| Actually, money spent on advertising and marketing is not wasted. First, it actually provides information to the consumer about location, inventory, sales, and so on, which is a market efficiency. Second, it provides opportunity, through trials, coupons, samples, and so on, to test products for free or reduced price, and therefore enhances consumer information, sovereignty, and satisfaction, another market efficiency. Third, advertising revenue has become a bulwark of the information sector, subsidizing commercial television, most magazines, and the Internet, for example. Thus, another consumer benefit. Finally, in the world of philanthropy, the sponsorship of programs and services for recognition, as a corporate public relations gambit, has markedly increased revenue in the non- profit sector, once again transforming corporate need into community benefit....... |
