Product Placement

Product placement refers to the strategic integration of branded products or services into various forms of media, including films, television shows, and video games, in order to promote the brand to the audience. This marketing technique aims to create a subtle yet effective way for brands to reach consumers, often enhancing the realism of the narrative while simultaneously generating consumer awareness.

Historically, product placement has evolved from simple logo displays to complex storytelling integrations that engage viewers on a deeper level. It is often perceived as a form of advertising that is less intrusive than traditional commercials, allowing brands to connect with audiences in a more organic manner. The effectiveness of product placement can vary greatly depending on factors such as the context in which the product is featured and the audience's perception of the placement.

Culturally, product placement has both its supporters and critics; while some argue it adds authenticity to media, others express concerns about commercialization and its impact on creative content. Additionally, the rise of digital media has transformed how brands engage with consumers, expanding opportunities for product placement in innovative ways. Understanding product placement can provide insights into modern advertising strategies and their influence on consumer behavior.

Published in: 2021

By: Scott Zimmer, JD

Subject Terms

Product Placement

Last reviewed: February 2017

Abstract

Product placement is a form of advertising that seeks to put products before consumers in the form of television and movie props. In traditional broadcast advertising a television program is interrupted so that the audience can hear or see a message from advertisers. Because technologies now allow viewers to skip commercial breaks in programming and some broadcasters offer ad-free programming, marketers offer compensation in exchange for their product being incorporated into television programs.

Overview

Product placement involves the use of real life products in fictional programs. Product placement is most often used in television or movies, but it has also come up in books and even radio. It can be as simple as shooting a scene showing a conversation between two actors and including a soda can on a table in front of them; while the soda can seems like nothing more than an everyday item present to enhance the realism of the scene, viewers will recognize the soda brand, even if unconsciously, and associate it with their experience of watching the movie. Almost any product can be used in this way, from clothing to automobiles, food and restaurants, and even locations, which can market themselves as tourist destinations by serving as the setting for programs (Venkatadri, Vardarajan & Das, 2015).

Advantages. Advertisers have several reasons for choosing to use product placement. Generally speaking, product placement will almost never be the only marketing strategy used to promote a product. Instead, product placement tends to be used in conjunction with other forms of advertising, and in many cases advertisers prefer to use it with established, well-known products. This is because product placement works best when viewers recognize a product from previous experience with it, and this is less likely to occur if the product is new or relatively unknown to most people.

One of the reasons for choosing product placement is simplicity. Instead of the manufacturer having to come up with its own commercials, hire actors, schedule filming, and all of the other steps involved in producing commercials, the manufacturer simply pays a film or television studio to incorporate the product into its production. At most, there may be contract negotiations between the manufacturer and studio to clarify how much screen time the product will receive and how prominently it must be displayed (Patwardhan & Patwardhan, 2016).

Star power is another reason companies choose product placement. For a company to hire an A-list celebrity to promote its product in a commercial, many obstacles could arise: the desired star might want too much money, not have time to make the commercial, not be interested in doing commercials, or not want to endorse the product. By using product placement, a manufacturer can avoid some of these problems and still be able to have their product associated with the star, albeit less directly (Chan, 2015).

Studios, for their part, are usually more than willing to cooperate with product placement efforts. Not only are the fees paid by advertisers for the service quite welcome, but product placement can help to make a scene appear more realistic, because it includes everyday brands in the scene instead of using items with deliberately generic packaging, which can sometimes look artificial on the screen (Cheng, Liang, Zhang & Fang, 2014).

Consumer Avoidance Behavior. Digital video recording (DVR) devises are set-top boxes that allow consumers to record movies and programs off the television. DVRs are able to record video and audio digitally, meaning that there is essentially no difference between the original broadcast and the recording. Many people prefer to watch recorded programs on their DVR at their own convenience rather than when the program is broadcast. Of concern to advertisers is the DVR user’s ability to skip or fast forward through commercials. This ability to bypass advertisements is highly frustrating for advertisers, because an ad is only useful if viewers see it. Advertisers, therefore, have turned to product placement as a method of making their messaging inescapable. Because the product is on display as part of the narrative in the film or program itself, there is no way to avoid exposure to it (Chan, 2016).

Further Insights

Product placement can take different forms, a fact that is not surprising given the vast array of options available for programs to feature various items. Basic product placement involves the use of a product in such a way that its brand is clearly distinguishable on screen, but not to the extent that the characters in the program actually refer to the product. When characters do make such references, or the product and its brand are included in the performance as an actual element of the story, this is known as advanced product placement.

Basic product placement is far more common than its advanced form. Basic product placement may be arranged for a fee, or it may be permitted at no cost, since production studios are always in need of materials they can use to arrange scenes and are therefore grateful for being able to use the products in this way (Shears, 2014). The miraculously clean and impervious Hyundai Tuscon that was prominently featured in the 2014 season of The Walking Dead was briefly part of the automakers product line as a limited edition, which was offered as a prize in a viewership contest. The car’s peculiar presence in the post-apocalyptic zombie setting was widely parodied, and marketers subsequently sought ways to make tie-ins less jarring.

Cars are frequent beneficiaries of product placement. More successful, in terms of both marketing and filmmaking, than the zombie fighting Tuscon, Aston Martin among a host of hopeful sports car makers have long been associated with the James Bond franchise, embodying in a car the primary characteristics of the film’s protagonist. Moviegoers look forward to seeing what 007 will be driving. For advertisers, ideal product placement results in a transference of positive feelings viewers have toward an actor or production onto a featured product. Critics of product placement, however, have taken issue with the subtle way in which this type of advertising can infiltrate entertainment media, exerting its influence upon the audience without them being aware of it and having a particularly strong impact upon children and adolescents, who may not possess the critical thinking skills needed to discern the difference between an innocent visual element and a covert attempt at persuasion.

In the United States, laws are in place requiring advertisers who pay for having their products featured in programs to disclose to the public the fact that they have done so. Failing to disclose in this way is considered a form of bribery, and has been condemned since the 1950s. At that time, radio hosts accepted bribes—“payola”— from record companies in exchange for playing certain records as a way of increasing those records’ popularity (Paluck et al., 2015).

Product placement has been the subject of a number of interesting studies. Some of this research has been undertaken by the advertising industry itself or by advertisers, and seeks to determine how effective various forms of embedded marketing are, so that firms can choose an optimal approach. Other analyses are carried out by consumer protection agencies concerned about the effects of “subliminal” advertising on consumers and on society as a whole.

One measure of effectiveness used in product placement research is known as recall, and it attempts to measure how well viewers of a program can remember what products were featured. Measuring recall assumes that the more a viewer recalls a product, the better this is for the advertiser, but in reality this is not always the case. Sometimes, a high recall score can mean that the viewer thought that the product placement in the performance was too obvious, too repetitive, or too jarring, perhaps because it did not fit well with the rest of the scene dressing or with the story itself. If this is the case, then the viewer may have been left with a negative impression of the product and of the company that produces it.

Issues

Some types of product placement raise strong ethical concerns, generally because they have the potential to encourage people, consciously or subconsciously, to engage in behaviors that may have a negative impact on their health or well-being. The most obvious examples of such behaviors are cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption by television and film characters. For many years, drinking and smoking were regular features of all manner of programs. Young people in particular are believed to be persuaded to imitate the habits of characters who are perceived as admirable in part because of their smoking and drinking. Critics blamed increases in the incidence of illnesses associated with cigarette and alcohol consumption on media portrayals. Eventually, stricter regulations about the use of these substances in entertainment media were put into place (Storm & Stoller, 2015).

Other types of products also have raised objections. Sugary sodas are often included as part of product placement efforts, with their brightly colored cans easily identifiable by viewers. Health advocates object to this because childhood obesity in the United States is already at near-epidemic levels, and featuring high-calorie sodas in programs, especially programs for which the primary audience is people under the age of eighteen, is perceived to exploitative and dangerous.

It has been argued that many of these depictions are not precisely product placement, since it is often not clear what brand of soda a character is drinking, what type of alcohol, or who manufactured the character’s cigarettes. Consumer watchdogs point out that the concern about encouraging these practices is not traceable to a particular company, but to the practice itself (Liu, Chou & Liao, 2015).

Many of the objections to product placement have less to do with particular companies or products, and instead come from people’s general aversion to feeling that they are being manipulated. All advertising is based on a degree of manipulation, because its purpose is to encourage people to behave in a certain way—to buy a product (Srivastava, 2016). Because people are somewhat accustomed to traditional advertising and can see it coming and know what to expect from it, they do not feel that it represents a threat to their autonomy. With product placement, however, there is often a feeling that the advertising is sneaky or otherwise questionable, and that it makes every effort to hide itself from viewers’ conscious awareness. This makes people suspicious of this type of advertising, and can even cause backfire when people become aware of the advertising message.

Terms & Concepts

Brand Integration: Brand integration is another term for product placement. It refers to the fact that the advertiser’s brand, through its product or products, is integrated into the program, becoming part of the scenery and/or story line.

Digital Video Recorders: DVRs are devices that allow viewers to digitally record television programs for later viewing. This allows viewers to time shift, meaning that they can enjoy their favorite programs any time after the scheduled broadcast. DVRs also allow viewers to skip over commercials or fast forward through them, reducing the commercials’ effectiveness. The ubiquity of DVRs is one reason some advertisers have turned to using product placement as an alternative form of advertising.

Embedded Marketing: Embedded marketing is a synonym for product placement and brand integration. Instead of advertising being presented in a block of time that is separate from a program, the marketing is embedded within the program itself, so viewers cannot avoid it.

Payola: System of “pay for play” in which record promoters bribed radio hosts to play new records on the air. Payola ensured that certain records got promotional air-play over records that did not come with adequate under the table payments.

Product Displacement: Product displacement is the opposite of product placement—that is, advertisers take affirmative steps to make sure that their products are not included in a broadcast. Generally this occurs when a program deals with sensitive topics that the advertiser does not want to be associated with, or because the nature of the program’s story could create unfavorable associations with the product if it were included.

Promotional Considerations: Promotional considerations are the monetary payments made by companies wishing to advertise to the creators of programs in which the advertisers’ products will be featured through product placement.

Bibliography

Chan, F. F. Y. (2015). A critical realist and multimethodology framework for product placement research. Journal of Promotion Management, 21(3), 279–295. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=103104771&site=ehost-live

Chan, F. F. Y. (2016). An exploratory content analysis of product placement in top grossing films. Journal of Promotion Management, 22(1), 107–121. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=112901354&site=ehost-live

Cheng, C., Liang, R., Zhang, J., & Fang, I. (2014). The impact of product placement strategy on the placement communication effect: The case of a full-service restaurant. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 23(4), 424–444. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=95678380&site=ehost-live

Liu, S., Chou, C., & Liao, H. (2015). An exploratory study of product placement in social media. Internet Research, 25(2), 300–316. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=101655595&site=ehost-live

Paluck, E. L., Lagunes, P., Green, D. P., Vavreck, L., Peer, L., & Gomila, R. (2015). Does product placement change television viewers’ social behavior? Plos ONE, 10(9), 1–18. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=109899350&site=ehost-live

Patwardhan, H., & Patwardhan, P. (2016). When fiction becomes fact: Effect of reverse product placement on consumer attitudes. Journal of Promotion Management, 22(3), 349–369. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=116265555&site=ehost-live

Shears, P. (2014). Product placement: The UK and the new rules. Journal of Promotion Management, 20(1), 59–81. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=94358442&site=ehost-live

Srivastava, R. K. (2016). Promoting brands through product placement in successful and unsuccessful films in emerging markets. Journal of Promotion Management, 22(3), 281–300. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=116265552&site=ehost-live

Storm, B. C., & Stoller, E. (2015). Exposure to product placement in text can influence consumer judgments. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 29(1), 20–31. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=100631217&site=ehost-live

Venkatadri, U., Vardarajan, V., & Das, B. (2015). Product placement within a fast-picking tunnel of a distribution centre. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 76(9–12), 1681–1690. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=101005427&site=ehost-live

Product Placement

On this Page

Subject Terms

Product Placement

Abstract

Overview

Further Insights

Issues

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

Suggested Reading