The Persuaders

"I watched the Persuaders in its entirety"

        First of all, I think it is crazy to realize where advertising has changed in the past few years. Everywhere you go, there are advertisements all over. Whether you are walking on the street looking at billboards, or reading the newspaper, you will see ads.

        In the chapter A High Concept Campaign, we see different companies trying new ways to catch the consumer. There is not enough room to show all of the ads, which makes the streets look cluttered.  Something that I found interesting was When Naomi Klein said, “Consumers are like roaches, you spray them and spray them and after a while it doesn’t work anymore, because we develop immunities.” Also, in this chapter, we hear of Song, a new airline. I think their way of marketing was awesome. They thought about everything imaginable to make it work.

        Chapter two, Emotional Branding, really caught my attention. Some products started using old time values of community to sell to their audience. People want to feel the same experience as the commercials, and the ad agencies make that happen. They go deeper than the product name, and make it more personal. I know this works because there are many times that I have fallen for the same thing.

        In the chapter The Times they are A –Changing, we are introduced to the idea of being able to skip over television ads. Advertisers became afraid, and therefore had to change the way they sell their product. Therefore, instead of placing their ads during commercials, they put them in the programs so people would see them. I think this is a great idea because TV shows and movies build so much more emotion than a 15 second commercial.

        The Science of Selling shows us how the market people conduct research on their consumers. It actually takes a lot of more planning than I thought. You have to conduct an experiment, and make sure you have people in those groups that are a part of your target audience.

        The chapter Giving us what we want, we see Frank Luntz conduct research to see what the consumers want. He believes language works, and it depends on what words you use. Words can confuse, but it works to make it sound better.

         In the chapter The “Narrowcasting” Future, we see that the consumers are getting ads sent to them based on who they are. This is a great way to reach certain people that will most likely buy the product.

        In conclusion, I definitely learned a lot by The Persuaders. I didn’t realize how much work was put into the way companies market their products. However, it takes a lot of people and a lot of different tasks to make an ad brilliant.

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