Always puzzled me how much money can possibly be in trying to optimize sales by some low digit percentage points, versus how much is sacrificed for it.

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riskable 4 hours ago | parent [-]

The problem is that advertising works! I hate that it works!

Marketing and advertising aren't the same thing but I swear both sides of that coin have devolved via some process of carcinization where their claws emerge from the darkness everywhere people gather. Especially places where those claws are inappropriate and unwanted and yet it still works.

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tomrod 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think it actually works very well at the rate the big companies use it.

I think for a Mom & Pop trying to build some form of brand recognition in their small community, it gets people informed.

But persuasive convincing, the mind control target that marketers claim to be able to drive? Nah.

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apocalyptic0n3 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, people in our line of work tend to look down on it and don't understand it because we discover things more manually. But that's not the case with the vast majority of people. Advertising works and it works really, really well.

	▲	Vaushite 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		We do not "discover things more manually", whatever that means. Statistically, the more someone thinks they're not affected by advertising, the more they're actually affected by advertising in reality.

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account42 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

It works in the same way that the mafia prevents your store from being wrecked.