Brand placement in text: the short- and long-term effects of placement modality and need for cognition

The present research explores how placing a brand name in the dialogue versus the narration of a fictional text (i.e. placement modality) affects brand attitude and purchase intention. Moreover, it studies the moderating role of need for cognition (NFC) and measures brand responses both immediately after exposure and two weeks later. As predicted, encountering a brand name in the dialogue as compared to in the narration of a story is associated with lower brand attitudes for readers with high NFC at both measurement points. Purchase intentions are similarly affected, but the effects are only significant at a delay. In contrast, brand evaluations of readers with low NFC are largely unaffected by placement modality.