of interest to multinational
companies advertising in Japan, China, Hong Kong, and
Taiwan, as well as many European countries (Cutler, Javalgi,
and White 1995; Mueller 1996) where English may be used in
advertising, but not necessarily fluently spoken or understood
by all consumers.
Literature Review
Information Processing
Information-processing theory explains how people form
mental representations that may be stored in their long-term
memory and later retrieved (Domzal, Hunt, and Kernan 1995;
Harris et al. 1986; Kaufman-Scarborough 2001; Tybout,
Calder, and Sternthal 1981). During information acquisition,
organization, and utilization, the impact of an advertising mes-
sage is affected by factors that influence a recipient’s attention
to a message and the comprehension of the message content
(Wyer 2002). The origin of language (local versus foreign
language) is one influencing factor that could impact people’s
attention and comprehension of incoming information.
To acquire information, people must pay attention to
stimuli by selectively attending to the incoming information
(Deutsch and Deutsch 1963). Characteristics of ads that are
often considered to elicit more or less attention include size,
color, intensity, contrast, position, directionality, movement,
isolation, attractiveness, distinctiveness, and novelty (Domzal,
Hunt, and Kernan 1995; Kaufman-Scarborough 2001). A
foreign language as a novel and distinctive stimulus could
therefore be used to elicit attention for an ad during the infor-
mation acquisition stage, ultimately enhancing the probability
of encoding the material (Bettman 1979; Domzal, Hunt, and
Kernan 1995; Kaufman-Scarborough 2001; Lerman and Gar-
barino 2002; Lowrey, Shrum, and Dubitsky 2003).
Encoding takes place by organizing information in knowl-
edge structures called schemata (Bettman 1979; Domzal,
Hunt, and Kernan 1995; Harris et al. 1986; Tybout, Calder,
and Sternthal 1981). Most of the time, acquired information
that is familiar is placed into an already existing and activated
schema rather than a newly created one, making the activated
schema richer. Information in an enriched schema is more eas-
ily remembered and retrieved, and is therefore more likely to
influence people’s decision-making behavior (Domzal, Hunt,
and Kernan 1995; Lockhart and Craik 1990; Lowrey, Shrum,
and Dubitsky 2003). Although a foreign language may gar-
ner greater attention, given the richer and more developed
schemata for the local language, new information represented
in a local language should be more readily organized, com-
prehended, and more likely to be retrieved (Domzal, Hunt,
and Kernan 1995).
Local Versus Foreign Language Processing
The way individuals store local and foreign languages in
memory has been a core issue in bilingual research and is often
explained by the revised hierarchical model (RHM) (Dufour
and Kroll 1995; Kroll and Stewart 1994). The underlying
idea of the RHM is that a bilingual person’s two languages
are represented in memory in two levels, the lexical and the
conceptual level. Words in each language are stored separately
at a lexical level while they are connected to a shared semantic
representation at the conceptual level. The model specifies
the strength of the links between the first language (L1: local
language) and the second language (L2: foreign language) at a
lexical level (words) and the links between each language and
the meaning of words at the conceptual level.
For the conceptual links, the link between L1 and con-
cepts is stronger than the link between L2 and concepts. At
the lexical level, the link from L2 to L1 is stronger than the
link from L1 to L2. When individuals first learn words in
the L2 (low L2 proficiency), they tend to relate the words to

the equivalent words in the L1 to gain meaning (Dufour and
Kroll 1995; Kroll and Stewart 1994). As a bilingual becomes
more fluent in the L2, however, he or she can directly connect
the L2 words to the concepts, thus relying less on the L1. Yet
even for more fluent bilinguals (unless a person acquires a L2
in early childhood), the L1 is often superior to L2 in facilitat-
ing semantic processing (Dufour and Kroll 1995; Kroll and
Stewart 1994).
In an advertising context, the RHM has been used to ex-
plain effectiveness issues and moderating variables in the use
of first (L1) and second languages (L2) (Caruana and Abdilla
2005; Luna and Peracchio 2001, 2002). However, brand name
and body copy variations using a mixed-language approach
on recall and recognition measures have not been previously
examined.
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Recall and Recognition of Brand Names
Memory is often measured by recall and recognition (Gillund
and Shiffrin 1984; Lerman and Garbarino 2002; Lowrey 1998;
Lowrey, Shrum, and Dubitsky 2003; Tavassoli and Lee 2003).
Recall refers to “the ability to reproduce previously presented
items” and it occurs when long-term memory is searched and
a word is independently retrieved. In this retrieval process,
words that are strongly associated with preexisting schemata
are more easily retrieved than words with a weak association.
Semantic processing (focusing on the meaning of a word and
relating this meaning to the context) is considered as the most
intense and elaborate processing, and therefore results in the
strongest associations (Lerman and Garbarino 2002). A strong
association, as may be found with the use of familiar words
in a local language, often facilitates easier recall than a weak
association. On the other hand, when a word is processed
based on its sound or spelling (surface characteristics), a weak
association is likely to be formed.
Recognition is generally easier to achieve and is often de-
pendent on the contextual cues surrounding the word (Gillund
and Shiffrin 1984; Lerman and Garbarino 2002). Recognition
refers to “the ability to identify an item as having been recently
encountered” (Wixted and Squire 2004, p. 58). Uniqueness
or novelty, such as with the use of a foreign language, plays
an important role as an aid for recognition because distinctive
memory tends to stand out (Domzal, Hunt, and Kernan 1995;
Lerman and Garbarino 2002; Wyer 2002).
The brand name used in the current study is fictitious and
is not a word. This point is important, because it means that
the word cannot be processed semantically. People rarely focus
on the “meaning” of made-up new brand names; rather, they
tend to pay attention to the surface features such as the letters
(Elias and Perfetti 1973). Therefore, processing of a fictitious
brand name should primarily be influenced by the distinctive
characteristics of the word and letters presented (i.e., English
Fall 2008 109
Roman alphabet or Korean Hangul alphabet) (Lerman and
Garbarino 2002; Wyer 2002). New or nonword brand names
written in either Hangul or the Roman alphabet would form
a weak association at the time of encoding.
However, nonword brand names can still be recalled in the
absence of semantic processing, but they would be expected
to be recalled less than when meaningful brand name asso-
ciations occur and should default to a novelty effect as would
be found in the process of recognition (Domzal, Hunt, and
Kernan 1995). Therefore, based on information-processing
theory suggesting that a word presented in a foreign language
(Roman alphabetic script) may be more distinctive and gain
more attention over a word written in the local language, the
following outcomes are hypothesized for an ad with a newly
created nonword brand name.
H1: Brand name recall will be higher when the brand name is
written in English (Roman alphabet) than when it is written
in Korean (Hangul).
H2: Brand name recognition will be higher when the brand
name is written in English (Roman alphabet) than when it is
written in Korean (Hangul).
Recall and Recognition of Body Copy Messages
As much as the memorability of a brand name is critical for the
success of an ad, the memorability of the body copy message
is also an important aspect of advertising effectiveness. Copy
messages often contain important product information such
as key attributes and/or benefits of the advertised product. For
this important information to influence consumers’ buying
decisions, it needs to be understood and remembered (Lowrey
1998). Koreans’ familiarity with Korean words may allow for
more effective organization and retrieval of Korean messages
than English messages (Domzal, Hunt, and Kernan 1995; Ger-
ritsen et al. 2000). The RHM also suggests that since people
have a stronger L1-concept link than an L2-concept link, it is
easier for them to comprehend and remember an L1 ad than
an L2 ad (Luna and Peracchio 2001). Based on the familiarity
effect of Korean words and a stronger L1-concept link, the
following is hypothesized:
H3: Recall for the body copy message will be higher when the
copy is written in Korean than when it is written in English.
A deeper processing of information enhances not only recall
of the information, but also recognition of the information
(Muter 1984). Processing a sentence (body copy) may require
more semantic processing and less impression formation than the
processing of a word (brand name). Thus, messages written in the
more familiar Korean language (Hangul) may result in deeper
processing, and in turn, may also enhance message recognition
more than messages written in English (Roman alphabet).
 110 The Journal of Advertising
H4: Recognition for the body copy messages will be higher
when the copy is written in Korean than when it is written
in English.
Method
Design of the Study
To investigate the effectiveness of using both the Korean and
English languages in a Korean advertising context, a 2 (lan-
guage of brand name: Korean versus English) × 2 (language of
body copy: Korean versus English) between-subjects factorial
design was employed. Two hundred and eighty-two Korean
college students in Korea participated in this study. Among
those, 46 students participated in a pretest and the remaining
236 students took part in the main survey. Participants were of-
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fered a small monetary incentive to encourage participation.
Using college students as participants is relevant to this
study because the effect of using English words in advertis-
ing (especially message comprehension) depends on people’s
knowledge about English (Domzal, Hunt, and Kernan 1995;
Wyer 2002). Today, Koreans start learning English in primary
school (Lee 2006) and often continue up through college
(Report World 2005). Since Korean college students tend to
understand English better than other age groups in Korean
society, if college students consider the English body copy to
be challenging (which is believed to be true for Koreans in gen-
eral), it is likely that people in other age groups will consider
the English body copy even more challenging. Therefore, by
using student participants, the study is testing the hypotheses
in a more controlled condition than would be found with a
pool of participants of varying ages.
Pretest
Brand Name and Product Selection
A pretest was conducted to select an appropriate brand name
and a product to be used in the main survey. It was necessary to
select a nonword that would be perceived as neither a Korean
nor an English word. Using a real word could impact recall
and recognition, as familiarity with the word could interact
with the language of presentation. As an example, the Korean
word 나무 (tree) may be recalled better when it is written in
its original language than when it is written with the Roman
alphabet (namoo). This occurs because the word is processed
differently depending on the subject’s familiarity with the
language. Koreans would be able to process the Korean word
semantically, whereas the romanized namoo may not elicit such
processing. Therefore, by selecting a nonword, this variable
can be controlled and the true language effect (Korean versus
English) can be tested.
Forty-six students were randomly assigned to one of two
conditions: 10 fictitious brand names developed by the re-
searchers (i.e., sade, caru, dazo, eetem, bogo . . . ) were either
written in English using the Roman alphabet (condition 1:
i.e., bogo) or were written in Korean using Hangul (condition
2: i.e., 보고). Participants were also asked to rate their interest
in 10 different products (e.g., cell phones, digital camera, MP3
player, credit card). All instructions and questions were written
in Korean to ensure comprehension of the task. All questions
were asked on a seven-point Likert-type scale with a higher
number reflecting a stronger affinity toward the item.
Pretest Results
To be considered as a country-neutral brand name, people
needed to consider the brand name as neither a Korean nor an
English word (“4” on a seven-point Likert scale would indicate
a “neutral” word). The descriptive statistics indicated that bogo
was the most country-neutral word across both conditions:
MEnglish = 4.13; MKorean = 3.63; t(45) = 1.25; p > .05 (in con-
ditions 1 and 2 combined). For product selection, the results
of t tests revealed that participants were most interested in
digital cameras (Mdigital-camera = 5.37).
Main Study
Stimuli
Print ads representing the four conditions of interest were
professionally developed (see the Appendix). Each ad was
embedded within a magazine story. The four ad conditions
consisted of (1) English brand name with English body copy,
(2) English brand name with Korean body copy, (3) Korean
brand name with Korean body copy, and (4) Korean brand
name with English body copy. The magazine story was the
same for all conditions and was written in Korean. A picture
of an existing camera was modified by removing any iden-
tifiable symbols from the original picture. The body copy
included four statements describing a digital camera. The
statements were first written in English and translated into
Korean, and then backtranslated into English (Khairullah,
Tucker, and Tankersley 1996). Backtranslation was done by
two bilingual researchers who can speak both Korean and
English fluently.
Procedure
A total of 236 students were randomly assigned to one of the
four conditions. Participants were given three minutes to
view the article and ad, and then asked to fill out two sepa-
rate questionnaires. Once the ad and story could no longer be
seen, the first questionnaire asked participants to answer filler

questions to distract cognitive processing of the information.
The distraction task took approximately 10 minutes and par-
ticipants had to give their full cognitive attention to answer
the filler questions. Afterward, delayed recall responses for
the advertisement were obtained. Participants then turned in
the first questionnaire and began questions related to recogni-
tion, demographic information, language familiarity, English
proficiency, and product involvement. After completing the
second questionnaire, the participants were debriefed and
thanked for their participation.
Measures
Brand Name Recall and Recognition
Brand name recall was measured by asking participants to
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write down the brand name that was advertised in the ad they
saw (Lerman and Garbarino 2002). Brand name recognition
was measured using a multiple-choice question containing
six brand names: the correct brand name and five filler brand
names. Participants were asked to select the brand name
that was presented in the ad (Lerman and Garbarino 2002).
Brand name recall was measured separately from brand name
recognition so that answers could not be changed after seeing
brand name recognition options. Participants’ responses to
the recall and recognition measures for the brand name were
coded as either recalled/recognized (1) or not recalled/not
recognized (0).
Body Copy Recall and Recognition
Body copy recall was measured by asking participants to write
out as many statements as they could remember about the
body copy messages of the ad (Hunt, Kernan, and Bonfield
1992). It was requested that statements be written in either
Korean or English. Body copy recall was coded either correct
(+1), partially correct (+.5), or incorrect (0) for each of the four
statements. Previous research has only coded for correct (+1)
or incorrect (0) answers for recall measures of ad copy (Luna
and Peracchio 2001). However, the authors of the current
study added a “partially correct” category valued at “+.5” to
provide a more precise measure of the process. A response was
coded as partially correct when it was not precise enough. For
instance, one statement in the body copy was “You can enjoy
high quality motion pictures at 60 fps.” When a participant
wrote “60 fps enables a high quality motion picture,” this was
considered as a correct response (+1). If a participant responded
“the digital camera has a motion picture function,” this answer
received .5 point. If an incorrect response was provided or there
was no response, the answer received a zero. These three scores
were added to calculate the overall recall score with a possible
range between 0 to 4.
Fall 2008 111
Recognition of body copy was tested employing one mul-
tiple-choice question that included eight statements (adapted
from Luna and Peracchio 2002). Four statements were the
actual arguments presented in the ad, and the remaining four
statements were filler statements. The filler statements were
related to the digital camera and were of the same format as
the actual statements. The participants were instructed to
select as many statements as they could identify as being the
arguments presented in the body copy of the viewed ad. The
measures for body copy recognition were coded either correct
(+1) or incorrect (−1) for each answer a participant gave. The
numbers were added to indicate the total recognition level
ranging between a low of −4 and a high of 4.
Language Familiarity
Perceived familiarity with English and Korean was measured
by asking respondents to indicate the degree to which the
English (Korean) language was familiar on a seven-point Lik-
ert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree = 1 to strongly
agree = 7.
English Language Proficiency
English language proficiency was measured with three items
using a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (not comfortable at
all) to 7 (very comfortable). The participants were asked how
comfortable they were with reading, writing, and speaking in
English. A composite score was created (α = .82).
Product Involvement
Product involvement was measured with the following five
items on a seven-point Likert-type scale adapted from Cho
(2003): (1) Digital cameras are important to me, (2) I get in-
volved with digital cameras, (3) Digital cameras are relevant
to me, (4) I am going to use or buy a digital camera in the
next six months, and (5) I am interested in digital cameras in
general (α = .91).
Results
Among 236 participants, 59 were assigned to condition 1
(English brand name and English body copy), 60 to condition
2 (English brand name and Korean body copy), 58 to condi-
tion 3 (Korean brand name and Korean body copy), and 59
to condition 4 (Korean brand name and English body copy).
Over half the participants were female (59%). More than three-
quarters of the participants fell into the age group of 21 to 30
(77%) and another 20% were under the age of 20. Participants’
familiarity with Korean was found to be significantly higher
(M = 6.70, SD = .69) than their familiarity with English
 112 The Journal of Advertising
Table 1
c2 Tests for Brand Name Recall
1. Among participants who viewed English body copy (n = 18)
English brand name
(n = 59)
Brand name recall Frequency (%)
Observed 42 (71.2%)
Expected 26.5 (44.9%)
c2(1) = 32.92, p < .001
2. Among participants who viewed Korean body copy (n = 118)
English brand name
(n = 60)
Brand name recall Frequency (%)
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Observed 48 (80%)
Expected 35.1 (56%)
c2(1) = 23.29, p < .001
(M = 4.61, SD = 1.42), t(235) = 21.02, p < .001. Participants
were found to be involved with digital cameras (M = 4.80)
and reported a moderate proficiency for the English language
(M = 3.58 on a seven-point scale).
Brand Name Recall
It was hypothesized that recall would be higher for a brand
name when it was written in the Roman alphabet than when
it was written in Korean script (Hangul) (H1). The results
of a χ2 test showed that brand name recall was significantly
higher for the romanized brand name (71.2%) than for the
Hangul-script brand name (18.7%) among people who viewed
the English body copy ad, χ2(1) = 32.92, p < .001. The same
pattern was observed among participants seeing the Korean
body copy ad: brand name recall was higher for the English
brand name (80%) than for the Korean brand name (36.2%),
χ2(1) = 23.29, p < .001. H1 was therefore supported. The find-
ings are summarized in Table 1.
Brand Name Recognition
H2 predicted that brand name recognition would be higher
when the name was spelled in English than when it was spelled
in Korean. A χ2 test showed a similar pattern as the results
of the brand name recall test. For the English body copy con-
dition, more participants recognized the brand name when
it was spelled in English (98.3%) than when it was spelled
in Korean (59.3%), χ2(1) = 26.41, p < .001. This result was
also consistent in the Korean body copy condition: 96.7%
for the English brand name and 55.2% for the Korean one,
χ2(1) = 28.06, p < .001. H2 was therefore supported. The find-
ings are summarized in Table 2.
Korean brand name
(n = 59)
Frequency (%)
11 (18.7%)
26.5 (44.9%)
Korean brand name
(n = 58)
Frequency (%)
21 (36.2%)
33.9 (58.4%)
Body Copy Recall and Recognition
A 2 (brand name language) × 2 (body copy language) between-
subjects factorial ANOVA (analysis of variance) was calculated
to examine the effect of brand name language and body copy
language on body copy recall. A significant main effect for
the language of the body copy was found, F(1, 232) = 14.21,
p < .05, η2 = .058, 1-β > .98. No other effects were significant.
When participants viewed ads with Korean body copy, their
body copy recall scores were significantly higher (M = 1.39,
SD = .95) than when they viewed ads with English body copy
(M = .90, SD = 1.02), and this was regardless of the language
used for the brand name. Hence, H3 was supported.
A separate ANOVA was performed to test the effect of the
brand name language and the body copy language on body
copy recognition. The results indicate that the language of
the body copy significantly influenced body copy recogni-
tion, F(1, 232) = 4.70, p < .05, η2 = .020, 1-β > .70. Again,
no other effects were significant. Participants who viewed
ads with Korean body copy had higher recognition scores
(M = 2.87, SD = 1.11) than those who saw ads with English
body copy (M = 2.49, SD = 1.55), and this occurred regardless
of the language presented for the brand name. Thus, H4 was
supported. Cell means of the comparisons for H3 and H4 are
summarized in Table 3.
Discussion
A study was undertaken in South Korea to explore how the
language presented in an ad (local or foreign) may influence
memory for the brand name and the advertising message.
Overall, the findings suggest that an ad presenting the brand
name in a foreign language (English) with the body copy in
 Fall 2008 113

Table 2
c2 Tests for Brand Name Recognition

1. Among all participants who viewed English body copy (n = 117)

English brand name Korean brand name

(n = 58) (n = 59)
Brand name recall Frequency (%) Frequency (%)

Observed 57 (98.3%) 35 (59.3%)

Expected 45.6 (78.6%) 46.4 (78.7%)
c2(1) = 26.41, p < .001

2. Among all participants who viewed Korean body copy (n = 118)

English brand name Korean brand name

(n = 60) (n = 58)
Brand name recall Frequency (%) Frequency (%)
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Observed 58 (96.7%) 32 (55.2%)

Expected 45.8 (76.3%) 44.2 (76.2%)
c2(1) = 28.06, p < .001

Table 3
Cell Means for Advertising Body Copy Recall and Recognition

1. Body copy recall

English brand name Korean brand name Total

English body copy .96 (n = 59) .84 (n = 59) .90 (n = 118)

Korean body copy 1.37 (n = 60) 1.41 (n = 58) 1.39 (n = 118)

2. Body copy recognition

English brand name Korean brand name Total

English body copy 2.61 (n = 59) 2.37 (n = 59) 2.49 (n = 118)

Korean body copy 2.88 (n = 60) 2.86 (n = 58) 2.87 (n = 118)

the local language (Hangul) is an effective strategy to enhance
recall and recognition of the brand name and the ad message
among young Korean adults.
The novel and distinctive nature of the Roman alphabet in
a Korean advertising context appears to have enhanced brand
name recognition by eliciting more attention during the in-
formation acquisition stage and allowed for the brand name to
be encoded as distinctive (Bettman 1979; Domzal, Hunt, and
Kernan 1995; Kaufman-Scarborough 2001; Lowrey, Shrum,
and Dubitsky 2003). This novelty factor seems to have also
influenced brand name recall.
Both results may be explained by considering processing
styles as well as the nonword nature of the brand name used
in this study. Data-driven processing requires perceptual
operation of stimuli (attending to perceptual cues), whereas
conceptually driven processing involves meaning or con-
ceptual elaboration (Roediger 1990). Previous research has
shown that when participants process the meaning of words
or slogans, this conceptual processing leads their attention to
semantic features rather than the surface characteristics of the
language, as is the case with data-driven processing (Luna,
Lerman, and Peracchio 2005). The brand name used in the
current study was a nonword written in either the Roman
alphabetic script or Hangul. Therefore, participants could
not have processed the brand name in a conceptually driven
mode. Most likely they processed the brand name in a data-
driven manner, paying attention to the novel or distinctive
surface characteristics of the name, such as the language the
name was written in.
In contrast, the higher recall and recognition scores for
the body copy written in Hangul can be better explained by
referring to the revised hierarchical model (RHM) and focus-
ing on people’s familiarity with the local language and their
strong conceptual link for the first language (L1). The more
 114 The Journal of Advertising
familiar local language of Hangul most likely facilitated a
more intense processing and therefore better comprehension of
messages written in the Korean language (L1) over the English
language (L2) (Domzal, Hunt, and Kernan 1995; Lwin and
Wee 1999; Tixier 1992). The participants might have felt
that the English messages were too challenging, leading to
miscomprehension or to a disengagement from processing of
the messages altogether (Domzal, Hunt, and Kernan 1995;
Gerritsen et al. 2000). These findings for body copy memory
are consistent with the notion of L1 being superior to L2 in
facilitating semantic processing as suggested by the RHM
(Dufour and Kroll 1995; Kroll and Stewart 1994), and they
extend this psycholinguistic processing theory to the Korean
scripted language of Hangul.
The findings are also consistent and lend support to some
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 14:04 19 December 2014
of Luna and Peracchio’s (2001) research examining when pic-
ture–text congruity acts as a moderator of language effects.
The researchers predicted that when there is a high level of
picture–text congruity, conceptual processing of L2 messages
would improve and thereby increase memory for second lan-
guage ads. In other words, the inferior nature of L2 messages
as predicted by the RHM would be reduced. For moderate
picture–text congruity as in the current study, however, Luna
and Peracchio (2001) predicted and found memory superiority
of L1 ads over L2 ads. These findings are consistent with both
the RHM and the current study’s findings.
The current study expands Luna and Peracchio’s (2001)
work of fluent Spanish-English bilinguals by extending their
results on moderate picture–text congruity to (1) a language
using a different writing system (Hangul versus the Roman
alphabetic scripts of English and Spanish), (2) a Korean-speak-
ing population (L1 is Hangul, not English or Spanish), and
(3) nonfluent L2-speaking individuals. The results further
expand on Luna and Peracchio’s (2001) work by examining
recall and recognition for a mixed language ad where the spe-
cific ad elements of brand name and body copy were varied
by language.
Future Research
In light of these issues and the findings, future research is
called for to examine a number of areas. First, the potential
role of the level of L2 proficiency in the processing of L1 ads
and L2 ads needs to be better understood. In fact, the major-
ity of studies in the area have selected bilingual subjects who
are highly proficient in their second language. Zhang and
Schmitt’s (2004) work is a notable exception; they found that
the level of language proficiency between L1 and L2 deter-
mined different modes of processing. However, they did not
examine how language proficiency affects bilinguals’ memory
for advertising messages. Therefore, future studies should in-
corporate various levels of L2 proficiency to fully understand
language effects on memory.
Future studies should similarly consider measuring people’s
perceived difficulty in comprehending English body copy to
better understand the process and to strengthen the validity
of the results. For example, future research could include dif-
ferent levels of copy difficulty (easy versus difficult) to test
the impact of perceived difficulty of English copy on message
recall and recognition. This suggestion becomes even more
important when samples of different age groups are selected
that would have varying levels of English ability in compari-
son to the sample of university students used in the current
study. Research in both areas is crucial, however, to enhance
the generalizability of the findings and to better understand
the process of influence of a mixed-language approach in
advertising.
Product involvement is another area where different levels
could be taken into consideration. Since the current study
selected a high-interest product category (digital cameras), the
participants might have had moderate to high motivation to
process the information. When people have low motivation
to process, they are not as likely to pay attention to the copy
of ads, regardless of the language presented. In this situa-
tion, people’s memory for L1 or L2 messages might not be
significantly different (Luna and Peracchio 2002). Therefore,
additional research is needed to examine the moderating effect
of product involvement.
The findings of brand name memory and body copy memory
were obtained using only one brand name, one product, and
one set of product attributes. Therefore, a conceptual replica-
tion of this study could be conducted using a variety of differ-
ent brand names, products, and product attributes. Slogans or
headlines versus body copy could also be examined. Variations
in the layout of the ad could further be tested. In addition,
since the major findings were main effects of brand name
language and body copy language, future research should try
to find moderators of these effects.
Finally, testing the proposed theory in other non-English–
speaking countries where English expression is often used in
advertising (i.e., Japan and China) would also be advantageous.
Furthermore, it would be interesting to explore the effect of
foreign language use in English-speaking countries. For in-
stance, the impact of using a mixed-language approach of a
Spanish brand name and English copy in American ads could
be examined. However, in a content analysis of 1,228 U.S.
television commercials, Taylor and Miracle (1996) found that
less than .4% of the ads used a brand name shown in a foreign
symbol system (i.e., Hangul, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). Therefore,
at the current time, it may be more fruitful to replicate Taylor
and Miracle’s (1996) study to see whether foreign symbol use
has grown in the United States over the past decade.

Conclusion
Growing bilingual environments in today’s global economy de-
mand that more research be undertaken to assess the theoretical
issue of how consumers with knowledge of two languages may
differentially process information (Zhang and Schmitt 2004).
Examining the impact of a mixed-language approach on recall
and recognition of brand names and copy was a step toward
achieving this goal. Assessing foreign elements in advertising
can provide implications for transferring advertising messages
between countries (Taylor and Miracle 1996). An ad presenting
the brand name in the English Roman alphabet (foreign lan-
guage) with the body copy message in Hangul (local language)
is an effective strategy to enhance recall and recognition of the
brand name and the ad message when approaching the Korean
young adult market. However, in applying the RHM to lan-
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guages using different writing systems within an advertising
context, similar results may also be found in other countries
where English is used in advertising (i.e., Thailand, Japan,
China, Arabic-speaking countries, etc.).
Future studies need to examine mixed-language approaches
in more detail and test the effects we found across different
populations, languages, and ad elements. As Luna and Per-
acchio noted in their 2005a article, “approximately 20% of
consumers in the United States consider themselves bilingual
(U.S. Census Bureau 2000) and approximately two-thirds
of the world’s children grow up in bilingual environments”
(Walraff 2000). The market size of bilingual consumers neces-
sitates the continued examination of the multiple influences
of language on advertising effectiveness.
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Appendix

Manipulations

English Brand Name with English Body Copy English Brand Name with Korean Body Copy
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Korean Brand Name with Korean Body Copy Korean Brand Name with English Body Copy