Product Placement in Movies
Abstract
Conventional advertising methods are considered intrusive, annoying even and people are trying to avoid them using various methods, zapping being one of them, which implies that they are not as effective as the marketing managers conceptualized them, because the targeted audience is not totally exposed to their messages. Moreover, because people are exposed daily to a multitude of commercials under the same advertising strategies, they tend not to differentiate one message from another. For these disadvantages of the conventional advertising, the product placement offers an alternative, proposing another way of advertising, integrating brand promotion in movies, which diminishes also the zapping behavior, determining the viewers to be more exposed to the advertising messages of the promoted brands. Movies such as “James Bond” series or “I, Robot” are applying various car product placement strategies and this paper investigates their effectiveness for the brand and image awareness.
Key words: conventional advertising, intrusive, commercials, product placement, “James Bond”, “I, Robot”
Product Placement in Movies
Report Body
Product placement is defined as the fusion of advertising and entertainment, wherein advertising content is incorporated in the entertainment program, with the purpose of generating unconventional awareness around a specific product or service (Williams, Petrosky, Hernandez & Page Jr., n.d, p. 1). The movies is a viable vehicle for putting brands and products in contact with their targeted markets and potential consumers and has been so for more than a century, as Pereira, Verissimo & Neijens (2008, p. 145) observe. During this time, product placement in movies has taken various shapes. This paper focuses on spotting the automobile industry in its product placement strategy in movies and as the movie industry evolved through time, so has the automobile industry’s presence, presentation and placement. Apparently simple coincidences, General Motors auto vehicles were constantly used in Warner Brothers movies over one hundred years ago as they were introduced in the characters’ regular life as they were driving cars, talking about them (which is a brand or product endorsement strategy) (Pereira, Verissimo & Neijens, 2008, p. 145). Later cars product placement were identified in chasing scenes, in espionage missions or in the very popular racing actions. With time, automobiles have become a symbol of the social status quo and of the technological development of the society and this allowed for an easy and actually natural entrance of more product placements focusing on cars in the movies.
Attractive automobile designs, specific to Batman movies, which promoted the Viper car, intelligent automobiles, adapting on various danger sources, specific to James Bond movies or fast and tuned cars specific to Fast and Furious movies, are only several approaches to car product placement in movies.
Product placement in movies is considered a more effective advertising method for reaching the audiences, better than the classical advertising strategies, as this method is more credible because it is integrated in a media format that on its turn, it integrates in people’s lives, as opposed of the classical advertising messages, coming directly from the benefiting organization (Walton, 2010, p. 70).
Along time, product placement was called in many ways before reaching this name, such as “exploitation, tie-ups, tie-ins, plugs, and trade outs (Newell, Salmon & Chang, 2006, in Walton, 2010, p. 71). Besides being an effective advertising too, product placement in movies also connects various cultures, proposing common lifestyles, specifically by introducing specific products into popular movies, determining the spectators from other countries to become the audiences and potential consumers of the brands promoted through this channel. For instance, the American movies set trends at global level by promoting their brands in popular movies that reach the cinema theater throughout the world.
Product placement in movies can work in and from two ways: wither the benefiting company can propose placing its product in specific movies, for reaching its target audiences, wither the other way around, when the movie director suggests the insertion of certain product in the directed movie, for enhancing the authenticity, credibility or novelty of the movie (Williams, Petrosky, Hernandez & Page, n.d., p. 3).
In fact, this is an interdependent relationship between movies and products in the product placement advertising approach, because movies, through their actors generate credibility for the product, better than the direct advertising messages, coming from the benefiting organizations could achieve (Walton, 2010, p. 70).
Automobile brands’ marketing teams started to understand the growing potential of placing their cars in the movies, as contributing to enhancing the brands’ images and to generate awareness about them around the targeted audiences. As such, General Motors considered the product placement strategy as substantial for its communication plans as the rival companies such as Ford were already in this game, promoting their cars in popular movies, and GM had also the opportunity of placing its brands in several movies, such as the popular “James Bond” or “Knight Rider” with its automobile brand Pontiac and the company considered since the product placement strategy as an effective and dynamic tool (Krause, 2001, p. 8).
Krause (2001, p. 13) tells the story of The Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5 “with modifications” auto vehicle that was introduced in the third James Bond movie, called “Goldfinger”, classifying it as the most renowned car promoted in the movie industry except the Batmobile. The fact that the car was used in a very popular movie, gadget focused, which promoted the latest technology, the fact that the car was aesthetically stunning and that it included special effects and hided secret weapons to help the famous and eccentric 007 spy in his missions made this car brand very popular and Aston Martin soon became a household name (Krause, 2001, pp. 15-16).
In fact, movie industry is the advertising space where car producers chose to promote not only new cars, but also new features for their cars. Such an example is another “James Bond” movie, “Goldeneye” (released in 1995), where BMW introduced its two –seater convertible, called the Z-3, which is considered as one of the most successful car launches in the automobile advertising history (Groucutt, Leadley & Forsyth, 2004, p. 391).
Although more and more automobile producers select the movie setting for advertising their cars or the new features of their cars, this advertising strategy is not one without costs. Williams, Petrisky, Hernandez & Page (n.d., p. 15) observes that the cost of James Bond’s product placement cars raise higher than any advertising advertisement, but while the worth of the product placement in movies is difficult to be measured, there can be easily evaluated the fact that car product placement in movies generates the viewers’ recognition of car brands when being exposed to both product placement and commercial, compared to viewers solely exposed to commercial for a specific brand.
Pereira, Verissimo and Neijens (2008, p. 1) discuss about the effectiveness of the product placement in movies, wondering if and how it brings effectiveness for automobile sells, considering that the exposition of viewers to the car product placement in movies can be different from viewer to viewer and it can have a different impact upon them, which might end or not in purchasing the product, but the authors explain that the product placement is an effective strategy from the moment the product/brand placed in movies interacts with viewers, because they become aware at their first contact with the brand/product, of its existence.
Two factors were identified as essential in stating the effectiveness of the product placement (including cars) in movies: visual and clear impact and as Walton (2010, p. 76) observes, the product placement becomes better noticeable when the plot is better constructed and has a high potential of absorbing the viewers into it.
Product placement is considered to influence the consumer behavior towards determining the viewers to purchase the brands that they were exposed to in the movies they watched (Williams, Petrosky, Hernandez & Page Jr., n.d, p. 1). Studies find a difference between the effectiveness of consumers’ reaction to product placement as depending on the manner in which they connect with the movie: at their homes or at the theater cinemas, wherein the theater cinema creates a common impact due to the fact that people can copy the reactions of the other viewers and to consider the answer to the product placement as a trend, to which they adhere, but when watching a movie from home, the viewer is not influenced by the others’ reactions and they develop their own attitude towards the brand advertised through product placement (Lehu & Bressoud, 2007).
Product placement in movies has become an integrant part of the nowadays communication plans of automobile industry and the reason behind this trend is the fact that audiences have become very annoyed with the direct and intrusive approach of the classical advertising through TV, radio, internet or print commercials that they reject the messages of the brands who communicate this way and the new arena of the advertising is in the movie industry (Gunnemann, 2005, p. vii).
Nevertheless, Galician (2005, p. 156) observes that on the contrary, consumers exposed to product placement in the movies that they watch might feel disturbed by this advertisement strategy, as they might consider it manipulative, but nevertheless they agree with the fact that the product placement in movies might influence their buying choices.
Nevertheless, the product placement strategy is identified as being in a positive relationship with brand awareness and brand image, which influence the consumers’ (viewers) attitude towards brands and their buying decisions (Gunnermann, 2005, p. 9).
In relation with the fact that product placement can be intrusive also and can be manipulative and viewers can sense this when they are watching movies, feeling interrupted by the brands’ placement within the movie plot, research identifies that sometimes product placement can be manipulated in such a way that it appear that action interrupts the product placement and not the other way around (Quattrocchu-Oubrados & Bal, 2011, n.p.). As such, the movie “I, Robot” is a very suited example for sustaining this observation, because it introduced the fictional Audi RSQ car, explicitly for this movie, as the car is practically designed by the film, and this shows creative integrity approach to advertising, which delivers an emotional appeal (Quattrocchu-Oubrados & Bal, 2011, n.p.).
Therefore, automobile producers can insert the cars into the movie actions, making them the actual actors in a given story and the viewers develop strong connections with the car, just as they would they developed with a regular character of the movie plot, integrating it into their popular culture.
Nevertheless, while product placement might be effective in movies such as “James Bond” or “I, Robot”, where the product placement is emphasized and cars are even characters of the movies, a question remains regarding whether product placement more or less effective than the classical commercials. Blonde and Roozen developed a study precisely for identifying whether the classical 30 seconds commercials are more effective than product placement, but the product placement was evaluated on basis of subtle and prominent. The results showed that prominent product placement was more effective than subtle product placement and that the 30 seconds commercials were also identified as being more effective than the subtle product placement, but nevertheless, the prominent product placement was identified as being stronger than the 30 seconds commercials because of the fact that during the 30 second commercials viewers have developed the zapping behavior, which prevents them from being exposed to the brands’ advertising messages, hence the brand awareness is less effective than in the case of the product placement (n.d., pp. 19-20).
Conclusion
The benefits of product placement in movies have been acknowledged by various industries and automobile industry is one of them. As such, cars have been advertised in movies for more than a hundred years, and producers have used various strategies for car product placement in movies, ranging from simply mentioning the cars without showing them (which is an endorsement strategy) to exhibiting the car and not talking about it, or making the car one significant subject of the action, even placing it as one of the movie’s characters, developing within the plot of the movie just as a regular personage does.
These various strategies of car product placement have been structured under two main product placement approaches: subtle and prominent. Based on the literature review examined, this study identified that the prominent product placement is more effective than the subtle one, which is less effective than the 30 second commercials also, but the latest is less effective than the prominent product placement because of the zapping behavior that viewers developed while commercials run.
The study identified that product placement is effective for brand and image awareness, as it connects the products (cars) with the viewers from the moment in which they are being placed in the movies, making the product even more recognizable if the automobile producers are applying an integrated communication for advertising their brands through conventional methods also. Although product placement can be also intrusive and viewers can perceive it as manipulative, it does influence the consumers’ buying decisions and it enters their popular culture and lifestyle, being a social standard, based on the examples provided in movies such as “James Bond” or “I, Robot”.
References
Blonde, K & Roozen, I, n.d., An explorative study of testing the effectiveness of product placement compared to 30-second commercials. Brussels: Vlekho-Business School.
Lehu, J,M & Bressoud, E, 2007, “Viewers and brand placement in movies: new insights about viewers contribute to a better understanding of the effectiveness of the technique” La Londe Seminar in Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior.
Galician, M,L, 2005, Handbook of product placement in the mass media: new strategies in marketing theory, practice, trends, and ethics. Best Business Books: New York.
Groucutt, J, Leadley, P & Forsyth, P, 2004, Marketing: essentials principles, new realities. London, Kogan Page Limited.
Gunnemann, F, 2010, The effectiveness of product placement for the automobile industry and its impact on consumer behavior. GRIN Verlag.
Krause, W, 2001, Hollywood TV and movie, MBI Publishing Company: Minnesota.
Pereira, F,C, Verissimo, J & Neijens, P, 2008, “Product placement in movies: questioning the effectiveness according to the spectator’s viewing conditions.” New Trends in Advertising Research. Pp. 145-163.
Quattrocchi-Oubradous, X & Bal, C, 2011, Emoti-Coms: A marketing guide to communicating through emotions. Hampshire: Harriman House LTD.
Walton, A, 2010, “The evolution of product placement in film”, The Elon Journal Undergraduate Research in Communications. Vol 1, no. 1, pp. 70-85.
Williams, K, Petrosky, A, Hernandez, E & Page R, Jr. n.d. “Product placement effectiveness: revisited and renewed”. Journal of Management and Marketing Research.
Annexes
James Bond
I, Robot
