Journal of Consumer Behaviour/ Consumer Behav. 5: 211-221 (2006)Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI; 10.1002/cb. 173

®W1LEY

; InterScience^

Brand placements Bollywood styleMichelle R Nelson^* and Narayan Devanathan^'university of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign^Cramer-Krasselt, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

• The globalization of media allows brand placements subtle ways to reach local andinternational consumers. This study examines Indians' responses to brand placements ina Bollywood film. Psychological processing of embedded brands was assessed by gaugingthe effects of film involvement and brand consciousness on recall. Film involvementshowed an adverse effect on brand recall, while brand consciousness had a positive effectBrand consciousness was also positively related to the notion that brand placementsenhanced film realism, but was not related to attitudes toward product placement ingeneral.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction

Brand placements (the use of a product's name,package, signage or other trademarks appear-ing in media; Steortz, 1987) are taking ongreater importance within the media mix inrecent years. Budget constraints, fragmentedaudiences, and technological advances, whichallow consumers to circumvent advertising,contribute to the growth of embedded com-mercial content. Further, globalization forcesallow entertainment media access to local andglobal audiences (Balasubramanian, 1994)and product placements are not limited toUS-produced media. Multinational marketersselect brand placements over advertisingbecause 'the number of tickets sold for amoderately successful movie worldwide wellexceeds the reach of an average advertisement'(Bhatnagaref a/., 2004, p. 103).

'Correspondence to: Michelle R. Nelson, AssociateProfessor, Department of Advertising, University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign, 119 Gregory Hall, 810 S.Wright St. Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

A growing example of brand placementsin non-US media is the Hindi film industryin India (known as Bollywood). Increasingly,Bollywood producers are accepting cashfrom multinational advertisers (Kahn, 2002)such as Coca-Cola, who purportedly paidRs. 3.35 crores (US$670000), or about 20% ofYaadein's (2001) production costs (http://www.mumbai-central.com). Yet, little isknown about how Indian consumers respondto such initiatives.

Although research has explored how indivi-duals across cultures respond to advertising(e.g., Aaker and Maheswaran, 1997) andresearch on attitudes toward product place-ment has demonstrated cultural differences(Gould et al., 2000; Karrh et al., 2001), verylittle effectiveness research has explored howinternational consumers respond to productplacements. How might individuals from othercultures respond to brand placements? Whatfactors influence processing? In this study, werespond to these questions. We gauge con-sumer attitudes to product placements fora new international audience and medium —

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212 Michelle R. Nelson and Narayan Devanathan

Indians and a Bollywood film — and testthe influence of film involvement and brandconsciousness on memory.

Research context

Bollywood and product placements

Bollywood offers an enormous productionoutput (approximately 1000 films/year), com-pared with Hollywood (473 in 2003, MotionalPicture Association of America, Inc.; http://www.mpaa.org), and Bollywood is fueled by alarge audience eager for consumption (Britt,2002). Reach is estimated at 65% of India's ruraland urban population, including a relativelyaffluent middle class of approximately 150-250 million (Bhatia, 2000). Indian consumersare considered to be sophisticated and savvy,even transcending language or class bound-aries (Venkatesh and Swamy, 1994).

Although films are relatively inexpensive toproduce in India, they are largely self-financed.Traditionally, the link between movie creatorsand advertisers has been one of surrogateadvertising. Indian brands were shown in thebackground, usually within the songs (theaverage Bollywood movie has six), which arethen replayed as music videos on televisionstations such as India's MTV or Channel V.Within the last few years, however, multina-tional brands have looked to local media to reachIndians (Kahn, 2002). For example, Coca-Colaplays an increasingly prominent role in story-lines. In Taal (1991, 'Rhythm') the lead coupleromance over a bottle of Coke and in Mohabba-tein (2001, 'Loves'), Coca-Cola signs and verbalmentions become the backdrop in a prominentsetting. Indeed, multinational companies havecreated divisions in India specifically for placingfilm products, such as Leo Burnett Worldwide'sLeo Entertainment. Despite such industrytrends, the impact of product placements onIndian consumers has not yet been researched.

Cultural context: Indian cultural valuesand communication style

Cultural values and communication stylesinfluence advertising persuasion (e.g., Aaker

and Maheswaran, 1997) and likely also influ-ence the way consumers process productplacements. India is considered a collectivistculture, so individuals operate as part of one ormore collectives (e.g., family, co-workers,peers) and are 'primarily motivated by thenorms of, and duties imposed by, thosecollectives' (Triandis, 1995, p. 2). However,given their desire to stand out from others andthe hierarchical nature of the caste system,Indians may be considered vertical coUecti-vists (Triandis, 1995). Related to verticalcollectivism is the cultural dimension powerdistance, where India scores high, demonstrat-ing that status and knowing one's place in thehierarchy are important (Hofstede, 2001).

The ramifications for verticality and powerdistance include the propensity to look up tosuccessful people in the hierarchy, such ascelebrities or cricket stars, as role models. Indiaconforms to this pattern 'where movie stars areelected officials, and where even temples areconstructed for some of them (!)' (Venkateshand Swamy, 1994, p. 219). In a productplacement context, therefore, product-in-useby characters whom the audience admires maybe particularly effective. The collective aspectof culture may mean adherence to in-groupnorms, including appropriate brand selection.What an individual wears or drives may reflectupon the group as a whole. Brands placedwithin the context of group situations mayresonate well with Indians. Further, althoughIndia is considered a culture devoted toreligion, materialism is not frowned upon;instead, 'Indians believe that the material worldand the spiritual world belong to the samerealm of experience' (Venkatesh, 1995, p. 54).

Brands communicate success in the hierar-chy to others; how brands communicate,however, is dictated by communication style.The degree to which a message is commu-nicated directly through explicit communica-tion or implicitly through non-verbal orindirect communication may be characterizedby high- and low-context communication,respectively, which varies across cultures(Hall, 1984). Indian communication is gener-ally characterized as group-explicit non-verbal

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Brand placements Bollywood style 213

style, meaning that the message is commu-nicated explicitly but through non-verbal com-munications. Therefore, symbols are importantin communication and advertising (deMooij,1998), including brands, which may commu-nicate social standing. Venkatesh and Swamy(1994, p. 214) suggest that 'Indian ethos ishighly semiotically oriented and the conceptsof brand identity and iconic images of brandsfind a fertile soil in Indian marketing condi-tions.' Indeed, despite multiple languages andlow literacy rates in rural areas, most consu-mers have no difficulty in negotiating visualimagery, including advertising and brands(Venkatesh and Swamy, 1994).

Produet placement research

Consumer research on product placements hasfocused on attitudes toward the practice (e.g.,Nebenzahl and Secunda, 1993; Gupta andGould, 1997; d'Astous and Seguin, 1999) andeffectiveness (e.g.. Law and Braun, 2000;Russell, 1998,2002); for reviews, see DeLormeand Reid (1999) and McCarty (2004). Attitu-dinal studies have shown that viewers likeproduct placements (unless there are toomany) because they enhance realism, aid incharacter development, create historical sub-text, and provide a sense of familiarity.

Effectiveness studies employ experimentalmethods, whereby consumers are exposedto the medium then queried with explicit(memory) or implicit (brand evaluation) mea-sures (Law and Braun-LaTour, 2004). Freeand aided recall are the most common depen-dent measures (e.g., Karrh, 1994; Babinand Carder, 1996; Gupta and Lord, 1998;d'Astous and Seguin, 1999) followed by recog-nition (Babin and Carder, 1996; d'Astous andChartier, 2000; Law and Braun, 2000). Giventhat increased brand awareness, an importantfactor in building brand equity, is one of thegoals for product placement, memory-basedmeasurements seem an appropriate way to testeffectiveness, based on the premise that effec-tiveness measures should conform to theadvertiser's goals (e.g., Gregan-Paxton andLoken, 1997). In addition, memory is a good

predictor of behavior when the consumer'decision is consequential and deliberate'(Law and Braun-LaTour, 2004, p. 73), for ins-tance in high involvement purchases likeautomobiles. Past research has uncoveredfactors that lead to greater recall, includingbrand prominence, high plot connection, andmulti-sensory visual/auditory sensory cues (seealso Russell, 1998, 2002). Recent research hasemployed brand evaluation measures (e.g..Law and Braun, 2000; Russell, 2002).

Response to product placements variesaccording to gender (e.g., Gupta and Gould,1997), ethnicity (e.g., GovAAetal, 2000; Karrhet al, 2001), and age (DeLorme and Reid,1999). Certain people (males, younger, USindividuals) respond more favorably to brandplacements than others (females, those livingin Austria, France, Singapore, or China, olderUS respondents). Although product place-ments are being used around the world (Britt,2002), most effectiveness research has beenconducted with US consumers (except Bakerand Crawford, 1996 in Scotland; d'Astousand Seguin, 1999 with French-Canadians).DeLorme and Reid (1999) suggest the need toinvestigate product placements internationallybecause 'many brands may mean nothing toforeign audiences; others may be associatednot with just brand-specific consumption, butalso with larger cultural values and lifestyles(e.g., the American way of life)' (p. 86). Foreignaudiences may also interpret international anddomestic brands differently within their owndomestic films, such as Coca-Cola in Bollywoodfilms. Although Gould etal. (2000) suggest thatproduct placements are not an adaptivepromotional tool 'because movies are notchanged across countries for the sake ofpossible versions of placements' (p. 56),international brands placed in local mediamay serve as an adaptive global marketingstrategy.

Hypotheses

Media context

Brand placements are by definition brandsplaced within a medium. How audience

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214 Michelle R. Nelson and Narayan Devanathan

members respond to the medium likelyimpacts their responses to the brands withinthat medium, too. Context effects have beeninvestigated with respect to advertising effec-tiveness since the early 1960s (see review byMoorman et al, 2002). This literature hasshown that program-induced psychologicalresponses influence processing of commer-cials placed within the program. For recall,most studies have shown the intensity of theresponse (in involvement, arousal) negativelyaffects memory due to attention or cognitivecapacity deficits (e.g., Thorson and Reeves,1986; Lord and Burnkrant, 1993). Becauseconsumers attend to and process centralinformation from the medium, they do nothave the capacity to also attend to non-centralelements such as advertisements or brands.Other researchers have shown positive effectsof program-induced intensity on advertisementrecall due to enhanced orientation or attentionto the medium in general (e.g.. Lord andPutrevu, 1999). Finally, Tavassoli etal. (1995)suggest that a minimal level of involvementmust be present for individuals to see — andprocess — the advertisements, but wheninvolvement is too high, advertisement recallwill suffer.

Within the product placement literature, theimpact of context effects has not yet beenthoroughly explored. Although one may pre-sume that involvement should increase proces-sing overall (DeLorme and Reid, 1999),Vollmers and Mizerski (1994) proposed thatfilms and the placements within them are low-involvement media, while McCarty (2004)asserted that high involvement in the filmwould enhance processing of brands tied to theplot but negatively impact those not tied to theplot. Lord and Gupta (2002) noted a negativerelationship between cognitive program invol-vement and product placement recall. Simi-larly, we expect that the intensity of program-induced response (e.g., film involvement) willnegatively influence recall of embedded brandsdue to cognitive capacity deficits. In otherwords, those viewers who are more vicariouslyinvolved will tend to recall fewer brands thanthose viewers w ho are not involved.

HI: Film involvement will negativelyimpact brand placement recall

Brand consciousness

Researchers have studied individual differ-ences in how consumers receive or useconsumer-related information; for example, inthe consumer style inventory (CSI) (Sprolesand Kendall, 1986). We suggest that one of theconcepts of CSI — brand consciousness orbrand sensitivity (defined here as the degree towhich a consumer notices or uses brands asinformation important to purchase decisions)— will be relevant for assessing explicitprocessing of brands placed in films.

Brand sensitivity or consciousness has beenstudied as a concept for managing brands(Kapferer and Laurent, 1985), understandingconsumer socialization processes (e.g.. Shimet al, 1995) and discerning how consumersprocess information about imitation brands(Gentry ef «/., 2001). Indeed, one Singaporeanconsumer suggested that 'only loyal or brandconscious customers can pick out differencesfrom a counterfeit product' (Gentry et al,2001, p. 260). Individuals who are highlyinvolved in products may carefully attend tomessage content related to those products(Bhatnagar et al, 2004).

Such an involvement in and knowledgeseeking for brands in general may relate toconsumers' existing schema for brands and anappreciation for a world (and media world)containing brands. Research has shown thataccessible attitudes or schema play a role indirecting attention to certain objects in thevisual field and that those accessible attitudeobjects automatically attract attention (Roskos-Ewoldsen and Fazio, 1992). As a result,'attitude-evoking' objects are at an advantagein terms of their being consciously noticed andreported. 'What we "see" appears to beinfluenced by our possession of accessibleattitudes' (Roskos-Ewoldsen and Fazio, 1992cited from Fazio, 2000, p. 9). Brand conscious-ness by definition means placing importanceon brands and learning about them, forexample, through commercial media outlets

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Brand placements Bollywood style 215

(Keum etal, 2004). Indeed, some motivationsfor viewing films may be to learn about brands(DeLorme and Reid, 1999).

Similarly, we suggest that brand conscious-ness will be related to a propensity to beparticularly attuned or conscious of brands ingeneral and this consumer style will impact thelikelihood of attending to and then recallingbrand names in other contexts, includingentertainment vehicles. We suspect that brandconsciousness will also be related to anappreciation of commercial media related tothe latest trends and brands, such as Bollywoodmovies, and to commercial media techniquessuch as brand placements. Thus, we predictthat brand-consciousness v/ill be positivelyrelated to attitudes toward brand placements.Further, because brand-consciousness mayalso be a gauge for how individuals view theworld, including their appreciation for brands,they vv ill consider a media world with brands tobe more in line with the real world. Therefore,the follow ing hypotheses are formed:

H2: Brand-consciousness will be positivelyrelated to brand placement recall.

H3: Brand-consciousness will be positivelyrelated to attitudes toward product place-ments.

H4: Brand-consciousness will be positivelyrelated to attitudes toward product place-ments as means to enhance a film's realism.

Methodology

Subjects and procedures

Ninety subjects were recruited from the IndianGraduate Student Association at a MidwesternUS university. One subject from Pakistan andthree born in the US were eliminated from thesample, resulting in 86 subjects (55 males, 22females, 9 no gender identified). None of thesubjects had viewed the film previously.Subjects were primarily graduate students(85%); others were undergraduates or other(e.g., spouses). Ages ranged from 18 to 30. Allsubjects were born in India; most had beenliving in the US for less than 1 year.

Participants viewed the movie in a comfor-table room on campus, which was a commonactivity of the student association and was asimilar setting to a theater. Before watching themovie, participants completed a StandardEthics Protocol. They were told that the movieand refreshments were provided by a universitydepartment and that researchers were inter-ested in their responses to the movie. Bolly-wood movies (including the one shown in thestudy) are typically 3 hours and contain anintermission. During this film's intermission,participants were served refreshments includ-ing soda (brands not featured in the film) andsamosas. During the film, a few respondentsmade comments to friends, but the responseswere not as 'rowdy' as some viewings ofBollywood films can be in India. The respon-dents were generally attentive to the film, andnobody left without watching the film andcompleting the survey. After the film, partici-pants completed the self-administered survey,w hich consisted of the following measures ofinterest to this study, in this order: (1) involve-ment in the movie; (2) free recall of brands; (3)attitudes toward product placements; (4) brandconsciousness questions; (5) media habits; and(6) demographic questions. Subjects wereinstructed to work quietly and independentlythrough the materials in the order given but notto return to previous measures. Subjects weredebriefed on the purpose of the study related toproduct placements. There was no evidence ofhypotheses guessing.

Stimuli

Aankhen (2002, 'Fyes'), a robbery plot actionfilm, was selected because it was a top ten filmin 2002 and was released in India only 6 weeksprior to the study, so there was limitedpotential for prior viewing.

Dependent variables

Recall

The brand recall question asked subjects to list'the brands or advertising' they rememberedseeing or hearing in the movie. Two Indian

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216 Michelle R. Nelson and Narayan Devanathan

coders assessed whether or not the brand recallwas accurate and then counted the numberof brands recalled for each respondent. Codersagreed on 100% of classifications. Range was0-4, with a mean = 0.71 (SD == 0.93).

Attitudes toward product placements

Seven questions were posed to gauge attitudestoward product placement in movies, alongseven-point agree-disagree scales based onGupta and Gould (1997). A factor analysiswas run with oblimin rotation; two factors witheigenvalues greater than one were identified.Items loading 0.6 and above were included.Factor one consisted of four items focusing onattitudes toward product placement in general,while factor t vo consisted of two items relatedto the realism offered by real brands. SeeTable 1 for factor matrix. [Note: The item,'I don't mind if movie producers receive moneyor other compensation from manufacturers forplacing their brands in the movies,' was notincluded due to the low factor loading 0.49.].

someone is like by looking at the brand namesof products (e.g., cars, clothes) they use; (2)brand names tell me something about thequality of the product; and (3) brand names tellme something about the style of the product.These questions were similar to those from theDDB Needham Lifestyle Analysis data. Reliabilityanalyses revealed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.85.Brand-consciousness range was 1-7, mean =4.27 (SD= 1.71), with the higher the number,the higher the level of brand consciousness.

Film involvement

To gauge involvement in the movie, subjectswere asked the following three semanticdifferential questions on seven-point scales:involving-not involving, exciting-not excit-ing, and not boring-boring (Zaichkowsky,1985). Items were reversed so that the greaterthe number, the greater the involvement. Themean response served as a measure offilm involvement (Cronbach's alpha = 0.71,mean = 3.62, SD = 1.37, with 7 = involving).

Independent variables

Brand-consciousness

Results

Brand placements in the movie

Level of brand<onsciousness was assessed Most of the brands were multinational, notaccording to responses to seven-point dis- domestic. Four of the nine multinationalagree-agree scales: (1) you can tell what brands that originated in the US (Guess,

Table 1. Factor analysis of attitudes toward product placement

Item Rotated factor loadings

Factor 1: Attitudes toward product placement (in general)

(1) I would not go to a movie if I know beforehand that brands are placedprominently in it for commercial purposes (reverse-scored) 0.73

(2) I hate seeing brand name products in movies if they are placed for commercial purposes 0.89(reverse-scored)

(3) It is highly unethical to influence the captive audience by using brand nameproducts in movies (reverse-scored) 0.79

(4) I do not mind if brand name products appear in movies 0.64

Factor 2: Perceived realism of product placements

(1) I prefer to see real brands in movies rather than fake/fictitious brands 0.73(2) The presence of brand name products in a movie makes it more realistic 0.87

Eigenvalue 3.10 1.36% of Variance 38.82 17.01Cronbach's Alpha or Inter-item correlation, respectively 0.78 0.50

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Brand placements Bollywood style 217

Harley-Davidson, N.Y. Yankees, Ralph LaurenPolo) were used as symbols on clothing,offering subtle cues into the wearer's charac-ter, perhaps as Western or modern individuals.Rivals Coca-Cola and Pepsi each appeared inthe film two times, as background placementsnot integral to the plot but as more prominentplacements. Coca-Cola received a visual andverbal mention in the script by the main actorwho used the brand as a nickname for his lover.Another main character drinks a Pepsi, thoughthe can falls out of his hand while someone elseshoots at it. Yamaha was the only brand toappear in a song and dance sequence — whenthe characters actually performed their songson top of the bikes for at least 4 minutes.Only 2 of 11 brands were Indian; they w ereautomobile brands: Maruti and Tata Sumo.Significantly, these brands were prominentlyfeatured in the film — as visual cues — in themost important sequences of the plot. Bothwere used as transportation vehicles to andfrom the robbery. It appears that multinationaland domestic brands are used to reflect thebrand-infused reality of urban Indian life.However, to what extent the local versusmultinational brand frequency accuratelyreflected that life is not known.

Testing the influence of fJm involvementand brand consciousness on brand recall

We used ordinary least squares regressionto assess the impact of film involvementand brand consciousness on brand placementrecall (HI, H2). The model produced a signi-ficant /?^ = 0.085; /=•(!, 79) = 3.494, /) = 0.04.As hypothesized, film involvement (1 = unin-volved, 7 = involved) showed a statisticallysignificant negative relationship to brandrecall (standardized /?=-0.218, t=-\.95,p = 0.05). Also as expected, brand conscious-ness (7 = more brand conscious) showed astatistically significant positive influenceon recall (standardized ;9 = 0.206, t-2.Q6,p <0.05). Thus, HI and H2 were supported.To check for multicollinearity, we examinedthe correlation between the two indepen-dent variables (film involvement, brand

consciousness). Since there are only twoindependent variables, it is not necessary tocheck for higher order correlations. Becausethe independent variables only had a correla-tion of r = 0.15, n.s., there is no impact ofmulticollinearity on the regression model.

Assessing the relationships betweenbrand-consciousness and attitudestoward product placements

Attitudes toward product placements in gen-eral were measured as well as the perceivedrealism added to a film by employing brandplacements. We expected that brand-con-sciousness would be positively related (H3)to attitudes toward product placements(7 = more favorable attitude) and to perceivedinfluence (H4) of enhancing a film's realism(7 = more realism). To test H3 and H4, we ranseparate regression analyses, with the contin-uous brand-consciousness variable as theindependent variable and attitudes towardproduct placement in general or perceivedrealism as dependent variables. The firstregression revealed no statistical relationshipbetween brand consciousness and attitudestoward product placements in general(F^ = 0.013; F(\, 79) = 1.076, standardized/3 = O.ll6, n.s.); thus, H3 was not supported.However, the predicted positive relationshipbetween brand consciousness and apprecia-tion for the realism of real brands (H4)was supported (7? = 0.10; /"(1,79) = 9.043,standardized /3 = 0.322,/7 < O.OI).

Discussion

Globalization of media creates transnationalaudiences who are presented with a multitudeof international and domestic brands withincommercial media. The Bollywood film studiedhere contained 11 brands, only 2 of whichwere Indian. International marketers are nowadopting brand placement as a way to reachlocal consumers in a glocalized strategy, yetthis is one of the first studies to assess productplacement efficacy among non-US respondents(though ones exposed to the US culture). We

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218 Michelle R. Nelson and Narayan Devanathan

replicate past research on product placements,which shows detrimental effects of film invol-vement on recall and extend research byintroducing the concept of brand conscious-ness to this literature stream.

Given the vast population of India andthe economic importance of the Indianmarket domestically and abroad, and theimportance of movies in the Indian culture(Bhatia, 2000), the consideration of Indianresponses is important. Product placementsin films are opportune in India as manyrural customers lack TV reception, butnearly everyone attends cinema (Britt, 2002).Further, Bollywood movies typically last 3hours, which means additional opportunitiesfor brand placements. Finally, it can be cheaperto use product placements over celebrityendorsements, as a cricketer in India can earnup to $150 000 for a 30-second commercial(Ramsey, 2003).

From a cultural viewpoint, Indians mayembrace brand placements due to their valuesand communication style, which focus on acollective hierarchy/status and visual symbo-lism, respectively. We suspect that individualswithin cultures that score high on culturaldimensions of power distance or verticality(individualist or collectivist) would especiallylook up to celebrities and would resonate within-use types of brand placements. Conversely,in cultures such as Denmark where socialmodesty codes exist (Nelson and Shavitt,2002), brand placements with celebrity usemay not be attended to or appreciated. We alsopropose that individuals in high-context cul-tures, because they look to visual symbols tocommunicate, would also be more apt to notebrand symbolism in a visual medium such asmovies. This propensity may be enhanced evenmore for those individuals who are particularlyconscious ofbrands. We show that the degreeto which individuals pay attention to brands ingeneral translates into greater attention tothose brands in media, resulting in higherrecall scores and more positive evaluations ofthe ability ofbrands to enhance a film's realism.However, given that cultural differences existin brand consciousness (Shim etal, 1995), this

measure should be investigated with otherpopulations.

We also extend knowledge in productplacement effectiveness by applying conceptsand theories from the context effects literature.Similar to what other researchers have foundfor television-induced involvement and adver-tising recall, we showed a negative influence ofinvolvement on recall for brand placements,which replicates findings among US individuals(Lord and Gupta, 2002). The individuals whowere totally engrossed in the film were thosewho recalled fewer brands than those indivi-duals who were not involved in the film. Thisfinding supports theories of cognitive capacityand attention with respect to the attention andprocessing that audience members allocate tothe film compared with attention paid to thebrands.

Although explicit (memory) measures ofproduct placement effectiveness may beappropriate, future research should also useimplicit measures, such as brand evaluationand choice (Law and Braun-LaTour, 2004).Would mere exposure to perhaps unfamiliarinternational brands cause film-goers to bemore positive about those brands? It would alsobe interesting to test whether or not variousfactors (brand familiarity, prominence, plotplacement, congruence with plot) influencerecall or liking of brands. Yet, to do so wouldrequire a controlled experiment such as thetheater setting (Russell, 2002). While our studyoffers ecological validity — the viewerswatched an entire Bollywood movie at a movienight event w ith an audience they normallywatch such movies — brands were certainlynot placed with an experiment in mind.Therefore, brand placement variables wereconfounded, and recall for particular types ofplacements could not be assessed. Futureresearch might seek to isolate brand placementfactors to tease out effectiveness. Or, moreeasily done, edit out brand placements inexisting movies.

From a critical perspective, the film studiedhere contained 11 brands, which suggests acommercialization of media akin to the US filmindustry. While local media may offer a place

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for global marketers to socialize new consu-mers, such additional commercialism may alsogive rise to negative societal effects. Forexample, the purchase of local brands andlocal pride could suffer and result in a homo-geneous world culture based on internationalbrands (Ger and Belk, 1996). The focus oninternational brands in films and the varyingability to purchase those brands may alsoexacerbate the schism between the haves andhave-nots. To gauge whether commercialism isrising in films, future research might system-atically examine the brand placement contentwithin a greater range of Bollywood films. Inaddition, researchers could probe consumers'interpretations of local versus internationalbrand placements to detect any potential coun-try-of-origin bias (DeLorme and Reid, 1999;Gould et al, 2000). Indeed, in an ethnographyof Brazilians' interpretations of brands in tele-novas, non-Brazilian products were most oftenconsidered to be propaganda, whereas domesticbrands were not (LaPastina, 2001).

Our study focused on a relatively smallsample of Indian graduate students and theirpartners currently living in the US Although allsubjects were bom in India, and had only justmoved to the US, they are clearly not repre-sentative of the Indian population. Thosestudents who attend university in the US aremiddle or upper class. Due to their status asgraduate students, they may have also beenmore aware of or demonstrated more criticalattitudes toward product placements thanmight other Indians. Finally, the sample skewedmale and past research has demonstratedgender differences with regard to attitudestoward product placements (e.g., Gould et al,2000). Future research might test a moreequally representative sample within India.

Biographical notes

Michelle R. Nelson is associate professor in theDepartment of Advertising at the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her researchinterests focus on the interrelationships ofcultural values, persuasion and consumptionbehaviors.

Narayan Devanathan is Senior Brand Plannerat independent ad agency Cramer-Krasselt, Inc.

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