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What value do marketers add to people’s lives? Can you give me an example? Follow-up question: Do you think the impact of marketers on people’s lives globally

What value do marketers add to people’s lives? Can you give me an example? Follow-up question: Do you think the impact of marketers on people’s lives globally is net positive, or net negative?

tobltobs 8y ago
They enable you to sell the stuff you produce.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  How, though? Do you need them to just announce to the world that your product exists and solves a particular set of problems? Or do you need them to break through the noise caused by all the other marketers? ;). It's a self-sustaining industry. If you squint, it's basically rent-seeking.
  - george_morgan 8y ago
    Everyone hates advertising, until they lose their dog.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      Information about lost pets or belongings has nothing to do with marketing, and is usually published using in different sections of any communications medium than ads are.
  - tobltobs 8y ago
    Don't know how you would avoid this. Maybe with a kind of five-year plans for the national economy [1]. But this concept wasn't really successful. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-year_plans_for_the_national_economy_of_the_Soviet_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-year_plans_for_the_nation...
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      Huge restrictions of available forms of marketing would be a good start. Done top-down, this levels the playing field, and reduces the advertising expenditure companies need to make - as most advertising costs go towards cancelling out equivalent spending from your competitors.
      - tobltobs 8y ago
        Introduction of a five-year plans for the national economy would cancel out all the spending from competitors.
        TeMPOraL 8y ago
        I'm not thinking "five-year plans", I'm thinking GDPR + more restrictive laws on advertising content + ban on city billboards, ban on leaflets, + other regulations intent on heavily restricting all other forms of advertising.
  - geezerjay 8y ago
    > How, though? You can't buy a product/service you don't know exists.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      Product discovery is not why advertising is done.
      - tobltobs 8y ago
        Could you explain how product discovery without advertising would work?
        TeMPOraL 8y ago
        Word of mouth. Also, pull instead of push. I could walk around the shop and discover a new product on the shelves. Or, pick up a catalog with local companies. Or, pick up a magazine dedicated to companies announcing their products in particular domain. Or these days, Google for a solution to a particular problem. Product discovery should involve me consciously, purposefully looking for a product, not all possible products trying to come to me all the time.
        tobltobs 8y ago
        > Word of mouth. How do you win your first few mouths? > I could walk around the shop and discover a new product on the shelves. What is the shop owner incentive to promote your product this way before he can be sure that he will sell some of your stuff. > Or, pick up a catalog with local companies. Your local car manufacturer? > pick up a magazine dedicated to companies announcing their products in particular domain. Without ads, how would those magazines be monetized? > Or these days, Google for a solution to a particular problem. SEO = Marketing
        TeMPOraL 8y ago
        > How do you win your first few mouths? Family, friends, people living in the neighbourhood of your business. If it's any good, it'll spread. If it isn't, it doesn't deserve to spread. > What is the shop owner incentive to promote your product this way before he can be sure that he will sell some of your stuff. It can be either way for the shop owner; your product might turn out to be a flop, or an overnight success. Stocking shelves is an active process, an exploraition vs. exploitation problem. > Your local car manufacturer? Word of mouth. Regular (i.e. not rich) people don't buy cars off adverts, they buy off experiences of other car owners. This works well enough in practice already. > Without ads, how would those magazines be monetized? Companies would pay to be put in them, obviously. Also, without ads being prevalent everywhere, people might even be inclined to buy them. The difference is, it would be people who choose when they see ads, not the advertisers. > SEO = Marketing SEO == fucking up the Internet by greedily exploiting imperfections of search engine ranking algorithms. It is indeed marketing, and something I'd love to see disappear. I hate SEO, and have been on the receiving end of SEO practices (i.e. blogspam) in the past.
pertymcpert 8y ago
No less so than the people who make the products they help sell.

What value do marketers add to people’s lives? Can you give me an example? Follow-up question: Do you think the impact of marketers on people’s lives globally is net positive, or net negative?

tobltobs 8y ago

They enable you to sell the stuff you produce.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
How, though? Do you need them to just announce to the world that your product exists and solves a particular set of problems? Or do you need them to break through the noise caused by all the other marketers? ;). It's a self-sustaining industry. If you squint, it's basically rent-seeking.
- george_morgan 8y ago
  Everyone hates advertising, until they lose their dog.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Information about lost pets or belongings has nothing to do with marketing, and is usually published using in different sections of any communications medium than ads are.
- tobltobs 8y ago
  Don't know how you would avoid this. Maybe with a kind of five-year plans for the national economy [1]. But this concept wasn't really successful. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-year_plans_for_the_national_economy_of_the_Soviet_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-year_plans_for_the_nation...
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Huge restrictions of available forms of marketing would be a good start. Done top-down, this levels the playing field, and reduces the advertising expenditure companies need to make - as most advertising costs go towards cancelling out equivalent spending from your competitors.
    - tobltobs 8y ago
      Introduction of a five-year plans for the national economy would cancel out all the spending from competitors.
      - TeMPOraL 8y ago
        I'm not thinking "five-year plans", I'm thinking GDPR + more restrictive laws on advertising content + ban on city billboards, ban on leaflets, + other regulations intent on heavily restricting all other forms of advertising.
- geezerjay 8y ago
  > How, though? You can't buy a product/service you don't know exists.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Product discovery is not why advertising is done.
    - tobltobs 8y ago
      Could you explain how product discovery without advertising would work?
      - TeMPOraL 8y ago
        Word of mouth. Also, pull instead of push. I could walk around the shop and discover a new product on the shelves. Or, pick up a catalog with local companies. Or, pick up a magazine dedicated to companies announcing their products in particular domain. Or these days, Google for a solution to a particular problem. Product discovery should involve me consciously, purposefully looking for a product, not all possible products trying to come to me all the time.
        tobltobs 8y ago
        > Word of mouth. How do you win your first few mouths? > I could walk around the shop and discover a new product on the shelves. What is the shop owner incentive to promote your product this way before he can be sure that he will sell some of your stuff. > Or, pick up a catalog with local companies. Your local car manufacturer? > pick up a magazine dedicated to companies announcing their products in particular domain. Without ads, how would those magazines be monetized? > Or these days, Google for a solution to a particular problem. SEO = Marketing
        TeMPOraL 8y ago
        > How do you win your first few mouths? Family, friends, people living in the neighbourhood of your business. If it's any good, it'll spread. If it isn't, it doesn't deserve to spread. > What is the shop owner incentive to promote your product this way before he can be sure that he will sell some of your stuff. It can be either way for the shop owner; your product might turn out to be a flop, or an overnight success. Stocking shelves is an active process, an exploraition vs. exploitation problem. > Your local car manufacturer? Word of mouth. Regular (i.e. not rich) people don't buy cars off adverts, they buy off experiences of other car owners. This works well enough in practice already. > Without ads, how would those magazines be monetized? Companies would pay to be put in them, obviously. Also, without ads being prevalent everywhere, people might even be inclined to buy them. The difference is, it would be people who choose when they see ads, not the advertisers. > SEO = Marketing SEO == fucking up the Internet by greedily exploiting imperfections of search engine ranking algorithms. It is indeed marketing, and something I'd love to see disappear. I hate SEO, and have been on the receiving end of SEO practices (i.e. blogspam) in the past.

pertymcpert 8y ago

No less so than the people who make the products they help sell.