When evaluating the determinants for a successful marketing strategy, it is critical to understand and then to test the boundary conditions of any possible variable. This research attempts to probe how to optimize the effects of placement priming and placement characteristics when facing consumers with different levels of product involvement.
In the first section, this study investigates the three main effects from three variables. For high product involvement persons, product placement appears to lead to better affective reaction than for low ones. This result is compatible several research investigated the differences in low and high involvement behavior (e.g., Belk, 1981; Bowen and Chaffee, 1974; Lastovicka, 1979; Lastovicka and Gardner, 1978b; Mitchell, 1979; Robertson, 1976; Tyebjee, 1979). High involvement viewers appear to have higher willingness to regard for that travel information placed in blogs, whereas low involvement ones appear to be short of the motivation to process information. It confirms that consumers with high involvement might be more interested in acquiring information about the
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product than those with low involvement (Zaichkowsky, 1985) and product placement is more effective to people with high product involvement. The result is consistent with the previous study which indicates that product involvement may play an influential factor to enhance consumer purchase intention and brand attitudes. Thus, based on the finding of this study, product involvement may play an influential factor to enhance consumers’ attitudes or purchase intention.
Furthermore, it seems that placement priming provided before blogs was likely to be more useful than no provided. Placement priming evokes viewers’ consciousness to prompt viewers to prospect the related brand or product in the context. As the findings in previous indicated, prime-compatible object could increase preference to people over another no prime-compatible (Isen and Labroos, 2003). The finding supports this issue and reveals that priming was to prompt viewers’ memory of past consumption experience or advertisement exposure and confirms that participants exposed priming outperformed those not exposed. Therefore, if placement priming exposed before the article might be the cue to fire viewers’ attitudes and purchase intention. It also appears that prominent placement would be more fruitful to viewers. Be consistent with more previous research conducted, placement characteristics is also an important variable to influence people (Babin and Carder,1996;
Gupta and Lord,1998; Law and Braun, 2000). The finding upholds that prominent placements would be more effective than subtle placements (Gupta and Lord, 1998; Schneider and Cornwell, 2005). In this study, prominent placement in blogs has more information with brand placed and conspicuous pictures that increase strong probability to attract viewers. Thus, prominent placement leads better understanding and more positive affective reaction than subtle placement. The results indicate that prominent placement is more effective to viewers than subtle placement and in agreement with Engel et al. (1993) that prominence can draw viewers more attention. Prominent placement provides more intelligence about cruise travel and is conducive to evoke participants’
memory and increase more favorable attitudes and higher purchase intention.
The second section of this study discusses the interaction of placement priming, product involvement, and placement characteristics on the effectiveness of product placement in blogs. The result reveals no obvious interaction effect between placement priming and product involvement.
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This result is inconsistent with the previous study which indicate that that persuasion knowledge is activation when the consumers believe a message is attempted to persuade them (Cowley and Barron, 1998) and not compatible with Petty, Cacioppo, and Schuman (1983) indicates that under high involvement conditions, viewers focus on the content of the message, whereas under low involvement conditions, viewers focus on non-content cues. Thus, based on the finding of this study, placement priming may not moderate product involvement on the effectiveness of product placement. Moreover, another result examines that the effectiveness of placement characteristics is influenced by the interaction between placement characteristics and product involvement. This study finds an interesting phenomenon that indicates that viewers with different level product involvement and different placement characteristics revealed inverse effectiveness of product placement. Apparently, prominent product placement leads to more positive affective to high-involvement viewers. On the contrary, high-involvement ones are probably suited to subtle product placement. The results correspond to PKM (Campbell, 1995; Campbell and Kirmani, 200) that low involvement viewers were conscious that prominent placement blog was faked, and then they nose out the persuasive message contend and contended with that. According to PKM, too much information will let viewers realize the behind meaning with persuasion message. The increased processing accompany prominence have a down side (Chanbell, 1995). Prominent placement in blogs is designed highly visible than subtle placement (Gupta and Lord). However, low involvement viewers were more sensitive to that information placed, especially those prominent messages in accordance with PKM than high ones. In agreement with current study findings (Mattes, Schemer, and Wirth, 2007), prominent placement incurred negative attitudes for low-involvement viewers result from the premeditated placement include persuasive message. For high-involvement viewers have more motivation to discuss that prominent information and have more positive affective reaction. Furthermore, under subtle placement, that article with no brand and mark placed leads less effective to high-involvement people due to scanty information about cruise travel and they would ignore the information without processing. Based on ELM, low-involvement viewers often pay more attention to peripheral attributes (Petty and Wegener,
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1999), thus, in this situation; low-involvement would pay more attention on the tourism pictures and then to read the article, thus result in better reaction. In this study, high-involvement viewers are more affective to prominent product placement; On the contrary, subtle placement was more useful to low-involvement viewers. Therefore, it has been suggested that placement priming may moderate the effectiveness of product placement.
Finally, the results indicate a three way interaction among priming, placement characteristics, and product involvement. People exposed to placement priming would subsequently interpret persuasive information in terms of primed attributes. Thus, under prominent placement, viewers with low involvement are more likely to be influenced by no placement priming than by priming.
Nevertheless, viewers with high involvement are more likely to be influenced by placement priming than by no priming. Conversely, under the subtle placement, viewers with low involvement are more likely to be influenced by placement priming than by no placement priming. Nevertheless, viewers with high involvement are more likely to be influenced by no priming than by priming. The complexity may partially be explained in terms of the following tentative conclusions. Base on PKM (Chanbell, 1995), people develop knowledge about how, why, and when a message is intended to influence them, to help them deal with persuasive event. These findings are congruent with Yi (1990) that priming increases the probability that viewers will subsequently clarify persuasive message in accordance with primed attributes, with a consequent effect on brand evaluations, and with the possibility that prominent placement may bring negative effects (Bhatnagar, Aksoy, and Malkoc, 2004; McCarty, 2004). Low-involvement people would focus on the peripheral cues (Chaiken, 1980; Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). Thus, placement priming may catch their eyes, and easily to be known the persuasive intention, especially in prominent placement situation. However, in a high-involvement situation, people would search more information to clarify their decision (Petty and Wegner, 1999). Placement priming would increase their motivation to join the cruise travel. The results of this research probe that product placement is not always panacea. Interestingly, many of these results echo those reported by Cowley and Barron (2008) from their research. We speculated that three variables have a three-way interrelationship among
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them. Under prominent placement, no placement priming is more effective to viewers with low involvement, but placement priming is more useful to viewers with high involvement. Moreover, under subtle placement, no placement priming is more effective to viewers with high involvement, but placement priming is more useful to viewers with low involvement. There are possible explanations for these results. Placement priming gives adequate information to awaken persuasion knowledge of viewers, and that let viewers believe those messages is intended to persuade them (Cowley and Barron, 2008). When product placement is prominent, placement priming is like a traditional advertising to people with low involvement, and so much information may let them believe this blog is faked and designed. They don’t trust the introduction in the blog is true and doubt the true meaning behind. Thus, prominent placement exposed priming is not fit to people with low involvement. Conversely, low-involvement people would pay greater attention on peripheral cues (i.e., placement priming), especially in implicit condition. Moreover, high-involvement viewers have great enthusiasm to research involved product information.
Placement priming can evoke viewers with high involvement motivation, and then let them trust and have positive attitudes higher purchase intention on product placed in blog. However, placement priming may stand out the persuasion message under subtle product placement. When read the article in unobvious blog placed, viewers with high involvement would understand the persuasion message of priming. Thus, priming doesn’t work to viewers with high involvement, instead of viewers with low involvement. Under low involvement conditions, viewers may focus of thought on non-content cues- priming. Thus, priming is fit to viewers with involvement, but unfit to viewers with high involvement under subtle product placement. These findings support the previous studies and are consistent with those of Cowley and Barron (2008). This research confirms that some specific optimal ways for product placement in blogs can be applied to enhance viewers product attitudes and increase purchase intention toward product.
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