Consumer Response to Brand Placement in Movies: Investigating the Brand-Event Fit

Executive Summary Movies offer the perfect media site for placement of brands as part of the emerging marketing strategy. Although attempts to analyse brand placements have been made in the past, the same needs more attention in the Indian context. Given the exposure of Indian audiences to both national and international entertainment industry, it is only reasonable to expect the entertainment event context to have an impact on consumers’ evaluation of the brands placed in each context. The present research attempts to extend the applicability of the idea of fit, which was till now largely confined to sponsorship and subjects it to the exploration of finding a fit between brands and specific events, in particular, movies. Because the link between country of origin of the entertainment event (national/international) and brand, placement is a relevant area of speculation, the present research aims to study this relationship within the national/international context. Results of an experimental study among 120 respondents are as follows: Brands placed in a national event will create more positive brand evaluations in terms of positive attitude towards the placed brand and intention to purchase than brands that are placed in an international event. When the presence of a brand is consistent with the context in which it is placed, it would evoke more positive attitudes and behaviour than an incongruent placement. Evaluation of results further reveals that although a brand that fits well with the context in which it is placed generates a positive evaluation of the placed brand, the condition of a brand-event misfit in a Hollywood context will create more negative evaluations among the Indian audiences than if such a disconnect appeared in a Hindi film. In other words, a brand may have more to lose in case of a misfit with the international entertainment event than with a national entertainment event. Based on the findings of the present study, it is suggested that multinational brands must look at the Indian movies as a suitable medium for reaching out to the prospective buyers as Indians have become consumers of global brands and thus pose to be a huge market for global brands.