Product Placement

Product Placement

Product placement is putting brands inside entertainment. The research shows a trade-off: placements that stand out are remembered and discounted, while placements that fit their scene persuade. Labelling a placement as paid raises recognition and resistance.

What it is

Cristel Antonia Russell had a 27-minute sitcom made in three versions and showed it to 107 students in 2002. Brands mentioned in dialogue were remembered better than brands only seen. Among visual placements, those tied to the plot were recognised by about 55 per cent of viewers against about 6 per cent for incidental ones. But attitudes moved the other way: congruent placements, a product seen in the background or a brand spoken about as part of the story, improved attitudes, while incongruent ones were discounted.

A 2020 meta-analysis of 61 papers led by Martin Eisend found that disclosing sponsored content increased recognition, persuasion knowledge and resistance, and reduced brand attitudes and source credibility.

In effect

A brand should decide first whether it wants to be remembered or liked. Measuring only recall can count the placements that cost goodwill.

What it does not say

It does not rest on the most famous popular example. The American Idol study described in Martin Lindstrom's Buyology was not published in a peer-reviewed journal and its findings cannot be checked.

Russell's study used one programme and student viewers, with memory measured soon after viewing.

Sources

  1. Russell, C. A. (2002). Journal of Consumer Research, 29(3), 306-318. doi:10.1086/344432.
  2. Eisend, M., and colleagues (2020). Journal of Advertising, 49(3), 344-366. doi:10.1080/00913367.2020.1765909.
  3. Law, S., & Braun, K. A. (2000). Psychology and Marketing, 17(12), 1059-1075.