Does advertising work on you?

[slowzuki]

The best advertising I think results in you not realizing it when you go to buy. Take a look at guys buying things for their wives, if they don't know anything about the topic they buy a brand name they've heard advertized.

 

[MossRoad]

So how do you find out about anything that you want to buy? Not one thing from advertising.... maybe you don't think so, but it has probably gotten to you subconsciously. You never read the price boards at gas stations and pick the lowest one? Perhaps you are brand loyal to a particular brand of gas, such as Phillips or Mobil? You find it by seeing their sign. Have a particular favorite beer or brat? You never look for it on sale? You never use coupons from your newspaper? We save $30-40 dollars a week by using coupons from the paper. That's $1500-$2000 a year. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Never gone to a concert after hearing about it on T.V. or radio? Never set your VCR to catch a lost episode of Gilligan's Island after seeing a teaser that it will be on channel 13 at 3:00am?

Advertising works and is cost effective for the advertisier if done correctly.

 

[linpat]

man and woman do it too, look at the guys who by brand names yet there r products out there that r equal in quailty and lower in price but still buy the name or better in quailty and don't buy because they r bainwashed /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif thanks

 

[getut]

Mostly no.

Any company that contacts me directly will never get my business, and those that I have dealt with in the past would lose future business if they emailed me or called me.

Car advertising is the absolute worst. I don't know how anyone buys a car. The whole thing, start to finish, are lies geared toward separating saps from their money. I always walk away feeling "dirty" knowing that they have me behind the eight ball (I HAVE to drive to work) and that I have to give ANY of them my money.

Typically thorough research via online enthusiast groups and word of mouth from trusted people is the ONLY advertising that I will even begin to consider. Oddly enough... I stay away from Consumer Reports (the web site and magazine). They always rate things based on "off the street public perception". Those perceptions of Consumer Reports are almost always the complete opposite of the enthusiast communities online (those who know their hobby/passion inside and out). I also steer away from name brand stuff unless the difference is unquestionable and indisputable. I ALWAYS weigh current product/model/version against all competitors and I never make a purchase because the "previous" product/model/version from that company was a winner. I want the CURRENT best thing.

 

[RobS]

In some future incarnation of myself I plan on studying advertising. I think it's a fascinating field. I'll also say that yes, I am influenced by ads.

I'll browse the Sunday circulars from the big box stores for items I'm in need of. Recently, I found interior doors on sale and I know I need some for the basement. I went, I bought. I think I also did just what they wanted, which was to get me in the store period 'cause while there I also bought some shims and a beef jerky. I doubt the markup on those items covered the discount on the doors but most people will probably buy even more unplanned items.

Of course, my wife will browse the circulars and find sales on items she never needed until seeing them. This must be advertising nirvana.

I will also admit to the influences of "image" ads. These are the magazine and TV spots where they don't really push the product but show it in use by lovely people etc. I find these especially interesting as it provides some insight to the marketing and target audience for a given product.

Yet another aspect is NASCAR type ads. There are companies that will document the "sightings" in a given broadcast. The number of sightings is the payoff to the advertiser. So a car that wrecks spectacularly, with lots of reruns does quite well, in spite of never finishing the race.

Again, fascinating topic. Anybody out there in the advertising business? Any stories to share?

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jim_wilson]

The only ads that seem to influence me are those Victoria's Secret commercials but my wife keeps telling me I can't have one. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[texbaylea]

_RaT_

I agree with you about Fine Homebuilding. Their ads are a great place to find new and/or useful products that you won't find in the big home improvement stores. I particularly appreciate those ads that include a web site URL. With that a small ad can payoff big.

Vernon

 

[PineRidge]

In my opinion I really think that subliminal advertising works the best on folks. People buy products and aren't even aware what influenced their decision to do so. Fact is they think that there was no outside influence whatsoever. It is so powerful that its use was banned for use on TV some years back. They used to flash a picture on the TV screen for a split second and although you were not aware of its presence your sub-conscience remembered it. So the moral of this story is: The next time someone asks if advertising works on you don't be to quick to answer no.......

subliminal=
Below the threshold of conscious perception. Used of stimuli.
Inadequate to produce conscious awareness but able to evoke a response.

 

[Egon]

For real interesting adds start looking at details in the alchol and cigarette adds. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

You make some excellent points. Most people who say they aren't affected by advertising are selecting only the most annoying sales pitch. Most of our brand loyalties come from advertising. Is Ford, Chevy or Dodge better than one or the other? I used to argue with my friends all the time about it until I realized that I didn't have a clue about what I was talking about. Still don't. The only thing that makes one better than the other is the "PERCEIVED" impression we have of that product.

Manufactures know that if you bought one of their products once, you are more than likely to buy from them again. To increase those odds, commercials are targeted at making you feel good about your purchase, which leads you to buy from them again and again. Food and beverage companies are the most obvious sources for this.

And remember those really annoying commercials? They do that on purpose because you remember them. It's a proven fact that a cerntain percentage of people will buy a product from somebody just because they have heard of them before. It's how some people vote on election day.

I think it was Bank of America that did a study on what it costs to get new customers. Something like $1,200 in advertising per new customer. Every bank knows these numbers, even though they vary by some amount. The point of that story was that it takes so much to get a customer, but nothing to lose one. It also shows a direct link to the effectivness of advertising.

I also perfer to make my purchases based on information I'm able to gain from outside sources and recomendations from people I trust. But sometimes you just don't know where they get their information from.

I was at Tri City one time in Fremont CA looking at some new ski boots. The guy next to me asked the sales rep what pair of boots were better from a group of similar priced boots. The sales rep told him the brand he liked the best and why he thought it was better than the others.

The guy had a briefcase and pulled out some papers. He told the salesman he was a rep for that brand and for reckomending their brand he was given a check. I don't know the amount, but just the fact that this happens, and I watched it myself first hand, makes me question all of it.

Eddie