The Persuaders Questions

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

I think the amount of advertising I encounter throughout my daily life is definitely way too excessive. Not only are the amount of encounters with commercials, billboards, fliers, etc. throughout my day numerous, but the amount of text messages I am now receiving advertising products and stores are increasing. In my marketing class, we learned of how stores are actually going to begin automatically sending texts with coupons and advertisements when you actually drive or walk passed the store. While this may be a great marketing and advertising technique, it can definitely become agitating and annoying for consumers.

Today, people definitely see much more advertising than they did 20 or 30 years ago. Many companies are increasing advertising budgets to help increase their sales and improve their company reputation. Advertising techniques is becoming a form of art to help convince consumers that they need the product the company is selling. With the increase in advertising over the last 20 or 30 years, many people purchase products based more heavily on the actually advertising of the product than the product itself. A good slogan, logo, or a humorous commercial can directly affect the consumer's purchasing decision.

Where are things headed in the future? What are some possible scenarios that could play out as far as the direction that future persuaders may take their marketing techniques.

The ways companies advertise their products to consumers has changed severely over the past few years. Within the future, new ways for advertising from companies could be severely different. As mentioned before, one of the new ways companies are advertising to consumers is through text messaging. If you walked passed the Apple store at the mall, you could receive a text message from Apple offering coupons, sales, etc. Many companies could take this possible direction as a method of advertising towards the market. Other scenarios that could attract attention from companies include the increase in the social networking world. The information on possible consumers on sites such as Facebook and MySpace is valuable. While many people may think the social networking world is 100% private, this information could possibly be purchased by companies to help identify their target market and increase their knowledge of social trends. For example, if a person lists their favorite activity as video games, the amount of advertising they recieve through emails for products such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 may increase.