Product Placement in Movie's Influence on Young Adults in the US: Literature Review

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Theory in Review

The purpose of this literature review is to research how product placement can affect the consumer habits of young adults. The inductive research process will help identify if young adults are more inclined to change their purchasing habits due to product placements that they see in movies. This literature review will be organized with 9 articles, opening with the background of product placement, following up with influences from celebrities, and concluding with the culture of today’s young adults.

Product Placement

Product placement is an advertising technique that companies use to subtly promote their products through appearances in film, television or other media. Sometimes this form of advertising can lead to a more positive attitude towards the brand since it can be represented by a group of characters. In order to create a hypothesis to see if young adults get influenced by product placement, it is important to understand the reasons for the product placement and its history.

Reasons for Product Placement. According to Jean-Marc Lehu and Etienne Bressoud, (2008), there are multiple reasons for product placement. One of the reasons for this because now electronic devices allow the audience to skip commercials, so now advertisers are seeking producers that will allow them to re-establish a link between the products and the consumers, as well as improving the brand image. Other reasons that marketers turn to product placement rather than commercials is due to the cost and it has been more effective. For my research study, it is important to realize the reasons why marketers chose to use product placement. By knowing this information, I will have the chance to evaluate whether or not the intentions of product placement have a huge impact on young adults.

The History of Product Placement. According to James Newell, Charles T. Salmon, and Susan Chang, (2006), product placement technically could have started in the 1st century during the gladiatorial matches with line art of warriors. Later in the 18th century, Japanese authors would also promote products within their literature. And lastly, during the pre-Civil War era in the United States, Dan Rice, an entertainer, would include names of hotels and restaurants in his opening acts. However, the day the modern product placement strategy was born during the spring of 1896, when the Lumière brothers made an arrangement with a Swiss businessman, who was a European distributer and promoter for soap manufacturer, Lever Brothers. This arrangement was to display the logo for Sunlight Soap. This is where product placement truly began. It is imperative to always know the background of the topics you are researching since it can give a good overview of the subject.

The Effectiveness of Product Placement. According to D.L.R Van der Waldt, V. Nunes, and J. Stroebel, (2008), the effects of product seem to be more significant when a main actor/actress uses the product more often. An example of this would be when E.T. ate Reeses Pieces in a Steven Spielberg movie, which caused sales for Reeses Pieces to skyrocket 65% within three months. (Galician & Brourdeau, 2008). Thus afterwards, the movie industy began to be obsequious towards marketers who wanted to make movie placement deals. For my research study, it is imporatant to recognize how product placement affects the sales of said product. As mentioned before, Van der Waldt, Nunez, and Stroebel, (2008), said that products used by the main actor/actress on the program being watched has a greater impact than a product just simply placed in the background. This will help make connections to my theory by showing who can effectively sell a product, and how likely there would be a boom in sales. Essentially, it shows how well products can be marketed.

Influences from Celebrities

Influences on Society. According to Choi and Berger, (2009), 21st-century actors/actresses have much more influence beyond their entertainment sector. With the rise of the internet and globalization in the 21st centrury, it’s faster for celebrities to spread beliefs and ideas to the world. Since said celebrities have more of a following on blogspots in the internet, it can help accelerate influence on today’s global knowledge-based society, especially on the younger generation since they experience consumer crazes and bandwagon effects that do often arise from the internet. This is important for my theory since it will show how celebrities can have an influence on society.

Influences on Consumer Behavior. According to Wei and Lu, (2013), studies have shown that using famous celebrities is more effective than using a non-celebrity to endorse a product. Through a study Wei and Lu conducted, advertisments over shoes that featured a celebrity figure was seen as more reliable than the reviews of an ordinary online consumer. Not only that, but it also gained the attention and desire to obtain the shoe that was advertised. Through open-ended questions, they found out that this celebrity is seen as a fashionista, so it made want the shoes for a trend they thought was going to happen. This will help me work on my theory since it will show how celebrities can influence the consumer habits of society.

Generation Z

According to Dr.Rothman, (2016), Generation Z is the generation that was roughly born between 1995-2010. She claims that Generation Z has expeirenced a global recession, global-warming issues, the rise of mobile devices, and lastly, cloud computing. This generation tends to come from smaller families with older-working parents, who often protect their children. This is the generation that has been raised alongside with the internet, and various other technologies. Due to this, Gen Z seems to be good at “task-switch” which leads to a trend called “Aquired Attention Deficit Disorder (AADD).” This is the result of the not having the ability to analyze complex information/ issue because of constant distractions from social media and the internet. This generation is also considered tech-savy, which does affect their consumer behavior.

Consumer Habits of Generation Z. According to Priporas, Stylos, and Fotiadis, (2017), the spending habits of Generation Z. Through their research, they found that smart technologies, such as self-checkout, had a huge influence on Gen Z’s consumer experience. They claim that Generation Z’s consumer interest as a consumer is being involved in new, easy-to-use technology, want to feel safe while shopping, and have a temporary escape over their reality. By having an understanding of the consumer habits of Generation Z, which as of 2019 are young adults, I will have knowledge on what they look for when shopping, and predict how well their experiences are based on what environment they tend to gravitate towards more.

Marketing Towards Generation Z. According to Williams and Page, (2011), marketing communication towards this generation is mainly done through television, however, these products need to be represesnted by said generation as well. This generation enjoys doing what they see their peers enjoy doing. With this generation, peers doesn’t even have to mean close friends that you have an almost-daily interaction with. With the popularity of social media in this generation, it makes it simple to make an online community feel like a close group of friends. Because of this, it’s suggested that marketers sponser or team up with individuals or groups of people that are popular within the generation. Again, it’s important to understand how businesses are marketing toward Generation Z in order to understand if it is making an impact on their consumer habits.

Entertainment for Generation Z. According to Apogee.us, one in five members of Generation Z doesn’t watch TV, meanwhile most of the rest aren’t watching TV through ordinary broadcast or cable channels. In fact, they reported that 70% of this generation prefers streaming services, such as Netflix or Hulu. Adding on to that, the TV is the only screen that this generation would seem to keep. Generation Z does spend most of their time on their smartphones and laptops, making them the top ranking mobile viewers from every generation. They don’t think of their living room as a go-to place for entertainment like older generations now that they can watch anything from portable devices, such as laptops and their cellphones. Because of this, Gen Z is always online, no matter where they are. For my research topic, it’s important to know what the lifestyle of Generation Z is, due to the fact that this generation only knows a life through the internet.

References

Choi, C. J., & Berger, R. (2010). Ethics of celebrities and their increasing influence in 21st century society. Journal of business ethics, 91(3), 313-318.
Critical, V. (2016). The everything guide to Generation Z.
Galician, M.-L., & Bourdeau, P. G. (2004). The Evolution of Product Placements in Hollywood Cinema. Journal of Promotion Management, 10(1-2), 15–36. doi: 10.1300/j057v10n01_03
Lehu, J.-M., & Bressoud, E. (2008). Effectiveness of brand placement: New insights about viewers. Journal of Business Research, 61(10), 1083–1090. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.09.015
Newell, J., Salmon, C. T., & Chang, S. (2006). The Hidden History of Product Placement. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 50(4), 575–594. doi: 10.1207/s15506878jobem5004_1
Priporas, C. V., Stylos, N., & Fotiadis, A. K. (2017). Generation Z Consumers’ Expectations of Interactions in Smart Retailing: A Future Agenda. Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 374-381.
Rothman, D. (2016). A Tsunami of learners called Generation Z. URL: http://www. mdle. net/JoumaFA_Tsunami_of_Learners_Called_Generation_Z. pdf.
Van der Waldt, D. L. R., Nunes, V., & Stroebel, J. (2008). Product placement: Exploring Effects of Product Usage by Principal Actors. African journal of business management, 2(6), 111-118.
Wei, P. S., & Lu, H. P. (2013). An examination of the celebrity endorsements and online customer reviews influence female consumers’ shopping behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 193-201.
Williams, K. C., & Page, R. A. (2011). Marketing to the generations. Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business, 3(1), 37-53.

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Product Placement in Movie’s Influence on Young Adults in the US: Literature Review

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