Back in the 1950s and 60s,
marketers had relatively few choices of marketing channels.
The main marketing channels include direct mail
and telephone marketing, print publication,
outdoor billboards and a few major television networks,
plus a handful of local radio stations.
The next 30 years mainly saw the growth of cable television.
Twenty-four-hour cable TV provided marketers
a few more channels to disseminate marketing information.
However, many paid cable TV stations were not supported by paid advertising.
The choices for marketing channels did not grow significantly,
network television and print were still the dominant forms of marketing communication.
In 1991, the Internet and the worldwide web became available for commercial use.
Digital information technologies exploded overnight.
The number of websites went from a handful to millions in a matter of few years.
In the media space for advertising and marketing was no longer a scarce resource.
Instead of a few dozen traditional media outlets,
marketers now had to directly reach millions of consumers via
the World Wide Web and the technological development has
since accelerated and grew exponentially in the last two decades.
Marketers today can reach billions of consumers via social media,
mobile devices and apps,
and online video stream services.
Hundreds of thousands of online publishers offer
available virtual spaces for displaying advertising messages.
Search engines can target individual consumers based on their behavior and
needs to stay relevant and competitive in this marketing environment.
Marketers must re-examine, redefine,
and reevaluate the media landscape.