How reading in a foreign versus native language moderates the impact of repetition-induced brand placement prominence on placement responses

The present research investigates how brand placement prominence in a fictional text (i.e., a short story) affects placement responses and brand attitude, and whether text language moderates these relationships. A 2 (placement repetition: 2, 11) × 2 (language: native, foreign) between-subjects design was employed, while placement prominence, persuasion knowledge, critical processing, and brand attitude were measured. It was expected that higher placement prominence will enhance brand attitude, despite a concurrent increase in persuasion knowledge activation, in both languages. However, by eliciting a more systematic processing style, reading in a foreign (vs. native) language was hypothesized to exert an indirect negative impact on brand attitude via critical processing of the prominent placements. The results provide support for most (but not all) of our hypotheses. As expected, higher (vs. lower) placement frequency increased perceived prominence, which in turn directly enhanced brand attitude. Further, although placement prominence was positively related to conceptual persuasion knowledge in both languages, it only triggered critical processing of the placements in the foreign language. Yet, contrary to predictions, critical processing did not affect brand evaluation in either language group.