Fancy a coffee with Friends in 'Central Perk'? Reverse product placement, fictional brands and purchase intention

Fictional brands are brands that exist only in the world of fiction and not the real physical world. Reverse product placement consists of transforming these fictional brands into products and services in the real physical world.

Fancy a coffee with Friends in ‘Central Perk’? Reverse product placement, fictional brands and purchase intention

Laurent Muzellec

University College Dublin, Ireland

Christopher Kanitz

University of Bremen, Germany

Theodore Lynn

Dublin City University, Ireland

Introduction

Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.

Walter Landor

This quote, attributed to Walter Landor, suggests that brands may be created following a process independent from the manufacturing of a product or the design of a service offering. The psychology-based approach of brand equity partially recognises this contention, and also holds that brand equity exists when consumers...

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