Product Placement In Russian Film Industry Media Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Because traditional means of advertising become saturated and avoided by the audience, the practice of placing brands in media content has been rapidly developing and attracting attention not only of marketing practitioners, but also of consumers. This research carefully evaluates existing literature on different aspects of product placement in cross-cultural perspective to gain new insights about Ukrainian individuals' attitudes and feelings towards it and to compare them with those of American audience. A sample of 100 Ukrainian young adults has been used to analyse general patterns in emotions with the help of surveys and short video clips containing different types of product placement. Moreover, four interviews were collected to strengthen further understanding and knowledge formation. The study revealed that in general product placement as an advertising technique was received positively in Ukraine if it is properly done and does not contain harmful products, in particular when advertised for children. Most of the respondents prefer only visual representation of brands on the screen, followed by mentioning products verbally. Viewers enjoy the least the usage type of product placement, which they find obtrusive and irritating. There were some differences between consumers' attitudes and behaviour in advanced (United States) and developing (Ukraine) economies. Ukrainians are less likely to purchase brands advertised on the screen, have higher concerns about ethics of product placement and are more supportive of government regulations regarding this marketing practice than Americans. Both nations prefer subtle and delicate placements and perceive a product better when it is endorsed by a celebrity.

Introduction

Due to the amplified fragmentation of consumer markets, marketing managers start to use a range of alternative communication channels to reach individuals. One of the rising ways that has been exploited is product placement, which is not a recent concept to the field of advertising (Lai-Man and Wai-Yee, 2008). Product placement is the intentional "incorporation of commercial content into non-commercial settings…a product plug generated via the fusion of advertising and entertainment" (Williams, Petrovsky, Hernandez and Page, 2011:2). Even though it is riskier than the standard advertising, nowadays it becomes a common practice not only in developed markets, such as United States of America and some European countries, but also in developing economies. An increasing number of brands and products are competing for presentations in films and there are various examples of how placing a brand resulted in an improvement of brand performance (Morton and Friedman, 2002). Media globalisation permits product placement to employ delicate means to access local and international consumers. Fragmented audiences and advanced technologies, which allow individuals to avoid the traditional methods of promotion, have added to the increase and popularity of 'embedded adverts' (Nelson & Devanathan, 2006). In addition, product placement is extensively used in Hollywood films, which have numerous viewers around the world and is believed to be a permanent method of promotion since it can efficiently access target consumer segments globally (Gupta & Gould, 1997).

Prior projects on product placement in movies have concentrated on American (Gupta & Gould, 1997), French and Austrian (Gould, Gupta & Grabner-Kräute, 2000), Australian (Brennan, Rosenberger & Hementera 2004), Indian (Nelson & Devanathan, 2006), Chinese (Lai-Man & Wai-Yee, 2008), Taiwanese (Ming-tiem, Wen-ko & Mei- Ling, 2007) and Singaporean audiences (Karrh, Frith & Callison, 2001). The existing opportunity to comprehend the cultural consequences of globalisation on developing economies is restricted, because sophisticated countries are usually the attention of study (Ribiero, 2006). Ukraine is connected with significant, but difficult historic process of evolution from 70 years of command regime in the direction of a market democracy (Ghesquiere, 2000). Nowadays, the country plays a significant economic role within Eastern and Central Europe. Ukraine has ranked 10th in its area (2006-2010) for the amount of FDI projects and created jobs (Ernst & Young, 2011). Moreover, the economy is the third largest receiver for FDI in financial services in Central and Eastern Europe (2006-2010). However, it still is not commonly used in literature on international marketing.

Thus, a study that examines current position of product placement in the country and that explores diversities and similarities in how people perceive brand placements in advanced and developing economies, is needed. Ukrainian and Russian marketing managers will have an opportunity to discover how to improve the usage of this technique, so that it will be more effective and will be perceived better by the audience. Moreover, since globalisation has taken place marketing practitioners can alter their strategy for international markets. This research chose United States to be compared with Ukraine since it is one of the world biggest markets and the country is where the technique of product placement was first used and where most of the developing process regarding this practice takes place (Nelson and Devanathan, 2006). The purpose of the study is to explore attitudes and thoughts of Ukrainian young adults towards different aspects of emerging technique of product placement and to compare the results with emotions of American consumers who observe a more established presence of this marketing practice.

The paper continues with a section of literature review, which discusses the development of product placement in both countries and significant legal, ethical and practical aspects of it. Sections of conceptual framework and methodology bring understanding to the process of data collection and are followed by the section of analysis and results.

Literature Review

Nowadays in the era of globalization and postmodernism, the mass media becomes more fragmented, consumers turn to be more demanding and advertising grows to be less effective (Mackay, Ewing, Newton and Windisch, 2009). Some empirical evidence shows that around 70% of television viewers change channels or turn off the sound during commercial breaks since they find advertising annoying or irrelevant (Kiley, 2006). Moreover, today the rising use of DVRs (digital video recorders), which were present in 31% of American homes in May 2009 and continues to increase nowadays, is considered the main threat to the efficiency of TV advertising (Bellman, Rossiter, Schweda and Varan, 2011). The reason behind this is the fact that audience can avoid advertisements to some extent or completely due to functions of fast-forwarding, skip-buttons and channel-change. Thus, product placement, as a hidden and delicate promotion demonstrates its effectiveness to reach both active consumers and non-users and is considered as a future of TV advertising (Smit, van Reijmersdal and Neijens, 2009).

Development of Product Placement in USA

According to literature about the history of product placement in the USA, there are few examples of this phenomenon before 1980s (Newell, Salmon and Chang, 2006). However, some argue that activities that follow the same principle were taking place around 1930s (Eckert, 1978) or mid-1940s (Wasko, 1994). During that time product placement was not an organized business and did not have a proper term. The original purpose of this practice was to decrease the cost of production for film studios and television networks by borrowing props (Williams et al., 2011).

One view on the appearance of product placement is concerned with the arrival to American TV screens of the 'Popeye The Sailor Man' cartoon (pic.1) in 1924 (Gromceva, 2004). Nobody knows what came first - the character of Popeye or the idea to include him into the national US campaign with the aim to improve the American health and lifestyle. However, the figures show that after the cartoon became popular the sales of canned spinach have increased by 30% all over the United States (Gromceva, 2004).

Pic.1 (Source: www.serafinosays.com, 2012)Thirty-three years later, this idea was brought to a completely new quality level by Albert R. Broccoli, producer of the legendary series about James Bond (Sancton, 2012). Up to now it stays the most classical, consistent and successful example of American product placement. Starting from the advertisements of vodka and cars in 'Doctor No' in 1962, Broccoli had managed to delicately implement many other brands in his later movies (Harlow, 2011). For over fifty years, James Bond still remains an un-aging cultural reference point for many people all over the world and continues to play with new and more sophisticated gadgets each year (Sancton, 2012). He represents the everlasting fantasy of every middle-aged male and thus is a fantastic promotion vehicle for advertisers targeting this segment. Throughout the history of all movies Bond character is known for being promiscuous with women and authentic to vodka martinis, for driving Aston Martins and BMWs and wearing Omega watch. One-third of the budget (around $45 million) for the latest movie with the British spy - Skyfall that will come out in November 2012, will be provided by the brands that appear on the screen, which will make it the biggest product placement practice in the whole history of the cinema industry (Harlow, 2011). This figure equals more than twice the previous product placement record of the Steven Spielberg's Minority Report ($20 million) in 2004 (Sancton, 2012).

Pic.2 (Source: Steinbrunner, 2008)Nonetheless, the turning point for product placement has taken place in 1980s when the world has witnessed the appearance of the movie by Steven Spielberg 'E.T.: The Extraterrestrial' (pic.2) (Newell et al., 2006). In one of the scenes the main character makes the alien visitor come out of the woods with a trail of Reese's Pieces. At that time the Hershey's Company was paid to have a right to use its product in a movie. However, when the sales have increased dramatically (around 65% rise) media managers understood that the process should be opposite and companies should pay media producers, so that their products can be advertised (Newell et al., 2006). According to some sources, Mars Company, which produces M&M's, was very upset, since it had refused to take part in the movie (AdvertMe News, 2012). After that the product placement quickly became a commonly used part of advertising and promotion, many agencies were created and started to offer such services to their clients.

Development of Product Placement in Russia

Pic.3 (Source: Nashe Nasledie, 2010)In 2009, total US branded entertainment spending on consumer event and product placement has reached almost 25 billion dollars and this amount is expected to double by 2014 (PQ Media, 2010). In contrast, product placement spending in Russian market is accounted for approximately 30 million dollars a year (Kalysheva, 2010). There are different opinions regarding the appearance of product placement in Russian film industry. Some think that the first example of the technique was observed during the Soviet times (Gromceva, 2004). In 1925 black-and-white movie Battleship Potemkin had a scene of a red flag (pic.3). That shot was coloured by hand by the director of the film, Sergei Eisenstein, and represented product placement of communist values and celebration of revolution (Gromceva, 2004). However, this case cannot be considered as a product placement in its purest form, because Soviet regime forbade advertising of the consumption culture and products. During those times, the main point of making a movie was to promote heroism and compassionate feelings among people towards each other. In general, no product brands were differentiable, but were perceived as small parts that formed the total production industry (Gromceva, 2004).

Professional Russian marketers, especially those that work in the area of embedded marketing, think that the beginning of product placement has happened with the arrival of the movie Present to a Lonely Woman in 1975, created by the production studio in Riga, Lithuania (AdvertMe News, 2012). According to critics, the film looked like one big advert of goods produced by Lithuanian companies and plants (AdvertMe News, 2012). The audience was observing national beer, female tights with a slogan 'if you wear them, you will look ten years younger', scooters and even axes (AdvertMe News, 2012). The advertisement of 'Riga beer' looked somewhat similar to the recent advertisements of Smirnoff vodka. The character in the movie when noticing a beautiful girl, looked at her through the bottle of beer, and could see her without clothes (AdvertMe News, 2012). Even though it was a very brave and risky scene for USSR for that time, which would be definitely remembered by the viewer, the message was strengthen by the next shot that demonstrated the long row of beer bottles, the logo of the plant and encouragements to buy 'Dark Riga Beer'.

Sometimes the government, being both the client and the producer of product placement, had intentionally put the brand into the film and made it the main focus of the movie. For example, Sportlotto-82 had appeared in 1982 and quickly became the best film of the year in USSR. The plot of the movie was concerned with the lottery, which had begun the 'lottery-boom' all over the country and had lasted for more than 5 years (Gromceva, 2004). The government taught the public through product placement how to buy tickets, how to fill them correctly and when and where to put them to take part in the next lottery draw. The main character, Kostia encourages everybody to take part in the game by saying 'The thing is that only for 60 kopecks I buy hope' (AdvertMe News, 2012).

Pic.4 (Source: http://seshet.ru)When looking back at the Soviet movies, there were global brands present. However most of the time, they were not paid for by anyone and the message conveyed was not concerned with promoting those brands. For instance, in the movie Ivan Vasil'evich Bach to the Future (1973) viewers were observing Grundig tape recorder and Marlboro cigarettes (pic.4), being smoked by the main character (Gromceva, 2004). In reality these goods were what every person was dreaming of and what everyone was trying to get by any means from speculators. Promoting brands and goods that were not available for mass consumption was not reasonable, thus producers were advertising the idea that people can have a better life.

Product placement in Russian film industry had its long way from promoting communist values and better quality of life, having government both as a client and producer of product placement and towards its established presence in 1995 when the movie Features of the National Fishing came out and contained the promotion of some famous brands, such as Kia Sportage, Red Bulls beer, vodka "Urozhai" and cigarettes "Peter I" (pic.5) (Gromceva, 2004). Nowadays, Russian product placement market is rapidly expanding and

Pic.5 (Source: Gromceva, 2004)new agencies, offering professional services are created. National companies are more attracted to work with TV series or movies that have many parts, such as Burzhui's Birthday (1 and 2), where Whiskas and Catsan brands were promoted and Kamenskaya (1, 2 and 3), where LG identification system was shown (Gromceva, 2004). The main reason for such behaviour is that clients are not very familiar with this relatively new for the country marketing technique.

International Legal System and Pricing

The concept and definition of product placement is not included in Russian legislation system and it is not regulated (Patlah, 2010). Looking at this technique from the global perspective, the United States has particular legal considerations that limit activities of marketers and in particular advertisers and those concerned with product placement (Schejter, 2004). On the other hand, until recently in most countries of the European Union it was forbidden, with some exceptions including Austria (Ginosar and Levi-Faur, 2008). Nonetheless, because some countries felt that they were disadvantaged and losing some sources of profit due to the ban of product placement, which has become common for other European countries, in 2006 European Union governments and European Parliament came to an agreement to allow the technique all over the Union (Patlah, 2010). The arrangement included rules that state, during which types of programs it is permitted to include advertising.

In Russian market and legal system, film producers and companies that want to employ their products in the movies try not to use terms 'product placement' and avoid to talk openly about this topic, because from a particular perspective this kind of promotion can be regarded as a hidden advertising, meaning that it influences consumer without them knowing about it, which is forbidden in Russian Federation (Patlah, 2010). This situation creates additional difficulties with the development of this marketing strategy in the country and can be regarded as one of the significant reasons for its weak current position. Even though product placement can be viewed as a prohibited concealed advertising, many agencies continue to offer their services of promoting brands through films, books or video games. Moreover, due to the recent introduction of relatively severe limitations regarding TV promotion and, as a result, the rapid increase in prices for the advertising time, product placement becomes a very interesting, comparatively inexpensive and successful alternative. Average price for the presence in the scene starts with $15 thousands, which includes either detailed discussion of all main benefits of the product by the main characters or visual demonstration of the advertised product's functions (Patlah, 2010). For example, in one of the recent Russian blockbuster Shadow Boxing, during the chase scene the key star was driving Audi and managed to get away from the followers. If the company wants its brand to be incorporated in the script, implemented into the plot and demonstrated throughout the whole movie, it will cost around $100-200 thousands. On the other hand, promoting a brand during the film in the United States can be handled through barter (95% of product placements) or the production studio can ask for cash, which is relatively rare. In general, the prices range from $1000 till hundreds thousands (Lapuz, 2011).

Effectiveness and Product Placement

According to Lizzat Ashikbaeva, the coordinator of sponsorships from the 'Central Partnership', there are no single criteria about the pricing of product placement in Russian marketing industry, because the efficiency of this strategy is extremely problematic to measure (Patlah, 2010). Moreover, the organizations usually have doubts, since it is difficult even for professionals to predict the effect of placing a specific brand into the advertising texts. As for today, the only way to compute the efficacy of the product placement in Russian marketing industry, which is nationally acceptable and widely used, is to calculate the number of potential viewers, who will watch the scene with the promoted product (Patlah, 2010). Other methods, such as conducting focus groups prior to the production of the film and analyzing the number of viewers' contacts (other people that the intended audience might spread the news to, advice to watch the movie and extend the word-of-mouth) are still used, but not as extensively as in Europe and the United States. Another method of product placement evaluation, which is still in the development stage in the country, is the assessment of the media strategy popularity. This scheme is based on several criteria, in particular such as the ranking of the star for the last three month, target audience of the product and the market capacity of a given commodity group (Patlah, 2010). However, with time the national market becomes better structured and production companies are trying to stick to a particular level of prices for different subcategories of product placement.

The United States is the country with the largest and most quickly growing paid product placement (Williams et al., 2011). To attract the attention of regular users and potential consumers and to be noticed, nowadays brands need to get inside the content. However, embedded marketing can still be burdened with uncertainty. For instance, the product may not be portrayed in the advertising text as predicted, the movie may not be issued as arranged and the audience may not behave according to the producers' or advertisers' expectations (Williams et al., 2011). Because of the vagueness of the practice and the inability to predict its effects as explained above, there is no generally acceptable agreement of what forms an effective product placement. Nevertheless, according to a group of scholars (Balasubramanian, Karrh and Patwardhan, 2006), who had created a useful integrated framework, changing the input may influence the outcome of the model, which in turn can help advertisers to predict the result of implementing the product placement technique. The framework consists of four elements (appendix A): (1) execution/stimulus factors, for example category of the program or genre of the film, flexibility of the implementation, prospect to manage, placement modality and priming; (2) individual-specific factors, such as knowledge about a brand, thoughts and attitudes regarding the fit of placement and towards the technique as a whole and the audience's level of involvement or connection to the program or film; (3) depth or level of conscious processing; and (4) outcomes of the message that reveal the efficiency of the placement. The authors argue that the first two criteria affect the processing depth, which in sequence influences the message results (Balasubramanian, Karrh and Patwardhan, 2006). Even though the framework is comparatively new and untested, it provides an additional insight and knowledge about the technique of product placement and its effectiveness.

Types and Primary Strategies of Product Placement

In the international literature, there are many perspectives on the classification of product placement sub-categories. According to Williams et al. (2011), this marketing strategy can be of three types: only visual, only audio, or joined audio-visual. Most of the brand placements are visual, which comprises display of a brand, product, or illustrative brand identifies with no sound present. On the other hand, in an audio placement, the only mentioning of the brand or product is done verbally without the visual occurrence taking place. Unfortunately, these two types of product placement may not get spotted. According to the statistics, only one in ten brands on television are verbally distributed and the promotion itself lasts on average for about 5.5 seconds, meaning that this sub-category is not in a very much favour of the advertisers and producers and is not commonly used (Williams et al, 2011). Moreover, visual brand placements usually appear on the screen for 6.2 seconds on average. If the company wants viewers to form attitudes and associations with their product that is being advertised, the brands have to stay at the display for a longer time or with a greater impact. As follows from the term, the combined audio-visual placement strategy involves both the visual representation of the product in the advertising text and the verbal introduction or description of it by the characters (Williams et al, 2011). According to La Ferle and Edwards (2006) recall is improved by dual-modality processing. This twofold approach demands creativity and larger cost, because it may obstruct with the normal flow of the cultural text.

According to available literature (Gromceva, 2004), Russian marketers also divide product placement into three broad categories. The first type is visual product placement and follows the explanation above, which is when the product, service or logo is visible to the viewers. However, there are some differences between the understanding of spoken (or auditory) product placement in the United States and Russia. In the later, academics divide this type of the marketing technique into verbal and non-verbal. Verbal dimension includes phrase or dialogue that advertises the product, service or company. On the other hand, non-verbal dimension contains sound that is an inseparable function or characteristic of the brand, for example the sound of the opening the Coca-Cola bottle. However, it is used rarely (Gromceva, 2004). Lastly, the usage product placement, which corresponds to the combined audio-visual approach by Williams et al. (2011), is regarded the most powerful and preferred type of product placement, because it is not always easy to create a desired image by using only audio or video method (Gromceva, 2004).

Following from the types of product placement, producers and advertisers may implement one of the following primary strategies (d'Astous and Seguin, 1999). First of all, implicit product placement strategy (1) contains the brand, the company, logo or the product, which are passively portrayed with only apparent visibility in the program or film without proper demonstration. This strategy is concerned with more contextual or background representation that do not illustrate the advantages of the product, for example when a character wears clothes with the name of the sponsor or is portrayed in front of the brand's store. Another version of this type of strategy is when the product or brand is actually used in a scene, but there is no verbal emphasis on the product present. Secondly, in integrated explicit product placement strategy (2) the brand, the organization, logo or the product itself plays an important and active role in a scene and is displayed appropriately in the program, movie or within the plot. For example, in a scene where a group of teenagers are hungry and order pizza, Domino's delivers it quickly and everyone enjoys it. This picture illustrates the major attributes and advantages of the company, which also might be emphasized by the main character. In common, this type of strategy is more effective than the previously explained one (Panda, 2004). Lastly, non-integrated explicit product placement strategy (3) refers to the advertising of the brand, the company, logo or the product that is officially represented, but is not part of the content of the program or film. For example the show, TV series of the movie may be sponsored by Mercedes. This strategy usually embodies sponsorship deals.

Ethical Issues and Consumer Attitudes towards Product Placement

The majority of consumers and academics think that overall product placement is an extreme commercialization of the mass media and an offensive invasion into the life of the audience, since people visit theatres and movies not to observe advertising, but to escape from their routine and real life into the fantasy world and imaginary situations (Panda, 2004). The main mission of the collaboration between the producers and advertisers is to create visible, but not excessively disturbing brand placements that preferably and possibly will be connected with the story of a movie or one of the characters to build strong and positive associations in the minds of consumers (Panda, 2004). If those conditions are not maintained, product placement usually loses its purpose and becomes useless. In general, this technique is used to make audience notice brands while they are in their ordinary environment. Moreover, statistic shows that people overall not only tend to like product placement if it is not extremely obvious or irritating, but also find it acceptable, entertaining, enjoyable and dynamic (Nappolini and Hackley, 2008). In addition, consumers believe that this approach increases the feeling of realism and a sense of familiarity in the movie, creates historical context and helps to develop the personality of the character, connect to him and to create associations between him and the product or brand (Williams et al., 2011). Yet, if viewers become conscious that the brands were placed in a film with a purpose of advertising, it may influence their judgments and ruin the intended message (Hackley, Tiwsakul and Preuss, 2008).

Looking at the previously done studies on attitudes towards the phenomenon of product placement in Russia, the results are somewhat different, but expected. Yanina Nedbaeva (2004) had conducted research among 200 movie-goers (100 males and 100 females) aged 16-33 years. The sample represented people that are sociable, socially-oriented and that value relationship with other people and care how they are being perceived by others, meaning that they are concerned about their looks and pay a lot of attention to prestige of their possessions. The results revealed that the attitudes towards product placement were mixed and not clear, but most of the respondents had noticed material products especially those that of high prestige and status. The diverse reactions are understandable, because feelings towards this technique are just forming and thus should not influence the effectiveness of persuading the audience (Nedbaeva, 2004). In particular, the analysis of questionnaires has shown that 64% of respondents have noticed that brands were placed in the movie, 77% - were able to name at least one of the product displayed. Out of fourteen product categories present in the film, the viewers had labelled twelve, logo of which was clearly recognizable and observable (Nedbaeva, 2004). According to the research conducted by Russian advertising agency New Media Strategies (MediaRevolution, 2006), around 70% of Internet users are expressing neutral or positive attitudes towards product placement in movies, if it is done 'smartly' and 'unobtrusively' and does not ruin the feeling of entertainment.

Some viewers feel that product placement is menacing and should be prohibited or at least openly stated in the credits during (as part of the commercial breaks, like in sponsorship deals) or at the end of the program or movie. Moreover, individuals' attitudes and thoughts about the ethical implication of this technique considerably vary across product categories, for instance there is more moral anxiety for alcohol, cigarettes and guns (d'Astous and Sequin, 1999), as well as toys because of product placement that is oriented towards children (Auty and Lewis, 2004) and pharmaceutical products (Williams et al, 2011).

Since psychologists have proven that movies and TV can form and influence consumer tastes, values and habits, generations that have risen watching TV series and films that are full of product placement would repeat exactly those models of behaviour that were shown by the favourite characters (Berezkina, 2009). In Russian market the most disturbing ethical issue regarding this marketing technique is its influence on children. According to research, more than 70% of Russian children more value the opinion of their cartoon idols than of their own parents (Berezkina, 2009). By influencing not completely formed minds of teenagers and kids, product placement can be regarded as one of the reasons for them to begin smoking, just like the characters in the movies are or become overweight or get diabetes, because of the continuous promotion of the fast food in programs. For example, in recent popular Russian TV series My Wonderful Nanny 'Big Bon' potato chips were advertised for almost five years (Berezkina, 2009). Moreover, if in the United States placing pharmaceutical products is somewhat regulated (Ta and Frosh, 2009); in Russian Federation it is fully uncontrolled. A lot of debates have occurred around the combined audio-video type of product placement, when the brand is incorporated into the story of the program, especially in reality and TV shows and the audience has no opportunity to separate themselves from the advertising effect.

Conceptual Framework

Because product placement is more developed in US market than in post-Soviet countries, there has been many studies conducted and published regarding the issue of consumer attitudes towards the technique (Nebenzahl and Secunda, 1993; Gupta and Gould, 1997). However, despite its old roots product placement is relatively new advertising tool for Russian film industry. Not many articles and studies on product placement and attitudes in Post-Soviet countries were conducted and are available. Clearly there is a gap in literature and knowledge. Thus, conducting a study similar to those previously done in America can be a helpful starting point to widen the understanding regarding this topic.

Even though the practice of product placement is more than a hundred years old and there are thousands of articles available on this topic in US, Russian marketing industry falls far behind. A review of the available studies regarding the strategy of product placement in both countries specifies that there is a considerable gap in the literature (Boeing da Silveira, Gentry, Marcon and Urdan, 2011). First of all, most of the previously done research has been carried out in the United States among mainly young Americans (Karrh, Frith and Callison, 2001) with no or slight international comparison particularly before the year of 2000 (Gould, Gupta and Grabner-Kräuter, 2000). Moreover, there has been little attention paid to this technique as a global phenomenon (Gould et al, 2000). At this time, the interest in the application of this advertising tactic for integrated marketing communication has bring up the question of how people in different countries perceive and develop attitudes toward product placement. Thus, this lack of research, which looks at the international consumers, should be repaired to bring light to the issue of effectiveness of the embedded marketing strategy among customers (Boeing da Silveira et al., 2011).

The aim of this paper is to look at differences between countries across types of product placement. This paper will be based on the classification of product placement types proposed by Russell (1998). Because most of the previously done research was concerned with measuring brand recall to calculate the effectiveness of this technique based only on single dimension, the author argues that according to the modality and significance product placement should be divided into three categories (appendix B). The first group is called 'screen placement' and corresponds to the visual category mentioned above by the Williams et al. (2011). Russell (1998) states that demonstrative product placement can be done in one of two ways: (1) with the use of creative placement, which intimate brand into the movie, for example billboards and other outdoor promotion shown in the street scenes; or (2) with the use of on-set placement that locates brands on the film set itself, for instance food arranged in the kitchen scenes. Moreover, this dimension of placement can have various degrees, which depends on the amount of appearances in the picture, the manner of the camera shot on the brand and other (Russel, 1998). The second type is the 'script placement', which corresponds to the audio dimension proposed by Williams et al. (2011). This approach reflects the situation when the brand is brought up in the dialogue between the characters of the film. Degrees of verbal placement also vary, depending on the frequency, emphasis and context, with which the brand is talked about. Lastly, 'plot placements' occur when the brand is developed into the character, becomes an active part of the plot and takes an important place in the story line. Since it includes any arrangement of video and audio elements it can be compared to the combined audio-visual product placement mentioned above by Williams et al. (2011). However, Russell (1998) goes further with this dimension and argues that it also can be considered as the degree of relationship between the brand and the plot. Plot placements can be of low intensity, when the brand is simply mentioned and quickly shown in the scene, or of high intensity, when the product becomes connected with a particular character or actor, for example a strong associative bond between James Bond and Aston Martin (Russell, 1998).

Since the attitudes towards the technique of product placement are generally neutral or positive in both countries as discussed above, by the end of the study it is expected to get somewhat similar results. Moreover, the question that is of the main interest not only to the purpose of this research, but also to the professional marketers of various Russian industries is: "What are the attitudes amongst young Ukrainian adults towards different types and aspects of the emerging product placement in Russian film industry compared with the attitudes amongst young people in the more established US market?" The results of the investigation can provide advertisers with the important information about the current consumer feelings and thoughts and help to enhance the development of product placement in the country.

Methodology

The methodology approach for this paper includes both quantitative and qualitative parts. Even though the mixed research position is applied, the focus of the study is placed on the qualitative data analysis and thus the interpretivist perspective is adopted. The aim of the project is not to test hypothesis, build theory or create empirical evidence, but to gain insights on Ukrainian consumers' feelings, thoughts and attitudes towards product placement practice in Russian film industry. Before the data collection stage a lot of secondary data, such as academic articles, books, case studies and others were used to form the overall structure of the study, identify areas of interest and those, which have knowledge gaps.

First of all, quantitative approach was applied to get ideas about the basic attitudes, observations and patterns, which then can be used in combination with the data from literature review in qualitative part as a foundation for a further in-depth understanding and knowledge formation. The process of the quantitative data gathering has consisted of showing short video clips to the participant audience and then using surveys to get necessary information. This type of data collection technique was used due to its practicability, quick and easily obtained information and because large amount of respondents can be involved (Ackroyd and Hughes, 1981). In the study, the analysis of product placement is assessed through a range of product placement types, such as screen, script and plot placements (Russel, 1998). To understand the importance and contribution of each type, three short (each maximum three and a half minutes long) video clips were created. Each is an example of a particular type of product placement proposed by Russell (1998). The video clips were made out of the two parts of a well-known Russian blockbuster trilogy Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2005) that used product placement. This movies were chosen, since they were popular, everybody has seen it and they contain the greatest amount of product placement up to date (Memoid, 2011). They advertise around thirty brands, including dumplings 'Sam Samich', Nescafe, Nokia, Russian mobile provider 'MTS' and others. If the cost of product placement in the first movie was accounted for $500,000 by analysts and it was a massive project, in 2005 in the second film this figure had become more than six times the previous number and was equal to $3,000,000 (Krylovsky, 2008). The first video lasts around three and a half minutes, represents screen product placement and contains a visual representation of brands such as Russian search engine 'Rambler', 'Adidas', 'Nokia', cigarettes 'Sobranie' and 'Audi'. The second clip continues for about a minute, is an example of script placement and presents verbal mentioning of brands such as radio 'RetroFM' and mobile deal 'Jeans Tonic'. Lastly the third video prolongs three minutes, represents plot product placement and includes situations where characters are using the brand 'Nescafe'. The survey has consisted of three parts, each asking questions about a particular type of brand placement. Surveys were not available for participants' eyes before they had seen a relevant video clip. Questionnaires were distributed online through Russian social networking service "Vkontakte" (www.vk.com), but only Ukrainian users were invited to participate to control the nationality of the research. This type of circulation was used due to the fact that large amount of young adults today are taking an active part in virtual communities. Moreover, because video samples were part of the questionnaires and to guarantee anonymity and confidentiality, using applicable software and the Internet was the easiest possible solution. The sample size was not limited. Respondents were encouraged to share the link to a survey with their friends. This part of data collection has provided some useful patterns and attitudes, and answer some general questions such as "Do young people aware of product placement?", "Do they notice brands in movies?" and "How do they feel about it?"

The qualitative part is represented by in-depth interviews. The common themes and topics discovered in survey analysis and from the literature review were explored in greater detail resulting in more deepness and richness of knowledge (Myers, 2000). The researcher has conducted a number of informal, semi-structured interviews with some representatives of a sample, which had lasted approximately one hour each. All the conversations were recorded and then transcripts of interviews were created to ease the process of analysis. When data collection stage has ended, the information for the analysis was represented in around 100 completed surveys and four interviews.

Since the research question is specifically aimed at studying the attitudes of young Ukrainian adults, the sample was representative of the particular part of population. For the quantitative part and surveys young people aged 16-35 were chosen. According to Berezkina (2009), the most active consumers of video-products and services, such as movies, TV and DVDs, which are the main media channels for product placement, are young people of the same age that were selected for the sample. Moreover, this consumer segment is also the most active in purchasing behaviour (Berezkina, 2009). The population sample has consisted of around 100 participants, so that the general atmosphere and attitudes can be identified. When moving towards the qualitative part and in-depth interviews, the smaller sample is preferable. Thus four participants of the same age were included and the focus was not on the number of interviews, but rather on the quality and deepness of the method.

Results and Analysis

General Statistics and Demographics

Out of 97 participants around 64% were women (Appendix C: diagram 1). It was expected since many academics have proven that there is a strong correlation between gender and online survey completion rates (Smith, 2008). Allocation across age groups was unequally distributed (Appendix C: diagram 2) with approximately 70% of respondents being of age 16-19 and 24-27 (35% in each category), followed by the middle age group of 20-23 (18%). Most of the participants (Appendix C: diagram 3) were students (42%) and full-time employees (36%), followed by individuals who have their own business (10%), part-time jobs (6%) or who are unemployed (6%). The fact that almost half of the respondents are financially independent and have means to acquire what is desired is very important, since they represent the majority of population in Ukraine (Berezkina, 2009). Moreover, around half of the Ukrainian students do not have any problems with money, since they live with parents, who support them monetarily (Parchaladze, 2011). Thus, around 90% of the sample can afford to go to the cinema or to buy DVDs to watch movies and have the opportunity to purchase brands and products they saw and liked during films.

All the respondents like to be entertained by TV and cinema, since they watch on average two and a half hours of TV daily and four movies a week, including going to cinema. This fact is also significant because the sample is socially active and can be affected by product placement presented on the screen. To assess the popularity and effectiveness of the movie chosen for the survey, the participants were also asked whether they watched it before taking part in project. More than 70% of the respondents have seen at least one film of Timur Bekmambetov's trilogy, which proves that these movies are famous and are watched by large audiences. However, half of the participants did not know what product placement is before taking part in the project (Appendix C: diagram 4), around 20% of individuals knew about it and one third of the respondents (equally split) either heard this term, but did not know what it means or notice this technique being used, but did not know how it is called. It also proves that brands placement is still on a developing stage in Russia and Ukraine, since in more developed parts of Europe, in particular in UK 72% of people are aware of this marketing practice (Owen, 2011).

Attitudes towards Screen Product Placement

In general, all of the interviewees preferred screen product placement over others. They found it 'relaxing', 'easy to notice' and 'not obsessive, not too obvious and not destructing'. In fact, Law and Braun-LaTour (2004) argue that simple and unremarkable visual product placements are more effective than other types in terms of brand recall. Around 80% of survey respondents have spotted at least one brand in the first video clip, which contained visual product placement (Appendix C: diagram 5) and all of the participants felt that the products were not too obviously advertised and they did not experience any negative attitudes towards this type of product placement. Most commonly recognized brands were Rambler (51%), Audi (41%), Adidas (40%) and Nokia (17%). The respondents were experiencing positive feelings and attitudes towards the brands on the screen. For example, in the movie Rambler search engine was offering information on accidents in future. The participants have noticed it and characterized Rambler as 'mega-functional, reliable and technically advanced', said that they felt like 'it has a particular know-how', 'it can see present and future' and 'Rambler can find anything, even if it has not occurred yet'. Even though the interviewees felt that the appearance of the brand 'was normal, appropriate and not obtrusive', some of the respondents stated that they would not switch from their favourite search engine (in most cases Google) to Rambler. Indeed, according to Matthes, Schemer and Wirth (2007), product placements do not necessarily have a positive effect on attitudes and behaviours.

All of the interviewees stated that the best product placement they have noticed out of all three videos was the advertisement of Audi TT, since the vehicle 'was very properly, effectively and beautifully presented' and the car was portrayed 'from different sides, from the outside and inside, zooming in and out, with a clearly visible sign of the brand'. Because the film was an international success and millions of people have watched it, the viewers believed that 'the car was advertised successfully'. Moreover, during the scene with the car the audience got a feeling of 'comfort, status, style, safety and prestige'. However, one of the factors that made this advertising so successful and different from the others is the inclusion of a celebrity endorsement. According to many studies (Ball and Tasaki, 1992; Belk, 1988), possessions may be used not only for satisfaction of psychological needs, such as building self-concept, communicating self-identity and differentiating oneself, but also to serve social function of creating ties with a community, group or a family. If consumers like a celebrity, they notice and desire the brands and products he/she endorses due to the meanings attached to these goods. They want to acquire these things to transfer those meanings to themselves in the aid of construction of their self-concept (Escalas, 2004). One of the respondent stated that if you see a product in a good movie, you will associate it with the film to some degree and since most of the time regular people want to be like superstars, they want to own things and wear clothes that celebrities own and wear. Janna Friske is a popular sex-symbol, singer and actress in Russia. Many respondents said that they want this car because she owns it, even if it is only in a movie. Moreover, some interviewees have characterised Audi TT as 'a vehicle for purposeful, successful and confident women, which will differentiate your identity'. Just because this particular star was driving it, the audience got a 'sense of harmony between the shape and chick of the car and the actress'. However, a celebrity brand endorsement is reciprocal relationship, where not only celebrity influences the product, but also the other way around (Seno and Lukas, 2007). According to some interviewees, when Janna Friske was driving Audi at a high speed, 'the car stressed her self-confidence and successfulness in life'.

Adidas has also received positive feedbacks regarding its presence in the movie. The branded clothes were characterised as 'a comfortable and fashionable outfit' that 'keeps you in perfect physical shape', 'helps you to be fast and strong' and 'differentiate you from the crowd'. Since in the film a man wearing Adidas suit jumped over the fence in the concert hall, passed through the security and went to the backstage, which is somewhat problematic for a regular person, many respondents stated that 'if you wear Adidas you are allowed to do most of the things if not all of them' and 'you are respected'. Sony PlayStation was characterised as 'a cool console that creates games for future' and 'suitable for children as well as adults'. The fact that the boss of the dark forces was playing has added an image of 'a bad boy' to the device, which is so desirable by young male adults.

On the other hand, the product placement of Nokia was not as successful as it could be. Even though the company was one of the main sponsors and there was also Janna Friske's celebrity endorsement, some participants thought that 'if she uses Nokia and she is sexy, you want to buy it to become sexier' and 'since she is exploiting it, it becomes recognisable and memorable', while others believed that 'Nokia phones were everywhere, they must have paid a lot'. People still have noticed the brand and did not experience that it was too much or irritating, but they got the feeling that someone is gaining an obvious profit from it. Moreover, the creators of the movie not only have included the models of the phone, but also have added a huge Nokia billboard in one of the street scenes, which according to some of the interviewees was a smart move, since 'although it stayed on a screen for just a couple of seconds, it is big, clearly visible and will occupy half of the TV or laptop screen'. Another problem that the respondents pointed out at was that Nokia has provided old models to be used in the movie. However, they explained that the possible reasons for that action were 'to stress the importance of Nokia phones reliability, to remind people about the classical Nokia models and to create a sense of nostalgia'. The notion of nostalgia is increasingly used by many marketing practitioners to provide consumers with experiences symbolised by a feeling of youth, to remind customers about the past and to obtain emotions (Bambauer-Sachse and Gierl, 2009). Since Nokia is a strong and mature player in the mobile phones market (the company was found in 1865) and the competition is becoming more severe each year, one of the options is to turn to the past to make people remember about the brand. In general, the attitudes towards Nokia were mixed, but the respondents still felt that 'it is a popular and eternal phone; suitable for successful people', 'this phone will never break and the owner will never experience any troubles with it'.

Attitudes towards Script Product Placement

One of the interviewee stated that the script placement is easier to spot, because he perceives information better when he hears it. However, he is an exception, because according to the statistics for this project, only 70% of respondents have noticed at least on brand from the second video clip with the verbal product placement(Appendix C: diagram 6), which is 10% less than in the case with visual product placement. Individuals' perception is led by visual stimuli, because around 70% of sense receptors are situated in the eyes (PerceptualEdge.com, 2012). Most of the respondents did not mind the presence of this type of product placement and found it appropriate; however 5% of the participants were against it. Most recognizable brands were radio station Retro FM (43.3%) and mobile operator and tariff plan Jeans Tonic (35%). The respondents were experiencing relatively mixed feeling and attitudes towards both brands. Most of the interviewees thought that this product placement 'was properly done, appropriate and not obtrusive or irritating'; the slogan that they heard 'was very relaxing, brought positive associations' and made them 'curious and interested to try it at least once'. Moreover, due to the fact that the driver did not change the radio station when started driving, the audience made a conclusion that it is 'a common radio, which the owners of the car listen regularly to and they like it'. On the other hand, some participants felt that 'the slogan of the Retro FM was out of place' and the whole brand placement was useless. It also has provoked negative feelings since the creators of the movie 'did not include music in the scene, so that the viewers can understand what kind of music is on this radio station'. Thus, opinions have been split into two different perspectives: one part of the audience would like to try it out of curiosity and the other part would prefer to stay with their favourite radio station, which offers them the type of music they like.

The same situation is with the second brand - Jeans Tonic - mobile tariff plans. On the one hand, it was presented as a TV advert in a regular middle-class family, which 'shows the affordability of this tariff' and serves as 'an appropriate reminder'. Some respondents stated that it was a smart move, since at that time this service has just entered the market and 'product placement is a useful tool to spread the word among people'. Like in the case with Audi, a lot of potential purchasers will watch the movie and will spot a new service that may be of their interest. Moreover, according to some interviewees, the audience for this film consists of 'teenagers and young adults, who prefer to party all night; they definitely would be fascinated by the opportunity to call cheaper at night to their friends'. Since not much information is provided in the movie, which increases curiosity, 'young adults can easily find all the additional information about a new service on the Internet'. On the other hand, some participants didn't 'feel anything positive', but were 'irritated by the thought about the cost of this product placement' and were 'upset, because [their] mobile operator was not advertised'.

Attitudes towards Plot Product Placement

Even though more than 90% of respondents have noticed the brand advertised in the last video clip with plot product placement, around 70% of them were against it, due to the fact that 'it was very saturated, obvious, obtrusive and the video clip contained too much advertising'. According to Russell (2002), the mixture of visual and auditory elements that supplement explicit product placement can be extremely invasive and hard to ignore for the audience, which in turn leads to more negative responses from the viewers. The audience's unfavourable reactions may be inspired by the feeling that obvious placements are revenue-making marketing opportunities rather than plain provision of equipment to set the stage (Gupta and Gould, 1997). Indeed, in this video clip Nescafe coffee 'was portrayed everywhere, people talked about it and drank it from the branded Nescafe cups. Nescafe has paid too much money to be in this movie.' Some respondents thought that because the brand was so integrated in the plot, the whole scene was created to advertise this single product, which does not add positive feelings neither to the company, nor to the film. This particular product placement has created negative associations, irritation and boredom because the advertising was too persuasive, vivid and banal.

The participants had also proposed different explanations regarding the message that the advertisers wanted to send to the audience. Some argued that since the main characters decided to drink coffee while socializing, Nescafe can be associated with a pleasurable time-spending and an enjoyable conversation with a friend. Moreover, Gosha Kutcenko, an extremely popular Russian actor, 'proves that Nescafe is a coffee of high quality by saying that 'It is good choice'' and by repeating the slogan of the brand 'Perfect taste, perfect beginning'. The respondents have assumed that this situation has emphasised that 'with Nescafe your morning will be amazing and will lead to great achievements during the day' and that this brand is associated 'with something new and pleasurable'. On the other hand, some participants were not sure that it was an example of product placement, but rather 'the case of competition revenge, which was brilliantly planed and done'. They argued that because the nervous cashier had problems while scanning the can of Nescafe coffee, there was an old man stealing sweets in the shop and there was an unpleasant atmosphere and anxious music playing in the apartment where the main characters were drinking coffee, it had portrayed the brand from negative side, providing consumers with associations that Nescafe is a coffee of low quality and unpleasant taste. In general, most of the respondents have agreed on the excessive presence of the brand Nescafe in the video clip, which was shown repetitively and in greater detail. They find it useless since 'the brand is already a strong player in the market and has its admirers'. One respondent has proposed an interesting opinion about this example of product placement. He agrees that 'too much attention was placed on Nescafe, but it did not irritate [him], because our life is full of advertising and with time you just get used to it'. According to DeLorme and Reid (1999), teenagers and young adults not only positively receive the technique of product placement, but also look forward to it.

General Attitudes towards Product Placement

As it was mentioned and analysed in previous sections, the respondents believe that screen product placement is the most appropriate and effective. The script and plot types of brand placement are creating mixed feelings of pleasure and irritation in the minds of consumers. Most participants thought that visual placement is the best option due to its 'unobtrusive presentation, demonstration of the whole picture and creation of positive feelings'. According to the interviewees, since they visit cinema and watch TV at home 'to get satisfaction from the story that is delivered and not to watch adverts of different brands', screen product placement does not ruin the sense of pleasure because the audience still notices brands, but does not get tired or destructed from the plot of the movie. Moreover, as it was stated above, most of the people process information and remember better through visual presentation, because verbal information is regarded to be more 'meaningful' and has to be processed more deeply (Russell, 2001). Script product placement is believed by the audience to be easily forgotten, since it is usually quickly referenced to in a scene. But if the brand is repetitively mentioned, it may become obvious and irritating. According to Gupta and Lord (1998), verbal information is commonly considered to be more intrusive and attention-capturing, but might not stay in memory for a long time. However, there were some positive characteristics of this type of product placement present, including that 'it creates positive atmosphere, adds a sense of reality to the movie and is easy to perceive'. Lastly, plot product placement has attracted the most of the negative attitudes and feelings. Since it is 'too noticeable, improper, obtrusive, stupid and dictating', the audience got extremely irritated, anxious and upset. They were destructed from the plot of the film and felt that they are being brainwashed by advertisers and creators of the movie. Some thought that this type of product placement looks 'unnaturally and fills the audience with aggression, which at the same time attracts the viewers' attention and lets them concentrate more of the advertised product'.

In general, all of the respondents have agreed that 'product placement is an interesting and new type of advertising in [Ukraine]'. Since most of the people got tired of traditional means of advertising, it may become an attractive and effective way to promote brands and products, which provides a huge amount of potential buyers. If product placement is 'properly, beautifully and unobtrusively done, it does not irritate, but creates absolutely positive feelings and attitudes'. However, because product placement in Russia and Ukraine has a relatively recent history of development, the participants have argued that marketing practitioners do not have enough skills in this area yet. Thus, according to some individuals, 'product placement is too obvious in Russian movies, but is more accurate and subtle in Hollywood and Bollywood'. The audience gets to know about new products and since many participants have admitted that they are 'the victims of advertising', it may affect their purchasing behaviour. Some interviewees had even compared product placement with subliminal advertising, which refers to promotional messages that the individual is not aware of, for instance those that are played at an extremely minimal volume or shown on a screen for less than one second (BusinessDictionary.com, 2012). When brands and logos are flashed in different scenes, 'on an unconscious level a person automatically will remember those products and will be ready to purchase them when they have a chance'. In most of the cases, according to respondents, product placement adds reality to a movie and brands are not idealised as it is done in TV advertising. However, the film should always remain as 'an entertainment and should not become a media vehicle for advertising'.

According to the results of this project and a massive research of product placement in films and TV, this marketing practice is better received by consumers than any other traditional forms of advertising (Nebenzahl and Secunda, 1993). This study has shown that around 65% of the respondents prefer to have product placement in a movie than to watch long advertisements before a film starts in a cinema. The audience can 'save time, gets a feeling of pride for the advertised products they own and find it enjoyable to look for brands in a movie'. Nowadays the amount of advertising on TV is overwhelming, which brings additional stress to people's lives: 'I feel awful when the film on TV is divided into 5-10 parts by commercial breaks...you have to spend three hours to watch one movie. It's annoying and irritating'. Viewers usually change channels, look for other movies and TV shows. Some respondents have admitted that product placement is effective when includes a celebrity endorsement: 'you may not even realise it, but you want to be somewhat similar to famous and successful people and you buy brands they use'. All of the participants understand that product placement is a mutual agreement between a company and creators of the film, who will gain profit from the contract, but 85% of them were not against the fact that a movie is partially funded by this marketing practice. They think that 'product placement provides creators