The Effect Of Product Placement In Games In SNS On Brand Equity

The relationship between brand equity and marketing mix has become an important subject. The research of product placement in the marketing mix how to influence brand equity is still a blank. With the vigorous development of the Internet, social networking service (SNS) undoubtedly was the most popular products in the Internet, such as RenRen website, happy network, facebook and so on. Overall, the social networking service is based on "six degrees of separation theory ", to provide network services to social development, through "friends of friends".With the fast development of SNS, the application model of " SNS and games " has been largely accepted by the public, and the product placement is also got much more attention by the media and advertisers, because of its good combination with the games. The paper reviewed the literature of product placement in games in SNS and brand equity, and integrated them.Besides, The paper, with an empirical research method, will study the inherent relationship of product placement and brand equity from the consumer's point. The results are as follows:(1) The product placement in games in SNS has positive effect on brand recognition, brand association, perceived quality, but dose not has positive effect on the brand loyalty;(2) According to the differences of brand familiarity, the product placement in games in SNS has the different and significant impact on brand equity. Brand familiarity shows a significant regulation on the brand recognition, brand association, perceived quality, but does not on brand loyalty. Those consumers who have lower brand familiarity are more vulnerable to the impact of product placement in games.