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If I'm in the market for a product, if a company makes a decent product chances are I'll find out about it by reading reviews, etc. I don't need ads for that.

If I'm in the market for a product, if a company makes a decent product chances are I'll find out about it by reading reviews, etc. I don't need ads for that. Ads exist to make me spend money that I wouldn't otherwise spend.

mankyd 7y ago
This isn't a complete picture. If you are in the need for a product, you will be more comfortable with a product if it feels familiar. This is true whether that familiarity comes from having used it before, because you've seen others use it before, _or_ if you've simply seen the name a lot before. Brand recognition has impact. You might still go read reviews of the product first, but they still need you to seek it out to do that. That's where advertising comes in.
delish 7y ago
One of the standard seemingly-counterintuitive examples of uses of advertising is car ads. Very few people see TV ads for a Mercedes and walk into a dealership and buy one. So why does Mercedes-Benz run TV ads? The standard explanation is, MB's ads are for the end of the month, when you see (1) your car payment and (2) Toyota's ads claiming a car payment 1/3 what you're paying. So the ads are intended to help you avoid post-purchase guilt. Hence their emotional appeal: you're a certain kind of person etc. That keeps you buying MBs on a scale of decades, rather than jump ship to a lower prestige, lower cost brand. The larger point is there are many reasons to run ads, not just to attract leads.
- chii 7y ago
  This is what i would call 'branding'. It's the same as apple running those "stylistic" ipod and iphone ads - full of happy dancing people using their product.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Source / citation?
- SerLava 7y ago
  Wow that explanation of luxury car ads kinda blew my mind there. I'm going to be looking for that pattern everywhere now.
riku_iki 7y ago
and many of those reviews will be paid, just another form of advertising, even more fraudant in my opinion.
nickjj 7y ago
I don't personally run paid ads for my video courses but whenever I ask people what almost prevented them from signing up, a huge portion of the answers say they didn't know the course existed. Reviews aren't enough for discover-ability, but they are awesome once you know the product exists. I'm not convinced paid ads are the right move for me, but I do think general advertising (having someone talk about a product or service on a site that isn't yours) is absolutely essential.
esoterica 7y ago
But how did the product get reviewed in the first place? Publications don’t review every single long tail product that gets made, only the ones that generate enough buzz and attention to get noticed. And the point of an ad is to generate that publicity in the first place.

mankyd 7y ago

This isn't a complete picture. If you are in the need for a product, you will be more comfortable with a product if it feels familiar. This is true whether that familiarity comes from having used it before, because you've seen others use it before, _or_ if you've simply seen the name a lot before. Brand recognition has impact. You might still go read reviews of the product first, but they still need you to seek it out to do that. That's where advertising comes in.

delish 7y ago

One of the standard seemingly-counterintuitive examples of uses of advertising is car ads. Very few people see TV ads for a Mercedes and walk into a dealership and buy one. So why does Mercedes-Benz run TV ads? The standard explanation is, MB's ads are for the end of the month, when you see (1) your car payment and (2) Toyota's ads claiming a car payment 1/3 what you're paying. So the ads are intended to help you avoid post-purchase guilt. Hence their emotional appeal: you're a certain kind of person etc. That keeps you buying MBs on a scale of decades, rather than jump ship to a lower prestige, lower cost brand. The larger point is there are many reasons to run ads, not just to attract leads.

chii 7y ago
This is what i would call 'branding'. It's the same as apple running those "stylistic" ipod and iphone ads - full of happy dancing people using their product.
dredmorbius 7y ago
Source / citation?
SerLava 7y ago
Wow that explanation of luxury car ads kinda blew my mind there. I'm going to be looking for that pattern everywhere now.

riku_iki 7y ago

and many of those reviews will be paid, just another form of advertising, even more fraudant in my opinion.

nickjj 7y ago

I don't personally run paid ads for my video courses but whenever I ask people what almost prevented them from signing up, a huge portion of the answers say they didn't know the course existed. Reviews aren't enough for discover-ability, but they are awesome once you know the product exists. I'm not convinced paid ads are the right move for me, but I do think general advertising (having someone talk about a product or service on a site that isn't yours) is absolutely essential.

esoterica 7y ago

But how did the product get reviewed in the first place? Publications don’t review every single long tail product that gets made, only the ones that generate enough buzz and attention to get noticed. And the point of an ad is to generate that publicity in the first place.