“Mona, I am drinking my milk right now.”
He pours out a full glass of milk with an ice cube in it. He tops it off with vodka from a Smirnoff bottle. And he drinks it down.
I saw this scene from Mad Men once, probably 15 years ago.
I thought it was great. It still sticks in my mind. But I never did buy a bottle of Smirnoff. And if I were to ever buy vodka, Smirnoff wouldn’t be my first choice.
So product placements — do they work?
Professors in business schools trip over each other to answer this question.
They take real TV shows. They splice in different kinds of product placements. They show them to students. And then they ask, “By the way… what do you happen to think of Smirnoff?”
As a result, these marketing professors come up with conclusions like:
1. If a product placement is subtle, then repeated exposure actually improves attitude towards a brand.
2. If a product placement is obvious, then repeated exposure hurts attitude towards a brand.
Interesting, right? Except you can’t really tell what it means in the real world.
After all, like my Smirnoff story from above shows, a product placement can “work” great. And yet still no sale.
But here’s a surprising bit from the same research, which might be more useful. These marketing professors also asked students, “Oh, and even more by the way… what did you think of the show?”
Same show of course, just different types of product placements spliced in. Result:
1. People liked the TV show the most if it had a SINGLE OBVIOUS product placement…
2. Next came the show with MULTIPLE SUBTLE product placements…
3. Next, the show with a SINGLE SUBTLE product placement…
4. And finally, far down in last place, MULTIPLE OBVIOUS product placements. People really didn’t like the show in this case.
Which fits my beliefs about how we all go through life.
We like buying stuff. We also like shortcuts that cut down our work of making buying decisions. But we want to feel we are in control of those decisions… even when we are not.
Whatever. I thought this might be useful to you, in case you have your own TV show, whether that’s an email newsletter, or a YouTube channel, or your own Facebook group.
It’s not clear that an occasional clear plug will be optimal for your sales. But if your biz is built on relationship first… and sales numbers only second… then the above academic result is something to consider.
And in that spirit, let me say I found out the above while doing research for my upcoming book. It’s called The Gospel of Insight Marketing. And it’s all about the most powerful way to persuade people to buy… even in markets where people are jaded, hostile, or frankly indifferent to your pitch.
The book isn’t out yet. I’m working on it now. But I won’t bring it up again, at least not obviously, until it’s ready for reading. After all, I care my relationship with you… and science says this is the way to go.
Finally:
If you’d like to find out when my Gospel book is ready for reading… sign up for my email newsletter.