“阳春白雪”还是“下里巴人”——消费者对文雅和通俗广告语体的态度

Elegant Advertising vs. Popular Advertising: Consumers' Attitudes towards Different Styles of Advertising Language

当下,以古雅诗意的语言为特色的"阳春白雪"型广告语在商业广告中受到青睐。这类广告语较之通俗白话为特色的"下里巴人"型广告语有何优劣势?这种优劣势是否会因品牌类型的不同而不同?其背后的心理机制又是什么?本文基于解释水平理论和匹配性理论,通过三个研究探讨了广告语体(文雅广告vs.通俗广告)对消费者态度的影响。研究一发现,广告语体和品牌类型之间存在交互效应,当高端品牌使用文雅广告、低端品牌使用通俗广告时,能引发更积极的广告态度和品牌态度。其中消费者的匹配性感知起中介作用。研究二、三发现,消费者的文化素养对上述交互关系存在调节作用,消费者文化素养越高,其对广告语体与品牌类型的匹配性感知越强。

According to the construal level theory and fit theory, this paper examines the impact of two types of advertising language on consumers’ attitudes through three sets of experiments. The first experiment found that there is an interaction effect between the brand type and advertising language. That is, when the high-end brand uses elegant advertising, or the low-end brand uses popular advertising, consumers’ attitudes towards the ad as well as the brand will be better. The consumers’ perception of fit plays a mediating role in this model, and consumers’ advertising attitudes will further affect their brand attitudes. The second and third experiments found that consumers’ literacy has a moderating effect on the aforementioned interaction effect. That is, the higher the consumers’ literacy, the stronger fit between the elegant(popular) advertising language and high-end(low-end) brand would they perceive. This study takes a different theoretical approach in order to enhance our understanding of the effects of different styles of advertising language(elegant vs. popular) on both consumers’ advertising and brand attitudes.The current research sheds light on the literature on fit theory with the finding that fit perception plays an important role of mediation between advertising language and brand type. In addition, this research extends previous research on consumer literacy, indicating a moderating role in the interaction effect of advertising language and brand type. The study also offers implications to practice. When comes to a decision making on advertising language, it would be better for advertisers to consider both their brand type(high-end or low-end) and consumer literacy. A match between advertising language and brand type, as well as consumer literacy would help consumers to form a better understanding of the product, which in turn induce positive attitudes to both the advertisement and the brand.The article closes with limitations and suggestions for further work.