Now, I’m no advertising expert, but I’ve got to rant about this a little. It cracks me up how, in all of these advertisements — commercials on television and ads in magazines and newspapers and billboards — they’re using strategies that, to me, seem way outdated. For instance, they’re always daring you to try their product. “Dare to try the new cheese fries; Dare to enlighten your senses with this new frozen beverage; Dare to indulge your inner man with this new sports car”, etc. etc.
Do they not realize that all they’re accomplishing by this is numbing us? Maybe the first advertisement that dared its audience to do something actually made the consumer think “Well shit, I’m not a pussy, I’ll do that! Watch me!” but I fucking guarantee that no one (or very few people) read/hear an ad like that and even register or feel that they’re being dared to do anything. Perhaps the most perplexing part of all this is that the people who work in advertising are equally, if not more, subjected to ads. So they, themselves, must surely understand that these methods are not as good as they could be, right? Right?!
And testimonials. OH, testimonials. They’ve become so manufactured and clean (I guess they always sort of were, though) that it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that the people talking about the product being advertised are paid actors. Or that the testimonials were paid to be written. How pathetic is it that, when looking for feedback on products online, I actively SEEK OUT poor grammar and spelling? Say, for example, that I’m researching an auto shop. If I see a review by someone named “Matt H. from Columbus, OH” saying “I took my wife’s van into Generic Auto Shop and the service was excellent! My car was in and out in a couple hours and I was on the road again — no hassle, and they have a money back guarantee, so I knew I had nothing to lose! Thanks Generic Auto Shop!” I am going to see it and think “Hmm… That’s probably not real. It could be, but I doubt it.” But say I see a review from “johnc359” saying “well, i went in and the receptionist was a little rude, but overall the service was pretty good :)”, I am going to trust that a LOT more.
Certain advertisers are catching onto this, and that scares me even more. You want to know what I think the best advertising strategy is? I don’t know, maybe having a good product or providing good service the first place. Word-of-mouth will forever be infinitely more powerful than ANY shiny commercial or testimonial. Think about it; if you need new brakes on your car and you drive past a billboard advertising an auto shop, and right after that, when talking to your friend, they say “Oh yeah, check out this shop. They did a great job on my car and they’re pretty cheap.”, which shop are you heading for? Who’s more trustworthy? An advertiser or someone you know who’s actually purchased the product or payed for the service?
If companies want to build trust with their market/audience/buyers, they need to build it with making/providing something that is good and decent. The trust built from advertising is incomparable. If you have a poor product, no amount of advertising will do you any good in the long run. All of the money invested in advertising should be invested instead in making your product better.
