Advertisement on TV : Possibilities and constraints to the use of product placements

Abstract

Consumers are exposed to thousands of advertising messages on a daily basis, whether it be the commercial breaks, radio advertisement, billboards, brochures, etc. Therefore, marketing agencies and companies try even harder to get the attention of possible buyers. The phenomenon known as commercial avoidance is one of the biggest challenges for advertisers nowadays. A potential alternative for the "oversaturated media landscape" is the use of product placements. As products are integrated into the storyline of TV programmes and are handled by the protagonists, product placements add to the reality in which the story is set, closing the gap between reality and fiction, masking the sale intent of the companies. The import of US-American TV shows expands the reach of such marketing strategies, targeting a whole new audience. With most of the current research in this field being done in the USA, this research seeks to assess the awareness towards product placement using a German audience and the influence of product placement recall on their buying behaviour.