Abstract

The ever-increasing population of bilinguals raises important questions for marketing scholars. For example, the ubiquity of web-based retail platforms brings potential consumers to a single online marketplace, bombarding them with a myriad of options. Web retailers and advertisers typically post an online image of the products they sell, from which consumers must glean as much information as possible before making their purchase decision. With this in mind, marketers must decide how, and in what language, to best communicate with their audiences. This question is especially difficult to answer in bilingual populations, who may process information differently depending on the languages that they know. Previous research has suggested many mechanisms by which the choice of language may affect various brand outcomes. The present study was designed to examine whether presenting the same information in different languages has an inherent effect on cognitive patterns associated with information processing. We find partial support for the effects of language choice on emotion, recall, and narrative transportation, and lay the framework for future research.