That’s the neat thing, they don’t.
Marketing looks like it is there to make you buy products, but it’s a well-known fact that this doesn’t work, and online ads specifically allow performance measurements, and they show that it’s not worth the money.
So what are ads actually there for then?
First, remember that the thing that marketing departments are best at is marketing their own importance to company management. They are really good at convincing their companies that if they stop marketing, everything will collapse. So in this way, marketing is there to finance the marketing department, and everyone’s too scared to stop marketing, because if they do they will be seen as the biggest idiots ever.
Second, marketing is there to provide a small revenue stream to the platform where you see the ads, but more importantly to punish you for not paying premium. Youtube makes you watch a shitton of ads, not because they care about whether you buy anything from the ads, but to punish you for not paying premium and to get you to do so. A premium customer brings in orders of magnitude more money than an ad-only customer.
They are really good at convincing their companies that if they stop marketing, everything will collapse.
I hate that I’m going to defend marketing here, but if they do stop marketing then things will collapse (for many businesses). Do I like marketing, personally? No. That’s why I got out of marketing and am becoming an elementary school teacher to help others rather than spit propaganda but I digress…
Marketing isn’t always about generating a sale. Many times its reach and brand recall. We’re a global and digital economy now, so reach is massively important for survival. Stopping marketing limits who is exposed to your brand and the repetition makes your company synonymous with a product.
Why do we call tissues Kleenex? Why do we call cotton swabs a Qtip? Why do we call small sticky notepads Post-Its? Why do we call searching “Googling”? Why do we gravitate toward those brands even when cheaper and more generic options exist that are perfectly on par?
Making those brands the prime thing you think of when you use a specific thing so that no one thinks of using something else even when they have money. You want people to mention your product or think about it even if they aren’t buying it.
You’re drowning out the potential of your competition. That’s marketing, and if you stop then your competitor takes over or a small business won’t grow.
As an engineer who hated marketing, started my own business, which subsequently failed due to my lack of understanding for the importance and proper execution of the marketing mission… I now have a deep respect, and appreciation of a well-run marketing function.
I have a great business name and word of mouth carries me.
I feel like if you need marketing it’s because you have too many competitors all doing the same thing ie: no one needs your business.
Why do we gravitate toward those brands even when cheaper and more generic options exist that are perfectly on par?
To be fair, there are plenty of people who specifically avoid those brands because they are more expensive and they know they can save money with cheaper alternatives, or because they can’t afford the name brand.
With that said, there are some times where the name brand does actually provide a superior product.
You’re drowning out the potential of your competition. That’s marketing, and if you stop then your competitor takes over or a small business won’t grow.
Tbh, I don’t think it’s that powerful. I’ve been happily googling on DuckDuckGo for years, same as I have been using Post-its from all sorts of companies and in fact never from Post-it. I don’t think this brand is even available in my country.
I’ve been using “Tixo” for “sticky tape” even though the Tixo brand went out of business around the time I was born.
In fact, if a brand name becomes genericised, it loses its power. It stops being a brand and becomes a generic term for anything in that space.
Brand recognition also goes the other way. You know, like when you see a McDonalds and you instinctively go “Ugh, these asshats who keep wasting my time with always the same ad over and over again when I try to watch a youtube video.”
Intrusive ads don’t further positive brand recognition but instead cause brand fatigue.
Yeah, back when I still watched cable TV, Canadian Tire had a recurring character in their ads where some neighbours were talking about a problem and the Canadian Tire guy would pop in with how Canadian Tire had a product that could help with that very problem.
Sounded like a normal kind of ad, but the guy came off as so smug and corporate, he was pretty much in the uncanny valley with his behaviour. Trying to play the ad off as a natural conversation just came off as so fake and I hated the ads to the point where I boycotted the windshield wipers despite them looking like exactly what I wanted.
They weren’t, I’d later learn after enough time had passed after they fired the guy (because turns out I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stand him) and I decided they had learned their lesson. But the ads did more to drive me to other stores than help Canadian Tire’s business, even though they were already one of the default options (for those who don’t know them, they are a big box store that is like Home Depot plus car parts, outdoor sporting/camping/hunting, but minus a bunch of the hardware and any contractor focus).
Yeah, everyone knows Coca-Cola. Nobody immediately goes out to buy some when they see the ad with Santa Clause and whatever, but the brand recognition is conditioned into pretty much everyone so you notice it in the store when you’re thinking of grabbing a cool beverage from the fridge.
It’s not even that good, but it’s the default.
If marketing majors could read, they’d be very upset.
Marketing is more than just advertising and promoting though. Marketing is an integral part of a business. If you research what your target audience likes, that’s marketing. Researching where you should sell your products, marketing. Focus group testing, marketing. What price you should sell, marketing. Even if a business doesn’t have a marketing department they still engage in marketing.
I find it boss that ads don’t make anymony. They seem to be driving the whole world economy.
They make money for those who sell ad space.
This is one of those fun conspiracy theories that is harmless, and can’t be argued against because you can always just say “SEE THEY’VE CONVINCED YOU TOO!”
It’s not, we can prove that marketing does in fact impact sales, but it’s fun nonetheless.
If you don’t have money for either product then you are not their target demographic, and thus, you being inconvenienced or delayed does not concern them in the slightest.
Their goal is to get money from the people who have money. How they affect people with no money is not a factor in their decisions, since no money will be acquired from them regardless.
get money from the people who have money.
The “whales” is the advertising business term for that.
I get that for stuff like billboards and tv/radio commercials… But why does google and friends keep telling me about how they need my data to give me targeted ads? If they wanted to give me targeted ads, shouldn’t they first figure out how much I’m willing to pay, then get mad at me because I can’t pay for anything and maybe offer ads for mental health services?
I mean obviously the answer is that they just want the data for control and whatnot. But they should just drop the whole pretending to do targeted advertising. I would probably appreciate their honesty if they just told me that they need my data to grow their business, instead of giving me the “we care about your data” and targeted ads bullshit lol
But anyway, doesn’t really matter for me personally since I use ad blockers, if I can’t use ad blockers, I’ll stop using the service and go read a book.
People keep saying that ads are to get the brand into my head, but they dont realise thats a bad thing for the company. I specificly buy brands i DONT see ads for because i believe if they arent spending money on ads but are still being sold in storesz they must be spending that money on bettering the product instead.
Sadly, you’re not the norm. Getting the brand into peoples’ heads actually works in most cases, which is why they keep doing it.
It’s insane to me how little thought people put into things in their daily lives, because you’re right. So many people see a thing and they’re like “Oh, I see the thing. I’ll do the thing. Coke flavored mouthwash on my TV? Yeah, let’s do coke flavored mouthwash.” Literally just the first unfiltered, uncritical reaction they feel.
I had someone the other day tell me they didn’t want to use Firefox because when they did it gave them a bunch of security issues. When I asked what they meant it turned out the security issues in question were the browser asking them if they wanted to let different websites know their location, have access to webcam, etc. “Well I just don’t like that it does that”
I don’t want to stray into XKCD territory, but it does seem like people in general tend to be less…conscientious about such things than I. However, I’m oblivious about plenty of things myself that others are more aware of, so I guess it’s just how different priorities work.
Yeah, I am very oblivious to many civil rights issues for instance. I guess it’s probably safe to assume I’m that kind of person to somebody out there, isn’t it?
Yes, this has been proven experimentally.
seems strange to me that this (in the attached image) isn’t the normal way people think
The fact that McDonald’s exists is proof that advertising works.
Last time I went to cDonald’s it tasted fine and was rather enjoyable. But I felt queasy the following day.
On the other hand, you never see ads for beans and yet you can’t stop thinking about them.
Rubbish, I can stop thinking about beans any time I want.
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Mmmmmmm, beans on toast with a bit of cheese. DAMNIT!Are you sure the Bud Spencer and Terrace Hill movies haven’t been a ad campaign by big Beans?
Because you saved that money so that you could buy their product!
Idiots live in debt by throwing money on bullshit all the time
Makes me think about the saying “We buy stuff we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like”
I find it wild that people are still under the impression that advertising doesn’t work. I get it, you block ads, you aggressively ignore them, you feel like they never influence you. Same here. But they do influence us. A little bit here and there. Then consider that most people are way more suggestible than we are. If ads didn’t work, they would’ve never been a thing.
You might think you cannot afford to buy most things advertised, but the numbers don’t lie. They’ll get you eventually. Even if it’s just $3. Not having money never really stopped people from spending it anyhow.
It is because it works that I spend so much time trying to block them. I don’t need them trying to manipulate me, gaslight me, or try to convince me I need shit I don’t want.
It’s incredibly toxic.
It’s unlikely that you’re exceptional in your resistance to advertising.
It’s just that 95% of all advertising fails to hit its intended target.
I am definitely in the vast minority of people who go so far to not see ads. Not many people will tinker with a raspberry pi for hours just to avoid the possibility of an ad appearing in video streaming services. Lemmy is a bubble that way. You’d rarely meet someone in real life that uses pihole for example but there’s thousands on here who do.
And I think the number is higher than 95%. All it takes is a tiny percentage for it to all be worth it.
it took you HOURS to install pihole?
It took me hours to setup a raspberry pi for tv viewing with all the hardware and software I needed working.
Anymore gotchas?
I’ve never used pihole but I’m sure you could spend hours tweaking it if you wanted to anyhow.
I’m just not even sure what your point would be no matter how I interpret this. If pihole is quick to setup, you really think many people use it? It’s probably way under .0001% of households using that.
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You might think you cannot afford to buy most things advertised, but the numbers don’t lie. They’ll get you eventually. Even if it’s just $3.
Do you really believe that? $3 isn’t going to get me the things I see ads for that I’d actually be tempted by. As to things $3 or below, I’m never shopping at the craft store that hates gay people. I’m never buying from the top fast food places either. These are things I already made decisions on for moral reasons and I’ve never swayed on in all my years, so why on Earth would an ad make a difference?
I don’t think advertisers (or those that think any old ad is bound to be effective) consider that there are some of us who make decisions based on our own criteria. I recognize that I’m not like most people, but to say that such ads are still going to “get [me] eventually” is nonsense.
Not having money never really stopped people from spending it anyhow.
Maybe for some, but that’s again not something that applies to everyone. I don’t even have a credit card. I’ve had nearly 20 years of adulthood in which to get one, have bought/leased cars and rented apartments without a problem (despite no card, paying off student loans means my credit score is pretty good), and I prefer the security of only spending money I’ve already got. Advertisers can have fun trying to squeeze
bloodmoney from a stone.I don’t really understand this comment. You actually really believe you are the one person in history completely unaffected by messaging? I cannot imagine thinking that. I have no doubt it would be trivial to disprove this to you in an in person conversation but I’m not getting dragged into an argument here for it.
I love how many unique people who are immune to adds here are.
You are being effected by adds, you will do purchace decision effected by add campaing. You have done purchace decision effected by add campaign.
You can have moral standing and boycot companies. You can decite you dont use that one brand, but as long as you are consumer, your buying habits will always be slightly effected by adds.
You probably simply never noticed. Maybe the grocery chain you buy at. Maybe a particularly flashy packaging of a food item in said grocery store. Maybe an outrageous fun sex toy you saw in porn. Maybe you’re subscribed to a Patreon somewhere. Maybe you have a t-shirt of your favorite show. Do you really make all these decisions completely conscious of all advertising you saw before, making sure that you do not miss any better alternatives with worse advertising?
No person can think so much about all their decisions to spend money. No one can be so perfectly conscious of every single sensory input. Advertising works on everyone, you just don’t even notice when it works on you.
No person can think so much about all their decisions to spend money.
Aw, I wish I didn’t need to budget every cent, but with the small amount of pocket change I’ve got to buy things, being careful with it becomes normal. Most of the food I buy is straight up raw vegetables, or store brand frozen/canned items (which are bought because they’re cheapest. Or is “advertisement” so broad of a term that it applies to ordinary price tags?) Clothing is whatever’s affordable, fits, and looks and feels good enough. When you’re teetering on the edge of homelessness (and have experienced it three times), survival becomes your main priority. Penny pinching is unavoidable. Frivolous spending becomes a pipe dream.
Even if ads are still sneaking info into my brain, I’m hard-pressed to think of any purchases I’ve made where brand names factor in. I’m really trying to think of something here, but even the less common things I’ve spent money on were chosen through experience (like a game I played with a friend, then decided I wanted a copy of) or research (like when I bought a solar generator last year. I’d never even heard of the company before I sought it out for myself.)
I guess a local Chinese food flyer put on a doorknob counts as advertising that works, though even then if they don’t have decent veg options and prices, it’s going to be a no-go. So sure, that’s your “gotcha.” Chinese food flyers. All the money spent on ads around the world, and the only thing I can recall purchasing based on it took some person taking a walk and hanging menus on doors.
I get it, ads are designed to manipulate, to put ideas into people’s heads as a latent reminder, like a virus waiting for the right moment to strike. Maybe some day if I actually make enough money to not have to be extraordinarily careful with it, more of them might get a chance to work. Who knows. Right now, price is the biggest pain point, overriding brand recognition. With the way things are going, I don’t expect that to change any time soon.
Perhaps the best advertisement would be if a company decided to lobby for higher wages - that’d definitely make a company name stick in my head in a positive way, and would provide me the opportunity to spend money on them, to boot!
A bit late to the party, but… well…
If a streaming service has an ad-free tier, the ads shown aren’t really there to sell the things they advertise. Oh, sure, the buyer of the ad wants your money, but they didn’t pay a bunch to show you that ad and the revenue from the ad buy just has be “slightly higher than spam” to be worthwhile.
"Ad-Supported’ tiers exist to differentiate the higher cost points. Which is why the ads frequently aren’t aligned with natural break points in the video. And why in some cases it’s the same two or three ads shown for every artificial and clumsy break.
The ads you are seeing exist primarily as an advertisement for the ad-free tier.
Sse Spotify for a proof of this concept. 99% of their ads are specifically to tell you about how cool it is to not have ads.
Or at least they were. My wife’s been paying a long time i dont know what its doing now.
Because you might have money someday
Especially when it’s for vacation spots, booking sites, or luxury cars. Keep spending that money for no return, guys, because absolutely none of that is happening. (I want to say “not happening anytime soon,” but who am I kidding? I’m already in my upper 30s and I can’t fathom making that kind of money.)
Ads these days are run like internet scams they are there to trick the most vulnerable.
I feel like sometimes it has another sinister layer below that as well.
TV AD: {artificial lip-synced voice-over } hello. i am 53 year old women and i play vita majong for health and vitality…
The obvious grammar errors, poor sound and graphics. Yet it was cleared for final broadcast. It’s like “I’ll scam you with this poor app, get away with mocking you, and get paid for it hee hee”.
If priesthood attracts pedophiles, LEO attracts mother issues, and management attracts sociopaths, who does marketing attract? Who are the kind of people that make it to decision maker in that world?
I appreciate the sentiment because I also hate ads, but just because you’re not spending your disposable income on premium doesn’t mean you couldn’t theoretically spend it on something else.
Nobody cares if you have money or not. It’s about reaching a lot of users and finding one’s that are willing to buy
Ive forgotten the actual terms of the purchasing funnel. Something like attention, awareness, interest, desire, action.
Edit: I looked it up
I have colleagues who are happy enough to see personalised ads. Sad as it may be, we live in Brave New World and people are happy to take soma.
This is exactly how I feel when a monthly bill goes up as result of missed payment, I missed because I’m laid off and broke. What makes them think turning up the heat will result in me suddenly having money appear?
