How does Advertising and Promotion Influence You?

[Jim Koepke]

For SMC, my ad blocker is off to help generate some revenue beyond my annual dues. It can not only be time consuming to run a website, but people and bills have to be paid.

Most of our regular television programs are recorded to allow us to zip through commercials. Sadly, some commercials are better entertainment than some of the programing they support.

Occasionally there are ads that have interest to me. Currently one running here for Lee Valley caught my eye. For some reason the LV news letter stopped coming to my mailbox, so it was restarted.

There have been a lot of ads for home delivered mattresses on TV. Our mattress was rather old and getting lumpy. My wife did the research and was thinking of a particular mattress. She asked me about it and was wondering if it was right for us. My advice was to check the reviews. Oops! The online reviews were not too good. After digging around a bit she found one with rather good reviews for which we hadn't seen any ads on TV. That was the one we bought and it has been giving us a much better night's sleep since. So those ads got us to buy, just not the brand that was being advertised.

Fake products, fake news and other forms of fakery will exist as long as there are people who do not want to be troubled with taking the time to do a little research or alternate sourcing. One thing that garners my appreciation with a news program is when they come back at a later date to clarify something they didn't report correctly. Some news outlets will be all over something for days and then just let it quietly fade off when it is exposed that they got it wrong. When people can be scammed by fake news, the advertisers know they can be convinced to buy fake products. Sadly, because of the wide audience and how advertising time is purchased, legitimate products end up in the mix to add credence to the "bottom feeders."

This reminds me of a former coworker who was showing me an object that looked like a hand plane. When told it was a piece of junk he replied, "yes, but it was cheap." Buying things that will never work is actually rather expensive in my book.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

On a funny aside to advertising, because my wife occasionally buys clothing including swimwear and undergarments online, often my screen is inundated with ads directed at her.

My question is does she wonder why she is getting ads for a saw vise or band saw blades?

jtk

[Carlos Alvarez]

My point - most of us are much more heavily influenced by sophisticated marketing than we think (or than we'd like to think). This has been proven to apply to all demographic groups, and all ages, including those over 35.
Edwin

Yup, agreed. One of my long-time clients is a marketing research company and I've learned a lot from them. Which is why I make sure to protect our household from as much advertising as possible. No live TV, no broadcast radio, nothing with ads enters our lives.

[Rod Sheridan]

It's pretty much a given these days that you will be bombarded by advertising. I stopped with my wife this morning to gas up her car. The gas pump had a display screen that was running a sports talk show and commercials. On a gas pump no less. What's this world coming to when people need to be entertained while pumping gas?

Even worse Marshall, a few weeks ago I went to the washroom in a pub.

When I walked up to the urinal, what I thought was a bulletin board turned on. They had a captive audience for a minute of their advertising.

Seriously? A monitor above a urinal for advertising?

Regards, Rod.

[Chase Mueller]

Even worse Marshall, a few weeks ago I went to the washroom in a pub.

When I walked up to the urinal, what I thought was a bulletin board turned on. They had a captive audience for a minute of their advertising.

Seriously? A monitor above a urinal for advertising?

Regards, Rod.

Wonder if there was a camera too..

[Carlos Alvarez]

And many gas pumps in CA now have that same garbage. I respect private property, but I really do want to put my pocket knife through the thing. I just avoid those stations. Luckily I haven't seen one here in AZ yet. Maybe they figure we'd just shoot them?

[Dennis Peacock]

I pay ZERO attention to advertising and promotions.

[Jim Becker]

Even worse Marshall, a few weeks ago I went to the washroom in a pub.

When I walked up to the urinal, what I thought was a bulletin board turned on. They had a captive audience for a minute of their advertising.

Seriously? A monitor above a urinal for advertising?

Regards, Rod.

Those things have been around for years now...

[John C Cox]

The interesting thing is that often, the most successful "marketing" works by confirming pre-existing biases...

Here's a good hypothetical example of how this works....

It's a week before the paycheck and I am grumbling about spending too much money on stupid things.... On pops an ad for paper towels... And it's message is: Stop paying for the rolls royce of paper towels when all you need is to clean up a spill and throw it out... Ding! Great idea.. I know the ultimate end of a paper towel is the dump... Why should I pay for all this unnecessary "quality"..... Here's a chance for me to do what I already wanted to do - aka save some money on unnecessary stuff like expensive premium reusable paper towels that will survive a nuclear attack and outlast cockroaches... And so next time I go shopping - I will be looking for that brand...

See how that works. Confirmation bias that my idea was a good one in the first place... I *was* smart and my idea was a good one...

And it turns out that this is how "fake" news works... You cook up a story that has some true facts in it which confirms what people already wanted to believe (such as that they are smart, make the good decisions, and have a reasonable world view).... For example - I would completely fall for a fake woodworking chisel review that pans Aldi and Harbor freight chisels qnd then ranked a couple more common familiar chisels in "average" performance because that's my experience... And they *then* have enough of my trust to spring their champion chisel on me which I must now rush straight out and buy....

But it works the opposite way too... Take for example a different fake news chisel "review" which pans several people's favorite user chisels and then ranks one on top along side a couple obvious losers... Many people would dismiss the entire article out of hand - and further more - this diminishes their perception of the one that came out on top..... Say now Ashley Iles and Two Cherries come out mid pack, Aldi and Harbor Freight come in 2nd and 3rd place.. Then my chisel on top.. Everybody knows this is preposterous, and linking my chisel with those diminishes it's reputation...

[Carlos Alvarez]

The interesting thing is that often, the most successful "marketing" works by confirming pre-existing biases...

I've heard that many times, and it must work on some people. It makes me like a company less even if I liked it and used their products already. If an ad tells me something that I already know or believe, I'll think I was wrong and it must be a lie.

[John C Cox]

So you would stop drinking your favorite beer because you saw the brewer advertised it? That's a strange place to live my friend...

[Chase Mueller]

So you would stop drinking your favorite beer because you saw the brewer advertised it? That's a strange place to live my friend...

That, good sir, entirely depends on the platform of the add. Typically, if any company very blatantly takes a political stance, I refuse to buy their product.
Hence why Wal-Mart and Bass Pro will never get my business again if I can help it.

[Carlos Alvarez]

So you would stop drinking your favorite beer because you saw the brewer advertised it? That's a strange place to live my friend...

LOL, I don't have a favorite anything really, but it's very unlikely that the local craft beers I prefer would be advertised. And I didn't say I'd avoid the product, but I'd think less of the company and I'd assume I need to at least reconsider my choices.

[John C Cox]

That, good sir, entirely depends on the platform of the add. Typically, if any company very blatantly takes a political stance, I refuse to buy their product.
Hence why Wal-Mart and Bass Pro will never get my business again if I can help it.

I get that... And while you could equate a company's overt political support or activism for/against some cause with "virtue signaling" and hence "marketing" as such... I don't really think that's what this is about.... Maybe it is...

Another question...
Do you consider rejecting Lee Valley because they sponsor the forum with banner ads? I don't... And their free shipping ads pull me in like a moth to the flame....

Typically - the way "good" ads work is to convince you to put a little more consideration into something you already wanted to do... Like the Lee Valley free shipping banner ads.... I already wanted some of their fine zoot... This just sort of pushes it up over the top.... Or at worst - think no worse about the product/company... Like their April Fools ads - which put a funny spin on a cool and useful product... I giggle like a little girl every time I watch the video for their marking gages with "irrational" size gage blocks like e/(square root of 2).....

[Norman Pirollo]

On a funny aside to advertising, because my wife occasionally buys clothing including swimwear and undergarments online, often my screen is inundated with ads directed at her.

My question is does she wonder why she is getting ads for a saw vise or band saw blades?

jtk

This makes me think. We can log in to our wife's computer and search for a fancy tool we are interested in buying. Then wife gets bombarded with the ads and this plants a seed. A good idea just before Christmas or a birthday... lol

Norman