For countless centuries now, people have been born into a world of mass consumerism, which is heavily dependent on marketing, specifically through the use of advertising. Though not as eye-catching by today’s standards, the first ads in America were around as early as 1704 in the form of classified ads appearing in the Boston News-Letter. It wouldn’t be until 1849 that advertising would grow into the behemoth profession that it’s now recognized as, starting with the greatest ad agent of that era, Volney B. Palmer (it was in fact Palmer himself who coined the term ‘advertising agency’ in 1849). He originated the commission system (in which publishers paid a fee upon completion of an ad sale), sold as space, produced the ads, delivered them to publishers, and verified their placement: In essence, Palmer was responsible for all the important functions of modern ad agencies, hence him being revered as ‘the founder of the ad agency.’ From there, advertising would evolve and expand as time progressed; in 1865, Palmer began contracting with local newspapers for set amounts of space for ads. By 1926, ads were given an unprecedented means of distributing messages across the nation through the creation of radio networks. With the establishment of national television networks in 1948, advertising found a new medium to expand upon, and from that point on it would continue to grow into the form it has taken on today.
An important component of the advertising profession is the ‘art’ of target Marketing—It is the process of finding out specific demographics of a particular audience, and then based upon the collected info, act on these certain characteristics or traits to effectively market an ad back to that audience. It is perhaps the most important factor/method for advertising agencies, as it is always important to know EXACTLY who a product is in essence trying to be sold to, and not everybody has the same tastes, preferences, needs, etc… With that explained, I, like all other people, fall into many various and distinct target markets, which naturally reflect my own interests, beliefs, characteristics, and the like. For instance, I’m a Caucasian male between the ages of 18-25 from a middle-class family: those rather generic characteristics alone can be tied back to exact companies or products aimed towards people falling into this group, such as Aeropostal, Budweiser, etc… Now by including more exact details about me via my interests, I’m then categorized into even more target markets. I love the New York Yankees, I drive a Mercedes-Benz, I’m a fan of a particular anime series, I enjoy going to the movies, and so on before I end up revealing my shoe size…
Advertisers can reach and attempt to saturate my particular target markets in many forms, but the single most effective way is through the internet. Sites like Google and Facebook are among the most efficient marketing tools, as they provide much data mining—Users post their interests on Facebook, search for things on Google, and from the inputted info, the sites relay back ads which are DIRECTLY influenced through the inputs. I regularly see ads for Yankees merchandise, I get financing offers to purchase a new Mercedes, I’m sent ads to purchase DVD’s of my favorite shows, and the list goes on and on… It’s amazing how ad agencies can make a lil bit of info go a long way.
No comments:
Post a Comment