Project Summary
According to reliable sources, “The United States is by far the world’s largest paid product placement market”. Product Brand Marketers create paid placement advertising over television, film, magazines, the internet, video games, music videos, and much more. Social media influencers and celebrities play a massive role when it comes to modern-day product placement. This case study hypothesized that television viewers would be more likely to purchase a product seen through product placement in television shows or movies in a commercial advertisement. Moreover, it was also hypothesized that viewers would be more influenced to buy a product if they saw a favorite television character interacting or promoting a product. The primary goal of this project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of product placement in entertainment by creating a seamless shopping experience that melds the two together under one platform.
Scope of Work
The scope of work started with research findings based on Business Models, Competitive and Comparative Analysis, and user interviews of television viewers. We conducted Affinity Mapping to help us make sense of what our target user needs, their opinions, insights, and pain points. We synthesized all findings and prioritized all user's needs through Moscow Mapping and Prioritization Matrix. We sketch our first low-fi concept in a design studio and then bring our concept into Mid-Fi. After the first round of Usability Testing, we then created our Hi-fi prototype.
Opportunities
Netflix Inc. is a media service provider and production company. The primary business is a subscription-based streaming service that offers online streaming of a large library of films and tv programs. Partnering with Netflix, linking with their database, and with the power of AI, would allow us to customize our results to the end-user.
Discovery
Hypothesis
We hypothesized that television viewers would be more likely to purchase a product seen through product placement in television shows or movies than in a commercial advertisement. Moreover, it was also hypothesized that viewers would be more influenced to buy a product if they saw a favored television character interacting or promoting a product.
Problem Statement
Celebrities and influencers use social media, movies, and television to advertise products through product placement. We believe that creates a seamless shopping experience for television viewers while watching their favorite shows, will help them emulate the desired lifestyle. How might we help users to locate and buy the placed products by their favorite entertainment personalities?
Methodology
To analyze if this product was truly needed, as well as what it needed to be accomplished, we started by interviewing a focus group of target users. We conducted 10 face-to-face interviews to collect information and data points about consumer’s needs and factors that influence their decision. It also helped us identify our potential users and their pain points, frustrations, needs, and wants. The research helped us understand how people search and purchase items.
Insight
- Users are frustrated with the time-consuming process of shopping
- Users prefer websites that enable convenience in everyday life
- Users are impacted by the entertainment industry
- Users enjoy exclusive streaming content
Persona
Based on the research and after identifying our potential users, we interviewed 10 of them to know more about their online shopping experiences. To bring synthesized research to life, the persona MacKenzie was created. Mackenzie is a thirty-one-year-old Marketing Director that lives in Manhattan. She follows celebrity and social media influencers for fashion trends. Below, we show in detail her goals, needs, and frustrations with the existing online shopping experience.
User Journey Mapping
To visualize our persona Mackenzie’s frustration and pain points, we create a journey map to help us think systematically through her steps. The map below shows the existing process Mackenzie must go through to find and buy products worn by celebrities.
Design Solutions
Insight 1: Users are frustrated with the time-consuming process of shopping
Feature 1: Browse products while watching
Insight 2: Users are impacted by the entertainment industry
Feature 2: Shop by Celebrity Looks
Insight 3: Users prefer websites that enable convenience in everyday life
Feature 3: Visual Recognition Cameras
Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is an illustrated diagram of the critical information that goes into designing an effective Business Model.
Competitive & Comparative Feature Analysis
Sketches
Once we understood the needs of users, we started by sorting out all the findings through Moscow Map and Feature Prioritization Matrix. Then we use the design studio to translate all the written matter into its visual layout. This process helps us to implement the findings from our data into an intuitive visual layout by structuring key UI elements and sizing them in regards to their importance.
Wireframes
After the Low-Fidelity mockups were finished, the next step would be turning them into Mid-Fidelity mockups for prototype usability testing. The ultimate goal was to keep the overall interface as simple as possible. Eliminate all the unnecessary steps and elements. Testing the flow was also one of our main goals.
Initial Usability Testing:
We conducted two rounds of usability testing with a total of ten participants. The purpose of the testing was to test out possible features and if they are intuitive to users.
Participants were told to complete three sets of tasks. The tasks asked them to sync the app with their Netflix account, locate an actress’s look — then purchase the item, and last to use the visual recognition feature. Some issues were identified during the first testing. While testing the first feature, it was quickly discovered that there was a problem with users finding the right screen, the vagueness of certain icons seemed confusing to them.
On our second round of usability testing, which is HI-fidelity testing, we can see the significant improvement from the chart below; 93% of participants successfully directly/indirectly completed their tasks.
Style Guide
Primary Color
Our primary color palette is made up of analogous color schemes consisting of dark navy, purple, and sky blue. We are also committed to complying with AA standard contrast ratios.
Typographic
Montserrat is a sans-serif typeface designed by Argentinian designer Julieta Ulanovsy. The Montserrat font family has nine weights; extra light, thin, light, regular, medium, semi-bold, bold, extra-bold, and black. The variety of weights further aids its versatility and usability.
HI-Fidelity Wireframe
Prototype
Conclusion
Social media influencers and celebrities play a massive role when it comes to modern-day product placement. This case study hypothesized that television viewers would be more likely to purchase a product seen through product placement in television shows or movies than in a commercial advertisement. Moreover, it was also hypothesized that viewers would be more influenced to buy a product if they saw a favorite television character interacting or promoting a product. The primary goal of this project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of product placement in entertainment by creating a seamless shopping experience that melds the two together under one platform. Through the use of research and the heuristic nature of our design, we implemented our hypothesis into a functional and tangible design.
Looking to the future, we aim to improve our database to support our users as our next immediate step and optimize the flow of our product. To understand if the system platform is really functional, our following step would be to retest our final design once more, so that it may be finalized to ensure that it is truly intuitive and see if further improvements can be found or made while keeping pain points down to a negligible amount.
