The Effect of French-sounding Brand Name on Brand Perception: The Moderating Effect of Language Familiarity

French language;psycholinguistics;phonetic symbolism;brand personality;branding in a foreign language;ZMET;658

NivottiJosselin경영대학 경영학과 ;

University:서울대학교 대학원

关键词: French language;    psycholinguistics;    phonetic symbolism;    brand personality;    branding in a foreign language;    ZMET;    658;   

Others  :  http://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/124371/1/000000002774.pdf

美国|英语

来源: Seoul National University Open Repository

【 摘 要 】

More and more brand names in foreign language are used by companies for their products all over the world. This thesis takes the case of French language in South Korea to understand how foreign consumers perceive a brand name in this language. The effect of several aspects such as syntactics, transliteration, phonetic symbolism (plosive and back vowel) and hedonism was studied on various aspects of the brand personality. Results through a qualitative study showed that Korean people divided France into four main concepts: pride, upper class, romantic and historic tourist destination, and finally hedonic diversity. In addition, France has an overall image of a relaxed country in which its population enjoys life. Via a quantitative study, it has been shown that a brand name in French is seen as more hedonic than other languages and that France also has a better hedonic image compared to other countries. In a third time, it has been demonstrated that transliterating a brand name in Latin alphabet into Korean alphabet increases the perceived competence of the brand but results in a decreased perception of the sophistication of the brand name. Concerning the phonetic symbolism aspect, a brand name starting with a back vowel has a better competent and sophisticated image than a brand name starting with a plosive. In addition, most Korean people are not able to differentiate a syntactically right brand name in French from a syntactically wrong one. Finally, language familiarity also plays an important role in the perception of brand name in French. A brand name in French in Latin alphabet is perceived as more sophisticated and competent to people who have a prior knowledge in French than those who do not. On the other hand, a brand name in French transliterated in Korean alphabet is perceived as more rugged. People who learnt French also perceive a syntactically correct brand name in French as more competent than a wrong one.