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Hunting and Gathering for Product Placement in Movies: a Visuospatial Approach Hunting and Gathering for Product Placement in Movies: A Visuospatial Approach By Tammy Fichman A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Marketing and Consumer Studies Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Tammy Fichman, 2014 ABSTRACT HUNTING AND GATHERING FOR PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN MOVIES: A VISUOSPATIAL APPROACH Tammy Fichman Advisor: University of Guelph, 2014 Dr. Theodore J. Noseworthy Previous research has shown product placement in movies to be an effective form of advertising. However, the literature does not inform that sex differences in visuospatial abilities may influence product placement effectiveness. The hunter-gatherer theory of visuospatial sex differences was used to explore product placement effectiveness. To explore the possibility that males and females would respectively show greater retention for dynamic and plot-connected product placements, this thesis used moderation, mediated moderation, and serial mediation experimental models to explore the effect of product placement type and sex differences on placement retention and purchase intention via an indirect effect of processing style. This study found that females and males show better retention for plot-connected and dynamic placements, respectively, than for a control. The findings contribute to theoretical as well as substantive literature in the area of efficiency and effectiveness in product placement retention via multicategorical independent variables in conditional process models. iii Dedication "The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion" - Richard P. Feynman I dedicate this thesis to everyone who has made me laugh, especially in moments that I have never laughed so hard in my life, throughout my experience as a graduate student. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. This has been the greatest support of all. To me, laughter is one of the most enjoyable gifts that life has to offer. Never stop chasing it. iv Acknowledgements I would like to extend my gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Theodore Noseworthy, for your irreplaceable mentorship over the last 700 days or so. This has been a huge project and I cannot express enough my appreciation for your support and encouragement. I will carry what I have learned from you well into my future endeavours, both in my career as well as in all other aspects of my life. Thank you. Thank you to Dr. Vinay Kanetkar, for taking the time to review my thesis up until the final stages. Your involvement is very much appreciated. Thank you to Dr. Sunghwan Yi, for providing me with an objective perspective with which to improve my thesis as much as possible. Thank you to C to C Productions, for your tremendous help in brainstorming and editing the video clips used for this thesis. You are a dedicated team and I highly recommend your work to future students who may need video editing for their own studies. Thank you to the NOESIS lab for your involvement in various aspects of my thesis. We have certainly grown a lot as a team! Thank you for the memories, both on and off campus, and I look forward to the times we can all be in the same room again, for some wraps. Thank you to everyone in the M.Sc. Grad Office for allowing me to put my feet up on my desk. Your friendship and support are deeply cherished. Thank you for being a great source of motivation. I am so proud of all of you for your incredible achievements in this program. Thank you to the Marketing and Consumer Studies faculty and administrative staff for your enthusiasm about my research and for your support with administrative steps throughout my time at the University of Guelph. Thank you to my friends and family, near and far, for being in my life. Finally, thank you to my parents and my brothers, who have taught me more than they realize: Dad, thank you for teaching me the importance of growth; Mom, thank you for teaching me the importance of laughter; Yotty, thank you for teaching me the importance of love; and Erran, thank you for teaching me the importance of responsibility. I am so grateful to have learned these fundamental values from you. You have no idea how much I love you all. v Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................5 2.1 Sex Differences in Evolutionary Psychology .....................................................................6 2.1.1 Hunter-Gatherer Theory.......................................................................................7 2.1.2 Physiological Motion Detectors............................................................................8 2.2 Sex Differences in Visuospatial Abilities............................................................................8 2.2.1 Visualization............................................................................................. ...........9 2.2.2 Identification and Recognition of Objects......................................................... 10 2.2.3 The Hunter-Gatherer Theory of Sex Differences in Visuospatial Abilities.......11 2.3 Sex Differences in Processing Style..................................................................................13 2.4 Sex Differences in Advertisement Processing...................................................................16 2.5 Sex Differences in Product Placement...............................................................................16 2.5.1 Plot-Connected Product Placement....................................................................17 2.6 Recall & Recognition in Advertisement............................................................................18 2.6.1 Recall & Recognition in Plot-Connected Product Placement.............................20 2.7 Gap in the Literature..........................................................................................................21 CHAPTER 3: HYPOTHESES.......................................................................................................24 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................29 4.1 Participant Characteristics and Research Design...............................................................29 4.2 Stimuli................................................................................................................................30 4.3 Pretest.................................................................................................................................32 4.4 Procedures, Measures & Methodological Details..............................................................33 4.4.1Instructional Manipulation Check........................................................................33 4.4.2 Movie Scene Clip................................................................................................34 4.4.3 Retention (Recall and Recognition)....................................................................34 4.4.4 Thought Listing Task..........................................................................................37 4.4.5 Purchase Intention...............................................................................................38 4.4.6 Sex.......................................................................................................................38 vi 4.4.7 Debriefing...........................................................................................................38 CHAPTER 5: RESULTS...............................................................................................................40 5.1 Pairwise Comparisons........................................................................................................40 5.2 Assumptions.......................................................................................................................41 5.3 H1: Moderation...................................................................................................................44 5.3.1Free Recall...........................................................................................................44 5.3.2 Recognition Memory..........................................................................................45 5.4 H2: Mediated Moderation..................................................................................................49 5.4.1Recognition Memory...........................................................................................49 5.4.2 Processing Style..................................................................................................50 5.4.3 Mediated Moderation Results.............................................................................50 5.5 H3a: Serial Mediation (Plot-connected Condition).............................................................53 5.5.1 Serial Mediation Results (H3a)............................................................................54 5.6 H3b: Serial Mediation (Dynamic Condition)......................................................................57 5.6.1 Serial Mediation Results (H3b)............................................................................57 CHAPTER 6: GENERAL DISCUSSION.....................................................................................60 6.1 Limitations & Future Research..........................................................................................63
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