Brand or product placement?

One of the key roles of the chief marketing officer today is to ensure investment decisions in marketing initiatives deliver good value for money.

Yet they are frustrated in understanding the value of product placements within this mix. And for one very simple reason: Product placements are broadly defined and as a result, mean very different things to different people. This makes comparisons of one proposed product placement with another very difficult for commercial evaluation.

As it turns out, there is a similar problem in academic research literature.

We have spent the past few years collaborating to better understand the effectiveness of product placement as changes in media and in-market trends make it a more popular tool for marketing practitioners. Very quickly, we became aware of this fundamental problem – no one is exactly sure what you mean when you say ‘product placement’.

Read the full article in CMO.