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Thread: How does Advertising and Promotion Influence You?

  1. #61
    I honestly don't think the biggest risk to us is consumer companies trying to sell us wares through overt, disclosed advertising... There is a much greater risk from "Marketing" and "PR" firms passing off paid pieces as "News" or "Information" - example in the case of much woodworking content presented as "Articles" are in reality paid and sponsored "Advertorials"....

    Here's how something like this would work... Say I start John's Chisels R Us to sell my own line of chisels... But I need to find a way to get the word out - but I want to specifically target people who will buy my stuff.... So I contract a PR/Marketing firm and pay a Woodworking magazine or website to work together to write up a very favorable review of my product... Perhaps even do a shootout with a bunch of different chisels where mine comes out near the top... And then I pay them to feature my tools in a series of projects they are doing over the next year...

    Notice how none of these efforts have disclosed that I am paying for these things to happen... They are all presented as "Objective Journalsim.." This blurs the line between "Marketing" and is where things become dangerous - because it is not DISCLOSED that the efforts are paid, and who is paying for the work which was created to sell a product...

    Say now you found out later on that all the favorable reviews you read of John's Chisels R Us tools were created by a professional marketing firm and were simply then "Edited" by one of the prominent magazine editors under his own name... Say you found out the same thing for the "Shootout".... That it was a paid promotion contrived to show that John's Chisels R Us are real solid performers when they are actually re-branded rejects from Harbor freight... And so they created a bunch of tasks and a ranking system which would make an inferior tool look like it performed well.. So perhaps they highlighted a bunch of "Real Life Chisel Use" tasks "For the rest of us" like cutting sandpaper, prying paint cans, pulling nails, and chipping glue off cement... Perhaps they tested them all using "Real world sharpening" on a portable belt sander and older Silica stones which won't sharpen the new alloy steels... Perhaps they rolled them around in the back of a pickup truck for a week then sharpened them on a cement driveway.... Then add a few contrived opinion ranking categories and off you go.... Suddenly - these "chisels" which aren't even good for scraping gum off your shoes come out as solid performers.... And you are the one who is a problem when you complain that they just don't hold up right in your hands....

    and I also want to put a little bug in your ear... Does that sound like any of the web content or magazone reviews you have been through... I know I was sucked in by the allure of some tools like this about 10 years ago.. And was then disappointed when they didn't perform well in my hands.. Come to find out in the last few years that *Everybody* had basically the same results as me... But since the Magazines all said they were awesome and featured them prominently in builds - it must have been a problem with me.... Right?
    Last edited by John C Cox; 04-26-2018 at 10:45 AM.

  2. #62
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    I do notice on some of the shows they duct tape over the brand name of the power tools if they are not a sponsor. I can recognize the Makita blue tools that Norm uses even if they are not a sponsor.
    Bill D.

  3. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg R Bradley View Post
    Yes, I should have been more specific with my complaint being about what you call "in your face" promotion.

    Example: As I type this a banner ad from Hammer offering a free catalog or newsletter appears above. That is what pays for this site and its there if I want to click on it. Can actually be useful information.

    Contrast that to a website that I found looking for a specific product recently. I wanted some LED strips with drivers that attach magnetically to metal lights to add some light that wasn't going straight down. My first clue that they were "in your face" should have been when a box popped up that offered to chat with a salesperson and kept coming back when clicked off. Then it started moving around on the screen making it hard for me to get the info I wanted. I bought one sample of each likely unit. Then i received requests for a satisfaction survey. Then requests to leave reviews on google, etc. When I started doing my testing, I went back to their website to look at more info on the product I had purchased and others. This generated emails. Then PHONE CALL using the number I had left when I placed the order.
    Thanks Greg. I've read your posts on LEDs for awhile and I like how you think. Those tactics are like the company has it "programmed in" to interrupt the way you analyze and purchase. What you describe here would be very annoying to me as well.
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  4. #64
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    A few years ago walking into a business was the most common way to buy. Commonly a salesperson would greet you. They'd say" what are you shopping for and how much do you want to spend". I'd smile and state the item and say "I'd like the best item for me at the lowest cost". The salesperson's smile would always turn to a frown

    It seems like sales technology today is trying to analyze me with tactics like that salesperson would try.

    I've always been resistant to sales tactics and advertising. This really helped me in my business when it came to advertising and sales.
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  5. #65
    Quote Originally Posted by Lee DeRaud View Post
    I can live with that, what bothers me is getting bombarded by ads for something I just bought, usually from whoever I just bought it from.
    That drives me crazy. Amazon spends a lot of time telling me about things I already bought from them, always things that I am not likely to buy again. What's the point?

  6. #66
    Quote Originally Posted by Edwin Santos View Post
    Could it be that some (most) advertising is simply aimed at creating awareness that a product exists for those who would otherwise not know?
    It's very rare to see ads for something that isn't already common knowledge. So yeah, it would be useful if that's what most ads were, but instead most are telling me that Coke kills kittens and I should drink Pepsi otherwise I'm a kitten killer also. It's 99% useless garbage.

    And while I don't completely disqualify a product if I see an ad for it, I think less of it and reduce my mental "buy score" for it.

    I see almost no advertising at all because I have gone out of my way to block it all, and don't watch any kind of live TV or any TV with ads. Yet I'm also the one with a whole bunch of tools and things my friends say, "I didn't know that exists!" I don't need ads to tell me what exists. I will go find it. If I spot a problem or challenge, I just assume someone has a product to solve it, and search.

  7. #67
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    I don't recall a time when I wasn't surrounded by advertising. It seems to me the old TV ads were more memorable - "To look sharp and to feel sharp too...", "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should", "We're having Beef-a-roni! It tastes like macaroni!" - or is that just nostalgia?

    I should join the chorus and declare I'm not influenced by advertising. But what is the situation? - Companies are wasting money on advertising because it doesn't influence people? Advertising influences the general population but woodworkers are immune? ( I suspect I am influenced by advertising, but can't think of any example I care to admit. At least I never started smoking cigarettes.)

  8. #68
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    Please note that because of ad blocking software SawMill Creek will convert to a subscription based Forum when we convert from vBulletin to Xenforo in a couple of months. Since advertising is the topic of this thread I thought it would be prudent to share this information so as many people as possible are informed concerning the upcoming changes.

  9. #69
    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Tashiro View Post
    I should join the chorus and declare I'm not influenced by advertising.
    I don't recall seeing anyone claim that. It's one of the reasons I make sure to block and avoid advertising. Though for me, most ads that I do end up seeing influence me to hate the company for forcing it on me and wasting money on it.

  10. #70
    I just search all 5 pages of this thread. One word that's missing:

    BILLBOARD

    You can't drive a mile anywhere in this country without passing 20 billboards, half of them these days are just big screen TV's. (<just guessing at stats here )

    You can't escape advertising, that's about all I have to say about it
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  11. #71
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    The electronic billboards are a really interesting thing...the billboard companies can now sell the same space to multiple advertisers at the same time and the very act of the display changing makes people look. These things only need a few seconds of attention to be effective in most cases to folks susceptible to advertising. Honestly, I prefer them to old, static and degrading traditional fixed billboards and there are fewer of the physical presences along the roads at this point, at least toward my eyes.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  12. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Honestly, I prefer them to old, static and degrading traditional fixed billboards and there are fewer of the physical presences along the roads at this point, at least toward my eyes.
    I'm waiting for one where the ad for an accident attorney shows a video of an accident happening.

  13. #73
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    The electronic billboards are a really interesting thing...the billboard companies can now sell the same space to multiple advertisers at the same time and the very act of the display changing makes people look.
    Right, like the average driver really needs more distractions.
    Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
    "Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
    We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
    The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
    The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
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  14. #74
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Tashiro View Post
    I'm waiting for one where the ad for an accident attorney shows a video of an accident happening.
    Followed immediately by a "Better Call Saul" promo.
    Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
    "Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
    We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
    The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
    The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
    You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.

  15. #75
    About five or six years ago I was invited to do a research study where they put you in a driving simulator and stick an eye tracker on your head. You drive for ten minutes. I was lead to believe it was about road markings, quality, traffic controls, and stuff like that. At the end they told me it was on billboards, and I hadn't looked at a single one. No idea how many people do, but I have to wonder. Online we're figuring out that banner ads, the equivalent of billboards, are being ignored more and more, which is good. Maybe billboards are just a scam, who knows. I can't imagine why someone would look at one and think to contact the company later.

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