The effect of PPL in corporate communication does not always increase as more attention are given to physical methods like prominent expressions or repetitive exposures of brand. On the contrary, the on-set placement of product of low brand familiarit...
The effect of PPL in corporate communication does not always increase as more attention are given to physical methods like prominent expressions or repetitive exposures of brand. On the contrary, the on-set placement of product of low brand familiarity may lead to better exposure of commercial intention due to unfamiliarity from prominence. In contrast, products of high familiarity can be recognized to be familiar and boring due to pre-recognition which may influence on consumers’ response as a moderator variable. Besides, this can vary with consumers’ interests on the product and, in particular, if the involvement of PPL product is low, surrounding circumstances like the characteristics of drama and informer’s attractiveness can be more influential compared to the qualitative evaluation of product information. Therefore the consumers’ response can be affected by the plot of drama.
Because the effect of PPL can be determined by characteristics of consumer, empirical knowledge and interests on product, investigations on the factors in consumer’ characteristics influencing on the effect of PPL and strategic guideline in practical viewpoint is timely needed.
This study performs an experimental investigation to examine the influence of brand familiarity and product involvement on the information processing associated with placement and exposure of PPL. The dependency of consumer’ responses (e.g., brand recall, recognition, attention, brand attitude) with respect to PPL placement and exposure level is evaluated. Based on an experimental survey targeted to university students, the influence of brand familiarity and product involvement on information processing of PPL placement and exposure level are diagnosed
In order to achieve this research objective, a 2x2x2 factorial design is applied by dividing the whole group into a familiar and unfamiliar group based on pre-experiences on the product. The prominence of product is divided into on-set placement and creative placement, and the level of product exposure is divided into high and low exposure through 8 separate experimental groups. This is measured by self-recording method.
As results, first, it is found that the type of PPL placement has positive effect on the recall and attention of brand. The on-set placement has higher effect than the creative placement. Second, the degree of PPL exposure has positive effect on the recognition and brand attitude, and more repetition of PPL exposure has more positive effect.
Third, the survey of the controlling effect of brand familiarity and product involvement associated with the type of product placement reveals that the controlling effect is more cleary found in the attention and recognition and there is higher effect on attention in the group of high familiarity in the on-set placement than in the creative placement.
Fourth, the survey of the controlling effect of brand familiarity and product involvement associated with the degree of PPL exposure reveals that the effect is found in the recall, recognition, and attention. The possibility of recall increases with higher exposure in the group of low familiarity, and the attention and recognition of brand increases with higher exposure of brand in the group of high familiarity.
Fifth, it is found that the product involvement associated with PPL exposure affects the recognition associated with brand exposure and brand attitude. The group of high-association has a higher possibility of recognition to exposure compared to the group of low-association. Higher exposure leads to positive brand attitude in the group of high-association while higher exposure leads to negative brand attitude in the group of low-association.
These results suggest that the effect of PPL associated with the type of placement and degree of exposure is more associated with the consumer’ subjective characteristics like brand familiarity and product involvement rather than physical characteristics. The subjective characteristics invoke consumer’s familiarity or boring feeling, which leads to positive or negative attitude to the brand.
By validating the moderator variable in the communication process of PPL, this study shows that the product involvement and brand familiarity have significant influences on information processing of PPL. This suggests a strategic guideline of PPL placement and exposure depending on the consumer’s characteristics.
By validating the systematic relationship between brand familiarity and product involvement which affects PPL effect, this study expends the theory of communication by providing a method of the transition of drama image to product image as a context effect. In this context, this results provide a theoretical contribution, providing guidelines to choose a drama fitting to product advertisements. In corporate marketing, this study provides a practical guidelines to measure the effect of PPL and to construct a marketing plan.