Product Placement in Hindi Movies

Product Placement in Bollywood Movies
Subhadip Roy
Asst. Professor, ICFAI Institute for Management Teachers, Hyderabad. [e-mail], Research Scholar ICFAI Institute for Management Teachers, Hyderabad. [e-mail]

Saurabh Bhattacharya

Abstract
The term ‘Product Placement’ refers to the practice of including a brand name product, package, signage or other trademark merchandise within a motion picture, television show or music video (Steortz, 1987). One of the earliest instances of product placement in Bollywood or Hindi movies took place in the early 1970’s when the Rajdoot motorcycle brand was featured in the Raj Kapoor movie called Bobby. Since then till the time when the Maruti Suzuki Swift car was placed in the movie Bunty aur Babli (2005), Bollywood had not experienced a big amount of product placements in movies. However, of late the films are experiencing product placements and also indirect advertising of a product or service in a movie (such as a Air Hostess Training academy in the Movie Welcome). In such a scenario, the present study tries to analyze the level and types of product placements in Bollywood movies. From a sample of the top box office grosser, the study has used content analysis to identify the products/brands placed and the way they have been placed in the movie/s. The study is supposed to bring out the forms of product placement in Bollywood and encourage further research.

Introduction
Products have become all the more important in the Hindi movie industry popularly known as Bollywood. Placement of products in movies was until recently a Hollywood concept only. Increasingly, the Indian film industry is using this tool for communicating and to earn revenue. Two specific reasons are attributable to such a change. Firstly, with increase in production cost and launch of big budget movies, such secondary sources of revenue act as a cushion to the financers as well as producers of a movie. Secondly, with the growing size of the young urban middle class in the Indian economy it becomes all the more important to satisfy the trends that this class follows. From the brand managers’ point of view using product placements as a tool in movies provides his product and or brand with a higher reach and penetration level. It is true for India that many villages don’t have electricity but they have cinema halls running on generator sets. Triandis (1995) opined that Indians have a collectivist culture. But Indians score high on Power distance also (Hofstede, 2001). Hence hierarchy and status are also important to Indians (Hofstede, 2001). Thus celebrities and cricket stars and movie

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Product Placement in Bollywood Movies actors are looked up as successful people. This makes the use of product placement through celebrities as an ideal way to push them for use. From the perspective of a sponsor neither advertisement nor publicity provides the appropriate blend as the sponsor has control over the message and its content only but the audience decides its credibility. Hence according to Balasubramanian (1994) a different form of marketing communication tool is required. Product placement is a tool which can effectively combine both advertisement and publicity components. Again since placements are paid for they are sponsor controlled messages both in their format and content. movie actors (Schudson, 1984). Until the late 1970s product placement was not a paid for tool. Product sponsors used to loan the products to the filmmakers free of cost. Since early 1980s there was a significant change as this tool became paid for (Krasnoff 1986, Fleming 1990). Balasubramanian (1994) considered the success of product placement in a movie to be dependent on the relationship between a filmmaker, a specialized firm and a product sponsor. The filmmaker controls opportunities for product appearances in his movie while the sponsor seeks such value creating opportunities and the specialized firm makes significant changes in the script to fit the product and the brand in the film. The specialized firm has the toughest job of carefully reviewing the script and the scenes to be picturised to locate the appropriate context for placing a specific product (Salmans, 1981). Simultaneous working o this symbiotic relationship results in product placement (Newsweek, 1989). For example, in the movie Namastey London, actor Rishi Kapoor, playing the role of the father of the lead actress fills up a form in bharatmatrimony.com for his daughter and specifically mentions “Galti ka koi scope hi nehin hain” (there is no scope for error) endorsing Bharatmatrimony’s reliability. Again Rajapal Yadav, a gangster in the movie, compares himself with ‘hutch ka chhota recharge’ (Small Recharge of Hutch) thus stating the flexibility and power of the Hutch Recharge Coupon. Bollywood movies have worldwide reach and significant shelf life through DVDs and VCDs and broadcast and cablecast opportunities. The number of captive

Review of Literature
Balasubramaniam (1994) has defined Product Placement as “a paid product message aimed at influencing movie (or television) audiences via the planned and unobtrusive entry of a branded product into a movie (or television program)”. Steortz (1987) on the other hand, defined brand placement as “the use of a products name, signage or other trademarks appearing in media”. Gupta and Gould (1997) seemed to incorporate both the above mentioned definition and defined product placements as a means of “incorporating brands in movies in return for money”. Product placements enhance realism and are important tool of character development which aid in enhanced sense of familiarity (Gupta and Gould, 1997). Product placement in Hollywood dates back to 1920s when cigarette manufacturers promoted cigarettes and their use through Journal of Marketing Trends Vol.1, No.1

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Product Placement in Bollywood Movies audience in theatres is increasing. Hence sponsor perceived value of Bollywood is also increasing (Fleming, 1990). Since Bollywood or Hollywood movies mostly remain unchanged across countries, international brands even if placed in local media through cablecast or broadcast, may serve as global marketing strategy (Gould et al., 2000). Culture plays a very important role as regards to communication (Hall, 1984). Communication in India is generally expressed in an explicit non verbal style (DeMooij, 1998). This form of communication makes the usage of symbols and signage through celebrities all the more important as it increases the level of involvement. Tavassolli et al. (1995) are of the view that when individual involvement is too high recall is bound to suffer. McCartey (2004) is however of the view that high involvement of the audience in the movie would positively enhance processing of brands related to the plot but negatively impact those not linked to the plot. Lord and Gupta (2002) also supported this view and said that recall will be more in case of audience with high involvement. Gupta and Lord (1998) even found out that more recall was elicited for properly placed brands in movies than traditional advertisements. cinema is also not devoid of product placements. In a recent Telegu movie titled ‘Jalsa’ Coca Cola was shown to occupy more than 30 seconds of the screen space. Bollywood is however the reflection of Hindi commercial cinema. It was names Bollywood by the journal Screen somewhere in the 1990s. According to Rajadhyksha (2004), Hindi film industry is a reflection of the culture of India and the products and practices endorsed by Bollywood have a significant impact on the movie goers. With the growth of urban middle class many multiplexes have also come up. So the number of captive audiences watching a movie has increased significantly. Brand managers have to use this information in a significant manner. The best possible tool available to them is product placements or more precisely. Again a significant part of the revenue today is coming from overseas territories like UK, Russia and Japan so multinational companies like Pepsi, Coca Cola, and Chevrolet etc. use Indian films to promote their brands. This is possible mainly because fan following of Bollywood celebrities have spread through out the world.

Objective of the Study
The fundamental objective of the study is to provide a brief review of the brands and/ or products placed in the top ten box office hits in Hindi film industry in the year 2007. This is interesting as the movies coming out from the Hindi film industry are increasingly catering to the diverse needs of the audiences who want to have a break from the tried and tested romantic angle. Again Bollywood has gone international in Institute of Public Enterprise

The Indian Film Industry
Indian film industry consists of Hindi film industry (Bollywood) and regional film industries like Bhojpuri, Marathi, Gujarat, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, and Telegu etc with a wide audience base. In fact regional

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Product Placement in Bollywood Movies the last ten years and to cater to the global audience it becomes necessary to create such an ambience and environment within the movie that is both representative of the Indian culture as well as takes into consideration the aspirations of the Indian youth and the overseas viewers (such as prominence of U.S. brands such as Starbucks in the movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna which was based on non resident Indians). Thus the study is more an exploratory one which would look into the extend of presence of brands in Bollywood movies. Khan as Billboards. However, Maybelline the cosmetic brand was shown when the lead actress of the movie was being given a revamp. It occupied a screen space of 36 secs. Also at the beginning of the movie NDTV, MTV and Tata Indicom were shown as media partners. As regards to Chak De India, Aaj Tak with its correspondents and logos fully covered the story of the protagonist being blamed as a traitor. Again ESPN was responsible for providing media coverage for the women’s hockey World Cup. However, the brand which got the highest space in the movie was a McDonald’s outlet where the protagonist took the women players for a treat. It is at this outlet that the women players thrashed a group of miscreants. It surely increased the brand value of McDonald’s and identified itself with Indian culture. Puma was also visually highlighted as the official sports gear supplier to Indian women’s hockey team as also was Ultratech Cement in the player jerseys in the qualifying rounds. Partner was one such movie which endorsed or rather was endorsed by a number of brands. The number of brands placed in it is well beyond fifteen (Refer to Table 2). However, interesting rivals Coca-Cola and Pepsi each appeared in the film two times, as background placements not integral to the plot but as more prominent placements. Coca Cola received a visual mention in the script by the main actor. DFL couriers with its logo on the cap of the agent were used to carry the love letters of the hero Salman Khan. Rajpal Yadav has extensively used Bournvita and Hutch in his dialogues as verbal mentions. Actress Lara Dutta who was a journalist photographer used Nikon

Sample and Methodology
Financial or Box-Office performance in terms of revenue generation has been used as the primary criteria for selecting the top 9 movies of the year 2007. Data for this has been obtained from www.boxofficeindia. com (Refer to Table1).Along with the 9 movies selected 1 additional movie has been considered based on its popularity called Tare Zameen Par. A thorough content analysis of the ten movies were performed to identify the nature of product/brand placement in them. The products or brands that have been placed were identified in terms of the involvement levels that was generated and the type of placements which was divided into three categories i.e. visual or verbal or both.

Analysis Results
In the movie titled Om Shanti Om which was apparently the biggest hit of the year brands like Exide battery and Tag Heuer were used only as visual elements. Both these brands were placed behind Shah Rukh Journal of Marketing Trends Vol.1, No.1

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Product Placement in Bollywood Movies Camera throughout the movie. Movies like Bhool Bhoolaiyan and Guru used only one prominent brand. While in Bhool Bhoolaiyan the entire crowning ceremony of actor Shiney Ahuja was shot by actress Vidya Balan with Sony Handycam, in Guru, Mercedes Benz of 1960’s was used as the protagonist vehicle. In the movie Heyy Babyy only media partners were mentioned at the beginning of the movie. In Ta Ra Rum Pum the protagonist is shown as a race driver and Goodyear tires and Chevrolet were shown as logos marked on the protagonist’s racing gear. The actress of the movie who is a piano player identifies Apple’s iPod very close to her heart. iPod was used as both a visual and verbal representation. Castrol GTX was shown as the official lubricant of the race circuit. It was repeatedly shown as a product in use. In the movie Namastey London, matrimonial website Bharatmatrimony. com was shown to have the highest reliability in finding alliances. Rishi Kapoor has specifically mentioned this in his dialogues. Besides this, brands like HP (laptop) and Ford (tractor) also occupied the space. Western Union Money Transfer was used by actor Ashmit Patel to transfer money instantly to actress Katrina Kaif who urgently required them thus highlighting the speed and safety of using the product for money transferring. In the movie Welcome, FrankFinn, the airhostess and steward training institute organized a competition on the occasion of April fool and a verbal as well as visual representation was there. One of the protagonists in one of his statements used Surf, Rin and Nirma simultaneously. In the movie Jab We Met, a public sector bank called State Bank of India (SBI) was also used when its Automated Teller Machine was used by the protagonist to withdraw money in one of the remotest part of the country thereby highlighting the reach of SBI. Lastly, in the movie Taare Zameen Par, Fevicryl was used as the color used by all the participants in the drawing competition. The main protagonist Darsheel’s elder brother also gifts him Fevicryl color prints.

Discussion
The findings of the study indicate the fact that the phenomenon of product placement has started in the Indian Film Industry, more specifically in Bollywood movies, though the phenomena is in a nascent stage in India compared to that of Hollywood. Out of the findings of the study two points have emerged. First product placement is taking place in both verbal and visual mode in Bollywood movies and sometimes both the modes are present at the same time. Second, products ranging from low involvement fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) to high involvement products such as automobiles are being placed in movies. Moreover, if we take the case of movies like Namastey London where the set up is in a country outside India, the presence of brands such as bharatmatrimony.com and indiatimes.com signify the effort of the marketer to connect to the non resident Indians (NRIs). More specifically if we take the case of bharatmatrimony.com (which has been mentioned in the earlier section of the paper) the effort to establish its Institute of Public Enterprise

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Product Placement in Bollywood Movies reliability is to gain consumer acceptance from the NRIs who may need to use the service to look for brides or grooms in India. Overall the findings suggest that there is an active role of the marketer to promote the brand through the movie and sometimes it may go up to becoming very similar to an advertisement as the case of Frankfinn Academy in the movie Welcome. box-office hits of 2007 only. However such a study could conform for a larger number of movies which will generate a broader picture. Other than that this study looks at a cross sectional data set, to identify the nature of product placement, in Bollywood movies. Such a study can also be done in a longitudinal format where over a period of years the top box office hits could be analyzed to assess the trend of product placements overtime. Nevertheless this study could act as a starting point for future studies in the area since it found the presence of a significant amount of product placements in Bollywood movies.

Limitations and Conclusion
One of the limitations of the study is the small sample size. Because of the nature of the study which itself is time consuming the authors had to restrict themselves to the

Table 1 Box Office Record, 2007
Rank 1 2 3 4 Film Om Shanti Om Partner Bhool Bhulaiyaa Heyy Babyy Guru Gross Earnings NA Net Earnings NA Verdict Blockbuster Opening/Business Note 95-100%/Record Grosser 55-60% 90-95% 85-90%/Extraordinary business in West Bengal 90-95% 50-55%/V Good in Mumbai and South, poor in interiors 60-65%/Good in Mumbai 65-70%/V Good in Delhi and Punjab 80-85%/Super Hit in Mumbai, poor in interiors 55-60%

Chak De India 91,97,00,000 96,40,00,000 83,66,00,000

63,98,00,000 Blockbuster 62,12,00,000 Blockbuster 53,97,00,000 Super Hit

5 6

79,46,00,000 63,90,00,000

51,64,00,000 41,65,00,000

Super Hit Hit

7 8 9

Ta Ra Rum Pum Namastey London Shootout At Lokhandwala

57,00,00,000 56,73,00,000 51,36,00,000

37,32,00,000 36,92,00,000 33,55,00,000

Semi Hit Hit Semi Hit

10 Jab We Met NA Source: www.boxofficeindia.com

NA

Super Hit

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Table2 The Brands Placed in the Biggest Hits
Film Name Om Shanti Om Brand Name Mukta Arts-Production House, HMV, Exide Battery, Filmfare Awards, Tag Heur Watch, Maybelline EXIM Bank, Australian Trade and Commerce, Aaj Tak, McDonald’s, Britannia Marie, ESPN, Puma Coco Cola, Marie Claire, Zoom (Media Partner), Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Toyota, ESPN, Boost, Hutch, Sony Vaio, Phuket (Tourism), Starbucks, Mercedes, Kawasaki (Water Boat), Nokia 6600, BPL, DFL, Bournvita, Sony Erickson Mobile, Go air, Nikon, Calvin Klein Sony Handycam NDTV, MTV, P9, Radio Power Fm, Bright Advertisement, Tata Indicom Mercedes Benz EXIM Bank, New York Speedway, Castrol GTX, Pepsi, Goodyear, Chevrolet, Ford, Apple i-pod, ESPN Spykar Jeans, Western Union Money Transfer, Streax, MTV, Kingfisher, Bharatmatrimony.com, Indiatimes.com, HP (laptop), Bailey (Packaged Water), Ford (Tractor), Sony Camcorder IDBI Bank, ZOOM, Spinz Deodorant, Times Now, Bailey Packaged Water, Madhya Pradesh Path Parivahan Nigam, State Bank of India, Mercedes. IDBI Bank, Music India, Junglee Music, Ponds (age miracle), Sun City (South Africa), Nokia, FrankFinn, Parle G (Biscuit), Surf, Rin, Nirma. MSN, Movie Talkies, Channel V, Red Label (Tea), Horlicks, Colgate, Fevicryl, Camel’s Geometry Box, Acron, Toyota

Chak De India Partner

Bhool Bhulaiyan Heyy Babyy Guru Ta Ra Rum Pum Namastey London

Jab We Met

Welcome

Tare Zameen Par

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References: 1. 2. 3. Balasubramanian S. K. (1994). Beyond advertising and publicity: hybrid messages and public policy issues, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23 Issue 4, p. 29-46. DeMooij M. (1998). Global Marketing and Advertising, Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA. Fleming, M. (1990). Product Pluggola Padding Pic Producers Budgets, Variety, 339 (May 9). Institute of Public Enterprise 56 Product Placement in Bollywood Movies 4. Gould, S. J.; Gupta, P B. and Grabner-Krauter, S. (2000). Product placements in movies: . a cross cultural analysis of Austrian, French and American consumers’ attitudes toward this emerging, international promotional medium. Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29 Issue 4, p. 41-58. Gupta, P B. and Gould, S. J. (1997). Consumers’ perceptions of the ethics and acceptability . of product placements in movies: product category and individual differences, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p. 38-50. Gupta, P B. and Lord, K. R. (1998). Product Placement in Movies: The Effect of . Prominence and Mode on Audience Recall. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p. 47-59. Hall, E. T. (1984). The Dance of Life, New York: Doubleday Anchor. Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s Consequences (2nd ed). Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA. Krasnoff, R. (1986). Focus on Product Placement: From a Simple Idea to a Complex Marketing Tool, The Hollywood Reporter, 292 (June 10), s23. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Lord, K. R. and Gupta, P B. (2002). The medium is the message: the role of context in . product placements, Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Consumer Research, Atlanta, GA, October. 11. McCarty, J. A. (2004). Product placement: the nature of the practice and potential avenues of inquiry. in The Psychology of Entertainment Media, Shrum, L. J. (ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, NJ, p. 45-61. 12. Newsweek (1989), Talk about ‘Placement’...”, July 31. 13. Rajadhyaksha, A. (2004), The Bollywoodisation of the Indian Cinema: Culture Nationalism in a Global Arena, in City Flicks: Cinema, Urban Worlds and Modernities in India and Beyond, Kaarsholm, P (ed) New Delhi, Seagull Books. . 14. Salmans, Sandra (1981). Selling Via the Movies, New York Times, August 20, 1981, Late City Final Edition, Section D, Page 16, Column 1. 15. Schudson, M. (1984). Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion, New York: Basic Books Inc. 16. Steortz, E. (1987). The Cost Efficiency and Communication Effects Associated with Brand Name Exposure within Motion Pictures, Master’s thesis. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. 17. Tavassoli, N. T.; Shultz II, C. J., and Fitzsimmons, G. J. (1995). Program involvement: are moderate levels best for ad memory and attitude toward the ad?, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 35 Issue 5, p. 61-72. 18. Triandis, H. G. (1995). Individualism & Collectivism. Westview Press: Boulder, GA. www.boxofficeindia.com Journal of Marketing Trends Vol.1, No.1 57