Phenomenon of Product Placement Used in Commercial Movies across the World: Analytical Essay

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Abstract

Recently product placement in movies have increased with double fold worldwide. Product placement is used by the brands to be placed in movies, which ultimately results in revenue to the brand, which is gained by selling more the highlighted product on-screen(Gaille,2017). To understand the factors responsible for grabbing the users desired attention towards a particular product. This study will investigate the impact of luxury cars in product placement advertising on male consumers (age 25-35). In particular, I will investigate the effect of commercial movies on consumer perception regarding luxury brand recognition and purchase decisions and also to understand what factors result in the positive outcomes of the brand placed in movies.

Preface

This research project covers the area of product placement advertising, specifically luxury-powerful cars. The idea of research came after a lot of car based movies were released in last two decades of 21st century. Also the sudden changes in the car industry based on technology and performance has changed including the displaying criteria of it in the category of displayed advertisement. For this research, I decided to choose product placement of cars in movies because I have been in the media industry for past 6 years. Adding to it, my interest is more inclined towards cinematic movies as I have worked for short movies and documentaries. It has generated interest in me to understand the creation of content based on various methods. Persuing advertisement at Rmit University, Melbourne gave me this opportunity to explore the desired field of interest. This projects main focus is on cars used for product placement and is prepared for universal pictures, as it is one of the biggest banners in the movie industry to use the cars in their movies for example the fast and furious series by Universal pictures.

It is also inspired after the learnings I grabbed out of the advertising course i.e. after moving from a developing country to a developed country to study the art of advertising.

The evolution of the topic of research was a challenging process, which helped this research to be narrowed down to specific area. It was a learning process, which has added an experience to the journey of this project as well as has helped me achieve professional skills. Also my journalistic experience in past of Television and Radio has helped me conduct interviews, from approaching the respondents to extracting information out of their minds. A journalistic approach based on ethical considerations was necessary to conduct the interviews for the research to conclude. Overall, I have learnt how to research academically, also to have critical and analytical approach toward the focus of a particular topic.

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter introduces the research background, purpose and aims of the research, the audience for the research and details the research question so the reader will understand the background of the topic as well as why this research is being conducted and what questions this research will answer.

1.1 Background

This research project will explore the phenomenon of product placement used in commercial movies across the world. Specifically I will research the product placement model used by luxury car brands in big-budget action movies that achieve exposure to a mass audience. I will focus specifically on the responses of male consumers (men aged 25-35), using a consumer-based approach and attention theories in advertising. This paper will contribute to the body of knowledge in advertising and advertising product placement and will assist future developers of advertising creative solutions and future students to learn more about product placement advertising and the ways in which advertisers can make it more effective as a result of data collected through this research.

Product placement is not new. It has been used in movies to create awareness of brands and generate interest from the audience in the product to promote the brand. On the other hand, it also helps the movie gain the public’s attention. In other words,it works for both movie and product. Data about product placement in movies ‘indicates that it was first used in 1920’, which shows that this advertising strategy is still in use a century later.

2015, study (Song & Meyer, 2015) investigates the relationship of product placement between the brand placed and the media used. The study defines product placement as a promotion plan for both the movie and the product. Storm and Stoller (2014) go further in defining product placement as a marketing strategy to increase the rate of purchase decisions in favour of products based on the content that the audience has been exposed to.

This research addresses the attention part of product placement to achieve the aims/purpose to be discussed further.

1.2 Purpose/aims

The main aim of this research is to understand the impact of product placement in the movies on luxury car purchase decisions in general, and more specifically, this study will focus on understanding the consumer’s purchase decision based on the content they are exposed to. The research will determine if the respondents can remember the brands displayed, to understand the strength of the resulting brand association. Finally, I will explore which part of the movie impacts consumers most when it comes to making a future or past car-buying decisions.

To achieve these aims, respondents were invited to be a part of focus groups as a methodology undertaken for the following research project, of exposing the respondents to 2 of the movie clips and understanding their responses towards it, including the reactions of body language and facial expressions and also their eye movements. Due to the restrictions of COVID-19, this methodology was not possible and the research project was adjusted to interviews as the primary method to gather data.

This study aims to fill the gaps in the current advertising industry knowledge discussed above and help future students understand how product placement can increase brand awareness. It will offer an attention-based perspective on brand association and understanding the purchase decision of the user.

In the next section, I will discuss how to achieve these aims, keeping in mind the target group and audience for this research or future students in the advertising industry.

This research will benefit Universal Pictures, which is one of the biggest action movie product houses in the world and has used various car brands in different series of movies.

This research is prepared for Universal Pictures, Studios.

The main motive of this research is to better inform the big movie production companies, that use branded cars to display in movies. This will help the movie producers understand if the product used in the movie is worth the spend. Furthermore, should the practice of product placement continue in their future movies, and if yes, what plot or scene should they focus on to best attract the audience.

1.2 Audience

The audience for this paper is Universal Pictures, as they use most of the luxury cars in their movies. The research product seeks to aid movie production companies see the impact of product placement and how it impacts the market more broadly as well as the specific audience of the movie Furthermore, the paper will help future students of advertising as well as current advertising industry professionals, understand the concept of product placement. This will expand the understanding of the usage of product placement and luxury cars in movies. It will help determine whether it is useful to use a product in a particular way to attract a specific target group. Moreover, it will reveal whether the awareness, brand association and attention of the user is grabbed, according to a particular type of audience.

Overall the research will help the advertising industry, if the money spent on product placement of cars based on consumer-based attention, brand association, does that work or not considering the male group in mind. Also, if purchase decisions are increased as a result of the phenomenon.

1.3 Research question

The problems, aims and ideas discussed above have allowed me to express the research questions for this research in the following way:

Research question: How does luxury car product placement advertisement in action movies affect a consumer’s perception of the product, based on features displayed in scenes?

Research question: whether product placement is a good strategy for attracting audiences to the movie?

Chapter 2: Literature review

In this chapter I will present the literature review for the current research project. Various research projects previously published which inform this research will be discussed, and relevant arguments and data will be used to inform this study.

2.1 Product placement in movies and viewer perception

The phenomenon of product placement in movies was introduced in 1920. The first product placement displayed the use of tobacco products by famous actors in movies to influence viewers and ultimately increase sales.

A study based on the theory of associative networks (Grzyb, Dolinski & Kozlowska 2018) sheds light on the purchase decisions of consumers after being exposed to product placement, which is part of advertising design. It discovers that product placement is highly effective, if the product displayed is not a prominent brand and matches the plot of movie, however if the audience is already aware of the brand and the plot does not match the placement, the strategy does not influence the purchase decision.

The study by Verhellen, Dens & Pelsmacker (2016) from Malaysia supports the above finding. It suggests that the prominence of the brand and having hands-on experience of it after being exposed to the brand is necessary to create an impact on the consumer. The study concludes that the two-way communication developed while displaying the product pushes the purchase decision.

P’ng (2014) finds that millennials were more influenced by the data collected regarding product placement effect compared to elderly people exposed to placement criteria. Therefore, this research project will particularly focus on a target demographic of 25 to 35 years old. As well as, presenting brands with solid evidence-based connection to the content or the plot in the movie, with the genre of action/comedy famous. This will provide evidence about how consumer attention in product placement of luxury car may be better harnessed by advertisers.

2.2 AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action)

The AIDA model of advertising was introduced in the 19th century and is a way of understanding the two-way communication between buyer and seller. A in AIDA stands for attention, I for interest, D is for desire and A for action (RYTE 2019).

Abbey and Meloy’s (2017) study to improve the quality of data based on attention discusses various trends of attention. The researchers experimented on sample audience by manipulating their attention. They concluded that there were differences. Dahremöller and Fels’ (2015) study correlating design elements and attention also indicates that the manipulation factor is important. It also reflects that the attention behaviour of the viewer is based on different types of circumstances related to the brand exposure and the way it is exposed, and to the mindset of the audience to which it is exposed. They support their findings with an example of a car as a product which consumer only pays attention to a few features. The authors focus on showing some of the features of the products to grab users attention.

A Danish study by Micheli and Gemser (2016) find that the innovativeness, i.e. newness, of the product is appreciated by the audience, and helps users focus on the product’s uniqueness. This study broadly suggests that viewer perception about the attractiveness of the product is related to attention. This further enhances favorable purchase decisions.

The next section focuses on the use of the AIDA theory. AIDA forces a purchase decision on the consumer, and this will help understand the attention-grabbing phenomenon more deeply.

2.2.1 Effects on emotion

Emotions play a pivotal role in sensing things and understanding them. I will now discuss the categories of emotions on which the research question is based.

Sex appeal in visuals

Since the 1960s the advertising industry has used sex appeal. indeed, sex sells in advertising has been known for centuries. Nedeljković et al. (2013) argues that communication through visuals is the main strategy of advertising, to sharpen the consumer’s purchase decision. They argue that the perception of sexualized representation varies between different people. In other words, sex appeal can be high for one individual and low for another. Their findings are based on experiments performed on individuals of different age and gender.

Similarities with this study can be seen Lee and Lee’s (2016) study from South Korea. They researched Sex appeal in advertising and found that male audience is attracted to the images of opposite sex more often. On the other hand, the female audience is generally attracted to the sex appeal of the visuals irrespective of gender. This study talks about male perceptions of the opposite gender. Because it is a gender-based study, it is related to the following research. Therefore, the following research will focus only on males as a target audience to answer research question discussed above. It will help understand if the opposite sex helps as a factor for generating the user’s (male) attention towards the product.

Engaging music

Music is known as a universal human language and is a crucial factor enabling brands to stand out and let users make a connection with the brand or product. The right type of music for the brand based on its feel and properties helps the viewer understand the connection to a brand (Olenski 2014).

A 2017 study by Siu and Cheung used the technique of violation of expectation and emotional understanding to suggest that even infants can correlate music and facial expressions they are exposed to and react in a particular way. An infant regardless of any selfish intention reacts to the things he/she experiences. However, it also revealed that adult human beings react judgmentally, selfishly or exhibit other feelings or particular intentions when experiencing something because of awareness and knowledge of music they are exposed to. My study of engagement based on music will refine the approach of the 2017 study to understand the creators’ reasons for the creation of a particular type of scene in movies during product placement.

Innes-Ker (2015), an author of the book named moving images and music discussed the impact on the audience after exiting a movie theatre. A limitation for my study is that different people have different emotions and perceptions, and their answers are dependent on their mood. Innes-Ker discusses the manipulation check experiment conducted for the research which concluded that the music has no effect. It also concluded that the movie’s effect on the human mind is the result of the engagement of viewers.

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