4 ms·

I think the more prevailing opinion is just that marketing follows Sturgeon's Law. McDonald's is a good example - their marketing (at least in my region) is exc

I think the more prevailing opinion is just that marketing follows Sturgeon's Law. McDonald's is a good example - their marketing (at least in my region) is excellent, and I'm consciously aware of the fact that it leads me to having a higher opinion of them as a company. On the other hand, KFC's marketing is absolutely horrible (do other countries get those insanely out of touch "shut up and take my money" ads?), and I occasionally choose not to eat there solely because their marketing pisses me off so much. I'd say that fewer than ~5% of the adverts I see increase my opinion of the advertised product/brand, and around 80% of them actively reduce it. Based on my other interactions with people who can be described as "nerds", this seems like a reasonably common sentiment. In short, it's not that people think they're invulnerable to marketing, they just think that they're invulnerable to shoddy marketing aimed at the lowest common denominator with no thought beyond "let's just yell at them every 5 minutes until they buy our product". Which could very well be true.

ijidak 5y ago
This is a point made by famous advertiser David Ogilvy, in "Ogilvy on Advertising." Some ads have been proven by measurement to un-sell a product. The worst companies do a poor job of measuring the effectiveness of their marketing and un-sell their product. A good advertiser will measure for this affect and change their ads accordingly. But yes. Not all ads improve sales. Many ads do un-sell product.
inter_netuser 5y ago
When was the last time you bought something because of ads? Would a fancy jingle convince you to sit 40 mins in traffic for the same crappy burger with slightly different sauce from the same Sysco truck?
- sellyme 5y ago
  > When was the last time you bought something because of ads? The last major purchase (>$100) I've made because of an advertisement was a ROG Phone 3 (two of them, actually) late last year. I had not ever heard of it before seeing an advertisement for it, and upon looking it up it seemed like a really good option. The last one full stop was a billboard advertisement for a block of chocolate with a flavour that I know I like from a brand I don't normally purchase. Decided to try it out, liked it a lot. That was about three weeks ago. > Would a fancy jingle convince you to sit 40 mins in traffic for the same crappy burger with slightly different sauce from the same Sysco truck? I don't think it's possible to sit in traffic for 40 minutes on my continent, so that's going to be a pretty tough sale.
  - Jensson 5y ago
    Both of your examples shows you bought new products because you learned about their specs and tried them for rational reasons. It isn't a counter-example at all. Traditional marketing works via emotional manipulation first and foremost, informing the public is secondary. If marketing to nerds mainly works via informing them of new products then marketing isn't very effective on that group.

ijidak 5y ago

This is a point made by famous advertiser David Ogilvy, in "Ogilvy on Advertising." Some ads have been proven by measurement to un-sell a product. The worst companies do a poor job of measuring the effectiveness of their marketing and un-sell their product. A good advertiser will measure for this affect and change their ads accordingly. But yes. Not all ads improve sales. Many ads do un-sell product.

inter_netuser 5y ago

When was the last time you bought something because of ads? Would a fancy jingle convince you to sit 40 mins in traffic for the same crappy burger with slightly different sauce from the same Sysco truck?

sellyme 5y ago
> When was the last time you bought something because of ads? The last major purchase (>$100) I've made because of an advertisement was a ROG Phone 3 (two of them, actually) late last year. I had not ever heard of it before seeing an advertisement for it, and upon looking it up it seemed like a really good option. The last one full stop was a billboard advertisement for a block of chocolate with a flavour that I know I like from a brand I don't normally purchase. Decided to try it out, liked it a lot. That was about three weeks ago. > Would a fancy jingle convince you to sit 40 mins in traffic for the same crappy burger with slightly different sauce from the same Sysco truck? I don't think it's possible to sit in traffic for 40 minutes on my continent, so that's going to be a pretty tough sale.
- Jensson 5y ago
  Both of your examples shows you bought new products because you learned about their specs and tried them for rational reasons. It isn't a counter-example at all. Traditional marketing works via emotional manipulation first and foremost, informing the public is secondary. If marketing to nerds mainly works via informing them of new products then marketing isn't very effective on that group.