Brands in Text – Attitudinal Effects of Brand Placements in Narrative Fiction

Brand and product placements have increasingly become popular as an alternative marketing communication tool for many companies. Although limited in numbers, previous studies have investigated the communication effects of brands placed in television programs, movies and computer games. However, to our knowledge, no empirical studies have looked at the effects of brands placed in narrative texts. The purpose of this exploratory paper is to investigate the effects of brand placements in text on consumers’ attitudes toward the placed brand. We suggest that plot integration (high plot vs. low plot) will be positively related to favorable attitudes toward the brand. Additionally, we suggest that plot integration interacts with consumer involvement, and increases the importance of visible and dominant brands placed in the text for high involvement consumers. An experiment manipulating plot integration and involvement supports our hypothesized main and interaction effects.