What do you even consider advertising?

If I make let's say a children's toy, how am I supposed to let people know that this new type of toy even exists? That WHOLE process is advertising, no? Whether I give these toys away for free at a Santa Clause parade, pay department stores to put my toy in prominent shelves, or buy space on Cartoon Network.

How do you get even a single buyer without advertising?

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autoexec a day ago | parent | next [-]

Only a very small part of advertising is actually product promotion. Coca-cola spends $4 billion a year on ads, do you think it's because otherwise no one would know that coke exists?

It's true that advertising is a great way to promote a product, but its far from the only way. For many years now I've done what I can to cut all advertising out of my life and yet I still buy lots of things, including things I've never seen a single ad for.

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kuratkull a day ago | parent [-]

If Coca Cola stopped advertising for a year, their sales would surely start trending down.

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preg_match a day ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, but not because advertising lets people know about Coke. The people who still know about Coke would be the same after a year, I imagine.

The mechanism of how advertising works seems to be not that. I think repeatedly brand exposure does something to the brain and decision making that we don’t fully understand.

	▲	ThunderSizzle 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Familiarity, I think. Exposure breeds familiarity, which breeds desire, I think. Even if all you hear is an occasional ad about the company, you might get curious and research them yourself.

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autoexec a day ago | parent | prev [-]

If you drink it now, would you stop? Would you forget that it exists even though it's on store shelves, in vending machines, and pushed at several restaurants? Who would stop?

	▲	d1sxeyes 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Almost no-one can honestly answer this for themselves. I think the truth is likely: 'no, I'd still order a coke at McDonald's, I'd still pick a coke up from a vending machine if I'm thirsty. But if I'm buying a takeaway sandwich, I might not also get the drink. Or if I'm in the supermarket, I might just skip that aisle.' I'm sure it's almost completely subconscious.

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rerdavies a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Marketing. Advertising is only one of the strategies that get used to market a product.

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devmor a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I was referring to internet advertising, I should have made that more clear.

	▲	IAmBroom a day ago \| parent [-]
		But it's the dirty little secret of most advertising: there's no voluntary feedback to prove (consistently, objectively) how effective your $$ are being spent. The last thing a marketing company or media provider wants to admit is that any of their services are underperforming, or worse, turning off buyers.