Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content

Disguised advertising is a modern marketing instrument that is seeing an increase in Croatian business practice but whose application is prohibited by Croatian law. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand whether Croatian businesses really do use disguised advertising, how they do it e...

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Main Authors: Andrea Muškinja, Ivana First Komen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Economics & Business, Zagreb, CROMAR (Croatian Union of Marketing Associations) 2013-06-01
Series:Tržište
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/153052
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author Andrea Muškinja
Ivana First Komen
author_facet Andrea Muškinja
Ivana First Komen
author_sort Andrea Muškinja
collection DOAJ
description Disguised advertising is a modern marketing instrument that is seeing an increase in Croatian business practice but whose application is prohibited by Croatian law. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand whether Croatian businesses really do use disguised advertising, how they do it either in accordance or in contradiction with Croatian law, and whether there is a need to distinguish among several similar but different manifestations and to terminologically determine each one of these. For the purpose of this study, we explored the theoretical, legal and ethnographic conceptualizations of the term disguised advertising in the scientific literature, Croatian legislation and applied communication in business practice. The results of our research show that: a) marketing literature uses various terms for describing brand usage in program content, among which disguised advertising (prikriveno oglašavanje) dominates, whereas product placement (plasman proizvoda) is not mentioned once; b) the law distinguishes between disguised advertising that is prohibited and product placement, as a practise allowed under certain conditions and the one that is by definition identical with disguised advertising in the manner defined by marketing literature; c) business entities in their communication make a distinction between disguised advertising and product placement, and they are trying to move product placement away from disguised advertising by being mentioned as sponsors/partners of the program. The analysis also indicates three different situations in which brands are used in the program content: contracted and correctly indicated brand usage; contracted but not indicated; and not-contracted brand usage. Only the first situation is considered to be a recommended marketing tool; therefore, it is necessary to differentiate it from the other two by its definition and name. It is suggested that this marketing tool be named: brand placement in both marketing literature and legislation, as English literature already recommends. In the long term, this should lead to a proper use of the term in business practice as well.
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spelling doaj.art-7301312c7c724e7b9cbf51aaebcd539b2022-12-22T02:46:32ZengFaculty of Economics & Business, Zagreb, CROMAR (Croatian Union of Marketing Associations)Tržište0353-47902013-06-012515162Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program contentAndrea MuškinjaIvana First KomenDisguised advertising is a modern marketing instrument that is seeing an increase in Croatian business practice but whose application is prohibited by Croatian law. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand whether Croatian businesses really do use disguised advertising, how they do it either in accordance or in contradiction with Croatian law, and whether there is a need to distinguish among several similar but different manifestations and to terminologically determine each one of these. For the purpose of this study, we explored the theoretical, legal and ethnographic conceptualizations of the term disguised advertising in the scientific literature, Croatian legislation and applied communication in business practice. The results of our research show that: a) marketing literature uses various terms for describing brand usage in program content, among which disguised advertising (prikriveno oglašavanje) dominates, whereas product placement (plasman proizvoda) is not mentioned once; b) the law distinguishes between disguised advertising that is prohibited and product placement, as a practise allowed under certain conditions and the one that is by definition identical with disguised advertising in the manner defined by marketing literature; c) business entities in their communication make a distinction between disguised advertising and product placement, and they are trying to move product placement away from disguised advertising by being mentioned as sponsors/partners of the program. The analysis also indicates three different situations in which brands are used in the program content: contracted and correctly indicated brand usage; contracted but not indicated; and not-contracted brand usage. Only the first situation is considered to be a recommended marketing tool; therefore, it is necessary to differentiate it from the other two by its definition and name. It is suggested that this marketing tool be named: brand placement in both marketing literature and legislation, as English literature already recommends. In the long term, this should lead to a proper use of the term in business practice as well.http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/153052disguised advertisingproduct placementbrand usage in program contentsbrand placement
spellingShingle Andrea Muškinja
Ivana First Komen
Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content
Tržište
disguised advertising
product placement
brand usage in program contents
brand placement
title Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content
title_full Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content
title_fullStr Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content
title_full_unstemmed Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content
title_short Apples and oranges in disguised advertising: differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content
title_sort apples and oranges in disguised advertising differentiation and terminological determination of brand usage in program content
topic disguised advertising
product placement
brand usage in program contents
brand placement
url http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/153052
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AT ivanafirstkomen applesandorangesindisguisedadvertisingdifferentiationandterminologicaldeterminationofbrandusageinprogramcontent