A: Marty Smith's Answer Is

In old media days, e.g. a couple of years ago (lol), message replication was tightly controlled and expensive. There was more demand than supply keeping the price of reaching new customers via print, TV or radio high. A “trusted source” such as the New York Times could charge thousands for ad space and have no trouble filling available slots. In an economy of scarcity prices are propped up by excess demand. Since it could costs hundreds of dollars to bring a new customer to a business and typically only a few dollars to mail them once they were “on the file” it was true that marketing to existing customers was cheaper than hunting new ones. Email, social networks and the quick implosion of print advertising may change the cost equation so much that finding new and marketing to old is a push. Another critical shift is anything is available in infinite supply now. Online if you want to include more advertisers you create more pages. Marginal costs for such creation is minimal compared to print. Prices for reaching new customers are falling fast. Some day reaching new and communicating to old may cost the same. We aren’t there yet, but soon perhaps, soon.

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