Until recently, the theory has been that consumer goods are mass-market items, mass produced with mass advertising to gain recognition, and then sold in large quantities at touchpoints such as retail outlets and supermarkets. However, Mr. Hiruma says that approach is becoming more difficult for three reasons.
The first is the declining marketing efficiency due to the explosive increase in the amount of information coursing through the world. With the advent of the Internet, the amount of information has increased by a factor of at least 500. However, the amount of information that can be ingested has only increased by a factor of 65, says Mr. Hiruma
Also, Internet users’ aversion to banner ads and the ad-blocking function of browsers, which is becoming more prevalent among millennials and Gen Z, is making it harder to generate advertising results. Mr. Hiruma explains that one of the reasons why conventional theories are no longer valid is that the new product development competition among companies has matured, resulting in the commoditization of products and making it more challenging to differentiate them.