The Problems With Marketing

With all of the marketing we have been talking about lately in class I have been very interested in discussion. It's specially interesting to me since my major is marketing and management. We have talked about all the different strategies that companies use to market their products to force consumers to purchase more items.

So many companies are using wasteful marketing. Youtube is a perfect example of wasteful marketing. Companies spend all of this money to get commercials on Youtube. Half of the commercials get skipped, ignored, muted, and a select few actually watch and receive the message marketers send. Whenever I watch a Youtube movie I always click skip unless it doesn't allow me to. I don't care about buying anything, I want to watch the movie not a commercial. The only positive thing that they could be doing is subliminally imprinting their marketing into my mind. For those who don't know what subliminal is, it is basically information that our brain unconsciously receives without you being consciously aware that you received it. I just ignore the commercials but for all I know my subconscious could be picking up these marketing strategies and remembering them. This video briefly shows a small example of wasteful marketing.

Along with some commercials being a waste of money I believe they are also somewhat immoral. These commercials are turning into trickery instead of persuasion. I don't want to feel like I am forced to buy a product because then I won't want the product since I feel forced. Morality and marketing don't always go hand in hand though. This article talks about how marketers aren't expected to be moral, but are expected to ensure sales  http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/01/the-immorality-of-marketing/. 

Marketers also have increased social media marketing. In my belief, this started out as a great idea, but it is not longer very efficient. Every couple minutes there is some sort of marketing on the side of Facebook or Twitter. After 20 or so advertisements you get sick of reading them and just straight up ignore them, again, another waste of marketer's money. A new idea has to emerge from marketers soon because old strategies are just becoming a small blur far off in the distance.