TRADITIONAL TO MODERN MARKETING – A BLESSING OR A CURSE FOR CONSUMERS

Aggressive advertising can be a negative for a long time. Since the invention of the Internet and its exponentially increasing popularity in recent years, these are no longer promotional magazines in the mailbox but rather spam mails in the inbox or posts in personal Facebook stream.

One-way communication – the time before the Internet

First of all, technological progress has greatly influenced the media world and has fundamentally changed the communication between sender and receiver. In the past, companies mainly used traditional channels in the mass media. These fall under the category “tools of one-sided communication”, which primarily radio or television advertising counted. The print media were also an integral part of this form of communication, whereby companies sent advertisements in magazines, sent flyers or Christmas cards and used the so-called “push marketing“.

How could consumers resist this form of communication or communicate their opinions on products or general business practices? Opinions expressed by consumers at this time were rather lost and did not have the highest priority for corporate management. What good was a call in the company’s call center to complain to an employee? Almost nothing. Who bothered to call one of today’s banned and often overpriced customer service numbers or publish a letter to a reader in a newspaper or magazine? Hardly anyone. Thus, at the time of one-sided communication hardly anyone has shunned to express his opinion or criticism directly against companies.

Two-way communication – the “Internet effect”
Meanwhile, consumers are largely resistant to one-sided advertising messages and take this in the course of the “overstimulation” barely was. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that they are aware of the asymmetry of information and, on the other hand, to the fact that consumers are increasingly turning away from traditional media. Of course, this change has not escaped the company’s attention: they have adapted to changes on the consumer side and have designed their marketing budgets to use the media of their respective target audience. Meanwhile, the Internet has overshadowed traditional channels and companies are using the Internet to maximize the potential of two-way, interactive Internet communication.

The success factor for these communication measures, for example, is the collection of customer data, which is used as the basis for digital advertising by the use of cookies (whereby individual customer preferences or actions on the Internet are stored with the IP address). We’re talking about personalized advertising, which enables businesses to take advantage of the power of the Internet and use efficient marketing with less wastage and more targeted communication.

Conclusion
summary, the Internet has created benefits for the sender and the recipient. In the end, however, the consumer benefits more from the possibilities of the internet. After all, the term “Generation Facebook” is no coincidence, with individuals quickly networking and joining via social media to form a group to spread their shared views. The Internet has given consumers a more powerful voice and thus more “power” in the marketplace. Businesses rely on the Internet to listen to consumers and respond to their opinions about their business practices or products in order to secure their long-term existence.