Product placement is now-a-days used by both B2B and B2C companies for brand promotion. But what’s the difference between them? Let us look into the Comparison between B2B and B2C product placement.

1. Seema Gupta
IIM Bangalore
DigitalMarketingTadka.com
dmtadka@gmail.com

2. What is B2B Product Placement?
Placement of B2B products and services in movies or
television serials which directly targets other
businesses and indirectly targets individual
customers.
Cisco IP phone In Yes Man
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3. What is B2C Product Placement?
Product placement of B2C products and services which
targets end consumers directly.
Nokia cell phone in Dexter (2009,
Showtime, screen capture)
Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses in the
movie Top Gun (1986, Paramount,
screen capture)
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4. Product Placement To Demonstrate Usage
Situations
B2C placements are there for the sake of increasing recognition by
simply placing the brand in the background without being used. For example,
Colonel Rhodes wearing Fred Perry T-shirts in Iron Man as shown in the movie
still.
This leads to not-so-prominent placement with weak plot connection, thus
avoiding antagonizing the audience.
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5. Product Placement To Demonstrate Usage Situations
(Contd.)
In B2B product placements, the focus seems to be on the usage of the
product in addition to adding to the plot hence prominent placement with
strong plot connection.
It is intended to demonstrate exactly which scenarios the product is best
suited for.
Oracle in Iron Man 3(Marvel studios)
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6. Product Placement To Demonstrate Product Capability
Strong plot connection is achieved by the B2B products almost uniformly
assisting the protagonists in the movies or TV shows do their work better or be
more effective or productive, without taking away their credit.
Oracle Exadata helping Iron Man access vast amounts of
information (Iron Man 3)
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7. Product Placement To Demonstrate Product Capability
(Contd.)
New Holland or Caterpillar equipment assisting James Bond
B2B products are often shown to perform under pressure and hence are
reliable. Also, B2B products and buying tends to be complex but this kind of
placement can simplify B2B products.
This isn’t always the case with B2C product placements.
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8. Product Placement as Corporate Advertising
Larry Ellison or Elon Musk both CEOs of big companies appearing in and
interacting with Iron Man, puts them in the same league as Iron Man. Thus B2B
product placement helps project desired image thus building the corporate brand.
Source: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/5006428919_707a2b9fe7.jpg
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9. Product Placement as Corporate Advertising
(contd.)
Casino Royale(2006) - Sony vaio laptops
In B2C product placement also companies try to achieve an image or values match but it
happens more at a level of the target consumer and usually at the level of the product and not
at company level.
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10. Product Placement as Public Relations
When Oracle tied up with Marvel Comics for product placement employees
received official communication leading up to the launch of the movies and
outlining the marketing activities planned
B2B Product Placement is also used as an effective tool for Internal Public
Relations and to keep employees engaged, boost morale through buzz creation
and make employees ambassadors of the company’s products by using
metaphors that individual employees can relate to.
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11. Product Placement as Public Relations
Movie still The Internship(2013) Google
This PR generation is likely to be true of B2C product placements as well as
allied activities can be run once placement is done like contests, internal
communications, TV commercials.
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12. Conclusion
• In recent years the frequency of B2B placements has increased
• This has humanized B2B brands and simplified purchasing processes
• By generating buzz around a B2B product and humanizing it, there seems
to be an effort to make B2B sales and products more like B2C sales and
products and engage buyers at an emotional level.
Challenges are:
• achieving the right balance of exposure
• prominence
• plot connection
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13. Is using product placement good for creativity in films?
Let me know your views
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© Seema Gupta