Marketing

[Telarus]

Marketing.



I'm going to repeat that. Marketing.

At the base level, it is buying and selling goods. This is not the concept that I want your-all's feedback on. The opening to the wikipedia article captures the common general meaning now in use:

Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others.

Now, what I want from you all is your first, instinctual, gut-level opinion about Marketing. Start a stream-of-consciousness narrative. Get as verbose or as vehement as you need.




*Yes, this is going somewhere, but I need your spontaneous opinions in order to put it into context.

[Cramulus]

Marketing

is manufacturing cool so you don't have to

Bad Marketing

is creating culture from the top down
generating popularity

interrupting you to interject something

sneaky slimy selling you what you seem to want snake oil
weaving memes into fabric and building a wardrobe out of them

confusing you to take your cash


Good Marketing

is a component of falling in love

it's why Christianity succeeded
it's how ideas springboard to higher levels, better vectors,
it's the ecosystem of ideas

Marketing is the process of natural selection

Build a better idea
and you build a better conversation

marketing is a medium


show me an honest salesman
and I'll show you a born-again customer

that's how contagious good marketing is

[Triple Zero]

marketing is a way to let people know your shit is out there. it is crucial for people to know your shit is out there. if people know its out there, its because of marketing. if not, blame the lack of marketing.

it can be bad but that's because of bad people. in general it is good, because a lot of projects will fail without proper marketing.

if you cannot do your project on your own, first you need to market the idea.

when you get further, then you need to market the product of this idea.

marketing is pretty easy, once you start to think about its necessity.

the effectiveness of marketing seems to be proportional to the number of different approach vectors you use (mouth to mouth, IM, email, websites, twitter, posters, and much more)

[Honey]

Marketing is knowing what people want & it is sometimes knowing even before they know they want it.  Marketing is usually used to appeal to the mass consciousness which is, in turn, ruled mostly by feeling & not by reason, logic or the ability to discriminate one thing from another thing.  The next may be stating the obvious (you said stream of consciousness was ok right?).  You have more of a chance of "selling" your product, service, idea, etc. if people have not already made up their minds one way or the other.  Packaging is important too & just may sway someone who is not otherwise committed.  Selling a quality product is not necessarily easier than selling a poorer quality one but it might not slash you up inside as much.  I'm stopping here because I'm thinking about how most of marketing is selling fear in one way or another & it's making me ill. 

[rong]

marketing is an argument.  they want to convince you that if you already buy some kind of shit, their shit is the best shit.  if you never bought their kind of shit before, they want to convince you that you need their kind of shit.

[maphdet]

Marketing is like manipulating.

To get another to do what you want them to do, w/out them really noticing.
The key is for them not to notice this is what makes marketing successful.
More to come possibly-as the concept of marketing (its good, its bad) has been eating at me for years.

[LMNO]

Everything is marketing.  From mating rituals to new scientific theories, everyone's trying to sell you something.  Sometimes, it's not even about money; it's just a pack of monkeys trying to shoulder their way past each other, on their way to the top.

How can you every be sure that any decision you make hasn't been influenced by someone else?  Maybe your actions today have been influenced by someone who years ago sold you something.

We have dozens of labels for it, but in the end it's all marketing.

[Triple Zero]

Everything is marketing.  From mating rituals to new scientific theories, everyone's trying to sell you something.  Sometimes, it's not even about money; it's just a pack of monkeys trying to shoulder their way past each other, on their way to the top.

How can you every be sure that any decision you make hasn't been influenced by someone else?  Maybe your actions today have been influenced by someone who years ago sold you something.

We have dozens of labels for it, but in the end it's all marketing.

Just like how ultimately, Everything Is One. and when you really get down to it Free Will Does Not Exist. and other such discussion stoppers?

[LMNO]

Yes.

[Roaring Biscuit!]

Marketing is an exercise in subtle evangelism done over time in order to convice you that there are things you need to have other than what you have, and there are things you need to be other than what you are.

x

also

Just like how ultimately, Everything Is One. and when you really get down to it Free Will Does Not Exist. and other such discussion stoppers?

when did we stop having free will?

[LMNO]

I knew you were going to say that.

[Roaring Biscuit!]

I knew you were going to say that.

predictability =/= lack of free will

its choosing predictably...

but i suppose you knew i was going to say that too.

Also, if there really is no free will, why bother?  why does this forum even exist, as it is something that seems largely built off the the TFY,S! ethic...

now umm...  must be quite and avoid threadjacking...

MARKETING!

[Iron Sulfide]

marketing, allow me to be more specific, is less about getting everyone to buy your product (that would be nice!)- but more about trying to find your demographic and steer them to your product.

i like cram's response of good vs. bad marketing, but i think it would be better stated as

Forthright marketing vs. Shifty marketing.

for me, any type of applied marketing or advertising employs both the forthright component and the shifty component in an attempt to widen the demographic. however, i know from reading and from personal experience that Word of Mouth maintains the most purity, as it's coming from a peer instead of a marketeer.

shifty components that i fancy:


repetition (sereptitious repetition is best)

bells and whistles timed with key phrases, etc

rhyme

non-sequitur, red herring (usually employed as humor)


Forthright components i like:


What does the product do?

why s it different from product XYZ?


The primary difference, of course, being Information vs. Emotional Cajolery.

Case Studies:

Hotwire
FreeCreditReport
Geiko
etc..

[Telarus]

Hey people, thanks a lot for your opinions. I really meant to get back to this sooner, but I may have a hernia and can't really think straight.

As a consolation prize, here's a 152 page book by Ben Mack:

http://www.thinktwoproductsahead.com/ThinkTwoProductsAhead.pdf

Ben sent me a pdf of slides from a presentation of his, titled "Marketing is not Evil - Think Stranger", which started my though processes on the subject. I'll get it hosted, as it's faster to digest than his Think Two Products Ahead book.

There we go: http://rapidshare.com/files/232686532/Ben_Mack_-_Think_Stranger.pdf.html

Here's hoping that the doc says there isn't a tear in my abs.

[Iron Sulfide]

my magick powers say you either have a hernia or not. don't laugh, you might make it worse.

"think two products ahead" is in a few of the ebook downloads. Cain's "Intellectual Discordian" rar has it, i think.

good, but as you said, slow to digest (i.e. dry and boring)

i'll read this one when i get a chance.