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My comment was a little rude and I apologize for that. I feel like I should expand a bit on my reasoning. The tools you've described in your post are unambiguo

by Bakary 9y ago

My comment was a little rude and I apologize for that. I feel like I should expand a bit on my reasoning. The tools you've described in your post are unambiguously manipulative (sparking emotions, associating mental states with a product independently of its qualities etc.). Based on this I'm wondering whether there are any marketing frameworks that don't directly rely on one aspect of human psychological weakness instead of simply telling a customer what the product does. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in this regard. Of course, it's hard to blame advertisers for doing this, because the incentives are there. It works tremendously well, and I am deeply vulnerable to it myself. Despite this, I can't help but feel distress that the working life of so many smart people is dedicated to inserting needs in other's minds. The acronyms are the cherry on top: the manipulation is so routine that it is parceled with buzzwords, as the other poster noticed. On a more global scale, it highlights a deeper problem. The practices of advertising today are already lightly dystopian if contrasted with people's expectations of the world a few decades past: massive data-gathering, extremely advanced and detailed A/B testing and optimization, devices providing identification info at all times and in all places, psychological experiments such as those tested by Facebook... etc. Based on these developments and on the precedent of technology often being applied in a deeply unethical way, it's no longer impossible to imagine that it will get worse, possibly even unimaginably worse. Heck, if there were a way for people to insert ads directly into a person's mind should the opportunity I have no doubt that it would become an acceptable practice after a while. We already have people reduced to selling their plasma. Of course, this is all very speculative and it maybe won't work out this way, but I'm not holding my breath. I do agree that marketing is not the only culprit here, just the one most likely to evoke an epidermic reaction.

wastedhours 9y ago
I agree with the notion that it's manipulation, however, also in the context that almost all businesses are - vast swathes of the economy literally only exist to get people to do things they don't need to, and drawing a line through marketing over and above other elements always hurts since it's an easy target but not detached from other elements doing the same. You're right that most marketing relies on human psychology, but I wouldn't call it weakness per se, it's the same areas that are influenced by all kinds of storytelling (whether that's film, fiction or marcomms). Diving deeper, there's also a lot of "marketing" in nature, we look at the evolution of plants and animals whereby entire species have developed based on generating emotions and actions in other animals. Perhaps a tenuous connection :) but I always find it holds valid for me, we're designed to look for emotional triggers to influence what we do. Whether utilising these is "taking advantage" or not is where that personal interpretation comes in. I'd also point out that advertising is a subset of marketing, but not all of it, it's probably the area that's most explicit in its intentions though, but things like content marketing are designed to influence you as much, whilst being more subversive about it.

by Bakary 9y ago

wastedhours 9y ago

I agree with the notion that it's manipulation, however, also in the context that almost all businesses are - vast swathes of the economy literally only exist to get people to do things they don't need to, and drawing a line through marketing over and above other elements always hurts since it's an easy target but not detached from other elements doing the same. You're right that most marketing relies on human psychology, but I wouldn't call it weakness per se, it's the same areas that are influenced by all kinds of storytelling (whether that's film, fiction or marcomms). Diving deeper, there's also a lot of "marketing" in nature, we look at the evolution of plants and animals whereby entire species have developed based on generating emotions and actions in other animals. Perhaps a tenuous connection :) but I always find it holds valid for me, we're designed to look for emotional triggers to influence what we do. Whether utilising these is "taking advantage" or not is where that personal interpretation comes in. I'd also point out that advertising is a subset of marketing, but not all of it, it's probably the area that's most explicit in its intentions though, but things like content marketing are designed to influence you as much, whilst being more subversive about it.