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Kim, In a message dated 8/23/02 12:00:27 PM, kflint@loopers-delight.com writes: >...this is an interesting thread, I think about this subject a lot. I bet you do! So do I. Advertising is my business. Nearly all of my clients are music industry manufacturers. Some of them occasionally get in a mode that they think what they really, really, REALLY need is some sort of mega-star artist endorsement to set their product off. While I will not deny that this can be a very beneficial element in the general marketing mix (providing the artist is 1: KNOWN 2: CREDIBLE and 3: INFLUENTIAL in a viable BUYING target demographic) it ain't everything . . . not by a long shot. Advertising is just another form of communication. It just puts you on the "radar screen." It's one of many ways our consumer/commercial culture speaks to itself and disseminates ideas. Good advertising/marketing can help and bad advertising can sometimes hurt. But seldom is it totally responsible for the complete success or failure of a good product "out there" in the real world. No advertising MAKES people buy things. There's no magic trick that makes consumption compulsory -- not backwards masking, not sugar, not caffeine, not even sex. Sometimes . . . there are some ideas that the world is not ready for yet. Sad to say . . . but true. Sometimes bad financial decisions get made resulting in the disappearance of great products. It's weird. If there was one specific technique or element that I could say makes or breaks a product I'd have to say it was LUCK -- being in the right place at the right time with THE GOODS that people just happen to be craving. Like the old saying: "It's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart." In the meantime all you can do is DO EVERYTHING you can to secure for yourself the brightest "blip" possible on people's "radar screens," cross your fingers and hope that the current cultural zeitgeist is rolling relentlessly your way. Nothing quite works like good luck. Advertising and artist endorsements are just part of the mix. Doing your homework and having THE GOODS are a big part of the rest of it. But if there were a sure fire way to ensure your "luck factor" I have not heard of it. End of spiel. Best regards, Ted Killian www.mp3.com/tedkillian http://www.pfmentum.com/flux.html