Mainly Melissa!

I have recently just started reading Martin Lindstrom's book Buyology. The book discusses a topic which I found exceedingly interesting. Product placements have been extremely popular in movies and television shows for several years now. In the past one or two brands were featured in movies. Today movies are jam packed with product placements; many of which most people don't even notice. For example in the hit movie, “He’s Just Not that Into You”, I did not know or even care that the fruit on the display were products from Dole. Lindstrom goes further and says that in order for a brand to penetrate the viewer’s brain the brand must be integrated into the storyline.

“We have no memory of brands that don’t play an integral part in the storyline of a program. They become white noise, easily and instantaneously forgotten... Products that play an integral part in the narrative of a program are not only memorably, they appear to have a double barrelled effect... They not only increase our memory of the product, but they actually weaken our ability to remember the other brands.” –Martin Lindstrom, Buyology

Companies are spending millions of dollars to feature their products in movies and television shows, however most of this money is gone to waste. Why are companies spending millions of dollars to have their products appear subtly in the background of various television shows/movies? Technology advances such as PVR & TIVO which allows viewers to skip commercials have forced advertisers to get you to notice their product during the television show.

If product placements in movies and television shows are not paying off where should companies invest their advertising budget? Online advertising, commercials before movies, or product placements in video games may be the answer for some companies.

I think it would be very interesting to see the effectiveness between brands which are integrated into the storyline in movies/television vs. brands which are integrated into the storylines of books. Almost every kid can name you the various types candy from the Harry Potter books and what kind of broom Harry rides. Because you are actively seeing the brand spelt out in words when you are reading, I have a feeling that product placement in books maybe far more effective than in movies/television.