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What do you wish more people understood?
It would be awesome if more people understood the importance of marketing - especially with the influx of people self-publishing their work through croudfunding (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc.) Lately, I've been getting into arguments with folks about the OUYA, and why it's failing. From day one, I've been trying to point out how they attempted to compete in the mainstream console market, yet they've completely failed to even try marketing to anyone but their own backers. Still, though, the majority of folks (on both sides of the pro/anti OUYA argument) seem to think that the console is supposed to sell itself.
What topic or idea do you want more people to understand?
What topic or idea do you want more people to understand?
Comments
Also, hip hop. When I tell people that I'm a rapper it usually ends the conversation. Most people where I live knows much about or cares to learn about the genre. When somebody does have something to say it's usually something like "Yeah, I listen to deep, meaningful stuff... You know, like Kid Cudi."
The post is shit and makes me want to cry. I could say a million things about it, but the saddest part is that he things getting a quote from a press release makes this post better in some form. At least take step 1: ask the subject of your story an interesting question that will elicit an answer containing info not easily found 100 other places.
In the age where AdBlock is king they would rather tell their fans to disable it for their videos instead of getting off their ass and change their business model to compensate for the fact that this technology will continue to get better.
For example, outside my window in Times Square is a gigantic billboard for BNP Paribas bank. It cost a lot of money to put that advertisement there. Do you think that billboard has gotten even one customer for BNP Paribas? I bet it has not. It's actually kind of hard to see from the street, only up in these office buildings can it be seen. Primarily, the Barclays building. The ad is just a fuck you to Barclays. The ad isn't for customers, it's for the executives of BNP Paribas.
Likewise, there is an even bigger billboard for the new beats headphones. This can be seen from the street. It actually can't be missed. Do you think this ad will influence the purchase of even one new set of headphones? Maybe if a kid who already wants beats sees it, they will pester their parents at that moment. If the kid is spoiled, maybe they'll get it. Even so, the ad will have almost no effect on sales, but costs a fuckton of money to put up. So why put it?
One person who works at Beats has a job of buying ads. That's their only job. That person's job is not evaluated based on whether sales go up or down. The sales department is evaluated on those metrics. The ad buyer is evaluated on a completely subjective basis. They show their boss "look at the super amazing ad we put up in Times Square! Aren't we awesom?" The bosses like the ad. They are impressed and feel important to have such prominent good-looking billboards. They give no thoughts about whether the cost of the billboard makes up for itself with increased sales.
Advertising can't be fixed until the people buying ads actually give a fuck if the ads work or not. Everyone selling ads of any kind will gladly continue sell a useless product for tons of money, and who can blame them?
Coke and Pepsi each lose market share if they don't maintain ad parity.
Retail banks get most of their new business from branch locations that are themselves actually unprofitable. The stores are just ads for the banks.
Ads work on stupid people.
Funny enough complaining about an ad actually helps the people advertising :-p
Seriously, people, what I do isn't magic. It's not hard. It's not even particularly INTERESTING at this level.
Of course, this example is a bit artificial as if I was in the market for a new car, I'd be researching like crazy anyway and I probably would've come across the hypothetical advertised car while doing my research even if I had never heard of that particular model before. I was just trying to come up with some sort of example where ads are semi-useful for reasonably intelligent people who aren't suckered into buying something only because they saw it advertised.
I do raw research from scratch every time I buy anything. I assume anything I knew about previously is obsolete. In fact, I try to think of what I might have seen advertised in the past, and consider that a negative (rather than a positive) for that particular brand/product.
I assume that if you have to advertise aggressively enough that I saw your ad and remembered it, your product probably sucks.
I suppose ads do serve a purpose of letting me know about time-limited stuff I may not otherwise stumble across. For example, if I see a commercial for a special sale at a local store, or perhaps some sort of fair or other random event. However, they really don't serve too much of a purpose to me other than that.
Also, all of the things in that introvert video.
I think the biggest one is the dynamic of "polished/expansive/complex, pick one". Like, it's just the reality of making software that picking any two will put the third pretty much out of reach, especially if your game has any kind of competitive balance whatsoever.