Thesis

Methods and materials 53
Kardes, 1999). Such semantic differential scales, or bipolar adjective scales, describe
adjectives from one evaluative extreme (positive) to another (negative) (Kardes,
1999). An alternative to such scale is the Likert scale (Likert, 1932), which allows a
subject to indicate the extent to which one agrees or disagrees with a statement.
Scale interpretations can be hampered, however, as values on such a scale offer a
challenge from the viewpoint of perspective theory as one subject may interpret one
value differently than another (Kardes, 1999) and due to alignment with answers to
previous questions (Feldman and Lynch, 1988). For this purpose, the subjects were
able to indicate their opinion through a semantic differential scale. Such scale is validated
as measure which suits survey research (Foxall, Brown and Goldsmith, 1998).
For this research the following statements were utilized: very good, good, neither
good, nor bad, bad and very bad. This question was followed by an open-ended
question allowing the subject to freely express themselves on the reasons behind
their attitude towards the brands.
Fifthly, the subjects were asked about their past consumption behavior by
indicating which brand they previously consumed or own. The subjects could indicate
only one brand per product category.
Finally, the subjects were asked to fill-out personal data including name, surname,
gender, age, postal code and nationality.
In order to avoid subjects who took part in the experiment to influence and
raise expectations among the subjects who did not take part in the experiment
through suggestions (Maier, 1965), they were asked not to disclose the nature and
the goal of the research upon completing the individual experiment.
4.4.3 Research questions and hypotheses
The aim of this research was to understand the differences in brand recall, attitude
and preference to brands between exposure to visual and audiovisual types of product
placement. Additionally, it aimed to understand if product preference has an effect
on attention to product placement. Regarding the relation between dwell time
and product preference, the following null hypothesis was formulated:
H0: There is no significant difference in dwell time between product
preferences.
Regarding the relation between brand recall and product placement type, the following
null hypothesis was formulated:
H0: Brand recall and product placement type are independent from
each other.
In terms of attitude, the research wished to describe if there are differences in attitude
between visual and audiovisual types of product placement as well as its causes
on a qualitative level.
In terms of preference, the research wished describe if there are differences
in product preference between visual and audiovisual types of product placements