Effects of Product Type and Webtoon Attitude in Webtoon PPL

웹툰 PPL에 대한 제품유형과 웹툰 태도의 효과 연구

Abstract

The current study examines how product type and attitudes toward the webtoon - a digital comic that originated in Korea - affect consumer responses to webtoon product placement (PPL). Specifically, it examines the following responses: the perception of PPL intrusiveness, attitudes toward the PPL, attitudes toward the brand, word-of-mouth intention, and purchase intention. It further investigates how PPL type interacts with product type and attitudes toward the webtoon on consumer responses to the PPL. The findings from a 2 (product type: functional vs. hedonic) × 2 (attitudes toward the webtoon: negative vs. positive) × 2 (PPL type: creative placement vs. on-set placement) between-subject experimental study suggest the following: consumer responses to PPL in webtoon is more positive when the product is hedonic (vs. functional) and when attitudes toward the webtoon are positive (vs. negative). This study further suggests when subjects felt favorably toward the webtoon, the creative placement produced weaker perceptions of PPL intrusiveness and more favorable attitudes toward the PPL than the on-set placement. On the other hand, when subjects felt negatively toward the webtoon, the on-set placement evoked weaker perceptions of intrusiveness and more favorable attitudes toward the PPL than did the creative placement.

본 연구는 제품유형, 웹툰에 대한 태도가 웹툰 PPL에 대한 소비자 반응 - PPL 침입성, PPL에 대한 태도, 브랜드 태도, 구전의도, 구매의도 - 에 어떻게 영향을 미치는지 알아보았다. 또한, PPL 제시유형이 제품유형과 웹툰에 대한 태도와 어떻게 상호작용하는지 살펴보았다. 연구 결과, 실용재보다 쾌락재일 경우, 웹툰 콘텐츠에 대한 태도가 부정적일 때보다 긍정적일 경우 PPL에 대한 소비자 반응이 긍정적이었다. 본 연구 결과는 또한 웹툰에 대한 태도와 PPL 제시유형 간의 상호작용을 보여준다. 웹툰에 긍정적인 독자에게는 크리에이티브 배치가, 웹툰에 부정적인 독자에게는 온셋 배치가 더 효과적인 PPL 제시유형이었다. 이러한 연구 결과를 바탕으로 이론적, 실무적 함의를 제시하고자 한다.

I. 서론

Given a digital media environment, individuals who have acquired controllability over messages consume and reproduce advertising content in accordance to their needs and wants. Advertising is less effective on these individuals if there is advertising clutter, which escalates advertising intrusiveness[1]. Today in the advertising industry, there is a segmenting of media that correlates with a segmenting of the market. This makes it critical for advertisers to develop content that fits well with its respective medium. In their marketing communications, advertisers encourage consumer engagement by producing enjoyable ads. Beyond creating a simple persuasive message, they attempt to fuse advertising messages with a new form of cultural content. Their objective is to reduce advertising avoidance, and increase advertising attention, while supplying fun, pleasure, and entertainment. One of the advertising practices that echo such a current trend in the advertising industry of Korea is webtoon product placement (webtoon PPL).

Webtoon PPL is defined as a product/brand message inserted in a webtoon—a type of digital comic that originated in Korea. In recent years, the domestic market of webtoons in Korea has grown quickly, with 2017 bringing in $480 million and possibly increasing to $825 million in 2020[2]. Its boundary has been even expanded to the global market including China, Japan, Southeast Asia and United States[3]. Despite the continuous growth of the webtoon market and the active use of webtoon PPL as an advertising platform, not much academic attention has been given to this advertising practice. Some advertising research in the contexts of webtoon is mostly limited to Korean advertising scholars[4][5]. In this regard, the current study looks at how factors that have been identified as critical to PPL effectiveness work in placement effectiveness in the webtoon context. This study explores the roles of product type and PPL type in the current context. A limited number of studies have examined the effects of these factors in the context of Korean webtoons[4][6][7]. Yet further research is necessary owing to inconsistent findings across studies. Also the area of research that is lacking is consumer-related factors, although research on product placement in traditional media suggests that one component critical to PPL effectiveness is individual differences (e.g., media consumption, cultural background, program liking, and so forth; [8-10]).

Therefore, the current study examines how product type and attitudes toward the webtoon affect consumer responses to webtoon PPL. Specifically, it examines the following responses: the perception of PPL intrusiveness, attitudes toward the PPL, attitudes toward the brand, word-of-mouth intention, and purchase intention. It further investigates how PPL type is related to product type and attitudes toward the webtoon in consumer responses to the PPL.

II. Literature Review

1. Webtoon Product Placement

Product placement (PPL), as an alternative to traditional advertising, has been actively used in marketing communication. It is generally thought of as a combination of advertising and public relations[11]. It has been defined as a paid marketing message that affects the audiences of movies or TV programs by naturally inserting products, brand logos, or brand names into the storylines[11][12]. It is paid brand communication (like advertising), though it is not consumed as independent marketing content, being embedded as it is in some other form of entertainment. Brands are the beneficiaries of PPL. First, PPL reduces advertising avoidance. As brands are embedded in media content enjoyed by audiences, they make themselves rather unavoidable and thus increase attention to the brand. Second, it is a relatively flexible advertising practice. Brands can be exposed in different ways through a variety of entertainment content such as TV shows, soft operas, movies, games, music video, and digital entertainment (web dramas, webtoons, social media contents, etc.). Further, favorable feelings induced by the media content can be transferred to the embedded brands.

In recent years, the webtoon market has rapidly grown, thus making it a popular marketing communication channel—so-called webtoon advertising. One of the types of webtoon advertising is webtoon PPL. Webtoon PPL is defined as marketing communication by naturally inserting products or brands in webtoons to promote a brand. Scholars have taken notice of this trend. A line of research in this area has explored how PPL practice are utilized in webtoon contents by an approach of content analysis, examining particularly structural (e.g., webtoon genre, webtoon theme, etc.) and content characteristics (e.g., PPL type, product type, message appeals, and so forth;[13][14]). Another research line has focused on factors that affect placement effectiveness. As critical factors playing a role in PPL effectiveness, this stream of research has identified the following: PPL attributes (i.e., entertainment, informativeness, work ability, relevance; [15]), PPL engagement attributes [4], storytelling components (i.e., relevance, integrity, clarity; [16]), PPL type [6][7], and product type[7][17].

2. Functional and Hedonic Products

Consumer research has often categorized product type into two kinds—functional and hedonic. A motivation for purchasing a functional product, which holds utilitarian values, is to solve a problem or to fulfill a functional need. In other words, people buy functional products to meet some sort of goal. A motivation for purchasing a hedonic product, which offers values of fun, amusement, pleasure, and self-expression, is to appreciate, consume, or experience the product for its own sake. In other words, consumers who experience hedonic products feel amused, pleased and fulfilled[18]. These two different product values determine a consumer’s information processing and further influence advertising effectiveness. Functional products are likely to activate consumer cognitive responses. Thus, consumers become more analytical as they process advertising information, elaborating advertising messages about product functions/performance. Hedonic products are likely to activate affective responses. Thus, consumers become affectively influenced not by a product message but by peripheral cues such as product image, mood, advertising cues[19][20].

In the traditional advertising context, researchers have extensively examined the effect of product type. Yet researchers know little concerning product type in the context of webtoon PPL. As of now, few studies have explored the role of product type in the effectiveness of webtoon PPL. Research has shown that in webtoon PPL practice hedonic products do better than functional products. That is, hedonic products produced greater placement attention, higher recognition, higher recall, and more positive attitudes toward the product[17]. Cho and Park[7] found that product type had a significant effect on webtoon attitudes but not on brand attitudes. Perhaps in webtoon content brand presence can be perceived as a peripheral cue that arouses readers’ affective responses. This is because reading the storyline of a webtoon is a primary task; being exposed to placement while reading is an accessory task. Therefore, PPL in webtoon is constrained in offering product information and activating analytical information process. Further, affective responses from appreciating storylines and characters of webtoon content can be transferred to embedded brands. This implies PPL practice may be better suited for hedonic products that are likely to evoke affective responses. Based on this logic, the following hypothesis is put forth.

H1: Compared to a functional product, a hedonic product will lead to a) less PPL intrusiveness, b) more favorable attitudes toward the PPL, c) more favorable attitudes toward the brand, d) higher WOM intention, and e) higher purchase intention.

3. Content Appreciation

How does the extent to which people find a webtoon content interesting or boring influence their response to webtoon PPL? If they appreciate the webtoon content, does it play a positive role in the effectiveness of PPL? Mood-state knowledge may help understand the relationship between content appreciation and PPL effectiveness. This is because mood is related to persuasion. Good feelings evoke positive thinking, resulting in being more susceptible to persuasion[21]. One of the explanations behind this observation is that compared to people in a neutral or negative mood people in a positive mood are less likely to think extensively about persuasive messages [22]. In related work, Owolabi[21] showed that people in a happy mood produced more positive attitudes toward a product presented in advertising than those in sad mood. Goldberg and Gorn[23] further demonstrated that happy moods induced from TV programs generated greater advertising effectiveness. These findings imply that the content-induced audience affect has a significant impact on placement effectiveness. That is, if readers enjoy webtoon content resulting in good/positive affect, then they are more likely to positively respond to marketing messages presented in the content. If they are unmoved or repelled by the webtoon content, they will respond less favorably to the marketing message.

Excitation transfer hypothesis [24] further explains the positive effects of context appreciation in PPL effectiveness. According to excitation transfer hypothesis, audiences tend to transfer the emotions evoked by entertainment content/characters to another object related/close to that content. Applying this theory, some empirical studies have shown that positively appreciated context, compared to negatively appreciated context, generated better responses to ads[25]. This indicates that audience’s positive evaluation of content can be transferred to evaluations on ads related to the content. In a similar vein, in the current context, as products/brands are placed in the context of content, audiences should be affected by the context. Hence, positive emotions should be transferred to the content-embedded products/brands. Based on this logic, the following hypothesis is suggested.

H2: Compared to negative attitudes toward the webtoon, positive attitudes toward the webtoon will lead to a) less PPL intrusiveness, b) more favorable attitudes toward the PPL, c) more favorable attitudes toward the brand, d) higher WOM intention, and e) higher purchase intention.

4. Product Placement Type

Previous research has suggested that PPL type plays a role in placement effectiveness. For example, the literature shows the modality of placement matters in the effectiveness of PPL, suggesting contradictory findings. Some scholars have argued that audio appearance, compared with visual, is effective in product recall[26]. Others have suggested that the effect of the modality of placement depends on specific audience responses. Audiovisual placement is the most effective, followed by visual only, and the least effective for product recall is audio only. For product recognition, however, the most effective is audiovisual placement, followed by audio only, and the least effective is visual only[27].

When researchers have examined placement effectiveness, they have paid close attention to placement prominence. In accordance with the level of prominence, researchers categorize PPL type. When the brand is given a centered placement or a greater presence in a scene, researchers refer to it as prominent placement. When the brand is placed in the background placement or given a smaller presence, researchers refer to it as subtle placement[26]. Based on the level of prominence, PPL type is largely grouped into creative placement and on-set placement. Creative placement is a natural, brief product placement in the background of a scene. On-set placement is a relatively intentional, prominent placement of product or brand. The brand gets used or is mentioned by main characters or is somehow related to the storyline[28].

Some empirical studies in a context of traditional media such as a movies show that prominent product appearance, compared to subtle, yields better product recall[26][27], higher consumer recognition[27][29], and more favorable attitudes toward the product placement[30]. Similarly, on-set placement, relative to creative placement, is found to have a more significant impact on brand recognition [28] and brand recall[31]. Yu[32] examined the effect of placement type (on-set placement vs. creative placement) in the context of advertising. As with the context of traditional product placement, Yu[32] found that on-set placement produced higher product attention, attitudes toward to the product, and intention to purchase.

Although many scholars have empirically examined the effect of PPL type in the context of traditional media (e.g., TV program, movie, etc.), few have examined it in the context of webtoon placement. To the best of the author’s knowledge, little is known about the role of placement type in the context of webtoons. Kim’s[6] finding suggested that, in the context of webtoons, on-set placement was more effective for placement awareness than was creative placement, yet it was not when it came to attitude toward the brand or purchase intention. Kim’s findings are consistent with previous literature in a traditional placement context. Prominent placement and on-set placement are generally more effective (than subtle and creative placements) in cognitive response such as recall or recognition. Nonetheless, these effects are not found for attitudinal or behavior responses (e.g., brand attitude or purchase intention) or they are displayed, across studies, in an inconsistent manner. Despite the inconsistent findings concerning the effect of placement type, the literature suggests that, when it comes to examining placement effectiveness, placement type is critical. Therefore, in its examination of the roles of product type and attitudes toward a webtoon, the current study takes into account placement type through seeking a interaction between it and the two independent variables (product type and attitudes toward the webtoon). The research is guided by the following two research questions.

RQ1: How does product type interact with PPL type?

RQ2: How does attitudes toward the webtoon interact with PPL type?

III. Method

1. Experimental Design

A 2 (product type: functional vs. hedonic) x 2 (attitude toward the webtoon: negative vs. positive) x 2 (PPL type: creative placement vs. on-set placement) between-subject experimental study was conducted to test proposed hypotheses and answer research questions. The author manipulated product type and PPL type so that experimental conditions were represented in four versions of a webtoon PPL. The other independent variable, attitudes toward the webtoon, was measured and then were categorized into two groups (negative attitude vs. positive attitude) by median split for data analyses.

2. Experimental Materials

To select a functional and a hedonic product category respectively, 60 undergraduates in an advertising class, a university in Korea were asked to list three functional and hedonic product categories respectively where they frequently use in their daily lives. Then, three most frequently mentioned functional and hedonic product categories were selected as followings respectively: running shoes, earphone, and toothpaste as a functional product, and beer, snack, and coffee as a hedonic one. The second pretest was conducted with a group of 37 undergraduates in the other advertising class of the same university with the first pretest to measure the extent to which product perception is functional or hedonic and the extent to which product involvement is low or high. Based on the result of descriptive analyses, toothpaste was selected as a functional product and beer as a hedonic one. Independent t-tests revealed that while these two products are statistically different in terms of the perception of product categories (functional vs. hedonic; t(35) = 15.523, p < .001), they are equally perceived as a low involvement product (t(35) = .362, p > .05). As prior research has suggested that product involvement affects placement effectiveness (Yu, 2004), the equality of involvement perception guarantees higher validity of the study.

To reduce confounding effects, the bogus brand name “FRESH” was employed for both functional and hedonic products and inserted as PPL in the webtoon. For the webtoon, to increase the sense of reality and to facilitate the measuring of attitudes toward a webtoon, the author selected one of the popular webtoons among Korean, ‘Yumi’s Cells’.

In terms of PPL type, creative placement was manipulated as a visual presentation by inserting the print advertisement of the beer/toothpaste “FRESH.” The on-set placement was manipulated as a text presentation by having a webtoon character mention the brand name and product benefits.

3. Sample

In Korea, individuals in their 20s and 30s account for 51 percent of the population who consume mobile webtoon/web novels applications[33]. Given this, data were collected from individuals aged from 20 to 39, who have read at least one webtoon within the past one year through a research company located in Seoul, Korea, using an online panel sample of 357 participants. Then, to ensure that the PPL type was perceived as intended, participants were required to answer to the questions of “was the brand name displayed in the background?” for the creative PPL condition and “did the webtoon character mention the brand name?”. Through these manipulation-check questions, data with incorrected answers were excluded, finally yielding a total of 320 responses for data analyses.

4. Measures

To assess the perception of PPL intrusiveness (α = .921), a four-item, 5-point Likert-type scale was adopted from prior research [4]. Some items of the scale are as follows: “the advertising in this webtoon disturbing me when I am reading it,” “the advertising in this webtoon is enforced”. For the construct of attitudes toward the PPL, (α= .890), participants were asked to indicate their attitude according to a three-item, five-point semantic differential scale anchored by “bad/good,” “negative/positive,” “unfavorable/ favorable”[34]. Next, the construct of attitudes toward the brand (α = .925) was measured on a three-item, five-point Likert-type scale[7]. The following items are included in the scale:“I am attracted to the brand shown in the webtoon,” “I am interested in the brand shown in the webtoon,” “I am curious about the brand shown in the webtoon”. Word-of-mouth intention (α = .903) was assessed with a three-item, five-point Likert-type scale adapted from a previous study[16]. Some items of the scale are “I want to recommend the brand shown in the webtoon to others,” “I will talk about the brand shown in the brand with surrounding people”. Finally, for purchase intention (α = .930), a four-item, five-point Likert-type scale was used[4]. The scale includes such items as “I am willing to shop for the brand in the webtoon,” “I am willing to consider purchasing the brand in the webtoon”.

The degree of attention to the manipulated experimental materials was included as a covariate in the study. Attentions to the webtoon were thus measured on a two-items, five-point Liker-type scale: “I read the webtoon carefully,” “I was focused when I am reading the webtoon”. As aforementioned, attitudes toward the webtoon (α = .925), one of the independent variables for the study was measured. A three-item, five-point semantic differential scale anchored by “bad/good,” “negative/positive,” “unfavorable/ favorable” [34] was used to tap into this construct. Finally, for the manipulation check, the extent to which product perception is functional or hedonic was assessed with one-item, five-point semantic differential scale anchored by “functional/hedonic” as previously used in the second pretest. Purchase involvement was further measured on a five-item, five-point Likert-type scale adapted from a prior study [35]. Some items of the scale are as follows: “When purchasing toothpaste/beer, I search for brand information for the best choice,” “When purchasing toothpaste/beer, I compare brand information”.

IV. Result

1. Manipulation Check

To check whether the product type was successfully manipulated as intended, independent t-tests were conducted. The findings suggested that beer was perceived as a hedonic product, whereas toothpaste was perceived as a functional product (M_functional =1.87, SD = 0.92; M_hedonic = 3.86, SD = 0.87; t(318) = 19.89, p < 0.001), and the purchase involvement of both products was similarly perceived (p > .05). As attitudes toward the webtoon was measured, it was categorized into two levels (negative vs. positive) by median split. The result of another t-test analysis confirmed that the two groups were statistically different in attitudes toward the webtoon (M_negative = 2.84, SD = 0.42; M_positive =4.25, SD = 0.47; t(318) = -28.52, p < 0.001).

2. Hypothesis Testing

While controlling attentions to the webtoon (p > .05), the product type had significant main effects on the perception of PPL intrusiveness, F(1,311) = 5.69, p < .05, and purchase intention, F(1,311) = 4.04, p < .05, suggesting that subjects in the functional product condition perceived the product placement as being more intrusive and had a lower intention to purchase the brand than did their counterparts in the hedonic product condition. Thus, H1a and H1e were supported. Further, the data demonstrated that the product type marginally affected attitudes toward the PPL, F(1,311) = 3.84, p = .051, and word-of-mouth intention, F(1,311) =3.45, p = .064. This indicates that the hedonic product led to more favorable attitudes toward the PPL and a higher word-of-mouth intention, marginally supporting for H1b and H1d. However, regarding attitudes toward the brand (p > .05), we found no significant difference between the hedonic product and the functional product, suggesting that H1c was not supported.

Attitudes toward the webtoon, while controlling attention to the webtoon (p > .05) exhibited significant effects on the following: perception of PPL intrusiveness, F(1,311) =17.95, p < .001, attitudes toward the PPL, F(1,311) = 80.74, p < .001, attitudes toward the brand, F(1,311) = 52.72, p < .001, word-of-mouth intention, F(1,311) = 12.29, p< .01, and purchase intention, F(1,311) =29.21, p < .001. These results suggest that subjects who felt positively toward the webtoon perceived the PPL as being less intrusive and more positive. They also perceived the advertised brand more favorably and held higher intentions to purchase and give word-of-mouth marketing. Therefore, H2a, H2b, H2c, H2d, and H2e were supported.

3. Answering Research Questions

To respond to RQ1 and RQ2, the interaction effects of product type and PPL type, and attitudes toward the webtoon and PPL type were examined. The results revealed that there were no interaction effects between product type and PPL type on the dependent variables, suggesting that the effects of the product type were not dependent upon PPL type. However, the results found significant interactions between attitudes toward the webtoon and PPL type on dependent variables, in particular, the perception of PPL intrusiveness, F(1,311) =5.14, p < .05, and attitudes toward the PPL, F(1,311) = 5.78, p < .05. Specifically, Figures 1 and 2 show that when subjects felt favorably toward the webtoon, the creative placement produced weaker perceptions of PPL intrusiveness and more favorable attitudes toward the PPL than the on-set placement. On the other hand, when subjects felt negatively toward the webtoon, the on-set placement evoked weaker perceptions of intrusiveness and more favorable attitudes toward the PPL than did the creative placement. In terms of other dependent variables, no significant interaction effects emerged (p > .05).

Figure 1: Attitudes toward the Webtoon x PPL Type on PPL Intrusiveness

Figure 2: Attitudes toward the Webtoon x PPL Type on Attitudes toward the PPL

V. Discussion

This study is designed to investigate the role of product type, attitudes toward the webtoon, and PPL type in the effectiveness of webtoon PPL, one of the digital advertising practices frequently used in Korea. The results of the study support the argument that product type is a factor that influences consumer responses to webtoon PPL[17]. The results suggest that when a hedonic product is advertised in a webtoon, consumers are less likely to perceive the PPL as intrusive, and are more likely to have favorable attitudes toward the PPL. Furthermore, consumers are more likely to be willing to purchase the brand and spread the word about the advertised brand. These findings indicate that for a functional product category a brief appearance of the product in a webtoon may be a less effective advertising strategy. This may be because the functional product needs further product information in decision making so that the brief appearance of the product in the webtoon may lead to less communication effects compared to the case of the hedonic product. Brand presentation as PPL in a webtoon perhaps plays a role as a peripheral cue which works better for hedonic products.

The current study further extends prior research on context transfer in PPL [36]. It demonstrates that attitudes toward the webtoon significantly influenced all of the consumers’ responses; when consumers liked the webtoon more, they perceived the PPL to be less intrusive, had favorable attitudes toward the PPL and the advertised brand, and held greater word-of mouth and purchase intentions. These findings indicate that context transfer—an emotional transfer from the contents to the advertised brand—can be applied equally in webtoon PPL. That is, when consumers like a particular webtoon, their positive feelings toward the content can be transferred to marketing messages inserted in the contents.

The study further suggests when consumers appreciate the webtoon more, they perceive on-set placement as more intrusive. Perhaps this happens because this PPL type disturbs the flow of the contents more, giving rise to less favorable attitudes toward the PPL. On the other hand, when it is less appreciated, the on-set placement may not be perceived as being so intrusive and unfavorable; further research is needed, however, to explore why the on-set placement is more effective than the creative placement, when viewers like the contents less. In addition, the results failed to find the interaction effects between product type and PPL type. Although the interaction effect was not hypothesized due to no empirical evidence, it may be assumed that the on-set placement would perhaps work better for the functional product compared to the hedonic product as it offers more product information (i.e., product benefits). No such interaction may be due to a manipulation error; the manipulated on-set placement may have failed to offer additional product information to facilitate the decision making for the functional product. Or, both products used for the study were equally perceived as being low in purchase involvement, so the PPL type may not be that influential in decision making. Future researchers should consider difference in product/purchase involvement impacting the effect of PPL type.

As the webtoon industry is rapidly expanding, webtoon advertising including PPL or brand webtoons (a webtoon created by a particular brand) is becoming a common advertising practice in Korea. Given this trend, more academic attention is warranted regarding the effectiveness of this practice. Findings could offer managerial insights into the strategies of Webtoon PPL. The current findings suggest that, first, the selection of webtoon as a PPL platform matters greatly in its effectiveness. If consumers enjoy the content, the inserted advertising would be appreciated more and perceived as less intrusive. This implies that for PPL practices marketers should target more popular webtoons. Further, when PPL is done with popular webtoons, creative placement would perhaps be more effective, as it intrudes less on viewers’ appreciation of the webtoons. The study further suggests that hedonic product PPL is better suited for a webtoon.

Like any other studies, this study has limitations. First, data were collected from online panels of a research firm, aged 20s to 30s, which are not 100% representative of the population that consumes webtoons in Korea. For future research, broadening samples demographically would be essential to making the study results more generalizable to the population of the study. Second, the study utilized a real webtoon, ‘Yumi’s Cell’, to assess the construct of attitudes toward the webtoon, and further to strengthen the quality of the webtoon as an experimental material. Therefore, the prior perceptions of the webtoon content by subjects (e.g., familiarity, comprehension, etc.) may not have properly controlled. Future research could use a newly created webtoon only for research so as to increase the internal validity of the study. In addition, this study examined products perceived as being low in product involvement. It would be interesting to include the role of product/purchase involvement in the study and reexamine the interaction between product type and PPL type along with product/purchase involvement.