A sociolinguistic perspective of the effects of packaging in bilingual markets

Huda Khan () and Richard Lee ()
Additional contact information
Huda Khan: University of South Australia
Richard Lee: University of South Australia

Journal of Brand Management, 2020, vol. 27, issue 2, No 2, 130-142

Abstract: Abstract Packaging is an important element of brand management. For a large swath of the bilingual non-Western world, it is important to consider the effects of English versus local language on packaging evaluation. This study draws on the sociolinguistic theory of the Markedness Model to explain what underpins the effects. First, pretests identified suitable Western and local brands, the expected language for the brands, and attributes associated with English and with Urdu (the local language of Pakistan, this study’s context). A mall-intercept survey (n = 209) found that Urdu (English) was strongly related to sense-of-belonging (modernity). For the Western brand in Urdu packaging, sense-of-belonging mediated the effects of language on packaging evaluation because Urdu was unexpected for the Western brand. Similarly, for the local brand in English (the unexpected language) packaging, modernity had strong mediating effects. Also, consumer ethnocentrism moderated the effects by accentuating the effects of sense-of-belonging and attenuating the effects of modernity. Collectively, the results point to the interactions of country-of-origin (COO) and language on packaging evaluation and call into question COO studies that derive findings from ‘made in country-x’ cues. Cue language may bias the reported COO effects depending on whether the language is expected or unexpected for a particular country.

Keywords: Language association; Bilingual; Markedness Model; Packaging; Sociolinguistic theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41262-019-00176-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jobman:v:27:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1057_s41262-019-00176-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41262

DOI: 10.1057/s41262-019-00176-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Brand Management is currently edited by Joachim Kernstock, Shaun M. Powell, Mark Davies and Ur a Golob

More articles in Journal of Brand Management from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().