In response to Robert McCarthy...

Rob asked... Are there any other types of advertisement that you feel has run its course by now? Why aren't they effective?

When I think of advertising and where I most commonly see advertisements I immediately think of broadcast advertising which consists of the television, radio, and Internet. I think this is because technology is such a large part of my life, and the lives of younger audiences. When I think of methods of advertisement that have run their course I consider certain types of print advertisement. An example of print advertisement that I feel has run its course includes fliers. For me there are many reasons why these are not effective. One major reason I feel this way is because personally I think fliers are a huge pain. To walk through a parking lot and see nearly every car with a flier on its windshield really just annoys me. Also I find they rarely ever contain something I am interested in. There is also no personal interaction with fliers, I rarely meet or talk to the person handing them out. To me this makes me feel as if the person is just doing a job and doesn't actually care for what they are trying to promote. I also feel as if society has helped this method run its course. In today's society many people are all about "going green" and to hand out paper that is likely to just be thrown away is not viewed as being socially responsible.

Despite technology becoming a large part of many people's lives I also feel as if there are types of advertisement that pertain to technology that are being phased out. A specific example of this includes pop-ups. When I first started using the Internet I was intrigued my nearly everything so for me a pop-up was new and exciting. However, now that I use the Internet more I absolutely cannot stand them and have now learned to close them so fast I can often do it before the ad even loads. With technology becoming a huge part of many people's lives I feel as everyone wants everything done ten minutes ago. With this being the case I think a lot of advertisement types that take up people's time are now being perceived as a burden and because of this they are being phased out and ineffective.

More and more types of advertisement methods are becoming ineffective. With this being the case what are some new methods you would suggest and why? What older methods do you think will withstand the test of time in the ever-changing world we live in?

Text Messaging Costs

When is the last time you sent or received a text message? For many this probably less than an hour ago. Text messaging is something that has quickly become second nature to cell phone users. However, how much do you really know about text messaging? In 2008 about 2.5 trillion text messages were sent. Text messaging takes up no extra resources for the phone company and essentially piggybacks on what they already offer. For a text message to be sent it cost the phone company about 1/3 of a cent. In turn if texting is not part of your cell phone plan they charge anywhere between 10-20 cents for 160 character text. If texting is included in your plan it costs anywhere from $10-15 per month. Without doing the exact math it is still very easy to see phone companies are making a killing off of text messaging.

Nearly all of this information was news to me. I had never given much thought to how much it actually costs phone companies to incorporate texting into the services they offer. Despite this I had heard numerous stories of outrageous cell phones bills do to people sending extreme amounts of text messages. This made me wonder about how texting came about how it was marketed in such a way that actual costs were hidden from the public. For me I think it was the pricing aspect that blinded people. I know for me personally with my first cell phone plan it did not include texting so nearly every month I was cautious of how much I was sending out, despite this I almost always went over the amount that was in the price range I wanted to spend on texting. So when my phone company offered unlimited texting for only $10 a month as part of me plan when I was almost always paying double or triple this, it was an easy decision. I think the act of charging for a single text or instead offering a set amount for an unlimited amount of texts is what distracted people. People became blinded by the deal the thought they were receiving instead of concentrating on the killing phone companies were making.

Multiple companies offer deals for buying in bundle or signing up for contracts with them, can you provide examples of any? Do you think phone companies are taking advantage of their customers? What marketing techniques do you think cell phone companies used to make texts become so popular, and what techniques could they use to possibly make even more money from this service?