Product Placement in Movies - Academy of Marketing

Introduction
Product placement, as an important component of marketing communication, frequently
targets global audiences in the vehicles of movies, exported television programmes, music videos,
online games and etc. Every year billions and billions dollars are spent on placing brands in movies to
reach the global audience. According to PQ Media (2007), global product placement market
(including non-paid) grew by 24.2% and reached US$7.76 billion in 2006. In 2009, global branded
entertainment spending totalled US$54.58 billion and paid product placement is forecasted to grow at
accelerating rates (PQ Media 2010). Despite the fact that increasing budget is allocated to placing
brands in movies to reach global consumers, no studies attempt to examine the effectiveness of
product placement across national and cultural boundaries. It is believed that the practice has changed
from “relatively local and unsophisticated to one that is often global in scope and purpose” (Karrh,
Frith and Callison 2001, p.3). The current research explores to what extent culture impacts placement
effectiveness and also examines how placement strategy (prominence), product characteristics (brand
awareness) and regulation (prior notification) together determine the level of processing of product
placement which in turn affects brand persuasiveness. The inclusion of cultural dimensions here is
more of exploratory nature and has no intention to draw any rigorous cultural conclusions (Cadogan
2010). It is hoped to lay a foundation for future empirical work on the perception of product
placement across cultures which is currently absent in this field. In spite of a few exceptions, there is a
lack of theoretical framework to guide discussion on product placement effectiveness (Gregorio and
Sung 2010). This research intends to generate a comprehensive portrait of product placement in
movies and answer the following broad research question which has not been addressed before:
How do consumers across cultures process and evaluate product placement information
and how does it affect the persuasive effectiveness?
Research Aim and Objectives
This research aims to understand how consumers in the Eastern (HK) and Western (UK)
cultures are likely to perceive and evaluate product placement. It then explores what guides the
persuasive effect of the practice across cultures and the interaction between culture and different
placement variables. The current study moves a step further to investigate placement effect from
perception to persuasion by simultaneously considering two diverse cultures. It not only enriches
literature in the field but will also provide practical feedbacks to global marketers. The study aims to
answer the following broad research questions (and sub-questions):
RQ1: Do consumers in the two cultures exhibit different views towards the marketing practice
product placement?
a). How do they interpret product placement and how do they perceive the different
execution styles?
b). What are their regulatory concerns regarding product placement?
RQ2: Do consumers in the two cultures have different exposure to product placement in
movies?
a). How prevalent are brands appeared in the UK and HK movies?
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