Brand placement repetition in a fictional text

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of brand name repetition on brand attitude in the context of a fictional text. Furthermore, it tests the moderating impact of brand familiarity, narrative transportation, and individual differences in need for cognition (NFC). Participants in an experiment read the full text of a real short-story, which featured the target brand. Brand name repetition and brand familiarity were systematically manipulated. The results show that brand name repetition affects attitude towards an unfamiliar brand and readers’ narrative transportation and NFC moderate this effect: Attitude towards the brand improves with repetition only when both transportation and NFC are relatively high. No effects were found for the familiar brand.

Keywords:

• brand placement
• brand attitude
• fiction
• narrative transportation
• brand familiarity
• need for cognition

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the University of Antwerp Research Council.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

University of Antwerp Research Council

Notes on contributors

Yana R. Avramova

Yana R. Avramova (PhD, University of Tilburg) is doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics, Marketing Department. Her research focuses on brand placement effectiveness in print and audiovisual media.

Patrick De Pelsmacker

Patrick De Pelsmacker (PhD, Ghent University) is full professor of marketing at the University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics, Marketing Department and at Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Marketing Department. His research interests include advertising effectiveness, advertising in new media, consumer behavior, branding and ethical marketing.

Nathalie Dens

Nathalie Dens (PhD, University of Antwerp) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics, Marketing Department. Her research focuses on advertising effectiveness for different marketing communication formats and branding strategies.