What has Advertising become .....really?

Advertising has had most of us chasing dreams such as cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy stuff we do not need. The things you own end up owning you. We are consumers. We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. (Tyler Durden kind of inspired me in a small way...) Marketing innovations are not rare in the modern world, as evidenced by the success of Wal-Mart, Amazon or Google - which found a more efficient and profitable way to distribute goods or services than the rest, providing lasting value to stockholders, employees, distributors, and consumers.

Marketing has become Automated....or has it not??

Everyone loves a new toy.  It’s cool and makes your friends surprised or jealous, what else could you ask for?  The same is true for many marketers when they first start using marketing automation that they are so smitten with the idea of the platform (E-mail or social media) that they really do not take the time to understand how it really functions. The problem is, that it is not enough to make a major or relevant change in any company. The great promise of marketing automation has always been that it enables you to trigger messages based on a visitor’s actions on your site, ideally sending messages when they are most relevant, rather than spam. 

Over the years marketing has not only become a holistic function, but has also learned to lean away from a mass audience towards a much more segmented marketing styled one.  With the advent of niche newspapers, catalogues, magazines, and cable channels that catered towards a very specific portion of the population. The Internet then came along and has only greatly fueled this trend. Thus, the traditional principles of marketing segmentation now needs to be applied to social media such as Twitter or Facebook or even LinkedIn. Good, focused and timely research can save a lot of time in generating leads and deliver better results.

What do you think Marketing has become???