The perceived effectiveness of overt versus covert promotions
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2018-1912 |
| Date | 12 August 2019 |
| Published date | 12 August 2019 |
| Pages | 321-334 |
| Author | Fanny Fong Yee Chan |
The perceived effectiveness of overt versus
covert promotions
Fanny Fong Yee Chan
Department of Marketing, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study contributes to literature on marketing communications by empirically contrasting the effectivenessof a new
form of covert promotions (product placement in recipes) and an overt promotion (traditional advertisement). The mediating role of perceived
believability of promotional materials and the moderating roles of advertising skepticism and brand awareness wereexamined based on a
conceptual model.
Design/methodology/approach –A Web-based experiment with 2 (form of promotion: overt versus covert) 2 (brand awareness: low versus
high) between-subjects full factorial design was used. A public sample of 537 participants had participated in the study. The con ceptual model was
further tested on 106 participants using stimuli of a fictitious brand.
Findings –A two-stage moderated mediation analysis shows that the perceived believability of promotional materials was a significant mediator of
the form of promotion and brand evaluations. Consumers showed a higher level of believability toward covert promotion, which, in turn, led to more
positive evaluations of the promoted brand. Advertising skepticism and brand awareness were found to significantly moderatethe relationship
between form of promotion and attitudes toward the promoted brands. A similar pattern of results was obtained when stimuli of a fictitious brand
were used.
Originality/value –This research addresses an important issue in marketing communication and extends the understanding of the perception of
overt and covert promotions by examining the underlying mediating and moderating variables, which have rarely been explored before . The results
guide marketers in developing effective marketing communication strategies for well-known, less well-known and even new brands. It also directs
policymakers to consider whether integrated branded content in recipes should be disclosed to protect consumers from surreptitious promotions,
which may help to lower consumers’skepticism toward advertising in the long run.
Keywords Advertising, Experimental design, Brand communication, Consumer behaviour, Brand awareness, Product placement
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The advertising sector is currently facing increasing criticism
from the general publicand traditional advertising is continuing
to lose popularity (Belch and Belch, 2018). ACNielsen (2018)
has recently released a report, whichshows that 92 per cent of
consumers around the world trust word-of-mouth
communications or recommendations from peers and family,
while only 47 per cent trust television,magazine and newspaper
advertisements. The unfavorable attitudes toward advertising
together with the advancement in advertisement-skipping
techniques make traditional advertising hard to reach
audiences. Advertisement blocking also happens in digital
media. PageFair and Adobe (2017) reported that worldwide
advertising blocking has increased 41 per cent in 2015 causing
the advertising industry to lose nearly US$22bn in revenue. It
implies that about 14 per cent of global advertising
expenditureswere wasted.
In view of the fierce competition in the advertising market
and the rising of advertising costs, manymarketers have tried to
search for surreptitious means for promotion. Practitioners
have gradually come to realize the weaknesses of a hard-sell
approach and instead recognizethe value of covert promotions.
For example, Goodby, founder of Goodby and Silverstein,
believed that “advertising works best when it sneaks into
people’s lives, when it does not look or feel like advertising”
(Vagnoni, 1998, p. 1). Carl Laemmle, former president of
Universal Studios, claimed that “if you jam advertising down
their (audiences’) throats and pack their eyes and ears with it,
you will build up a resentment that will in time damn your
business”(Lehu, 2007, p. 17). Various forms of covert
marketing communications have emerged, and product
placement has become more mature and sophisticated
(Hudson and Hudson, 2006;Kuhn et al.,2010). Product
placement is the integration of branded content into an
entertainment context, such as television programs, movies,
music or video games (Chan, 2012;Vaerenbergh, 2017).
Although many consumers do not like seeing traditional
advertising messages, they tend to be less resistant toward
product placement; eventhough they understand that both are
promotional messages (Chan et al.,2017). Some practitioners
even regarded product placementas the “future of advertising”
(Russell and Belch, 2005;Smit et al., 2009)ora“strategic
Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableon
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/3 (2020) 321–334
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-06-2018-1912]
Received 23 June2018
Revised 6 December 2018
1 May 2019
Accepted 24 June 2019
321
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