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> In theory better targeted ads allow a company to spend it's advertising budget more effectively. I still don't see why customers want this. I would rather a

> In theory better targeted ads allow a company to spend it's advertising budget more effectively. I still don't see why customers want this. I would rather a company struggle to spend its ad budget effectively, and then conclude that it could better spend its resources investing in making a better product (or its employees, or its infrastructure, ..). I don't have an econ background, so feel free to clear up what's wrong here.

arebop 9y ago
Should the company spend any money at all telling potential customers about their product? If so, should they use the incremental dollar to reach a random person, or a person who seems likely to be interested in the product?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- quadrangle 9y ago
  There's lots of ways to target without being personally invasive. You can simply put your message in places where the target audience tends to be, like has always been done. If the goal on the social level is to get valuable information to potential customers, then it would follow we should get rid of most tracking and most advertising. Most of it is disinformation and deception that buries lower-budget information in the stream of messages from those with the biggest pockets.
- freeone3000 9y ago
  I don't think there's a future in telling customers about the product via direct advertisement. It's too easy to filter out or ignore. The most reliable conversions are by word-of-mouth and friend recommendation, and those are nearly impossible to buy.
- philipov 9y ago
  A company should spend a minimum amount on advertising, and to incentivize that, advertising should be expensive. If effective advertising is cheep, then there is less incentive to compete on product, and instead pressure to pour your resources into marketing, structured around a quick buyout and exit. Advertising needs to be expensive enough that it is always dominated by quality of product and reputation spread by word-of-mouth, as this puts the power in the hands of consumers. This is critical for the healthy functioning of markets, because advertising distorts the natural expression of demand. The current hype-fueled cryptocurrency craze is the apotheosis of advertising dominating product.
- tremon 9y ago
  Should the company spend any money at all telling potential customers about their product? Ah, but this is not what the discussion is all about, is it? "Telling potential customers about their product" can be done with a static hypertext page, it does not require infesting the entire Internet with tracking parasites to profile every individual. And your "incremental dollar" can be spent on SEO to improve the visibility of your page.
taneq 9y ago
I'd prefer this too, and I'd buy from companies like this every time if I actually knew they were there.

arebop 9y ago

Should the company spend any money at all telling potential customers about their product? If so, should they use the incremental dollar to reach a random person, or a person who seems likely to be interested in the product?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
quadrangle 9y ago
There's lots of ways to target without being personally invasive. You can simply put your message in places where the target audience tends to be, like has always been done. If the goal on the social level is to get valuable information to potential customers, then it would follow we should get rid of most tracking and most advertising. Most of it is disinformation and deception that buries lower-budget information in the stream of messages from those with the biggest pockets.
freeone3000 9y ago
I don't think there's a future in telling customers about the product via direct advertisement. It's too easy to filter out or ignore. The most reliable conversions are by word-of-mouth and friend recommendation, and those are nearly impossible to buy.
philipov 9y ago
A company should spend a minimum amount on advertising, and to incentivize that, advertising should be expensive. If effective advertising is cheep, then there is less incentive to compete on product, and instead pressure to pour your resources into marketing, structured around a quick buyout and exit. Advertising needs to be expensive enough that it is always dominated by quality of product and reputation spread by word-of-mouth, as this puts the power in the hands of consumers. This is critical for the healthy functioning of markets, because advertising distorts the natural expression of demand. The current hype-fueled cryptocurrency craze is the apotheosis of advertising dominating product.
tremon 9y ago
Should the company spend any money at all telling potential customers about their product? Ah, but this is not what the discussion is all about, is it? "Telling potential customers about their product" can be done with a static hypertext page, it does not require infesting the entire Internet with tracking parasites to profile every individual. And your "incremental dollar" can be spent on SEO to improve the visibility of your page.

taneq 9y ago

I'd prefer this too, and I'd buy from companies like this every time if I actually knew they were there.