Prior Product Preference: Influence of Previous Star Wars Films on Star

Wars Fan Attitudes

Dr Stephen Dann

Advertising Marketing and Public Relations, Queensland University Technology, Brisbane,

Australia

Email: sm.dann@qut.edu.au

Please tick
√ Refereed Paper Non-Refereed Paper

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 Prior Product Preference: Influence of Previous Star Wars Films on Star Wars Fan Attitudes

ABSTRACT
This study was conducted as a result of the author realising that nearly 300 hundred people would be
queuing for the midnight session of Revenge of the Sith. Working on the assumption that a survey
would provide momentary respite from the boredom of queuing, the author conducted a study on
attitudes to the Star Wars films and associated issues, including use of Star Wars characters for
product endorsement, and the reactions to advertising featuring Star Wars characters. Results were
predominantly consistent across gender, with fans who endorsed the use of Star Wars characters in
advertising being influenced positively by those adverts. Self described fandom played a significant
part in determining attitudes to advertising containing Star Wars characters

Keywords: Star Wars, Market Research, Advertising, Endorsement, Attitude to film

INTRODUCTION
With the release of the third and final episode of the new Star Wars trilogy, it signified the end of an

era for science fiction and fantasy. As of May 2005, most of the major science fiction franchises have

ceased developing new product with the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Matrix trilogies having now

been completed, and the previously evergreen Star Trek franchise ceasing trading. As the launch of

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith represented the last significant midnight launch event for the

foreseeable future, it was chosen to be the platform for a study on the attitudes of Star Wars fans

towards the Star Wars movies, use of Star Wars characters in advertising plus copy testing of actual

Star Wars endorsed adverts, and broad attitudes towards elements of the Star Wars fandom experience.

Several terms need to be defined for the purpose of this paper - "Original trilogy" represents Star Wars

Episodes IV to VI encompassing A New Hope (ANH), Empire Strikes Back (ESB) and Return of the

Jedi (RotJ). "Prequel trilogy" or "Prequels" represents Episodes I to III, covering The Phantom

Menace (TPM), Attack of the Clones (AotC) and Revenge of the Sith (RotS).

NATURE OF THE STUDY

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith represented a curious point in innovation adoption as both

a new product (discontinuous innovation), and the culmination of existing cinematic franchise

(dynamic continuation). As the third episode of a six part serial, where Episode IV had screened

nearly 20 years prior, there was little about the end of the film that would not have been known to the

members of audience who had seen Episodes IV-VI. Yet the third instalment of the prequel trilogy

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inspired consumers to pre-purchase tickets to a midnight session, then queue up to an excess of 14

hours for spaces in the cinema. From a subjective personal experience, the author pre-purchased

tickets nearly one month in advance and proceeded to wait for nearly eight hours in queue on the

release day.

The nature of the event as the "last" blockbuster also provided a unique opportunity to capture data

from an unusual sample - dedicated film fans. With only the Harry Potter franchise continuing to

produce movies not based around a continuing science-fiction / fantasy universe derived from a

television series (Star Trek, Firefly), this was the last major movie launch for an existing franchise..

Consequently, the purpose of the study was to capture a snapshot of this phenomena of the Star Wars

midnight movie launch.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Due to the exploratory nature of the study, a brief review is required to establish the selection of data

collection tools. The survey was based around two studies - the influence of prior product attitudes on

the new movie and its influence on the attitudes towards commercial exploitation of Star Wars. As an

exploratory study into attitudes and opinions, the study was developed in terms of "what can we learn

that will be useful?" rather than pursing an identified gap in the literature or a specific hypothesis.

With the opportunity to create a larger than usual survey, due to amount of time people had available

in the queuing process, the survey was broad ranging in nature. It encompassed attitudes to previous

Star Wars movies, optimism towards Episode III, attitudes towards the use of Star Wars characters in

advertising, and copy tested three adverts using the Wells (1964) Emotional Quotient scale. The three

copy tested adverts were two screen captures from the American Diet Pepsi Commercial "Jedi Mind

Trick", and a screen capture from the Pepsi Website which hosted the online version of the advert.

(Brand Republic, 2005).

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METHODOLOGY

Surveys were personally administered to the sample population with 200 surveys distributed for a

useable response of 178 (89% response rate) from an estimated total population of 300 filmgoers

(n=178, 60% response rate overall). Selection of the sampling unit was based on the cinema where the

author and their assistant had tickets to the midnight screening. The sample consisted of 178

respondents, 124 males and 42 females (n=166), with ages ranging from 16 to 41, with a mean of age

of 26.4 (SD=5.8).

The Study

The study consists of two parts. First, the influence of prior product preference, as measured by

opinion towards the previous five Star Wars movies is examined against optimism towards Episode

III. Second, prior product preference is tested against the advertising semantic scale, and the Wells

(1964) Emotional Quotient Scales to determine if film preference has an influence on acceptance of

Star Wars endorsed advertising.

Prior Product - Star Wars Movie Preference

Respondents were asked to express their like/dislike of the five existing Star Wars movies on a five

point Likert scale. Episode I: The Phantom Menace was the least popular film, which is consistent

with the level of criticism it received in Star Wars fandom. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back has

the highest rating. There were no statistically significant differences between the genders on the

popularity of the five movies, although women were slightly more forgiving of Episode I. (Table 1)

Table 1: Prior Product Preference Results: Attitudes to the Star Wars Movies by Gender

Mean Mean

Mean SD (male) SD (female) SD

Liked Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3.22 1.21 3.18 1.21 3.30 1.310

Liked Episode II: Attack of the Clones 3.71 1.08 3.74 1.05 3.73 1.17

Liked Episode IV: A New Hope 4.50 0.75 4.51 0.71 4.46 0.93

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 Liked Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 4.74 0.59 4.80 0.41 4.70 0.51

Liked Episode IV: Return of the Jedi 4.63 0.66 4.61 0.61 4.65 0.86

Valid N (listwise) 170* N=122 N=37

* 11 respondents did not identify their gender

Whilst the five items were not intended for use as a scale, inter-item correlations were recorded to

examine relationship between the five movies. These results are reported in Table 2

Table 2: Inter-movie Correlations

Episode I Episode II Episode IV Episode V Episode VI

Liked Episode I: The Phantom Menace 1

Liked Episode II: Attack of the Clones .661** 1

Liked Episode IV: A New Hope .276** .266** 1

Liked Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back .202** .244** .438** 1

Liked Episode IV: Return of the Jedi .279** .166* .375** .290** 1

* Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

** Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

For the purpose of the study, the high correlation between Episode I and Episode II, coupled with the

relatively relationship between Episode II suggests a possible separation where attitudes to the original

trilogy are less influence on the attitudes towards the prequels. Factor analysis of the five items

revealed two distinct factors, clustered around the Prequel and Original Trilogy. The Original Trilogy

returned an eigenvalue of 2.297 explaining 45% of the variance, and the Prequel films had an

eigenvalue of 1.098 (21.9% variance). In review, the five movies demonstrate a distinctive clustering

around their respective trilogies.

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Prior Product and Optimism towards Episode III

In order to examine the influence of preference for the previous films on the level of optimism for the

forthcoming film, a new scale was developed to measure respondent levels of optimism toward

Episode III. The movie optimism scale was based on in part on the Richins (1997) three item optimism

scale. The scale returned an inter item correlation mean of .5507, and an alpha coefficient of .8529.

The optimism scale was subjected to factor analysis to confirm it measured the single factor. Bartlett's

Test of Sphericity was significant, demonstrating significant correlation between variables, the Kaiser-

Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was .762, and Table 3 demonstrates the correlations

between the items.

Table 3: Interitem correlations for the optimism scale

Opt1 Opt2 Opt3 Opt4

OPT1: The trailer left me excited 1

OPT2:I am optimistic about Episode III .387** 1

OPT3:I believe Episode III will be a good film .655** .571** 1

OPT4:I am hopeful about Episode III .506** .659** .713** 1

OPT5:The TV commercials and trailers have encourage

me to be optimistic about Episode III .450** .640** .403** .500

** Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

The scale returned an initial eigenvalue of 3.213, explaining 64% of the variance. Subsequent

eigenvalues fell below Kaiser's criterion and additional factors were rejected. The scale appears, on

the statistical analysis, to be a single factor scale measuring optimism, with a reasonable level of

internal consistency. Scale items, along with the summed item total were then correlated against

attitudes to the movies to determine if any relationship existed between preference for the previous

films, and optimism towards the new movie. In general, attitudes to the films proved to be both

positive and for the most part, statistically significantly related to the individual items and the overall

scale. The results are listed in Table 4.

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Table 4: Prior Product Preference and Optimism towards Episode III

Episode Episode Episode Episode Episode

I II IV V VI

The trailer left me excited .294** .388** .262** .331** .211**

I am optimistic about Episode III - .290** - .195* -

I believe Episode III will be a good film .387** .538** .279** .309** .258**

I am hopeful about Episode III .203** .354** .325** .274** .240**

TV commercials have encouraged me

to be optimistic about Episode III - .224** .214** .230** .166*

Summed scale 0.275** 0.437** 0.292** 0.333** 0.241**

** Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

Attitude towards Episode III produced the most consistent, and strongest, relationships. Those who

liked Episode II felt more positively inclined towards Episode III. The absence of a relationship

between preferences for Episode I, IV and VI was unexpected. However, the weak relationship

between Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and optimism for Episode III may be related to the

darker overtones of both movies as both Episode III and Episode V feature the dark side / Empire in

the dominant position at the end of the movies. Overall, attitude to the Episode II proved the most

influential, and this may be accounted for in the recency of the film, plus a possible recall bias as

Episode II was broadcast on commercial television on the Sunday night prior to the survey being

conducted.

Prior Product Experience and Advertising

Five scale summed item totals relating to advertising were correlated against the attitudes towards the

five Star Wars movies. Attitudes to advertising were measured on a five item semantic differential

scale. The first copy test advert was based on a screenshot of Yoda starring at a Diet Pepsi can

floating across the advert (YODA). The second copy was taken from the Pepsi Website which hosted

the online version of the advert (WEBSITE). The final ad copy was a screenshot of Chewbacca, with

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Diet Pepsi accompanying his meal, glaring at a despondent looking Yoda (WOOKIE). The advert

includes the subtitle "Don't even think about it" (See Appendix 1 for images).

The summed usage scale was based on five semantic differential scale items ("not at all

objectionable", "not annoying", "not at all exploitative", "very persuasive" and "impressive, most

impressive"). Four of the scale items have been drawn from an existing attitude from an existing

advertising study. The last semantic scale item was based on a Star Wars movie quote from Darth

Vader to Luke Skywalker, with the full quote being "Impressive. Most impressive. But you are not a

Jedi yet". The scale has an alpha of .8244, average inter-item correlation of .4812 and consists of a

single factor (eigenvalue 2.938, variance 58.77%).

The three advertising copy scales were replications of Wells (1964) Emotional Quotient scale with

alpha values of .8507 (Yoda), .8507 (Website) and .9133 (Wookie) respectively. Again, factor

analysis was used to determine the scales were measuring the single construct, with all three scales

reporting a single factor. The fourth advertising scale was the construction of a summed total scale

from the three Wells (1964) copy testing scales. The EQ scale, as used in this study, assess negative

reactions to the advertising copy.

Composite Response to Advertising

The purpose of the composite scale was to assess the response to the three component elements as a

single item. This scale is unlikely to have replicable use outside of this study, due to the copy test

items being parts of a single advert (eg website teaser to encourage users to view an advert, and two

screenshots from that advert). Item measures were reduced to a single scale through a combination of

scale (alpha) and factor analysis techniques. In the first instance, the 21 item EQ scale reported an

alpha of .9562, with the final scale alpha of .9600, and an inter-item correlation mean of .6498. Factor

analysis was used once more, with the scale demonstrating a single factor (eigenvalue 8.828, variance

67.9%). Table 5 reports the inter-item correlations for the composite scale.

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Table 5: Composite Scale Inter-item correlation
Composite Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Yoda4: I dislike this ad -

Yoda6: I'm tired of this kind of advertising .671 -

Yoda7: This ad leaves me cold .595 .674 -

Web3: This ad has little interest for me .402 .553 .482 -

Web4: I dislike this ad .628 .642 .577 .659 -

Web5: This is the kind of ad you forget easily .550 .557 .543 .669 .603 -

Web6: I'm tired of this kind of advertising .555 .754 .692 .682 .773 .639 -

Web7: This ad leaves me cold .545 .636 .759 .546 .721 .608 .785 -

W3: This ad has little interest for me .485 .524 .552 .603 .600 .620 .673 .559 -

W4: I dislike this ad .611 .607 .590 .498 .706 .526 .715 .636 .677 -

W5: This is the kind of ad you forget easily .461 .544 .645 .618 .505 .718 .635 .571 .678 .640 -

W6: I'm tired of this kind of advertising .580 .726 .699 .551 .650 .550 .808 .663 .731 .773 .674 -

W7: This ad leaves me cold .516 .610 .779 .578 .674 .616 .770 .835 .655 .691 .716 .759

All correlations significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

Prior Product Preference and Attitudes to Advertising

The Original Trilogy had no relationship with attitudes towards the use of Star Wars character in

advertising, or the three copy tested items, whereas the prequel movies had significant results on all of

the attitude of towards the Star Wars advertising. Whilst Episode IV had a weak correlation with the

Website advertising, further analysis shows the relationship is based around the preference for the first

Star Wars movie correlating with the Website EQ scale items of " This ad has little interest for me"

(r=-.183*, p=.020) and " This is the kind of ad you forget easily" (r=-.159, p=.044). A possible

explanation for this phenomena is that fans of the original Star Wars movie have a greater interest in

all things Star Wars due to their longer involvement in the movie franchise. Table 6 has the full results

of the correlations.

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Table 6: Interaction between Prior Product Preference and Attitudes to Advertising
Correlations Episode I Episode II Episode IV Episode V Episode VI
Summed Usage - 0.256** - - -

Yoda# -0.204** -0.262** - - -

Website# -0.278* -0.372** -0.175* - -

Wookie# -0.203* -0.298** - - -

Composite Ad Scale# -0.278** -0.349** - - -

* Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

** Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

Overall, attitudes towards Episode I and Episode II remain the most viable method of determining

positive or negative reaction to the advertising copy. Episode I has relatively low correlation scores,

indicating that it is not a strong predictor. In contrast, attitudes towards Episode II show a higher

propensity to be predictors of reactions to the Website advertising, and reaction to the overall

advertising. Those respondents with a preference for Episode II have less negative attitudes to the

individual copy items, particularly the Website teaser. In addition, preference for Episode II is the

only significant indicator of acceptance of the use of Star Wars characters in advertising. Whilst

Episode II may not have necessarily been a cinematic masterpiece, it has been beneficial to the

marketing messages sold using Star Wars characters.

Discussions, Implications and Limitations

The most important aspect of the study is also the greatest limitation – Episode III represented the

(temporary) end of an era of blockbuster science fiction trilogies. Consequently, the study stands as a

snapshot of the last of the midnight film queues, and until the next major franchise appears, it will

represent the last test of loyalty for obsessive science fiction fans. The first major limitation of the

study is the Star-Wars centric nature of the data. Whilst movie trilogies are sufficiently common in

science fiction and action cinema, few franchises are expected to product two best selling trilogies

decades apart. Consequently, some of the lessons learnt from the Star Wars franchise may be limited

in application to future sequel or prequel trilogies (for example, the Matrix Prequel Trilogy in 2021).

Similarly, the use of the movie franchise as a composite measure can only be usefully applied to other

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franchise movie series such as Harry Potter, Lethal Weapon, or the rumored Lord of the Rings IV-VI

project code named "The Silmarillion".

However, some findings are transferable to other movie and marketing projects. First, the study

demonstrated that the appeal of a "classic" product, in this study, the Original Trilogy, has limited

influence on attitudes towards the use of the current product or brand. Second, prior product

preference for a movie as a predictor of optimism towards a sequel is effectively limited to the

previous part of the franchise. Episode II may have held a greater influence than Episode I, but all

three of the original trilogy virtually failed to have an impact on attitudes towards the third movie.

Finally, attitudes to movie characters endorsing off-screen products was mixed and inconsistent –

further study will be required once this phenomena of fiction characters endorsing real products

becomes more common in contemporary advertising.

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References

Brand Republic (2005) "Have a Pepsi I will, says Yoda"

http://bandt.com.au/articles/B1/0C02EDB1.asp

Dann, S. 1999, “Normative Outcomes: Psychographic teaching tool”, Marketing Academy of

Queensland Conference, University of the Sunshine Coast, December 15-16, 1999

Flynn, L. Goldsmith, R. E. & Eastman, J. K. (1996) “Opinion Leaders and Opinion Seekers:
Two New Measurement Scales,” JAMS, 24, 137-147

Richins, M .L. (1997) “Measuring Emotions in the Consumption Experience,” JCR, 24, 127-
146

Wakefield, K.L. and Barnes, J.H. (1996) “Retailing Hedonic Consumption: A Model of Sales
Promotion of a Leisure Service,” JR, 72(4) 409-427.

Wells, William D. "EQ, Son of EQ, and the Reaction Profile," Journal of Marketing, 28,
(1964): -52.

Zaichkowsky, Judith Lynne, "The Emotional Aspect of Product Involvement," in Advances in

Consumer Research, 14, (1985): 32-35.

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Appendix 1: Advertising Copy

Advertisement 1: Yoda

Advertisement 2: Website

Advertisement 3: Wookie

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