Effects of foreign product names and country‐of‐origin attributions on advertisement evaluations

Abstract

AbstractIn an effort to correct methodological problems with previous research on effects of country‐of‐origin attributions, two experiments examined college students' reactions to brief oral or written ads for products with English, French, German, or Spanish names. Subjects rated how much they liked the ad and liked the product name and rated their likelihood of purchasing the product. Results showed that, overall, English names were generally favored over the foreign names. This finding, however, varied tremendously with the product; for several products one or more of the foreign names was preferred. Country of origin also frequently interacted with either sex or modality of the ad. In general, written ads were preferred over oral ones. Results were interpreted as arguing for great care and caution in interpreting country‐of‐origin effects. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.