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Current Issue Summary
March 2022 (Vol. 62, Issue 1)

Consumer Recall and Recognition of Co-Appearing Brands in TV Media: The Moderating Roles of Product Congruity and Brand Familiarity
Here’s research that drills down into the challenges of brand co-appearance in specific pieces of content. Author Fanny Fong Yee Chan (The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong) addresses a knowledge gap about product placement: Most empirical research in this area focuses on the execution tactics behind a single brand appearing in a TV program, and its effect on short-term memory or recall. But Chan’s research added other dimensions. Across four studies, she used various combinations of brand products that were familiar and unfamiliar, in product categories that were congruent and incongruent. She also tested both short- and long-term recall and recognition for video ads. Her work reveals that “the superior memory of co-appearing brands from different product categories appeared to be short-term. For participants to recall and recognize the co-appearing brands in the long term requires them to associate the two brands from two different product categories and strengthen the association over time.”

Among other takeaways:

  • “If the promotional objective is to enhance brand memory in the short term, marketers should consider placing their brands with brands from other product categories simultaneously,” a tactic that arouses higher levels of attention and processing.
  • As such, advertisers may find it advantageous to use congruent product categories and brands with equal or greater familiarity.
  • “Marketers can consider adopting co-appearance deals with brands from congruent product categories to introduce an unfamiliar brand to the market.” This would lead to immediate brand awareness.
  • Conversely, familiar brands that co-appear with unfamiliar brands run the risk of weaker brand awareness because the combination is more cognitively demanding.
  • So, “owners of familiar brands may consider setting up product exclusivity arrangements with broadcasters to avoid co-appearance with (an unfamiliar) brand.”

Read the full article here.