A possible influence on purchasing behavior

Product placement offers marketers an alternative approach for communicating with their target audience. The theoretical marketing model illustrates a causal chain, from learning and recall, to persuasion, to purchase intention. The factors within causal chain can be influenced by the nature of the placement: prominent or subtle. As such, it is evident that the nature of a placement can impact consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioural processes. Prominent placements achieve high awareness, but result in negative consumer attitudes and thus low purchase intention; whereas the effects of subtle placements are typically opposite. Marketing researchers have examined the effectiveness of product placement in terms of brand recognition and recall, and consumer attitudes, no known studies have examined the impact of product placement on a consumer’s conative responses, such as purchase intention. It is therefore suggested that future research should extend the current literature, examining the impact of subtle and prominent product placement on purchase intention. The results of the proposed research will provide marketers and business decision makers with a further understanding of product placement, identifying whether it is a worthwhile promotional strategy instead of traditional media becoming saturated.

For the Stephen Frears film Dirty Pretty Things in 2002, the set designer bought a Staples wall clock in a London flea market, on the instructions of the chief set designer, Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski. The aim was to contribute to the US style of a room. There was no placement contract, just a prop intended to guide the viewers imaginations. Some months later, the clock, which sold for $8.98, became one of Staples best-selling products [8, p.24].

Following the release of Sideways in 2004, in which two men at a crossroads in their lives go on a trip through the wine-growing valley of Santa Ynez in California, business increased by 30 per cent at the restaurant The Hitching Post which appeared in the film, bringing a general increase in tourism in California. More importantly, sales of pinot noir wine leapt up 22 percent on the US market in the months of December and January. As for the pinot noir brand Blackstone, it was rewarded with an increase in sales of almost 150 percent [8, p.46].

Of course, a single case has never been enough to construct a theory, and certain studies carried out by the marketing agency tended to show a lower effectiveness, in terms of influence on buying behaviour, of branded entertainment in general compared with classic television advertising. Even if the exception does not prove the rule, however, it is fairly easy nowadays, based on the numerous cases of successful placements, to convince an advertiser of the considerable potential influence of product placement on the buying behaviour of a segment of the audience.

The sale of Milk Duds confectionery rose unexpectedly after Marlon Brando offered them to George C Scott in The Formula directed by John Avildsen in 1980. The sunglasses brand Ray-Ban is said to have experienced difficulties in meeting demand, following a sudden 50 per cent rise in its sales, the year following the release of the Paul Brickman film Risky Business in 1983, in which Tom Cruise sports the classic Wayfarer model. Never have as many berets been sold to US women as at the end of the 1960s, following the release of the film Bonnie and Clyde directed by Arthur Penn in 1967, where Faye Dunaway proudly sports her beret throughout the length of the film. In 1995, after one of its models had appeared on Pierce Brosnan’s wrist in Martin Campbell’s GoldenEye, Omega is thought to have registered a 40 per cent increase in its watch sales [8, p.70].

The influence of a placement is sometimes spontaneously generated without the help of a brand, and for products that, on the face of it, no one would even have troubled to do a marketing feasibility study for. In 1999, Edward McAvoy was chief set designer on the filming of Mike Judge’s Office Space. Since many scenes took place in offices, multiple props and office furnishings were necessary. The screenplay specified that one of the characters, Milton, was deeply attached to his stapler. In order to make it more original, the chief set designer had the idea of choosing one in fire engine red. Having made enquiries and called the Swingline brand, he learnt that there was no stapler corresponding to his requirements. He therefore obtained permission from Swingline to paint one of their models. On the film’s release, several clients requested a red stapler, which Swingline did not manufacture. The demand was such that Bruce Neapole, president of Swingline, took the decision to produce a model in fire engine red. The Rio Red Stapler model is now an integral part of the catalogue, and has already seen collector’s editions, not to mention the internet forums, indeed whole virtual communities that, since the film’s release, have formed around a simple stapler.

On the classic principle of identification and the desire to look like such and such a star, a significant part of the audience is often quick to wish to own the same accessories, to dress in the same way or to consume the same products as the star in question. In 2002, the jewellery designer Mia & Lizzie was beset with requests for a necklace in the shape of a horseshoe with diamonds, simply because the actress Sarah Jessica Parker had worn one in an episode of the fourth season of the television series Sex and the City [9, p.113].