You have to laugh at this one
1000 people were asked the question, "Do you like advertisements?"
900 people said they did not like advertisements. (some used much stronger words)
99 people said they did not pay attention to advertisers.
1 person said they loved advertisements and wanted to see more.
Let's get serious
The survey is fictitious. But, I would venture to say that very few people, if really asked the question, would say they love advertisements and want to see more.
Everyone advertises. Even if your small business is a local business, you at least place your phone number in the yellow pages. If you really hate advertising then you should never talk about your business, ask for referrals, send out direct mailings, have a link to your website in an email, give out your business cards, design flyers and brochures, and never advertise in the newspaper, on television and radio, or the Web.
Forget about the fact that huge percentages of consumers and businesses are searching for products and services online everyday. Forget about the fact that buyers and purchasing managers are using the Internet to find items online. Also forget the fact that engineers are searching and doing research into all types of products, software solutions, hardware components, chemical and manufacturing processes, and a host of other technology items. Also, go-ahead and ignore the fact that consumers are heading to the Internet in droves to research just about everything before they buy.
Do you use Google, Yahoo, or MSN to search for a Realtor, Doctor, Lawyer, Dentist, Carpenter, House Cleaner, CPA, and Accountants? Millions of people are in fact using the search engines to find these professional people. Should we say to these professional people that they should not advertise online because, "we don't like advertising."As I have stated before, marketing and advertising concepts are becoming more integrated with one another. For an example of how advertising is becoming intricately linked in a website, visit www.apple.com. Displayed all over their site are advertisements about their iPods, iTunes, Macs, iPhoto, iCards, and other manufacturers' software and hardware related products. So the question becomes, which part of the Apple website is advertising, and which part is marketing? Is the fact that they advertise a negative? Hardly... Advertising on their website is quite the positive. If you are a Mac or iPod owner you are much more likely to return to the Apple website to see what else is available.
Search advertising is much the same. Imagine that a person types in keywords for "you name it," and low and behold all the pages related to "you name it" show up in the results. In addition to the search results are also displayed advertisements related to the same keywords. Is not the advertisement providing a integral marketing service by placing buyers with sellers? The search engines are in fact providing a marketing service for people using search. Don't forget that the results page is a website page. The simple fact is most people do not click on the ads. But, once again this is not a negative aspect of the ads but is quite the positive. Typically when an individual is seeking something that can not be found in the natural results they are then inclined to click on the ad.
There is another type of Web searcher that could be classified as the browser. Browsers are individuals that are really not searching for anything in particular, but may be reading information on a website. They may have a favorite news, sports, pet information, or humor columnist, and go to a particular website on a regular basis. Many of these websites provide an additional marketing service of advertisements within the site itself. These sites provide a valuable service for their readership. It is a four way win win relationship. The advertiser wins when someone clicks on the ad that they are interested in, the online provider of the ad networking software wins with a payment for the ad feed, the website hosting the ad wins with a percentage of the payment, and the browser wins when they click on an ad that they are interested in.
The simple fact is we are blanketed by advertisements all the time. While very few of us would ever admit that we like advertisements; the bottom line is they work. The online advertising model is one that continues to evolve, but if you think about it, online advertising is the one that makes the most sense.
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