
The Death of Advertising - ptrptr
https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/the-death-of-advertising-8b90d0b9b66e#.enrgt0gdj
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mjevans
While I agree with the initial observations, I disagree with the concluding
thoughts.

The headline is click-bait; I would love a world in which ads, useless things
which only annoy me, cease to exist. They do not offer me utility or value. I
already know what I want, and when I don't I /then/ use a search engine.

Brand names are also a form of consumer protection. In that respect I believe
they shall remain.

~~~
lighthazard
You know what you need, not what you want. When new products come out, how do
you find out about it? Without advertising, do you hope to discover their
store on the Internet randomly?

~~~
FridgeSeal
In the many years I've used the internet, I don't think I've ever seen an add
where I've been like "I didn't know I wanted this", and the increasing
invasion of privacy from advertisers is not worth the incredibly vague promise
of "ads for things you didn't know you wanted".

Much like OP, if there's something I want, I go and research it, or use a
community or activity related site (Reddit, BikeRadar/Polygon etc), where
there's community discussion and conversation on what's good, bad, relative
differences etc. For the most part, this means you get the actually better
product, not the one with the biggest advertising spend _.

_ No it's not a perfect system, but it's far better than being spammed with
ads for things I "don't know I want", which is a spectacularly absurd concept.

~~~
Denzel
Let's take a step back. I want to see how you think I should solve this
problem...

I have a startup with a new product. No one knows about the company or the
product, but they have a basic desire. That desire can currently be fulfilled
with other options. But our offering is vastly different, in fact it's never
been done before, and the only way you can realize you need it is by
experiencing it. That's why we started the company. How do I get the product
to them?

They don't know that they want this product.

I can assure you though, once they experience it, they don't know how they
lived without it. Although they never thought to ask for it because it was
literally an unknown unknown.

This isn't a hypothetical, this is a real-world example from my brother's
company. And I can tell you, targeted advertisement was insanely effective.

I'm open to hear other possible ways to get the same ROI using another method.

~~~
dingaling
> and the only way you can realize you need it is by experiencing it.

That is part of the problem with modern advertising: hyperbole. By definition,
if people have survived this long without knowing about Product-X then they
don't need it. The OP's perspective was that he'd rather _not_ know about
Product-X ahead of need-time.

If he identified a need or desire for a solution to a problem he would search
for "grill-thing that keeps leaves out of drain" or "brace that keeps
daffodils upright in the wind" and he'd stumble across your brother's product.
So the product marketing strategy would be to place Product-X in places where
it would likely be found by people pursuing that particular need or desire.

I found myself doing that recently for what transpired to be called a 'tamping
rammer'.

I appreciate that's not ideal from a corporate perspective when the goal is to
'make' a market by leveraging perceived need, but that's not the primary
concern of those who are fatigued by advertising.

~~~
Denzel
> So the product marketing strategy would be to place Product-X in places
> where it would likely be found by people pursuing that particular need or
> desire.

That's like... the exact definition of good advertising. And that's what we
did.

------
davemel37
I think this article completely fails to consider the human element in
consumerism and advertising. Big data will never replace human decision
making. It is a nice observation from someone figuring out the world...but is
very early in that discovery process.

Brands are more than just a tool...they are a direct byproduct of how our
brains perceive and recall things.

Human nature hasnt changed since the caveman days and never will. It can
evolve and manifest itself in different ways, but our core drivers are
fundamental to our existence.

