Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


Main page




Business, marketing.  ---  .This section is about marketing.  Topics include: ( ) Advertising.  ( ) Contra advertising.  ( ) Contra marketing.  ( ) Selling.  ---  1/24/2006


Business, marketing.  ---  (1) Company names that say nothing about the product.  (2) Company names that say something about the product.  ---  07/30/1996


Business, marketing.  ---  (1) Market research: market analysis, market forecasting.  (2) Product development: product research, performance analysis.  (3) Advertising research.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  (1) The purpose of marketing is to nag, to nudge, and to remind.  Because people rarely do anything the first time you tell them.  Even if they know they should.  It takes time for it to sink in.  It takes time for them to get your drift.  That is why you have to tell them over and over for years and years.  Then you can say that at least you tried.  (2) I am thinking of developing a new type of marketing that will consist of kvetching, complaining, and mock anger.  "Why don't you buy my product!?"  The other alternative is to beg, plead and whine.  I'm not there yet.  ---  9/25/2000


Business, marketing.  ---  A good product will not self itself; you have to market it.  A good product does not become popular if you tell people about it only once.  You have to constantly tell people about the product.  Constant marketing for the entire life of the product.  ---  8/3/2002


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertisers try to influence what people do in their leisure time.  Advertisers try to influence what people do in their work time.  Advertisers try to shape values generally.  Advertisers try to influence the most basic assumptions of people.  Thus, advertisers have a hidden philosophical agenda.  At least my philosophical agenda is out in the open.  ---  7/31/2006


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising by media: print, broadcast (radio, TV), outdoor signs, window displays, set ups.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising is no longer only about selling a product.  Advertisers realize that on a wider scale or on other levels, they are also selling a thought, an emotion, an attitude, a lifestyle, a philosophy and a culture.  Advertisers, unconsciously or consciously, transmit an overt explicit or an assumed implicit (hidden secret) philosophy.  ---  12/19/2003


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising principles.  (1) Know your target audience.  (2) Pick your tactics to suit them.  (3) Figure out what sways them.  Smart people swayed by logic vs. dim people swayed by emotion.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising techniques.  (1) Demonstration.  (2) Expert.  (3) Famous person.  (4) Trust me, believe me.  (5) Fear tactics.  (6) I'm begging you.  (7) Greed and vanity (Keep up with Jones's.  Everyone's doing it.  Be popular).  (8) Pushy.  Obey me.  (9) Life will be a perfect fantasy with this product.  (10) Authority.  You will please me if you buy this product, and piss me off if you don't.  (11) Sex.  (12) Appeal to ethical goodness.  (13) Rebellion, independence.  Nobody can tell you what to do.  (14) Beautiful and rich person.  Be perfect like me.  (15) Hard sell.  Militaristic.  Buy it!  Anger causing fear.  (16) Soft Sell.  Please buy it.  Seductive, sweet, woman.  ---  12/30/1996


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising techniques.  (1) Humor.  (2) Symbolism.  (3) Straight talk pitch vs. lies.  (4) Blatant vs. subtle.  (5) Relax, feel, think.  (6) Believe me, trust me.  (7) Look at it skeptically.  (8) Associate a thing, feeling or philosophy with product.  (9) Trust me: a star, an expert, wise old man symbolism.  (10) Great like me: sports star.  (11) Fear tactics: non-use = disaster.  (12) Heaven: use = perfection.  With specific problem, or in whole life.  (13) Jump on the band wagon.  (14) Soft sell.  (A) I'm your friend.  (B) Smooth talk, mesmerism or hypnosis.  (C) Getting you in the mood.  (D) Easy on senses.  (15) Makes you feel good.  (16) You'll please me/us if you buy it: any relative.  (16) You'll piss me off if you don't buy it: any relative.  (17) Look at it logically: scientific experiments.  (18) Nobody tells you what to do.  (19) Hard sell: angry, threatening, fire and brimstone.  (20) Seductive: sex.  (21) Creation of an ideal fantasy world associated with product.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising.  (1) Grab and keep their attention.  (2) Generate interest.  (3) Elicit or provoke emotion.  Make the audience feel.  (4) Make the audience think.  ---  7/11/2001


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising.  (1) Measuring ad effectiveness.  (2) Record of an ad firm.  (3) Values and philosophies implicitly held and explicitly stated in an ad.  (4) Advertising ethics.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising.  Analyze the pitches that commercials use.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising.  Blatant lying vs. half truths.  Half truths are things like telling good points about your product but not the bad points, or telling the bad points about the competition but not the good points.  ---  11/15/2001


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising.  Everyone is selling something, it is just a question of what and how.  People sell themselves and the ideas they believe in.  ---  12/30/1996


Business, marketing.  ---  Advertising.  The adman's pitch.  Perfection forever (heaven) vs. shit in constantly changing myriad forms (hell).  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Commercials.  How much time is devoted to commercial advertisements during a typical hour of commercial television or radio?  About 25 percent of the time is spent on advertisements.  That is too much time for advertising.  ---  11/12/2005


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra advertising.  Advertisers promote neurosis: "I can be whatever I want to be.  The world can be whatever I want it to be."  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra advertising.  Criticism of advertising:  It is everywhere.  Everything has a logo on it.  You cannot escape it.  It is in your face.  ---  12/27/1998


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra advertising.  Criticisms of advertising.  (1) They lie like hell about products.  (2) There are hidden catches involved.  (3) Fine print is annoying.  ---  11/15/2001


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra advertising.  Everything that you buy today has a logo on it.  Everything is an advertisement.  Human beings have become walking billboards.  What is amazing is how much people desire to become walking billboards.  Many people actively seek out clothing that has labels on the outside as well as labels on the inside.  If I cannot get clothes without a logo then I will cross out the logo.  ---  2/4/2002


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra advertising.  Overconsumption.  Advertisers flawed message.  (1) The only thing that will make you happy is material possessions.  (2) The only thing that will bring you status is material possessions.  (3) Just keep shopping and buying because its good for the economy.  (4) Fill you lives with worthless junk.  ---  11/20/2003


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra current marketing.  (1) The advertisers want your time and attention.  They want to affect your emotions, and be in your thoughts.  They want to monopolize your mind.  They want to talk to you about stuff they can sell, and that you can buy.  (2) But you can't sell philosophy (unless you buy a philosophy book).  You can't sell what is free.  So they don't talk to you about the important, yet free, things like philosophy.  And so you don't think much about it.  (3) Also, they want you to feel happy and think it is o.k. to buy junk.  They don't want you to see the real world of problems and pain, and they don't want you to see that what they have to sell is worthless junk.  They want you to spend your time on your nice lawn, sipping their iced tea, watching their commercials.  They sell that as success and happiness.  (4) Advertisers often lie, or tell half truths about their products.  (5) An ad is like telemarketing, phone solicitation.  If an advertiser has the money to buy space or time, they can get into people's faces and heads.  We are bombarded with messages that carry hidden implications ("This is important and good, etc.").  There is an implied hedonistic ethic.  They are not saying to work hard and save, they are saying to goof off and spend.  They often sell useless junk products and deadly poisons (cigarettes and booze).  And nobody sells high ethics.  (6) In modern advertising, time and space are for sale.  Albert Einstein is rolling.  ---  12/30/1996


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra marketing.  Criticisms and defenses of marketing and advertising.  (1) Criticisms of marketing and advertising.  (A) Dishonest advertising.  (B) Ubiquitous, in your face, inescapable advertising.  (C) Advertising is propaganda and brain washing.  (D) Commercial free, independent media is more accurate because it is less influenced by advertisers.  (E) Advertising promotes a "believe and obey" attitude over independent thinking.  (F) Advertising to children takes advantage of children.  (2) Defenses of marketing and advertising.  (A) Advertising informs people of the good points of a product.  (B) Thus advertising performs a useful function.  (C) Advertising pays for commercial media (television, newspapers, magazines, etc.).  (D) Advertising is fair because it is regulated, perhaps over-regulated.  ---  7/15/2004


Business, marketing.  ---  Contra marketing.  PART ONE.  Attributes of the New Marketing.  (1) You cannot tell what is an advertisement from what is not an advertisement.  (2) Once an advertisement is identified, you cannot tell what the ad is about.  (3) Once you determine what the ad is about, you cannot tell if the add is stating the truth or whether you are being lied to.  Illusion and deceit are everywhere.     PART TWO. With the decline of objectivity in journalism it seems that in everything you read everyone has an agenda and everything is an advertisement.  (2) With the Internet, anyone can claim anything.  Truth in advertising does not seem to apply anymore.  (3) We need to become better at interpretation and critical thinking.  ---  10/24/2001


Business, marketing.  ---  Critiques of marketing.  Businesses try to present well defined brand choices in order to let customers buy a lifestyle by selecting a set of brands.  In this way, people try to buy meaning, self identity and social identity.  For example, people try to create meaning, self identity and social identity by selecting a beer brand, a cigarette brand and a car brand.  I say that attempts at buying meaning will fail in the long run.  On the other hand, attempts at do-it-yourself building of meaning will do better in the long run.  For example, doing philosophy is do-it-yourself meaning building.  The advertisers try to market meaning.  The advertisers try to market quick and easy meaning with no thought required.  What is the result of buying instead of building meaning?  Pain, addiction, depression, anxiety, rage and meaninglessness.  ---  8/23/2005


Business, marketing.  ---  Healthy Marketing.  Given x specific product, whether it be a winner or loser.  Success or failure without marketing.  Success or failure with marketing.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Healthy marketing.  Why do they buy junk?  Should we sell them junk?  Should we control what is sold?  How much?  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  How do you get a product to become popular?  How do you get a product to auto-spread?  If the product is free, fun, useful and in your face then it is likely to be adapted by users more quickly.  ---  12/9/2000


Business, marketing.  ---  How does one explain that the most popular commercials neither show the product being pitched nor say its name, yet only play catchy music and show young beautiful people having fun?  Such marketing relies heavily on assumption and implication.  Its a common tactic in the real world also.  ---  2/6/2004


Business, marketing.  ---  Logos and labels.  People seem are obsessed with logos and labels on their clothing.  People do not need to have labels on their clothing.  People do not want to have labels on their clothing.  What is obvious is that, unfortunately, people have been socialized into corporate shills, and people promote corporate brands without even being paid.  ---  11/12/2005


Business, marketing.  ---  Logos.  Corporations pay professional sport stars big money to wear corporate logos in the hopes that everyone else will pay the corporation to wear corporate logos.  Logos are an attempt to build arbitrary in-group out-group distinctions.  Buy products without logos.  ---  3/7/2004


Business, marketing.  ---  Logos.  The challenge today is to clothe oneself with clothes that have no logos on them.  ---  11/20/2003


Business, marketing.  ---  Marketing management.  Pick a target, media, message (idea, emotion, attitude) (visual or verbal).  Schedules, budgets.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Marketing questions.  (1) What is the item being marketed?  It can be a physical product, a service, a person, a brand, or an idea.  (2) What is the message?  What benefit does the product confer?  (3) Who is the target market?  Who will buy the product?  (4) What is the most effective and efficient way to reach the target market?  ---  5/25/2004


Business, marketing.  ---  Marketing, in the best light, is the communication of information.  In a fair marketing system no lies are permitted; people choose when and where to see advertisements; good products succeed and bad products fail.  ---  11/15/2001


Business, marketing.  ---  Pros of current marketing  (1) The hippie generation has come to middle age power and are actually producing some good television that addresses real personal and social problems.  Is this a temporary generation phenomenon that will backslide in twenty years?  Or is it real progress?  (2) Some ads are smart, honest, satirical, and funny.  (3) Some products are good and people should hear about them.  (4) Some media and advertisements are not as intrusive as bill boards, home phone calls, ads on every page, stores with blaring speakers out front, etc.  ---  12/30/1996


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling is communication, and communication is rhetoric, therefore sales is rhetoric.  Everyone is selling something, either their philosophy, their goals, or themselves.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling: be able to sell them what they don't want, don't need, and can't afford.  Audrey.  ---  04/15/1993


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling.  (1) Hard sell.  Time pressure.  Insult them.  Act insulted.  Threats, scare tactics.  (2) Soft sell: friendly or seductive and sexy.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling.  Believe in product.  Know its pros (problems it solves) and cons.  Know the competition, and discredit them.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling.  Let them know we have it.  Tell them what it is.  Tell them what it is good for.  How to do all three.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling.  Many arguments vs. one main argument.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling.  Rational pitches vs. emotional pitches.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Selling.  Tailor arguments to fit person's psychology and life.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  There are television commercials today using rock music, including Hendrix, Zepplin, and the Who, in order to sell products.  ---  4/26/2002


Business, marketing.  ---  There is an ethics of marketing and advertising.  There is good and bad, right and wrong, in the area of marketing, advertising and sales.  Some corporations tempt people with money and position, and some corporations punish people with demotion and firing, in order to get people to do unethical things in marketing, advertising and sales.  ---  5/21/2006


Business, marketing.  ---  Two problems.  (1) Healthy and useful products that fail due to poor marketing.  (2) Unhealthy and unuseful products that succeed due to good marketing.  ---  12/30/1992


Business, marketing.  ---  Why do marketers create a half-dozen different versions of their product?  (1)  Because they know that humans love to categorize and classify.  Humans, due to evolutionary hardwiring, are fascinated with differentiating and classifying colorful little objects, which is perhaps a vestige from when we once had to discern edible plants from poisonous plants based on their colorful little flowers.  Today such classifying of small colorful objects continues with children's stickers, patches, baseball cards, and colorful product packages.  So marketers make a half-dozen versions of their product, each with its own colorful little package, so that we can enjoy figuring out which is which.  (2)  Marketers know that the few minutes we spend with two versions of their product, one in each hand, looking from one to another, silently repeating the names of the products to ourselves, creates an indelible impression on our minds.  ---  1/4/2002




Main page


Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.