Formation of hypotheses

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(2005) found that purchase intention is more strongly affected by the accent when advertising a low involvement product, compared to high involvement which corresponds well with the Elaboration Likelihood Model. Furthermore, several scholars emphasize the importance of culture of brand origin in order to influence the purchase intention. Accents with which consumers negatively connote an image elicit negative effects on purchase intention, while the positive consequences of a positive country image are weaker or non-existing (Mai & Hoffmann, 2014).

3.3.5. ATTENTION

Previous research has found differences in attention to the message, and memory of the information given, depending on what accent is used (Lalwani et al., 2005). Therefore it is of interest to see whether the tested language varieties in this study have effect on consumer attention. Morales, Scott and Yorkston (2012) showed in a study, comparing British standard accent (i.e. received pronunciation) and the non-standard accent Southern American in radio advertising, that while a non-standard accent is rated more favourably than a non-standard accent, it actually results in lower brand recall. Lalwani et al. (2005) also looked at radio advertising, but in Singapore, and found that advertisements using a ‘Singlish’ accent got more attention from respondents than did advertisements using a British accent. This could also be seen as a comparison between standard and non-standard accents, just like in the study of Morales et al. (2012).

It therefore seems to be a trade-off in the choice of accent, where the marketer must choose between advert liking or advert recall. According to Solomon (2015), there are three types of memory. The sensory memory lasts for a few seconds and is a temporary storage of sensory information. The short-term memory lasts no longer than 20 seconds and is a brief storage of the information currently used. The long-term memory is a relatively permanent storage of information. In order to go from short- to long-term memory, information must be rehearsed or processed thoroughly. This is too extensive to test in this study. Going from sensory to short-term memory can, however, be tested. Short-term memory is achieved through attention, i.e. the person must be attentive to the sensory stimuli to be able to remember it short-term.

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respondents’ purchase intention as well as their attention to the message. The reason behind the differences is thought to be affected by the respondents’ relationship with the accent they are being exposed to as well as underlying stereotypes. By altering the accent in commercials it is only the sound stimulus that is changed. Ultimately, by taking the accent into consideration when advertising, marketers should be able to affect how their brand is perceived and thereby increase their brand equity. The results of the study should give insights about how language varieties affect the perception of, and attitude towards, brands. Below follows the hypotheses tested together with short summaries of previous research and expected results.

H1: Brand personality

Brand personality is one of three dimensions building brand image and also the one most affected by communicative elements (Plummer, 2000). According to Aaker (1997), consumers associate brands with human characteristics which determines the brand’s personality. How the brand personality is determined is largely dependent on individuals’ associative networks in which many pieces of relevant information is stored. Marketers can use cues to spark consumers’ associations and thereby affect the perception of a brand. For example, if the definitions of stereotypes from previous literature will be found in this research, the American commercial should elicit associations to excitement and competence in particular. The brand should in the British commercial be considered competent and sophisticated, while the Australian accent should associate the brand with mainly sincerity and ruggedness (Kreuger, 1996; Stephan et al., 1993;

Ladegaard, 1998). Since the exposure to sound is a determinant sensory stimuli affecting consumer perception and accents can spark associative networks (Solomon, 2015), the first hypothesis is developed:

H1: The commercials communicate different brand personalities

H1a: The Swedish commercial communicates a brand personality different from the English commercials H1b: At least one of the English commercials communicates a brand personality different from the others

H2: Credibility

Ohanian (1990; 1991) emphasizes the importance of source credibility in advertising, which she means that receivers’ acceptance of a message is dependent upon. While several researchers have measured

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accent effects on the credibility of the spokesperson (Birch & McPhail, 1999; Lalwani, Lwin & Leng Li, 2005; Tsalikis et al., 2013; Reinares-Lara, Martín-Santana & Muela-Molina, 2016), less has been studied on brands. Following the same logic as for brand personality, associations made to the spoken accent can influence consumers perception of the spokesperson’s credibility. If then human characteristics can be transferred to a brand (Aaker, 1997), it is of interest to investigate the source credibility of a brand. Hence, the second hypothesis follows:

H2: The commercials communicate different levels of source credibility

H2a: The Swedish commercial communicates a source credibility level different from the English commercials

H2b: At least one of the English commercials communicates a source credibility level different from the others

H3: Likeability

Likability of a spokesperson is described as an effect of the source’s physical appearance, behaviour and other personal characteristics (Birch & McPhail, 1999). Previous research has found contradictory results on what type of accents evoke greater likability (Birch & McPhail, 1999; Carrie, 2017). Since the assumption can be made that companies want their brands to be liked, the third hypothesis aims to test if either of the so far contradictory results can be found for brand likability:

H3: The commercials evoke different levels of likability

H3a: The Swedish commercial evokes a brand likability different from the English commercials H3b: At least one of the English commercials evokes a higher brand likability than the others

H4: Relationship

The relationship between a brand and its consumers can be strengthened by the consumer’s positive attitude towards the brand (Heding et al., 2016). According to the Social Identity Theory, the receiver of

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a message tend to think positively about the spokesperson when (s)he identifies with him/her (DeShields

& de los Santos, 2000). A strong relationship towards a specific country, language or accent could therefore evoke positive attitudes towards a brand. This theory is further developed into the concept of in-group and outin-group behaviour, which insinuate that consumers choose brands that unite or separate them from that group. By sharing characteristics with others, the feeling of belongingness to a group increases (Heding et al., 2016). The language and accent that individuals speak themselves affect how they perceive others (Bruce, 2010), and can therefore influence the Social Identity as well as in-groups and outgroups.

Based on the above reasoning, the following hypothesis is formulated:

H4: The closer relationship the respondent has to an accent, the more favourably a commercial in this accent will be rated

This hypothesis is only tested for the three different English accents, and not for differences between the Swedish and English commercials. The reason is that the hypothesis is tested on a Swedish population and it is therefore assumed that all respondents have a very strong relationship to Swedish. This prevents a correlation analysis for the Swedish commercial.

H5: Purchase intention

The ultimate goal for many companies is to persuade consumers to purchase which means their brand equity is translated into actual financial value. Accents can affect purchase intentions indirectly in more than one way. Firstly, accents affect perceptions of competency, attractiveness and source credibility which in turn affect purchase intention (Tsalikis et al., 1991; DeShields et al., 1996). Secondly, the relationship between the consumer’s and the spokesperson’s country-of-origin impacts the consumer’s purchase intention (DeShields et al., 1997). Lastly, foreign accents can have a detrimental effect, contrary to a standard accent which can elicit positive effect, on purchase intention. This is strongly connected to culture of brand origin which tend to have effects on brand image and thus purchase intentions (Mai &

Hoffmann, 2014). Due to the many underlying factors affecting purchase intention, the following hypothesis is tested:

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H5: The commercials lead to different degrees of purchase intention

H5a: The Swedish commercial leads to a different degree of purchase intention than the English commercials

H5b: At least one of the English commercials leads to different degree of purchase intention than the others

H6: Attention

Previous research have found that depending on the accent used in a message, the attention to the message as well as the memory of information given varies (Lalwani et al., 2005). Standard accents have been shown to be rated more favourably than a non-standard accent, but a non-standard accent results in better brand recall (Morales et al., 2012; Lalwani et al., 2005) which creates a trade-off for marketers. Since the previous research have tested standard versus non-standard accent there exists a gap in whether these findings are applicable when comparing several standard accents. Therefore, the last hypothesis tests:

H6: The commercials attract different levels of attention

H6a: The Swedish commercial attracts another level of attention than the English commercials H6b: At least one of the English commercials attracts a level of attention different from the others