색상은 영어 브랜드명 회상을 촉진하는가? 제2언어로서의 영어 능력의 조절효과 (Do Colors Aid Recall of Brand Names That Are Scripted in a Low Literacy Language?)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 23권 / 1호 / 87 ~ 113페이지
· 저자명 : 김소현, 이은주, 이혜문

초록

전세계적으로 볼 때 비영어권 소비자들의 영어능력은 제한적일 뿐 아니라 그들이 영어를 학교제도 교육으로 배운경우에도 영어를 사용한 브랜드커뮤니케이션의 유창성과 수월성은 모국어를 사용한 그것과는 많은 차이점을 보이므로, 영어권에서 이루어진 대부분의 언어관련 소비자 연구 및 영어 사용 브랜드에 관한 선행 연구 결과들이 한국에그대로 적용될 수 있을 것인가에 대해 우리는 의문을 제기한다. 브랜드명에 사용된 언어에 대한 제한적 능력을 보완할 보조정보수단으로 브랜드명이 가지는 고유색상을 들 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 영어를 제2언어로 사용하는 대부분의 국내 소비자들이 영어브랜드명을 회상하고 사용하는데 있어, 영어능력에 따라 브랜드의 색상이 어떠한 영향을미치는지 살펴보았다. 구체적으로 첫 번째 가설에서는 국내소비자들이 어려워하는 영어브랜드명을 회상할 때에는색상의 병기가 회상에 긍정적 영향을 미칠 것으로 예상하였다. 반면 국내 소비자들이 익숙하게 사용하는 한글브랜드명을 회상할 때에는 색상의 병기가 브랜드명 회상에 긍정적인 영향을 미치지 않을 것으로 예상하는 두 번째 가설이 도출되었다. 실험 1A에서 첫 번째 가설이 검증한 결과, 영어능력이 상대적으로 낮은 국내 소비자들의 경우 고유색상과 병기된 영어브랜드명에 대한 즉시 회상율이 높게 나타났다. 실험 1B에서는 한국어가 모국어인 국내 소비자들에게 있어 한글브랜드가 고유색상과 병기될 때에는 브랜드명의 즉시 회상율이 증진되는 효과가 없었다.
이처럼 영어능력이 낮은 국내소비자가 색상병기된 영어브랜드를 더 잘 회상할 수 있는 작용 기제는 단순히 색상이라고 하는 추가정보보다는 브랜드명과 이미 친숙한 고유색상이 해당 브랜드명의 의미 연상을 돕기 때문으로 추정되어, 실험 2에서 이를 검증하였다. 실험 결과, 브랜드명이 연상될 수 있는 고유색상으로 제시된 경우에는 영어능력이 낮은 소비자들의 영어브랜드명 회상이 의미있게 증진되는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구에서는 기존 소비자 행동 연구에서 간과된 변수인 영어능력을 주요 조절 변수로 규명하였다. 즉, 제한적인 영어능력을 가진 대부분의 국내 소비자들에게 고유 색상을 병용하는 시각적 브랜딩의 효용성을 밝혀, 국내소비자들을 대상으로 한 글로벌 브랜드들의커뮤니케이션의 전략적 방향성 및 실무적 시사점을 제시하였다.

영어초록

Most Korean consumers learn English as a second language and thus have relatively limited English literacy. The current research investigated the effect of using unique brand colors on immediate recall of English and Korean brand names for Korean consumers with limited English literacy. Revised hierarchical model(Durgunoglu and Roediger 1987) was initially proposed to account for observed asymmetries in performance between L2(second language) and L1(first language) translation by late bilinguals who acquired the second language after early childhood and for whom the first language remains the dominant language. English represents the second language(L2) and Korean represents the first language(L1) for most Korean natives.
According to previous research on consumers with limited second-language proficiency(Jae,Delvecchio, and Cowles 2008b; Wheeler and Treisman 2002; Willows 1978a), low literate consumers may rely on visual information, such as colors, to infer the meanings of unfamiliar English brand names; but without the aid of color as a visual association cue, they may not successfully encode difficult and unfamiliar English names. It is, therefore, hypothesized that L2 literacy will have an inverse relationship with the degree of color dependence in the L2brand name recall. Specifically, it is predicted that consumers with low English literacy show better immediate brand recall performance when second-language brand names are presented with unique colors compared to the case where they were presented in indistinguishable black color only. For them, meaning activation from unfamiliar English lexical word does not occur naturally; thus, color-aided presentation of L2 brands names may aid them in inferring some meaning while encoding the unfamiliar names that are scripted in a low literacy language.
However, such a memory enhancing effect of unique brand coloring might disappear with L1brand names. It is suggested that additional meaning activation from color presentation which is separate from lexical processing, may even increase cognitive load during encoding of native brand names because conceptual meaning activation from native lexical words is automatic and effortless due to high language proficiency.
The Experiment 1A demonstrates that consumers with low English literacy most likely to show better immediate brand recall performance with unique brand colors than without. The experiment design adopts a 2(brand coloring: unique colors vs. black only) x 2(English literacy:high vs. low English literacy) between-subjects design. We measured English proficiency by asking participants whether they have residential experiences in an English-native country for a relatively lengthy period. The result show that English literacy has a significantly positive effect on immediate recall performance of L2 brand names with unique colors (F(2,145)=12.86, p=0.00). Specifically, participants with low L2 literacy show higher immediate brand recall performance when they are exposed to English brand name with unique colors (M=4.50)than when exposed to English brand name in black color only (M=3.88). On the other hand,participants with high L2 literacy show an opposite pattern of higher immediate brand recall performance when they are exposed to English brand name without unique brand colors (M=4.85) than with unique colors (M=4.06), thereby supporting our research hypothesis.
The Experiment 1B show that Korean native participants would likely show no difference in brand recall performance when Hangul (i.e., high-literacy language) brand name are presented with or without unique brand colors. This experiment used a 2(brand coloring: unique colors vs. black only) x 2(English literacy: high English literacy vs. low English literacy) betweensubjects design. The results show that L2 literacy has no significant effect on immediate brand recall performance with or without unique brand colors (F(2,145)=0.26, p=0.61). Participants with low L2 proficiency show no differences in immediate brand recall performance whether they were exposed to Hangul brand name with (M=4.79) or without brand unique colors (M=4.61). Therefore, the memory-enhancing effect of unique coloring seems to disappear for native brand names that are scripted in a high literacy language.
The underlying mechanism for such memory-facilitating effect of unique brand colors for L2brand names is further probed in Experiment 2, which demonstrate that consumers with low English literacy most likely to show better English brand name recall performance only under the condition where L2 brand colors match their brand-meaning associations. In order to test this hypothesis, we use a 2(brand color and brand-meaning association: match vs. mismatch) x 2(English literacy: high English literacy vs. low English literacy) x 2(brand language script:Hangul vs. English) mixed-subjects design. In this experiment, we measure English Literacy by having subjects complete the grammaticality judgement task (Hulstijn 2000). The results show that participants with low English literacy show better immediate brand recall performance when English brand names are presented with meaning-matching colors compared to the case where the L2 brand names were presented with non-matching colors (F(1,32)=4.79, p=0.01;Mmatch=4.60 vs. Mmismatch=3.79). Therefore, unique and meaning-matching brand colors which are used for low-literacy brand names appear to serve as a memory-binding feature for most Korean consumers who have acquired the English language domestically after childhood, thus having relatively limited English L2 literacy.
By focusing on language literacy, which an often-ignored yet important aspect of consumer behavior, the current research identifies the benefits of using unique brand colors in global brand communication for many international consumers who have limited English literacy.
Marketers may be able to enhance the memory of English brand names by properly harnessing the power of color while communicating with international consumers who have learned English as a second language.

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