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Comment by marcin | Hacker News Reader

Good point. Also worth comparing startups to regular SMBs, who don't do national TV advertising but rather focus on local listings, niche magazines and outdoor. There is a tool for every marketing job, which for a startup might mean sponsoring a meetup of early adopters, then releasing some shwag, doing PR or advertorials, and ending in harvesting demand via search. Otherwise, when you perceive advertising as a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail.

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A lot of small businesses do seem to do the brand-awareness thing as well, but on a smaller scale, e.g. local TV affiliates. One classic is the annoying/insane mattress salesman with a ridiculous ad that replays constantly, not really to get you to go buy a mattress now, but to build name recognition so that the next time you do need one, you remember that Crazy Uncle Bob's Mattress Emporium exists.

Yes, but as you said yourself it is local (targeted). Also, those ads usually have very precise call to action and very often are connected with current offer/sale/etc. They're also specific to US - very hard to find anywhere else in the world.

Technically, these would probably be referred to as "DRTV": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_response_television

I actually believe the ubiquitous "crazy local salesman" is less about brand awareness, and more about demonstrating a unique selling proposition - even if you know about the crazy mattress salesman down the street, you can still order a mattress online just as well. But you can only interact with a completely hilarious insane person if you stop by the store.

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