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It's kind of close to the equivalent of flour sacks for me; I don't shop in either thrift stores or malls or think about expectations, and I buy new clothes ver

It's kind of close to the equivalent of flour sacks for me; I don't shop in either thrift stores or malls or think about expectations, and I buy new clothes very rarely. When I do, I order the same cheap generic solid-color clothes off of Amazon, and sometimes one or two other low-cost generic brands (based simply on what's cheapest when I sort by price, as long as the ratings aren't way below the rest). I admit I'm probably being influenced by Amazon's brand and the prioritizing of their "Amazon Basics" items in search results, though.

hisnameismanuel 6y ago
You would admit, then, that you're not the norm, and that your experience - while interesting, certainly - does not appear to extrapolate very well to others?
- meowface 6y ago
  For sure.
Reebz 5y ago
It is difficult to reflect on how we’re influenced, but yes, you are almost certainly being impacted to nudge you to purchase one thing or another. Unless you’re using solely cash payments and also do not own a cell phone, then you’re in the data ecosystem. In your case, it is probably likely that you don’t get advertisements or emails for luxury items, even if your income would allow such a purchase. The great misunderstanding of this industry is that what ads you see are just as important as the ads you don’t see, which allows for profit maximization. In your circumstance, it may be true that bank transactions are farmed and analyzed to be additive to data gathering on the web, which in turn is additive to the offline data gathering offered by various companies. Every transaction made is analyzed for location, merchant, purchase category, amount, date & time, and more. Most of the other commenters who are claiming and linking to articles that ads don’t work aren’t in the industry. This is an important distinction because what we’re talking about here are the machines that crunch all this data are considered trade secrets and/or intellectual property. Also, slightly off topic, but it’s important to understand that ads != marketing. Ads are a child component of marketing. When you look at the overall function of marketing (of which product management is a discipline, no matter how desperately some attempt to align it to technology), then consider how much of a factor data analysis and operationalization of data is a driver of success for Fortune 500 companies. Almost any company in consumer technology (e.g. FAANG), consumer healthcare (CVS), telecommunications (AT&T), FMCG or retail (Walmart, Costco), and retail banking (Chase, Wells Fargo) are using these techniques to build better products, sharpen communications, and win new customers.

hisnameismanuel 6y ago

You would admit, then, that you're not the norm, and that your experience - while interesting, certainly - does not appear to extrapolate very well to others?

meowface 6y ago
For sure.

Reebz 5y ago

It is difficult to reflect on how we’re influenced, but yes, you are almost certainly being impacted to nudge you to purchase one thing or another. Unless you’re using solely cash payments and also do not own a cell phone, then you’re in the data ecosystem. In your case, it is probably likely that you don’t get advertisements or emails for luxury items, even if your income would allow such a purchase. The great misunderstanding of this industry is that what ads you see are just as important as the ads you don’t see, which allows for profit maximization. In your circumstance, it may be true that bank transactions are farmed and analyzed to be additive to data gathering on the web, which in turn is additive to the offline data gathering offered by various companies. Every transaction made is analyzed for location, merchant, purchase category, amount, date & time, and more. Most of the other commenters who are claiming and linking to articles that ads don’t work aren’t in the industry. This is an important distinction because what we’re talking about here are the machines that crunch all this data are considered trade secrets and/or intellectual property. Also, slightly off topic, but it’s important to understand that ads != marketing. Ads are a child component of marketing. When you look at the overall function of marketing (of which product management is a discipline, no matter how desperately some attempt to align it to technology), then consider how much of a factor data analysis and operationalization of data is a driver of success for Fortune 500 companies. Almost any company in consumer technology (e.g. FAANG), consumer healthcare (CVS), telecommunications (AT&T), FMCG or retail (Walmart, Costco), and retail banking (Chase, Wells Fargo) are using these techniques to build better products, sharpen communications, and win new customers.