Subject: Does Product Placement Work?

From: Chief Marketer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 02:40:02 -0600

February 22, 2005 | A PRIMEDIA Property |

Table of Contents
Product Placement: Thumbs Down, Thumbs Up
Response Marketing: The Advertising-DM Connection
E-commerce: Look Sharp for Mom Appeal
Consumer Trends: "Cocooning Is Over"
Alternative Marketing: Skin for Sale

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This Week's Stories
Product Placement: Thumbs Down, Thumbs Up
Does product placement work? A look at branding Website Brandchannel.com's choices of the top product-placement brands suggests no--and yes.

Brandchannel gave a lifetime achievement award for product placement to Apple. But while Apple computers have been featured in films as diverse as "Short Circuit," "Men in Black," "Dodgeball," and "Seed of Chucky," Brandchannel writer Abram Sauer points out that during the nearly 20 years that Apple has been costarring in films, its share of the global computer market has declined to less than 2%.

"In terms of product placement's effectiveness," Sauer writes, "this raises some huge questions, one of which seems to imply that, at best, the effectiveness of product placement is completely unpredictable or, at worst, product placement doesn't really work at all."

On the flip side, Brandchannel awarded "Sideways" for its role in boosting sales of pinot noir since its release. The main character of the film is a wine snob who praises pinot noir throughout the movie. In the U.S., according to Brandchannel, sales of pinot noir rose 22% from mid-December to mid-January. "With everyone lamenting the difficulties of measuring the ROI of product placement," Sauer writes, "'Sideways' presents impossible-to-ignore numbers on the powers of persuasion."

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Response Marketing: The Advertising-DM Connection
By Grant A. Johnson
DIRECT
In advertising and marketing circles, a divide always has existed between image advertisers and direct marketers. Traditional image advertising generates sales over an extended period, using brand image and product features as its drivers. Direct marketing goes after sales right now, using measurable and testable marketing techniques.

But companies such as Victoria's Secret and Home Depot are shifting large portions of their budgets from traditional mass media outlets to channels that can be measured and tracked. Victoria's Secret is using more banner ads, catalogs, and mailings to boost both direct and retail sales. In a turn of events, its Web-based fashion show was such a hit it was turned into a television special. And Home Depot is testing products through direct response vehicles like mail and short-form infomercials. This measurable process is driven by return on investment and helps beef up the bottom line.

Precipitating this trend is emerging technology that's more direct response-oriented than image-based. Some examples: search engine marketing, the Web, microsites, e-mail, banner ads, text ads and links, as well as more traditional channels like direct mail, which has become more sophisticated with the merging of data and digital printing methods. This technology is enabling customized and better-targeted offers and messages.

Traditional advertisers have discovered that their marketing can be measured, tracked, analyzed, and tested. Even as they engage in branding using the latest techniques (think streaming-video banner ads), these advertisers also incorporate long-established direct response marketing principles to help them gauge success. Direct branding shows them where and when to shift media dollars.

To read more about the opportunities inherent in the advertising-direct marketing connection, visit DIRECT.

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E-commerce: Look Sharp for Mom Appeal
When mothers shop online, pretty is as pretty does--or something like that. According to a new study from Lucid Marketing, 62% of moms said that they "think less of companies" with unappealing Websites.

What do moms think more of in terms of e-commerce sites? Eighty-one percent said more special offers would improve a Website; 79% said better information regarding products would enhance the online shopping experience--the same percentage that said free shipping would improve e-commerce.

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Consumer Trends: "Cocooning Is Over"
During the past few years, and especially in the wake of 9/11, trend analysts proclaimed "cocooning" and "nesting" the order of the day. Americans' desire to be safe at home with loved ones was said to have fueled purchases of furniture and other home decor and entertaining products.

Well, "the cocooning lifestyle is over," proclaimed Pam Danziger, president of Stevens, PA-based research firm Unity Marketing, at the American Nursery and Landscaping Association's 2005 Management Clinic earlier this month. "Home is no longer a place to retreat, retire, and nest. In the new connecting lifestage, home becomes a hub for connecting with the outside world. Home is a place of activity, reaching out and doing things."

According to Danziger, the shift to "connecting" is one reason behind the do-it-yourself trend, which as been aided and abetted by TV programs such as "Trading Spaces." She also predicts that consumers will spend more on outdoor furniture, gardening tools, and landscaping. "Barbecue grills, bird feeders, porch and patio decorative accents, such as flags, signs, and statuary, and outdoor furniture are top on people's shopping list when it comes to outdoor living products," Danziger said.

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Alternative Marketing: Skin for Sale
By Patricia Odell
PROMO XTRA
First, there was the young man who sold space on his forehead to an advertiser. And then a young woman appeared looking to rent out some epidermis on her body parts.

And now, a new Website has emerged where advertisers and those selling some skin can meet and greet. As of last Wednesday, Bodybillboardz.com had 21 recent listings of people willing to parade around with advertisements affixed to their bodies for a wide range of prices, and on a wide range of anatomical locations.

In one listing under the "Arm Advertising" category, Matt Hamilton, a "guy living in a college town," was offering arm and forehead space for rent. In his description, he said he barely slept and was "out and about" 18+ hours a day. The specs for his deal called for the use of temporary tattoos for 31 days and he included the caveat "Please no porn or nudity, unless the price is right." The price? $1,500.

To read more, visit PROMO.

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