Hypocrites Not Allowed
If you agree that advertising is a vital part of the American economy and that advertising supports free Google searches, free Facebook posts, and free broadcast television and local radio programming, then you must believe in the value and efficacy of advertising. If so, then you cannot be hypocritical and use ad‐blocking software. If you are selling advertising in any medium, including a digital medium, you must not only support, embrace, watch, listen to, and read all advertising you are exposed to but also understand enough about advertising to be able to evaluate, appreciate, and intelligently critique all the advertising you see or hear. Ad blocking is not allowed if you are a media salesperson.
Test Yourself
1 What is purpose of a business?
2 In marketing, what is the primary focus?
3 What was AdWords?
4 Why is Facebook so profitable?
5 What is the difference between a customer and a consumer?
6 Why are many media companies potentially so profitable?
Project
Make a list of all of the local media in your market: radio stations, television stations, cable systems, newspapers (daily, weekly, shoppers, suburban, ethnic, etc.), local magazines or journals (e.g. local business journals), outdoor companies, bus or subway posters, and local websites that sell advertising. Interview one or two sales managers or advertising directors of some of the media that have revenue in addition to advertising (newspapers subscriptions or a website’s e‐commerce, for example) and get a rough estimate of what percentage of revenue comes from advertising and what percentage comes from other revenue sources such as subscriptions. Then write some notes about what surprised you in this exercise.
References
1 Anderson, Chris. 2006. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, New York: Hachette.
2 Auletta, Ken. 2018. Frenemies: The Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else), New York: Penguin Books.
3 Drucker, Peter. 1954. The Practice of Management, New York: Harper & Row.
4 Kotler, Philip, Kartajaya, Hermawan, and Setiawan, Iwan. 2010. Marketing 3:0: From Products to Customers to Human Spirit. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
5 Kotler, Philip, Kartajaya, Hermawan, and Setiawan, Iwan. 2017. Marketing 4:0: Moving From Traditional to Digital. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
6 Levitt, Theodore. 1960. “Marketing myopia.” Harvard Business Review, July–August.
7 Levitt, Theodore. 1970. “The morality (?) of advertising.” Harvard Business Review, July–August.
8 Levy, Steven. 2011. In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. New York: Simon & Schuster.
9 Ogilvy, David. 1989. Confessions of an Advertising Man, 2nd ed. New York: Atheneum.
10 Porter, Michael. 1998. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: Free Press.
11 Smith, Mike. 2015. Targeted: How Technology Is Revolutionizing Advertising and the Way Companies Reach Consumers. New York: AMACOM.
12 Stewart, Thomas A. and O’Connell, Patricia. 2016. Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy and the Art of Consumer Delight. New York: Harper Collins.
13 Wu, Tim. 2016. The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. New York: Alfred A. Kopf.
Resources
1 Ad Age (www.adage.com)
2 MediaPost (media news) (www.mediapost.com)
3 Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.com)
4 Ben Thompson’s “Stratechery” newsletter (www.stratechery.com)
Notes
1 i Google changed the name of AdWords to Google Ads effective July 24, 2018.
2 ii In March, 2019, Google announced it was abandoning the second‐price auction system and was adopting a first‐price auction system that is standard practice in programmatic, RTB bidding for available inventory.
3 iii Market capitalization, or market cap, is determined by multiplying a company’s stock market price times the number of outstanding shares of stock.
4 1 Auletta, Ken . 2018. Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else) . New York: Penguin Books.
5 2 Ibid.
6 3 Schultz, E.J. and Wohl, J. 2019. “The end of austerity.” Ad Age, March 4.
7 4 Ibid.
8 5 Drucker, Peter . 1954. The Practice of Management . New York: Harper & Row.
9 6 Kotler, Philip , Kartajaya, Hermawan , and Setiawan, Iwan . 2010. Marketing 3:0: From Products to Customers to Human Spirit . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
10 7 Kotler, Philip , Kartajaya, Hermawan , and Setiawan, Iwan . 2017. Marketing 4:0: Moving From Traditional to Digital . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
11 8 Levitt, Theodore. 1960. “Marketing myopia.” Harvard Business Review, July–August.
12 9 Stewart, Thomas A. and O’Connell, Patricia . 2016. Woo, Wow And Win: Service Design, Strategy And The Art Of Customer Delight . New York: Harper Collins.
13 10 Anderson, Chris . 2006. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More . New York: Hachette.
14 11 Porter, Michael . 1998. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance . New York: Free Press.
15 12 Wu, Tim . 2016. The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads . New York: Alfred A. Kopf.
16 13 Levy, Steven . 2011. In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives . New York: Simon & Schuster.
17 14 Ibid.