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It is interesting to watch Aamir
Khan don Louis Philippe in Ghajini or Shah rukh Khan having lunch at McDonald's
in Chak De India. It is more interesting to recognize how marketers
are cashing on this technique to gain the attention of the customers.
It has been well-established by researchers that customers try
to emulate their favorite actors and that gives enough reasons
to marketers to use celebrities for endorsing their brands.
Marketers are now moving beyond the concept of celebrity
endorsement and instead of bringing the celebrity to the brand and
make him endorse the product for a few seconds, they now intend to
take the brand to the celebrity and let their brand integrate with the
film and television productions. A fresh and challenging concept
which helps the marketers to enable their brands to stay for a longer time
in the consumers' mind revolves around product placement. It is
a subtle tool, in which products are `placed' in films and
television programs. The audience does not interpret the existence of
the product and the producer also saves substantial amounts of
money through `product placement'.
Product placement is reckoned by marketers for two reasons;
first in many cases, the placement does not divert the attention of
the customers from the main theme of the program. The reason
behind this approach is to make the audience believe that the
inclusion of the product is by the producer- and not by the marketer. Also, it
may heighten the credibility of the product because the audience
may think that the product is an unbiased selection of a third
party. The second reason for using such a strategy is that various
media vehicles are converging and integrating today and in the
near future, customers may simply buy products by merely watching
them on television programs or movies and it is expected that
product placement opportunities will become an influential option
for many marketers.
The history of product placement dates back to the
19th century when it was seen in an adventure novel, Around the World in Eighty Days in which
transport and shipping companies lobbied to be mentioned as it was
initially published in serial form. The turning point for product
placement took place in the 1980s, when a very popular
movieThe Extra Terrestrial utilized this concept.
After this, product placement became a common practice
in movies and TV shows. Initially, the concept was not seriously
abetted, but with time, product placement has grown as a strategy and
slowly and quietly it has become a part of the audience's favorite movies
and TV shows. In fact, the best place to see product placement is in
reality shows. |
