h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was just thinking that advertising is, in many cases, really not something industries have a choice about; it's like a sea on which brands must sink or swim.

We buy 'the' red-and-white labelled brown fizzy drink and not 'some other' r-and-w etc because it is familiar to us, and thus feels 'safer' in some way. Similarly, chocolate bars. Our eyes are drawn to the one we *have* seen, often causing smaller producers with less substantial advertising budgets to fail to break into the market.

Petrol stations - those friendly, welcoming logos; those clean, neat, tidy service stations.

Vs the little garage where the guy serving you also actually knows all about cars, coz he really *is* a mechanic; and yes there is the best part of a car engine spread out over the yard, but that's coz the guy is really *fixing* a car when he's not serving you; and that's why he's covered in grease and not necessarily grinning from ear to ear (he's probly just burnt his wrist or trapped his thumb in something, you know)

so many people, consciously or not, say to themselves 'Nah, let's stick to the big safe place we've seen on the telly...'

advertising is not only effective; the absence of advertising is commerical suffocation.

hmm...

advertising is to business as oxygen is to the human body...

Not among the mind's conscious priorities... but essential and therefore constant (mostly unconsciously, though we can 'concentrate' on it).

er... i digress...

cya
spiff

Unless you put an advert in a familiar yellow directory when you are just starting out. They are very expensive, and don't bring as much work as you'd think.

Let's face it. No advertising is just not an option in our media-run part of the world.

In other parts of the world, costumers take the local gas station with the greased up guy, simply because there IS NO other option...

AC

There's a subtle difference between advertising and marketing. I shop on the web a lot, and I'll usually use a search engine to find the list of people who can supply a particular product. Obviously, I go for the best deal, but given two or three identical deals, I'll go with the company who I've never seen a banner or pop-up from, assuming their website looks tolerably professional (i.e. not thrown together by a colour-blind twelve-year-old. As far as I'm concerned, a good website is the best form of marketing!) and offers some form of secure payment option. So far, I've never been let down.

I can relate to that.

The real issue of marketing is really all about being recognised!

And, I trust, spelling correctly!

AC