Companies aren't stupid, they wouldn't dump money on ads without effects.

As an engineer who hated marketing, started my own business, which subsequently failed due to my lack of understanding for the importance and proper execution of the marketing mission.... I now have a deep respect, and appreciation of a well-run marketing function.

Why do we gravitate toward those brands even when cheaper and more generic options exist that are perfectly on par?

To be fair, there are plenty of people who specifically avoid those brands because they are more expensive and they know they can save money with cheaper alternatives, or because they can't afford the name brand.

With that said, there are some times where the name brand does actually provide a superior product.

Yeah, everyone knows Coca-Cola. Nobody immediately goes out to buy some when they see the ad with Santa Clause and whatever, but the brand recognition is conditioned into pretty much everyone so you notice it in the store when you're thinking of grabbing a cool beverage from the fridge.

It's not even that good, but it's the default.

You’re drowning out the potential of your competition. That’s marketing, and if you stop then your competitor takes over or a small business won’t grow.

Tbh, I don't think it's that powerful. I've been happily googling on DuckDuckGo for years, same as I have been using Post-its from all sorts of companies and in fact never from Post-it. I don't think this brand is even available in my country.

I've been using "Tixo" for "sticky tape" even though the Tixo brand went out of business around the time I was born.

In fact, if a brand name becomes genericised, it loses its power. It stops being a brand and becomes a generic term for anything in that space.

Brand recognition also goes the other way. You know, like when you see a McDonalds and you instinctively go "Ugh, these asshats who keep wasting my time with always the same ad over and over again when I try to watch a youtube video."

Intrusive ads don't further positive brand recognition but instead cause brand fatigue.

This video by Northridgefix always stuck with me because most of why his business grew is because he spent so much Google ads that he made enough money to then move to a strip mall by a major road all while making YouTube videos and taking mailed in work.

He has another video looking for new employees because he had too much business.

Yeah, it's a very broad umbrella term.

I'm an engineer on a team that designs new products and fixes old ones. I'm happy to joke about the advertising & sales departments being the dark side of marketing, but when it comes to creating a product that is useful for our end-users, other facets of marketing are absolutely essential. The ideal, after all, is to have whatever ticket I am working on be traceable back to a customer need.

Heck, the product is pretty niche so even when I am chatting with our service technician about whatever crazy stuff customers are seeing & doing in the field, you could justify calling that marketing. It's customer information making its way to future design decisions, even if that decision is actually being made by an engineer rather than the Product Manager.

And a catchy one, but not really meaningful or correct.

The whole comment showcases how little they know about running a business. Marketing works. But of course we the consumer don't notice it works, because we think "Well I never click on an ad..." which also reflects on advertisement statistics.

But that's not the point of ads, at least not anymore. The point is you saw the brand. You saw what they do. Everytime you see the brand name or logo, everytime you see the product, your brain registers it. You might not realise it, but it does. And when the time comes you need a product like that, that's where the value of marketing shows. Because you'll browse, research, or whatever you do when you decide you need something. And you'll see the brand, and you'll see the name, and you'll think "Hmm I've heard of them before" and immediately place them higher in your mind than a competitor with 0 ad budget.

If priesthood attracts pedophiles, LEO attracts mother issues, and management attracts sociopaths, who does marketing attract? Who are the kind of people that make it to decision maker in that world?

It's insane to me how little thought people put into things in their daily lives, because you're right. So many people see a thing and they're like "Oh, I see the thing. I'll do the thing. Coke flavored mouthwash on my TV? Yeah, let's do coke flavored mouthwash." Literally just the first unfiltered, uncritical reaction they feel.

I had someone the other day tell me they didn't want to use Firefox because when they did it gave them a bunch of security issues. When I asked what they meant it turned out the security issues in question were the browser asking them if they wanted to let different websites know their location, have access to webcam, etc. "Well I just don't like that it does that"