The Evolution of Advertising

The way Google grew in the last 5 years has completely transformed the advertising and marketing mathematics. It has proved the concept of personalized advertising. If we take a look at the history of consumer producer dynamics, it has evolved from what it was when industries came into being.

When industries started spurring up, the demand was more and the consumers were less. In fact the consumers did not have many choices also. So whatever industry produced was consumed by the consumer. This situation prevailed till the world war ended. During the world war, a lot of investment went for setting up the industries to produce materials for warfare. This in turn increased the capacity of the industry to produce goods; the affect of which was seen after the world war was over. Suddenly all the industries including metal, electronics, transport and agro turned their attention to the large consumer base which was war stricken. People worked harder to earn more and in turn more they produced. Market scenario changed suddenly from industry driven culture to consumer driven culture. Market became highly competitive, just producing the goods was not enough; selling them became more and more difficult. Product differentiation and intelligent marketing was the key to survival. This gave birth to the marketing gimmicks. Industries started mass advertising campaign to sell their products.

But the only thing that is constant is the "Change". In the new millennium, market has become more congested with variety of products and product technologies. Everything cannot be sold to everyone. Products have become more consumer targeted but the advertising style has not changed. It has become more and more difficult to reach the right consumer base. The advertising has again changed the form and it has become personalized advertising. You show the advertisement to the people who are interested in the market/ segment you cater. This is exactly what Google is doing now, however what Google has done is just the starting. Nowadays, we see a lot of new companies coming up with innovative ideas like mginger which will give you money for receiving the advertisements of your choice on your mobile. TiVo has started the concept of "interactive advertising" with the internet enabled Set-top boxes. There is lot of scope for innovation in this area and the market is still largely untapped. Only future can tell the endless possibilities that exists.