The influence of product placement on luxury tourism: An S-O-R model approach

Abstract

Product placement has developed into a quite successful marketing tool. Product placement helps businesses and locales to seamlessly fit into the storyline; it also helps brands and destinations to mix in visually driven media like movies, thereby producing a naturally applied advertising approach. The product placement in tourism serves as an effective tool for promoting locations, goods, and services. This study examines product placement in the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians to explore how cinematic portrayals influence destination promotion through the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Model. This study investigates the impact of product placement in luxury tourism by employing purposive sampling to select participants. Semi-structured interviews with a total of 20 participants and two focus groups collected data to understand the perceptions and travel intentions of affluent consumers. The findings reveal that thematic analysis uncovers key themes of destination in the movie, like emotional engagement, aspirational inspiration, and travel intentions, highlighting the impact of cinematic product placement on luxury travel behavior. Travelers view Singapore as a symbol of wealth, status, and exclusivity through the aspirational lens of Crazy Rich Asians, significantly shaping their destination preferences. This research demonstrates how movie product placement influences luxury travel behavior, thereby enhancing the SOR model in the tourism literature review. The emphasis on how cinematic depictions develop aspirational consumer wants improves the body of research on the influence of media on destination marketing. The study provides media advice to draw luxury visitors; marketing professionals can use product placement in movies to boost local appeal and customer involvement.