Advertising
Introduction
Advertising has becoming almost ubiquitous in our lives:
- On TV
- On radio
- In newspapers and magazines
- On wesbites
- On advertising boards
- Text messages
- Phone calls
- Cinemas
- Trailers on vidoes
- Sports events
There are several ways to categorise advertisements. One way is to divide them into informative or competitive.
Informative adverts are intended to announce a new product or a new version of a new product or public information. These I have no real objection to since they may tell something useful. Alas, these are the minority.
Competitive adverts are intended to lure cunsumers away from one product, service or shop to another. My objection to these is they increase prices.
Customer pay for adverts
It commonly believed that adverts are paid for by the company who what to advertise. My view is that this is not really the case. The cost of advertising is added on to the cost of the product, so it is really the customer that pays for the adverts. Therefore, the net effect of competitive advertising is to increase the price to the consumer of advertised products. Consider shopping at a supermarket. The cost of adverting by the supermarket to lure in a customer as a small amount added to the whole basket of goods. The cost of advertising the separate items adds to the price of each item and is therefore adds many small increases to the cost of the basket. I find this a strong arguement for buying shops own brand products.
How adverts cost you time
TV
I find TV adverts amongst the most annoying because they cost you both money if you but the product and your time even if you don't! The amount of advertising per hour of viewing is greatly influenced by the popularity of the TV channel and the popularirty of the TV show it interrupts. A typical American TV series episode is 42 minutes. It is usually broadcast in a one hour slot. This menas there 18 minutes of advertising added to each hour. That means that 30% of the viewing time is adverts! I know that the fees paid to the TV channels for broadcasting the advert substantially or even completely pay for the channels to broadcast at all, but this amount exceeds my tolorance. I have to record channels with advertising just so I can skip over the adverts.
Radio
If you driving and therefore must keep your eye on the road, then radio seems a natural form of entertaimnet. However, radio with adverts is even worse than TV with adverts, since you are enivtably listening to it live and can't fast forwards over the adds. Unbearable! I always keep some audio book to listen to instead!
Things to watch for in adverts
What adverts imply
Many adverts consist of little more than attrictive models while drinking or driving a shiny new car and no factualcontent whatsoever. The clear implication being that if you buy the product you will be happier. For a product that have been wanted and saved up for some a while this may hold true for while. However, my experience is that the more frequent the purchases the shorter lived the "buzz".
What adverts don't say
You can tell a lot about a product from what the avdert does say. If a product were any these the wouldlike say:
- Cheapest
- Most efficient
- Award winner
- Fastest
- Smallest
- Unusually good warranty
If none of these are claimed, it is a good bet that it is not any of these.
Be ware of meaningless claims like these:
- Number one - this means nothing
- Unlimited - this often a lie and there are usually limits hidden a "fair usage" policy
- Fastest growing - measured how and why is it relevant ?
Beware of misleading comparisons:
- Better than the leading competitor - so there are competitors that are better
- Before after photos - model standing 3/4 on and tummy pushed ot V in profile with tummy pulled in
Conclusion
Consider:
- Don't to pay for adverts - by aleternative with fewer or no adverts.
- Don't let adverts waste yout time. Record TV and skipthe adds
- Don't be deceived by adds. Pay attention to whet says, what they don't says and what they imply