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Introduction
Product placement, a practice of integrating brand information into media content, has been a hot research topic in the past few decades. Among all executional features of product placement, prominence is one of the most frequently examined (Lord and Gupta, 2010; Wang and Chen, 2019). Gupta and Lord (1998) defined prominent product placements as those in which the placed product are highly visible. Prominent placement usually leads to a higher level of processing and recall, but it also triggers less positive brand attitudes, even for a very low level of placement prominence (Marchand et al., 2015). Previous studies largely consider that placement prominence enhances brand memory, while the more recent studies have recorded inconclusive findings. Some studies found that placement prominence drew attention toward the placed brand and enhanced brand recall (Cowley and Barron, 2008) while other studies did not (Campbell et al., 2013).
The inconsistent results could be attributed to previous studies that were conducted in different media contexts (e.g. movies, television programs and video games). It could also be attributed to the fact that studies usually focused on one or a few dimensions of prominence without simultaneously considering every relevant dimension. In addition, previous studies operationalized prominence with a few dominant dimensions (e.g. placement size, exposure duration and screen location) without considering the interactions among the dimensions, which makes the research findings incomparable. The relative importance and influence of each dimension on brand memory have also yet to be explored. In other words, a fundamental question that has yet to be answered is what should and should not be counted as prominence. Although it is evident that placement prominence is crucial for generating marketing effects, the optimal combination and level of prominence remain unclear (Harms et al., 2017).
Placement prominence may comprise several different dimensions, but apparently, no studies have systematically disentangled it. In addition, little is known about which configurations of prominence dimensions are optimal in ensuring attention and brand memory. With the popularity and maturity of short films, this study systematically addresses the research gaps by analyzing the prominence levels of brands placed in six short films and follows the examination with a survey study using configurational analysis with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA 3.0) software. The...