• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.186-198
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• 2020

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.