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Implicit vs explicit expression on advertising in a cross-cultural study: the mediating role of processing fluency and number of alternatives

JaeHyun Yoon (Business Administration, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea)
Hanku Kim (Business Administration, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea)

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

ISSN: 1355-5855

Article publication date: 21 October 2021

Issue publication date: 16 August 2022

467

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the moderating effect of culture on the phrase expression type that affects product attitude. Moreover, to identify the mechanism by which these effects occur, the authors investigated the mediating role of processing fluency, and examined how such a mediating effect of processing fluency varies with number of alternatives.

Design/methodology/approach

Three experiments were conducted to verify the hypotheses presented in this study. Experiment 1 tested the effects of phrase expression type and culture on product attitude; a two-factor design (phrase expression type: explicit expression vs implicit expression) was applied, and culture was classified according to nationality. Experiment 2 tested the mediating effect of processing fluency on product attitude, using the same approach as Experiment 1. Experiment 3 tested the moderated mediating role of the number of alternatives, a between-group experimental design of 2 (phrase expression: explicit expression vs implicit expression) × 2 (number of alternatives: many vs few) was applied.

Findings

Experiment 1's results demonstrate that product attitude is more favorable when implicit expressions are used for Asians, whereas it is more favorable with explicit expressions for Westerners. Experiment 2 verifies that the interaction effect between phrase expression type and culture on product attitude is mediated by processing fluency. Experiment 3's results demonstrate that the number of alternatives moderates the mediating role of processing fluency for Westerners, but has no effect on the processing fluency for Asians.

Originality/value

This study provides novel insights and expands the field of study of phrase expression types by separating the ambiguous boundaries among phrase presentation types. Furthermore, this study provides practical guidelines for establishing effective advertising strategies for companies by suggesting suitable phrase expression types based on culture.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable insights.

Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Citation

Yoon, J. and Kim, H. (2022), "Implicit vs explicit expression on advertising in a cross-cultural study: the mediating role of processing fluency and number of alternatives", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 1596-1613. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-04-2021-0289

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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