Target Practice
Turow’s article discussed the how advertising and marketing has changed over time, and how it’s basically a whole new ball game right now. Advertising, as it was, needed to reach as many consumers as possible to ensure that the individuals who may want the product could be reached. We see this all around us in TV commercials, highway billboards, radio ads, magazines, and really just about anywhere you look. Turow takes a look at advertising, as it is, and understands that it’s no longer about advertising to everyone, hoping that one might like it. It’s about advertising to one who you know has a good chance of liking it.
Targeted advertising has taken a lot of heat recently. Many people are concerned that Google is invading their privacy, snooping through their emails. So many people don’t like the idea of some basement servers doing cold calculations on you to offer you what you’re looking for. Personally, I love it. Well, the idea of it anyway. Why not? Others find it intrusive, I find it convenient. Flattering, almost. My email or facebook profile contains a few key words and they try to sell me hotel rooms in a country they figured out I was going to visit. I’m just saying, if I have to put up with ads everywhere, they might as well be relevant to my life.
“You have zero privacy anyway, get over it,” says Scott McNealy, the co-founder of SUN Microsystems. I find this quote to be oddly grounding.
Turow discussed the “construction” of the consumer, the idea that rather than the marketing hasn’t really change because of new technologies, but because the consumer is putting these new advertising techniques to use. At the end of the day, the consumer will always decide how to use the advertising that is placed in front of them. Marketers are paid to see how consumers use new technologies and use that information to market more precisely.
I imagine that marketing is like shooting at targets. The more marketers know about the targets, the easier they are to hit. Using a billboard is like shooting with your eyes closed, hoping it goes the right way, but using clues you can find about a consumer helps guide the arrow a little bit. I guess my assumption is that the target wants to get hit.
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