Product Placement

Product placement is the art of advertising the product of brands through media, games, and books so that they receive more visibility from the audience. Showcasing the product through such means increases brand loyalty and confidence among the people, and they tend to affiliate emotionally with particular brand products and services.

Consumers connect to a brand more naturally through radio, movies, and dramas than through traditional advertising, which is static and repetitive. In addition, product placement helps increase the revenue of the companies because the audience who visualizes the product or the service through media may feel more inclined to buy it.

• Product placement promotion is a subtle advertisement technique where a brand's products appear in media, games, and books. This increases audience awareness.
• People tend to emotionally connect with certain brand products and services due to showcasing the product through such methods. This can increase brand loyalty and confidence.
• As a result, customers are exposed to the advertisement for longer and are more likely to remember it. Thus it helps businesses increase their revenue.
• Product integration involves incorporating or introducing the product in the dialogues through the characters, as opposed to product placement involving using a product's brand name.

Product placement is also called embedded advertising or the embedded marketing strategy. Here the products of a particular brand are advertised through embedding or attaching them via social media, newspapers, radio, TV shows, and movies that grab the people's attention.

The first time product placement technique was visible was in the 1950s. Katherine Hepburn's character "The African Queen" advertised "Gordon Gin" bottles in the most iconic ways- while she tossed the bottles overboard with seriousness. These are forms of implicit advertising where the deeper connections of the audience are built through stronger connections with the brand.

It has become more popular in social media, where micro-influencers, celebrities, and other social media influencers have taken the ground of embedded advertising. Even big brands and organizations rely on these people for social media branding of the products and services on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube accounts to sell their products and services. In return, these influencers charge a fee for subtly advertising the product.

There are different types of product placement which are mentioned below as follows.

1. Onscreen product placement: It involves visual elements such as movies, TV shows, dramas, and social media videos. These place a brand product or service to make it more viewable and grab viewers' attention. It could be the main protagonist advertising the product between the shots or some in the background creating a scenic effect through a brand's products.
2. Verbal product placement: The verbal branding can be through dialogue, radio shows, or music. It depends on the content required for a particular brand and the emphasis required.
3. Game product placement: It is the most common form of branding where the player can remember the product or service for a long period because of repetitive or continuous playing. The characters in the game are built around the product, where they use a particular brand.
4. Usage product placement: Here, the character interacts with the particular brand product or service by using it in real life. It can be shown in a way where the person is using the service in the audio or video, texting, or using the vehicle or product that shows its uniqueness.

Let us look at product placement examples to understand the concept better

Examples #1

One of the famous TV shows, 'Friends,' subtly advertised Toblerone chocolate. The characters arrive at an airport and bring a Toblerone chocolate bar. At a point, Joey looks at a chocolate bar and praises it as a good brand of chocolate. This demonstrates brand loyalty and confidence among the audience. It's a perfect example of visual product placement.

Example #2

Under Armour, a brand specializing in sports apparel, shoes, and accessories, often promotes its products via Marvel movies. The characters of these films, such as Black Widow, Ironman, and Captain America, use these products in daily life that associates them with the Under Armour brand. This relates to an emotional attachment to the product. Thus it creates trust among the people toward Under Armour products and increases sales.

The advantages and disadvantages of product placement are as follows

Advantages

1. This method reduces the discomfort caused by the constant repetition of the same content repeatedly caused by the explicit form of traditional advertising methods.
2. It allows brands to target a particular product to a particular niche rather than considering a larger picture of the audience. For example, if a clothing brand wants to advertise the kid's apparel, it may use cartoons for children's movies that use a brand product (clothes) or service so that it attracts the eye of a child and a parent rather than targeting youth.
3. It increases brand awareness about the brand among people and boosts brand recognition. This happens when customers keep seeing the advertisement for a long time and thus help companies increase their revenue.
4. The role of content is very much important in embedded marketing. For example, when the audience plays music, TV shows are engrossed in the content rather than distracted by conventional boring advertisements, which they play forward or mute. It helps in retaining the attention of people towards a particular brand.

Disadvantages

1. It is an expensive form of advertising when the marketing of a product is done through celebrity endorsements or lead characters demonstrating the product via tv shows or movies.
2. It does not have a direct call-to-action performance as it is an implicit form of advertising. And the results are quite organic and natural because people can't be forced to purchase the product.
3. Nowadays, in the digital world, the producers of sports broadcasts can create ads on virtual billboards. They can thus change the ad from the actual or physical existence of an ad.
4. Some competitors may cancel out the brand because of constant advertising of their products through the means of tv shows or movies. In addition, the constant advertisement may affect the viewers, which would not create brand awareness.

Here are the key differences between product placement and integration

This article has been a guide to what is Product Placement. Here, we explain its examples, types, advantages, disadvantages, & comparison with product integration. You may also find some useful articles here -

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