If you're wondering the power of well placed advertising - go see the movie "Super Size me."

It's amazing how hard McD's is trying to get life long customers.

I spend thousands of dollars a yr. advertising with NASCAR and never watch a race but my customers must. You have to get your name out to as many of YOUR customers as you can and just do a great job when they come in.

Many of the ads you see on TV today for Coke and Nike have nothing to do with new products or gaining new customers. They are created to remind us of an emotional or personal relationship we have with the product. Nike ads enspire you to run and workout, while Coke ads show people having a good time drinking Coke. Neither ad talks about price, comfort, performance, taste, etc. These ads are made to keep their loyal customers and stop others from eating in to there marketshare.

As far as this forum it is part of the promotion for Pelican Parts. This free board encourages vistors to the Pelican site and also keeps exsisting customers comming back. Becuase of the board and tech articles users become loyal to Pelican Parts.

I agree that a website is not a traditional form of adverstment, but up until 10 or so years ago, there was no web as we know it today. The web is a NEW form of advertisemet. Therefore, I DO consider the main website a form of advertisment. The entire web is nothing but an index of websites, analogous to the yellow pages. One searches for the subject matter (i.e., porsche parts) and the webside link pops up. The website is analogous to a yellow page ad.

Another analogy is to compare the website to the old Sears catalog that used to be delivered to your door. You look through the catalog, maybe not even knowing what you want to buy, yet you see something on page 93 that would be great to own, so you buy it. That whole catalog as well as the picture on page 93 is a form of advertisement. This is no different than your website.

I am not trying to be argumentative, but I believe your point about the website and forum not being a form of adverstisment to be incorrect. And please don't get me wrong, I believe you have done an excellent job at advertising. :)

What REALLY makes me wonder, is how the heck do these billions of "garbage" spam messages pay off?

Clearly, they must, because they keep coming and in fact are accelerating.

But I get literally hundreds of emails that are gibberish and cannot even be replied to. Some may contain valid web links, I don't know as I would never click one even if they did.

I even get 10-15 per day on my cell phone (which AT&T claims they can't stop, but that's another story.)

Everyone complains about spam, yet the easiest way to get rid of it would be to simply stop buying their crap!

I also agree that most print, TV and radio ads are "noise". But keep in mind the B2C world is completely different from B2B. For some products, the shotgun approach works fine. For others, it is a quick road to bankrupcy.

I attended a urologist's convention in San Francisco a couple of weekends ago and noticed that the biggest, flashiest booths belonged to the makers of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. Renting a booth at the Moscone Center was not cheap and these guys had at least 5 spaces worth each. With all the ads you see on TV, print media and radio about these products and the business those ads bring, they can afford to put on a great show.

Advertising works. I used to work for a company that quantified how well it works. Place a newspaper ad and sales increase. Place a newspaper ad and buy an end cap in the store (you don't think products end up on end caps randomly, do you?) and sales increase more. Place an ad, buy and end cap, offer a dicount, and sales will increase even more.

The grocery store club cards are tied to your demographics and to your purchases. The data all gets analyzed and sold back to retailers and consumer packaged goods companies.

"IRI leverages proprietary household-level panel purchase data and unique testing capabilities to provide the most in-depth, comprehensive view of consumer behavior."

Go here to read more:
http://www.infores.com/

You are kidding right, Wayne?

In the past I have spent 1000s of $ in print advertising a year. 9 years ago I got involved on the Internet, first in email lists and a web site and later on the BBS side. My business has more than doubled every year since, all directly attributed to the web and 99% of that to my own BBS. I am about to pay off last year's printed ad budget. I'll never buy another inch. And it doesn't takes many inches to pay for a BBS this size.

Enjoy the ride.