Language Choice in Advertising to Bilinguals: Asymmetric Effects for Multinationals versus Local Firms

We examine the role of language choice in advertising to bilinguals in global markets. Our results reveal the existence of asymmetric language effects for multinational corporations (MNCs) versus local firms when operating in a foreign domain, such that the choice of advertising language affects advertising effectiveness for MNCs but not local companies. Also, different language formats (e. g., the local language vs. English or a mix of the two languages) are shown to vary in their advertising effectiveness for different types of products (luxuries vs. necessities). Our results indicate that language choice for advertisements is an important decision for MNCs. Also, MNCs cannot mimic local companies in their choice of advertising language.