Product Placement

Product Placement is an increasing promotional strategy of which branded products appear in movies. Balasubramanian (1994) define product placement as a paid messages targeting movie audiences by inserting branded products into a movie. This a marketers way of a more sophisticated yet intrusive ways of showing their products through big screen movies. A perfect example of product placement in movie is the brands used throughout James Bond Spectre. 


The James Bond movie is probably one of the most popular movie in the world.Throughout James Bond Spectre movie the actors can be seen using popular big brands of cars. Daniel Craig was driving an Aston Martin on the film. A Fiat 500 interrupts the car chase scene that tears through the streets of Rome.Jaguar‘s C-X75 concept is driven by villain Mr. Hinx in the Rome chase. Land Rover Defender (seen with sibling Range Rover Sport SVR in the Austrian action scene). Mercedes-Benz is spotted at Monica Bellucci’s mansion and Rolls-Royce 1948 Silver Wraith picks up Bond in the desert, recalling the brand’s role in Goldfinger. Having said that after signing a deal with Heineken a bottle can be spotted in the hotel room at Hotel L’Americain in Tangier, Morocco in one part of the movie. These are just some of the brands used in James Bond Spectre Movie.

According to Solomon, (1999) product placement can be split into two different type. On-set placement is when a specific product is inserted into an actual film scene, as when a specific alcohol is are focus in a bar scene. For example Belvedere vodka is stirred, not shaken, in Bond’s martini. This shows not only the brand of the alcohol but also influencing audience how to drink Belvedere. Creative placement is finding ways to insert actual brand into filming to show in outdoor advertising. For example Apple iPad in Modern Family iPad being the main point of the story was aired just three days before the stores started selling Apple’s new gadget. The Plot was to buy their dad an iPad for his birthday, which correspond with the device’s launch day. However, his family didn't pre-order it. The product was added in the plot; it was mentioned in different contexts, it was shown on the screen, it was used and it achieved the “I want to buy this product!” effect.

Reference

brandchannel:,. (2015). The Brands In Spectre — 007 Product Placement in James Bond's 24th Film. Retrieved 7 February 2016, from /http://brandchannel.com/2015/11/08/spectre-bond-product-placement-110815/

Solomon, M. (1999). Consumer behavior. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Balasubramanian, S. (1994). Beyond Advertising and Publicity: Hybrid Messages and Public Policy Issues. Journal Of Advertising, 23(4), 29-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1943.10673457

Brands & Films,. (2011). Top 40 Product Placements of all time: 10-1 - Brands & Films. Retrieved 7 February 2016, from http://brandsandfilms.com/2011/01/top-40-product-placements-of-all-time-10-1/