Product Placements in Movies: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Austrian, French and AmericanConsumers' Attitudes toward This Emerging, International Promotional MediumAuthor(s): Stephen J. Gould, Pola B. Gupta, Sonja Grabner-KräuterSource: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter, 2000), pp. 41-58Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4189160 .Accessed: 24/01/2011 03:05

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mes. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

M.E. Sharpe, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofAdvertising.

http://www.jstor.org

Product Placements in Movies: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of

Austrian, French and American Consumers'Attitudes

Toward This Emerging, International Promotional Medium

Stephen J. Gould, Pola ?. Gupta and Sonja Grabner-Kr?uter

This paper reports on a cross-cultural study which tests the robustness of the approach developed by Gupta and Gould (1997) concerning use of product placements in movies. Using their American data as a compari- son point, additional data using the same questionnaire were collected in Austria and France. As an interna-

tional medium in which movies freely cross borders, product placement is also a less adaptable one, relative to

commercials since it remains in the movie regardless of the nation where it is shown. Applying a three-

pronged framework which considered country, product and individual differences and their interactive effects, the results of this study indicate the ways in which all three have an impact on the acceptability of product

placements and on potential purchase behavior. Finally, implications for managing and further researching

product placements based on this framework are drawn.

Stephen J. Gould (Ph.D., The Graduate Center of the City University of New York), Professor of Marketing, Baruch College, The City University of New York.

Pola ?. Gupta (Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo), Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Northern Iowa.

Sonja Grabner-Kr?uter (Ph.D., University of Graz, Austria), Associate Professor of Marketing and International Management, University of Klagenfurt, Austria.

Journal of Advertising, Volume XXIX, Number 4 Winter 2000

Product placement in the movies, according to Gupta and Gould (1997, p. 37), "involves incorporating brands in movies in return for money or for

some promotional or other consideration." Such placement (including that

in other media such as television) has also been viewed as a hybrid of

advertising and publicity (Balasubramanian 1994). Research has indicated

the importance of product placement as an addition to the promotion mix

although there remains a number of challenging issues concerning it. To

date, such research has mainly centered on product placement's efficacy (Babin and Carder 1995, 1996; Gupta, Balasubramanian and Klassen 2000;

Gupta and Lord 1998; Karrh 1994; Ong and Meri 1994; Vollmers and Mizerski

1994) and ethical acceptability (Gupta and Gould 1997; Nebenzahl and

Secunda 1993). A review of these studies indicates a major gap in the

literature: the previous studies of product placement were conducted in the

U.S., and there has been little focus on it as a global phenomenon. However, the general globalization of marketing communications, the interest in inte-

grating them in Integrated and Globally Integrated Marketing Communica-

tions programs (DeLorme 1998; Grein and Gould 1996), and the fact that

many movies play to and often are produced for multinational audiences raise the issue of how consumers in other countries perceive product placements.

Considering product placement on a cross-national or cultural basis is

important from a marketing point of view in terms of the issue of standard-

ization versus adaptation. (It should be noted that cross-national means

across nations while cross-cultural may imply other distinctions as well, since cultures often do not follow national boundaries [cf. Dawar and Parker

1994]). Here, both terms may be used, but in general the study to be re-

ported will be on a cross-national basis.) While it is not very likely that a

movie would have multiple international versions based on different ver-

sions of product placement, a marketer could nonetheless make a decision as to how a globally marketed product would play in all the countries where the movie might be distributed. From this point of view, the product place- ment campaign is one of standardization by default. Still, as Karrh (1998a)

points out, there are very likely to be cross-cultural differences with respect

42 The Journal of Advertising

to attitudes toward product placement which should

be considered. However, a marketer cannot create lo-

cal product placements in a global movie as easily as

local commercials. Thus, although many American

movies are widely exported, their product placements

usually are not culturally adapted. Therefore, the re-

sult is generally either standardization or nothing. Re-

flecting this concern and the inflexibility of product

placements relative to some other forms of promotion, this paper takes a first step in addressing the research

gap in the international literature by investigating cross-

national perceptions of the efficacy and acceptability of

product placements. This study will also explore the

robustness of the Gupta and Gould (1997) approach to product placements in other environments.

A Cross-Cultural Framework

In general, culture in general informs product mean-

ings largely through the promotional system, and

these meanings in turn are engaged and acted upon

by the consumer (McCracken 1986). This approach

may be extended both cross-culturally (Gould 1998) and to product placement (Russell 1998). These ideas

suggest that a product's placement in a movie may

vary in the effects it has in different countries. How-

ever, beyond the general idea of culture when consid-

ered in cross-national or cross-cultural terms is the

issue of cultural versus individual differences as out-

lined by Dawar and Parker (1994). Advertisers in

this regard must make decisions about segmentation based upon whether there are cross-national differ-

ences and/or there are within-nation differences which

transcend national boundaries. For example, consider

whether American and French consumers differ from

each other in their attitudes toward product place- ment and/or whether men and women in both coun-

tries differ from each other in similar ways (e.g., Americans could have more favorable attitudes to-

ward product placement than French consumers, while [dis] similar patterns of male-female differences

also coexist for both nationalities). If attitudes to-

ward product placement vary by nationality, this

would indicate theoretically that product meanings differ across countries and that those using product

placement must employ very different strategies than

where the attitudes and meanings are similar.

On the other hand, individual differences based on

factors other than national culture may also play a

role in consumer response to product placement. In

Dawar and Parker's (1994) terms, these may be re-

garded as noncultural variables which, if improperly

considered, might be confounded with cultural vari-

ables. In the product placement area, Gupta and Gould

(1997), for instance, considered a number of variables

of this type, including attitudes toward product place-

ment, frequency of viewing movies, and gender. While

these individual variables may certainly be influenced

by or interact with culture, their effect may or may not vary on a cross-national or cross-cultural basis.

Thus, as with other consumer phenomena, response to product placement should be investigated in terms

of both cross-national and individual difference vari-

ables. If cross-national differences predominate, then

the key segmentation variable for product placement would be country or ethnicity. Under such conditions, standardization strategies would not work. However, if individual differences predominate, then these vari-

ables will serve as the key targeting-segmentation variables. Standardization strategies would be more

feasible and they would aim at multi-local, regional or even global segments. If both types of variables

(i.e., cross-national and individual differences) are

found to have an effect on response to product place- ment or if an interaction between these types exists, then more complex, adaptational strategies would be

required. All these possible effects will also reflect on

the robustness of the Gupta and Gould (1997) ap-

proach in terms of variables applied and linked.

A still more intricate perspective blends in product effects. Wang (1996) provides a contingency approach for global strategy development which concerns three

variables: country, product and consumer segment (individual differences). Wang's approach suggests that various interactions between any or all of these

three would involve a modification of standardization

strategies. For instance, a product ? consumer seg- ment interaction would mean that different strate-

gies must be developed for each segment, and that

products may appeal to certain segments across coun-

tries, but not others. A country ? consumer segment

interaction, on the other hand, indicates that a par- ticular product appeals to many segments but that

response patterns vary within them (e.g., heavy us-

ers respond differently across countries). A product ?

country interaction suggests that within country dif-

ferences are not a major factor while cross-country differences are. A three-way interaction would lead

to the formation of niche strategies. On the basis of the foregoing, there are three gen-

eral hypotheses which may be used to construct a

framework for product placement effects: the cross-

national difference hypothesis, the product difference

hypothesis, and the individual difference hypothesis.

Here, the product difference hypothesis is examined

both in terms of within-category and brand differ-

Winter 2000 43

enees (e.g., within the camera category) and between

product category differences (e.g., camera versus al-

cohol). If there are no cross-national differences, prod- uct and/or individual differences, such as those found

by Gupta and Gould (1997) in the U.S., should be similar across countries. However, if there are cross-

country differences (i.e., the cross-national difference

hypothesis), then it is very likely that some interac- tions will be found.

Product Placements in Movies

In considering how product placements function, DeLorme and colleagues (DeLorme, Reid and Zimmer

1994; DeLorme and Reid 1999) found that consumers connected the world of the film, including product placements, with their social world, as well as con-

sumption-specific aspects of their own everyday life. Russell (1998) theorizes that transformational and affect transfer processes are at work in the establish- ment of linkages between a movie or television show and the product placed. These findings of linkages could be important for buying behavior since the deci- sion to purchase a product is likely to be the result of such linkages. They could also be significant in an- other way: consumers will attach different ethical

meanings to product placements in terms of their

acceptability, i.e., consumers carry their ethical per- ceptions of marketing various products into how they perceive them as product placements. Thus, while

product placement is still a relatively new area for

study, we consider what research there is in terms of two main but related and overlapping categories: (1) its efficacy and (2) its acceptability and perceived ethical standing.

Efficacy of Product Placements in Movies

It has been suggested that product placements may be made effective through positive positioning and/or

linking with an attractive character (Karrh 1998b; McKee and Pardun 1998). Nonetheless, prior research results regarding the efficacy of products placed in movies are mixed. There is little support for brand attitude change resulting from product placement, but there is some evidence that people do recognize or recall brands so promoted (Babin and Carder 1995, 1996; Gupta and Lord 1998; Karrh 1994; Ong and Meri 1994; Vollmers and Mizerski 1994). It is also

noteworthy that Gupta and Lord (1998) found that

prominent placements could perform better than tele- vision advertising in inducing recall. However, based on these studies conducted to date, the research gen-

erally is based on recognition-recall and attitude fac- tors and does not focus on purchasing behavior, al-

though McKee and Pardun (1998) do link treating the

product as "hero" to positive sales results. In the study to be reported below, we will more directly consider

purchase behavior as an indicator of efficacy.

Acceptability and Ethics of Product

Placements in Movies

The acceptability and ethics of product placement may be viewed in terms of two aspects: (1) general ethical concerns and (2) ethical concerns about spe- cific products. Regarding the general acceptability and ethics of product placement, Nebenzahl and Se- cunda (1993) found that generally such placement was

acceptable although those who objected tended to do so for ethical reasons. For instance, some consumers felt that products placed in movies could be deceptive or even subliminal. For instance, they may be seen as "hidden but paid" messages (Balasubramanian 1994). On this basis, some people in the U.S. have gone so far as to suggest that product placements should be re- stricted or banned (Rothenberg 1991).

On the other hand, specific products have been tar-

geted for ethical concern with respect to product place- ment. For example, the placement of cigarettes in movies which are shown on television have been viewed as a way to get around the ban on cigarette advertising (Balasubramanian 1994). Such placement is addressed to a captive TV audience which cannot or would not want to zip through this commercial

intrusion since it would interfere with the overall

viewing experience. Moreover, young people in par- ticular can see these products used even though they are not supposed to see such advertising. Indeed, then, just as the marketing and advertising of ciga- rettes, along with other products such as alcohol and

guns, are very controversial (Boddewyn 1993; Hill

1994; Kaskutas 1993), product placement, as well, will provoke strong criticism and opposition.

Gupta and Gould (1997) focused on these ethical issues and found that the consumers in their sample tended to differentiate product placements on the ba- sis of both product category and individual differ- ences. Ethically-charged products, namely cigarettes, alcohol and guns, were looked at less favorably in terms of product placement in movies than other prod- ucts, such as soft drinks, automobiles and cameras. In addition, the acceptability of placing products was influenced by related attitudes, number of movies

watched, and gender. Respondents who held favor- able attitudes toward product placement in general

44 The Journal of Advertising

and toward their ability to make movies seem realis- tic were more likely to hold favorable attitudes to-

ward the specific products mentioned in the survey. On the other hand, those who favored restricting such

product placement had a less favorable attitude. Males

and those who watched a greater number of movies

were also more accepting of product placements al-

though all these differences were accounted for by the ethically-charged products of cigarettes, alcohol

and guns. There were no differences for other prod- ucts. Finally, while these results did not address ethi-

cal acceptability in relation to efficacy, they are sug-

gestive of such a relationship and that the two are

likely to be positively correlated (cf. Simpson, Brown

and Widing 1998).

Potential Cross-Cultural Differences in

Attitudes Toward Product Placement

We have already noted that product meanings are

a cultural phenomenon which consumers apply and

change in the act of consumption (McCracken 1986) and that product placements appear to act in similar

ways (Russell 1998). At the same time, Dawar and

Parker (1994) noted the pressing need for more em-

pirical research which considered cultural versus in-

dividual differences in various marketing settings.

Thus, meanings are likely to vary on a cross-cultural

basis, although potential (dis)similarities should be

considered, especially when thinking in strategic terms of standardization versus adaptation. In this

regard, the intertextuality of meanings might also be

considered (Gould 1998). Such intertextuality involves

the movement and interactions of meaning across

cultures and reflects both similarities and differences.

Since product placements travel across cultures in

movies as a media vehicle, they reflect this

intertextuality since people in one culture are creat-

ing the movie and incorporating the placements, and

audience members from a different culture are seeing and interpreting them. In this process, these viewers

are trying to comprehend what the movie is saying,

while, on the other hand, they are making connec-

tions to their own lives which might vary quite a bit

from those being cinematically intended or portrayed. As noted earlier, we will report on a study involving

the U.S., Austria and France. While there is little

published research comparing these countries and

none regarding product placements, there is enough to suggest that differences in meanings, perceptions and attitudes regarding product placements might

exist, based on differences in economic and cultural

socialization. Furthermore, we also consider the need

to investigate product differences (Gupta and Gould

1997; Wang 1996). Therefore, to investigate this is-

sue in an empirical study of product placements, as

well as to test the robustness of the approach of Gupta and Gould (1997), the survey used in their U.S. study was administered in France and Austria and the re-

sults compared with the original data they had col-

lected and previously reported on. Based on issues of

substance, as well as accessibility to relevant and

comparable samples, Austria and France were se-

lected to test for similarities and differences within a

sphere of at least some cultural cohesion, i.e., the

Western/European domain. On the one hand, it is

thought that European countries exhibit similar char-

acteristics to each other, but, on the other hand, that

the national characters of various countries may dif-

fer (cf. Saimee and Athanassiou 1998). In this regard, France and Austria represent two quite different Euro-

pean cultures, although both countries are members of

the European Union. A cultural-historical reason for

their dissimilarities can be found in the inheritance of

the Roman empire that cuts through the middle of the

European Union-France represents a country with a

Romance language and a Latin mentality, whereas

Austria belongs to the Germanic-speaking region (cf.

Hofstede 1996). In a similar fashion, Schuster and

Copeland (1999) in their Cultural Classification Model

suggest that the U.S., France and Austria are gener-

ally parts of three separate cultural groups: North

American, Mediterranean and Northwestern/Central

European, respectively.

Perhaps these historical-cultural differences are

captured in Hofstede's (1991) studies of IBM employ- ees across various 53 countries, including the U.S., Austria and France. These studies involved four di-

mensions: mascufinity-femininity, power distance,

individualism-collectivism, and uncertainty avoid-

ance. Masculinity was defined in terms of individual

accomplishment in the job setting while femininity was viewed as concerning cooperation on the job and

quality of fife and relationship issues. Austria ranked

second in masculinity while France was tied for 35th.

On the other hand, France was tied for 15th in power distance (i.e., the idea of power inequality as expressed in terms of subordinate dependence upon bosses ver-

sus more independence) while Austria was dead last, 53rd in rank. The U.S. was in the middle between

France and Austria for both dimensions, i.e., 15th on

masculinity and 38th on power distance, but was first

in individualism, while France was tied for tenth and

Austria was 18th. France was tenth, Austria tied for

24th and the U.S. was 43rd in uncertainty avoidance

which concerns the threat posed by uncertain situa-

Winter 2000 45

tions. While we will not address these variables di-

rectly in our study, the results of the studies based on

them suggest a rationale for the present study, i.e., that there are substantial cultural differences among all three countries and that Austria and France in

particular differ along some important dimensions.

Moreover, it is thought that these types of differences

might influence ethical decision-making (Vitell, Nwachukwu and Barnes 1993).

In the next section, we consider two related areas

from which we will infer potential cross-national differ-

ences with regard to product placements: (1) diff?rences

in attitudes toward advertising as a proxy for product

placement and (2) differences in ethical attitudes.

Attitudes Toward Advertising as a Proxy

for Attitudes Toward Product Placement

Since there are no cross-cultural studies of product

placement to our knowledge at present, we consider

the effects of advertising on consumers and their atti-

tudes toward them as a proxy (i.e., both are charac-

terized in terms of commercial communications ad-

dressed to a target audience). In doing so, we also

recognize that product placement and advertising are

not altogether equivalent but believe that there are

enough similarities to warrant at least this initial

consideration. In this regard, several general find-

ings which might translate from advertising to prod- uct placement are relevant. First, there appear to be

product differences pertinent to both advertising and

product placement in that some products may be more

susceptible to standardization across countries than

others (Seitz and Johar 1993). Second, countries may

vary in the products for which they restrict advertis-

ing as do Austria and France, although both have

similarly restricted television advertising for alcohol

and tobacco (Shao and Hill 1994). Third, both adver-

tising and product placement may be seen as intru-

sive. Fourth, both tools may involve similar ethical

challenges, such as their promotion of ethically-

charged products and alleged use of deception (cf.

Gupta and Gould 1997). Finally, people in various

countries may differ in their attitudes toward adver-

tising (Beatson 1984) and likely in a similar fashion

toward product placement as well.

There is very little published research on Austrian

consumers' attitudes toward advertising. In one older

study, they were found to be generally accepting of

advertising although also agreeing at a very high level (88%) that it made people buy things they did

not want (Beatson 1984). This may reflect differen-

tial economic socialization across various European

nations (Beatson 1984; Leiser, Sev?n and Levy 1990). A more recent study reports on a survey in which 90%

of the respondents found it disturbing when films on

TV are interrupted by advertisements (Mayerhofer 1995). However, at the same time, almost 90% of

these Austrian consumers appreciate advertising's informative function, especially for new products, and

58% think that advertisements are "quite entertain-

ing." Another indication of possible attitudes toward

product placement is that ads are not allowed on TV

programs with an informative character, such as re-

ports or panels (Gemeinboeck and Wagner 1993). There have been a number of studies which have

reported differences in U.S. and French advertising

(Appelbaum and Halliburton 1993; Biswas, Olsen and

Carlet 1992; Cutler and Javalgi 1992; Cutler, Javalgi and Erramilli 1992; Zandpour, Chang and Catalano

1992) and one which reported on French-British dif-

ferences (Whitelock and Chung 1989). Perhaps, most

importantly, Biswas, Olsen and Carlet (1992) found

that French magazine advertising contained more

emotional appeals while American magazine adver-

tising contained more informational appeals. The

French preference for emotional appeals is said to be

due to the fact that France is a high context country as opposed to the U.S., meaning that French people are more interested in general and aesthetic effects

than Americans who are more direct (Biswas, Olsen

and Carlet 1992). Taylor, Hoy and Haley (1996) con-

firmed these findings in their study of French adver-

tising professionals and indicated that soft sell ap-

proaches work better for the French than the hard

sell approaches that work well in the U.S. They also

emphasized that while the U.S. has tended to play a

leading role in international advertising, it would be

wrong to assume that what works well there will

work elsewhere. Thus, there is good reason to suspect that consumers of different nationalities may have

varying attitudes toward product placements and that

how they work in one country may not work in an-

other. One possible variant may be different ethical

attitudes since product placements have often been

viewed in terms of moral considerations.

Ethical Attitudes

Research regarding business ethics across countries, whether in marketing or other business contexts, seems to indicate that there are some ethical codes

and beliefs that stretch across countries while there

are others that are culture specific (Langlois and

Schlegelmilch 1990). For example, U.S., British, Ger-

man and Austrian managers were found to differ in

46 The Journal of Advertising

what managerial issues they considered as possess-

ing ethical importance (Schlegelmilch and Robertson

1995). However, there are few specific studies which

consider consumers or compare them across the U.S., Austria and France. In one study, Rawwas (1996)

assessed Austrian consumers' attitudes regarding con-

sumer ethics and made some comparisons to Ameri-

cans. He found (pp. 1012-1013) that Austrians viewed

some behaviors such as benefitting from a question- able action (e.g., "breaking a bottle of salad dressing in a supermarket and doing nothing about it") as

more acceptable than did U.S. consumers. Austrians

also found Machiavellianism (i.e., exhibiting more

detachment and relativism and less emotional in-

volvement and idealism in making decisions) to be

more acceptable than did Americans. These results

indicate that possible ethical differences exist and

therefore potential differences are likely to be found

in the acceptability of ethically-charged products across the three countries in the present study.

Research Hypotheses

Based on prior research and particularly in the

previous study of Gupta and Gould (1997), the main

research question involves asking: How similar or dif-

ferent are nations in terms of the effectiveness and

acceptability of product placements as they were ap-

plied in the Gupta and Gould study? In one respect, we

expect there to be some aspects of these variables that

are convergent and others that are divergent (Saimee

and Athanassiou 1998). Thus, on the one hand, we

expect all countries to be more concerned about the

acceptability of ethically-charged products (e.g., alco-

hol, guns, cigarettes) being placed in movies (Gupta and Gould 1997) than they are about others. However, we also expect there will be country differences in the

levels of this acceptability given the general differences

in ethics reported above. Similarly, we expect there to

be country differences in reported purchase behavior

and see these as indicators of the effectiveness of prod- uct placement in general, as well as reflecting diver-

gence in the explanatory variables accounting for them.

The focal comparison country of this study is the

U.S., based on the prior study of Gupta and Gould

(1997) and a review of other related literature. In this

regard, we would expect that since product place- ment often is controversial and therefore likely to be

perceived as intrusive and a hard sell, French con-

sumers (who it is said generally prefer soft-sell pro- motional appeals in comparison to consumers in the

U.S. [Taylor, Hoy and Haley 1996]) should indicate

that they find it less acceptable than U.S. consumers

and that they are also less likely to use them to help them make purchases. There is less evidence con-

cerning the Austrians, although their apparent Ma-

chiavellian attitudes relative to Americans (Rawwas

1996) should make them more skeptical of product

placements since they may view them in terms of

someone trying to take advantage of them. They also

may be more skeptical because at least in the Beatson

(1984) study, Austrians strongly agreed that adver-

tising makes people buy things they do not want.

It is harder to make predictions concerning Austria

and France, since there is less direct evidence, though we do expect differences based on culture (Hofstede

1996; Schuster and Copeland 1999). Therefore, we

will explore potential differences between Austria and

France on an exploratory basis. However, we can hy-

pothesize that consumers in both of these countries

will be less accepting of product placement and less

inclined to use it as a purchase determinant than will

U.S. consumers. To express the issues discussed here,

we created two subhypotheses: one related to coun-

try differences in general and one related to the U.S.

versus the other countries in particular. HI A: There will be a country effect in the

acceptability of ethically versus non-

ethically-charged product placements, H1B: U.S. consumers will be more accepting

of product placement than will Austrian

or French consumers.

In addition, we expect possible individual and prod- uct differences, both within and across countries,

based on other variables used in the original study of

Gupta and Gould (1997), including gender, number of

movies seen, and attitudes toward product placement in general. In light of H1A and following Wang ( 1996),

this would lead us to expect that there will be some

interactions involving country. However, we formu-

late the hypotheses in terms of main effects as well,

with the expectation that product and individual dif-

ferences will manifest in terms of levels (Dawar and

Parker 1994). For instance, this would mean that

U.S. consumers might be more accepting of product

placements (as stated in H IB), but that individual

differences such as those based on gender would per- sist with males being more accepting than females

across all three countries, albeit at different levels.

Product differences likely function in the same way,

i.e., Americans rate products more acceptable but con-

sumers in all three countries will exhibit similar pat- terns of finding certain products (e.g., ethically-

charged ones) less acceptable than others.

Gupta and Gould (1997) reported on gender differ-

ences in the U.S. with men and frequent movie watch-

Winter 2000 47

ers being more accepting of ethically-charged prod- ucts than women and less frequent movie watchers,

respectively. The gender issue is consistent with other

research that finds women more sensitive to ethically-

charged products than men (Milner, Fodness and

Morrison 1991; van Roosmalen and McDaniel 1992). Such gender differences in this regard were found by

Gupta and Gould (1997) in the form of a product ?

gender interaction which was due to males finding ethi-

cally-charged products more acceptable than did fe-

males. The frequency of movie watching issue is tied

into self-congruity theory (Mundorf, Zilmann and Drew

1991), in which one's self-concept and aspects of con-

sumption are seen to form consistent affect-attitude

patterns and to engender personal relevance (Russell

1998), i.e., watching more movies and seeing the prod- ucts placed in them is consistent with how one sees

oneself or comes to see oneself as a consumer. The

reverse is also true: if one sees movies less frequently, one is also less likely to like them and aspects of them, such as product placement. These theoretical ideas were

supported in the study of Gupta and Gould (1997). Fi-

nally, consistent with Gupta and Gould (1997), favorable

attitudes toward product placement in general should re-

sult in greater acceptance of particular products placed. H2A: Regardless of country, there will be a prod-

uct ? sex interaction regarding the accept-

ability of products placed in movies.

H2B: Given the product ? sex interaction, males will accept ethically-charged

products more readily than females but

there will be no difference with respect to non-ethically-charged products.

H3: Regardless of country, frequent movie

watchers will be more accepting of prod- ucts placed than will less frequent movie

watchers.

H4: Regardless of country, positive attitudes

toward product placement in general will result in greater acceptance of par- ticular products placed.

As a further test, we also consider the effects of

these variables on possible effects on product pur- chase. H5 concerns country while H6-H8 concern in-

dividual differences. Product differences were not ac-

cessed directly here. It is expected that the effects will be similar regarding consumers' self-reports of

purchases of brands which are seen in movies.

H5A: There will be country differences in the

impact of the acceptability of product

placement on claims by consumers that

they would purchase a brand they had

seen in the movies.

H5B: U.S. consumers will be more likely to

claim they would purchase a brand they had seen in the movies than will Aus-

trian or French consumers.

H6: Regardless of country, men will be more

likely to claim that they would purchase a brand they had seen in the movies

than will women.

H7: Regardless of country, people who watch

more movies will be more likely to claim

that they would purchase a brand they had seen in the movies than will those

who watch fewer movies.

H8: Regardless of country, people who have

favorable attitudes toward product

placement in general will be more likely to claim that they would purchase a

brand they had seen in the movies.

In summary, hypotheses 1 and 5 address country differences while the others deal with product or indi-

vidual differences. Testing them will enable us to reach

some provisional conclusions about all three types of

effects on consumers' responses to product placements.

Method

Samples

The samples used in this study were chosen to be

roughly comparable in terms of occupation (i.e., all

were undergraduate students), gender and age. The

U.S. sample was previously used by Gupta and Gould

(1997) and was drawn from a student population at a

large Midwestern university. There were 1012 re-

spondents of whom 491 were males and 515 were

females (6 did not indicate their gender). Most were

25 years of age or younger (89.1%). The French sample of 204 of whom 97 were male and99 were female. Of

these, 99.5% were 25 years old or younger. The Aus-

trian sample was drawn from a major Austrian uni-

versity and included 240 respondents of whom 125

were male and 115 were female. With respect to age, 75.8% were 25 years or under.

Survey Instrument

The survey instrument was the same one reported in

Gupta and Gould (1997). For the French sample, the En-

glish version of the survey was used since the students

there were English-speaking. For the Austrian sample, the survey was translated into German by one of the co-

authors who is Austrian. It was also backtranslated into

English by an otherwise non-participating German

48_ The Journal of Advertising

speaker and no major discrepancies were found. The

following items were included in the survey: Product Placement Definition. We defined product

placement on the front page of the questionnaire in

the following terms: 'The practice of placing brand

name products in movies as props is called product

placement." Two pictures with descriptions were used

as illustrations. One showed the Tom Hanks character

in the movie "Big" with his vending machine that had

the name "PEPSI" on it. The other showed John Candy

drinking Diet Coke in the movie "Who's Harry Crumb?'

Attitude I Psychographic Questions. Thirty general attitude questions about product placement and a few

about television advertising in general as a possible

product placement correlate (cf. Andrews [1989] for

attitudes toward advertising in general) were included

in the survey. A 5-point scale was used with poles of

strongly agree (5) and strongly disagree (1). Such con-

cerns were important for at least some consumers' atti-

tudes toward product placement. One of these items, "I

buy brands I see movie stars using or holding in mov-

ies," was used to represent purchase behavior.

Number of movies watched. Respondents were

asked, "How many movies do you watch in theaters

in a typical month?" and also "How many rented mov-

ies do you watch in a typical month?" The number of

movies watched was the total of these two.

Product Placement Acceptability. Respondents were

asked to rate 13 products for their acceptability as

product placements in movies on a three-point scale

(acceptable - scored as a 3?to not acceptable - scored

as a 1). This use of a three-point scale was based on

its prior use by Gupta and Gould (1997). Thus, al-

though such scales may be potentially limited in terms

of sensitivity, robustness, and variance explained (e.g., Givon and Shapira 1984; Jacoby and Matell 1971),

applying such a scale here serves to provide a valu-

able benchmark comparison with the prior results of

Gupta and Gould. Acceptability across the 13 prod- ucts was used as a within-subjects variable since each

study participant provided a rating for each product (13 ratings in all), a very common procedure in adver-

tising research for dealing with multiple stimuli. For

example, Tinkham and Weaver-Lariscy (1994) as-

sessed the effects often test ads on a within-subjects basis with respect to attitude toward the ad. Like-

wise, Moore and Harris (1996) dealt with emotional

responses in relation to three different types of ads, all of which were seen by each respondent, (i.e., on a

within-subjects basis). In a similar fashion, we pro- vided the 13 product stimuli which were rated by our

respondents in terms of acceptability. These were later

rescaled into two categories, ethically-charged and

non-ethically-charged products, in order to follow

Gupta and Gould (1997) and also to facilitate the

theory testing proposed in this paper (see below).

The products were chosen because they had been

previously used in the study by Gupta and Gould

(1997) and they in turn had generally selected these

products on the basis of their previously being used

in movie product placement (cf. Sapolsky and Kinney 1994). Moreover, these products likely are used by or

could be used by the student consumers who com-

prised our samples. A few products were deliberately chosen as being controversial (i.e., cigarettes, alcohol

and guns) or what Gupta and Gould (1997) called

"ethically-charged products" (cf. Balasubramanian

1994; Kaskutas 1993; Rothenberg 1991). While alco-

hol and cigarettes have been deliberately placed in

movies (Sapolsky and Kinney 1994), guns turn up in

them quite frequently and were included as a refer-

ence point whether or not they are deliberately placed. The other ten products were non-ethically-charged

and were chosen because they could be seen as repre-

senting varying degrees of harm. Surfing equipment,

race-cars, fatty foods, soft drinks and candy/snacks are all products which could be seen by some as pos-

sessing potential dangerous aspects although in the

main they are not particularly controversial. Others

that were added (including automobiles, healthy con-

sumer products, sunglasses, cameras and stereo equip- ment) would be seen as even less controversial. In the

Gupta and Gould (1997) study, the acceptability of ethi-

cally-charged products generally differed quite signifi-

cantly from that of non-ethically-charged products.

Open-Ended Question About Views of

Manufacturers Using Product Placement

Consumers were given several lines to respond to

the following, "Please write your views about manu-

facturers placing their brands in the movies as props." This data was not analyzed further in this paper.

Demographics. The demographics included were:

sex, marital status, student class status (i.e., fresh-

man, sophomore, junior, senior, graduate student or

other) and racial status. Only sex was a hypothesized variable to be tested while the others were collected

for classification purposes to describe the sample.

Results

In this results section, we report on the following:

(1) a repeated measure ANOVA for the acceptability of ethically-charged versus non-ethically-charged

products (see Tabachnick and Fidell [1983]), (2) a

Winter 2000 49

regression assessment of acceptability of products

placed, and (3) an ANOVA and regression for reported

purchase behavior in response to product placement.

ANOVA for the Acceptability of

Ethically-charged Versus Non-ethically-

Charged Products

To assess the placement acceptability of ethically versus non-ethically-charged products (Table 3), a mixed

between and within-subjects run was made (i.e., 3 [coun-

try] ? 2 [sex] ? 2 [movies watched] ? 2 [product - ethi-

cally vs. non-ethically-charged]). There was a signifi- cant country main effect (p<.0004) on the acceptability of ethically versus non-ethically-charged products. No

country interaction effects were significant. This result

supports H1A predicting that there would be a country effect. Regarding ? IB which predicted that U.S. con-

sumers would be more favorable to product placements, we looked at planned comparisons. Americans tended

to respond that both ethically and non-ethically-

charged products were more acceptable than did Aus-

trians (p<.0026 and p<.0006, respectively), while the

only significant difference between U.S. and French

consumers was for non-ethically-charged products

(p<.0153), although the difference for ethically-

charged products was in the predicted direction. These

results support ? IB on a qualified basis.

In addition, there were significant sex (p<.0002), movie

(p<.0086), product (p<.0001), product ? sex (p<.0001) and

product ? movie (p<.0013) effects. Regarding H2A, there

was a significant product ? sex interaction as predicted. In

this respect and on the basis of planned comparisons, males were more accepting of ethically-charged products

(p<.0001), but not of non-ethically-charged products

(p<.8446). This finding supports H2B. Considering H3

which predicted that frequent moviegoers would be

more accepting of product placements than less fre-

quent ones, there was a significant main effect, but

again, this must be qualified by the product ? movie inter-

action. Looking at this interaction, we find a pattern simi-

lar to that which pertained to gender. Frequent moviego- ers were more accepting of ethically-charged product

placements than were less frequent moviegoers

(p<.0018), but there was no difference between the two

groups for non-ethically-charged products (p<.9514).

Regression Assessment of Acceptability

of Product Placements

The acceptability of product placement was further

investigated via regression. Following Gupta and

Gould (1997), three new variables were constructed

as sums: INDEX representing the total numbers of

all products deemed acceptable for product placement, INDEX1 representing the total number of ethically-

charged products deemed acceptable for product place-

ment, and INDEX2 representing the total number of

the non-ethically-charged products deemed accept- able for product placement. The reliabilities for these

three using Cronbach's Alpha were .88, .78 and .92,

respectively. Each of these three served as the depen- dent variable in three separate regression runs with

dummy variables, U.S. and France with Austria which

generally had the lowest scores serving as a base, movies watched (MOVIE), gender as a dummy vari-

able (GENDER), and the four exploratory attitude

measures emerging from the original factor analysis of Gupta and Gould (1997). These latter four included

along with their reliabilities for the total sample: (1) Attitudes Toward Product Placement in General (ATT:

liking or not liking product placements-alpha =.71),

(2) Perceived Realism (PR: placement of brand name

products add to the realism of movies-alpha=.71), (3)

Restriction (RESTRICT: desiring to restrict the place- ment of some products such as cigarettes in movies?

alpha=.72), and (4) Attitudes toward Television Ad-

vertising in General (ATTTV: general attitudes to-

ward this form of advertising as a potential predictor for attitudes toward product placement-alpha=.67).

It should be noted that separate factor analyses were run for each country to investigate whether the

factor structures were similar. The same four factors

that resulted in the original U.S. exploratory study also were found for the Austrian and French samples,

although for some a couple of variables were differ-

ent. On the basis of this run and the reasonable

strength of the alpha reliabilities for each of the origi- nal factors by country (all were greater than .61 and

five exceeded .70), we stuck to the original structure

so that regressions could be run with comparable variables. Thus, while the factors were not absolutely the same and more rigorous confirmatory tests might reveal still other differences, we continued to use the

same factors from the Gupta and Gould study be-

cause they offer a reasonable solution for our main

concern which is to explore and predict acceptability across the three countries. Were the factors substan-

tially different, we would not be able to apply such a

solution. However, using non-comparable factors, es-

pecially when the factors are largely comparable as is

the present case, would reduce the applicability of

our work and also make future cross-cultural com-

parisons much less feasible in general. Thus, we find

that the factor analyses indicate that similar attitude

constructs and measures apply while cross-cultural dif-

50 The Journal of Advertising

Table 1

Means of Acceptability of Product Placement in All Three Countries

(Total Sample)

Product

U.S.

? M

Austria

? M

France

? M

Cigarettes Soft Drinks

Surfing equipment Alcohol

Fatty foods

Autos

Race cars

Healthy consumer products Guns

Candy/snacks

Sunglasses Cameras

Stereo equipment

Ethically-charged

Non-ethically-charged

1004

1004

1003

1002

1004

1004

1004

1003

1003

1004

1005

1005

1005

984

984

2.04

2.93

2.86

2.36

2.83

2.90

2.84

2.91

1.94

2.87

2.86

2.86

2.86

2.11

2.88

240

240

239

239

240

240

237

238

238

240

242

240

241

217

217

1.95

2.87

2.90

2.20

2.28

2.90

2.65

2.91

1.58

2.73

2.89

2.82

2.83

1.92

2.79

199

204

204

204

203

203

203

204

204

204

203

203

203

196

196

2.14

2.84

2.87

2.22

2.78

2.87

2.79

2.74

1.66

2.74

2.85

2.87

2.86

1.99

2.83

ferences may be assessed by these attitudes. A sum-

mary of the regression results using these original fac-

tors as the independent variables is shown in Table 4.

For INDEX, there was a significant effect for France

(p<.0041). In addition, there were significant positive attitude effects for ATT and negative effects for RE-

STRICT (i.e., people who had negative attitudes to-

ward product placement and those who felt they should

be restricted were less accepting of product placements than were others). There was also a significant positive effect for PR (i.e., people who found that product place- ments contributed to realism were more accepting of

product placements). These attitude findings indicate

support for H4, namely that positive attitudes toward

product placement will result in greater acceptance of

products placed (as represented by INDEX). There was

also a significant France effect (p<.0041), i.e., the French

were more positive toward product placement than were

the Austrians. The overall regression was significant

(p=.0000) and the R square was .222.

For INDEX1 (acceptability score based on ethically-

charged products), the same attitude variables re-

lated to INDEX were also significant in the same

directions (although for PR, p<.0042). Neither U.S.

nor France was significant (p>.05), but GENDER was

significant here (p=.0000). The latter result was con-

sistent with other gender effects found earlier, namely that women gave less favorable acceptability ratings to ethically-charged products than did men. The over-

all regression was also significant (p=.0000) and even

more variance was explained than it was for INDEX

(R square=.346). For INDEX2 (acceptability score

based on non-ethically-charged products), the results

were a bit different. In addition, only ATT and PR

were among the significant attitudes (p =.0000).

France was also significant ( p<.0011). The explained variance was also lower (R square=.142), although the significance of the regression run was p=.0000. It

should be noted that because of possible

multicollinearity between the two dummy variables, U.S. and France (r=.61), we tested the U.S. by itself

(without France but with all the other independent variables) and found marginally significant results

for INDEX (p<.0798), INDEX1 (p<.0951), and IN-

DEX2 (p<.0765), respectively. Overall, these results

indicate support for H4 predicting the effect of favor-

able attitudes toward product placement in general on the acceptability of particular products.

ANOVA and Regression Tests of

Reported Purchase Behavior Based on

Product Placement

Purchase behavior (i.e., as measured by the item "I

buy brands I see movie stars using or holding in

movies") was used as a dependent variable in an analy- sis of variance (ANOVA) against country, sex and

movies watched (divided at the median) as indepen- dent variables, a 3 ? 2 ? 2 design. There were signifi- cant country (p<.0044) and sex effects (p<.0002), but

Winter 2000 51

Table 2

Means of Acceptability of Product Placement in All Three Countries by Gender

Product

U.S. Males

? M

U.S. Females

? M

Aus. Males

? M

Aus. Females

? M

Cigarettes 489 2.21 513 1.88 123 2.02 115 1.89

Soft Drinks 489 2.93 513 2.94 124 2.89 114 2.84

Surfing equip. 488 2.86 513 2.87 124 2.90 113 2.91

Alcohol 490 2.48 510 2.23 124 2.30 113 2.07

Fatty foods 489 2.83 513 2.84 122 2.30 115 2.23

Autos 489 2.91 513 2.90 124 2.89 114 2.91

Race cars 489 2.86 513 2.82 123 2.68 112 2.61

Healthy consumer

products 489 2.90 512 2.93 124 2.87 112 2.96

Guns 487 2.22 514 1.68 122 1.79 115 1.45

Candy/snacks 490 2.86 512 2.89 123 2.69 115 2.77

Sunglasses 490 2.87 513 2.87 125 2.85 115 2.94

Cameras 489 2.86 514 2.87 123 2.79 115 2.84

Stereo equip. 490 2.87 513 2.87 124 2.81 115 2.84

Ethically-charged 486 2.31 509 1.93 122 2.01 113 1.81

Non-ethically-

charged 485 2.88 506 2.88 119 2.77 105 2.80

Product_

Cigarettes Soft Drinks

Surfing equip. Alcohol

Fatty foods

Autos

Race cars

Healthy consumer

products Guns

Candy/snacks

Sunglasses Cameras

Stereo equip.

Ethically-charged

Non-ethically-

charged

Fr. Males

? M

Fr. Females

? M

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

97

2.20

2.88

2.88

2.31

2.85

2.85

2.80

2.72

1.75

2.77

2.87

2.86

2.86

2.09

2.83

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

99

2.07

2.86

2.89

2.10

2.75

2.89

2.82

2.75

1.51

2.78

2.83

2.88

2.87

1.89

2.83

their interaction was not significant (p<.1215). No other

effects were significant (p>.05). Based on planned com-

parisons, U.S. respondents were more likely than ei-

ther Austrian (p<.0036) or French (p<.0454) respon- dents to claim that they would purchase brands they see in movies. Thus, H5A predicting country differ-

ences and H5B predicting U.S. differences from the

other two countries were supported. Males were more

likely to claim that they purchase brands they have

seen in movies than were females (M=1.78 for males and 1.53 for females, p<.0002). H6 regarding males'

greater likelihood of purchasing brands seen in movies is supported, but H7 regarding the impact of the num-

ber of movies watched is not supported. To test H8 regarding the effect of attitudes toward

product placement on claimed purchase, a regression

52 The Journal of Advertising

Table 3 ANOVA Results for Ethically-Charged Vs. Non-Ethically-Charged Products

Source DF F Value Pr>F

Country 2 Sex 1

Movie 1

Country ? Sex 2

Country ? Movie 2

Sex ? Movie 1

Country ? Sex ? Movie 2

Product 1

Product ? Country 2

Product ? Sex 1

Product ? Movie 1

Product ? Country ? Sex 2

Product ? Country ? Movie 2

Product ? Country ? Sex ? Movie 2

7.82

14.23

6.93

1.32

0.61

1.04

0.94

933.76

1.34

23.81

10.44

1.98

1.23

0.01

.0004

.0002

.0086

.2683

.5429

.3071

.3925

.0001

.2618

.0001

.0013

.1385

.2935

.9856

(Table 5) was run and included ATT, PR, RESTRICT,

ATTTV, INDEX1, INDEX2, gender, movies watched and dummy variables for country and gender as inde-

pendent variables. There were significant effects for ATT (p<.0001) and PR (p<.0005), indicating that posi- tive attitudes toward product placement affect re-

ported purchase. H8 predicting such a relationship is

supported. In addition, there was a significant gen- der effect (p<.0049), with males being more likely to

claim purchase based on brands seen in movies than

women. Thus, H6 predicting such gender differences is further supported. A further finding was that French

consumers were less likely to claim a purchase than

others (p<.0151). This provides some additional sup- port for H5 predicting higher U.S. purchase claims

although no effect was found for Austria (p<.05). All

other effects were not significant (p>.05).

Discussion

Summary and Limitations

This study indicates support for the robustness of

the approach of Gupta and Gould (1997) to product

placement in relation to three hypotheses of differ-

ence: the two based on their paper, product differ- ences and individual differences, as well as the addi-

tional dimension added here, country differences. First, there is support for the cross-national difference hy-

pothesis, namely that consumers in the three coun-

tries of the U.S., Austria and France differ in the

likelihood of responding positively to product place- ment in terms of acceptability and purchase behav-

ior. U.S. consumers tended to be more accepting of

and more likely to purchase products shown in mov-

ies. At the same time, there was some evidence for

convergence as well. Thus, some products tended to

be less acceptable across all three countries (i.e., the

ethically-charged products of cigarettes, alcohol and

guns). This supports the product difference hypoth- esis. In addition, there were significant gender differ-

ences (i.e., women are less positive) that persist across

all three countries with respect to some or all of the

ethically-charged products as evidenced by the

ANOVA, regression and t-test analyses. There was

also a movies-watched effect in terms of an interac-

tion with product. Moreover, general attitudes to-

ward product placement had an impact on acceptabil-

ity and purchase behavior. Thus, the individual dif-

ference hypothesis is also supported. The data reveal,

therefore, support for differences in all three aspects: nation, product and individual. To some degree, there

are similar perceptions cross-nationally but major dif-

ferences in intensity. Overall, these results suggest that both domestic and international marketers of

products, as well as global film makers and distribu-

tors, must be aware of these types of differences and

consider them in designing their marketing programs. How should these results be used in the formula-

tion of product placement strategy? To some degree, based on the three-way interaction, they suggest that

a niche strategy is best (Wang 1996). This means that

specific segments, involving country, product and in-

dividual differences, must be identified. However, taken literally, this type of strategy may be too frag-

menting and impractical considering that movies are

Winter 2000 53

Table 4

Regression Analyses for Acceptability of Product Placements

A. Regression Run For INDEX: Total Number of All Acceptable Products

Variable* Beta Significance

ATT .23 .0000

PR .21 .0000

RESTRICT -.22 .0000

ATTTV -.02 .5473

MOVIETOT .01 .6889

U.S. .05 .1313

FRANCE .10 .0041

GENDER -.01 .4269

B. Regression Run for INDEX1: Total Number of Acceptable Ethically-Charged Products

Variable* Beta Significance

ATT .11 .0000

PR .07 .0042

RESTRICT -.50 .0000

ATTTV -.01 .7693

MOVIETOT .02 .3377

U.S. .04 .1695

FRANCE .03 .2924

GENDER -.12 .0000

C. Regression Run for INDEX 2: Total Number of Acceptable Non-Ethically-Charged Products

Variable* Beta Significance

ATT .23 .0000

PR .22 .0000

RESTRICT -.02 .3245

ATTTV -.01 .6211

MOVIETOT -.01 .8158

U.S. .05 .1080

FRANCE .11 .0011

_GENDER_104_.1089_ * ATT=attitudes toward product placement in general, PR=perceived realism, RESTRICT=the attitude toward restricting product placements,

ATTTV=attitudes toward television advertising in general and MOVIETOT=the total number of movies watched. U.S., FRANCE and GEN- DER are dummy variables for U.S., France and gender, respectively.

usually more broadly targeted. Fortunately, the data

are also more forgiving in this regard. First, ethi-

cally-charged products differed across countries in

similar ways although at different levels. Second, as

evidenced in the regression runs, similar attitudes

toward both acceptability and purchase were easily identified across countries. On an overall basis, the

most compelling variables for managerial strategy re-

main the product and individual difference variables,

despite the country differences. In particular, the great- est caution should be taken with regard to ethically-

charged products, although there also still needs to be

a careful approach to cross-national standardization.

Nonetheless, standardization does appear feasible for

product placements if applied judiciously. These results have their limitations. One limita-

tion concerns the scaling of the product acceptability items. While this paper used the three-point accept-

ability scale of Gupta and Gould (1997) as a bench-

mark, other scaling approaches might yield different

results. Another limitation concerns the international

flavor and scope of this study in that it represents

only three countries. The inclusion of other countries

might change or broaden the results. In this respect,

54 The Journal of Advertising

Table 5

Regression Analysis for Purchase Claims Based on Product Placements

Variable* Beta Significance

ATT .13 .0001 PR .11 .0005

RESTRICT .05 .1587 ATTTV .03 .2140

MOVIETOT .02 .5197

U.S. .01 .7186

FRANCE -.06 .1019

_GENDER_-?8_.0049_

ATT-attitudes toward product placement in general, PR=perceived realism, RESTRICT=the attitude toward restricting product placements, ATTTV=attitudes toward television advertising in general and MOVIETOT=the total number of movies watched. U.S., FRANCE and GEN- DER are dummy variables for the U.S., France and gender, respectively.

one reviewer suggested that a possible limitation of the

study was that the pictures and brands portrayed in

the survey booklet may have been too widely known

(e.g., Diet Coke, Pepsi) or that they conveyed different

messages to one national audience as opposed to an-

other. For example, Diet Coke was called Coke Light in

Japan because the word "diet" has bad connotations

(Cateora 1990). However, while other props may be

tested in future studies, it may not be easy to predict or

explain cross-cultural differences found in this respect.

Managerial Implications

The results of this study do not mean that market-

ers must always follow an adaptive-localization strat-

egy, especially since this is most difficult in the face of

the structural inflexibility of adapting product place- ments across nations. Instead, they must be aware of

what products will work on this structural basis and

thus which ones can safely operate in this necessarily standardized environment. Integrating product place- ment with other media across countries will also be

required (Grein and Gould 1996) so that global deci-

sions as to whether to use product placement at all

and if so, how, are made in a broader light. For ex-

ample, where a standardized strategy is desirable,

product placement might be emphasized relative to

advertising. On the other hand, where an adaptive

strategy is required, general reliance on advertising which is far more flexible than product placement should be considered. In this case, product placement

may be used only if it is judged not to detract from the

other adaptive aspects of the promotional campaign

(i.e., it is general enough to extend cross-nationally and does not go against the grain of the more fine-

segmented advertising messages addressed to vari-

ous distinct national audiences).

Managers should also be aware when paying for

product placements that countries' acceptance for a

particular product or brand may vary and thus that

they should not overpay for a product placement on

that basis. Movies may well extend across countries

in both physical and meaning transfer, but the place- ments in them may not carry the same quantity or

quality of meaning transfer. In a similar vein as with

international advertising, they should also be aware

of the stronger misconceptions or negative feelings a

product placement might engender in one cultural

setting versus another. This is especially true for ethi-

cally-charged products where regulations and attitudes

may vary sharply so that they could even impact film

viewership or distribution in some countries. Media

considerations might also enter the picture. For ex-

ample, we did not assess TV watching or product place- ment on television nor did we consider how a product is

placed within a movie (e.g., passively on a billboard

versus being actively used by a consumer). Such factors

should be considered in future studies.

The persistence of product and individual differ-

ences found in the original Gupta and Gould (1997)

study are particularly germane for the marketer wish-

ing to use product placement. They suggest, at least

in the countries studied here, that there is some com-

monality in these differences although the interac-

tions involving country suggest a great deal of com-

plexity. Gender differences stand out and managers

placing products in these countries should consider

the less favorable attitudes of women toward product

placements, especially toward ethically-charged prod- ucts. Such segmentation has a natural base to follow

since many movies themselves tend to be gender-

targeted. However, in movies targeted to both sexes, care should be taken as to which products are placed in them for fear of alienating part of the audience.

Winter 2000 55

Attitudes toward product placement and frequency of movie

watching also are noteworthy and managers should con-

sider these, irrespective of the country involved.

Research Implications

This study is a first in terms of assessing product

placement on a cross-national or cultural basis. While

one study, particularly an initial one, may provide a

great deal of insight, it must at the same time neces-

sarily stand both as a benchmark and a research

spur. In those roles, the present study suggests not

only that extensions of its approach should be made

in future studies, but also that other studies explor-

ing a wide range of related topics within the country,

product and individual differences framework be con-

ducted. A few suggestions follow below.

Cross-National (Cultural) Differences. As revealed

by the combined presence of cross-national, product and individual difference effects, as well as complex interactions between them, the major research impli- cation for product placement research concerns in-

vestigating and untangling these effects. A major as-

pect of this research should be to avoid confounding cultural and noncultural factors (Dawar and Parker

1994). In the case of product placement, this may mean focusing on finding common individual and prod- uct differences across nations since by nature prod- uct placements (at least in movies) are relatively in-

flexible. The possible convergent effects and trends in

globalization should be considered. If or where cul-

tural differences beyond these persist, further explana- tions rooted in cross-cultural theory should be sought.

This study looked at Western countries. Future re-

search should look at a variety of other countries

outside the West, as well as other Western countries.

For example, differences found between Western and

Asian countries with respect to advertising indicate

the possibility of differences in attitudes toward prod- uct placement (e.g., Gould and Minowa 1994; Taylor, Miracle and Chang 1994). Japanese advertising, for

instance, tends to be soft sell as opposed to American

advertising (Gould and Minowa 1994), and it may be

that in Japan too much overt or explicit product place- ment may be perceived unfavorably while product

placement which blends in well and is unobtrusive

(soft sell) would be quite acceptable. We would also

suggest considering other types of trait and attitude

measures which would address both cross-national

and within-nation differences, including measures

concerning ethical values, attitudes toward advertis-

ing in general, and attitudes toward materialism, to

name but a few.

While this study did not assess country-of-origin

effects, it is likely that some of the variables we stud-

ied might be impacted by them. For instance, it is

possible that cross-national product placement may be subject to country-of-origin effects with some coun-

tries being more attractive to consumers or otherwise

contributing to the overall effect, such as in terms of

perceived realism. Country-of-origin can be a com-

plex variable in that it could reflect or embody all

three sets of differences considered in this study: coun-

try differences (e.g., some countries perceive the prod- ucts of others in more or less favorable light), product differences (e.g., some products from a specific coun-

try are perceived more favorably than others), and

individual differences (e.g., international travellers

to a country perceive its country-of-origin in a differ-

ent light than non-travellers to that country). Again,

complex interactions like the ones found in this study are likely. In addition, it is possible there will be

country-of-origin ? brands interaction effects which

reflect the idea that brands in the global marketplace often carry with them country associations that are

hard to disentangle. Furthermore, a new country-of-

origin variable should also be considered: the coun-

try-of-origin of the movie or other product placement medium. Similar to brands, movies also carry coun-

try connotations which are often easily identifiable in

terms of origin. These may have a strong effect on the

perceptions of and attitudes toward product place- ment. For example, some countries' movies may en-

hance a product's or brand's image or perceived real-

ism while others may detract. In addition, the sup-

port for a frequency of watching movies effect in the

present study, although weak, nonetheless suggests that frequency of watching a particular country's mov-

ies may also have an effect on product placements. Products, Services and Brand Differences. The

present study focused on a particular set of products with an emphasis on differences between ethically-

charged and non-ethically-charged products. However, a different assortment of products might produce dif-

ferent results and/or provide new insights. Future stud-

ies might also consider services which have been ne-

glected to date. Variations in products and services, if

they exist, would be of particular interest. Moreover, we did not consider specific brands but these also should

be studied. For instance, it might be of interest to con-

sider the global efficacy of the placement of various

brands within a product category (cf. Babin and Carder

1995; Karrh 1994). Brand and movie ambience con-

gruence would be another related topic to consider.

Linked to the brand issue is the fact that compa- nies have different names for the same or similar

56 The Journal of Advertising

brands across countries (e.g., Diet Coke and Coke

Light). This may mean that some product placements from one country would be perceived differently or

may not even be recognized by consumers in another.

An interesting question is whether this name issue

will be another standardizing factor. In some ways, the effect is similar to the cross-border movement of

goods and meaning except that movies stretch the

borders in a virtual fashion, making the cinema screen

as much a type of zone or a border crossing as is a

physical or geographical one where two countries are

contiguous and their marketplaces interact (Clark

1994). Thus, while product placements are not a par-

ticularly adaptive promotional tool because movies

are not changed across countries for the sake of pos- sible versions of placements, it does appear that prod-

ucts, brands and their names would be more likely to

change, if anything does. In other words, the rela-

tively inflexible nature of product placements could

eventually lead to induced changes in how products are perceived on a transnational basis.

Another product-related variable concerns the con-

gruence of product use condition (i.e., how consumers

use and perceive products in particular categories) with

promotional appeal and product life cycle stage (Dibb, Simkin and Yuen 1994; Zhang and Gelb 1996). For

example, consider placing a product in a movie shown

in both developed and developing countries. In the

former, the product may be widely used, while in the

latter, it may be relatively new in the product life cycle and thus may require quite different placement strate-

gies. This perspective could be particularly important for product placement as a promotional tool relative to

others because it may involve using culturally-specific elements in a way that is even more pronounced than it

would be in a more generic commercial designed for

global use. An interesting question for future research

is to look at how transnational consumers perceive

product placement, advertising and other forms of pro- motion relative to each other in terms of such things as

position on the hard/soft-sell continuum and what ef-

fect, if any, these perceptions have on their attitudes

and purchase behavior. In the present data, there

was a correlation between attitudes toward product

placement in general and attitudes toward television

advertising in general (r=.29, p=.000) which suggests that attitudes toward product placements are not iso-

lated from those of other promotional types. Nonethe-

less, there still exists room for differences (e.g., it

may be more acceptable to advertise tobacco products in targeted magazines than to place them in movies).

Individual Differences. Gender differences as one

type of individual difference effect persisted in this

study and supported those found in the Gupta and

Gould (1997) paper. These results suggest that seg-

menting by gender is important for product placement,

especially for ethically-charged products. The general theoretical approach is that men and women possess different gender identities which lead them to relate in

differing ways to many things, including product place- ments (cf. Russell 1998). Similarly, there were effects

for movies watched and general attitudes toward prod- uct placement. These and other potential individual

difference effects should be examined in terms of: (1)

the possible differences regarding other products and/

or brands, (2) differences related to other countries and

the possible interaction with these variables, and (3)

possible variations in meanings drawn by different types of consumers regarding particular product placements.

Conclusion

The framework studied in this paper, based on the

prior approach of Gupta and Gould (1997), proved both

useful and robust in revealing and explaining country,

product and individual differences in response to prod- uct placement. Country differences exist and while

they are not prohibitive to following a standardiza-

tion strategy, they nonetheless suggest that caution

should be taken when the global marketplace is con-

sidered. Caution is also urged, based on our data, for

the placement of ethically-charged products which

seem to generate similar concerns across countries,

especially in contrast to non-ethically-charged prod- ucts. Individual differences also persist although of-

ten in the form of complex interactions. Thus, both

the differences and similarities across countries and

those among individual consumers and products are

important in developing global marketing strategies

involving product placements. Therefore, although much more research is needed, we can begin to see

how product placement may be assessed, gauged and

utilized on a global basis.

References

Andrews, J. Craig (1989), 'The Dimensionality of Beliefs toward

Advertising in General," Journal of Advertising, 18 (1), 26-35.

Appelbaum, Ulrich and Chriss Halliburton (1993), "How to De-

velop International Advertising Campaigns that Work: The

Example of the European Food and Beverage Sector," Inter- national Journal of Advertising, 12 (3), 223-241.

Babin, Laurie A. and Sheri Thompson Carder (1995), "Advertising via the Box Office: Is Product Placement Effective?" Journal

of Promotion Management, 3 (1/2), 31-51. - and- (1996), "Viewers Recognition of

Brands Placed within a Film," International Journal of Ad-

vertising, 15 (2), 140-151.

Winter 2000 57

Balasubramanian, Siva ?. (1994), "Beyond Advertising and Pub- licity: Hybrid Messages and Public Policy Issues," Journal of Advertising, 23 (December), 29-46.

Beatson, Ronald (1984), 'The Image of Advertising in Europe," International Journal of Advertising, 3(1), 361-367.

Biswas, Abhijit, Janeen E. Olsen and Valerie Carlet (1992), "A Comparison of Print Advertisements from the United States and France," Journal of Advertising, 21 (December), 73-82.

Boddewyn, Jean J. (1993), "Where Should Articles on the Link Between Tobacco Advertising and Consumption Be Published?" Journal of Advertising, 22 (December), 105-107.

Cateora, Philip R. (1990), International Marketing, Boston: Richard Irwin.

Clark, Terry (1994), "National Boundaries, Border Zones, and Mar- keting Strategy: A Conceptual Framework and Theoretical Model of Secondary Control Boundary Effects," Journal of Marketing, 58 (July), 67-80.

Cutler, Bob D. and Rajshekhar G. Javalgi (1992), "A Cross-Cul- tural Analysis of the Visual Components of Print Advertis- ing," Journal of Advertising Research, 32 (1), 71-80.

-, - and M. Krishna Erramilli (1992), "The Visual Components of Print Advertising: A Five-Coun- try Cross-Cultural Analysis," European Journal of Market- ing, 26 (4), 7-20.

Dawar, Niraj and Philip Parker (1994), "Marketing Universale: Consumers' Use of Brand Name, Physical Appearance, and Retailer Reputation as Signals of Product Quality," Journal of Marketing, 58 (April), 81-95.

DeLorme, Denise E. (1998), "Brand Placement: A Historical Over- view," in Proceedings of the 1998 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, Darrel D. Muehling, ed., Pullman, WA: American Academy of Advertising, 305-306.

-, Leonard N. Reid and Mary R. Zimmer (1994), "Brands in Films: Young Moviegoers' Experiences and Inter- pretations," in Proceedings of the 1994 Conference of the Ameri- can Academy of Advertising, Karen Whitehill King, ed., Cin- cinnati: American Academy of Advertising, 60.

and-(1999), "Moviegoers'Experiences and Interpretations of Brands in Films Revisited," Journal of Ad- vertising, 28 (Summer), 71-95.

Dibb, Sally, Lyndon Simkin and Rex Yuen (1994), "Pan-European Advertising: Think Europe?Act Local," International Jour- nal of Advertising, 13 (2), 125-136.

Gemeinboeck, G. and U. Wagner (1993), "Rechtliche Aspekte des Prod- uct Placement in Oesterreich," Werbeforschung & Praxis, 4,145-149.

Givon, Moshe M. and Zur Shapira (1984), "Response to Rating Scales: A Theoretical Model and Its Application to the Num- ber of Categories Problem," Journal of Marketing Research, 21 (November), 410-419.

Gould, Stephen J. (1998), "Deconstructing and Inscribing Cross- Cultural Consumption through Drinking Tahitian Tikis Tea: Is It Too Late or Never Too Late to Experience the Authentic Culture of Polynesia?" in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 25, Joseph W. Alba and J. Wesley Hutchinson, eds., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 31-36.

- and Yuko Minowa (1994), "Are They Saying the Same Thing?* An Exploratory Study of Japanese and American Automo- bile Advertising," in Global and Multinational Advertising, Basil G. Englis, ed., Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 193-204.

Grein, Andreas F. and Stephen J. Gould (1996), "Globally Inte- grated Marketing Communications," Journal of Marketing Communications, 3 (September), 141-158.

Gupta, Pola ?., Siva ?. Balasubramanian and Michael L. Klassen (2000), "Viewers' Evaluations of Product Placements in Mov- ies: Public Policy Issues and Managerial Implications," Jour- nal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising (in press).

- and Stephen J. Gould (1997), "Consumers* Perceptions of the Ethics and Acceptability of Product Placements in Movies: Product Category and Individual Differences," Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 14 (Spring), 37-50.

- and Kenneth R. Lord (1998), "Product Placement in Movies: The Effect of Prominence and Mode on Audience Recall," Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertis- ing, 20 (Spring), 47-59.

Hill, Ronald Paul (1994), "A Consumer Perspective on Handgun Control in the U.S." Advancing the Consumer Interest, 6 (Spring), 10-14.

Hofstede, Geert H. (1991), Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, New York:McGraw-Hill.

- (1996), "Images of Europe: Past, Present, and Fu- ture," in Managing Across Cultures:Issues and Perspectives, Pat Joynt and Malcolm Warner, eds., London: International Thomson Business Press, 147-165.

Jacoby, Jacob and Michael S. Matell (1971), 'Three-Point Likert Scales Are Good Enough," Journal of Marketing Research, 8 (November), 495-500.

Karrh, James A. (1994), "Effects of Brand Placements in Motion Pictures," in Proceedings of the 1994 Conference of the Ameri- can Academy of Advertising, Karen Whitehill King, ed., Ath- ens, GA: American Academy of Advertising, 182-188.

- (1998a), "Brand Placement: A Review," Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 20 (Fall), 31-50.

(1998b), "Why (Some) Brand Placements are Effec- tive: Insights from Impression Management Research," in Proceedings of the 1998 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, Darrel D. Muehling, ed., Pullman, WA: Ameri- can Academy of Advertising, 306.

Kaskutas, Lee Ann (1993), "Changes in Public Attitudes Toward Alco- hol Control Policies Since the Warning Label Mandate of 1988," Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 12 (Spring), 30-37.

Langlois, Catherine C. and Bodo ?. Schlegelmilch (1990), "Do Cor- porate Codes of Ethics Reflect National Character? Evidence from Europe and the United States," Journal of International Business Studies, 21 (First Quarter), 519-539.

Leiser, David, Guje Sev?n and Daphna Levy (1990), "Childrens' Economic Socialization: Summarizing the Cross-Cultural Comparison of Ten Countries," Journal of Economic Psychol- ogy, 11 (December), 591-614.

Mayerhofer, W. (1995), "Einstellung der Oesterreicher zur Werbung," Werbeforschung & Praxis, 5, 182-183.

McCracken, Grant (1986), "Culture and Consumption: A Theoreti- cal Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (June), 71-84.

McKee, Kathy Brittain and Carol J. Pardun (1998), "Product as Hero: Product Placements as Effective Advertising," in Pro- ceedings of the 1998 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, Darrel D. Muehling, ed., Pullman, WA: Ameri- can Academy of Advertising, 307.

Milner, Laura M., Dale Fodness and Joy Morrison (1991), "Women's Images of Guns: An Exploratory Study," in Gender and Con- sumer Behavior, Janeen Arnold Costa, ed., Salt Lake City: University of Utah Printing Press, 199-208.

Moore, David J. and William D. Harris (1996), "Affect Intensity and the Consumer's Attitude Toward High Impact Emotional Appeals," Journal of Advertising, 25 (Summer), 37-50.

Mundorf, Norbert, Dolf Zilmann and Dan Drew (1991), "Effects of Disturbing Televised Events on the Acquisition of Informa- tion from Subsequently Presented Commercials," Journal of Advertising, 20 (1), 46-53.

Nebenzahl, Israel D. and Eugene Secunda (1993), "Consumers' Attitudes toward Product Placement in Movies," International Journal of Advertising, 12 (1) 1-11.

58 The Journal of Advertising

Ong, Beng Soo and David Meri (1994), "Should Product Placement in Movies be Banned?" Journal of Promotion Management, 2 (3/4), 159-175.

Rawwas, Mohammed Y.A. (1996), "Consumer Ethics: An Empiri- cal Investigation of the Ethical Beliefs of Austrian Consum- ers," Journal of Business Ethics, 15 (September), 1009-1019.

Rothenberg, Randall (1991), "Critics Seek F.T.C. Action on Prod- ucts as Movie Stars," New York Times, 140 (May 31), Dl.

Russell, Cristel A. (1998), 'Toward a Framework of Product Place- ment: Theoretical Propositions," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 25, Joseph W. Alba and J. Wesley Hutchinson, eds., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 357-362.

Saimee, Saeed and Nicholas Athanassiou (1998), "International Strategy Research: Cross-Cultural Methodology Implications," Journal of Business Research, 43 (October), 79-96.

Sapolsky, Barry S. and Lance Kinney (1994), "You Oughta Be in Pictures: Product Placements in the Top-Grossing Films of 1991," in Proceedings of the 1994 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, Karen Whitehill King, ed., Athens, GA: American Academy of Advertising, 89.

Schlegelmilch, Bodo ?. and Diana C. Robertson (1995), 'The Influ- ence of Country and Industry on Ethical Perceptions of Senior Executives in the U.S. and Europe," Journal of International Business Studies, 26 (Fourth Quarter), 859-881.

Schuster, Camille P. and Michael J. Copeland (1999), "Global Busi- ness Exchanges-Similarities and Differences Around the World," Journal of International Marketing, 7(2), 63-80.

Seitz, Victoria A. and J. S. (Vic) Johar (1993), "Advertising Prac- tices for Self-image Projective Products in the New Europe: A Print Advertising Content Analysis," Journal of Consumer Marketing, 10 (4), 15-26.

Shao, Alan T. and John S. Hill (1994), "Global Television Advertis- ing Restrictions: The Case of Socially Sensitive Products," International Journal of Advertising, 13 (4), 347-366.

Simpson, Penny M., Gene Brown and Robert E. Widing II (1998), 'The Association of Ethical Judgment of Advertising and Se- lected Advertising Effectiveness Response Variables," Jour- nal of Business Ethics, 17 (January II), 125-136.

Tabachnick, Barbara G. and Linda S. Fidell (1983), Using Univariate Statistics, New York: Harper & Row.

Taylor, Charles R., Gordon E. Miracle and Kyu Yeol Chang (1994), 'The Difficulty of Standardizing International Advertising: Some Propo- sitions and Evidence from Japanese, Korean, and U.S. Television Advertising," in Global and Multinational Advertising, Basil G. Englis, ed., Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 171-191.

Taylor, Ronald E., Mariea Grubbs Hoy and Eric Haley (1996), "How French Advertising Professionals Develop Creative Strat- egy," Journal of Advertising, 25 (Spring), 1-14.

Tinkham, Spencer F. and Ruth Ann Weaver-Lariscy (1994), "Ethi- cal Judgments of Political Television Commercials as Predic- tors of Attitude Toward the Ad," Journal of Advertising, 23

(September), 43-58. van Roosmalen, Erica H. and Susan A. McDaniel (1992), "Adoles-

cent Smoking Intentions: Gender Differences in Peer Con- text," Adolescence, 27 (Spring), 87-105.

Vitell, Scott J., Saviour L. Nwachukwu and James H. Barnes (1993), "The Effects of Culture on Ethical Decision-Making: An Ap- plication of Hofstede's Typology," Journal of Business Ethics, 12 (October), 753-760.

Vollmers, Stacy and Richard Mizerski (1994), "A Review and In-

vestigation into the Effectiveness of Product Placements in Films," in Proceedings of the 1994 Conference of the American

Academy of Advertising, Karen Whitehall King, ed., Athens, GA: American Academy of Advertising, 97-102.

Wang, Cheng Lu (1996), 'The Degree of Standardization: A Con-

tingency Framework for Global Marketing Strategy Develop- ment," Journal of Global Marketing, 10 (1), 89-107.

Whitelock, Jeryl and Djamila Chung (1989), "Cross-Cultural Ad-

vertising: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Ad-

vertising, 8 (3), 291-310. Zandpour, Fred, Cypress Chang and Jo?lle Catalano (1992), "Sto-

ries, Symbols, and Straight Talk: A Comparative Analysis of French, Taiwanese and U.S. TV Commercials," Journal of Advertising Research, 32, 25-38.

Zhang, Yung and Betsy D. Gelb (1996), "Matching Advertising Appeals to Culture: The Influence of Products' Use Condi-

tion," Journal of Advertising, 25 (Fall), 29-46.