Fast Talk

To respond to that question, the term "advertising" must be defined. Apple is a great example in terms of divine design solutions, no matter if it is cables, iPods or computers. Would they have succeeded without massive advertising? Probably not. But if they would have created buzz throughout the "right" communities, and spread the word in terms of guerilla marketing, they could have come quite far. With creative planning one can accomplish great results in terms of awareness, action and hard cash - for less money spent.

Yes and no. Not advertizing the product in totality means customers wont know you have it, whereas it is in the store, merely displaying a product is an advert, a hidden product remains unknown , even word of mouth would amount a form of advert, i do not envisage a product success without any form of advert. Frm Charles Matov

The good product might not be well communicated and exposed to the public, unless advertising. When the unique selling points, image, packaging has been integrated and transformed via the smart and creative channel or media. That would rather grab a huge crowds attention. In this age, Product but images would trigger market's demand which reflected their dream.

Yes. Provided, either it generates a need or satisfies a previously unsatisfied need.

yes, it might take time but "the heavier the cream, the longer it takes to rise to the top".

Absolutely . . . but you better have your product in the hands of the "sneezers" . . . and you better have a rock-solid plan to build word-of-mouth virally. WOM leads to PR, which often leads to consumption. In today's age of social media, I would argue that investing in alternative media is much more beneficial than traditional advertising (although this would be dependent on the target market itself). There is less margin for error without a dedicated advertising budget, but it can surely be done.

Yes, but its success will depend on the audience as much as on the product. If word of the product's existence and worth spreads among consumers and they are motivated get ahold of it then they can make it successful.

A well designed product should be able to create its own buzz around the design coupled with the product itself.

This "consumer advocating" is what all brands die for and can be a key factor in determining the success of a brands product.

No, I don't think that well designed products can survive on their design alone. The products need good advertising and PR to help the end user understand the product's benefits and to give it a compelling story.

I know only two guy who are making lots of money with AdSense: Brin & Page.

Without traditional advertising, yes. But you should start some buzz to have your product known by people.

I don't think so and my company offers "flying billboards" -actually hot air balloons -to atract attention to any type business!

Absolutely it can. Ours is succeeding right now, to the tune of 60 million servings in only two and a half years. See DRINK-ACT.COM.

Yes! if the product which, didn't looking for any return and/or unnecessary.

Can you name the second leading brand of oatmeal?

It depends on what measures of success you're looking for, for the most part. It would also depend on what you mean by advertising, because advertising can take on many different forms.

In the online world, a definitive "yes"... without traditional advertising, a product can be a success.

You bet you can. The only thing you can't afford is to NOT understand who is your customer; what he/she wants, and where he/she wants to get it. If you successfully answer those three questions, then you'll have a meaningful offer for an specific target in their preferred distribution channel. However, the more you do to generate awareness of your product, the greater chances that your target will see it and buy it.

Absolutely! In many markets today, traditional advertising just isn't a factor. People are more and more becoming immune to traditional advertising anyway.

Advertising is what brings the product in front of the eyes & minds of people - whether done traditionally or otherwise. Without people 'hearing' about the product there is no way any product - however good or bad - can succeed in the market. Once the product is 'seen & heard' the longevity of success depends on how good it is designed to meet the need it is focused on.

Well plan designed can succeed but can only have limited market area. Succeeding in a wide area needs advertising.

A well designed product cannot speak for itself for most of the cases. when considering today's sophistication level in most design efforts we notice what is offered is commonly beyond consumers' imagination . So we need advertising for kind of training the customers and bring their awareness up to level where they could see the real value and demand the product

Yes, it can. Look at Ferrari, look at Lamborghini. Not a penny spent on advertising, never. Yet, their astounding success is under everybody's eyes.

I don't think so. The matter is:how to show it to the market? It doesn't mean that we have to chose exactly the traditional advertising, but, anyway, people has to know it exists.

I believe that intense and salient consumer experiences typically enjoy a great deal of consumer advocacy that more than replace traditional advertising. Take Cirque du Soleil. This shopw brand has become very very succesful with very little advertsing. Furthermore, I believe that positive word of mouth can be engineered by leveraging what I call the 8 engines of conversational capital. These saliency amplifiers (icons, rituals, myths, relevant sensory oddity, exclusive product offering, endorsement continuity and tribalism) provide consumers with a residual value of their consumption experiences. In other words, consumer feel compelled to talk, using their most meaningful experiences as an identity marker or what I call conversational capital. Think of a Virgin Atlantic Upperclass flight: by offering a on-board massage to its consumers, Virgin not only increases consumer satisfaction, but also provides them with an opportunity to tell an interesting story. To find out more, please visit my blog at www.conversationalcapital.com or pre-order my book on Amazon called Conversational Capital - How to create stuff people will love to talk about (FT-Press to be release in August 08).

Absolutely. WOM, word-of-mouth, for a well-designed product is a far more powerful resource for spreading the word. It's ultimately faster, less-expensive, sustainable, and builds a community of loyal customers.

And it's very effective at ending a poorly designed product or service experience, when your customers become vigilantes.

It's like the saying, "If a tree falls in the forest, but no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?". The answer of course is yes, but it did not make an impact in the lives of those it could have, had they heard it.

In the same respect, you can have the greatest life changing product or service, but if no one knows about it, it will not succeed.

Now, does every great product need advertising to succeed? The answer is no, not in the traditional sense of broad-based media. But it usually requires some form of messaging vehicle. In today's world that could be translated into the human being; by word-of-mouth, achieving "tribal trend" status through group or peer influence. The best example of this today would be independent music.

I work in advertising. Yes it can live without it. Where do I start.... google, amazon, ebay, the cars as someone said. There are a million products being created daily that can deliver without advertising. Now as an industry.. we have to use our skills of knowing people and brands to help you build products that will communicate themselves

only with a new business model