I understood what you were saying, Dan, that's why I stated that my vitriol on the subject wasn't directed at you.
I think promotional tools like posters and stuff in cd shops can be important, for sure. The End makes those really nice posters for us which makes me happy, but neither us nor the label can force the store owners and workers to put them up unfortunately. I think having those posters is great though because even if our name doesn't catch someone's eye, I know our artwork will. We've received messages from people saying they checked us out merely because they saw our album cover art and thought it looked interesting.
Marketing is key, really, to making or breaking a band, particularly with younger crowds. I mean c'mon, who thought six years ago that bands like Opeth and Mastadon would have loads of teenage fans worshipping them, given the kind of music those bands play? What worked for them was very clever marketing. Both of those bands are comprised of adult musicians who draw much influence from the sounds of the past, and had little in common with much of what was popular in music at the time both bands really became a "hit". But they weren't marketed as being any sort of throwback, or constantly put into some micro-sub-genre and marketed only to fans of said genre. Touring alot, needless to say, helped those bands immensely. That's an area where unfortunately we're a bit fucked in comparison. But regardless, my feelings are that we can reach a more broad audience now than ever before and I'm hoping we'll succeed in that, in whatever ways we can.
I'll end this whole matter on a funny story, something that occurred earlier today actually....
I was talking via myspace with a young guy who friend requested me and sent me a message saying he just discovered us via the TNR cd, and really loved it, and wanted to know more about us, etc. So I wrote him back a nice reply and directed him to our website and the forum. He wrote back talking a bit more about the band, saying that he could see us playing on Sounds of the Underground with bands like Unearth and The Red Chord. I wrote back and sort of laughed and said "That's cool, that's definitely a change from people constantly just lumping us in with My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Anathema!" He messaged me back and said "Who, who, and who??" LOL
I just wrote him back and said, "Thank you for that, you made my day." I dunno if he was serious or just trying to be funny, but either way it was a relief.