Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which cultural differences and slogan meaning type affect the role of comprehension in attitude toward the ad (A_ad) and attitude toward the brand (A_brand) formation.

Design/methodology/approach

In an online experiment, a total of 256 adult participants from the USA (ranged in age from 19 to 26 years old) and 184 participants from France (ranged in age from 18 to 28) were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (slogan: single meaning vs polysemous) in a between-subjects experimental design. After getting exposed to the ad, participants responded to questions related to their A_ad, A_brand, comprehension, uncertainty avoidance and demographics.

Findings

Results from this research demonstrate the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance and slogan type (single meaning vs polysemous) on the relationship between comprehension and A_ad. The authors show that for polysemous (and not single meaning) slogans, comprehension results in more favorable A_ad for low uncertainty avoidance individuals than for high uncertainty avoidance individuals. In addition, the authors demonstrate the mediating effect of A_ad in the relationship between comprehension and A_brand.

Research limitations/implications

The authors used nationality as a proxy for culture. Future research should include other cultural dimensions in the development of conceptual models and analysis of data. Another limitation is that the authors used a college student sample for this research. A more representative sample should be used in future research to examine cultural differences in interpreting adverting messages. One other limitation concerns the measurement tool the authors used to measure objective versus subjective comprehension in this research. While the theoretical foundations of the two modes of comprehension are clear and robust, improved measurement tools can enhance the validity and reliability of future research. Finally, the authors suggest that future research examine the effect of such variables as figure-ground contrast, figure attractiveness, stimulus repetition, prototypicality, symmetry and semantic or visual priming that may impact the processing of brand slogans.

Practical implications

This study argues that the processing of brand slogans in advertising is impacted by culture. Individuals from different cultures perceive and comprehend brand slogans differently. This study contributes to the research stream that examines the influence of cultural dimensions on the effectiveness of advertising by focusing more precisely on the impact of uncertainty avoidance (one of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions). In the case of single meaning slogans, advertisers might diminish the use of objective comprehension advertising strategies to influence both individuals with high and low uncertainty avoidance. In the case of polysemous slogans, advertisers should consider that consumers with high uncertainty avoidance (vs low uncertainty avoidance) are impacted more by subjective comprehension (vs objective comprehension) when forming A_ad and A_brand.

Originality/value

This research contributes meaningfully to the marketing literature by examining previous work on ad slogan processing through subjective vs objective comprehension and extending the analysis by incorporating culture as an important factor.

中文翻译：

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从文化角度探讨理解力和口号意义类型对广告和品牌态度的影响

目的

本文的目的是考察文化差异和口号含义类型在多大程度上影响理解对广告态度（A _ad）和品牌态度（A _Brand）形成的作用。

设计/方法论/途径

在一项在线实验中，共有 256 名来自美国的成年参与者（年龄范围为 19 至 26 岁）和 184 名来自法国的参与者（年龄范围为 18 至 28 岁）被随机分配到两种条件之一（口号：受试者间实验设计中的单一含义与多义）。接触到广告后，参与者回答了与他们的 A_广告、A_品牌、理解、不确定性避免和人口统计相关的问题。

发现

_{这项研究的结果证明了不确定性避免和口号类型（单义与多义）对理解力和 A ad}之间关系的调节作用。作者表明，对于多义（而非单一含义）的口号，低不确定性避免个体的理解结果比高不确定性避免个体更有利的 A_广告。此外，作者还论证了A_{广告在理解力与A品牌}关系中的中介作用。

研究局限性/影响

作者用国籍作为文化的代表。未来的研究应包括概念模型开发和数据分析中的其他文化维度。另一个限制是作者在这项研究中使用了大学生样本。未来的研究中应使用更具代表性的样本来检验广告信息解读中的文化差异。另一个限制涉及作者在本研究中用来衡量客观与主观理解的测量工具。虽然两种理解模式的理论基础清晰而稳健，但改进的测量工具可以提高未来研究的有效性和可靠性。最后，作者建议未来的研究检查图形背景对比度、图形吸引力、刺激重复、原型性、对称性以及可能影响品牌口号处理的语义或视觉启动等变量的影响。

实际影响

这项研究认为，广告中品牌口号的处理受到文化的影响。来自不同文化的人对品牌口号的理解和理解也不同。这项研究通过更精确地关注不确定性避免（霍夫斯泰德的文化维度之一）的影响，为研究文化维度对广告效果的影响做出了贡献。在单一含义口号的情况下，广告商可能会减少使用客观理解广告策略来影响具有高和低不确定性避免的个体。在多义口号的情况下，广告商在形成A广告和_A品牌_时，应该考虑到高不确定性避免（相对低不确定性避免）的消费者更多地受到主观理解（相对客观理解）的影响。

原创性/价值

这项研究通过主观与客观理解来检查以前关于广告口号处理的工作，并通过将文化作为一个重要因素来扩展分析，对营销文献做出了有意义的贡献。