Re:Using the net on its own terms Re:Using the net on its own terms>What we want to be coerced, to be seduced, to be sold. (Think Cary=
>Grant,
>or even Fred Astaire.)
>What we *don't* want is to be screamed at, insulted, bamboozled.=
> (Think
>Danny DeVito as Louie DePalma in "Taxi".)
What a refreshing and real world explanation of advertising Tom presents.
One of the early practioners and real pros in advertising, Claude Hopkins
studied direct mail techniques for years a accumulated a wealth of data on
what works and what doesn't work in direct advertising. He then wrote a
book which I believe was called "Scientific Advertising", a landmark effort
in those days which laid out the principles which Sears, Montgomery Ward
and others successfully adopted in their catalog sales efforts. Those
principles are as true today as they were in the 1920's and 1930's when
they were first developed.
Advertising performed by professionals will usually followed the tried and
true practices that have been shown to work over the years. They may use
bigger photos, computer layouts and new buzz words, but the things that
motivate people to seek more information or to buy haven't changed all that
much. We want to buy because the product saves us money, is more
convenient to use than our present product, makes us look younger, etc. So
the difference is in the execution, not the strategy.
Unfortunately, there are a few people in the advertising business who
aren't so professional, but you can say that about any profession. Those
are the ones that scream at us and try to bamboozle us.
The professionals are already trying to understand the demographics of the
'net', the culture and altitudes. When they finish their homework, and
have clients ready to venture into cyberspace, I
suspect we'll start to see advertising that is different from what we know
now to something that's more compatible with the Internet culture. And
those that don't do their homework will probably make us madder than hell.
John