4 ms·

It probably makes the most sense to just look at advertising as a share of GDP or some sort of sales metric (this page indicates it has been pretty stable for t

It probably makes the most sense to just look at advertising as a share of GDP or some sort of sales metric (this page indicates it has been pretty stable for the last 50+ years: http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/08/can-newspaper-publishers-survive-this-revenue-freefall-perhaps-if-they-embrace-a-digital-future/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/08/can-newspaper-publishers-su...). There isn't any obvious reason it would drop over time, I think the bigger question is how will advertising evolve over time.

sheri 13y ago
Something like a Yelp or Tripadvisor seemingly has made it seem possible for restaurants (or hotels) to not advertise anymore. If you provide good food and good service, your restaurant/coffee-shop should bubble up to the top and be seen consistently by a lot of people. This is a simplistic take on the restaurant business of which I know nothing about, but at least that seems like a plausible scenario.
- nine_k 13y ago
  As someone who ran a restaurant I can say that being well-known, in a prime location, and easy to google does not completely remove the need in ads, much like it doesn't remove the need to have a signboard. For a known brand ads serve as a means to say "we are here, we are alive, we do well". That's why Coca-Cola or McDonald's keep running ads, despite the fact that everyone in the world is aware of them. This is not unlike wearing an expensive necktie on public, or having a gold watch 100 years ago; it's the same sort of signaling a peacock uses his tail for. If you stop putting your ads before public's eyes, sales start to slump. Maybe this is not so for a brand with a small cult following, but such brands are few. So advertising is not going to go away, as much as luxury items market is not going to go away. It may shrink a bit when times are hard, it may migrate to different media (from paper to TV to computer screen), but not disappear.

sheri 13y ago

Something like a Yelp or Tripadvisor seemingly has made it seem possible for restaurants (or hotels) to not advertise anymore. If you provide good food and good service, your restaurant/coffee-shop should bubble up to the top and be seen consistently by a lot of people. This is a simplistic take on the restaurant business of which I know nothing about, but at least that seems like a plausible scenario.

nine_k 13y ago
As someone who ran a restaurant I can say that being well-known, in a prime location, and easy to google does not completely remove the need in ads, much like it doesn't remove the need to have a signboard. For a known brand ads serve as a means to say "we are here, we are alive, we do well". That's why Coca-Cola or McDonald's keep running ads, despite the fact that everyone in the world is aware of them. This is not unlike wearing an expensive necktie on public, or having a gold watch 100 years ago; it's the same sort of signaling a peacock uses his tail for. If you stop putting your ads before public's eyes, sales start to slump. Maybe this is not so for a brand with a small cult following, but such brands are few. So advertising is not going to go away, as much as luxury items market is not going to go away. It may shrink a bit when times are hard, it may migrate to different media (from paper to TV to computer screen), but not disappear.