Does “Passing the Courvoisier” always pay off? Positive and negative evaluative conditioning effects of brand placements in music videos

The proliferation of brands in television programming has abounded in recent times. Especially in rap videos, actors frequently depict brands and products. One mechanism by which placements can affect consumers' attitudes is evaluative conditioning. Given that in rap videos brands are paired with liked as well as disliked actors, there is a high potential for positive and negative conditioning effects. In an experiment with an authentic rap video, the appearance of placements and the image of the rap actors were varied. The results indicate that the pairing of a brand with positively evaluated artists produces positive attitudes toward the brand. In contrast, a negative conditioning procedure results in negative attitudes toward the brand. Further analyses demonstrate that conditioning effects are even stronger when preference for rap music is high and recognition of the brand rather low. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effects of In-Game Virtual Direct Experience (VDE) on Reactions to Real-World Brands

As brand placement into video games becomes an increasingly popular marketing strategy, little research has examined the role that in-game virtual direct experience (VDE) with branded products plays in affecting recall of and attitudes toward the real-world brands. The current experiment employed the manipulation of performance features of the integral brand needed to play an auto-racing game (a Volkswagen car) to determine if players' VDE would translate into differences in real-world, brand-related outcomes. Results indicate that players who had an easier VDE exhibited greater recall of and attitudes toward the brand than did players who had a more difficult VDE. Effects generally were unique to the integral brand; peripheral brands were unaffected. Results are interpreted via the LC4MP model of memory, VDE and affect-transfer theory, and brand-placement prominence. Practical implications are discussed.     

Psychophysiological Responses to Background Brand Placements in Video Games

Researchers have typically employed cognitive and affective measures to study the effectiveness of brand placements in video games. A psychophysiological approach to measuring effectiveness has been sorely lacking and is necessary to help both academics and practitioners further their understanding of how brand placements work. The current study measures individuals’ orienting responses in terms of increased skin conductance and decreased heart rate upon exposure to brands in video games. Results indicate that game players register background advertisements subconsciously even though they may not be able to explicitly recall them later. There were no differences between gamers and nongamers in the recall and recognition of brands from the video game. Furthermore, brands with preexisting favorable attitudes automatically received further processing, suggesting orienting response is an indicator of initial perception rather than further elaboration.     

Contextual advertising in games: Impacts of game context on a player’s memory and evaluation of brands in video games

Contextual advertising is growing in digital marketing communication. Previous research on traditional media has shown that the surrounding context affects advertising effectiveness. Similarly, the context in a game may influence a player’s processing of brands advertised in that game. To examine the effects of contextual advertising in games, the present article affords two independent experiments investigating how positive and negative game contexts influence players’ memories and attitudes with respect to brands advertised via billboards in games. Drawing from literature on the limited capacity model, the authors demonstrate that positive and negative game contexts decrease brand memory since they require a high level of cognitive effort. The authors also find that varying a game context influence the perception of brands advertised in the game via the contextual priming mechanism and that positive contexts generate more positive brand attitudes than negative or neutral contexts. The findings have important implications for consumer researchers and marketers, as they indicate how contexts in games can be utilized to establish brand awareness and increase positive brand perceptions in contextual advertising using games.     

External Brand Placement: The Effects on Game Players’ Processing of an In-Game Brand

Video games are now a venue for branded messages. Hence, game players may be exposed to brands in and outside game environments. This study focuses on the latter, that is, external brand placement. Drawing upon the literature on involvement and on the limited capacity model (LCM) of information processing, this study explores the mechanism by which external brand placement influences game players’ processing of a brand placed within a game, known as an in-game brand. The results show that players exposed to an external brand identical to an in-game brand showed greater in-game brand recall than those not so exposed. Players exposed to a competing external brand—whether congruent or not—showed lower in-game brand recall. When the brand was incongruent, however, they showed a preference for the in-game brand.     

Impact of flow on recognition of and attitudes towards in-game brand placements

This study investigates the moderating influences of brand congruence and placement prominence on the impact of game-evoked flow on cognitive and affective outcomes for in-game brand placements. In two studies, the authors demonstrate that experiencing flow while gaming tends to contribute positively to affective outcomes, leading to more positive brand attitudes, but it has no impact on cognitive processing or brand recognition. In particular, brand congruence moderates the impact of flow, leading to more positive brand attitudes and brand recognition. Brand prominence moderates the impact of flow only on brand recognition, not on brand attitudes. These findings offer several implications, limitations and directions for further research.     

Product placement disclosures: Exploring the moderating effect of placement frequency on brand responses via persuasion knowledge

The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not the effects of brand-unspecific product placement disclosures in a popular music video were moderated by product placement frequency. An experimental study exposed participants to the video clip ‘Telephone’ by Lady Gaga; the product placement frequency of the brand Polaroid (zero, moderate, high) and the presence of placement disclosures were varied experimentally. The results demonstrated that placement disclosures lead to an increase in brand memory for moderately frequently and frequently depicted placements. Disclosures also activate persuasion knowledge independent of placement frequency. However, persuasion knowledge did not lead to more negative brand attitudes. The paper concludes with the implications for researchers and marketers.     

Store brand and national brand promotion attitudes antecedents

Retailers compete against national manufacturers by launching store brands. National manufactures regularly use brand promotions to fight store brands back. The purpose of this article is to find out whether attitudes toward national brand promotions and store brands have similar or different conceptual antecedents. The study presents and tests a model of the effects of shoppers´ characteristics (price and non-price-related) on attitudes toward store brand and national brand promotions. The results support that constructs relating to price impact both store brand attitude and national brand promotion attitude, but the strength of some of these relationships differ. Other shopper characteristics like brand loyalty and store loyalty, have similar negative and positive effects, respectively. These slight differences suggest that promotions of national brands might be a good tool for fighting back store brands, but manufacturers need to design and target these promotions carefully in order to avoid head-to-head competition.     

What if something unexpected happens to my brand? Spillover effects from positive and negative events in a co‐branding partnership

Brands sometimes enter into co‐branding agreements and major events can occur to one of the brands which can have either negative or positive consequences for the brands involved in the partnership. The current study investigates as yet unanswered research questions regarding whether and how positive and negative events happening to one brand in a co‐branding partnership affect the brand equities of the other brands in the partnership. The authors provide and test a new integrated attribution‐diagnosticity framework to explain the process that underlies the magnitude of these spillover effects. Findings show that while positive and negative event‐related spillover effects occur between the co‐brand and both parent brands, they were surprisingly absent between the parent brands. Further, the (a)symmetry of parent brand equity before the event influences the magnitude of event‐related spillover the parent brands receive from the co‐brand. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Good for the feelings,bad for the memory: the impact of 3D versus 2D movies on persuasion knowledge and brand placement effectiveness

Abstract

Brand placements have been a popular advertising strategy for several decades, yet the effects of technological factors have been largely neglected in brand placement research. Consequently, this study analyzes the impact of a popular media technology, namely stereoscopy, on brand placement effectiveness, using the limited capacity model of mediated message processing and the persuasion knowledge model to predict and explain the effects. The main study (N?=?120) confirmed that compared with 3D movies, in 2D movies the participants were more likely to remember the brands placed and to critically reflect the persuasive intentions behind the placements. The additional structural elements in stereoscopic movies appear to require more cognitive resources. The consequent lack of cognitive capacity diminishes persuasion knowledge, which, in turn, positively affects brand evaluations and behavioral intentions. A post-hoc study (N?=?54) validated the assumption that media users watching 3D movies experience a higher cognitive load than those watching 2D movies.     

Do social advergames affect brand attitudes and advocacy?

Advergames have been used for some time as a form of branded entertainment designed to engage prospective customers in a branded activity for an extended period of time. Increasingly, advergames are imbued with social qualities related to the rise in popularity of social media, especially social networking. Despite the popularity of social advergames, little is known about the brand benefits of incorporating social features into games. Moreover, while creativity has been studied in the context of more traditional advertising, less is known about its effects on brand development in the context of advergames. Although advertising creativity, as characterized by novelty and relevance, has been shown to impact advertised brands, it is not clear how creativity interacts with advergame socialness to affect brand development. To address these gaps in the literature, this paper reports on three experimental studies that compare the brand effects of advergames that enable social interactions to advergames that are not social. The results indicate that relative to non-social advergames, social advergames result in more positive game attitudes, attitudes toward the brand sponsor, and brand advocacy, particularly when advergames are novel. Finally, this article discusses implications for managers and directions for future research.     

When Product Placement Goes Wrong: The Effects of Program Liking and Placement Prominence

Previous research has found a positive shift in brand attitude after exposure to product placements. The study presented here investigates conditions under which product placements may cause a negative shift in brand attitude. The results reveal that prominent placements can negatively impact brand attitudes of viewers who report high levels of program liking. Conversely, viewers reporting lower levels of program liking shift brand attitude in a positive direction after exposure to a prominent placement. However, the positive shift in brand attitude for participants with lower program liking disappears when a persuasive-intent prime precedes exposure to the placement. Subtle placements are less likely to result in negative shifts in brand attitude. The Persuasion Knowledge Model (Friestad and Wright 1994) is used to explain the results.     

New Brands Versus Brand Extensions, Attitudes Versus Choice: Experimental Evidence for Theory and Practice

The current study compares better-fitting and worse-fitting new brand names and brand extensions on brand attitudes and choice shares across situations that differ in terms of the amount of product information available and consumer knowledge of the target product category (which had limited effects), 35[emsp4 ]mm cameras (choice-set competitors Nikon and Minolta). While brand extensions and better-fitting brands generally enjoyed more positive brand attitudes and larger choice shares, effects were moderated by product information. When information was limited to brand name and price, the better-fitting brand extension (Sony) commanded more share than did the better-fitting new brand (Optix) which in turn commanded more share than did either the worse-fitting extension (Nike) or the worse-fitting new brand (Topix). But when information on product features was added, target brands were chosen similarly across brand names where the better-fitting new brand Optix garnered slightly (non-significantly; 5%) more share than the better-fitting extension Sony. This weak preference was reversed, however, in the attitude data where Sony was rated significantly higher in liking than Optix. Two focal conclusions emerge. First, new brands can perform as well as or better than brand extensions when consumers process product information. In this study, brand-extension advantages were confined to situations of limited information processing and better fit. Second, since branding effects differed across attitudes and choice, researchers hoping to duplicate in the laboratory the types of branding effects likely to occur in the marketplace may want to expand their traditional focus on attitudes to include choice.     

Brand Placement Recognition

Abstract

This study examines the impact of adding an audible reference to a visually prominent brand placement on recognition of the brand placed. Facilitated recognition scores were used to control for the effects of brand familiarity on brand placement recognition. Subjects exposed to one of two complete movies were asked to indicate recognition of brands that were or were not placed in their movie. Results indicate that brand placement recognition levels achieved by audio-visual prominent placements exceed the recognition rates achieved by visual-only prominent placements. Additionally, familiar brands achieve higher levels of recognition than unfamiliar brands, even when the recognition scores for familiar brands are adjusted for the guessing and constructive recognition that may result from inferences associated with familiar brands.     

The role of customization,brand trust,and privacy concerns in advergaming

This study investigates the effects of advergame customization features and trust in the brand advertised in the advergame on players’ brand attitude and personal information disclosure. Moreover, we examine to what extent players’ privacy concerns moderate these effects. Drawing on self-determination theory and uncertainty reduction theory, we developed and tested a game with varying levels of customization features and brand trust. Results show that customization possibilities and brand trust may have a positive influence on advergame persuasion outcomes, but this influence is strongly conditioned by consumers’ privacy concerns. When privacy concerns are low, a game containing customization features leads to a more positive brand attitude. However, when privacy concerns are high, the effect becomes negative. Additionally, we find that different levels of privacy concerns do not affect players’ responses toward high trust brands, but toward low trust brands. For low trust brands, players with high privacy concerns show more negative game responses than players with low concerns. These findings set the boundaries for several theoretical and practical implications regarding advergame effectiveness.     

Evaluative Conditioning of Food Technologies

Consumer attitudes play an important role in the acceptance of new technologies. The success of food innovations depends on understanding how consumers form and change attitudes toward food technologies. Earlier post hoc explanations suggest that evaluative conditioning can change consumer attitudes toward food technologies. The present study tests how evaluative conditioning can affect consumer acceptance of new food technologies. Furthermore, authors investigate whether evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction after a two‐month period and whether the evaluative conditioning effect prevails in a product‐related context. Within an evaluative conditioning paradigm including between‐subjects control groups in addition to standard within‐subjects control conditions, participants were presented with three food technologies (conventional, enzyme, and genetic technology) paired with affectively positive, neutral, and negative pictures. Subsequent evaluative measurements revealed that evaluative conditioning can explain attitude change toward food technologies when affective pictures are used. Furthermore, results indicate that evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction after two months and acquired evaluative conditioning effect spills over in a product‐related context.     

Antecedents and outcomes of digital influencer endorsement: An exploratory study

The advertising and marketing literature have established that celebrity endorsements constitute an effective way to enhance attitudes toward brands and increase purchase intents. However, there are no relevant studies on digital influencers. This study addresses the research gap by examining the effect of digital influencers' attractiveness and the effect of the congruence between a digital influencer and a brand on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. By applying structural equation modeling to a sample of 307 followers of digital influencers, a model was tested and group analysis was performed for two categories (“entertainment & video games” and “fashion & beauty”). The results show that both brand attitudes and purchase intentions are influenced by the digital influencer's attractiveness (which includes both likeability and familiarity) and by the congruence between the digital influencer and the brand. This study makes several contributions to both theory and practice, which are highlighted in this paper.     

The effectiveness of brand placements: A meta-analytic synthesis

Although brand placements are commonplace in promotion strategies, the extant literature lacks a quantitative empirical synthesis of the effect of placements on cognitive, attitudinal, and conative outcomes. The authors report a meta-analysis addressing the extent to which brand placements affect consumers’ brand placement memory, brand salience, consumer attitude toward the placed brand, and purchase intentions or choice. Four hierarchical meta-regression models explore contexts and executional characteristics that contribute to relatively stronger or weaker brand placement effects. Overall, findings suggest strong, positive placement effects on brand placement memory and small or modest, positive placement effects on brand salience, attitude, and conation. Among the factors potentially moderating these effects, brand-plot connection emerges as a key executional characteristic associated with stronger (more positive) cognitive, attitudinal, and conative effects for plot-connected relative to unconnected placements. Moreover, prominent placements enhance brand placement memory effects while not evidencing any significant backlash on persuasive effects. The same pattern emerges for placement disclosure. The findings have significant implications for marketing managers and public policy makers and provide important directions for further research.     

The Role of Context Intensity and Working Memory Capacity in the Consumer's Processing of Brand Information in Entertainment Media

Despite the increasing use of entertainment media such as movies, sport telecasts, or video games as a way to get in touch with consumers, the understanding of the cognitive processing of brand information in these environments is still limited. This current research investigates the role of two moderating factors on brand information processing in entertainment media: Context intensity and working memory capacity. Context intensity relates to the perceived level of excitement in a communication environment, while working memory capacity indicates a consumer's ability to control his or her cognitive resources. The results of an experimental laboratory study reveal that context intensity negatively affects visual attention for brand information (i.e., intensity attention assumption), while working memory capacity has a positive influence on memory for brands (i.e., capacity memory assumption). These findings hold important implications for marketing management: First, managers should place brand information in situations where context intensity is rather low in order to facilitate the target group's visual attention. Second, the frequency and duration of brand information should be adjusted to the target group's ability to cognitively process such information.     

Communicating brands playfully

An online experiment was conducted to study the effects of brand placements in computer games on brand attitude as well as game attitude (N = 521; between subject design: familiar vs unfamiliar brands vs no brand). Results show that particularly unfamiliar brands can achieve a better attitude, while the attitude towards the familiar brand worsens as a result of ad placements. In any case, the game will suffer as a result of the integration of advertising: attitude towards the game worsens as a result of ad placement. However, these effects were not moderated by ad scepticism. In terms of the process of attitude formation, attitude towards the game has a direct impact on attitude towards the advertised brand.