I’ve always been fascinated by marketing and advertising. Generally, I’m always amazed at what people base their purchasing decisions on and how marketers get people to buy their stuff by selling illusions rather than the product itself. For example Coca cola must taste great because they got polar bears and Santa Claus in their commercials. Oreos are great cookies because they allow grandpa and his grandson to share a picture perfect moment. As a webmaster I need to have some knowledge of marketing or else no one comes to my sites. I follow a few marketing blogs, have read a few marketing books, and am fascinated by the whole pony show. For my part, I don’t think I would ever make a good marketer because I don’t fall for the marketing gimmicks myself therefore how can I make a gimmick that I know others will fall for?
Aside from the number crunching side of marketing ie how to best use advertising dollars to reach the most people all marketing is superficial. Tune into any late night informerical and you got people basically telling you buy our product and you life will be so much better, they often sell the illusion that X product will make your life perfect. People being people are always chasing perfection in one way, shape, or form.
You have Chef Tony sawing through a hammer with his ‘Ginsu’ knives. Really is any one in their right mind going to try and saw through a hardened steel hammer with their kitchen knives? Then you have Ron Propiel assuring you that his showtime rotisserie will save you money, make your food taste better, and be healthier. He doesn’t tell you that you’ll probably buy it, use it once or twice, and then add it to the collection of junk appliances under your sink, like your popcorn maker from the 80s that you never use.
Moving on to shorter commercials; You’ve got the ‘he went to Jared’ commercials and the ‘every kiss begins with kay’ jewelers commercials both of which assure you that your lady will be so enamored that you thought enough of her to buy her some diamonds that you’ve got a 110% chance of getting laid the night you give her the gift.
All examples above are not marketing but advertising. Advertising and marketing as so intertwined that they’re often hard to tell apart. I define advertising as making someone aware of a specific product. Marketing takes many forms there’s personal marketing, for example making yourself appealing to potential employers or mates. There is brand marketing that is just making you aware of the brand or maintaining awareness of the brand like Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart frequently do. There is product marketing which often collides with advertising by marketing the product to a specific group of people by playing on perceptions. For instance Chef Tony’s knives market to value savvy women by adding pieces to the set piece by piece and stating an inflated ‘retail value’ to sell on the perception of value. How can you not buy this set of knives for $49.99 when it’s really worth over $300? Kay and Jared market to men on the perception that diamonds are a girl’s best friend and will instantly make her melt in your hand. Dude get a hooker, it’s cheaper then diamonds. 
I’ve always thought marketers must see the world through different eyes than regular Joe’s; They seem to see the world as how can I manipulate something to make it seem better than it actually is or have qualities that it does not. That doesn’t make them bad people the world would probably be pretty boring if everything were still sold in brown boxes and brown bags with out all the fancy colors and caricatures. I wonder if people actually bought based on need rather then what some savvy marketer tells them that they need would the economy be in such bad shape right now? Would people be in so much debit? That’s the bad side of marketing when your so good that you convince people to buy stuff they don’t need.
