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« Previous EntriesDrug companies understand clever marketing, don’t they?
Have you noticed the happy people who use a particular new brand of antidepressant or asthma medication in the multitude of television commercials broadcast each evening during network news programs? Or those who smile as they walk slowly along, perhaps slightly stooped from their osteoporosis — happy at the way Company A’s new Wonder Drug B allows them to remain active?
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the value of modern pharmaceuticals. I’m fairly sure there are thousands, maybe even millions of people, who are living better lives because of drug breakthroughs over the last few decades. My wife and I (especially as we get older) cheerfully line up for flu shots each year and appreciate the opportunity.
But what really bugs me about ALL new medications and/or supplements, from Xanax to Xerox and from pronexin to pro football, the manufacturers all expect you to put on a happy face — while they soothingly read a list of possible side effects that may range from sore toes to heart attacks.
Clever marketers, those drug companies. They are required, usually, by federal law to warn people about possible risks and side effects from their products. But, of course, they would NEVER sell any of their lotions and potions if they advertised with a couple of paragraphs describing how the product is supposed to work then three full television screens of bold-faced “WARNING! WARNING! POSSIBLE DANGER!” signs.
By the time they show grandma and grandpa biking happily through the woods with the grandkids as they quietly recite the possible side effects and risks, why, you’ve not really paid attention to all that stuff anyway, have you?
Yes indeed. They really know how to do marketing!
A useless personal ‘rant,’ I suppose, but here goes anyway …
Sometimes you just gotta RANT. And when you’ve got to rant, well, the only way to get it out of your system is by ranting, then moving on.
I keep getting sp*m (rhymes with “ham” and is made also of pork, in the real world) comments on this website and most of my other article oriented websites. Those are comments that idiots try to post using, usually, perfectly clever and useless software in an attempt to get a link from my website back to theirs. And their sites normally, as you can tell if you see the structure of the web address in their comment link, are pushing some of the general crapola “enhancers” or outright p*rn (rhymes with “horn”) sites.
In the first place, the software I use to run this website has some very effective tools for screening out sp*m. In the second place, no comment gets posted here unless I approve it.
But the sp*mmy messages that come along are much more sophisticated and almost realistic — much more than in previous years. Let’s say, for example, I publish an article here about the best way to get an online auto insurance quote. Such an article may be a bit complicated or detailed, depending on how hard I work at it (and I’m a lazy sort of guy).
But if some bozo who’s name and email address I’ve never seen before, posts a comment something like, “At first, I didn’t foresee to understand what you were saying at. But upon further reflection I do understand it and appreciate you should you write more on this matter” — that’s a pretty good clue that I haven’t picked up a dedicated new reader!
The part of all this comment sp*am that bugs me the most is this: Why in the name of all that’s sane and sensible do people continue to do this garbage?? I personally know of NO ONE (and I know a couple of hundred people who do writing online) who lets such goofiness get published on their websites. And I know of NO ONE who goes to these sp*ammy, worthless, and even p*rnographic sites as a result of links published on a “normal,” decent website.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There, end of rant for today, good readers. I feel better now. A little better anyhow. For awhile. Until I get notice of the latest sp*ammy comment I have to delete.
Online sales, coupons hasten death of newspapers
As a former newspaper guy, I hate seeing the decline and even demise of print media. Although I spend most of my days going online for news, retail shopping, even an occasional coupon “clipping” spree — I really miss a good daily newspaper.
But as my wife and I rustled through our newspaper at breakfast this morning, I was reminded once again that newspapers, like the U.S. Postal Service, seem to be on the way out. After reading some of the local news stories and looking over the reader’s letters in the “Opinion” section, we finished breakfast at our usual coffee shop and started putting the newspaper sections back together when I noticed an abundance of sale pages and a few discount coupons from local stores.
Unfortunately, the sale sections had almost nothing we were interested in shopping for, and the coupons were a waste of time. Let’s face it, local newspaper ad revenue is down because local merchants believe, rightly or wrongly, that their ad money is better spent on television, radio, and even Internet advertising. I don’t know whether that’s true, but the perception of that by the merchants is what’s killing newspapers.
Don’t know about you, but I’ll miss a local hold-in-my-hands-and-turn-the-pages newspaper when they’re gone. Which, at least from the appearance of our local paper, may not be too many years in the future.
Recessionary times revive old ideas for making money
These recessionary times may be reviving some old ideas as new people look for ways to make money. I just finished reading a news report about what items are being bought the most for various “party favors.” And the winner, according to that news story, appears to be personalized drink cups.
Many years ago now, I was looking for an idea to start a business and/or be able to make enough money from it to quit my miserable job. (It was a good job, but I was miserable in it.) At the time, one of the biggest ideas making the rounds to pull in eager young entrepreneurs was to buy the supplies and sales literature to go around to businesses offering them rock-bottom prices on personalized pens and pencils, giveaway personalized sticky pads, even paper clip holders with the business name on them. And one of the big attractions even back then was to offer a business owner the chance to give his customers and prospects personalized plastic cups or custom plastic cups of one sort or another.
I never tried the idea. I’m really not much of a salesman, so I was not particularly eager to go door-to-door in various business centers in town hawking personalized office giveaways or whatever.
So it came as somewhat of a surprise to see that personalized drink cups are a big deal right now as giveaway party favors. The article I read (sorry, I never caught a link to it) suggested the obvious reason: Cups are popular because, if they are well made at all, they can be taken home as a souvenir and reused for drinking.
Personally, I’m somewhat of a fanatic about collecting coffee mugs. Plastic coffee mugs — I know there are some — are almost worthless, in my opinion. I like a good, hefty mug I can actually take home and use regularly.
Hmmm. Maybe there’s a business potential for me there … ?
Car, truck marketing doesn’t always bend with winds of opinion
One of the dramas that’s played out in America over the last year has been the rise and fall of U.S. automakers — in this case, I’m thinking of cars, trucks, SUVs, and every sort of vehicle in between, but I’ll use “automakers” for them all.
It seems car and truck marketing doesn’t always bend with the changing winds of public opinion. Not all U.S. automakers “get it” that they need to make hybrids and/or other more environmentally friendly vehicles. Take a look at the “Big Three” (GM, Chrysler, and Ford) and you’ll see that at least one of ‘em never got the message — Dodge Ram trucks still glory in ripping around in the mud, chewing up the landscape, and hyping their power image.
To some extent, all truck manufacturers hype the “toughness” and durability of their vehicles. After all, many of them are used by contractors, builders, and others who need power and performance to haul loads. But still, there are millions of buyers who won’t even carry lunch in their trucks, much less tons of “payload.” If you don’t believe me, look at some of the Ford truck marketing, for example. When they market their trucks, they emphasize such truck accessories as iPod and laptop computer connections. Not exactly what you’d expect on the rugged stuff Dodge sells.
For the most part, U.S. automakers have gotten the message — they MUST improve vehicle mileage and even make a stab at being more “environmentally friendly” if they wish to stay competitive in our changing social and political climate. Or at least I think so?
Newspapers rapidly losing battle to online world
It’s no wonder newspapers are rapidly losing the battle to continue publication, when you consider how limited print media is and ask yourself why advertisers would want to pay for such limited exposure when the entire world can see their ads on the Internet.
I live in southwest Missouri, and the longtime daily paper we have here (for which I once worked as a copy editor) is not-so-slowly sliding down the tube toward extinction. It’s gotten so bad that their classified ad section, always the mainstay for daily newspapers’ revenue and ability to continue publishing daily, has become less than a shadow of its former self. Indeed, they’ve decided not to run employment/jobs ads two days of the week. (I think they’ve also limited their real estate classifieds the same way.)
The Internet, on the other hand, offers nationwide advertising, and much of the more popular online “classified ad” sites are free. Got a car you want to sell in Tampa? Put it on a classified site and someone from California might buy it. Seekin tenants for your Nashville apartments? Throw the info online and you might draw all the renters you need from either coast and all of the “heartland” in between.
Those of you who’ve grown up in a world where there has always BEEN an Internet have no real concept of how closed and limited our world and our culture were in those quaint “pre-Net” days.
You might be able to find out more, though. Ask your parents and grandparents about it. Those will be the folks sitting at the breakfast table reading a newspaper while they have their morning coffee. Maybe.
FTC turning fairness gaze toward bloggers now
Perhaps you blog, or hang around this blog and others a lot, and you’ve already heard about this: The Federal Trade Commission is targeting bloggers and others who publish and/or market products on the Internet. They recently passed regulations that have left many people confused.
Essentially, their new regulations target people who get free products or services and then give companies, merchants, and those same products glowing, supposedly “impartial” reviews — without disclosing the connection between their freebies (or sometimes payment) and the product/company they are plugging.
I’ve made it clear, if you’ll look at the “Privacy” page in our navigation menu above, that I take paid advertising. I do paid advertising for a variety of “merchant partners” as part of the way I make my online income (meager as it may be). If you have any questions or concerns about such matters when you’re reading anything on this blog, feel free to use the “Contact” form and ask me any questions you have or voice your concerns. I welcome all feedback and I will respond by email as possible and necessary.
Saw some previews of annual Super Bowl commercial fun
Show of hands — How many of you watch the Super Bowl each year just to see the funny commercials?? Yeah, that’s what I thought. A LOT of people watch the Super Bowl more for the party fun and the funny television commercials than for the game itself.
I saw some advanced clips of new Super Bowl commercials just awhile ago watching “Today.” As usual, the marketing gurus seem to have come out in force for these $100,000 per second showcase commercials. Yeah, that’s right — advertisers are actually paying $3 million for 30 second ad spots.
Amazing. The clips I saw were pretty classy and all had some great touches of humor. But how amazing that advertisers are willing and able to spend that sort of money during recessionary times, urgently trying to get your business.
And here I’m running ads on my blog everyday.
But maybe you’ve barely noticed my advertising? In most cases, by the way, I make NOTHING from the ads I run on this blog. Most of the advertisers/merchants I “partner” with here rely on YOU, good readers, clicking on the ads to go to the merchant’s site and take some action, i.e., buy a product or service, or perhaps fill out a form, or whatever.
That means I only make money if someone clicks on the ad or link from my website, goes to the merchant’s website, and makes a purchase, fills out a form, or whatever the ad calls for them to do.
So, come on, folks, in the spirit of Super Bowl mega-bucks commercials, I encourage you to look around my site and notice — perhaps for the first time? — some of the ads, ad banners, and text ads I’m showing you. Then go ahead and “click through” to check out some of the useful merchandise and services here.
My flagging bank account and our flagging economy will both thank you for it!
Why do advertisers think I’m irregular, have ED, insomnia, heart trouble, and thousands for a luxury car?
I watch television probably too much. As I sit here at home working during the day, I watch a lot of CNN and other cable news. In the evenings, my wife and I and sometimes our visiting adult children watch one or two sit-coms.
But everywhere I turn, I see advertisements for bowel aid, pain relievers, ED products, sleeping pills, heart and/or cholesterol drugs, and luxury automobiles — all showing on stations at times when us “Old Farts” will be the biggest viewing audience.
Physically, I’m too sedentary, overweight, balding, and I generally experience a bit of stiffness and probably stress out too much over finances and the general state of life in our world. I’m also 60 years old. But — I have no diagnosed heart trouble, moderate cholesterol, and, uh, no problems with ED. (If you don’t know what ED is, I’m not going to tell you. It would only bring a rash of particularly disgusting “sp*m” to this blog.)
So why do advertisers assume I need laxatives or stool softeners, heart medication, prescription sleep aid, and that I have enough money to buy their latest $40,000+ luxury gas guzzlers?
Yeah, I know. It’s all merchandising and demographics based mostly on my age. It’s true. I’m getting old. Or, as I often admit, I’m an Old Fat Bald Guy. So advertisers don’t care about making me pretty and flashy anymore — just regular and comfortable in the days I have remaining. How nice. Next thing you know, the kids’ll be scouting out our new “home.” Something comfortable, with assisted care, and preferably near a hospital.
What they all don’t know — because most of ‘em are too young to understand this — is that I’m really a healthy 19-year-old hiding inside this 60-year-old semi-wrecked body. And I’m married to a s*xy young thing as exciting as she was 40 years ago — who’s hiding inside a still delightful 6*-year-old body.
One of these days, we’ll break out and surprise them all.
Technorati Tags: demographics, merchandising, advertising, aging, just a guy who reads the papers
OpSource offers the expertise you may need to put your on-demand idea in business
What do you do if you have a killer website and a great idea to deliver a killer web service or computer/software function via the Internet — come up with all the details and be an Internet “do-it-yourselfer”?
I’m talking about what used to be called Application Service Provider or On-Demand software services. The term now is SaaS platform, and if you find yourself in that position, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel figuring out the best way to get your service to market. You can let OpSource, a company which calls itself “The SaaS Delivery Experts.”
OpSource does NOT provide software. They deliver applications over the web for companies that have software as a service and web 2.0 applications. In other words, they manage other people’s software and deliver it on-demand.
If you’ve got the idea and the service you want help to deliver, the OpSource people are waiting to be your delivery experts. Go take a look. Don’t put your business service invention on hold, put it in the bank with the help of OpSource.
[tags]SaaS platforms, OpSource, software on demand firm, just a guy who reads the papers[/tag]