RESEARCH , PRODUCT PLACEMENTS, AND AFRICAN WOMEN

Hurray, the debris is now settled after one of my most engaging research, the subject so alluring. The work is amongst 35 other articles sent to academic journals for publication.   The subject of product placement (PP) is that which is enthralling amongst others. Product placement is a splendid technique used in marketing communication. A marketing strategy with a fusion of creativity and innovation. It blends branding, public relation and advertisement into one. Product placement brings brands into a programme for awareness and product feature purposes. This study mainly used Heineken’s placement in Sky Fall as one of the case studies. If you have seen SkyFall you can readily point out that Heineken was consumed by Daniel Craig, the James Bond guy. Heineken paid over $45m for that placement. WOW! Why?

Subliminal, explicit and implicit messages follow pictures or programmes we watch on television, including video games, television soap opera and music videos. If 100 million people saw SkyFall, 70 per cent of the viewers would have seen James Bond, possibly their idol, drinking Heineken on the pictures. They could be enthused to purchase the Beer afterwards. Just as I was moved to like Toyota Corolla after seeing Season 24. That is the trick. Nollywood is yet to take full advantage of PP. What we see in movies can influence our behaviour. For example, consider seeing Chinwetel Ejiofor, in a Hollywood movie, discussing on Mercy Culture or Igboville on Facebook. That single placement can globalise further the pages and as well increase their brand awareness, strength, image and identity in the social media world. Nollywood should research more on how to generate funds for movies via this medium.

This is exactly 17 days to 2014 Valentine’s Day, let me quickly ask, should people make the effort to use their cardinal brand points for domestic placements and not for Facebook and public placements? Some people wear mini-skirts to church but wear “OROVOROVO” Maxi-gowns in their homes, thus making it obvious that they are not prepared for their duty to their husband. A woman who is not  prepared to place her products appropriately as to increase easy accessibility and identification commits what I shall crave your indulgence to tag- dysfunctional product placement!

When they are at home, they, African women, rap themselves and cover their image and identity. When going for shopping or for social engagements they open everything for other people to see. A strange development, in our time. They even look better on Facebook and Instagram than they look at home. That is wrong product placement.

Any woman who does not understand her seven cardinal products namely the eyes, the lips, the breasts,  the vulva, the tommy, the waist and the legs, and does not know how to place them at the right time, in the recesses of her home, that woman is either fake or ill-informed.