Futurewatch Series - 1

Well, they say it all started with barter. Where one man's produce was another's need. I made shoes, you made food - lets' exchange. Then it extended to a local community. Then appeared currency. Travel made it possible to expand your market. Then competition created advertising.

Ad for Coca-Cola, 1890s

 Advertising & marketing became an integral part of a business - as it had to identify customers to buy its product at the right price at the right time - this is important, if there was no constraint on price or time, a business could hypothetically wait for all inventory to sell on its own,  a.k.a monopolies!

And now, the internet's happening. Suddenly - every business has a market, distance does not matter. Technically all of what a business produces will find a buyer - somewhere - made easy by the internet


Do we still need advertising & marketing. We just need production and distribution. Ah yes - perhaps a few decades out - so we are safe