We played on people's emotions and insecurities in order to make them want products they did not need. On the Internet, no one is boss. It is a thoroughly decentralized system. Each individual has a voice. Anybody can send messages to anybody.
Individuals can find out anything about vendors.
It's easy to make comparisons. The power of the individual consumer is rising exponentially. The favored Learning-Society marketing philosophy should revolve, not around products, but people. People Marketing True enough, there has been a definite trend toward people marketing. Instead of market research, do customer research.