The Meanings of ‘Kod-sa-na-faeng’- Young Adults’ Experiences of Television
Product Placement in the UK and Thailand
Amy Rungpaka Tiwsakul PhD,
Lecturer in Marketing,
School of Management,
University of Surrey,
Guildford,
Surrey GU27XH
UK
Email r.tiwsakul@surrey.ac.uk
Chris Hackley PhD,
Professor of Marketing,
School of Management,
Royal Holloway, University of London,
Egham,
Surrey TW200EX
UK
Email chris.hackley@rhul.ac.uk
The Meanings of ‘Kod-sa-na-faeng’- Young Adults’ Experiences of Television
Product Placement in the UK and Thailand
Amy Rungpaka Tiwsakul and Chris Hackley
Abstract
This study uses an interpretive approach to explore the ways in which young adult Thai
and British consumers inscribe meanings to the brands they experience as part of their
television entertainment and the roles these meanings have in their experiential worlds.
Drawing on transcribed and translated focus group discussions, depth interviews and
purposively elicited auto-ethnographic narratives the findings suggest that television
product placement constitutes a powerful discourse of brand symbolism to which
international consumers are highly attuned. Brands in television shows can have deeply
personal and nuanced meanings which engage with consumers’ iterative identity projects.
The Meanings of ‘Kod-sa-na-faeng’- Young Adults’ Experiences of Television
Product Placement in the UK and Thailand
Extended abstract
“… when I see they use it in Sex and the City, I feel like if I use it I can be like Jessica
Parker … Jessica guarantees it.” (Female, Thai, 24)
Young adults around the world have a commonality in their experience of brands
and marketing practices. Product placement has no direct translation in Thai, it is known
as ‘kod-sa-na-faeng’ or ‘implicit advertising’. This is partly because product placement
and sponsorship are not separate categories on Thai television but aspects of the same
practice. Nevertheless, consumers in Thailand, as well as those in the UK, are well aware
of the various promotional techniques deployed in their television viewing. Television
offers a powerful medium for the promotion of brands. Consumers often have an intimate
engagement with their favourite television shows. Television is a medium conducted in a
localised vernacular. In Thailand and the UK even where syndicated foreign shows or
advertisements are broadcast they are framed by localised announcements and locally
produced shows. TV is often engaged with on a daily basis in domestic environments. It
has the dual quality of both normalising and glamorising consumption practices. Brands
are ubiquitous in television as they are in everyday life: studio directors need brands in
order to populate storylines with familiar objects which connect with the viewers’ own
reality. Television is consequently an ideal vehicle for product placement, yet its role as a
vehicle for consumer cultural meaning transfer (McCracken, 1988) and a resource for
personal identity projects in an international context is still relatively under-researched.
Previous studies have begun to conceptualise some of the dynamic characteristics
of product placement in, for example, explorations of the influence on consumer attitudes
towards the brand of the connection between plot and brand (Russell, 2002), characterproduct associations (Chang and Roth, 2000) and the alignment of consumer attitudes
towards the placed brand with those of a character with whom viewers identify (Russell
and Stern, 2006). However, most previous studies have been attitudinal and individual in
orientation (e.g. Karrh 1994, 1995, 1998; Balasubramanian, 1991; Vollmers and
Mizerski, 1994; Nelson, 2002; Gupta et al., 2000; Nebenzahl and Secunda, 1993). So far,
more studies have focused on movies as a television as a product placement medium than
television (exceptions include LaFerle and Edwards, 2006; Russell, and Puto, 1999;
Russell et al, 2004; Tiwsakul et al., 2005) but thus far phenomenological approaches have
been rare and non-US national contexts have seldom been explored in their consumer
cultural context.
Attempts to define and categorise product placement practices suffer from the
limitation that they do not take account of differences in regulation and practice in
different countries. For example, Balasubramanian (1994), Gupta and Gould (1997), Ford
(1993) and Baker and Crawford (1995) suggest that product placement is ‘paid for’ with
cash or other considerations going to the studio, usually in the person of the producer or
broadcaster. This ignores two issues: one is the fact that many brands appear in
entertainment as content simply directors need them. Placements give a brand muchneeded visibility and credibility regardless of whether payment was made and public
relations agencies go to great lengths to bring about ‘coincidental’ placements. The
second issue is that, in the UK, product placement is common but brand owners are
forbidden by current regulations from paying programme makers. Instead, they pay
product placement agencies who use their contacts with studios to push heir clients’
brands into programmes as freely supplied scene props.
This paper describes research among consumers in two differing cultural contexts,
the UK and Thailand. In each country the media infrastructure is mature with many
domestic television shows being made. Each country has a vital consumer culture and
lively interest in brands both domestic and non-domestic (although in Thailand consumer
culture is concentrated in the major urban centers where buying power is highest). One
important difference between them is that in Thailand television product placement is
well-established and although there is media censorship there are relatively lax
regulations governing placement practices. In contrast, in the UK under current
regulations television programme makers are forbidden from receiving payment from
brand owners for featuring their brands as scene props or in storylines. Nevertheless, this
does happen legally under the ‘free prop supply’ system. It is widely assumed that UK
regulations will soon change to allow paid-for placements. The UK thus has an immature
and highly regulated television product placement environment while Thailand has a
mature and relatively under-regulated one.
This paper draws on interviews and written narratives from a selective sample of
UK-based and Thai-based television-viewing young adult consumers supplemented by
interviews with leading practitioners. Taking an interpretive theoretical stance, the
findings suggest that young adult consumers in both countries are similarly attuned to
television product placement incidents: they seek them out, describe them vividly, and
clearly enjoy their sophistication in discerning not only brands, both global and local, but
also the marketing techniques by which brands are inserted into their entertainment.
Consumers displayed a high degree of reflexive self-awareness in being aware of their
subjective responses to brands placed in television shows and articulating the underling
motivations for their affective response. Specifically, they deployed their knowledge and
awareness of brands in identity strategies. The paper develops these themes using direct
quotes and then draws on the findings to develop and integrated discussion around
international consumers’ experience of television of product placement, identity, brand
symbolism and the movement of consumer cultural meaning.
References
Babin, Laurie A. and Carder, Thompson S. (1996), “Viewers' recognition of brands
placed within a film”, International Journal of Advertising, 15:2, 140-151.
Baker, Michael J., and Crawford, Hazel A., (1995), “Product placement”, working
paper, Department of Marketing, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland,
unpublished.
Balasubramanian, Siva K. (1994), “Beyond advertising and publicity: hybrid messages
and public policy issues”, Journal of Advertising, 23:4, 29-47.
Balasubramanian, Siva K. (1991), Beyond advertising and publicity: the domain of
hybrid messages, Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.
Baudrillard, Jean (1998), The consumer society: Myths and structures, trans. Turner, C.,
London: Sage.
Chang, Jennifer E. and Roth, Edward W. (2000), “When is cranberry sauce shaped like a
can? An investigation of cultural capital, gender and consumption in television
programming”, Schroeder, J. E., and Otnes, C. (eds.), Association of Consumer Research
on Gender, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior, Urbana, University of Illinois, 107-123.
d’Astous, Alain and Seguin, Nathalie (1999), “Consumer reactions to product placement
strategies in television sponsorship”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33:9/10, 896910.
Danesi, Marcel (2006), Brands, New York: Routledge.
Elliott, Richard and Ritson, Mark (1999), “The social uses of advertising: an
ethnographic study of adolescent advertising audiences”, Journal of Consumer Research,
26:3, 260-277.
Fiske, John (1987), Television culture, London: Routledge.
Ford, Bianca, and Ford, James (1993), Television and sponsorship, Oxford: ButterworthHeinemann.
Gould, Stephen J. and Gupta, Pola B (2006), “"Come on down" How consumers view
game shows and the products placed in them”, Journal of Advertising, 35:1, 65-81.
Gupta, Pola B., Balasubramanian, Silva K., and Klassen, Michael (2000), “Viewers’
evaluations of product placements in movies, public policy issues and managerial
implications”, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 22:2, 41-52.
Gupta, Pola B. and Gould, Stephen J. (1997), “Consumers’ perceptions of the ethics and
acceptability of product placements in movies: Product category and individual
differences”, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 19:1, 37-50.
Hackley, Christopher and Tiwsakul, Rungpaka (2006a), “Entertainment marketing and
experiential consumption”, Journal of Marketing Communications, 12:1, 63-75.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. (1986), “Humanistic inquiry in marketing research, philosophy,
method and criteria”, Journal of Marketing Research, 23, 237–249.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. (1988), “The ideology of consumption: A structural-syntactical
analysis of 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty'”, Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 344-359
Hirschman, Elizabeth C., and Holbrook, Morris B. (1992), Postmodern consumer
research: The study of consumption as text, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Hirschman, Elizabeth C. and Thompson, Craig (1997), “Why media matter – toward a
richer understanding of consumers relationships with advertising and mass media”,
Journal of Advertising, Vol. 16:1, 43–60.
Holt, Douglas (2004), How do brands become icons: the principles of cultural branding,
Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Jansson, Andre (2002), “The mediatisation of consumption: towards an analytical
framework of image culture”, Journal of Consumer Culture, 2:1, 5-31.
Karrh, James A. (1995), “Brand placements in feature films: the practitioners' view”,
Madden, C. S., The American Academy of Advertising, Waco, TX, Hankamer School of
Business, Baylor University, 182-188.
Karrh, James A. (1998), “Brand placement: A review”, Journal of Current Issues and
Research in Advertising, 20:2, 31-49.
La Ferle, Carrie, and Edwards, Steven M. (2006), “Product placement: how brands
appear on television”, Journal of Advertising, 35:4, 65-86.
Lincoln, Yvonna S., and Guba, Egon G. (1985), Naturalistic inquiry, Beverly Hills, CA:
Sage.
McCracken, Grant (2005), Culture and consumption II: markets, meaning, and brand
management, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
McCracken, Grant (1988), Culture and consumption: New approaches to the symbolic
character of consumer goods and activities, USA: Indianna University Press:
Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Miles, Matthew B., and Huberman, Michael A. (1994), An Expanded sourcebook:
qualitative data analysis, London: Sage.
Mortan, Cynthia, and Friedman, Meredith (2002), ““I saw it in the movies”: Exploring
the link between product placement beliefs and reported usage behaviour”, Journal of
Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 24:2, 33-40.
Nebenzahl, Israel D., and Secunda, Eugene (1993), “Consumers’ attitudes towards
product placement in movies”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 12, Iss. p. 1-11.
Nelson, Michelle R. (2000), “Recall of brand placements in computer/video games”,
Journal of Advertising Research,, Vol. 42:2, 80-93
O'Donohoe, Stephanie (1997), “Raiding the postmodern pantry-advertising intertextuality
and the young adult audience”, European Journal of Marketing, 31:3/4, 234-253.
Peñaloza, Lisa (2001), “Consuming the American West: animating cultural meaning and
memory at a Stock Show and Rodeo”, Journal of Consumer Research, 28, December,
369-398.
Potter, Jonathan and Wetherell, Margaret (1987), Discourse and social psychology,
London: Sage.
Russell, Cristel A. and Puto, Christopher P. (1999), “Rethinking television audience
measures: An exploration into the construct of audience connectedness”, Marketing
Letters, 10:4, 387-401.
Russell, Cristel A. (2002), “Investigating the effectiveness of product placements in
television shows: the role of modality and plot connection congruence on brand memory
and attitude”, Journal of Consumer Research, 29:3, 306-319.
Russell, Cristel A., Norman, Andrew T., and Heckler, Susan E. (2004), “People and their
television shows: An overview of television connectedness”, In: Shrum, L. J., The
psychology of entertainment media, Mahwah, NJ: LEA, p. 275-290.
Russell, Cristel A. and Stern, Barbara B. (2006), “Consumers, characters and products: A
balance model of sitcom product placement effects”, Journal of Advertising, 35:1, 7-21.
Russell, Cristel A. (1998), “Towards a framework of product placement: Theoretical
propositions”, Advances in Consumer Research, 25, 357-362.
Schroeder, Jonathan E. and Salzer-Mörling, Miriam (2006), Brand culture, New York:
Routledge.
Shermach, Kelly (1995), “Casting Catt Goes Out”, Marketing News, 29, 11.
Spiggle, Susan (1994), “Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data in consumer
research”, Journal of Consumer Research, 21, 491-503.
Storey, John (2003), Cultural studies and the study of popular culture, 2nd ed.,
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Thompson, Craig J., Pollio, Howard R., and Locander, William B. (1994), “The spoken
and the unspoken: a hermeneutic approach to understanding the cultural viewpoints that
underlie consumers' expressed meanings”, Journal of Consumer Research, 21,
December, 431-453.
Thompson, Craig, Locander, William, and Pollio, Howard (1989), “Putting consumer
experience back into consumer research: the philosophy and method of existential
phenomenology”, Journal of Consumer Research, 17, 133-147.
Tiwsakul, Rungpaka, Hackley, Christopher, and Szmigin, Isabelle (2005), “Explicit, nonintegrated product placement in British television programmes”, International Journal of
Advertising, 24:1, 95-111.
Vollmer, Stacy M. and Mizerski, Richard W. (1994), “A review and investigation into the
effectiveness of product placements in films”, In Conference Proceedings of the 1994
Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, Athens, 97-102.