The Mind of the Beholder: Luxury Product Placement and Product-Background Scene Congruency: An Abstract

Product placement is a pervasive marketing technique. Focusing on luxury goods, we investigate how luxury associations modulate the effects of product-background scene congruency on purchase intentions. When a luxury product is placed in a movie scene, it can be visible in a congruent, upscale or incongruent, and downscale background. Past research has investigated plot-connection and product prominence, but less attention has been given to product-background scene congruency. We show that product-background scene congruency leads to higher purchase intentions toward the luxury-placed product only when movie viewers are primed with luxury associations. However, priming participants with non-luxury associations mitigate these effects. Results suggest that simultaneous product-background scene congruency and luxury associations are essential if luxury product placement is to be effective.