The Impact of Product Placement on Consumer’s Awareness and Perception Toward Brands

Title

“ The Impact of Product Placement on Consumer’s Awareness and Perception Toward Brands ”

Introduction 

Product placement has become of the most widely adopted promotion tools used in marketing today. It is utilized by the organizations in order to alter the consumer behavior by promoting products through different media (Nelson, 2000). Meanwhile traditional advertising faces the growing problems of customers segmentation, rising rate cards, and cynicism among customers toward media messages, the product placement industry is booming, making the topic an interesting field for observations and detailed analysis. The purpose of the research is therefore to analyze the extent to which product placement increases brand awareness as well as costumer’s perception toward product placement messages.

Literature / Background 

Product placement is defined as “a paid product message aimed at influencing media audiences via the planned and unobtrusive entry of a branded product into a media” (Balasubramanian, 1994). The research by Chartier (2007) indicates that product placement is used as a major marketing tool since 1998. According to Sutherland (1981), “if something appears frequently in the media, it is raised up on our agenda of things to think about.” Thus, product placements render brands more instantly accessible in memory, which makes it a key element of brand development (Sutherland, 2005). The study by Gupta and Gould (1997) identified generally positive attitudes toward placements, with an exception of ethically charged products. The researches by Morton & Friedman, (2002); Ong & Meri, (1994) on ethical issues of product placements revealed that about 25% of responders think that it should be restricted on ethical grounds. However, Grabner-Kräuter (2000) investigated product placement on a cross-national basis and revealed that attitudes were different in each country. According to Nelson (2002) recall is the most common measure of PP effectiveness (Nelson, 2002), followed by recognition (Law & Braun, 2000). Ong and Meri’s (1994) study on the recall showed that most placements generate great recall. Meanwhile the study by Babin and Carder (1996) found that people generally recognized the brands they saw in media. Moreover, Chartier (2000) states that consumer awareness is enhanced when the principal actor is present and the PP is positively evaluated.

Aims and Objectives 

The aims of the research are:

• to identify how product placement causes an increase in brand awareness among media consumers

• to identify if customer’s perception toward product placement differs across countries

• to identify the ethical issues and effectiveness of product placement messages

Research Methods and Data 

The study will be conducted in five different cinemas in Central London, among viewers leaving cinemas as well as by interviewing random people on the streets. The research doesn't require specific sample characteristics. The data will be examined using conversation and content analysis. Three types of qualitative data collection will be used in the research:

• Firstly, in order to explore the views, experiences, beliefs and perceptions, qualitative research interviews will be conducted.

• Secondly, observations during the movies will be undertaken

• Thirdly, to gather information regarding the brands awareness self-reports of knowledge and attitudes will be included.

It is supposed that the research project will fulfill the discussion about product placement’s importance and effectiveness in the field of marketing as well as investigate the rationale behind costumer’s perception toward it. However, the study will depict only immediate, short-term effects of product placement. The nature and scope of the study does not presuppose long-term measures.

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