But as this highway began to take shape, we could begin to see that it offered other opportunities that might be too good to ignore. In particular, the information highway will provide a new media for reaching the firms' customers and consumers. Not just any old media. Not just a media that is looks like a warmed over version of the existing media. Not a media that consumers have learned to turn off.
Advertising is a very cheap, and at times effective, means of communicating to consumers.
It suffers from the fact that it is totally one-way. The ad is placed in a medium, and it is up to the consumer to do all of the work involved in understanding and accepting its message. A sales person is an expensive, and usually an effective, means of communicating with consumers. A good sales person will truly communicate in a two-way manner. The sales person and the consumer can direct the communication via their interactions.