CONSUMERS AND EXPERIENTIAL REVERSE PRODUCT PLACEMENT: TO ENGAGE OR TO AVOID?

Abstract

When marketers commercialize a virtual product that is transferred from a fictional environment into the real world, such a tactic is called reverse product placement (RPP). Compared to the widely used practice of product placement, RPP is relatively unused and unexamined. This study addresses opportunities for RPP and explores consumer motivations to engage with or to avoid a special form of RPP—experiential products. Data from consumer interviews are used to develop a conceptual model of consumer interaction with experiential RPP. Findings highlight the role of consumer involvement with the entertainment content from which a RPP is derived, the influence of perceived sacredness of the fictional domain on one’s motivation to consume an experiential RPP, as well as the potential sources of value that consumers attain or hope to attain by experiencing a "live" version of a "fantasy" context.