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>It's the same in online marketing, you often target people who are searching for say a pair of shoes. This is funny, because on HN you often see complaints ab

>It's the same in online marketing, you often target people who are searching for say a pair of shoes. This is funny, because on HN you often see complaints about online advertising being horrifically bad because "it suggests me the products I have zero interest in", hence "online advertising sucks". But that's the whole point! These people are complaining that they are not getting pizza coupons when they are entering pizzeria! If it will suggest you something you are interested in already, chances are, you will buy it anyway. And if you will be suggested something strange and you will buy it, it will be incremental customer and incremental sale, and you might even become a regular client.

musicale 7y ago
> If it will suggest you something you are interested in already, chances are, you will buy it anyway For me, the key bits of advertising are a) knowing the product is available b) knowing that its specifications meet my needs and c) knowing the price. Without knowing those things, I'm unlikely to buy the product. If I know (a) and (b) and want the product but haven't bought it, then I'm probably waiting on (c). Perhaps this is an argument for the "coupons in the pizza lobby" (or at least "coupons in the food court") type of advertising. I actually like the sorts of printed catalogs/advertising circulars that stores like Target or Best Buy provide at the store entrance, because although I may have gone there to get one thing I may end up picking up another if conditions (a,b,c) are favorable. Magazine advertising seems to work this way; if I pick up a copy of Mac|Life magazine then I'm probably already interested in Apple products as well as compatible hardware, software and accessories. Unfortunately Mac|Life is pretty anemic at the moment (along with most of the remaining computing enthusiast print magazines) so this model seems to be in trouble for print magazines at least. With Mac|Life the decline of third-party Apple dealers probably hasn't helped, and probably the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart don't feel they need to advertise there. But I'd like to see more ads for software, because the Mac and iOS app stores are still pretty terrible for discovery.

musicale 7y ago

> If it will suggest you something you are interested in already, chances are, you will buy it anyway For me, the key bits of advertising are a) knowing the product is available b) knowing that its specifications meet my needs and c) knowing the price. Without knowing those things, I'm unlikely to buy the product. If I know (a) and (b) and want the product but haven't bought it, then I'm probably waiting on (c). Perhaps this is an argument for the "coupons in the pizza lobby" (or at least "coupons in the food court") type of advertising. I actually like the sorts of printed catalogs/advertising circulars that stores like Target or Best Buy provide at the store entrance, because although I may have gone there to get one thing I may end up picking up another if conditions (a,b,c) are favorable. Magazine advertising seems to work this way; if I pick up a copy of Mac|Life magazine then I'm probably already interested in Apple products as well as compatible hardware, software and accessories. Unfortunately Mac|Life is pretty anemic at the moment (along with most of the remaining computing enthusiast print magazines) so this model seems to be in trouble for print magazines at least. With Mac|Life the decline of third-party Apple dealers probably hasn't helped, and probably the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart don't feel they need to advertise there. But I'd like to see more ads for software, because the Mac and iOS app stores are still pretty terrible for discovery.