Marketing and Advertising techniques have been the focus of both and negative feedbacks from the quarters, and with the advent of the digital media and in the cut throat dynamics of this business era, new and innovative marketing tools have been used to develop and sustain a competitive edge.
The movie in question ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’, the documentary by Morgan Spurlock, attempted to discuss and elaborate the concept of the marketing tool, Product Placement in movies and films, and ironically, the movie was totally funded by brands with product placement in view of the promotional aspect, with the focus on ingeniously showcasing in a humorous manner the dark secrets of the film industry and how the big brands’ impact on the success of a movie.
After watching the movie, the first thing that hit you is, the overriding notion in relation to showcasing, marketing in a bad light, but in an enjoyable manner, the movie is all about the commonness of advertising in films.
Spurlock’s humor to castigate product placement, can be gauged from the fact that, the movie includes three ads of 30 seconds, besides showcasing the promotional products in every scene of the movie and also showcasing different examples of the product placements in various movies.
The movie is not all about documenting the issue of product placement; it also focuses on the important subject matter of the utilization of advertising as a major part of the lifestyle. From a personal viewpoint, one thing has to be taken into account is that it is not marketing that is the culprit; rather, it is the people who manage marketing in different sectors, responsible for acting irresponsibly and in spite of disagreeing with the premise of the movie, it has discussed on some important pointers one being regarding the decrease in budgets in a recession, when the need is there to connect with consumers more to create demand.
Product placement is an effective marketing tool, and this is in view of the successful results for brands by adopting the marketing tool on a strategic level, one of the main premises of the advertisers to use product placement as tool was the new age digital devices that have the option of forwarding and not watching the ads, and thus, embedded marketing is utilized to be able to create a subliminal connect with the target consumers.
Reese’s Pieces sales went up 65% after its placement in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and similarly, Red Stripe sales increased to 50% after its placement in The Firm, thus reiterating the power of the product placement as a major marketing tool having an impact on the bottom line if the businesses (Zimmerman, 2013).
The marketing technique, of using product placement, is ethical in view of the writer, since consumers get a dose of realism when they see their favorite products and services being part of a movie or sitcom, it does have its fair share of critics, who see this tool as a violation and intrusion of the artistic ability to tell a story in a compelling manner, without the corporate burden.
The usage of Dunkin Donuts in Good Will Hunting is another illustration, to conclude, the world that we live in is branded and to be able to connect with the consumers in an effective manner that matters in achieving the most primary objective of any business, i.e., sales, are praiseworthy (Wandering Rocks, 2014).
References
Wandering Rocks. (2014). The ethics of Product Placement.
Retrieved from https://wanderingrocks.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/the-ethics-of-product-placement/
Zimmerman, I. (2013). Product Placement Can Be A Lot More Powerful Than We Realize. Psychology Today.
Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sold/201303/product-placement-can-be-lot-more-powerful-we-realize
