Product Placement : a way to communicate brand identity?

Background: The consumers of today have the possibility to choose from a wide range of products and services. Consequently, the ability to differentiate the products is essential for the brand owners. If a brand owner does not manage to differentiate its product, it can be difficult to make the consumers realise the benefits of the product and convince them to buy it. One way to differentiate the product is to create a distinguished brand identity. However, it is not enough to create a strong brand identity, the brand owner must also be capable of communicating the brand identity successfully. There are several ways to communicate a message and one is to use product placement. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to create an understanding for product placement’s ability to communicate a brand identity, seen from the brand owners’ point of view. Delimitation: We have chosen to limit our study to only treat product placement in Swedish film. Proceed of the study: We have conducted a qualitative study where the empirical material consists of four personal interviews. Three of the interviewees represented brand owners that have used product placement and one was a product placement agent. The theoretical frame of reference consists of three main theories; marketing communication theory, theories on brand identity and theories on consumer behaviour, where communication theories will be given strongest emphasis. Results: We observed that product placement has possibilities to communicate brand identity, under certain circumstances. The product placement must either be supported by a cross promotion-campaign or expose a product that has distinguished physical characteristics as part of the brand identity