5.4.5: Product Placement in Movies

Earlier we considered a study that considered the reactions of individuals to movies containing product placements (d’Astous and Chartier 2000). This study was conducted in two separate phases. The first step of the study consisted of selecting 19 well-known movies subjectively grouped into three categories: action and adventure (6 movies), drama (6 movies) and comedy (7 movies). These movies were viewed by individuals with an interest in cinema, and all product placements were noted. Each placement was classified according to one of three product types: repeat purchase product, less frequently bought consumer good, and service. This process identified 191 product placements. The final sample of product placements was constructed by randomly selecting 5 placements per movie type and product type group resulting in 45 product placements to use in the study. Once the 45 product placements were extracted from the movies, they were watched by two judges who coded them on six concepts: visibility of the product or brand, mention of the brand, length, placement subtlety, principal actor uses the product, and principal actor is present.

Eleven individuals participated in the second phase of the study. Each individual watched a sample of the product placements, after which the individuals answered a series of questions on their thoughts about the placement, how well they recalled the product, and how the perceived the differences between the product placements. The actual design of the study is more complicated and precise, and we have summarized this part of the study design for the sake of brevity.

The participants answers were transcribed, and the content was analyzed. Six main categories were identified by the researchers: subtlety, length, integration within the scene, personal judgment, brand awareness, and specific mention of the brand. Ninety-six different terms were taken directly from the respondents transcripts, and twenty-four additional terms were added to represent other ideas based on the literature on product placements. This list of terms was reduced using a panel of 12 individuals who expressed their likelihood of using each term to describe or react to a product placement on a seven-point Likert scale. Terms whose mean rating was lower than a prescribed level were eliminated reducing the list to 31 terms. Finally, redundant terms were eliminated resulting in a final list of 27 terms. With this list of terms, the main part of the study was ready to proceed.

The main study recruited 103 students from a mid-size North American university. Each participant viewed 18 product placements that were presented in a random order. After viewing each placement, the respondents rated their agreement with the 27 terms developed in the preliminary study using a seven-point Likert scale. Data on the viewing habits and demographics of the participants were also gathered. Approximately one week later the participants were contacted by telephone and were asked what products or brands they recalled from the product placements viewed during the study. The participants were also given a list of products and were asked if they remembered having seen them in the product placements.

Before discussing the data used in this study, we will summarize the results. Some characteristics of the product placements were found to enhance consumer evaluations and memory of the products, while other product placement characteristics were found to have a negative effect. The data showed that the memory of a placement is enhanced when the principal actor is present and when the placement is positively evaluated. Similarly, consumer evaluations of the placements are more positive when the principal actor is present, when the placement is obvious and when it is well integrated in the movie scene. However, a placement that is judged as unacceptable and is well integrated in the movie scene has a negative influence on consumer memory. Researchers noted other effects in the study, but the results are much more complicated due to interactions between the variables. For example, the researchers noted that the prominence of product placement significantly enhances recognition memory but has a negative effect on recall.

The data collected for this study are based on the Likert scale, and the researchers performed an analysis that is statistically consistent with this type of data. The data that were merged for this study makes the corresponding analyses quite complicated. In addition to the data observed directly from the participants about their feelings and memory recall about the product placements, there was also demographic data on the participants along with data of the product placements themselves that were coded on the six concepts discussed earlier. Additionally, data was collected on the popularity of the movies used in the study as the researchers considered the possibility that the popularity of the movies could influence the evaluation and recall of the product placements.

Studies like this can be difficult to assess because of the many types and sources of data used and the complexity of the associated statistical analyses. The study is also particularly interesting because of the detailed development of the terms used with data collection prior to the main phase of the study. Overall, unless one is at least somewhat of an expert with the development of social science measurement scales, a study like this can be difficult to assess. To some extent one must rely on the academic peer review process to ensure that the methods used with the observed data are appropriate.