Sunday, October 10, 2010
How Ineffective are Fliers?
Everywhere we go on this campus we see fliers, posters, and banners promoting events, products, and services. Often we ask ourselves and even friends the very same question, "Who is actually looking at these things?". We like to think that advertisements, even the lesser forms such as fliers, don't actually effect us in any way or stimulate interest in anything but this just simply is not the case. If you honestly believe that billions of dollars are spent every year by marketing executives on ads and promotions that don't actually get your attention and influence your decision-making, then you are sorely mistaken. Even the most common of advertisements, such as fliers, leave a significant impression in our minds. The more times we see a flier the more it saves in our memory and eventually when the subject of the flier comes up we realize that we already know about it and can't figure out how this is. Marketing works! Even the insignificant flier proves this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is very true Bradley! I remember my freshmen year I was overwhelmed by all the fliers everywhere, even in the bathroom stalls. Even though I thought that most of these fliers were pointless, I found myself bringing up content from them in conversations. For example, when I talked about the FME businesses, I used my knowledge from the fliers I had read and when I talked about upcoming events, I also resorted to the fliers I had seen around campus. Even though these fliers may seem annoying and pointless, they really do stick after seeing them around.
ReplyDeleteBoth of you are completely right. And if you think about it, they are also very cheap to make, thus enormous quantities are made and shipped around the country. When you see a flier, and think that it does not apply to you, you still remember it, and even refer to the flier to someone else, thus creating a word-of-mouth process. It all starts with the stupid annoying flier.
ReplyDeleteThis is very true about fliers Bradley. Everyday on campus we walk by fliers and look at them but pay no focused attention on them, yet, we retain their information so vividly in our minds. By overwhelming us with advertisements what they really are doing is simply painting a repeating picture in our minds. This makes me think of a documentary I saw a couple of years back where in movies at the cinema, many times during the film they would show a glass of coke for a fraction of a second making it extremely difficult for a person to notice, but without realizing they had been shown that coke, people would crave that refreshing drink. It is crazy to think just how far marketing experts go to get one's attention.
ReplyDeleteI agree that fliers ar definitely a form of media. However, I feel that organizations that plaster their fliers on every door, every car, and every bathroom on campus sometimes gives off the wrong message. I agree with share of voice= share of margin when it comes with promotion but sometimes this creates a different message. Rather than giving the message the organization is trying to portray it often shows desperation and annoyance.
ReplyDelete