Talk:Targeted advertising/Archives/2019

Fundamental Error in Targeted Advertising EntryOBillyHill (talk) 16:37, 23 July 2019 (UTC)OBillyHill

I believe this entry misleads readers by missing a significant and foundational concept. "Targeted Advertising" is discussed only as an online activity. While this is commonplace now, and it is very much a part of online advertising, targeted advertising, as an activity, has been in practice for decades.

Kleppner's Advertising Procedure, 18th Edition, is one of the premier texts in university advertising instruction. For the sake of transparency, I have used it in my teaching advertising at Pepperdine University for year. In Chapter 4 it discusses Target Marketing as a concept. It begins with segmentation, identifying groups within your audience. Next is targeting a specific segment. This is followed by positioning the product for that segment. And last, you communicate (such as with advertising) your positioning of the product to the segment.

I don't feel the section should be redone, other than to add a paragraph that explains this is a concept that has been in practice for more than 40 years (and arguably longer). Positioning, the landmark book by Al Reis and Jack Trout was first published in the 1980, and supports this concept.

Also, professionals in advertising do "targeted advertising" both online and offline. I think it should be clear to the readers of this entry that this is a concept related to advertising, and that as a term it is more commonly used today in online advertising, but is not exclusive to online advertising. Television advertising alone, not including print, radio, and out of home, accounts for more than $70 billion in advertising revenue a year (Source: https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/tv-ad-revenue-to-grow-to-74b-by-2022-pwc).